Wira Digital
by Alforce Zero
Summary: The story of the Malaysian Digidestined, chosen by an ancient warrior to wield his mystical DigiSpheres to combat the forces of evil that transpired in the Digital World.
1. DigiWira

The Green Meadow was a place where many loved to visit. The sun shone merrily there against the clear sky, the grass there was greener than anywhere, and the lakes gave water fresher than any other place. The air was fresh, and breezy. Everyone who had been there would definitely tell that the Green Meadow was a very beautiful place to be.

A flock of pink-wool sheep and grey-furred goats were seen grazing the grasses peacefully, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. At one glance, there was nothing strange about them, until closer observation was made. The sheep had grenades fixed on their backs, but neither looked bothered with them, as if it was natural. The goats were armored, with gleaming yellow horns that curved reaching their backs. All of them stood within a distance from each other so that they would be able to eat quietly without disturbing the other.

Across the wide paddock, many small peculiar-looking creatures were seen chasing each other, shouting merrily as they did. Some resembled monkeys but with green furs, some looked like birds, reptiles, dinosaurs…even _plants_ were moving about. Over the lake, a flock of graceful white swans were swimming, and some were seen flying about. A trio of white seal with red Mohawk was seen shooting small jets of water to a slumbering green serpent, coiled lazily in the middle of the lake. The serpent, ten times the size of the seals, did not seem to be bothered at all with the disturbance, but was seen occasionally attempting to swat the seals away with its long tail. A rather larger-than-life frog was sitting on top of a stone, croaking silently.

Not far from the lake was a small hill, and there stood a very strange creature. It was a centaur, with head, arms and upper torso of a man joined with the body of a palomino. Smooth violet spheres embedded its brown-furred torso. The centaur wore grey steel head and shoulder guards, similar to that of a knight. It stood there, straight-backed and proud, and was watching over the creatures in the meadow with calm alert, making sure that no harm would befall any of them. Not that it usually happened; the Green Meadow was a peaceful place, and always had been. It was why many liked to be there. And the centaur had taken upon itself to make sure that it would remain that way.

Yes, the Green Meadow was a peaceful place. Until today.

"ROAAAAAAHHHHH!"

A loud primordial roar suddenly echoed throughout the lush green land, severely disrupting the peacefulness that reigned there previously. All the creatures froze; the roar sounded too malevolent to be ignored. The earth suddenly shook, and from a distance, everybody saw a fearsome gigantic dinosaur with night blue scales approaching. Another loud roar was heard, evidently coming from the sudden intruder. The monster's bulky arms both ended with heads; one metallic and another was a skull. From it's behind two hulking tails swished maliciously, destroying trees, stones, flowers and everything else that came into contact with it.

"Destroy!"

Everyone saw the brute act and scampered all about in panic. Some of the creatures who were unfortunately close enough from the monster had fallen victim to a stream of blue energy beam that erupted from the jaws of the skull and the metallic head attached at its arms. An odd thing then happened; those who were victimized by the gruesome attack did not just drop on the grounds and bled to death, but they simply exploded into nothingness. In place of their solid selves were replaced by swirls of data particles which rose towards the sky before vanishing into thin air.

The centaur immediately galloped towards the crowd, worried and incensed at the same time. "It's Deltamon! Everyone… return to the village immediately!" The centaur reached the lake and called for the serpent, which had awoken from its slumber. "Seadramon, watch over the little ones! I'll hold him!"

The serpent, Seadramon already had its long neck hoisted upwards and saw the incoming danger. It quickly beckoned for the seals and the lone frog to ride on its back as the swans had all taken off towards the sky upon hearing the first roar. Seadramon then looked intently at the centaur.

"I'll do that, Centarumon! But you alone cannot handle Deltamon; he's much too powerful."

"Don't worry about me. Just make sure that all the villagers are safe!"

With the command issued, the one known as Centarumon galloped towards Deltamon courageously. Suddenly his speed increased and Seadramon could only see a brown blur moving so fast for the serpent to follow. Shaking its head, Seadramon quickly rose towards the sky and glided towards a village located near a thick forest growing at the foot of some tall hills. The swans were circling the air above the village, acting as a beacon for the other land-based creatures to see. Some had reached the village safely while some, Seadramon saw, were too slow to keep up with their much quicker companions. Seadramon glided down and picked up a tired-looking plant-reptile hybrid and a black-scaled tyrannosaurus miniature before speeding towards the village.

"Running away? But the party's just starting!"

All the while, Deltamon saw what was happening and sneered. His eyes gleamed with evilness as he thrust both his scaly arms towards Seadramon. Opening his maw, a flash of blue erupted just as the maws of the metallic head and the skull too, gleamed with blue light. Deltamon positioned his arms so that the lights shining from the three mouths would form a triangle. Three beams of intense blue energy shot out from the maws and joined as one before heading towards Seadramon. Seadramon saw the incoming doom and retaliated by releasing a stream of ice towards the beam. Momentarily, Seadramon was successful as the ice stream froze the attack. However the effect was only temporary, before Deltamon's attack triumphed and melted the ice. Seadramon and the occupants onboard were engulfed with the attack, and to Centarumon's horror, were immediately slain.

"Butcher!" Centarumon shouted angrily and galloped towards Deltamon. A black cannon materialized within his hands. "You murderer! You'll pay for what you did to Seadramon!"

"Don't worry," Deltamon growled back with a deep, evil voice. "You'll join your snake friend in due time."

Centarumon whipped his cannon towards Deltamon as he approached the monster. His eyes, hidden by the helmet's visor, flashed with anger. "Not if I can help it! The deaths of Seadramon and the others shall not go un-avenged!" he shouted as he took aim. _"Hunting Cannon!"_

A cannonball made of violet energy shot out from the cannon and slammed against the skull-hand of Deltamon's left arm. To Centarumon's horror, the attack merely bounced away from the skull, leaving only a blackened scorch mark on the otherwise ivory skull.

"You call _that_ an attack?" Deltamon snorted derisively. He raised his skull-hand and examined it before sneering. "Pathetic. I'll teach you how to make a _real_ attack now, shall I? It's evident now; the one who'll be joining snakey is you! _Triplex Forces! _"

"_Hunting Cannon!" _

Centarumon's all-out attempt to block the attack however was thwarted by Deltamon's powerful beams. Yet Centarumon did not give up; he continued to fire his attack relentlessly, with only revenge and the desire to protect his fellow villagers in mind. Deltamon's attack was about to consume him wholly but Centarumon's cannonballs did so little in slowing it down. There was no hope for Centarumon to survive. He would need help. All the while, he did not realize a strange white glow emanating from his human torso, where a man's heart was located. A glowing white sphere was released, but Centarumon was too intent on blocking Deltamon's attack he still had not noticed it. The white sphere glided away from Centarumon and soared towards the sky when it suddenly vanished.

"This is it!" Centarumon said helplessly as Deltamon's attack was merely inches away from him. "It's hopeless. I can't stop him."

He lowered his cannon and took one last breath, but instead of being consumed by Deltamon's attack a rather strong gust of wind pushed him away, and Deltamon's attack missed the target as Centarumon toppled on the ground just beside the place where the grasses were brutally grazed by the intense attack. Centarumon heaved a relieved breath, glad to be still alive. He wondered of what had just happened.

Deltamon apparently, was not pleased as well. "Who dares to interrupt me?" he growled menacingly.

"That'll be me, Deltamon!" a perky feminine voice answered from the sky. "Heads up!"

Both Deltamon and Centarumon looked up, to see a soft pinkish glow glimmering from a gorgeous fairy, which had a curvy body of a female human and the wings of a butterfly. She was dressed in a skimpy violet outfit and boots. Her long hair was a darker violet shade and fell down her back. Her eyes were obscured by a shining metallic visor. "I am Fairymon!" she announced. "And your end days are here, Deltamon!"

Deltamon snorted. "A pretty little fairy like you shouldn't talk like that." He aimed his arms up and attempted to release an attack towards Fairymon when suddenly something blasted on his back, tails and head. A burning sensation crept all over his body.

Fairymon smirked. "You should have watched your back. Perfect timing, Youkomon!"

The brutal dinosaur turned around instantly. There, several meters away from him was a nine-tailed fox with blue fur. There was a cool elegance radiated by the way Youkomon held herself. Her nine tails were erect, and the tips were burning with red flames.

"_Fox Tail Inferno!"_

The flames on Youkomon's tails were blasted onto Deltamon, but this time around the dinosaur monster was prepared for attack. He managed to evade some of the fireballs, while swatting some others away with his metallic and skull hands. Youkomon appeared to be annoyed by this. She rushed forward and the flames on her tails spread out all over her body. She jumped and curled herself, forming a fiery specter of a dragon. The dragon glided with top-speed towards Deltamon and pushed him away. But this only served to aggravate Deltamon more than actually doing him any physical harm. Deltamon roared angrily and punched away the flame dragon, which reverted back into Youkomon. Youkomon slid on the grounds and regained her poise. She glared at Deltamon with silent fury.

"Ah… that has never happened before," Fairymon noted. She flew down towards Deltamon and caught his eyes. "Hey big guy, get a load of this! _Hurricane Wind! _"

Fairymon spread her arms wide and harnessed the power of the wind at her fingertips. She then released a wave of pink-colored hurricane towards Deltamon. The attack overwhelmed Deltamon, but to her annoyance, the blue dinosaur looked as if he was bored by the attack,

"Pah! Your effort is merely laughable at best, fairy!" Deltamon said mockingly.

"Don't underestimate me, you beast!" Fairymon cried angrily. "Behold my second attack, _Tempest Twist!"_ Fairymon flipped herself upside down and twisted herself with great speed that soon she herself was enveloped with pink energy winds. She delivered a flurry of kicks and punches towards Deltamon, but Deltamon did not even respond to her assaults.

"Are you finished?" Deltamon growled.

Fairymon realized that she was beaten and quickly flew away towards her companion. She threw a worried look towards Youkomon. Youkomon nodded at Fairymon and with a flick of her head, she silently beckoned Fairymon to seek cover behind her.

Deltamon thought that he was about to claim victory over his three opponents, when he saw Youkomon sneering at him.

"Well, if our Champion forms do not seem to work against you, then perhaps we should digivolve even further," Youkomon said loudly and contemptuously, her piercing eyes focused on Deltamon intently. "Our Ultimate forms have been known to rival the brute strength of a MetalTyrannomon; a mere Champion such as Deltamon should require not much effort from us. Fairymon, ready!"

Fairymon looked confused. "Huh? Since when…" she said, but was stopped by one of Youkomon's many tails.

Deltamon looked disgruntled. He stared at Youkomon, who looked confident. Her words disturbed him. A MetalTyrannomon was powerful, Deltamon had heard of him. If his opponents could beat a MetalTyrannomon… it might not worth the effort to let the fight drag.

"Very well," Deltamon growled angrily. "I'll leave, for now. But I'll come back soon when I'm stronger than a MetalTyrannomon. Perhaps then, we can fight again. Oh and by the way, today's fight was rather amusing," he added cynically before turning to leave them.

Fairymon and Youkomon waited until Deltamon was completely out of sight before both of them glimmered with pink and yellow lights respectively. Both then shrunk in size. Fairymon changed into a green-skinned reptile and plant hybrid, with large flower petals growing from the sides of her head. Youkomon too had changed; she was now a cream-furred Labrador dog with magenta ears and tails.

Centarumon, who had been watching the fight from a distance, was bewildered upon the sudden transformations. He then heard shouts and saw from the village, two human girls were approaching him. One, a dark-skinned girl with long, dark brown curly hair and dressed in a white shirt and light blue pinafore, was running at top speed, a worried expression plastered on her face. The other was a tall, willowy girl with a fair complexion in a light green shirt and olive-colored skirt. She flicked her straight black hair towards her back and began picking up her paces.

"Two human girls?" Centarumon wondered. "Are they the DigiDestined?"

"Floramon!" the dark girl shouted, sounding very relieved. She picked up the plant-reptile hybrid and hugged her mightily. "I'm so glad that you are safe! I was so worried when we saw that big blue monster!"

"Aack…I…can't…breathe!" Floramon gasped, her face turning blue.

"Oh, sorry," the curly-haired girl said sheepishly and released Floramon. "But I was so worried…"

"Oh, calm down, you," the willowy girl snapped as she walked past the girl and towards the Labrador. "I think they did just fine against that dinosaur Digimon. But you should've been able to beat him, Labramon. As Youkomon, you've never lost a battle before."

"Deltamon is far stronger than any other Digimon we have faced before," Labramon said. "I have to resort in tricking him in thinking that we can advance even further than Champion level to just scare him off for the time being, as we couldn't beat him by strength."

"But what if that Deltamon returns?" the fairer girl demanded. She narrowed her small, dark eyes and crossed her arms. "How can we stop him then?"

The curly-haired girl cast her friend a look, filled with apprehension reflected in her large dark brown eyes. "We're going to need help, that's for sure. I think we need a third _DigiWira_…"

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 01 – DigiWira**_

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"Seven twenty-five? Oh no! I'm gonna be late!"

A young teen was running at the sides of a rather busy road. Every few seconds his grey eyes kept falling at his watch, worn on his left wrist. A panicked expression was evident on his face. Wiping his dark hair that was sticking over his sweaty forehead, he increased his pace and pulled the straps of his schoolbag which were flung over both shoulders. Though the morning sunlight was not particularly warm, his white shirt was already drenched with sweat, and his white shoes was already dirtied by dusts and some puddles he had accidentally stepped on.

He widened his pace and leaped over an open drain, but before he could continue running a soft whimper caught his ears. It was a meowing sound, coming from inside the dry drain, and it caught the boy's attention. _A cat? _he wondered. Taking a deep breath, he crouched down and peered inside the drain. Indeed, beneath the closed part of the drain, was a white kitten, its furs blackened by soil. Its eyes twinkled inside the dark drain, seemingly pleading at him, and the boy realized that it was trapped inside the drain. The cuts on the kitten's legs suggested that it had fallen inside the drain by accident, and had no way of getting out.

The boy glanced at his watch again. "Seven twenty-nine…" He saw the rooftops of the school, strikingly red brown against the morning blue sky. The school was just around the block, behind two rows of shop houses, and he would still be able to make it if he made a dash for it. One more minute was enough, but…

"Meoww…"

The kitten's pleading sound made up his mind as the ringing of the school bell was heard in the background. Setting his schoolbag down, he climbed down the rather shallow drain. The drain reached his shoulders when he was fully inside. Then he reached out for the kitten, and managed to grab its tiny body. The kitten, sensing that it was about to be saved, grasped its paws on the boy's hand a little too eagerly, causing a little bleeding on the boy's finger. The boy winced as he took the kitten, drawing it close to him.

"Well, if this is how you say thanks to me…" the boy said with mock-frown towards the kitten. The kitten purred as it licked the place where it had accidentally scratched the boy. The boy giggled and placed the kitten back on the sidewalk beside the drain. But as he was getting out of the drain, a faint twinkle beneath the closed drain caught his attention. Curious, he peered back inside the drain and reached out for whatever that was twinkling. His hand caught something spherical in shape, and he drew his hand back outside.

"What's this?" he pondered. On his palm was a curious-looking white sphere that seemed a little bit soiled, but otherwise, looked nice. For a moment the sphere let out a twinkle and the boy had to blink twice to make sure that he was not imagining it. At the sidewalk, the kitten purred in delight. The teenage boy looked at the kitten. "So this is the reason why you fell into the drain, I think?" he asked. The kitten meowed. "I take that as a yes. So, you want it?" He held the sphere towards the kitten. The kitten recoiled in disgust. "No? Well, it's mine now." He pocketed the sphere into the pocket of his earth green trousers and climbed up the drain.

Looking at his watch, he sighed. "I'm late now, no thanks to you," he said to the kitten. "Take care now. Hope I'll see you again on my way back, maybe I can get you something to eat."

The kitten meowed softly as the boy began to trudge his steps slowly. There was no point in running anymore, he was already late. Today was Monday and the school usually held an assembly to sing the national songs and to hear out the headmaster's speech before going to class.

Upon reaching the gate, he saw that the main gate was closed. The only gate open now was the smaller gate, and blocking the entrance was a willowy girl wearing a dark green skirt and blazer, with a light green shirt inside. She wore a tie, and was holding a notebook and a pen. He approached the smaller gate with dread; that girl was a prefect assigned to collect names for students who arrived late to school.

He sighed, recognizing the girl by reputation; this was the second assistant of the head prefect, and she was known to be very serious.

"So, what's your reason?" the girl asked, not even bothering to look up from her notebook.

"Uh… my sister usually sent me to school but she couldn't do so today so I had to walk. And on my way, I helped a kitten to get out from a drain while on my way here…" the boy said, and smiled sheepishly to the girl.

The girl looked up from her notebook. Her obsidian eyes narrowed as she observed him. "Best excuse I've ever heard…and I've never seen you late before, but you're late nevertheless."

"Can you just let me in this day, please? I've never been late before," the boy said pleadingly.

"Look," the prefect said seriously. She gestured towards a bench located inside the school. There sat four boys. "They are late as well, but they came in before you. If I let you off, then I'll have to let them off too, and I can't do that. Your name and class, please." She placed the tip of her pen on her notebook and looked at the boy expectantly.

The boy sighed in defeat. "Adam Ariff, Form Two Alpha."

The prefect wrote it down. "Alpha, huh? This is the first time I've ever written somebody from Alpha being late."

"Can I come in, now?" Adam asked wearily and took a glance at the nametag the prefect was wearing. _Assistant Head Prefect - Chang Liu Ying._

The prefect scrutinized him with a frown. "Ok…but since this is your first time, I'll suggest that you make a good impression to the disciplinary teacher by tucking in your shirt properly and maybe tidy up your hair a little. Maybe he won't be asking you to pick up the trash like the other four, which have been late for four times now. J.D. and his pathetic gang…" The prefect shook her head a little and let Adam in. "Oh, and today's Monday, you should be wearing a tie."

"Well, uh…thanks for the tip," Adam said as he walked in. He felt compelled to hate the prefect when she first decided not to let him off, but then it was her duty as a prefect and she was being nice enough to give Adam tips. Adam soon saw the reason why. The other students who came in late, Adam noticed that out of the four, three had their shirts un-tucked. One of them, a bespectacled student, looked totally out of place, with his shirt a little too tucked in and his tie too short to Adam's liking. The four of them, all Form Three students, however, were rather notorious for skipping school, bullying other students and once, Adam had heard that the ringleader of the foursome, J.D., was caught trying to copy during his Form Two final examination. Adam didn't recognize the other two – who were both just a tad shorter than J.D, but burlier.

J.D. caught his eyes and smirked lopsidedly, as if mocking him for being late too, but he didn't say anything.

Adam quickly tucked in his shirt properly and took out his tie from his bag, making sure that they were not overly done as the bespectacled boy. He decided not to join the group; instead he sat alone by the fountain built near the gate. However just as he was about to sit down the disciplinary teacher, Mr. Gurmit Singh, came towards them, looking stern with his massive stature, glaring eyes and thick graying mustache and beard. He headed straight towards the bench where J.D. and his gang were seating, not noticing Adam at all.

"Not you four again! You know the drills; one hour, the soccer field, and I want the rubbish bag full when I come by to inspect you, and…what!" the middle-aged man barked, when the bespectacled boy pointed towards Adam with an excited look on his face. Mr. Singh turned and saw him. He frowned. "What are you doing here? Are you late too? I've never seen you before…first time?"

Adam nodded meekly.

"Hmm…you have your tie, your shirt's tucked, your hair is quite neat," Mr. Singh assessed. "For first timers we usually have an hour detention after school. Come to Three Alpha classroom after school ends. You may go now, but don't try to escape detention, will you? Believe me; I shall know if you do."

"I won't," Adam promised. "Thank you, Mr. Singh."

Mr. Singh studied Adam for a moment before nodding, "Polite boy. Well, you may join the assembly now, they are about to sing the songs."

As Adam hurriedly walk over towards the line where he was supposed to be in, he heard unsatisfied shouts coming from the other boys.

"No fair! I've got my shirt tucked in and ties intact too!"

"Kenny, forget it! Detention sucks anyway!" That was J.D.'s voice.

"Quiet!" Adam winced when he heard Mr. Singh bellowed towards the other four students, relieved that he was let off with only an hour detention after school instead of picking up rubbishes at the soccer field. The national anthem theme blared over the speakers as Adam slid into the line in his class, standing behind a plump boy wearing a black _songkok_ who sat beside him in class. Luckily as all the students were standing; his sudden presence was not so obvious.

"_Kak_ Lisha is so going to hear about this from me tonight!" he muttered vehemently before joining in singing the first line of the national anthem.

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The rest of the day went about normally for Adam. The bell signifying the end of the school day soon rang and all students sighed in relieved; some barely concealed their excited squeals. Their last lesson was Math, and Mrs. Elena Kwan, their Math teacher was very strict. The whole double-period they had for Math was spent fully on learning formulas, discussing usually asked in _PMR_ and Mrs. Kwan was the kind of teacher who wanted to make sure that her students knew what she was teaching, and to find out just that she picked students at random and asked them to answer a question which she would write on the spot at the blackboard. Luckily for Adam, that day Mrs. Kwan did not pick him – as he had recited a formula from the Math textbook correctly at the beginning of the lesson.

"Don't forget class, as usual I want you to answer ALL the questions for today's lesson in your workbook, and the first ten questions from your textbook! You will hand in your exercise books tomorrow morning, and I clearly know that tomorrow's first period is Math. Well, see you tomorrow."

As she walked out of the classroom briskly, students could be heard complaining. Adam groaned too, Math was not his strongest subject and usually he would have to wait for his older sister to get back from work to ask her for help.

"So, you're having detention with Mr. Singh now?" The songkok-wearing boy who sat beside Adam, asked him sympathetically.

Adam groaned. "Don't remind me, Hakim."

Hakim patted him on the shoulder. "Well, I can ask my mom to come an hour later, if you want." Adam usually went back home with Hakim, who had insisted that as they were living nearby, his mother could easily drop him off at the apartment where he was staying before heading towards their own house somewhere further than the apartment complex. And of course, Hakim's slightly overprotective parents were not the ones who would let their kids walk to school.

"No need for that, Hakim. But thanks," Adam assured his friend.

"You sure? It's no problem, you know."

"Yes. Really, I've walked home everyday before you insisted for me to hitch a ride with you, you know."

Hakim laughed. "Yeah…I guess so. So, see you tomorrow then. Bye!" He patted Adam's shoulder again before exiting the classroom.

Adam was now the only one in the classroom. He gathered his stuff and closed the door of his classroom, making way for the classroom where the disciplinary teacher had said he would be for the detention. He increased his pace as he reached the corridor, eager to arrive at the designated classroom early to make a good impression. He arrived there and saw Mr. Singh correcting some papers inside. He knocked the door and the elderly man looked up.

"Come in." He beckoned for him to seat anywhere inside the empty classroom. "You have one hour, and I trust that you're given some homework? You may do them now."

Adam nodded and took a seat. He decided to do Math first, leaving those he did not know for later. For half an hour he did his homework in silence, before his concentration was broken by the sound of giggles coming from the corridor. He looked up and saw a three girls walking by, laughing and joking with each other. He recognized them; they were rather popular in the school and one of them, the girl with dark skin and curly hair, was his classmate. Gayathri Nadarajah, Belinda Foo and Wardina Fadlullah were all very pretty girls, and Adam soon found himself staring at the girl with shiny dark shoulder-length hair, wearing the _baju kurung_ uniform.

And apparently, one of them realized that Adam was staring at their friend. Gayathri, Adam's classmate, waved at him with a broad grin before leaning in to whisper at the ear of the girl who was wearing the baju kurung uniform. Adam could have sworn that Gayathri was saying, _"Dina, Adam's staring at you,"_ because just right then, Wardina turned to look at him while the other girls giggled. She smiled at Adam embarrassedly, and Adam blushed. Suddenly, the Math workbook seemed to be a lot more interesting. Mr. Singh cleared his throat loudly and quickly, the three girls walked away, with Gayathri and Belinda giggling loudly while Wardina followed them in silent.

"You may go," Mr. Singh said, after thirty more minutes had passed. Adam thanked the teacher gratefully and left the classroom.

Upon exiting the school, he remembered about the kitten he had rescued in the morning. He quickly walked towards the shop-houses area to look for it. The first thing he thought of checking was the drains where the kitten was found earlier. It was not there.

"You're not here…I guess I don't have to buy you food like I've promised," Adam said. "Well, I better get going then."

He walked along the sidewalks with a relatively good mood. Looking left and right, he crossed the road to get to the other side when something on the middle of the road caught his attention. Flies were seen surrounding a lump of dirty fur over a black stain of the road…Adam gasped and rushed forward with a horrible suspicion. He got closer and felt his heart wrenched upon seeing a dead kitten there; it was the same kitten he had rescued. It was now sprawled there, lifeless. Its dirty fur was caked with dry blood. Adam felt his eyes sting upon looking at the dead kitten.

Quickly he took out a plastic bag from his schoolbag and picked up the kitten, covering his hands with it before doing so. He placed the kitten inside the plastic bag and walked to the other side of the road hurriedly. For the next twenty minutes after, his mind was filled with nothing but the kitten. He would bury the kitten at the playground inside the apartment complex where he was staying.

Upon reaching his home Adam changed quickly, barely noticing a bag of food and a note on the dinner table. He threw his school uniform and changed into a simple white T-shirt and a pair of three-quarters blue pants. He took the dead kitten to the playgrounds and managed to locate an abandoned shovel, left perhaps by the gardener. Using it Adam dug a hole and buried the kitten before giving it a small prayer. Feeling as if he had done what he supposed to, Adam returned back to his apartment and this time around he saw the bag of food and a note.

_Adam. I got back home for lunch and saw that you're not here yet, so I thought maybe you're still at school. Sorry about this morning, I'll make it up to you in the weekends, ok? In the bag is your favorite food – _nasi lemak _with the spicy _sambal sotong_ like you've always having when we eat outside. I've bought two packets just in case you are hungry. I'll be back at 7 with dinner. Love – Kak Lisha._

After eating, Adam's mood improved. He went to his room and took out the white sphere he had found and examined it intently. But a minute passed and he was bored. His eyes fell on the computer in the living room and he grinned. He had only little homework and there was nothing else to do, so why not surf the web to kill some time? He switched on the computer and waited for a moment until everything was loaded before clicking for the browser. However, something wrong happened when a window appeared.

_**Do you believe in destiny?**_

"Strange," Adam said. "I don't remember we have a chat program. Hmm…maybe Kak Lisha has installed it last night. I wonder who this is."

He typed, "Yes, I suppose."

_**Do you believe in helping those who are in need?**_

"What a weird question to ask. Of course," he typed.

_**We need your help.**_

Adam guffawed. "Huh? I don't even know you."

_**Will you help us?**_

It soon dawned to Adam that something was wrong. "I would if I know you," he typed. "You're not a computer hacker, are you?"

**_No. Hold out the DigiSphere and press the Enter button on your keyboard if you are willing to help us._**

"DigiSphere? What's that?" Adam wondered.

_**The one that is lying on your computer table, hold it out to your monitor and press Enter.**_

Adam's eyes fell on the white sphere which he had placed just beside the keyboard. It glowed again briefly, making Adam wonder whether he had imagined it or it had really glowed for a second. "Hey, how do you know about it? I've found it just this morning."

_**You finding the DigiSphere means that you have found your calling; your destiny. You have been chosen. Hold out the DigiSphere and press Enter.**_

"This is getting really freaky. I must be crazy for doing this…but…" Adam pressed the Enter button and suddenly the monitor flashed with bright white light. The light engulfed Adam and began to pull Adam inside.

"AHHHH! What are you?" he screamed as he tried resisting the pulling force, but it was too strong for him. He suddenly felt his body weight dropped several kilograms before to his horror; his head was being sucked in the monitor. "AHHHH! I must be dreaming! Alien invasion! AHHHH Help!" His foot was uprooted from the floor before he was sucked wholly into the flickering monitor. After Adam's scream died out, the computer mysteriously went into hibernating mode.

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"How long he's been knocked out?"

"For quite some time now…it was lucky I've found him and brought him here."

After for some time which he could not guess, Adam was awoken by the sounds of two voices, one of them sounded familiar but he could not really remember where he had heard it. At first, he saw only black, and almost panicked. Then he realized that he was closing his eyes, his eyelids felt rather heavy. He was lying down on a rather hard surface, and his body felt sore all over.

"He practically fell out from the sky, unlike you two…"

Still having his eyes closed, Adam thought about what the two voices were saying. Did he really have just fallen out from the sky? What had happened to him? He remembered the computer monitor acting up strangely and how he was absorbed…and then, he remembered nothing. And why was there something heavy on his chest? He stirred slightly.

"Oh look, he's waking up. I really can't believe it's him. I mean, I saw him everyday in class. He looks so cute sleeping like this… cute like a _baby_…"

This was a third voice, and sounded very familiar to Adam. He recognized the slightly ringing voice anywhere. His eyes shot open, and the first thing he saw was a pair of big, blue eyes belonging to a very weird creature with purple fur, looking like a cat with wings, which was currently perched on his chest.

"Hello, friend!" it chirped merrily. "I am TobuCatmon, and I'm the one who has called you."

"Uh…" Adam took a moment to register what TobuCatmon had said, before he realized something really strange. "AHH!" he yelled, jolting up immediately, throwing TobuCatmon off his chest. The bat-cat however floated in midair and observed him calmly. "What are you? Where am I? Did you just _speak_?"

"Did I just speak? What kind of a question is that?" TobuCatmon said indignantly. "Of course I can speak. I'm talking to you, am I not?"

"But…but…you're an animal! Animals can't speak," Adam said weakly. "Can they?"

"I am NOT an animal! I am a Digimon!"

A giggle was heard from his side, and Adam recognized it anywhere. Indeed, as he turned sideways the profiles of a petite, pretty girl with dark skin and curly brown hair came into view. She was wearing a pink T-Shirt and a red skirt.

"Hey, Adam," the girl waved with a grin. "Surprise!"

"Gayathri?" Adam asked feebly, recognizing his classmate. He calmed down slightly and looked around, noting the strange exotic plants growing around him. He was inside a ceiling-less building constructed from glimmering beige stones. He was lying on the floor at present. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Digital World, home of the Digimon, which is short for digital monsters. As of now, you're in our, err…base of operations, yeah I suppose that's the word…you're at the Forest Sanctum," Gayathri answered helpfully.

"Digital World? Digimon?" Adam repeated confusedly. "I've never heard of those words before. Am I dreaming?"

"Nope. Afraid not. Everything around here is very real. But don't worry," Gayathri knelt close to Adam and helped him up. "I was confused myself when I first came here. But you'll get used to it soon. It's really a great experience. Oh yes…let me introduce you to my pretty partner-in-crime…my Digimon partner Floramon!" Gayathri beckoned towards the wall, where a bizarre green creature looking like a reptile and a plant at the same time approached Adam, and held out her scaly, vine-like hands.

"Pleasure to meet you, Adam," Floramon said perkily. Adam took her hand dubiously and nodded in return. Floramon shook his hand a little too excitedly before letting it go.

He turned to face TobuCatmon, who was watching him. "So she's Floramon, and you are TobuCatmon?" Adam said inquiringly. TobuCatmon smiled and nodded, pleased that Adam was starting to understand. "Uh…are you related or something? You both have your names ending with –mon." TobuCatmon face-faulted instantly and fell onto the floor facedown. Adam winced and helped the Digimon up.

"No, I am not related to Floramon. All Digimon have their names ending with –mon."

"Ok…this is still too weird to believe…" Adam said. "What are Digimon, and Digital World?"

"Digimon _are_ living creatures created from the technologies given by the computers from your world Adam, with some magic from a world known as the Dream World. With technology, magic, hopes and dreams, Digimon are born and the Digital World is created as a world of Digimon. This happens centuries ago for Digimon, but from your world's perspective it had been only since the first computer was created."

Adam took in the information wholly, not bothering to try to understand it. "So…why am I brought here?"

TobuCatmon beamed and floated towards Adam's eye level. "You have been chosen to lead the DigiWira team against evil Digimon that threatens the peacefulness of the Digital World."

Adam shook his head slowly in confusion, trying to really digest the information being given to him. Seeing Adam becoming silent, TobuCatmon took that as a cue for him to resume what he was talking about earlier.

"Currently there are two DigiWira. It seems like you've already known Gayathri…and the other," TobuCatmon looked around. "And where is Liu Ying? Ah…there you are; what are you doing sulking at the corner? Come and meet your new teammate, and leader."

The name sounded awfully familiar to Adam, and to his surprise he saw another face he knew. It was a willowy girl with long black hair falling down her back, dressed in a simple yellow T-shirt and blue jeans. She was the prefect who had detained Adam earlier in the morning. Liu Ying nodded at him unsmilingly before going towards the wall. She leaned against it and crossed her arms. With her was a rather normal-looking dog.

"Hey?" Adam waved weakly. Liu Ying ignored him, but the dog approached Adam. Adam reeled slightly and the dog stopped.

"Greetings, Adam. I am Labramon, Digimon partner of Liu Ying," she said politely and bowed her head a little. She then looked at Adam carefully, noticing Adam's nervousness around her. "Do not worry, I won't bite you."

"No, I don't think you will. It's just that…I'm not supposed to touch dogs," Adam said hurriedly. "Unless they are dry," he added.

"Oh, how come?" Labramon asked interestedly. "I assure you that I am clean."

"Nothing against you…it's a religious obligation," Adam said slowly.

"Oh. Well, I can respect that. However, I should remind you that I am _not_ a dog, though I may look like one. I am a Digimon," Labramon said with a knowing smile. "But it is nice to meet you anyway. I'm afraid I have to ask this, but where is your partner Digimon?"

"My partner?" Adam asked confusedly. He then realized something; Liu Ying and Labramon were partners, and so were Gayathri and Floramon. "Oh…am I getting one too?" he asked.

"Only chosen children, the DigiDestined, are able to enter the Digital World, and all DigiDestined have Digimon partners. You have to be a DigiDestined, or specifically, a DigiWira, to be able to come here in the first place. Perhaps you haven't found your partner," TobuCatmon explained.

"DigiWira?"

"Yes, Adam. Like the word _wira_ which means warrior in your native language, so is the task you shall have to carry. A DigiWira is capable of infusing their Digimon partners with great strength, enabling them to digivolve whenever necessary to thwart all evil. So we shall have to look for a partner for you."

"I really don't have a choice now, do I?" Adam said slowly. "Not that I don't want to be a … DigiWira, but everything's happening so fast." He dug into his pocket and took out the white sphere, showing them to those around him. "I got a message telling me that I'd learn about my destiny. Somehow I think this sphere…a DigiSphere, holds the answer."

TobuCatmon beamed upon looking at the DigiSphere and quickly indicated Liu Ying and Gayathri to come closer. Both girls then took out yellow and pink spheres from their pockets, respectively, and showed them to Adam. Adam's eyes widened upon noting the similarities between his white sphere and the other two.

"Excellent! We now have the White, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres. Three makes a team. Excellent! Now all we need is to find you a partner Digimon. Liu Ying and Gayathri, when they first came here, they only have the DigiSpheres. But when they've met their partners, they received something else which made them official DigiWira. Girls, your D3s, please."

Both girls then took out two identical devices. It was slightly oval-shaped, with a digital screen. Liu Ying's was white with yellow lining, while Gayathri's was white with magenta lining.

"When you meet your partner, Adam, you will get a D3 Digivice as well, and become officially, a DigiWira," TobuCatmon said encouragingly.

"So what do you say, Adam? It'll be great to have you in the team." Gayathri said brightly. "What do you think, Liu Ying?"

Liu Ying scoffed. "We'll see what he can do first, both as a DigiWira and as a leader. Until then, I'll reserve my judgment."

Adam considered for a while before slowly, he nodded, though still looking pretty much unsure of his own decision. "I don't know much yet about Digimon or the Digital World… but if this is my calling, then I'll do what I must. Although, I still have a lot of question…"

He was interrupted when suddenly an orange miniature of a tyrannosaurus rex barged into the sanctum, breathless and panicky.

"Your questions will have to wait, Adam," TobuCatmon said, suddenly looking concerned. "What is it, Agumon?" he asked the t-rex.

"TobuCatmon, Deltamon has invaded Green Meadow once again. Apparently he was angry for being tricked yesterday; somebody had informed him that the partners of the DigiWira have never achieved Ultimate level!"

"What?" Both Liu Ying and Labramon shouted, "Who could have told him? Oh, never mind that," Liu Ying said angrily. "Labramon, Gayathri, Floramon, come on." Without waiting for any reply the tall girl and her partner rushed off the Forest Sanctum.

Gayathri and Floramon were about to run off, but before doing so, Gayathri turned back to face Adam. "Will you help us?" she asked with a hopeful look.

Adam nodded grimly. "I don't know how, but I'll do what I can."

Adam then followed Gayathri and Floramon out of the sanctum, leaving a beaming TobuCatmon alone.

"Finally…the team is completed. Three DigiWira, I wonder which Digimon will be Adam's partner?"

xxx

xxx

Adam followed the two girls and their partners ran across a lush green paddock before his eyes widened fearfully. Straight ahead, terrorizing a small village was a hulking blue dinosaur, spitting out intense blue beams mercilessly. Cries of help were heard but the monster ignored the pleas. Adam then saw a peculiar creature of the myth fighting the monster bravely, despite the differences of their size. The creature, a humanly torso joined to the body of a palomino, was fighting the monster without caring for his own safety, trying to buy some time for the other smaller Digimon to evacuate the village.

"Centarumon needs our help to fight Deltamon, Labramon," Liu Ying said intensely. She took out her D3 Digivice and held it towards Labramon. And to Adam's surprise, the Digivice glowed with bright yellow, and Labramon underwent a transformation.

"**Labramon…Digivolve to……Youkomon!"**

Adam could not believe his eyes! It was amazing; in a matter of seconds, Labramon had morphed into an elegant nine-tailed fox with blue fur. The nine tails of the fox's were lit with red flames. A cool, poised aura was seen in Youkomon's twinkling dark eyes.

"Wow, Labramon! Is that really you?" Adam said in amazement, Liu Ying could not help but to smile a little on Adam's shock.

"Adam, if you're that amazed in seeing Labramon's Digivolution, wait till you check out Floramon's Champion form," Gayathri said with a smirk. "You'll love it." She whipped out her pink D3 Digivice and pointed it towards Floramon. "Floramon, do it."

"**Floramon…Digivolve to……Fairymon!"**

This time around, the young boy's eyes were transfixed on the beautiful fairy with butterfly wings. Fairymon grinned upon seeing Adam's reaction and flaunted her curves while in midair.

"Ok, that's enough staring for now," Gayathri snapped and closed Adam's eyes with her hands. "She's too skimpily clothed for young boys like you to see."

"We should be going now, Fairymon," Youkomon said sternly. "Liu Ying, Gayathri, Adam…take cover behind the trees now, will you?"

The two Champion Digimon then rushed towards Deltamon and launched their attacks. Adam watched in awe as Youkomon transformed into a glowering fiery dragon specter as she slammed herself onto Deltamon. The fox's assault caught the monster's attention, but before he could retaliate Fairymon released a hurricane which diverted Deltamon's attention towards the fairy.

"I hope they'll delete Deltamon today," Liu Ying said scathingly as Youkomon and Fairymon teamed up with Centarumon against Deltamon.

"Huh? What do you mean by delete?" Adam asked distractedly as he was watching the battle.

Liu Ying regarded him with a careful look. "To delete means to kill, it's the same thing. The Digimon usually refer killing as deleting."

Adam blanched slightly. "How can you say that so casually? Killing is a horrible thing. Isn't there any other way?"

"Killing ruthlessly is horrible, but look at Deltamon," Liu Ying said irritably. "He had killed many Digimon yesterday when he first invaded this place. If we don't kill him now, he'd just continue to terrorize other places and kill many other _innocent_ Digimon."

"But still…isn't there any other way? Can't we try talking to him?"

Liu Ying's eyes flared in anger, her gaze turned cold. "Fine. I'd love to see you try. In the meantime, I'm going to try getting closer to the battle field, Gayathri, deal with him. He's really starting to annoy me." With that Liu Ying stalked off, from tree to tree until she vanished from Adam and Gayathri's sights.

"What's her problem?" Adam grunted.

Gayathri laid a hand on Adam's shoulder. "Maybe… Liu Ying's right about the whole deleting stuff."

"What makes you say that?"

"Look…I've only been a DigiWira for three months, and you, well…uh…Liu Ying, she's been a DigiWira for half a year already. She has a lot of experience, and I think with you suddenly questioning her actions…and with you being here all of a sudden to take up the role of leader, despite she's being the most experienced…well, I think she's bound to be irritated, because she _knows_ how to sort out the good and bad Digimon."

Adam nodded slowly. "Doesn't give her the right to blow her temper off me though."

Gayathri smiled. "Maybe so…but she's a good friend. I've learned a lot from her, especially in this whole Digimon stuff. You can too. Do you know that she even keeps in touch with many DigiDestined around Asia and the world, including the most famous team of all – the Japanese DigiDestined team?"

"WHA-- There are more of us?" Adam asked, shocked to hear the news.

"See? You still have a lot to learn," Gayathri said. "My advice; try to befriend her. It took me a while too to do that when I started out; we weren't really friends when I became a DigiWira but after a while we learned to tolerate each other, and eventually, became friends."

"Ok," Adam agreed. "So…do you think we should keep an eye on her?"

"Absolutely, come on."

xxx

xxx

So far, Youkomon and Fairymon demonstrated excellent teamwork in battling Deltamon, but neither could actually inflict any real damage on the monstrous beast. Fairymon's wind attack was useless against the heavy, hulking Deltamon as she could not throw him about with the power of the wind. She had to resort in distracting Deltamon, causing the dinosaur to be steadfastly annoyed by her. Youkomon's fire seemed to be able to do some small damage, but Deltamon's leathery hide was strong enough to resist Youkomon's flames.

Centarumon had joined the duo as well, trying his best to aid the two feminine Digimon. He was visibly injured after a fight with Deltamon prior to the arrival of Youkomon and Fairymon. Still, he courageously stampeded towards Deltamon whenever Fairymon or Youkomon was overwhelmed by an attack, thumping his hoofs onto Deltamon's belly. It only caused the dinosaur to burp loudly, and it would have been comical if not given the graveness of the situation. When Deltamon slapped Youkomon away with his bulky tails, Centarumon immediately rushed to her aid, breaking her fall by attempting to catch her. He however, was too weakened to be able to support Youkomon's weight.

Yet he was not willing to give up. Bruised and battered, Centarumon was still willing to fight, to protect the villagers. He whipped out his cannon and released his signature attack towards Deltamon, galloping towards the monster to get a clear shot.

"_Hunting Cannon!"_

The attack connected to Deltamon's back, slowly penetrating his thick hide and actually caused him to bleed. The brute dinosaur roared angrily. "You annoy me, fool! Be gone!" He raised his arm and delivered a very forceful punch onto the smaller Digimon, sending him flying towards the forest.

Centarumon crashed onto the trees, uprooting a couple of them. His vision blurred as he felt the lasts of his power being drained. Turning sideways he saw two human children staring at him, wide-eyed in shock. He then noticed something strange; his body felt lighter than before. The human kids were larger than him. It was weird, as he had just seen the girl the day before; she was not as big as she was this day.

A horrible suspicion crept inside Centarumon's mind. Centarumon…was he even Centarumon now?

xxx

xxx

"You've dedigivolved!" Gayathri knelt by the large hamster. "The battle must have drained your powers!"

"Whoa…" Adam said. He did not understand most of what had just happened, but got a little gist of it. The formerly-intimidating centaur was now only an orange-furred oversized hamster with bat wings sprouting from the sides of his head. _Dedigivolved? Regression...?_

"Oh no!" the hamster groaned. "I'm Patamon again!" He flapped his batwings again and began to fly out, before a voice stopped him.

"Where are you going, Patamon?" Adam asked.

"I have to do something. I'm the protector for the villagers there. I can't just sit back here…the villagers, the Digimon who are fighting Deltamon, they are going to need my help. I may be only a Rookie Digimon now, but that won't stop me!" Patamon said bravely. He then left the two children and flew slowly, but surely, towards Deltamon, who was busy fighting off Youkomon and Fairymon.

Adam grew worried for the little Rookie. He looked at Gayathri. "Aren't we going to stop him? That little guy is going to be killed by that bad dinosaur!"

Gayathri hesitated, before shaking her head sadly. "I'd tell you that we ought to stop him…but some Digimon, like Patamon…they just won't give up until the very end. Liu Ying and I learned that not too long ago."

"So you're saying that we should just let him go and be killed by Deltamon?" Adam asked, not caring that his harsh tone had caused Gayathri to wince. His thought drifted back to the dead kitten which he had buried just before venturing to the Digital World. "I've seen enough death for one day."

"Adam, no!" Gayathri cried out, but it was too late. Adam had stepped out from the safety of the forest, and was chasing after Patamon.

xxx

xxx

Liu Ying saw Adam running out as she crept beside the worried Gayathri. "What is he doing? He doesn't even have a partner to protect him. What in the world is he thinking?" she demanded, but her dark eyes reflected her worry as well. "That fool…"

"He's said that he's seen enough death for one day…" Gayathri whispered.

"I don't understand," Liu Ying said, narrowing her eyebrows.

"Liu Ying, what should we do?" Gayathri asked, shaking.

"I don't know…" Liu Ying replied helplessly. She cast a look outside. "If we go out there we'll only serve as targets for Deltamon to use against her partners. I hope our partners will protect him."

Gayathri watched Adam and Patamon ran off. "Liu Ying, do you think that maybe they are..."

Liu Ying gazed towards Adam and Patamon, catching on what Gayathri was insinuating. "Maybe..."

xxx

xxx

In the meantime, Patamon flew quietly up towards Deltamon's head from behind. The massive dinosaur did not even realize that he was there. He then decided to make his presence known, a plan already hatched in his mind.

"Hey, you! Look behind!" he yelled, and took a deep breath, filling his oral cavity with air as much as possible.

Deltamon heard a squeaky, yet challenging voice, calling out to him from behind and turned away. Patamon quickly seized this time to launch his attack.

"_Boom Bubble, Pah!" _

Patamon had shot out a bubble of concentrated air right towards Deltamon's left eye. Deltamon roared as his vision acuity decreased, and pain seared from his left eye towards his whole head. He felt dizzy instantly. Patamon launched another attack, aiming for Deltamon's right eye, but Deltamon now knew better.

"You stupid guinea-pig just never learn your lesson! I'll kill you now!" Deltamon roared and smacked the little hamster with his skull-arm. Patamon was sent plunging backwards, and to the hamster's surprise, he was caught by somebody. It was the boy.

"Ooof! Gotcha!" Adam grunted.

"You!" Patamon cried in surprise. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here! Deltamon would just…"

"Oh, and Deltamon has already seen the boy, and he's gonna make a good lunch out of him!" Deltamon boomed loudly with an evil sneer. "A human boy! This is a pleasant surprise…I've never devoured on a human before, but no matter. Variety is good!"

"Run! I'll stop him!" Patamon yelled and jumped out from Adam's arms.

It was then something that neither Adam nor Patamon could fathom occurred. The White DigiSphere inside Adam's pocket flew out and released a brilliant flash of white light which forced everyone to cover their eyes. Patamon felt invigorated by the light and power surged within his tiny body. Then, with another flash of white light Patamon had transformed once again to Centarumon.

"I'm back in my Champion form!" Centarumon said, awed. He then eyed Adam with a curious wonder. "Could he be…"

"ROAAAAHHHH!" Deltamon roared loudly, the pain on his left eye increased in multifold due to the brilliance of the light.

Youkomon and Fairymon however, did not seem to be bothered by the light. In fact, the light seemed to have returned their strength back. Quickly they went into position, preparing to attack Deltamon at any moment notice.

"Centarumon, take Adam to safety!" Youkomon shouted.

"We'll distract him," Fairymon added.

Centarumon observed Adam a little longer. "Adam…" He had now known the boy's name. Could he be my partner? He thought. The boy was without a partner before, unlike the two human girls.

"Quickly Adam, on my back," Centarumon said. "I need to get you to safety."

"ROOOOOAAAAAHHHH!"

The light dissipated and Deltamon's visions cleared. He roared angrily upon seeing Adam and Centarumon.

"Pretty fancy light trick there, boy…but that won't be able to save you for long!"

Adam gulped. "You don't have to tell me twice," he said and quickly got on Centarumon's back. Settling himself down on Centarumon's back, he grabbed Centarumon's human torso. "Ok, I'm ready. Go, Centarumon."

The way Adam said that to him made Centarumon felt that even if the boy might not be his partner, Centarumon would still gladly obey the boy. The boy was brave enough to come and protect him. Centarumon would be willing to do anything to make sure the boy would be safe from Deltamon's wrath. He made a start to gallop back towards the forest when suddenly his body glimmered with a myriad of light.

The environment around them suddenly changed; Deltamon, Youkomon and Fairymon had suddenly vanished from Centarumon's sight. The forest, the meadow and the village were gone too. Around Centarumon and Adam there was an only white, with swirls of red and black lights materializing around them. Centarumon then felt a sudden surge of strange new power erupting from within the very core of his life. His body grew twice as large and the furs on his palomino body were replaced by smooth black scales. His human torso too lost its hair, the smooth skin replaced by white and blue scales. The helmet Centarumon wore was lifted upwards, revealing a rather humanly face, with some horse-like characteristics. The brown eyes glimmered with dark crimson as the face turned to resemble that of a dragon. His nose elongated ever so slightly to form a draconic snout, and a horn crafted to resemble a thunderbolt erupted from it. Gleaming, bulky red armor began to materialize on Centarumon's body and wrists. A large red bow appeared on his hand, and a hilt of arrows appeared around the waist of his humanly torso. Long, crimson mane of hair grew out from his hind, forming an elegant looking tail. The lights then dissipated and everything around them formerly – the Digimon, the meadow, the village and the forest – reappeared.

Adam was awed beyond belief. All the while he had witnessed Centarumon underwent an awesome transformation. Suddenly a bright glow descended from out of nowhere and onto Adam's palm. A D3 Digivice appeared from the glow, and it was still warm when it landed on Adam's palm. It was pale blue in color, with glittering silver linings.

"A D3 like Gayathri's and Liu Ying's! I'm a DigiWira…and Centarumon is my partner!" he gasped with elatedness. "Centarumon…?"

"I am Sagittarimon now, dear friend," the former-Centarumon replied with a deeper, regal voice compared to Centarumon's rough tone. "Adam, hold on to me closely. How do you feel that we end this battle quickly?"

"You can do that?" Adam asked, amazed and assured of the confidence in Sagittarimon's voice. He held onto Sagittarimon's gleaming blue scaled human torso and said, "Go ahead, then."

Sagittarimon turned around; his new form impressively stood until the level of Deltamon's shoulders. Suddenly on his side, Youkomon appeared beside him, seemingly from out of thin air. On his other side, Fairymon descended from the sky.

"Cool! A new partner," Fairymon commented.

"Pah. New armor, same old body! I'll still beat you!" Deltamon shouted, unimpressed, though Sagittarimon did look more intimidating than Centarumon ever did. _"Triplex Force!"_

"Let's attack him together," Youkomon said quickly. She lit her nine tails with crimson flames and aimed for the metallic head-hand. _"Fox Tail Inferno!"_

"_Hurricane Wind!" _Fairymon joined in, sending a twister of pink hurricane gale straight towards the skull-hand.

The two attacks collided with the beams released from the skull and the metal-head. Youkomon's nine fireballs blasted onto the beam released by the metal-head one by one, weakening its force until three entered the mouth of the metal-head. The metal-head then exploded! Fairymon too, demonstrated a unique level of control of her wind power. She engulfed the beam unleashed by the skull-head with her hurricane, and slowly but surely, she began to redirect the path of the beam back towards the skull-head. The skull-head slowly cracked and combusted as well!

Sagittarimon saw the incoming beam, originating from Deltamon's head. He took out an arrow from the holder and fixed it at his bow. _"Judgment Arrow!"_

As he shot the gleaming black arrow towards Deltamon's mouth, the arrow suddenly sparked with brilliant white, black and red electric sparks as it zoomed straight towards the beam; splitting it cleanly into two before shooting right through Deltamon's opened maw, piercing the thick leathery hide around the nape and shot out towards the clear afternoon sky.

The effect was immediate. Deltamon fell backwards, and his head was slowly decomposing into data particles which floated up towards the sky. After his head vanished, his whole body, arms and tails soon followed; they combusted into data all at once. The effect was dazzling. For a moment, the light blue sky was showered with dark blue data particles, which all soon floated higher and higher before disappearing into thin air.

For a moment, Adam was transfixed on Sagittarimon; he had just witnessed a killing a few seconds ago. The effect was not as gory as depicted in television, there was no blood involved at all, but still…

"Adam," Sagittarimon said slowly. "I hope you understand that Deltamon's deletion was necessary."

"I know. Liu Ying's right; this is necessary," Adam replied. His face was pale ever so slightly. "I'm just going to have to let all these sink in for a while."

"This is righteous, Adam," Youkomon said. "Deltamon did not deserve mercy, after the brutal killings he had committed."

"He was a classic bad guy, through and through," Fairymon said consolingly. "The Digital World's a better place without him."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Adam said with a smile as he slid down the smooth armor of Sagittarimon. From a distance he saw Gayathri and Liu Ying coming towards them. Youkomon and Fairymon instantly dedigivolved into their Rookie forms, while Sagittarimon remained as he was.

"Wow, Adam," Gayathri said breathlessly. "We saw everything. I mean, WOW! You and Sagittarimon…I knew it."

"Huh? Knew what?" Adam asked.

"That you two would be partners. The way you chased Patamon just now…" Gayathri answered smilingly.

Liu Ying stepped forward and looked at Adam. She was a little taller than the boy, which made her glare looked much more intimidating. "So, I think you now know what we're up against."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. You were right, Liu Ying. Sometimes, perhaps…deleting evil Digimon is the only way."

And for the first time, Adam saw the willowy girl gave him a genuine smile. Liu Ying extended her hand; all hostility she had exhibited earlier had seemingly vanished with a blink of the eye. Adam took her hand gingerly and smiled back.

"Welcome to the team, _leader_."

xxx

xxx

In a flash of blinding white light, Adam saw that he was back at his apartment, in front of his computer. His D3 and DigiSphere were there on the computer table. At the monitor, a small window appeared and TobuCatmon's face covered the whole window wholly.

"This is how we'll be communicating from now on," the cat-bat said. "Your D3 will glow whenever your help is needed once again. I suppose that with Deltamon's gone we can expect a few days of peace in the Digital World. Until then, I will see you later." The window was closed.

After the battle, he, Liu Ying, Gayathri and their partners accompanied Sagittarimon to his village. Part of the village was in ruins, as a result of Deltamon's assault. While Labramon and Floramon both would be following their DigiWira partners back home, Sagittarimon had requested to stay behind, at least temporarily. He would need to attend to other matters. With his new powers and strength he and the villagers would rebuild their village, Sagittarimon knew that he now had other obligation, as a partner of a DigiWira. He would have to elect a new leader for the village to take his place, as his loyalty now was to Adam. Adam wished them luck on rebuilding the village before they parted ways.

They then returned to the Forest Sanctum where TobuCatmon was waiting for them. He then produced a battered old TV set, which to Adam's amusement and wonder, would be their way home. Following Gayathri and Liu Ying's demonstration, Adam held his D3 in front of the TV and felt himself being absorbed by it. In a moment, he was back, at his home, safe and sound.

Suddenly the apartment's door opened and in walked an attractive young woman dressed in a smart brown suit and a matching long beige skirt. She wore a stylishly done lime yellow scarfwhich covered her hair and part of her body. Her face was lightly made up.

"Hi, Adam," she greeted. Then she frowned upon looking at Adam, the boy's shirt and jeans were slightly dirty, and from the looks of it, Adam's skin was rather glossy, due to sweat that had accumulated from morning until evening. "Had a nice time playing today, I see. Did you get my note?"

"Oh…hi, Kak Lisha!" Adam greeted his older sister back with a wide smile. "Back so soon? It's only…" his eyes trailed at the clock, hung on the wall near the computer. "Six thirty? Wow, how time flies."

Alisha Ariff smiled affectionately towards her younger brother as she took off her slippers before closing the door. She was carrying two plastic bags with foods inside. She placed the bags on the dinner table and turned to look at her brother. "So what have you been doing this day?"

"Well…" Adam grinned as he remembered that eventful day. "I've made some new friends today. We really had fun."

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Here it is finally, a Malaysian DigiDestined story. I hope you enjoyed reading the pilot chapter.

This chapter may require some explanations.

1. While the name Adam is also a common American/English name, in Malaysia there are many Malaysian Malay boys having the name Adam as well, but with a slightly different pronunciation. In Malaysia, it is pronounced as Ah-'dum' (with 'dum' rhymes with rum and mum).

2. Liu Ying is described as being willowy. In a certain Chinese dialect, Liu means willow. Ying is a common Chinese name for females, and depending on the name preceding it, males as well.

3. Gayathri (gah-ya-tree) is also a rather common name given to Indian girls.

4. Malaysian school-goers are required to wear school uniform to school, which have been described in the story.

5. All Asians usually have dark hair and eyes, but since this is a Digimon story and characters are known to have impossible hair and eye colors, I'm varying the color of hairs and eyes between the characters (logically, although with some French ancestry, neither TK nor Matt could ever hope of inheriting the blond-hair-blue-eyes genes.) But I'll stick with the darker shades, around black, brown and grey.

6. Wira means hero in Malay. Wira Digital can be translated as Digital Heroes. The term DigiWira is something I've come up from the same thing.

7. _Songkok_ is a black headgear worn by Malay males, usually during the festive Eid-Ul-Fitr season or more commonly, to attend prayers at the mosque or going to religious meetings / classes. Wearing a songkok to school is acceptable, though most students prefer not to wear it. The songkok is not an obligatory garment as it is related more to the Malay culture rather than the religion (Islam).

8. _Baju kurung_ is a traditional female Malay costume, consisting a long-sleeved wear and a long skirt. Nowadays, females of other races wear them as well. It is acceptable for females to wear baju kurung practically anywhere.

9. _Nasi lemak_ is a famous local delicacy in Malaysia – consists usually of rice cooked with coconut milk, served with fried groundnuts and anchovies, sliced cucumbers, hard-boiled egg / fried egg, and spicy squid or anchovies with gravy made from chili paste, garlic, ginger and sugar blended together. Sambal sotong is a usual condiment accompanying nasi lemak; it is squid in spicy gravy.

10. _Kak_ is short of '_kakak_' which means older sister. Malays usually refer to their older sisters with Kak, followed by the name, or more commonly, by a shortened, endeared form of their name. In this story, Adam's sister's name is Alisha, and Adam addresses her as Kak Lisha (Older sister Lisha). The term is also used broadly by people of all races to address any Malay females older than them, but not quite old enough to merit the title 'Aunty'. :D

11. The school life depicted in this chapter is a rather typical Monday school day.

12. The _PMR_ is the initials for the Lower Secondary Assessment Examination, taken at the end of Form Three to guide the students on what subjects to take the following year of education.

13. Adam's hesitance to touch Labramon (a dog Digimon) is explained due to the reason he has given. Later, however, he'll be able to differentiate a real dog and a dog-based Digimon.

14. Lastly, something about the Digimon – I prefer the name Fairymon rather than Kazemon, hence the usage of the original name, but the attacks are of the dubbed ones.

15. I recommend going to Wikipedia and type the word 'Malaysia' if anybody is interested. :)

_Chapter last edited: 27th March 2008_


	2. No Longer Alone

It was nightfall and everything was dark in the plains of the Digital World. The sky was cloudless and the digital moons graced the dark land below it with their soothing lights, reflected most probably by the digital sun that was temporarily hidden from sight. Most of the Digimon had already retired for the day, probably after a full day of toil and sweat, or of adventures.

Most being the keyword here, which did not apply to two particular Digimon, who were walking in the middle of a ravine surrounded by tall stony hills.

"How much further?" a tired male voice called out. "My feet are killing me!"

"Don't rush me," a female voice snapped back irritably. "Besides, you can fly! Why should you complain?"

"Why don't we both fly then? It'll be faster."

"No. We might miss it with all the darkness. It's better if we walk."

"But we've been walking for _days_… are you sure it's even out here?"

From the darkness, with the aid of light being the pale moonlight, two figures were seen walking in the midst of the night. It was difficult to see their detailed profiles, but one could make out a lanky humanoid Digimon, with a pair of wings growing out its back. It had the most peculiarly shaped hair; it seemed to grow out from the sides of the head upwards, forming what looked like a second pair of smaller wing. This Digimon was leading the duo; it was followed by another shorter humanoid Digimon. The short Digimon was wearing a cape and a wizard-shaped hat, and was holding a staff.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" the male voice, coming from the shorter Digimon, asked again, whiningly.

"Stop asking, will you? I remember it clearly; it was sealed around here," his companion snapped. "I saw the little cat sealed it with some hocus-pocus trick; something I hoped _you_ might be able to unlock! Now come on, the statue has to be here somewhere."

"You sure your memory's not failing you?" the male said hopefully.

His companion abruptly stopped and turned around. "My memory is sharper than any sharpest blades!" she said shrilly.

"Well, you know they say that and your looks is the first thing to go with age," the male reasoned slowly as he leaned over the stony walls of the gorge. He let out a yelp when his back touched the stony wall; the wall had a very uneven, rough surface with pointed tips erupting all over the surface.

The female let out a loud snort. "Why you little….hey! We've found it! Sorcerymon, look!" she said excitedly, pointing towards the male's back. "I can't believe it; we would have missed it if you didn't act up like a bratty baby Digimon."

"Really? Eh…HEY!" the male, Sorcerymon, cried indignantly. He turned around and saw that the wall was actually a large statue instead of a rocky hill. "Uh…what is it, Shutumon?"

The statue was that of a quadrupled beast, its feature was unclear as it was hidden in the shadows. It stood almost three times taller than Sorcerymon.

"This is it," the female, Shutumon, said with satisfaction. "Quick, Sorcerymon, do your stuff. Free it from its stony imprisonment."

"Right," Sorcerymon said giddily and pointed his staff towards the statue. "And here goes nothing. Fallen Digimon of long before, with my magic you shall rise once more, IYYAH!"

A white beam of light was shot from Sorcerymon's staff directly towards the statue. An explosion resulted, and the statue began to glow. Slowly, Shutumon and Sorcerymon could see bright red fire began to flicker from around the statue. The flames grew more intense and enveloped the statue. A loud feline roar soon echoed all over the valley before the flames dissipated slightly, revealing in place of the statue, a burning giant wildcat now stood. It had a feral look in its eyes as it looked down to Shutumon and Sorcerymon.

Sorcerymon was ecstatic. "Why…it works! My magic works!"

Shutumon snorted and ignored him, turning to the burning cat. "Welcome back, Lynxmon," she said silkily. "Remember what's happened to you?"

The fiery cat, Lynxmon, growled menacingly. "Yes…" it said, with a scratchy male voice. "The girl with the fox…I remember them alright… I have a score to settle with them. They shall PAY!"

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 02 – No Longer Alone**_

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The sky was still dark when fourteen-years-old Chang Liu Ying stepped out from the door of her house. She inhaled a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air and the coolness of the early morning. Some indistinct sounds of vehicles were heard from the main road not very far from her house.

It was still very early in the morning, but Liu Ying had already seen a couple of cars went past her house, probably wanting to avoid the traffic jam that would happen after seven in the morning. The township of _USJ Subang Jaya_ was quite notorious with its early morning and evening's traffic jams, with its residence heading to work at various establishments around town, or somewhere outside town, at the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur or the state's capital, Shah Alam.

"It is still early, Ying," a wizened voice said from her back. The girl turned, seeing her balding grandfather approaching, holding a toddler's hand. "It's only 6.45 and the school is not far. Why don't you go back in, and wait for your mother to come down and prepare breakfast?"

Liu Ying grimaced. "I can't grandpa; I'm on duty this whole week. I need to be at school before seven. I've already informed mama that I'm going now."

"Have you eaten?" Grandpa Chang asked. "You know that breakfast…"

"…is the most important meal of the day," Liu Ying continued, smiling slightly. "I know grandpa, don't worry. I've taken a glass of milk, and I'll get something from the school canteen to eat. You don't have to worry, grandpa."

"Until Meng is old enough to be the man of the house, I shall do the worrying for the family," Grandpa Chang said, smiling back at his granddaughter while looking fondly at the tot he was holding, who was looking up at Liu Ying curiously. The little boy was Liu Ying's five-year-old younger brother, Chang Liu Meng.

"Can Shaomon stay at home and play with me?" he asked Liu Ying hopefully.

"No, I'm bringing her with me today," Liu Ying said and ruffled the toddler's short, straight hair. "Besides, you're going to kindergarten as well the whole morning. By the time you got back, you'll just have to wait a little while longer before I get back, and then we'll play with Shaomon together."

"You talk about me as if I'm a stuffed toy," a muffled voice complained from inside Liu Ying's schoolbag.

Liu Ying and her brother laughed, but Grandpa Chang had a concerned look on his face.

"Do you think it's about time you tell your mother about Shaomon?" he asked quietly. "She needs to know too, and I think she would rather know about Shaomon from you, rather than finding out by accident, like I did." He chuckled quietly upon recalling how he had seen what supposed to be Liu Ying's stuffed toy moving about over his granddaughter's bed, unaware of being watched by the elderly man.

"I don't know…she already has a lot of thing to worry about," Liu Ying said thoughtfully. "I know I'll tell her someday."

"Good," Grandpa Chang said. "Alright then, be careful while walking to school."

"I will."

Liu Ying wore her white snickers before adjusting her school prefect uniform and tie before walking out the gate. She turned left where at the end of the road, the primary school was there. She waved at her little brother and began to take brisk steps towards the school. Upon reaching the school gate, she saw a silver _Perodua Kembara_ slowing down as it reached the gate, and after a few seconds a boy Liu Ying recognized stepped out from the passenger's seat door. This was a boy whom Liu Ying had caught for coming late to school on Monday, and more importantly, her new teammate.

"Hey, Liu Ying!" the boy greeted her warmly. As soon as the boy reached the school gate, the Kembara let out a soft honk and drove away from the school.

"Hi, Adam. You're early today," Liu Ying answered calmly, noting that whatever the reason was, Adam seemed to be excited about something. His dark grey eyes seemed to sparkle with mirth, "You seem to be a little bit…excited."

"Good morning Adam!" a muffled voice came from Liu Ying's schoolbag.

"I am…uh…did I just hear Labramon?"

"Yes. Anyway, care to tell why you're so happy this early in the morning? Usually students look rather bummed this early."

"Well, you see…it's last night. Patamon came to my house!" Adam said excitedly.

"Really?" Liu Ying said, raising her eyebrow in interest. It had been two days since their battle with Deltamon, and Patamon, still in his Digivolved form, had opted to stay back to help rebuilding his village and to appoint a new village leader.

"Yeah. It was midnight, and luckily my sister had already gone to bed. I was sleeping too when my D3 beeped like crazy! I didn't know what happened but I decided…well, since I was up, might as well get myself a glass of water. Then I walked to the kitchen when I saw Patamon flying around the living room. I was so surprised and I called out for him…he was shocked as well and got himself knocked on the ceiling fan!"

Liu Ying smiled slightly. "I can imagine. Poor Patamon." She glanced at Adam's schoolbag. "Did you bring him with you?"

"Uh…I didn't think about it actually. I left him alone at home…hopefully he'll be ok," Adam said, scratching his chin. "He's too big anyway to be cramped in with all my books. Speaking of which…how _did _you put Labramon in your bag? I remember her being bigger than the bag."

"Didn't Patamon _dedigivolve_ after coming to your house?" Liu Ying asked curiously.

"Dedigivolve?" Adam crunched his face in confusion.

"Regress to a smaller form?" Liu Ying reiterated, remembering that Adam was new.

"Oh. Nope. Last time I looked at him, he's still that orange hamster with bat wings," the boy replied jokingly.

"That's strange; Labramon dedigivolved into her In-training form, Shaomon, whenever she is here. She's a lot smaller in that form, I can easily place her in my bag."

"Well, maybe we ought to ask TobuCatmon about this whenever we go to the Digital World," Adam suggested.

Liu Ying nodded. "I agree. Anyway, Adam, I need to go and put my bag in my class now, and get something to eat. You see, I'm on duty this whole week."

Adam nodded. "Well, see you after school then. Ooh…I can't wait to tell Gayathri about this."

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After the school bell rang, Liu Ying calmly waited for the other students to exit the Form Two Beta (2B) classroom. As she waited, she wrote some notes in a small notebook, making reminders of what the teachers wanted for the next day and the lists of homework that needed to be done. There was no point of rushing anyway as her house was nearby. Some of her classmates lived far away came to school by bus, hence their hurry to avoid being left out by the bus.

"Uh…Liu Ying? Do you mind reminding me what we needed to do for English?" a voice asked softly from the side.

Liu Ying looked up to the one asking; she was a classmate of hers and one of Gayathri's close friends. The girl was smiling at Liu Ying, somewhat awkwardly.

"Not at all, Dina," she said, and checked her notebook. "Ok, Mr. Rahman told us to copy out and do the exercises on page fifteen from the textbook, into our exercise book. That's all."

"Thanks," Wardina Fadlullah replied gratefully. "I really should start making notes like you, Liu Ying. That way I won't forget which exercise to do."

"Well, it's never too late to start," Liu Ying said with a small smile.

Wardina nodded and smiled back. "Thanks again. See you tomorrow."

"Bye." Liu Ying said and watched the girl exited the room before she got up from her own seat. "Shaomon?" she called tentatively. "The coast is clear."

A loud relieved sound was heard coming from inside her bag. "Finally." A small spherical Digimon with brown fur crept out from the bag. Liu Ying frowned upon seeing that the small Digimon's mouth had some remains of food. "I love that fried banana fritters you got for me; they were very delicious! Can you get me some more of that tomorrow during your recess time?"

"Sure," Liu Ying said, before something inside her skirt pocket vibrated. "Uh oh…"

Shaomon suddenly looked more alert. "Trouble in the Digital World," she said, more a statement than a question.

"You got it," the willowy girl replied. "C'mon, get in the bag. We need to alert Adam and Gayathri, and go to the computer room."

Shaomon did as she was told. Liu Ying held her schoolbag with one hand and rushed out of the classroom. She could see Gayathri, with her two friends Belinda Foo and Wardina, and she had a slightly troubled look on her face, one of her hand was touching the left pocket of her light blue pinafore skirt. Her large eyes met Liu Ying's, and immediately Liu Ying knew that Gayathri too, knew about what was going on. She mouthed the word 'computer room' silently, and Gayathri made a slight nod, albeit hesitantly.

The only thing the prefect needed to know was if Adam, the junior of the three DigiWira, knew about it as well. And as if on cue, she saw Adam and his best friend whom Liu Ying did not know his name, walked out from the Form 2A classroom, talking with each other animatedly.

"Looks like he doesn't even have a clue," Liu Ying sighed, and quickly approached Adam. As she went past Gayathri and her two friends, she could hear Gayathri making excuses to her friends.

"Oh…hey, Liu Ying!" Adam greeted, while his best friend merely observed Liu Ying with slight apprehension, probably thinking what would the assistant head prefect want with his friend. Liu Ying ignored him and looked at Adam seriously.

"Adam, we need to talk, _now_. It's urgent."

"Oh," Adam said, surprised. He looked at Hakim, who had a puzzled expression on his face, and back at Liu Ying. "Sure. And Hakim…" he looked at his best friend. "…why don't you go ahead? I'll catch up with you shortly."

"Ok…" Hakim said apprehensively. "I'll wait by the school gate."

Liu Ying waited until Hakim was out of earshot before taking out her D3, which was glowing with faint yellow light.

"We're needed in the Digital World, now!"

Adam's eyes widened and he smacked his forehead. "Oh no! I've left my D3 and DigiSphere with Patamon at home."

Liu Ying felt like scolding Adam for not bringing his partner and Digivice to school, but instead she inhaled her breath deeply. _He's still new. _ "That's ok. When you get home, use your computer to go to the Digital World. Point your D3 towards the monitor and said Digiport Open, got it?"

"Yeah, got it," Adam said slowly. "Sorry. I'll get going now."

As Adam ran off from her, Liu Ying saw Gayathri walked towards her nervously.

"Uh…I've left Tanemon at home," she said sheepishly. "Can I catch up with you later?"

Liu Ying snorted. "Not you too! Adam's even forgotten to bring his D3! But I didn't expect _you_, a DigiWira of three months, to forget about this as well!"

"Sorry, sorry…" Gayathri said apologetically. "I'll go home as quick as I could; don't worry, when pushed Anding can drive _really_ fast! I'll get home in ten minutes!"

"Make that _five_!" Liu Ying barked as Gayathri waved at her from afar. The girl snorted again. "This is just _peachy_."

"Do not worry Liu Ying," Shaomon said consolingly from within her DigiWira partner's schoolbag. "We have been a team for three months before Gayathri and Floramon joined us. Surely we can at least hold off whatever threat there is, until Gayathri and Adam are able to join us."

"You're right, Shaomon," Liu Ying said, regaining control of her anger. "Come on, let's go."

Liu Ying quickly ran off towards the computer room, located on the second floor of Block D of the school, which was built the farthest from the current block she was at. She did not even bother to knock the door of the computer room; instead she just pushed the dark-tinted glass door open, and sighed in relief upon seeing that the air-conditioned computer room was empty, save for a man who was sitting behind the table marked 'Administrator'.

"Mr. Chan, there's trouble in the Digital World," Liu Ying panted, trying to catch her breath as she put down her schoolbag on the floor, and let Shaomon out from it.

The man, Mr. Chan, nodded and stood up from his seat. He was a handsome man with tanned skin and spiky brown hair. He was dressed in a neat button-up pair of white shirt, light brown khaki pants, and shining brown leather shoes. He worked as the computer instructor and teacher for the students of the school, as well as the adviser for the school's computer club. He was one of the popular teachers in the school, if not the most, especially among the schoolgirls and single female teachers.

"Are you alone?" he asked, his concern was evidently reflected in his cerulean eyes. "Where's Gayathri? And the new recruit…what's his name…oh yeah, Adam?"

"They went home to get their partners," Liu Ying said as she scanned the computers inside the room. "Which one of all these computers is switched on?"

"You can use the administrator's one," the computer teacher offered. "I won't be having any class anymore today, that's why all the other computers are switched off."

Liu Ying nodded gratefully and carried Shaomon with her hand while pointing her D3 towards Mr. Chan's computer with the other.

Apart from the other DigiWira, her grandfather and little brother, the only other person who knew about Liu Ying being a DigiWira, and Digimon in general, was Mr. Jackie Chan. In fact, the instructor was the first other human to know of Liu Ying being a DigiWira, being the one who had witnessed the girl being sucked into the computer monitor mysteriously, and coming out from it nearly four hours later with a small, brown-furred puppy. Liu Ying had a tough time explaining to the teacher, but Mr. Chan did not question her at all, apparently believing her completely after seeing with his own eyes a girl going in and out the monitor. To her relief the teacher was also supportive of her, helping her in a way a teacher could – giving advice and encouragement, despite he himself appearing not to understand what Liu Ying was doing. Shaomon was introduced to him, and later, when Gayathri joined the team, she too was introduced to the teacher.

"Digiport Open!"

A bright light erupted from the computer monitor, and Liu Ying felt a mysterious force pulling her into the computer monitor. She however, had experienced this many times before, now it was like a second nature to her. She did not resist at all, and felt her body growing lighter as her feet hovered above the floor. Her surroundings dimmed, covered by the brightness of the light, and Liu Ying closed her eyes.

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When Liu Ying opened her eyes once again, the first thing she noticed instantly was not her surroundings like usually, but that her outfit had changed completely into a different set of attires. Before arriving at the Digital World, she was wearing the school prefect uniform – light green long sleeved shirt, knee-length olive green skirt, a tie the same color as her skirt and a pair of white socks and shoes.

Now to her surprise, she was now wearing a pair of gray uniform; consisting of a V-necked, zip-up, long-sleeved jacket-like top and pants. She felt comfortable wearing it, as it was neither too tight nor too loose, as if custom made to suit her. Along her shoulders and arms, the sleeve was half-yellow, with black linings. Part of her upper chest was also yellow, lined with black. The collar was also black and was joined to the black linings over the shoulder and sleeves. Her top was secured by a black leather belt, with pouch-like compartments with gleaming metallic buttons to secure the contents. Her D3 was stored in the single compartment at the right, and her Yellow DigiSphere at the left. Beside the compartment for her DigiSphere, another compartment housing a PDA-like device she had never seen before was placed. Under the belt, her top extended down to half her thigh, forming what looked like a skirt, with yellow and black stripes lining the bottom. The skirt was cut at both sides up till an inch away from the belt; seemingly to make walking a lot easier for her and to give the whole assemble a feminine look. Her pants too, had black linings along the outer sides, and the ends of the pants were tucked in a pair of shining black boots which extended until below her knee. The boot had a yellow line decorating the upper border of the boots. And finally to complete her assemble, her long, straight black hair was pushed to the back and secured with a yellow headband, with some strands escaped freely over her forehead.

"Ying, those are a very nice outfit!" Labramon commented sincerely. "It suits you. You look very pretty."

"You _liked_ it?" Liu Ying asked incredulously as she studied her outfit for a moment. She frowned; the outfit was not quite her liking. "I think I look like a spaceship crew in Star Trek," she mumbled. "Who designed this must be a fan… I rather wear my prefect uniform."

Labramon shrugged and began observing their surrounding. She frowned; the environment was strangely familiar. They were currently inside a valley, walled by stone hills. A TV set was placed somewhere near them. Her ears shot up as she felt a sense of forbidding danger looming.

"Labramon? Don't you think this place look awfully familiar," Liu Ying said with a low tone. A memory came flitting in her mind, causing her to shiver. "Could it be?"

A loud feline roar suddenly echoed all over the valley. Both Liu Ying and Labramon paled; the roar was also very familiar. The roar seemed to be coming from above. Slowly, they looked up and gasped loudly.

Perched on top of one of the stone hill was a large wildcat with flames burning all over its body. It looked down at them with a pair of menacing eyes, as if readying for a kill. All the time, it was growling softly, and maliciously.

"It's Lynxmon!" Liu Ying cried in shock. Her knees felt weak suddenly. "But…I thought…TobuCatmon has sealed him?"

Lynxmon let out a loud roar before jumping down, landing on its feet just several meters away from the duo.

"You really don't think your friend's spell could hold me for long now, do you?" Lynxmon spat. "I have returned, and I have a vengeance to settle with both of you! But first…" Lynxmon turned his attention towards the TV set near him, and crushed it with its paws. "Now, there will be no interruption. Prepare to die, DigiWira!"

Liu Ying took out her D3 Digivice from her new belt. Her hand was trembling. "Do…do it, Labramon. F-Finish what we've started."

"**Labramon…Digivolve to……Youkomon!"**

"Liu Ying, take cover, quickly!" Youkomon ordered. "I shall handle him!"

The girl didn't need to be told twice. Quickly she sprinted towards the grey stone walls, trying to find somewhere to hide. Unfortunately the walls were all flat, without any large crack or opening for her to hide. Liu Ying had to run as far as she could, but at the same time, the sounds of a battle had begun, and she could not help herself from turning around.

"_Fox Tail Inferno!"_

Youkomon had initiated the attack by firing nine fireballs from her tails. However the fireballs were consumed easily by Lynxmon's flaming body. The wildcat laughed loudly as Youkomon attempted an attack again, only to find it was in vain. Her fireballs had no effect on Lynxmon's intense burning flames.

"Now let me show you a _real_ fire attack, foxy!" Lynxmon declared. The flames on his mane burned more intensely, spitting out fires haphazardly. _"Thermal Mane!" _

Youkomon jumped from the ground, causing Lynxmon's attack to miss its target. While in midair she curled her body forward, and morphed into a flaming red dragon specter. She let out a feral a roar which did not sound like her at all. The dragon's roar was echoing and bestial, compared to her elegant feminine voice.

"_Dragon Wheel!"_ Youkomon blasted off towards Lynxmon. Lynxmon attempted to resist her attack, but Youkomon was able to push the fire cat back.

Lynxmon snarled and raised his paw, slapping the dragon specter forcefully. Instantly the dragon morphed back into Youkomon and was thrown towards the stone walls with a loud crash before limping on the grounds. Lynxmon roared in triumph and approached the limped fox, and snarled again maliciously.

"_Wind Nail Rush!"_ Lynxmon rushed towards Youkomon and slashed his claws repeatedly towards the blue-furred fox.

Youkomon attempted to avoid the attack by rolling away, but her tails and posterior part of body had caught in the vicious flurry of slashes. She cried in pain, the pain was too much for her to resist. With another kick at the gut, Youkomon was sent flying once again and crashed onto the opposite stone walls. She grew weak and devolved back into a bruised and battered Labramon.

"No! Labramon!" Liu Ying cried, and rushed towards her fallen partner. "Not again…" she said, as tears began to form at the corner of her eyes. "Gayathri…Adam… please hurry…" She nearly fell when she stopped abruptly at her partner.

"Liu Ying…I'm sorry…" Labramon wheezed. "I failed you, again…"

"Aha! I haven't forgotten about the DigiWira either!" Lynxmon exclaimed. "I shall kill you both," he said evilly. "Goodbye…and good riddance!"

Yet, with a stroke of good luck, before Lynxmon could attack even further, a violent hurricane made out of pink energy came from the sky. It sent Lynxmon trampling backwards. He got up snarled angrily as he saw a fairy descended down from the sky.

"Back off, you bad kitty cat!" the fairy exclaimed dramatically. "Or suffer Fairymon's fury!"

"Shut your trap, wench!" Lynxmon snarled, as the earth shook slightly. "How dare you interrupt me…you shall suffer the same fate as the fox. Thermal…"

"_Judgment Arrow!"_

Before Lynxmon could finish, an arrow of crackling electricity came rocketing at top speed from the direction opposite him. He had to forfeit his attack and crouch onto the ground, avoiding the arrow narrowly. The arrow shot past his head, grazing the flames that were burning all over his body before hitting the stone walls. The stone walls exploded, sending dust and stones falling down towards Lynxmon. Lynxmon let out a loud yelp and jumped away, only to be blasted with Fairymon's pink tornado.

"Tsk, tsk…I should bring some soap with me…" Fairymon said coolly. "…so that I can clean your foul, besmirched mouth. Ah well, I guess another pink tornado will do."

With that, Fairymon sent another wave of wind, but not directly attacking him. Instead the winds lifted some broken stones from the walls and the dusts, which Fairymon then used to obscure Lynxmon's eyesight. Some of the dusts entered Lynxmon's eyes while some began to extinguish the flames on his body. The wildcat let out a piercing roar in pain as he tried to force the dusts out of his eyes. He closed his eyes tightly and cursed under his breath, He was defeated.

"This isn't over!" he yelled. "I will return to finish the job! Mark my words."

With that, Lynxmon ran off as fast as his feet could take him. After he vanished, Fairymon summoned her power of winds to clear out all the dusts and stones around the vicinity, just to see Sagittarimon approaching, with Adam and Gayathri riding on him. Liu Ying was crying over Labramon's now-unconscious forms as Fairymon landed slowly beside them.

"We're too late," Adam said, sliding down the side of Sagittarimon. He then helped Gayathri down. "Liu Ying, we're so sorry…"

Liu Ying looked up and both Adam and Gayathri were surprised to see the usually cool girl with tears streaking down her face.

"Labramon…she's hurt really bad, I couldn't do anything…"

Gayathri knelt beside Liu Ying and hugged her. "Shhh…she'll be ok, Liu Ying," she said comfortingly.

Adam looked around the valley, trying to look for Labramon's assailant. He didn't see anyone, so he turned to his large partner. "Sagittarimon, do you think you can track down whoever that caused Labramon to be like this?"

"I can, but I think it would be better if we return back to Forest Sanctum. Labramon needs to be healed. After that we can pursue the enemy Digimon."

xxx

xxx

Over at the Forest Sanctum, while TobuCatmon tended to Labramon, Liu Ying was sitting on a stone over one corner, brooding. She was no longer crying, but it was evident that she was deeply worried about her Digimon partner, judging by the way she kept shooting glances towards where TobuCatmon and Labramon were at.

Adam and Gayathri were leaning against the walls of the opposite sides of the sanctum, watching Liu Ying intently. They were wearing the same outfit like Liu Ying, with the only difference being the color in Gayathri's case. Wherever on Liu Ying's outfit was yellow, on Gayathri's they were pink. Adam's outfit however, while bearing some resemblance to the girls' outfit, had a masculine look on it. That meaning his outfit lacked a skirt, and his top did not have a zip. The zip was replaced by buttons reaching up below the black collar, with a strap covering the buttons. The color on Adam's outfit was very pale grey, nearing white.

Looking at each other tentatively, both of them then approached their friend.

"Liu Ying, don't worry," Adam assured her. "Labramon will be ok…and then, we'll handle her attacker together."

Liu Ying nodded forlornly and cast a look at the table where TobuCatmon was treating Labramon.

"That Lynxmon was the first evil Digimon Labramon and I have to face," Liu Ying said softly.

xxx

xxx

**(Flashback)**

"_It all began six months ago…I was still in Form One then…"_

A school-uniformed Liu Ying was walking around the Forest Sanctum, looking confused and amazed at the same time. It was her first time being at the place. She didn't know what to think. "Where am I?"

"Welcome Liu Ying," greeted a voice, coming from one of the trees around the sanctum. "You're at the Forest Sanctum."

"Huh? Who said that?" Liu Ying asked, looking around wildly until she saw a violet cat perched on a branch of one of the many trees around the Forest Sanctum. "Wait…a Cheshire Cat? This is like Alice in Wonderland…" she said in disbelief. "Am I dreaming?"

"No, you're as awake as I am. And I am not what you called the Cheshire cat, nor do I have any idea of what that cat is," the cat said pleasantly. "I am known as TobuCatmon, and I am the guardian of the Forest Sanctum."

"Tobu…what?" Liu Ying said in confusion.

The cat known as TobuCatmon glided down the branch and hovered over Liu Ying's eye level. He smiled.

"You are now in the Digital World, world of Digimon. Not all children have the privilege of being here; you should feel lucky. _You_ have been chosen by the Yellow DigiSphere to fight against evil Digimon that threaten the peace and tranquility of the Digital World."

"Wait a minute," Liu Ying said skeptically. "I've never heard of Digimon before. What do you mean, fighting evil Digimon? This isn't what I expected when I pressed the Enter button. Are you the one who contacted me?"

"Yes, I did," TobuCatmon said.

"So you were specifically targeting me!" she accused.

"No, I was merely choosing the one who have in possession the Yellow DigiSphere. And that person is you, Liu Ying."

Liu Ying took out the Yellow DigiSphere from her pocket and examined it. "And here I thought it was just a big marble. No wonder the shop owner looked puzzled when I wanted to pay for this. I was getting this for my little brother actually."

"This DigiSphere belongs to you," TobuCatmon insisted. "It holds great power; you must keep it with you. And now, let us come to find your Digimon partner."

"A partner? Why would I need a partner?"

"Why…to fight the evil Digimon, you would need a Digimon partner. That's what being a DigiWira is all about. A chosen child partnered with Digimon, and together they shall fight any evil that come to foil the peace of the Digital World."

Liu Ying nearly choked upon hearing it. "DigiWira? Oh, no, no, no, no….I haven't even said yes yet!"

TobuCatmon smiled. "Yet? Does that mean you will consider it?" He however, looked too confident that it unnerved Liu Ying.

"So…let's say if I say yes…" she finally relented, "…so we look for my…uh…partner, now?"

"If you insist," TobuCatmon said smilingly. "The best place to look now is perhaps outside the jungle that surrounds this holy stronghold. Hang on; let me get something to ensure our safe journey here."

"_TobuCatmon and I then set off to look for my partner Digimon, and it took us the better half of the afternoon before we reached the Stone Valley when we saw a Labrador running at top speed, seemingly deathly afraid of something. The reason soon became apparent when Lynxmon appeared, chasing it." _

"TobuCatmon, we need to help that dog," Liu Ying insisted worriedly.

The cat observed the situation for a while, and upon seeing the Labrador being in grave danger, he agreed. "Alright, child. But be warned; I'm not exactly a combat-type Digimon. I can only hold myself against Digimon such as that Lynxmon for a short time. But, I hope this will be worth it…I will distract that beast, and you go and save that Labramon."

"Labramon?"

"That dog!"

"Oh…"

Together, Liu Ying and TobuCatmon called out for Lynxmon's attention. Lynxmon saw TobuCatmon and turned his attention to face the flying cat. TobuCatmon flew high, making sure that Lynxmon would not be able to reach him. While Lynxmon was distracted, Liu Ying immediately went to retrieve the shivering Labramon, who had stopped running due to extreme tiredness.

However, her action did not go unnoticed.

"Oho! I've thought that something fishy has been going on!" Lynxmon boomed all of a sudden, turning his attention back to Labramon when he could not reach TobuCatmon. "Well what do you know? A child! A _human_! I, Lynxmon, shall destroy you both before setting my claws on that fat flying cat!"

"No!" both Liu Ying and Labramon cried out.

Labramon immediately jumped in front of Liu Ying. _"Retrieve Bark!"_ she howled, sending supersonic blast from her mouth towards the burning wildcat, only to have it absorbed by the flames erupting on his body.

Liu Ying closed her eyes in fear before suddenly, a flash of light erupted from the Yellow DigiSphere she was carrying. A strange device appeared on her palm; it was white with yellow linings, and had a digital screen with few buttons beside it. The device let out another flash of yellow light, which was absorbed by the unassuming Labramon, propelling her into her next stage of evolution. Liu Ying watched in a mixed feeling of awe and nervousness as Labramon became bigger and bigger, her body gaining more lithe curves as nine bushy tails sprouted from her behind. Her beige fur began to take a shade of blue. From a dog, Labramon had morphed into a fox. A nine-tailed fox with flames burning at the tips of her tails. And her name was Youkomon, the bewitching beast Digimon!

Youkomon and Lynxmon began grappling with each other ferociously, slapping and kicking in a cat-VS-dog fight. Snarls and barks were exchanged, and blood was spilled. All the while, Liu Ying watched the whole battle, fear gripping her with every second passed. The battle was too grisly for her; having never watched such fight before. It was a battle to the death, and Liu Ying's young mind could not take it.

Without even realizing it, the girl fainted out of pure terror.

When she woke up, Liu Ying was back at the Forest Sanctum. TobuCatmon was hovering above her, and beside her was Labramon, injured, but alive.

"I'm so sorry child," TobuCatmon apologized. "I have forgotten that you are still a child, not a Digimon."

"TobuCatmon? Labramon?" Liu Ying asked, dazed before memories of the battle between Youkomon and Lynxmon returned to her mind. She gasped. "What happened?"

"When you fainted, I have to use a special magic to seal Lynxmon, unable to delete it myself," TobuCatmon answered. "Your partner was too gravely injured…but she survived, and has already been cured with special healing herbs from the trees around this sanctum."

"My…partner?" Liu Ying asked, still not fully grasping the whole situation. She turned to face Labramon. "You mean…"

"Yes, apparently destiny has bound us together, partner," Labramon said. "And it is an honor to be a partner of a DigiWira. May I know your name, child?"

"Liu Ying."

"Liu Ying," Labramon repeated. "Liu Ying and Labramon; I like the sound of that."

"But…I don't fit to be your partner. I'm not strong…I've _fainted_ in the battle."

"You are strong, Liu Ying," Labramon assured. "Your compassion and determination to save me enabled me to Digivolve into my Champion form – Youkomon. It was with your power that it was possible for me to Digivolve. I could not have done that on my own."

"Really? You really would like me to be your partner?"

"I am certain. No regrets."

"Excellent!" TobuCatmon exclaimed happily. "The first DigiWira is born! But be forewarned, Liu Ying, Labramon. Dark time lies ahead. The summoning of the DigiWira signs the terrible fact that darkness has begun to emerge. You two will have to lean to each other for support. Do not worry though…with time you will gain the necessary experience and your powers and confidence will increase. There will be many evil Digimon you two will have to eradicate. Only by working together as a pair, as one, you will able to achieve greatness."

Liu Ying nodded. "I'm not sure I understand all of that, TobuCatmon…but I will try my best. That thing with Lynxmon…I'll make sure it won't happen again."

"Don't worry, Liu Ying. I'm sure that you and Labramon will make an excellent team. Destiny can not be wrong in bonding the two of you as a team. And the enchantment I've placed on Lynxmon will not last forever…but rest assured, by the time he is released again, you will be strong enough to take him down, for good."

**(End Flashback)**

xxx

xxx

"But TobuCatmon's wrong," Liu Ying said, and buried her face in her palms. "I'm not strong enough, which causes Labramon to be constrained…and Lynxmon seems to be stronger than ever."

It broke Adam and Gayathri's hearts seeing their strong friend to be this shaken up. Adam then knelt in front of Liu Ying.

"That's where you are wrong, Liu Ying," he said gently. Liu Ying looked at him questioningly. "TobuCatmon was right then…you are strong enough now, because now…you're no longer alone. You have us. You have friends now. The two of you needn't fight Lynxmon alone again. We're a team…if Lynxmon messes with one of us, he messes with ALL of us."

"Yeah! Like that old Malay adage - a banana plant won't give fruit twice!" Gayathri exclaimed spiritedly, before she thought about it once again. "Uh…in this case, it won't give fruit _thrice_. We're gonna beat him for sure this time!"

Liu Ying laughed a little. "You're right, Gayathri…Adam…thank you, you two."

Adam smiled. "Nah…it's the least we could do for you now…seeing that if we're not late, this might not have happened."

Liu Ying thought about it. She then glared at Adam and Gayathri. "Now that I think of it…that's right…if you two…"

"I have good news!" suddenly TobuCatmon announced excitedly, unintentionally interrupting Liu Ying, and to Adam and Gayathri's relief. "Labramon is healed!"

Labramon hopped down from the table, and jiggled her tail excitedly. She then darted towards her partner. Liu Ying was so relieved of having her partner cured back to health, she hugged her partner tightly.

"Ack…not too tight, Liu Ying…"

"Isn't that nice," TobuCatmon said, smiling. "Now, hang on…before you go on to chase Lynxmon, let me take a picture of you three and partners. With those uniforms, you look really like a team! I better take pictures to decorate the sanctum; the walls have been bare for years. Now where did I put that old camera?"

xxx

xxx

"Yes! Run, you puny, pitiful Digimon! Run anywhere you like, Lynxmon can easily catch on!"

Lynxmon, out of frustration of being defeated by the DigiWira, decided to vent out some steam by attacking any Digimon going past his way.

He had encountered a group of Rookie Digimon not very far from Stone Valley. They were the Elecmon, rodent type Digimon.

At first, the Elecmon had attempted to fight off Lynxmon, but the fire cat was simply too strong for them. Yet, Lynxmon did not attempt to delete them; he was merely toying with them. And the Elecmon now knew better than to fight off one that were stronger than them. They opted to run.

"Ah…a game of cat and mouse eh? Well then, I'll give you a thirty seconds head start, just to make this game more challenging! One, two, three…"

"…twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty! Ready or not, here I come!" Lynxmon turned around and scanned the whole area, which was pretty deserted. He began slinking away towards the corners of the valley, almost reaching the valley once more. "Where are you? No use hiding now…Lynxmon can easily smell you mangy rodents and he'll come to eat you off, one by one!"

Whether Lynxmon was aware or not, the Elecmon were hiding nearby, behind piles of stones that resulted from a previous battle Lynxmon had with the DigiWira. Suddenly behind them, a large shadow loomed over them. Squeaking with terror, they turned and saw a large centaur and a beautiful fairy. The fairy held her thumb in front of her mouth – the universal sign of silence – and beckoned for them to board the centaur. The Elecmon, out of fear for Lynxmon, did as they were told and quietly the centaur galloped away.

The faint noises however attracted Lynxmon's sharp senses. "AHA! Don't think you can escape Lynxmon's sharp hearings now…Ahh, it's you."

The fairy Lynxmon had encountered from a previous battle was sitting on one of the larger stone. "Yeah, it's me alright. What's the matter? Being the big bully now aren't you, picking on those smaller than you? How about we resume our previous battle, one you ran away with fear?" She laughed insultingly.

"Why you stupid wench!" Lynxmon growled. "I'll teach you a lesson!"

Lynxmon was about to leap towards Fairymon when the fairy soared towards the air and aimed an arm downward. Strong winds erupted from her hand and when she thrust another hand downward, the large stone was lifted from the ground. With a flick of both hands, the stone was blasted towards Lynxmon, crashing on him, and sending him crashing onto the stone wall.

"Whoops, did I hit too hard?" Fairymon said airily. "My bad. Maybe Sagittarimon would treat you better. Yoo-hoo, Sagittarimon!"

Lynxmon was barely able to lift his head when suddenly the earth rumbled. The flames burning on his body paled considerably upon setting sight on the fearsome-looking Sagittarimon, who was the same size as him, galloping towards him at an incredible speed. Sagittarimon thumped his front hoofs onto the earth, and two energy balls streaked towards Lynxmon like meteorites. This was Sagittarimon's Meteor Gallop attack; both energy balls slammed onto Lynxmon, throwing him towards another stone wall.

"Maybe this will teach you a lesson not to pick up on those weaker than you!" Sagittarimon said nobly. "Youkomon, it's your call!"

"What?" Lynxmon said disbelievingly, following the gazes of Sagittarimon and Fairymon up towards the peak of a stone hill.

In a mockery of how Lynxmon had sneaked up on her and her DigiWira partner earlier, it was Youkomon now who was perched on the peak of one stony hill. The shine glinted from her dark eyes was that of deep fury. Without wasting any more time, Youkomon jumped and released nine fireballs from her tails, making sure that each one would hit the target. Lynxmon rolled on the ground in pain as one fireball after another was blasted onto his head, stomach, chest, gut, butt, back and other parts. The fire on his body was disappearing at an alarming rate until he was only a red-furred lynx, sans fire. Without his fire, Lynxmon felt extremely vulnerable.

And Youkomon knew it too. "It is time to finish this once and for all. _Dragon Wheel!"_

"Ah! NOOOOOOO!"

The gigantic, burning dragon specter formed from Youkomon's deadliest attack began to coil around his body. Without his flames, there was no way for Lynxmon to cancel out the flaming attack like he did once before. He yelled in pain before his vision blurred, and slowly he felt as if his tail and limbs were detached from his body…followed by the posterior part of his body, and the anterior…before finally all that was left of Lynxmon combusted into million bits of data particles. The red dragon apparition landed on the ground and changed back into Youkomon, before she devolved back into a tired-looking Labramon.

"We did it," she whispered, as Liu Ying came running to retrieve her.

xxx

xxx

It was nearing six o'clock in the evening when Liu Ying arrived at her house. Her grandfather was sitting on a stool at the front porch, reading the newspaper while enjoying the evening's air. Upon setting sight on his granddaughter he frowned. But what worried Liu Ying even further was the fact that her mother's car, a red _Proton Wira Aeroback_, was parked in front of the gate.

"Your mother is worried about you," Grandpa Chang informed his granddaughter when she entered the gate. "She got back home at four…"

"Ying!" a shrill feminine voice suddenly called out. A woman in her early thirties appeared at the door of the house. She was a stunning woman who would have looked more beautiful if not for the fact that her face harbored premature wrinkles, resulted from her having to be the family's sole breadwinner, after the death of her husband five years before. She had coal-colored eyes and long straight hair which was dyed red, with blonde streaks. "Where have you been, young lady? I was so worried!"

Liu Ying sighed. "Mama, I'm alright. But there is something that I need to tell you. And there's somebody I want you to meet."

xxx

xxx

Back at the Digital World, two figures were flying over the remains of the battle between Lynxmon and the DigiWira. They were the ones from the night before; a lanky bird-woman called Shutumon and a short wizard in white who went by the name Sorcerymon.

"Oh bummer," Sorcerymon said as he scanned the grounds of Stone Valley. "The DigiWira really made good work out of him. I now wonder why you really want to unleash that Lynxmon to the DigiDestined when you know it would be defeated in the end."

"It's because I've run out of monsters to send off," Shutumon snapped.

"HA! At least I've thought of sending that Deltamon to ransack Green Meadow and the village near it," Sorcerymon laughed.

"You call that brilliant? You caused the DigiWira team to gain one more member!" Shutumon shot back. "As if two were not enough!"

"Oh…yeah," Sorcerymon said sullenly. He flew closer to Shutumon. "Don't you miss the old days Shutumon? Back when our master is still around? I really wish that anytime soon…the master would rise back and call us back to work for us again. Nothing could go wrong if the master's around."

"Yeah…the old days," Shutumon sighed. "Three hundred years of aimless wondering are really starting to get to me. All these peace, love, happiness…YUCK!"

Sorcerymon laughed. "Where did the glorious age of darkness go? I'd do anything to have the master calling on us anytime soon!"

"_Sorcerymon…"_

Sorcerymon stopped slightly, thinking that he had heard someone calling his name. Looking around, he didn't see anyone else other than Shutumon, so he shrugged it off as a figment of his wild imagination. "Now with these goody-two-shoes appearing…the DigiWira and their flashy partners…we're going to need the master to organize us all into his grand army."

"_Shutumon…"_

"Did you hear that?" Shutumon stopped flying abruptly.

"Hear what?" Sorcerymon asked back.

"I heard someone calling me…" Shutumon said. "The voice sounded really familiar."

"Huh? You too? I thought I was hearing things!" Sorcerymon said.

Suddenly, the air in front of the two Digimon rippled slightly before a semi-transparent image of a black skull materialized out of nowhere. The two Digimon gasped loudly upon staring into the dark hollow eyes of the skull. The skull then opened its mouth and bellowed to them,

"_Where have you two been? For three hundred years I have been waiting for you! Return to the Horror Hall at once, you two!"_

The apparition was gone as soon as it appeared, but it had delivered the message Sorcerymon and Shutumon were dying to hear.

"Do you hear that, Shutumon?" Sorcerymon asked excitedly.

"This can only mean one thing..," Shutumon said slowly. Then she grabbed her accomplice's hands and together, they shouted,

"OUR MASTER HAS RETURNED!"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

The second chapter is up, written mostly in Chang Liu Ying's point of view. I am not very familiar with how a girl like Liu Ying thinks, so I wrote her mainly from some observations I've seen in my school friends, as well as characters depicted from TV shows that suit her. Many characters are introduced in this story, many will be important in future. Anyway there are some references to Malaysia that I will have to point out here.

1. USJ Subang Jaya is considered to be one of the largest residence areas in Malaysia, connected to the town of Subang Jaya. Subang Jaya is strategically located between the state capital, Shah Alam, and Malaysia's capital – the metropolis Kuala Lumpur. Selangor is the state where Subang Jaya and Shah Alam are located; it is a state considered to be the most developed, and is situated at the west side of Peninsular Malaysia.

2. Both Perodua and Proton are companies that produce Malaysia's national cars. Perodua Kembara and Proton Wira are some of the types produced.

3. The concept of having Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri to be wearing uniforms while in the Digital World is stemmed from the fact that school goers in Malaysia are required to wear uniforms to go to school. The designs however are based on multiple sources intermixed in one.


	3. Fairymon's Vice Versa

"Here we are, Miss Gayathri," said a man with slicked-back black hair from the car's driver seat.

Gayathri looked out the window and gathered her schoolbag. "Good, no one's around. Thanks, Anding….and I thought I've told you not to call me like that?"

The driver, Anding, glanced behind and smiled. "You did, but I'm working now and it's a formality. So, will today be another day where you'll be late and I have to make yet another excuse to your parents?"

Gayathri giggled but considered her answer before replying. "I don't know for sure. We're getting called there twice already this week alone. Usually it's only once per week, sometimes even lesser than that. It's getting slightly unpredictable."

Anding winked and pointed towards her schoolbag. "It's a good thing you decide to bring _her_ along to school this time around."

"Yeah, don't want to repeat yesterday's event," Gayathri murmured and patted the schoolbag lightly. "Liu Ying looked like she wanted to have my head."

The driver chuckled. "That girl really needs to loosen up a bit."

Gayathri laughed as she observed the family driver. Anding was a young man of twenty-five, and the son of the family's cook. He had come all the way from Sabah; a Malaysian state located at the island of Borneo; with an intention to find work, but was disheartened to find that work with decent paying required at least college or university degree. A degree was something Anding did not possess as he only had secondary school qualification – the _Malaysian Certificate of Education _– which he had merely passed with credits. At the same time, Gayathri's parents were looking for someone to drive their daughter to and from school, and to drive them to work. Their cook suggested her son to them, and Anding was not in the position to be choosy. Under Mr. Nadarajah's suggestion, Anding took up the offer to be the family driver while taking some night classes at a private college with the payment he received. Upon graduating, Mr. Nadarajah had promised to secure a spot for him in his corporate telecommunications company in Putrajaya.

And as for Gayathri, the appointment of Anding one year ago as the family driver disgruntled her for a while, as she had intended to just walk or ride a bicycle to school after starting secondary school. Her parents however would have none of it as they wanted only the best for their daughter. However Gayathri had experienced enough awkwardness while in primary school; her father was quite a well-known corporate tycoon. Being sent to school by a driver during secondary school was not something Gayathri wanted _everybody_ to know.

Luckily Anding was someone easy to talk to, and hence Gayathri was able to come up with a plan. Anding's willingness to oblige with her wish was one of the reasons of their friendship, despite their age. As Gayathri was an only child, Anding was somebody she looked up close to an older brother.

"Anyway, your father said yesterday that he needs to go to work early today, so I've got to get going now," he said, breaking Gayathri's thoughts.

"Oh, ok," Gayathri snapped back into attention. "Wait, my parents…they still don't know about _this_ yet, right?"

"Which one?" Anding pretended to think, while rubbing his clean-shaven chin. "The fact that I let you walk for about one or two hundred meters to school, which they will kill me if they know about this…or that you're a heroine saving an alien world from evil monsters?" He grinned.

Anding had known about Gayathri being a DigiWira since the first day Gayathri became one, solely due to the fact that he and his mother had seen the girl with a weird 'toy' emerged from the computer monitor in the Nadarajah's household. Anding's mother had nearly fainted due to shock while he himself was profoundly dumbfounded. Gayathri had no choice but to explain, and made the two of them promise not to tell her parents. That however, was three months ago.

"Don't be silly," Gayathri laughed and swatted the man's shoulder. "If my _overprotective _parents don't even trust me to go to school on my own, I don't know what their reaction will be if they know about me being a DigiWira. They still think that Tanemon is a weird plush toy I got from Toys-R-Us."

Both of them shook their heads. "What's Tanemon doing now?" Anding asked, eyeing the schoolbag.

"Still sleeping I think," Gayathri answered and prodded her bag gently. No response. "She didn't want to come along, but after yesterday we might never know for sure when we're needed. Liu Ying's already bringing her partner to school everyday since this year's school session. And Adam…well, I don't know yet."

"Have you gotten the picture of Tanemon in her…_Fairymon_ form?" Anding inquired; a hopeful note was in his voice while a mischievous glint flashed from his coffee-brown eyes.

"No, and you'll _never_ get it," Gayathri declared with a grin. One day she had accidentally spilled out the fact that Tanemon's digivolved form was a scantily-clad fairy, and Anding had constantly asked her for a picture ever since. "And I better go now, or else you'll be late to take _Appa_ to work."

"One day I'll sneak in to that Digital World and take Fairymon's photo myself," Anding said with mock-glumness. He then shook his head and smiled. "Well, today's Friday, so I'll see you at twelve thirty then. I'll wait up right here if you're _late_." He emphasized on the word 'late' and grinned knowingly.

"Thanks, Anding, you're the best!" Gayathri said sweetly and stepped out from the silver Mercedes Benz. She walked down the street and turned right at the junction, heading straight to school. All the while she was aware of Anding keeping an eye for her from behind, just to make sure she reached to school safely. Upon reaching the school gate she waved at Liu Ying who was approaching the school gate for her prefect duty, and began looking for her two best-friends to do some chitchat before heading to their separate classes that day.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 03 – Fairymon's Vice Versa_**

xxx

xxx

In the Digital World, two Digimon were flying side by side amidst the clear sky. One, the taller of the two, was a feminine looking Digimon with lithe body and a pair of brown wings emerging from the back of her body. She was dressed in light violet armor covering just about enough to maintain some modesty, yet still very far from decent. Metallic shoulder pads adorned her shoulders. Her hair was the color of the sky, flapped freely against her face. Her companion, the shorter of the duo, was a wizardly Digimon in white attire, which included a cape, a wizard hat and a baggy jumpsuit. His pale skin merely blended with his attire, and so was his pair of wide, icy green eyes. The bird-woman was flying effortlessly, her wings flapped once in a while to propel her whenever she descended lower, but the male sorcerer seemed to be rather dependent of his glowing white staff in order to levitate, which he waved every now and then.

Having flying in silence for quite some time, one of them was eager to break it.

"So Shutumon, what have you been doing these past three hundred years?" Sorcerymon began, looking at his female accomplice.

The bird-woman was quiet, as if not hearing her friend's question. Her sparkling eyes were staring somewhere towards their front – a lush jungle with trees of blue, pink and green, but it was perfectly clear that her attention was not focused towards the jungle. She seemed to be in a deep thought.

"Hello? Digital World to Shutumon!" Sorcerymon said loudly, and waved his free hand in front of Shutumon's face.

"Huh? What were you saying?" Shutumon was instantly snapped back into attention.

Sorcerymon shook his head. "You seem to be deep in thought."

"Oh, yes…" Shutumon said slowly. "I was actually thinking of what I've been doing these past three centuries, now that the Master has summoned us back again."

A drop of sweat trailed down Sorcerymon's forehead. "Actually, that was what I was asking you just now."

"Really? So what do you want to know?"

"Any detail, after we got separated and all…anything after that final battle three hundred years ago, between the Master and….what's his name again?"

Shutumon flinched slightly. "Grademon. That was his name. My memories are rather…distorted, but I do remember about that battle, how the Master and Grademon went on to an all-out battle. We were never around after the first day, though. We were entombed with many of the Master's soldiers."

"Yeah, I remember. How did you escape your entombment?" Sorcerymon asked.

"I don't know for sure…but I did feel that after some time, that hocus pocus trick Grademon used on us somehow waned after some time. I was awake the whole time of the entombment…it was a horrible experience, to be trapped for over a century, but when I got out I had to start all over again from In-training."

"Lucky you," Sorcerymon muttered slowly. "_I_ went back to my Fresh form."

"Ugh," Shutumon said, "definitely _not_ a nice experience."

The wizard nodded grimly. "So any memorable time these past two hundred years then, since you were trapped for a hundred years plus?"

"No, not really. It was tough when I was still a Poromon, but things got easier when I became Hawkmon. For fifty years I moved back and forth between Rookie and Champion, but for the last forty years I've not once de-Digivolved. There wasn't any particularly interesting thing happened before I met you…except for this one thing. Ugh, I just _hate_ of even thinking of _her_!"

"Oh? Who's 'her'?" Sorcerymon asked interestedly.

"You've heard of her, though I don't think you've met her face to face," Shutumon said, her brows furrowed. Her teeth gritted slightly as her eyes blazed with anger. "Oh, how I _hate_ her!"

"Why? What happened?"

"Well, there was one day…about a month before we met. I was plain bored that day, before I saw a trio of airheads laughing, joking and gossiping around. They were laughing and laughing and from the tree branch where I was hanging out it just irked me a lot, so I decided to bother them…just toying around and all. I wasn't planning to do anything major that day, it's not like I'd get a challenge fighting three Rookies. They were those weak plant types…Palmon, Alraumon and Floramon…"

"So, let me guess. You trashed them good?"

Shutumon snorted. "What do you expect? But then something unexpected happened…I've had underestimated them. Somehow the Palmon and the Alraumon were strong enough to retaliate with a rather good comeback. They let out this stinking gas from the flowers on their heads before tying me up with their poison ivies. I so totally did not expect that to happen, and something even worse happened…they LEECHED out my powers!"

"I don't think I like where this is going…"

"Well, be glad that I have quick reflexes. I snapped out and hurled my Wind of Pain towards those stupid nature reptiles. However they managed to make do with the leeched energy they stole from me and combined…luckily to just a stupid Veggiemon. I was scared for a while that they'd become a Togemon or some other formidable plant Champions. And luckily too they were much too inexperienced; I beat them in just a couple of minutes. Veggiemon split back into the Rookies and were knocked out, so I chose to pursue the third plant – Floramon. It was a boring day, so I decided to give the little sucker a head start and let her run from me."

"Is this the same Floramon that's partnered with the DigiWira?"

"I'm getting to that! Anyway…that Floramon was pretty good in hiding, and it was a big jungle. Yet I took my time looking, there was no rush. I then heard her voice, with another voice I didn't recognize, though what I did know for sure was that whoever it was, it was as annoying as the reptiles, if not more. I then saw her talking from a distance, with a human girl."

"AHA! I knew it!"

Shutumon ignored Sorcerymon. "I approached them and that Floramon quickly asked the girl to take cover. All of a sudden that little runt had become brave, and attacked me with pollens! Ugh, imagine at that time I had a rude discovery that I'm actually ALLERGIC of pollens! Of all the imperfect timing; luckily I managed to blow away all the pollens but I couldn't concentrate anymore. So I decided, well, I'd get her after I'm finished with the human girl. Then…"

"Uh oh…"

"Right," Shutumon groaned. "All of a sudden something happened and the girl was holding something…a glowing pink contraption I didn't recognize. The Floramon suddenly digivolved on her own, into that…that Fairymon! Ugh! She made me _sick_… what a copycat! She was dressed almost exactly as me! Ugh!"

"Oh…well, if she's dressed like you I don't think I'd mind meeting her," Sorcerymon said grinningly.

Shutumon however didn't see the humor side of it and elbowed Sorcerymon hard on the back. This caused the sorcerer to suddenly lose his control of flying. He lurched down slightly before his magic staff glowed, and he regained balance once again.

"OUCH! Hey! Don't do that…you know I'm not as good a flyer as you! I need to concentrate!"

"Well that'll teach you not to compare me with that _wench_!" Shutumon growled fiercely.

"Wench? Boy, you really hate this Fairymon now, do you? What did she do to you; beat you in combat or something?"

Shutumon's pale face turned beet-red all of a sudden. It looked like she was mortified all of a sudden. "Well, no, not exactly. We did fight…but ugh! It seemed as if we were equals! And I've lived longer with more experience than her, and I made sure she knows that too. But do you know what her response was?"

"Not unless you tell me."

Shutumon suddenly flew closer to Sorcerymon until they were merely a couple of inches apart. "Look at my face. What did you see?"

"Uh…I can't see the lower half of your face, but really, for the last few centuries I've known you, I've never seen anybody having alluringly beautiful blue eyes like you do."

"Really? You mean it?"

Sorcerymon blushed slightly. "Yeah, I do."

Shutumon was evidently flattered. "Oh, I could kiss you…"

The wizard's eyes widened; he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't even dare blink, afraid that what he had heard was merely a dream.

His accomplice however, suddenly changed her mind. "…if you weren't so ugly." She then jetted off, laughing heartily, leaving a dumbstruck Sorcerymon behind.

"HEY! I'm not ugly!" Sorcerymon protested, and with a wave of his white staff he too, jetted forward and caught up with Shutumon. He was slightly affronted with Shutumon's comment, but his mind immediately went back to her story. "So, what was Fairymon's response to your gloating of being more powerful and older and whatever?"

Shutumon stopped laughing instantly and turned a shade of crimson once again, but this time it was out of anger instead of embarrassment. "She….she LAUGHED!"

"Huh?"

"And she called me….called me….AAAAAAAAAARGH!"

For Shutumon's sake if not his own, Sorcerymon opted to wait for Shutumon to finish her sentence.

"AAAAAARGH! I can't stand it! Let's go attack some random place! I need to blow off some steam before I face the Master!" Shutumon shouted angrily.

The bird-woman blasted away without waiting for an answer. Sorcerymon was slightly surprised with Shutumon's sudden shift of emotion.

"Hey, Shutumon! What did that Fairymon call you? Hey! Hey, wait for me!"

xxx

xxx

"How's your days so far, girls?" Gayathri asked as she took a seat in between her two best friends.

It was recess time, and as Gayathri always preferred to eat at home rather than buying food from the school canteen, she usually spent recess hanging out with Belinda Foo and Wardina Fadlullah, her two best friends who were placed in different classes than her. The three of them were friends since primary school, when during standard five they were all placed in the same class. After discovering that they were alike in many ways, yet different in some ways just enough to distinguish their individualities, they became closer, despite being separated into different classes the subsequent year when they entered standard six. It didn't really bother them that they were no longer in same classes, as they still managed to find some time to hang out together, whether it was for group study, shopping trip, gossip session or just plain hanging out.

"It's good so far," Wardina said demurely. "Still no homework yet, and I hope this will continue till the end of the day."

The quietest of the three, Wardina Fadlullah was a girl with a light complexion, brown eyes and dark shoulder-length hair which while straight, was curved slightly as it reached her shoulders. Gayathri merely grinned upon hearing Wardina's response to her question; she knew that out of the three of them, Wardina was the most hardworking. However she knew somebody who would be relieved if she was not given any homework.

"Dina, I thought you _loved_ homework?" Belinda teased. "Me, I could use with no homework today, I still have that Math homework due Monday, and it's gonna take me all night to sit down and figure all the problems out. Mrs. Kwan sure is _mean_. And Mr. Thaya seemed to be in his usual giving-lots-of-homework mode this morning; I have the third chapter for History to be read by…also Monday. Oh, darn…"

The three girls giggled, and Gayathri cast a look at the girl who was sitting on her left. Belinda Foo was the athletic one in the team, judging from her rather sun-tanned fair skin and slightly toned limbs. Her hair was styled short but that didn't make her look any less a girl. Gayathri smiled inwardly upon hearing Belinda complaint; she knew however that despite her friend's tendency to complain about homework, and her bad habit of putting things off to the last minute, her sporty friend had a knack to grasp things quickly.

"I don't exactly love homework…who does, anyway?" Wardina's reply brought Gayathri's mind back to her friends' conversations.

"Well, for starters, the teachers," Belinda said with a wide smile. "Though, they enjoy _correcting_ the homework more than actually _doing_ them."

Another round of laugh was heard from the trio of girls, which caught the attentions of the students around them. It was quite a common sight during recess to see the three pretty girls sitting together on the bench near the pavilion connecting the canteen with the school buildings. The girls were aware of attracting some attentions from the passersby, but as they didn't break any school rule, none was bothered by the attentions.

"Say, Gaya, I called you yesterday," Belinda said, drawing Gayathri's attention towards her, "but you weren't around. Your cook picked up the phone and I asked her to tell you that I called. Did she tell you that? Because you know, you didn't actually return my call."

Gayathri grimaced slightly, but was quick to hide it before any of her friends caught her expression. She was at the Digital World the day before. Neither Belinda nor Wardina knew about her being DigiWira. She was already a little exhausted after returning from the Digital World, but she did recall vaguely about her cook mentioning something about a phone call, but she wasn't paying that much attention.

"Oh…she did tell me," Gayathri answered quickly, "but I guess I forgot about it. Sorry…"

"Ah, it was nothing important really," Belinda waved it off. "I just wanted to ask you whether you're good for this Sunday. Shopping? Sunway Pyramid?"

"Hmm?" For a moment, she had no idea what her friend was talking about. Then something clicked in her mind; it was something they had planned to do since Monday. "Yeah, of course."

It didn't really take any effort from either Belinda or Wardina to notice that something was off with their friend. Gayathri wasn't a forgetful person, at least not when shopping was concerned. Something was not right.

Wardina gave her a thoughtful look. "You know Gaya…I can't help but notice that you look a little distracted…as of late," she said.

"Huh? No…not really. I had something to do yesterday, and by the time I've gotten around it I was too tired of doing anything else," Gayathri answered evasively.

"The computer club can't be _that_ demanding," Belinda pointed out. "All you need to do is sit, stare and type. Of course, if you're staring at Mr. Jackie Chan instead of the monitor, then it's a different story…" she grinned impishly, which caused Gayathri's eyes to widen.

"Bell!"

Belinda grinned again. "I always wonder why you'd want to join the computer club, out of all other clubs in school. It isn't the most popular club in the school."

"That's not exactly true," Wardina said. "I know a lot of girls signed up for the club after Mr. Chan takes over from old Mrs. Miriam as the club advisor."

To cover up for her occasional absence since the last three months, Liu Ying had advised her to tell anybody who asked, that she was taking computer lessons with the school's computer instructor. That was what she had told Belinda and Wardina, and luckily they believed her. But both of them had been teasing her about it ever since she told them about it earlier that year.

"Well, for one, I am learning how to make my own website," Gayathri said defensively, and it was true.

"Don't you have the webpage editor for that?" Wardina asked. "I saw my older brother using it while designing his anime website. It didn't look too difficult."

"Oh…I just want to know the underlying codes behind it," Gayathri quickly answered. She smiled nervously. "A new hobby of mine, other than…uh…make-ups and clothes."

Both Belinda and Wardina looked at her oddly, not utterly convinced.

"Isn't your driver studying computer science too?" Belinda asked suspiciously. Then her face lit up as she shared a knowing look with Wardina. "Oh, I know. But Gaya…he's too old for you."

"What! No!" Gayathri said in shock. "How did you come up with _that_ kind of conclusion? Seriously, Anding's like a brother."

"Really," Belinda said teasingly.

"I am _so_ not having this conversation," Gayathri said exasperatedly. She quickly scanned the whole surrounding for something else to talk about, and her eyes fell onto a tall boy with wiry hair, who was with a group of male students hanging out near the school's bookshop. She grinned devilishly. "Hey, isn't that Michael Yong? Your ex-boyfriend? You never really told us what happened between the two of you."

"Huh? Where?" Belinda was immediately distracted as she quickly followed her friend's gaze. "Oh, there he is…" she grumbled slightly. "Well, if you must know, it's because of a stupid argument really that caused the break up. But we're cool with it now; we're still friends, and…HEY! I thought we're interrogating _you_, not me. Dina, help me out here…Dina?"

When their demure friend didn't reply, both Gayathri and Belinda averted their attention towards her, and saw her looking towards a direction where another group of boys were hanging out under a big tree. The boys seemed to be deeply engrossed in a discussion, with occasional laughs were heard. Gayathri didn't recognize them save for two – her classmates Adam and Hakim, who were both leaning against the tree.

"Ahh…" Belinda said. She leaned past Gayathri towards Wardina, and poked her on the shoulder. "Looks like you're distracted yourself, Dina."

"Huh?" Wardina immediately turned to face her two friends; her fair cheeks were noticeably pinker.

"You know, I think he likes you too, Dina," Gayathri said slowly, smiling. She didn't really like using Adam as a way to escape of her friends' interrogations, but she wasn't badmouthing him, so there was no harm to it.

Wardina's cheeks became redder with the comment. "I wasn't thinking about Adam _that_ way, really."

"But you liked him now, don't you?" Belinda asked. "You saw how he was staring at you while he was in detention with Mr. Singh? Looks like the feeling is mutual…all we need to do now is to make sure that he knows you like him too, so…" Belinda didn't continue, but connected her two index fingers together with a knowing smile.

Wardina merely chose to ignore her friend's comment. "I'm just glad he has lots of friends now."

At this, the other two girls, Gayathri especially, were confused. "What do you mean?" Gayathri asked. "He does always seem to be a friendly guy to me. Laidback, warm, and very helpful…but can be a little bit gullible at times…cute guy too. It isn't strange that lots of people like to be around him."

"Out with it, girl," Belinda was more forward. She seemed excited too, as she always had a penchant for gossip. "What were you trying to say?"

Gayathri couldn't help to feel curious as well. She felt slightly guilty and hoped that Wardina didn't have anything bad to say about her fellow DigiWira, as she enjoyed having Adam as a friend and one of the DigiWira.

"I don't know whether you two remember, but Adam was my classmate last year," Wardina began. "He came in around July."

"I remember," Gayathri said, recalling Adam mentioning once that he was from Form One Gamma, the same class Wardina was in.

"Back then he was…well, rather withdrawn. Aloof too. I sometimes saw him having faraway looks while in class."

"Maybe he just missed his old friends back then," Gayathri said. "Transferring can do that to you."

"Yes, but…Adam was different. I mean, he was perfectly civil and all but unless talked to, he usually would stay silent and preferred to watch everybody in class. Everyone thought he was…well, a little weird. He didn't laugh at any jokes anybody made in class. It was hard actually to know what he was thinking back then, his face was always neutral. Nobody really knew whether he was happy or sad, he was always…well…_unnaturally _calm."

"Unnaturally calm?" Gayathri repeated. In her mind, she couldn't picture the slightly impulsive leader of the DigiWira team to fit the description. Liu Ying was the levelheaded one in the team, but even she didn't fit the bill of being unnaturally calm. Calm, usually yes. Unnaturally, no…the most senior member of the DigiWira had quite a temper too.

Wardina glanced towards Adam and his group of friends once again, and saw the boy laughing heartily.

"Back then, we didn't even know he was capable of laughing…at least until Hakim from Form One Delta approached him during one of our shared Islamic Studies class. It had been more than a month after Adam first came in, and somehow the two became fast friends. Since then however, Adam became friendlier to others…almost like how he is now. I think almost everyone had forgotten about the old him…it was like two different persons sharing the same body." She stopped after noticing Adam was looking at her for the briefest of moment before resuming his conversation with his friends. The girls could hear some teasing being directed towards Adam.

"You really paid him that much attention," Belinda said finally.

"He wasn't really that hard to notice," Wardina replied evenly.

"Oooh...someone's had her eyes on Adam..."

"It wasn't like that!" Wardina replied hastily. "He was sitting at the same row with me, but beside the window, while I was in the middle of the class. Nobody sat beside him that time and I could see him quite clearly…" Wardina's words trailed off when she finally noticed that she had revealed too much, and blushed again.

Gayathri shook her head, and made a mental note to start observing Adam for any 'unnatural' behavior from now on. She doubted she would find any though; for the last one and a half months she had been classmates with Adam, and ever since Monday when Adam first became a DigiWira, Gayathri never recalled any strange behavior displayed by the boy.

"Maybe he just felt a little bit lonely. He wasn't from a town, as far as I know. He came from the east coast; perhaps he just didn't know how to fit in that time. When Hakim befriended him, it opened a chance for Adam to start getting to know more people around here," Gayathri explained.

Wardina nodded, but didn't comment on Gayathri's opinion.

"That explains his brooding demeanor," Belinda nodded, seemingly satisfied. "But now, I'll show you two a real dark and brooding guy. You see over there?"

Belinda's eyes were fixed at the fountain near the school gate. An empty bench was there, occupied by a lone figure. He was a tall, broad-shouldered teen with messy dark blond hair. The girls recognized the hair anywhere; only one student in their school possessed such unique, yet _authentic,_ hair-color.

"J.D. Kamaruzzaman?" Gayathri inquired wryly. "What about him?"

"Don't you think that he's a hunk?" Belinda asked Gayathri and Wardina excitedly.

"Given his reputation, no," Gayathri said resoundingly. "A bad boy isn't really in my list of hunks."

"Well, to be fair, he is handsome," Wardina commented neutrally. "Not my type as well…but I have to admit that Belinda's right. The benefits of being a mixed-blood, I suppose."

"Of course he's not your type, not when you're in love with Adam," Belinda said, causing Wardina to frown. The short-haired girl then let out a sigh. "If only he's not a troublemaker, I might just march straight to him and ask him out."

"Sounds like someone else is in love," Gayathri commented dryly. "I know Valentine Day is approaching, but J.D.? Come on, you're better off with Michael."

"Hmm, maybe you're right," Belinda said grudgingly. "Hey, speaking about in love…at least I've dated someone, Dina's having a crush on Adam, if not in love, but what about you?"

Before Gayathri could reply, the bell rang loudly, signaling the end of their twenty-minute recess. Dissatisfied groans were heard everywhere as people began to clear out from the canteen and pavilion, walking as slowly as they could towards their classes to resume their study for the rest of the morning.

Gayathri smiled. "I guess I'm still looking around. See you later, girls."

xxx

xxx

School ended about half an hour earlier than the other days on Friday, which caused Gayathri to shake her head in relief as the Malaysian Language teacher reminded them of exercises that needed to be done for the weekend. It was only the last week of January and already they were given workloads that befitted the students of Form Three. The curly-haired girl sighed as she marked the pages on her Malaysian Language workbook idly with a pencil.

"An essay, a summary, a comprehension exercise and a grammar exercise altogether?" Gayathri groaned. "This is pure _torture_."

"Tell me about it," a familiar voice replied from in front of her. Gayathri looked up at Adam, who turned back to face her. He was smiling. "But look on the bright side – it's Friday. We'll have two free days tomorrow."

"Don't tell me that you've forgotten about tomorrow, Adam," the boy sitting beside Adam said. "This Saturday, a.k.a. TOMORROW, is the day we register our names in the club, society and uniformed unit society."

"Oh….yeah," Adam said, looking at Gayathri as to avoid Hakim from seeing his eyes.

To the girl, it was clear as glass that Adam had entirely forgotten about it. And she couldn't exactly blame him – it had been an exciting week for Adam, as well as to her and Liu Ying as well.

What Hakim didn't know about his best friend was Adam, along with Liu Ying and Gayathri, were DigiWira – chosen children partnered with Digimon to protect the Digital World from evil Digimon. Gayathri grimaced inwardly of the term _chosen children_; she and Adam were both turning fourteen. Liu Ying was fourteen turning fifteen. The term hardly fitted them now. According to Liu Ying, some of the chosen children from other parts of the world were referred as _DigiDestined_, a term she preferred instead of chosen children. But she still liked their designation best – the _DigiWira_ – as it had an authentic Malaysian feel in it.

All the while, after the recess, Gayathri did ponder upon Wardina's recollections of the previous year's Adam, and could not see that in the present day Adam that was sitting in front of her. She then decided not to dwell on it anymore.

"So what club, society and uniformed unit society will you be joining, Adam?" she asked casually. "Hakim?" she added, as an afterthought.

"Oh, I'm planning to continue with St. John Ambulance, badminton club and…uh, I'm planning to drop Science and Math club this year, I'm thinking of joining another club," Adam said promptly.

"Great! Then you can join Arts club with me," Hakim suggested.

"And have Mrs. Lucy Tan more than once a week? No thanks, I'll pass," Adam replied with a shudder.

"Why? She's not bad," Hakim defended the teacher, but really had to smile upon his friend's reaction. Adam was not alone; more than half of the class disliked the no-nonsense Mrs. Lucy Tan, who was the head teacher for Arts in their school.

"Not bad? Did she promise to give you As in all Arts assignment this year in exchange of promoting her name and club?" Gayathri teased.

"Well, if you join the club then you'll improve, and you'll get As in her assignments too," Hakim shot back with a smile.

"She teaches Arts like it's a PMR subject," Adam pointed out glumly. He shook his head slowly. "I just don't see the point. Sure I can draw, color and everything, but to learn them all in detail, thanks but _no_ thanks."

"I have a suggestion," Gayathri said, shooting a direct look into Adam's gray eyes. "Why don't you join the computer club? _I'm joining_."

"Now that's a good idea," Adam nodded, looking back at her, his eyes seemed to recognize Gayathri's attempt. "I'll think about it. Besides, Mr. Jackie Chan is one of the nicest teachers around. Anyway, do you think Mr. Chan would be able to teach us how to make websites? I've always wanted to make my own homepage."

"Oh, I'm sure that could be arranged," Gayathri said. "Oh, _Liu Ying_ will be joining the computer club too," she added as an afterthought, and bore a brief gaze onto Adam's grey orbs.

It was evident that Adam thought that Gayathri had stressed on Liu Ying's name the same way she had done before. Something was up. He raised an eyebrow but Gayathri avoided locking gaze with him, busying herself by packing away her books and stashing all her stationeries inside her pink pencil case. She pulled out a small piece of pink paper and scribbling something on it urgently.

"Adam. We should be going," Hakim said suddenly. "It's 12.45 already…Friday prayer's going to start at 1.30 and I need to get something to eat first."

"Ok, ok, I'm coming," Adam said. When Hakim turned away from them to gather his belongings, Gayathri immediately stashed the small piece of paper into Adam's palm.

"Later," she said. She then got up and bid both boys goodbye before exiting the room. "Bye, you two. See you guys tomorrow." She stalled slightly at the door to make sure of something.

Gayathri saw Adam opening the small paper, as Hakim was still packing up. A brief sentence was compressed in it, written by Gayathri's slightly round-curved handwriting.

_Adam, join the Computer Club. Mr. Jackie Chan knows about **US**_.

A knowing look dawned on Adam's face, as if confirming his suspicion, and that was all Gayathri needed to make sure before she left.

xxx

xxx

"So, did you manage to get Adam to join the Computer Club?" Liu Ying asked Gayathri when the latter met up with her in the computer classroom.

"I know I've convinced him," Gayathri said with a smile. "At least, it's a lot better than the Arts club his friend is trying to persuade him to join tomorrow."

"Excellent," Jackie said as he leaned back against the back of the wooden chair he was sitting on. "You know the plan for tomorrow, right? I'd like for the three of you to stay back after our club's meeting, so that we can go on towards the _real_ meeting. I want to meet your new teammate and tomorrow is perfect."

"So does this mean that we'll be having our meeting every week, even on first and third Saturdays?" Gayathri asked, sounding somewhat worried.

"No, why?" the computer instructor asked, fixing his blue eyes towards the brown-skinned girl.

"Oh, nothing really," Gayathri said in relief. "I was scared for once, that I'd miss my weekly shopping trip with Bel and Dina."

Liu Ying snorted. "Don't tell me that you think _shopping_ is more important than our job."

"No, I like saving the Digital World as much as you do, but I like shopping too," Gayathri countered back.

Jackie Chan could only shook his head; this bantering between Liu Ying and Gayathri had become quite a normalcy with every meeting they had since the school year started, and during the last two months before the previous school year end holidays. It couldn't be avoided as they were almost the exact opposite of each other – Liu Ying the more proper and stickler to the rules, while Gayathri the carefree and fun-loving of the duo. Despite that, he knew that the two had made an excellent duo. He could only wonder now how did they perform as a trio as his eyes trailed down to watch Shaomon and Tanemon munching some chocolates noisily at the corner of the empty computer classroom, perfectly hidden by one of the tables should anybody walked in the classroom without warning.

"Jackie, did you find out about the device I gave you yesterday?" Liu Ying asked abruptly, not wanting to prolong the 'friendly' bantering with her fellow DigiWira teammate. While in public, the DigiWira would address the computer teacher as Mr. Chan, but between the three of them he insisted to be called as only Jackie, with unexplained reason.

"Oh, yeah, I did," Jackie said, and took out a PDA-like device from a drawer of the table he was sitting at. It was white with yellow lining – similar to the colors of Liu Ying's D3 Digivice. "I've managed to contact one Koushirou Izumi from Japan, _Izzy_ as he prefers – one of the first eight DigiDestined – and he told me that their successors too have the same device. This device is what they call a D-Terminal, used as a means of communication between the DigiDestined, and usually comes with the D3 Digivices."

"If it comes with the Digivice, then why we only got ours yesterday?" Gayathri inquired.

"Good question," Liu Ying nodded.

Jackie shrugged. "I have no idea, girls. But there's another function of the D-Terminal which I'd like to demonstrate now. Liu Ying, your Yellow DigiSphere, if you please?"

The girl complied. Jackie then placed the Yellow DigiSphere on one palm and the D-Terminal in the other. He then pressed a button on the D-Terminal, which lit the device up. The Yellow DigiSphere glowed brightly before the D-Terminal screen let out a stream of yellow light, absorbing the Yellow DigiSphere inside of it the same way how the DigiWira were pulled into their computer monitors.

"Hey!" Liu Ying exclaimed in shock. "What's just happened?"

"Relax, it's just as I have thought," Jackie nodded with a smile. "The D-Terminals also serve as a storage device. The younger DigiDestined of Japan use them to store their Crest DigiEggs; you can store your DigiSpheres. It's a lot better and more practical than carrying your DigiSpheres by yourself. Take a look."

Liu Ying took her D-Terminal and saw a digitized display of her Yellow DigiSphere on the screen, with some wordings below.

xx

_DigiWira: Chang Liu Ying_

_DigiSphere: Yellow – Earth, Magical_

_Digimon Partner: Shaomon (In-training) / Labramon (Rookie) / Youkomon (Champion)_

xx

"Wow," Liu Ying said. "Earth and magical? What are those?"

Nobody had the answer. "Maybe your mentor in the Digital World would know," Jackie suggested.

Liu Ying nodded. "Yeah, TobuCatmon would know. I'll ask him the next time I'll meet him."

Gayathri immediately took out her Pink DigiSphere and her own D-Terminal, which was white with pink lining. She did the same thing Jackie did with Liu Ying's DigiSphere. After the Pink DigiSphere was absorbed in by the D-Terminal she peered at the screen to see the information the device produced.

xx

_DigiWira: Gayathri Nadarajah_

_DigiSphere: Pink – Nature, Wind_

_Digimon Partner: Tanemon (In-training) / Floramon (Rookie) / Fairymon (Champion)_

xx

"Nature and wind…I can see what these mean," Gayathri murmured.

"You can?" Liu Ying asked, barely concealing her skeptic tone.

"_Yes_, I can," Gayathri said, not affronted with Liu Ying's cynicism at all. "Tanemon and Floramon are plant types, which in my opinion is rather similar to nature types, while Fairymon is…well, she possesses wind-based attacks so she must be a wind type."

Liu Ying thought about it and nodded. She was surprised too, but decided to hide her surprise lest Gayathri _would_ take it to heart. "You know, that sounds logical. But where does this put Shaomon, Labramon and Youkomon? Earth is fine, but magical?"

"As far as I know, Youkomon is a bewitching beast Digimon," Shaomon quipped, looking up from her half-eaten chocolate bar. "Bewitching, magical, they are the same thing, are they not?"

"There you go," Gayathri said with a smile. "But it might be better if we ask TobuCatmon for more details; he must know more of this. I wonder what Adam's White DigiSphere is referring to?"

"We'll ask Adam when we meet him tomorrow," Liu Ying decided. "Besides he needs to know about the D-Terminal too."

"Right," Gayathri agreed. "So, if there's nothing else I think I'll take my leave now…"

Suddenly both girls' Digivices beeped. The two Digimon stiffened, alerted by the sound of the Digivices. The DigiWira looked at each other wryly.

"Looks like you've spoken too soon," Liu Ying said grimly. "We're needed. Let's go."

"Wait. What about Adam? He's still at the mosque," Gayathri reminded the other DigiWira.

"After he's finished, he'll join us. I think he will notice his Digivice beeping as well."

"Ok. But just to be safe I'm going to try the messaging function the D-Terminal has. I know he brings his Digivice, D-Terminal and Patamon today, his bag did look kind of bulky today."

"One computer ready, girls," Jackie announced and stood up. He inched his chair aside and beckoned for the DigiWira to come towards the computer.

As Gayathri began tinkering with her D-Terminal, Liu Ying collected both Shaomon and Tanemon and placed them in front of the monitor.

"Gayathri, I'm opening the Digiport now. Better hurry with the message."

"Ok…and…send," Gayathri said. "Alright, I'm done! Let's go."

"DIGIPORT OPEN!"

xxx

xxx

As soon as the two DigiWira disappeared from the computer room, Jackie pulled his chair back in front of the monitor. The Digiport had closed; he knew it would be reopened again from the other side – the Digital World. The window that housed the Digiport portal however remained on the desktop, so Jackie minimized it while opening another program. He loaded a sophisticated graphic software and clicked one of the saved files after it prompted him to select a file.

Instantly, a file with three set of digitally-drawn outfits appeared on the computer screen. All three were mainly dark grey, and two were feminine looking while the other one was clearly masculine. The linings of the outfits were yellow, pink and white respectively.

"Looks like they won't need the DigiSphere pouches anymore," Jackie murmured slowly, and using his electronic mouse he clicked on the eraser icon. "So let's erase them."

Humming to the indistinctive song played by the computer's music player, Jackie began altering the outfits carefully.

"I wonder whether they like the outfits I've created for them?" he said to himself as he re-colored the erased parts of the outfits. "Nobody said anything….I guess they're ok with the outfits."

After a minute, Jackie leaned back towards the chair and looked at the drawn outfits admiringly.

"Hmm…should I add the national flag on the left part of their chest?"

Jackie opened another file and the Malaysian flag appeared on the screen. The flag then was copied and pasted on the file containing the outfits. Jackie then minimized the size of the flag until it fitted perfectly on the male outfit, on the left chest side. He leaned back and took another look, and frowned.

"Nah, too many striking colors," he said, and deleted the flag before saving the file. "It's not like they're delegates from this country to another world or something."

xxx

xxx

TobuCatmon waited patiently beside the TV set he had within the Forest Sanctum. He was perched on top of a beige stone table, where the TV was, its screen turned towards the side of the table. Beside the table and on the floor, an Agumon was accompanying him. This was the Agumon who served as TobuCatmon's messenger…and the little orange tyrannosaurus rex was evidently nervous.

The TV glowed and let out a flash of light, forcing Agumon to close his eyes, while TobuCatmon was relatively unfazed. When the light disappeared, two out of three DigiWira appeared along with their partner Digimon, standing beside the stone table. The two girls were clad in their uniforms.

"Not this uniform again," Liu Ying muttered.

"What's wrong with it?" Gayathri asked her friend in wonder. She made a turn as she inspected her uniform. "I think they look rather _chic_."

"Welcome, Digi…girls. Where's Adam?" TobuCatmon inquired, realizing that the team was one DigiWira short.

"Oh, he has something he needs to care of. He'll come later," Gayathri said. "What's the problem, TobuCatmon?"

"I'll let Agumon speak," TobuCatmon beckoned towards the orange T-rex.

The two girls instantly fixed their attentions towards the small dinosaur Digimon. Agumon's green eyes were watery; there was no doubt that he was distraught.

"It's…it's my village," Agumon said sadly. A trickle of tear escaped his eyes, and as he attempted to rub it, his claws accidentally scratched his scales below the eyes instead. Agumon groaned slightly and looked up. "I was going back there for a visit, but from a far I saw chaos. A violent tornado has somehow erupted there, but the weather was fine before. I saw some parts of the villages being blown away by the tornado. I...I got scared and ran all my way back here."

"We suspect foul play," TobuCatmon added. "That was not just a tornado. The weather was perfectly fine before. Someone caused it." He turned a knowing glance towards Gayathri and Floramon. "Someone with powers like Fairymon has," he concluded grimly.

"Sounds very familiar," Gayathri said suspiciously. "What do you think Floramon?"

"It sounds like _her _alright," the Rookie Digimon replied back, her eyes narrowed. "We better go and see. Where's your village, Agumon?"

"It's up north from here, over the rock quarry, about an hour from here by foot."

"Well, I know a way to make the journey quicker," Liu Ying said, whipping out her Digivice from her belt. She noticed something was slightly different with a belt; something was missing, but decided that it was not that important. She turned to Gayathri. "Youkomon can get us all there in no time flat. TobuCatmon, if Adam and Patamon are here, send them to help us as well."

TobuCatmon nodded. "I'll be sure to inform them. Good luck, girls."

xxx

xxx

Once outside the forest, the two DigiWira used their Digivices to make their rookie partners advanced into their Champion forms. Fairymon took to the sky, while both Liu Ying and Gayathri rode on Youkomon. Fairymon flew up high, trying to find the location of Agumon's village. With her affinity to the wind, the fairy could feel something that was not right coming from a direction. There was a faint smell of smoke coming from the north. Trusting the winds and her instinct, she beckoned for Youkomon to follow her.

Youkomon took several strides quicker with one leap, while Fairymon glided the sky with ease. Within fifteen minutes they saw the rock quarry Agumon had mentioned. The smokes coming out from somewhere behind the quarry only served to confirm that this was indeed the place they needed to be. Fairymon descended down while Youkomon turned around a corner to drop the two DigiWira before proceeding to seek out the enemy.

Fairymon followed the direction where the smoke came from, and to her horror she saw a ravaged village. Huts and various vegetations were burnt, and many Digimon were knocked out and injured. Bodies of unconscious Rookies were everywhere; the assailant had only been kind enough not to delete them. But judging from their injuries, kindness was the last thing that came into Fairymon's mind.

"A tornado couldn't cause this," Fairymon muttered as the tip of her right foot descended onto the rocky ground. Beneath her visor, her eyes were trying to detect any sign of somebody who could tell her what had exactly happened there.

Suddenly, a gust of wind originated from Fairymon's back, causing her to shiver slightly. There was a rather familiar, yet unwelcome tingling sensation that seemed to radiate from the gust of wind, which made her turn around to look at it. To her shock, she saw a pair of Digimon. A wizard in white, and a bird-woman.

"_You_," Fairymon said venomously. "I knew that you're behind this."

Shutumon had an amused look reflected on her exposed upper part of face. Her blue eyes twinkled in mirth as she crossed her slender arms against her chest.

"So we meet again, Fairymon."

"Whoa! This is Fairymon?" the wizard exclaimed, ogling at Fairymon. "What a knock-out! But of course, you're more gorgeous Shutumon, honest."

"Glad to hear that Sorcerymon…now back off. Things are going to get _nasty_ around here," Shutumon said coolly, narrowing her eyes in disgust towards her companion. She then directed her cool gaze towards Fairymon. "Where's your pretty human friend, Fairymon? _Little girls_ shouldn't walk in a battle site alone."

"Neither should _grandmas_," Fairymon retorted with a smirk.

A vein threatened to burst in the middle of Shutumon's forehead. Her cheeks became an ugly shade of maroon. Without warning, Shutumon let out an angry snarl and zipped with top speed towards Fairymon, before…

**SMACK!**

Shutumon had slapped Fairymon, leaving a faint, but visible palm mark on Fairymon's left cheek. Fairymon yelled in pain and was thrown several steps behind. She almost fell onto the ground if it weren't for her sense of balance to keep herself upright. Her butterfly wings flapped in order to push her back onto her feet. Her left cheek was burning, Fairymon let out an angry shriek as she streaked towards Shutumon, and…

_SMACK! SMACK!_

"AAARGH!" Shutumon screamed, having been slapped twice by Fairymon. It was a wonder how did she manage to keep herself standing. Both her cheeks were numb.

"You'll pay for that! _Wind of Pain!_" Shutumon screeched in fury, and unleashed a violent purple tornado with blade projectiles towards Fairymon.

Fairymon however wasn't going to let Shutumon attack her without brandishing her own attack. _"Hurricane Wind!"_

Pink and purple tornadoes clashed with each other and threw both female Digimon away from each other. Fairymon knocked over Sorcerymon and both fell onto the ground, with Fairymon falling on top of Sorcerymon, while Shutumon managed to regain her poise just before she crashed onto the rocky wall. Somehow, Fairymon had accidentally knocked Sorcerymon unconscious.

"Heh! It's plain obvious here of who's the stronger one between us!" Shutumon declared. She saw Fairymon trying to disentangle herself from Sorcerymon, who wasn't making any effort to make it easier for Fairymon to stand up. "Oh, what's the matter Fairymon? Do you actually happen to enjoy your position with Sorcerymon to not continue our battle, or is it just your butt getting heavier and bigger for you to lift up?"

Fairymon snorted in disgust as she finally managed to stand up after slapping away Sorcerymon, who had become blissfully unaware of his surrounding. "Honey, at least my butt isn't as big as your head!"

Shutumon's face colored a little. "I do NOT have a big head!"

"You SO have a big head!" Fairymon deadpanned with a smirk, and to make her point she made a gesture with her hands, indicating Shutumon's head being inflated to an impossible size.

"Why you insolent little _insect_!"

**SMACK! **

_SMACK! _

**SMACK!**

_SMACK!_

When Youkomon arrived with the two girls, they were astounded upon seeing an extremely vicious catfight happening between Fairymon and Shutumon. They were slapping each other continuously that their cheeks were terribly swollen. In between all the slaps, they had also managed to deliver kicks, punches and scratches onto each other. Over the corner was an out cold Digimon in white whom neither DigiWira recognized; he seemed to be caught in the middle of the fight. Fairymon's visor was thrown off in the middle of the battle, and in retaliation Fairymon pulled out Shutumon's mouth covering…and doubled over in mid-air, laughing heartily.

"Oh dear! Your face is _defective_!" Fairymon said loudly after her laughs subsided.

Spread across Shutumon's lower face was a scar, shaped in a thin line just above her lips. It contrasted starkly with Shutumon's complexion.

"A scar like this suggests more battle experience, _sister_!" Shutumon shot back with all the dignity she could muster. "Which you so obviously LACK!"

"That's because you're the old one around here, _granny_!" Fairymon retorted. "And I've still got a lot to learn, because I am so YOUNG!"

"Why you! I'll show you how much I've learned these few centuries! Oh, on a second thought…shall I let my _junior_ start?"

"Don't bother. I've always believed in the saying: _Age before Beauty_. Bring it on, birdbrain!"

**SMACK! **

_SMACK! _

**SMACK!**

_SMACK!_

"Oh dear…" Gayathri muttered, pressing her temples in frustration. She was standing beside Youkomon. "I was afraid that this would happen."

"Now I'm glad Adam isn't around," Liu Ying muttered as she dismounted her partner. "This is embarrassing. What would he think…"

"Shhh. Listen," Gayathri interrupted her friend. The earth was slightly rumbling and there was an approaching galloping sound, signing the arrival of one and only…

"Hey guys! I came as soon as I can!" yelled a very familiar teenage male's voice, as Sagittarimon appeared from the corner of the rock quarry.

Gayathri gave a dry laugh and turned to Liu Ying. "You were saying?"

Adam got down from Sagittarimon as soon as the mighty centaur halted beside Youkomon. He approached his fellow DigiWira breathlessly and had to stop for a while to gather his breathing. It was pretty evident that the boy had been doing some running prior in reaching there. He then noticed the tensed looks on Gayathri and Liu Ying.

"Liu Ying, Gayathri…what's the matter?" He then saw Youkomon, usually calm and poised, was also looking somewhat embarrassed. "Youkomon, aren't you supposed to…uh…help Fairymon?"

"No. Way," Youkomon said slowly, emphasizing every point. She shuddered. "I am not going to interfere with THAT!"

"Huh? Why?"

Youkomon gestured with her head upwards and sideways. Adam looked towards the direction the blue-furred fox had indicated, and his eyes widened instantly.

"Oh…"

**SMACK!**

_SMACK!_

Seeing Adam's eyes transfixed onto the two feminine Digimon's catfight unnerved the two DigiWira girls.

"Oh…so _that's_ how women fight…they slap their faces off," he said, struggling to keep pace with the fight. "Wow…you can never see this on TV."

He didn't notice that behind his back, both Liu Ying and Gayathri were positively scowling at his somewhat gullible remarks.

**SMACK!**

_SMACK!_

"_Wind of PAIN!"_

"_Hurricane WIND!"_

**SMACK!**

_SMACK!_

"_Gilgamesh SLICER!"_

"_Tempest TWIST!"_

**SMACK!**

_SMACK!_

"Alright, this has gone far enough," Liu Ying snapped. "We need to end this. Youkomon, go and help Fairymon."

"Uh…you too Sagittarimon," Adam said hesitantly after Liu Ying and Gayathri both glared at him.

Youkomon and Sagittarimon took their positions, deciding that it was best to deliver their ranged attacks in order not to get close with the two fighting Digimon.

"_Fox Tail Inferno!"_

"_Judgment Arrow!"_

The arrow of lightning, surrounded by nine crimson fireballs, streaked the air with a distinct buzzing sound. Fairymon saw the incoming attacks and quickly avoided them by making a very agile back-flip. Shutumon however had no time to evade and decided to protect herself by attacking as well.

"_Wind of Pain!"_

She released a violent tornado of purple energy with blade projectiles swirling inside the tornado. Instantly the fireballs and the lightning arrow were deviated from their intended course, hitting instead the rocks surrounding them all with a loud explosion. Shutumon immediately backtracked towards Sorcerymon and slung an arm around the unconscious wizard's shoulder. She flapped her wings and glided over the chaotic atmosphere, occasionally using the falling quarry rocks as stepping stones to gain momentum. She was outnumbered and it was unwise to continue fighting. However, she was intent on giving the last words.

"Enjoy your victory today, DigiWira…because it will be your last! Our Master has returned, so you better watch your backs!"

Shutumon then flew away, leaving an echo of her shrill laughter behind as a way to irk a particular someone.

"Darn it! That's the _second_ time she got away!" Fairymon yelled angrily. "Come back here you witch with a capital 'B'!"

"Fairymon!" Gayathri admonished. "What's gotten into you today? You _never_ swear."

"And I didn't," Fairymon grumbled as she flew towards Gayathri. For the first time, she wasn't wearing her visor, and everybody could see that her eyes were a stunning light violet. She then glimmered and devolved back into a battered looking Floramon. "It was merely hinted; I didn't exactly swear."

Gayathri shook her head and knelt down to inspect her partner. "Looks like it's to TobuCatmon with you, you're a mess."

"Hey, Gayathri," Adam said. "What's the deal between Fairymon and that other…uh…girl-mon?"

"As far as I know it all started since day one of me becoming a DigiWira. In fact, my arrival to the Digital World was what initiated the bitter enmity between Shutumon and Fairymon."

"Don't say that, Gayathri," Floramon said quickly. "That crazy Shutumon was disturbing me and my friends even before I met you. She bullied my friends simply because she was bored, then she decided to go after me. If it weren't for you, I might already get deleted. You made me Digivolve, and better still, you made me _win_ against a three-hundred-years old bitter grandma."

"Grandma?" Adam asked, confused.

"She can't help being catty towards Shutumon," Gayathri explained. "It's rather pointless."

"But it feels good!" Floramon exclaimed with a wide smile. Gayathri shook her head in amusement and patted the flower-reptile's head affectionately.

Liu Ying then cleared her throat. "Did you catch what Shutumon said right before she took off?"

"Yeah…she said that her master has returned," Adam said slowly. "Wonder what she meant by that. Do you two know about this master?"

"That's the thing, Adam," Liu Ying said worriedly. "All these while…all the six months I've spent being a DigiWira, I've never known of any master."

"TobuCatmon will know about it, I'm sure," Youkomon suggested. "Maybe we should return to Forest Sanctum now."

"Uh…just a sec," Adam said nervously. Liu Ying and Gayathri looked at him questioningly. "There's something weird happened just before I came here. I was fumbling with the computer back home, and I held my DigiSphere and the strange device we got with our uniform yesterday….when suddenly the device _ate_ my DigiSphere! No, I'm not joking…."

"Adam, can you give me your D-Terminal for a while?" Gayathri asked with a smile.

"A what? Oh, you mean the device?" Adam took out the D-Terminal from his pouch, and his was a very pale blue D-Terminal with white-grey lining.

Gayathri took the D-Terminal and flipped it open. "Ah, I see you don't even realize that I've sent you a message?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, never mind. I'll explain it to you later." Gayathri then pressed a button and showed Adam what was displayed on the screen display.

"Hey, that's my DigiSphere in there!" the boy exclaimed in surprise.

Gayathri and Liu Ying both peered over Adam's D-Terminal, wanting to know the information that came with the White DigiSphere.

xx

_DigiWira: Adam Ariff_

_DigiSphere: White – Light_

_Digimon Partner: Patamon (Rookie) / Centarumon (Champion) / Sagittarimon (Armored Champion)_

xx

"Hey, Sagittarimon doesn't have an In-training form like our Digimon," Gayathri commented. "Why's that?"

"And his DigiSphere only refers to one thing instead of two, like ours," Liu Ying pointed out.

Adam looked positively puzzled by Liu Ying's statement, but nodded slowly towards Gayathri's question.

"I've asked Patamon actually last night about the reason he retains his Rookie form while in our world," Adam began. "It's because he's already a Champion when I first met him. Going to our world weaken our partners slightly; hence they would usually revert into their previous stages to conserve energy."

"That sounds plausible," Liu Ying nodded. "Our partners were both Rookies when we first met them; hence they become In-trainings whenever they are with us in our world."

"About the second question however, I have no clue what you two are talking about," Adam admitted.

"It states here that Sagittarimon is an Armored Champion, while Centarumon is a Champion," Gayathri said. "What's an Armored Champion?"

"I can answer that," Sagittarimon offered, turning everyone's attention towards him. "Armored Champions, or usually referred as Armors or Armor-level Digimon, are Digimon with powers equivalent to a normal Champion Digimon, but as hinted by the name, they have relatively higher defense and endurance. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Armored Champion are stronger than normal Champions – usually they just have better defense, which makes them harder to beat. Lynxmon of yesterday was a good example."

"And you?" Adam asked smilingly. "You're an Armored Champion too. I wonder why the White DigiSphere just changed you from Centarumon to your current form instead of making you go one level higher…if it exists."

"That I don't know for certain, Adam," Sagittarimon answered truthfully, "but I do have a theory. You see, I was made leader of Green Meadow Village when the original leader, a Centarumon, passed away due to extreme old age and an incurable disease – yes, don't be surprised, Digimon can die too, although most of the times they will be reconfigured. I inherited some of the late Centarumon's power and prematurely Digivolved into one as well. I believe the White DigiSphere merely added its power to maturely Digivolve me into Sagittarimon, which I consider as my _true_ Champion form. Digivolving into a level past Champion is possible as well, but I consider myself still not up to scratch to achieve it. Digivolving into Ultimate requires extremely high level of experience, power and endurance, not many Digimon have the privilege to achieve their Ultimate, which for Digimon, is considered a level of _perfection_."

The three DigiWira, as well as Floramon and Youkomon, were amazed of Sagittarimon's knowledge.

"Do tell me, Sagittarimon; how long have you lived before being partnered with Adam?" Youkomon inquired. "Your knowledge is sound."

"I'm not certain – I do know that I am more than fifteen years of age," Sagittarimon said thoughtfully, "because I've led Green Meadow Village for fifteen years prior in meeting Adam."

"Whoa! You're even older than _me_!" Adam gasped.

"Fifteen? I'm only _three_!" Floramon yelped in surprise. Gayathri rolled her eyes.

"And I am…eight," Youkomon admitted begrudgingly.

"Age doesn't matter," Sagittarimon said consolingly. "What does matter now is that we work together as one, now that we know an evil master has returned."

"Spoken like a true leader," Adam said proudly, grinning. His grin then faltered. "As for me, I still have a lot to learn. Once in a while I really think Liu Ying should be made leader instead of me."

Liu Ying shook her head. "My grandfather once said that life is about learning. And TobuCatmon has told Gayathri and I, back when you weren't a DigiWira, that the one chosen by the White DigiSphere as its wielder will lead the team. If you don't feel like you can lead…then _learn_ from your partner."

"….Okay," Adam said slowly as he thought of Liu Ying's suggestion. "You're right. So…now, I propose we return to Forest Sanctum, to ask TobuCatmon about this…'master'."

Gayathri giggled, and Liu Ying shook her head. Adam looked at them questioningly with a credulous expression, wondering what he did wrong.

"In time, you'll get the hang of it," Liu Ying assured the male DigiWira. "Now, come on, let's go."

xxx

xxx

"The master?" TobuCatmon questioned. "Didn't Shutumon refer to this 'master' in name?"

As soon as they arrived at the Forest Sanctum, the DigiWira, Gayathri mainly, recounted to TobuCatmon about their recent battle. They managed to ease Agumon's despair, saying that many villagers were found unconscious and injured instead of dead. But of course, there was no knowing how many Digimon had been deleted, if there were any, because deceased Digimon would combust into data particles to be reconfigured instead of decomposing. They however, were discreet enough to keep that from Agumon in case they'd upset the little dino, and recounted the battle between Fairymon and Shutumon.

"No, she didn't," Adam said. "She just said that her master has returned, and that we'd better watch our backs."

"And the way she said it didn't sound like an empty threat," Gayathri added.

TobuCatmon pondered about it for a moment. The news brought by the DigiWira was certainly disconcerting. He had a suspicion, a terrible suspicion, but he needed to make sure lest not to alarm the three teenagers unnecessarily.

"You've said that Shutumon is accompanied by another Digimon. Do you know his name?" he asked.

"I heard that three hundred years old granny called him Sorcerymon," Floramon supplied. She couldn't help being catty again.

TobuCatmon however didn't look amused at all. He had just begun putting two and two together, and frowned. He fluttered about the Forest Sanctum, while the DigiWira and their partners watched their mentor anxiously.

"What do you mean, _three hundred years old_ granny? Were you referring to Shutumon?" TobuCatmon asked.

"Well, yeah…she kept bragging that she has three hundred or so years of experience," Floramon answered.

TobuCatmon shook his head. "Not good, not good at all…"

"What's not good, TobuCatmon?" Adam asked.

The flying feline Digimon considered for a moment before replying. He needed to figure this out completely before saying anything.

"I need to think this over first, DigiWira," TobuCatmon said gravely. "I shall get back to you about this soon. In the meantime…" he tried to muster a smile, "have an enjoyable weekend."

There was something else the DigiWira wanted to ask their mentor, but seeing the sudden grim mood predominated TobuCatmon's usual jovialness, the DigiWira decided to save their other questions for later, and returned to their home world.

xxx

xxx

After returning from the Digital World, Gayathri decided to go out for a few rounds of rollerblading around her housing lane, as a form to unwind after the short battle in the Digital World. TobuCatmon's strange behavior concerned her, but she believed their mentor to know what he was doing, so she shrugged off any form of worry clouding her mind. Tanemon was back in her room, sleeping after a quick meal to recover the energy she had spent fighting Shutumon.

The day was not as sunny as usual, but the lack of heat was the main reason Gayathri opted to rollerblade instead of spending the afternoon cooped in the house. To her knowledge the lane was usually empty in the afternoon, so it was safe enough for her to rollerblade without worrying of being knocked over by the car. Gayathri might not be into sports that much, but rollerblading was something she had been doing since she was in primary school, and after a few years Gayathri could be proud of her rollerblading skills. Despite her skills however, Gayathri still observed the safety precautions, and wore a helmet, a pair of gloves, elbow pads and knee pads to avoid any injury should she fell. And since the day was neither too warm nor too cold, Gayathri chose to wear a simple pink top and a pair of jean shorts.

Gayathri waved towards Anding, who was busy washing one of the Nadarajah's two cars before exiting the gate, signing that she was stepping out for only around the area. Anding nodded and continued with his task. She was about to start her first stride when from a distance, two lorries turned into the housing lane, led by a black Honda Accord. Gayathri stopped and observed the lorries with interest, then shifted her gaze to a bungalow located five houses down her own house. It was a double-storey bungalow with dark green roof, and it had been empty since the end of the previous year.

"Somebody's moving into Uncle Malik's old house," Gayathri said, fondly remembering the previous owner of the house. "I better go closer to take a look of the new owners."

She moved towards the bungalow and stopped in front of the house beside the empty one just as the black car parked in front of the empty house's gate. From the driver seat, a tall man with short black hair emerged. He wore a yellow polo shirt and brown khakis, and a pair of black sunglasses. The door of the passenger seat flew open and a woman stepped out. The woman had a pleasant face and long brown hair. She was wearing a white blouse and a pair of black jeans. Both didn't seem to notice Gayathri standing not far from them, as upon emerging they quickly shifted their attention towards the empty house, and the two lorries that began to pull over at the other side of the road.

"Oh, the house is lovely, dear!" the woman said delightfully. "The walls and the gate could use some repainting, and the grasses need trimming, but otherwise, it's beautiful."

"Of course," the man replied proudly. "Our new home, for the four of us. Manny, Debbie, come outside and look at our new house."

Gayathri noticed that the couple spoke with an accent, recognizing it as the traits of people from Sabah, the Land below the Winds. Anding spoke with the same accent, though less thick than the woman and the man. Her eyes then diverted towards a male teen emerging from the back seat, followed by a little girl who was clutching a white teddy bear. The teen was rather built in size, and obviously taller than her, with short spiked -reddish brown hair and a brown complexion similar to his father, and almost the same as her own skin color. He wore a blue T-shirt with a white stripe across the chest, and a pair of black jeans. Gayathri felt a brief flutter in her stomach and quickly shifted her gaze to the girl beside the boy. She was an endearing girl with a complexion a shade lighter than her brother. And to Gayathri's amused delight, the girl too, was dressed in pink.

"What do you think?" the man asked towards the teen.

The teen cast an apprehensive look towards the house; Gayathri noticed that he looked rather unhappy. "It's fine," he replied slowly.

"Wow, the house is big, daddy," the girl said, her eyes widened. Unlike her brother, the girl brightened up instantly. "Can I have my room painted in pink?"

"We'll see, sweetie," the man said, grinning as he fumbled inside his pants pocket and took out a set of keys.

Gayathri then decided to greet the new family of the neighborhood. She strolled towards the woman, who noticed her instantly. She smiled as Gayathri stopped in front of her.

"Hello, aunty," Gayathri greeted politely with a smile. She extended both hands forward. "You must be our new neighbors. I live at the end of the lane."

The woman nodded and shook Gayathri's hands, smiling. "Yes, yes we are. It's very nice to see you…"

"Oh, excuse me," Gayathri said. "My name is Gayathri Nadarajah."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Gayathri," the woman said pleasantly. "Just call me Aunty Kim. That's my husband; you can call him Uncle Abah."

"Hello, uncle," Gayathri greeted the man, who nodded back as he took off his sunglasses.

"Pleasant to meet you, Gayathri," he said with a friendly tone. "So you are Nadarajah's daughter. I have the pleasure of meeting your father before, when I came around this area three weeks ago to survey this house. He was very helpful; gave me a lot of information about the house and the area around here." He then observed Gayathri briefly, seemingly trying to figure out how old she was. He cast a brief look over his son before turning back to Gayathri once again. "Hmm… where do you go to school, Gayathri?"

Gayathri understood that 'Uncle Abah' must be trying to locate a school to enroll his teenage son in. She smiled.

"I attend USJ 2 National Secondary School, uncle, it's not very far from here," Gayathri answered. "I'm in Form Two."

"Form Two?" Uncle Abah repeated. His eyes lightened up as he glanced towards his son. "That's excellent! My son, Emmanuel, is in Form Two as well. Manny, come over and say hi to Gayathri."

The teen, Emmanuel, or Manny, stepped forward slowly, his eyes trained towards the road. Now that he was closer, Gayathri could see that her height merely reached Manny's eyes, and she was wearing the rollerblades which added to her current height. He looked up briefly at Gayathri and the DigiWira could have sworn that the boy was blushing, but it was hard to tell. He extended a hand towards Gayathri.

"Uh…hi," he said in a low tone; Gayathri had to strain her ears to hear it.

Realizing that the boy might be shy, Gayathri took the offered hand and shook it once. "It's very nice to meet you, Manny. Hopefully I'll see you around at school this Monday; I can introduce you to my friends. Maybe you can come over to school tomorrow too, we're going to pick up the clubs and societies that we want to join for this year, so maybe you can have a look around at school…."

Manny looked up at her inquiringly at her unfinished sentence, but didn't say anything. His curiosity however was reflected from his russet eyes. Gayathri found herself somewhat attracted to the color of Manny's eyes. They were not as brown as hers, and somewhat darker, with a reddish shade. Then she realized that she was staring at Manny, and flustered. She couldn't admit that she was thinking about the boy's eyes, so she would have to improvise.

"Oh, sorry about that…it's just that I thought you must be in Form Three or higher, you're rather…uh…big, for a Form Two," Gayathri explained quickly. Manny looked a little surprised by her comment, which prompted Gayathri to immediately elaborate on her rather ambiguous comment. "Not _fat-_big, just…uh…big-framed, I guess."

Uncle Abah and Aunty Kim both laughed knowingly. "He gets that a lot," Uncle Abah said as he patted Manny's shoulder. "Our boy here used to be chubby, but lost loads of fat after he takes up swimming three years ago. He swims a lot back in Labuan." He patted the boy's back in a fatherly way.

Manny's face reddened even more. "Dad…" he muttered with a mixed tone of annoyance, embarrassment and…Gayathri thought she could detect a whine, but she wasn't so sure.

The little girl bustled past her father and brother and looked up at Gayathri curiously. Gayathri couldn't help but to think again that the girl was adorable, with her dark hair kept in pigtails with vibrant pink hair bands.

"Hello! My name is Deborah, but you can call me Debbie," she said fluently, and friendlily. Gayathri noted that the girl was quite the opposite of her older brother; she was warmer while Manny was quite withdrawn.

"Hi Debbie, my name is Gayathri," Gayathri knelt down to meet the girl's large, doe-like eyes. "How old are you?"

"Six," Debbie replied promptly, holding up six fingers, the remaining four were clutched on the teddy bear's hand. Then she smiled. "You're very pretty, _Kakak_. Will you be my friend?"

The sincere comment surprised the teenage girl, coming from a youngster such as Debbie. "Oh…thank you, Debbie. I think you're adorable too. And sure, I'd love to be your friend."

"Yay! And, you can be _Abang_'s _girlfriend_ too!" Debbie squealed happily and clapped her hands, bouncing the teddy bear back and forth in the process.

At this, Gayathri's eyes widened and Manny choked a little as the parents laughed once again. Manny pulled back his sister closer to him and held her shoulders with both hands, and ignored the girl's squeals of protest.

"Sorry about that," he muttered, his eyes lowered back towards the ground.

"Oh…um…" Gayathri looked away, towards Aunty Kim. "Aunty, do you need help?"

"No, Gayathri, but thank you for asking," Aunty Kim replied smilingly. She then looked as if she had thought of something, and proceeded to ask Gayathri, "However, we would love to have you and your parents come over for tea Sunday afternoon. By that time I think we can get the house to be welcoming enough for visitors. What do you say, dear?" she glanced towards her husband.

"Yes, that'll be great," Uncle Abah agreed. "I'm looking forward to see your father once again, and meet your mother."

"I'll be sure to tell my parents, aunty," Gayathri nodded, and this time she too tried hard not to look at Manny. She then smiled grimly. "Please excuse me now, as I need to go back to my house."

"Of course, Gayathri," Aunty Kim said. "Thank you for coming to see us, and don't forget this Sunday."

"I won't," Gayathri said and began rollerblading away from the family. As she began to pick up speed, she felt a gaze being fixed at her from behind. Curiously she turned back and saw Manny observing her. Before their eyes made contact however, the boy looked away quickly and followed his parents who were entering the house. Amused, Gayathri headed straight back towards her house, the desire to rollerblade forgotten completely as she silently hoped for Sunday to come sooner.

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_**Author's Note:**_

I've decided to try a different approach in retelling Gayathri's first experience as a DigiWira. While Liu Ying has flashbacks in the previous chapter, Gayathri's was reflected in a different way, briefly but with all necessary details included. I want to focus more on her characterizations.

I have a lot of trouble at first writing the girl-talk session between Gayathri and her two friends, but suddenly the inspiration comes when I hear my female classmates talking about guys. They were talking about actors, actually, but I did listen and got the inspiration to add it inside the chapter. :D

Malaysians usually address their elders, apart from their immediately family and teachers, as 'uncle' and 'aunty' even though the person who is being referred to it might not be a blood relative to them at all. If a person is considered old enough, or if the age is closer to their parents, of if the person is a friend of their parents, he/she will usually be addressed that way. On a similar note - Debbie addresses Manny as 'Abang' (literally translated as big brother) and calls Gayathri 'Kakak' (which means big sister, although Gayathri is no blood relation to her).

Shutumon uses the original attack names because they sound much more villainess-like compared to the American dub ones.

I've finished this chapter quite a while ago, since the 15th of January, but there seemed to be a problem with uploading new chapters on the website. It gives me time to make adjustments and add some new parts, which explain the staggering 13 000 + words for this chapter.


	4. Darkness Awakening

"Those bumbling fools," muttered a dark, raspy voice. "They've finally arrived, after all these times."

Inside a dimly lit hall, a tall skeletal figure was eyeing a ripple of air which hovered at its eye level. The ripple was bordered with deep purple smokes, and was showing two Digimon walking side by side. The scenery panned out, revealing the surroundings of the two Digimon. They were at an arid region, where the ground was bare, cracked and dark grey in color. The sky was covered with thick, dark clouds. Thunderclaps echoed within the clouds from time to time. Where the clouds were absent, the sky was revealed to be crimson in color.

"Shutumon and Sorcerymon," said the ghastly being with a satisfied hum, "the only two of my many faithful minions who weren't entombed yet. Blundering as they are, they are nothing but loyal; and loyal minions shall be greatly rewarded by SkullSatamon."

The Digimon was a statuesque yet grotesque being, with tattered demonic wings and a black skull. Crimson bones made up his upper body and extremities and leather black pants covered his lower extremities. He wore metallic gloves and boots and wielded a staff with one end was shaped like a red pincer, while the other crafted to resemble a red claw clutching a yellow orb. A long loincloth was secured by a leather belt around the monster's small waist, tattered, unwashed and had a brownish-black hue.

This Digimon was known as SkullSatamon, an ultimate-level demonic Digimon.

"They are here, outside the Horror Hall. Yet they cannot come in, no thanks to Grademon's shield. It looks like I shall have to go and greet them personally," SkullSatamon muttered disdainfully. "But no matter, while I find the means to escape the shield that is surrounding my sanctuary, these two shall be sufficient in resurrecting my other entombed soldiers. Shutumon possesses the necessary wit, and Sorcerymon some satisfactory magical skills. They will be able to carry out my plan to enact vengeance against the forces of good that I so despise. Grademon's effort of peace shall go to waste when I am able to escape this prison!"

SkullSatamon waved his skeletal hand towards the ripple of air, and instantly the dark smokes surrounding the ripple began to swirl around it, until the ripple vanished, swallowed by the smokes which then dissipated in thin air. The demon walked briskly towards a doorway, intending on welcoming his returning servants.

In the meantime, Shutumon and Sorcerymon were walking together nervously into a dark region where they recognized as the domain of their master. After three centuries, they had received the order to return to him, and they were more than happy to comply.

"This is it," Sorcerymon said anxiously. "Shadow Realm. It's been quite a while since we've been here, right Shutumon?"

"If by a while, you mean three hundred years, then you got that right," Shutumon replied. The tanned bird-woman eyed their surroundings. "This place hasn't changed at all."

A loud thunder caused both of them to flinch before they remembered that thunderclaps were usual occurrence in Shadow Realm. They eased themselves up and increased their paces, searching for their master's bastion. The Shadow Realm was a volatile region – the ground was slightly cracked, there were no plants or vegetations in sights. Despite the thunder, it was fairly obvious that there had been no rain in this area for a rather long period of time. The air was stale, somewhat suffocating and uncomfortable. The combinations of all of these factors were more than enough to steer any sane Digimon away. But of course, if asked to any of these Digimon, the factors combined didn't scare them as much as the fact that the region belonged to SkullSatamon. Despite it was a common knowledge that SkullSatamon was imprisoned within his abode, not many Digimon were brave enough to venture here. Even the strong and able would think twice before entering Shadow Realm.

"This place really gives me the creeps," Sorcerymon complained as he looked around. The pale wizard frowned as he came across a puddle of water, which made him stop. He decided to check out his reflection. Within the puddle, he saw a young-looking humanoid Digimon with green eyes, dark yellow hair and a white wizard hat staring back at him.

Shutumon saw what her companion was doing, and groaned. "Sorcerymon, stop admiring your own reflection; really, there's nothing interesting to see. Move aside, pure beauty coming through!" The bird-woman pushed the wizard aside and smiled admiringly at her reflection, which showed a gorgeous scantily-clad woman with heavenly blue eyes and hair with the color of the sky. Shutumon frowned when she saw some marks on her face and body, courtesy of the recent battle he had with Fairymon. But as she was about to complain, she saw something else which was not to her liking.

"Hey Shutumon…since when do you have yellow pointed teeth?" Sorcerymon inquired, peering over the puddle. He pointed towards the row of yellow teeth on the reflection. "Eww…don't you brush? Eh….." The wizard then gazed at Shutumon, and saw that Shutumon still had her pink mouth-cover on. Yet the reflection of hers showed a Shutumon, grinning uncharacteristically. It caused the beautiful Shutumon to look rather comical. Then the reflection changed again and slowly, Shutumon's hair turned grey and her firm facial skin began to sag.

"What in the Digital World?" Shutumon yelped in disgust as she jumped back, surprised by the reflection. "That is so NOT me!"

"A granny-Shutumon?" Sorcerymon said slowly, torn between feeling amused and scared at the same time. "What's happening?"

"_TEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!"_

Shutumon's reflection changed again, this time to a completely different being. It looked like a ragged piece of white cloth, with black button eyes and an opened mouth with yellow pointed teeth. It was a ghost, and it was laughing maniacally upon seeing the reactions of Shutumon and Sorcerymon. The puddle then began to ripple as slowly, the ghostly figure which was shown on it rose from the surface of the puddle, until finally the puddle of water vanished and a ghostly Digimon materialized in front of Shutumon and Sorcerymon.

"Tee-hee hee hee hee hee hee!" the ghost cackled loudly. "Tee hee hee! TEE HEE HEE! TEE HEE HEEEEEEEEE!"

"BAKEMON!" Shutumon cried out shrilly in repulse and frustration, recognizing the ghost at once. Her earlier surprise was immediately replaced by sheer revolt. Her anger got the best of her as she recalled what the ghost had shown her. She was reminded instantly of the insults Fairymon had thrown to her during their battle. Her brows knitted furiously as she thrust both her arms forward, directly towards the giggling Bakemon. "Why you piece of digital trash! I'll show you who's going to have the last laugh! _Wind of Pain!_"

"TEE HEE HEE—AAAAAAAHHH!"

Shutumon's Wind of Pain attack was delivered at close proximity and thus, the Bakemon received the attack's full power and wasn't able to defend itself. Within split seconds, the Bakemon exploded into bits of purple data; its shrill cry was left echoing the bare region as Shutumon snorted in satisfaction while wiping her hands against each other. Her eyes glinted in satisfaction.

"Note to self: never piss off Shutumon, especially when she's already pissed off to begin with," Sorcerymon said slowly, wide-eyed. "You know; you didn't have to delete that Bakemon."

"Humph," Shutumon merely snorted back. "That freak deserved it."

"No, really," Sorcerymon said worriedly, "Because as I recall, this place has _loads _of them freaks."

No sooner after Sorcerymon had finished his sentence, multiple cackles could be heard coming from their surroundings. The air around them rippled as one by one, a Bakemon materialized until there were about a dozen of them. All of them were laughing, but their eyes reflected anything except amusement. Nauseating rotting smells were emitted from the Bakemon, causing both Shutumon and Sorcerymon to become green in the face, out of fear and the desire to retch their guts out. The Bakemon bared their yellow teeth and from the floating cloths that were their bodies, bluish gangrenous claws shot out, ready to strike at their two adversaries at any moment notice.

Other than out of fear of SkullSatamon and the harsh conditions of the Shadow Realm, the other factor which drove Digimon miles away from this area was because the area was infested with Bakemon – ghost Digimon which would play a practical joke on any comers to the area before fighting them. Alone, a Bakemon was not really a threat to an experienced Champion Digimon, which was why Shutumon was able to easily delete a Bakemon. However, combined together they could even bring an ultimate Digimon down to its knees.

Yet, there was one ultimate Digimon which the Bakemon had respect for, and this particular ultimate had the safeties of their adversaries in mind.

"ENOUGH OF THIS! BAKEMON, DO NOT HARM THEM. SORCERYMON, SHUTUMON, PROCEED TO THE HORROR HALL NOW. I HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH!"

A thunderous roar coming from an unseen force was enough to cause the Bakemon to halt. They gave Shutumon and Sorcerymon grudging looks as they began to back away.

Shutumon had a smug look on her face as she waved a hand towards the Bakemon. "You heard the master, now SHOO!"

"Yeah! Go away already!" Sorcerymon joined in.

The Bakemon stuck out their tongues before they vanished in thin air. Shutumon and Sorcerymon exhaled simultaneously, relieved. Shutumon immediately flapped her wings and began lifting herself off the ground, followed by Sorcerymon who, with a wave of his magical staff, began chanting his levitation spell. Together they flew towards the direction of their master's domain, which as seconds passed by, began to come in view - an atrocious castle in the middle of a bottomless crater.

The Horror Hall was a gigantic, blackened skull situated on the tip of a rocky projection which jutted out from the never-ending abyss around it. Two towers shot out from behind the skull and from the skull's open mouth a fleet of wide staircases made of sturdy green stones were built. The end of the last piece of stone slab was joined to a stone bridge connecting the castle and the ground across the chasm. A transparent silvery barrier seemed to surround the crater.

And on the bridge, stood SkullSatamon. The sight of the demonic Digimon caused Shutumon and Sorcerymon to immediately drop to their knees as soon as their feet touched the ground.

"Master!" both chanted, their voices contained elatedness and reverence at once towards the ultimate Digimon.

"Rise, both of you," SkullSatamon commanded with a wave of his skeletal hand. He watched them from about a meter away from the shiny silvery barrier.

The two Digimon obeyed SkullSatamon and rose to their feet. They then made way to step onto the bridge, not fully aware of the presence of the barrier as their attentions were only fixated on their master. However as their feet were about to step onto the stony bridge, the barrier flashed brightly and repelled both champion Digimon, sending them flying several meters backward.

"As I've expected," SkullSatamon said disinterestedly. "After three millenniums, Grademon's barrier is as strong as it was before."

"Master," Shutumon said breathlessly as she got back on her feet and examined the barrier curiously. "What happened?"

"Grademon's barrier; during the final battle while I proved to be stronger than that bronzed warrior, Grademon managed to seal me into eternal imprisonment before he was deleted. This barrier is strong enough to contain me inside my Horror Hall, preventing me to take one step outside, and also shielded any Digimon from coming inside. These past three centuries I've been gathering strength to nullify the barrier, but alas my power is still not strong enough to destroy the barrier. I shall remain here, but not for long. The time will come when I gain my highest Digivolutionary form and that will be the day when the Digital World shall once again taste my wrath. But for now, I afraid that I shall need help from the two of you to carry out my cause."

"We'll be happy to help, master!" Sorcerymon and Shutumon declared altogether.

SkullSatamon nodded, pleased. "Now, listen up. First I shall need you to free one of my entombed generals. He is essential to my plan. And here is his location."

SkullSatamon waved his staff and purple smokes came out from the yellow orb within the clutch of the red claw. A map was formed within the smokes, marking necessary location for the aforementioned general. Sorcerymon and Shutumon paid close attention as SkullSatamon began giving his instructions.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 04 – Darkness Awakening_**

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It was Saturday and the first day of the meetings of clubs and societies at the school attended by the DigiWira. Over one side of the school's assembly hall, a group of cadets in white shirts and black pants were seen observing a senior member of the cadets giving out basic instructions; Adam was seen in the middle of the crowd. Over the other side of the assembly hall a group of girls – one of them Gayathri – wearing green shirts and blue skirts were sitting in a circle and seemed to be practicing some basic knots. The badminton court beside the assembly hall was occupied by a large group of students in white Tae-Kwan-Do uniforms practicing some beginner moves, guided by a couple of instructors. One instructor was a tall man, and the other was Liu Ying, who looked like she was assisting the younger students while the man focused more on the elder ones.

All over the school, various crowds could be seen gathering together, for the first three hours of the day, beginning at eight in the morning, it was the meetings for the uniformed cadets and the martial arts societies, and the next two hours of the day would be allocated for the clubs meetings. The school bell rang at exactly eleven in the morning, signing the end of the first half of the day. The uniformed crowds began to disperse about, heading to classrooms or science laboratories where clubs meetings would be held.

Adam waved goodbye to his fellow St John Ambulance cadets before waiting for Gayathri and Liu Ying, who were excusing themselves from their own fellow friends.

"How's your day?" Adam asked as soon as his two fellow DigiWira joined him.

"Not bad. The Tae-Kwan-Do club seems to be getting rather popular this year," Liu Ying answered promptly with a small smile. "Hopefully no more students will sign-up or we'll need to take the assembly hall from you two." The willowy girl said this with a wink, indicating that she was joking.

"Not a chance," Gayathri shot back with a brilliant smile. "The Girl Guides and St John Ambulance members put together are almost double the amount of all your Tae-Kwan-Do members."

The three DigiWira laughed at their morning banter. "So, shall we go to the computer class now?" Adam asked. Liu Ying nodded, but Gayathri seemed to be distracted. She was looking around, as if searching for someone.

"Wait a sec," the brown-skinned girl said. "I've promised someone that I'd meet him here at eleven."

"Him?" Liu Ying asked with a quirked eyebrow. Adam smirked.

"Oh please…it's NOT like that. It's my new neighbor," Gayathri quickly said, but there was no mistaking that a blush was beginning to creep on her cheeks. "His family just moved in to the house near mine's yesterday. He's our age and will be attending this school. I told him that we'd be having the first clubs and societies meetings today and he should come too, just to have a look around the school and maybe register his name in those he's interested to be in. I don't know where he….hey wait, that's him! Manny, over here!"

Seeing Gayathri waving to someone who seemed to be coming behind them, Adam and Liu Ying quickly turned around and saw a tall and built teenager with brown complexion, short cropped black hair, wearing the normal secondary school male uniform. A black bag was slung on his back. He seemed glad to have set sights on Gayathri, and was approaching them. Adam noted instantly that this boy was even taller than Liu Ying, who was already taller than him. Adam and Gayathri's heads seemed to reach just past his shoulders.

"Hi," Manny said shyly, extending his hands towards Adam first. "I'm Emmanuel…but you can call me Manny. Everyone does. I just moved in here yesterday."

Adam shook Manny's hand instantly and smiled. Upon hearing Manny's accent Adam was curious to know where the other boy came from. "Well, it's nice to meet you Manny. I'm Adam. Welcome to Subang. I think you'll like it here. Where're you from?"

"Kota Kinabalu, Sabah," the tall teen replied as he shook Liu Ying's hand as the fair girl introduced herself.

"Ah, I thought he sounds like Anding," Liu Ying said to Gayathri.

Gayathri nodded and looked at Manny. "So, have you got a good look-around at this school? What do you think?"

"This school is almost twice as large as my old school back at Sabah," Manny answered as he gazed at the school buildings, "and nicer too. I liked the murals and the fountain near the gate. We didn't have those back at my old school. They're beautiful, really. I think I'm going to like it here."

"Glad to hear it, Manny," Gayathri said, smiling widely. "So, have you decided on what uniformed unit that you wanted to join?"

Manny nodded with a small smile. "Yeah…back home I was a member of the Ninjutsu society, and I'm glad that here they have it here too. I managed to talk to the instructor and he said I could come to their next meeting."

"Ah, another martial arts practitioner," Liu Ying said approvingly. "Looks like we have something in common. I'm in Tae-Kwan-Do." Liu Ying couldn't help but to feel slightly amused upon seeing Gayathri's smile faded a little, forming a little scowl. Manny and Adam however both didn't notice it.

"Yeah, I know. A black belt…you must be really good," Manny commented with a smile, pointing towards the black belt strapped around Liu Ying's waist. "I'm still somewhat a beginner."

A sound like someone's clearing her throat was heard, diverting Manny, Adam and Liu Ying's attentions on Gayathri. The petite girl smiled while giving Liu Ying a quick affronted glare before turning to face Adam and Manny. "OK…I think Mr. Chan's not going to let us in the computer club if we don't go there now," she said sweetly. "So we better go."

Adam looked at his watch. "Gayathri's right. It's already five minutes after eleven. We better go. Manny, are you coming with us to the Computer Club?"

"Oh, yes. Gayathri told me about it last night and she got me interested. Anyway I like to tinker around with the hardware, and fooling around with the graphic software and maintaining my own personal website."

"You have your own website? I'm learning how to make my own site too. I'm just starting however. Think you could give some pointers of how to make a great site?"

"It's no problem. I'll be happy to help."

As the two boys begun to get engrossed in computer talks as they made way towards the computer classroom, Gayathri inched closer to Liu Ying.

"What was that all about?" she whispered to Liu Ying. "'We have something in common?'" she asked, mimicking Liu Ying's words to Manny earlier.

Liu Ying chuckled. "Relax, Gayathri. I'm not planning on stealing your boyfriend," she said in a low voice.

"Oh, in that case, that's ok….HEY! He's not my boyfriend!" Gayathri gasped, and immediately covered her mouth lest the boys heard her. Luckily they were discussing something about 'Flash' and didn't seem to take notice of her sudden outburst.

"Gotcha," Liu Ying said with a smirk, winking at her blushing friend. "Now come on, we're gonna be late."

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"Did you notice that there are a lot of girls joining the computer club?" Adam whispered to Liu Ying as the computer teacher, Mr. Jackie Chan, was briefing the other students of the club's plan. They were taking the furthermost backseats as the four of them had come in late. Adam was sitting between Liu Ying and Gayathri, and their new friend Manny was seating at Gayathri's right.

"Yes," Liu Ying replied back with a low voice as she scanned the attendances. "There seems to be almost a two-to-one ratio between the girls and guys."

"Well, Jack…Mr. Chan is rather popular with the girls here," Gayathri reminded them, casting a quick glance towards Manny, who seemed to be focusing his attention towards the teacher.

Amongst the DigiWira, the computer teacher had asked them to call him by his name, Jackie, but when they were with other students they were to address him formally.

"Well, seeing that we have twenty computers in our computer lab, two students shall share one computer," Mr. Chan instructed. The students voiced out their agreements and began to disperse, occupying the available computers. "We'll be learning Word today, but I'm not going to just teach you the basic stuffs. No. That'll be boring, as I'm sure that you all have already known how to type, right?"

This was met with a chorused laughter from the students. The computer teacher then cleared his throat to regain the students' attentions.

"I will be teaching you to unleash Word's fullest potentials. You will learn how to make tables to organize data, making charts and graphs for your presentations and future school works, and how to make your document look presentable by using the bullets and numbering functions. Okay, I'll give you five minutes to choose your partner and then we may begin with our first lesson."

"Hey, I think I'm going to be partnered with Manny," Adam said to Liu Ying with a grin, and got up from his seat to ask the new boy.

Liu Ying however pulled Adam back to his seat. "Oh no, you don't. You're going with me." Then she gave a conspirational smile as she leaned closer to the boy and whispered, "I so happen to notice that our fellow DigiWira there likes Manny, so let's give them some chance to get to know each other a little bit better."

"Oh…" Adam said. Then he looked at Liu Ying with a slightly baffled look. "How do you know?"

"Trust me, I know," Liu Ying replied with a smile as she observed Manny and Gayathri, who were both silent. She then got up and waved at her fellow DigiWira and their new friend. "Um, guys? Adam and I will be partners and take that computer over there. So…see you," she said. "Adam, come on."

As the bearers of the White and Yellow DigiSpheres began to occupy one of the available computers, Gayathri took a deep breath and turned to Manny. But as she was about to speak, Manny blurted out his request first.

"Um…I guess I'll be your partner, if it's all right with you…" he said slowly.

Gayathri beamed instantly. "Sure. I'll be your partner. C'mon, let's take that PC over there before anyone else take it."

Thirty minutes passed and the students were working with their first assignment diligently, following the instructions Jackie had given as the instructor walked around the air-conditioned room, helping out the students who needed his assistance, recognizing those who really needed his help or those who just wanted him to pay more attention to them. He cast a quick glance towards the three DigiWira, and saw that Gayathri was seating beside a boy he didn't recognize, while Adam was with Liu Ying. They however seemed to be the last students in the classroom who would need his help; Jackie had an ulterior motive in inviting them to join the club.

It was the only time where he could gather the three DigiWira together; as he had planned to ask the three of them to spend a few moment after the club meeting was over to get to know Adam and discussed all things that were Digimon.

His train of thoughts was interrupted when the closed door of the classroom flung open and someone stepped in. Everyone looked up and recognized the tall teenaged male who was at the door by reputation. There was only one student in the school who had messy dishwater-blonde hair. He was dressed in an oversized red sleeveless shirt and knee-length black Bermudas, and was casually holding a basketball against his left waist. He was flushed and trails of sweat hung by the tips of his hair and trailed down the sides of his face. A smug expression was plastered on his face.

"Computer club, right?" he asked with a rather cocky voice, not bothering to greet Jackie at all. "Cool, this place is air-conned."

"Can I help you, J.D.?" Jackie inquired politely, frowning a little upon setting sight on the school's renowned troublemaker.

"I'm in," J.D. Kamaruzzaman said with a lopsided grin as he wiped the sweats on his face with his forearm. "I'm joining the club."

"You're one hour late," Jackie pointed towards the clock hanging on the wall. "And you're not in your school uniform or in any other uniforms."

"I'm in my basketball uniform," J.D. replied back with a grin.

"Not funny," Jackie said evenly and crossed his arms against his chest.

J.D. stepped inside the classroom and closed the door. "Look, I've said just now that I'm joining the computer club. School's rule – a student must choose to join at least two different clubs and societies. I'm already in the basketball team, and given my way I'd choose soccer or squash but it seems that you can choose one sport, one club and one society. So I figured rather than joining those boring uniformed geeks I'd join the computer club. At least I'd get to surf the net for free and play computer games."

"The computer club is open to any student, but I should remind you that it's not just about computer games and internet," Jackie said sternly.

The brash teen merely shrugged. "Well, whatever. I'm up for some learning anyway."

Jackie nodded curtly and scanned the whole classroom. All the computers were already occupied, with the exception of his own computer.

"I'll take that computer," J.D. said and pointed to Jackie's computer.

"Out of the question, J.D.," Jackie snapped. "Pull a chair and join any of the pairs. Next time, however, do try to come on time and at least wear the school's t-shirt."

"Gotcha," J.D. said with a thumbs-up. He placed his basketball near the door and began looking around for, deciding on which pair to join.

All the students observed the whole commotion with interest. Some of the girls began to make space and looked at the handsome blonde, hoping that the boy would decide to join them. J.D. however didn't pay them any attention. He walked slowly from one computer table to another, but no one knew what he was actually looking for.

"Who's that?" Manny asked slowly at Gayathri.

"Ugh. That's J.D. – school's troublemaker, and he's only in Form 3. To think that he'll be here for the next three more years…" Gayathri replied, rolling her eyes. "Well you wouldn't want to cross his way though; he's not the one who's afraid to get into trouble. Now I suggest we don't pay him any attention and continue working on our assignment, with hope that he'll choose other pairs to bother."

"Right," Manny agreed.

J.D. was searching for any familiar faces when his hazel eyes set sight upon not one, but two familiar faces. They however seemed to have resumed their work, perhaps assuming that J.D. wouldn't choose to join them. Smirking slightly, J.D. decided to prove them wrong.

"Hey, Tardy Boy, Prefect Girl, remember me?" he asked and placed his chair near Adam and Liu Ying.

The two DigiWira looked up and saw J.D. grinning at them. Adam frowned, while Liu Ying glared at the older boy.

"Well…um, it's Adam," Adam said, his cheeks reddened slightly upon the nickname J.D. had given him.

"Planning on being tardy again this Monday?" J.D. asked Adam as he sat down on his chair. "So what are you guys doing?"

"What are _you_ doing?" Liu Ying snapped irritably. "You can't just waltz in here like some royal prince and decide to join us without even asking whether it's ok with us!"

"HE said to join any pairs, and I chose you two. Take it to him if you're not satisfied, but I'm staying," J.D. pointed towards Jackie and smiled. "Besides…" he flung an arm around Adam's shoulder, "I don't see _him_ complaining. So there."

Liu Ying shot a look at Adam, wanting the boy to say something to drive J.D. away, but Adam knew J.D.'s reputation and didn't want to get on his bad side. Despite his uncomfortable-ness with J.D., at least the older boy was being, or pretending to be, friendly with both of them. He sighed in defeat.

"Um…we're doing tables now," he muttered. "And how to manipulate the functions of the…."

"Yeah, yeah, well…continue whatever you guys are doing," J.D. said dismissively and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning comfortably against the back of the chair. "I'll just sit here and look while enjoying the cool air-conditioning. Then after you guys are finished, let me know, 'cause I want to check my e-mail for a sec."

Adam merely nodded, while Liu Ying snorted in disgust.

"Poor those two…" Gayathri said from her computer and shook her head.

xxx

xxx

In the Digital World, it was a perfect day. The blue sky was cloudless, the sun shone brightly and the air was only slightly breezy.

For a flock of avian Digimon, it was an excellent day for flight training. A Birdramon was seen instructing a group of younglings on the methods of flight. Her pupils were mainly the avian rookie level Digimon such as the Biyomon, the Hawkmon and the Falcomon, one Penguinmon, three young armor-level Swanmon, two champion-level Vilemon, and a smaller group of Patamon and their purple-furred cousins Tsukaimon. It was known in this part of the Digital World that Birdramon was the best flight instructor as all of her pupils would end up being able to fly, or somehow Digivolve into flight-able Digimon.

Right now, they were practicing at the Green Meadow as the lush field was spacious enough to conduct the flight class. Besides it was a normal occurrence for the Digimon of the village nearby that Birdramon would require the field every Saturday morning for practice.

"All right there… steady, easy does it," she instructed towards a group of Biyomon. "Flap your wings, right, that's it. Excellent."

The four Biyomon followed their teacher's instructions and flapped their wings. Amongst the avian-types, the Biyomon types and Penguinmon required their teacher's attention. They looked at the sky with envy as they saw the five Hawkmon and three Falcomon flying merrily together, able to lift themselves up ten meters from the ground. The Vilemon and the Swanmon were also flying, with the older Vilemon assisting the Swanmon, careful to assist them whenever the Swanmon lost their concentrations. The Patamon and the Tsukaimon however focused more on gliding; their flying abilities were not on par with the others so they focused more on learning how to assert little energy while being aloft.

The sole Penguinmon was very grumpy. He couldn't even lift up his body, and his wings were too small to support his plump body. He had been practicing diligently for the whole week, yet despite his efforts he wasn't as fortunate as the Biyomon – who had practiced less, but now were able to lift themselves up three meters from the ground.

"Oh man, I can never do this," he huffed and slumped onto the ground in frustration. "I give up!"

Birdramon quickly beckoned for the Hawkmon and the Falcomon to assist the Biyomon while she went to console Penguinmon.

"There, there, Penguinmon, I'm certain that one day you'll be able to fly," she said gently. "Don't beat yourselves up. A lot of Digimon I know couldn't fly when they were rookies, yet when they Digivolved to champion level they were some of the best fliers in the Digital World."

"But I'm a marine type, teacher," Penguinmon groaned. "I can never Digivolve into those flying types. It's now or never."

Birdramon remained silent, what the rookie Digimon had said was true. To her knowledge the Penguinmon species usually would Digivolve into marine type champions. It shouldn't be any different for this Penguinmon. Though she wanted to console her pupil, she didn't want to lie and Penguinmon was smart enough to know whether she was speaking the truth or was simply trying to comfort him. She had tried it before and Penguinmon had immediately seen it.

Suddenly a loud earsplitting screech was heard coming from the sky. Birdramon's head shot up, observing the sun above. Squinting her eyes slightly she could make out a massive figure of a bird heading towards them, looking as if it was coming directly from the sun from the way it had positioned itself directly in front of the brilliant near-afternoon sun. Birdramon immediately sensed trouble and her suspicion was proved when she saw a pink energy spark from the incoming intruder.

"Take cover, everyone!" she screamed, and spread her massive wings apart. She took off instantly, and hovered about ten meters from the ground to give her pupils some protection while they were escaping. "Go to the village, now!"

"_Blast Rings!"_

Two pink ring-shaped beams shot out from the avian intruder. Seeing that her pupils would be in danger of being deleted if they were hit by the attack, Birdramon decided that she needed to counter the attack with one of her own.

"_Fire Flap!"_

By flapping her wings furiously, streams of fire were generated and the attack engulfed the pink beams that came from the intruder. The flames instantly neutralized the rings, much to Birdramon's relief. She watched as her pupils had nearly made it to safety, they would need just a couple more minutes. However Birdramon could've sworn that somebody was missing from the flock. However she didn't have the time to be certain as a much larger avian Digimon descended from the sky. It was an eagle-like Digimon, with brown feathers, a pair of fearsome-looking talons and an equally dangerous pair of black horns growing out from its head. The Digimon's blue eyes had a malicious glint and Birdramon saw that those blue eyes were not that of normal Digimon. Her sharp eyes were able to notice a faint red glow emitting out from them.

"Aquilamon," Birdramon spat out angrily, recognizing the name of this Digimon, but not the Digimon itself.

The Aquilamon didn't reply. He merely had a look-around and his attention was fixed towards Birdramon's pupils. He began to turn his back against Birdramon.

Birdramon immediately saw Aquilamon's intention and was forced to attack in order to buy some more time for her students to seek refuge. She intercepted Aquilamon from the sky and decided to tackle Aquilamon with an even more powerful flaming attack than her previous ones.

"_Meteor Wing!" _

Aquilamon was halted by a torrent of powerful flames and was forced to stop his intention. He glared at Birdramon angrily and decided to finish her once and for all with one single attack. His eyes glinted as he darted towards Birdramon with an unimaginable speed. His horns sparked with yellow aura.

"_Grand Horn!"_

With the attack name spoken out loud, Aquilamon rammed his head onto Birdramon's chest full-force, and successfully pierced both of Birdramon's wings with his sharp horns. He proceeded by kicking Birdramon with his talons. Birdramon didn't expect the large Aquilamon to possess a lightning speed and fell prey to Aquilamon's brutal attacks, with no means to fight back. Her wings were injured and were no longer able to support her in midair. As the wings limped Birdramon crashed onto the ground.

"So long, Birdramon!" Aquilamon declared victoriously. Pink energy sparked from his eyes as he descended closer to the writhing firebird.

Birdramon's eyes widened; but not because she was about to receive the full blast of Aquilamon's incoming attack, but due to the fact that a familiar, rotund blue-feathered Digimon had jumped out from behind a nearby rock and was running towards her while flapping his wings furiously and with full determination. Birdramon gasped when she saw the little Digimon slowly lifted himself off the ground as he was about to reach the unaware Aquilamon.

"Hey, ugly!" Penguinmon shouted as he landed on top of Aquilamon's back. Before the giant eagle could turn around, Penguinmon decided to attack first. _"Endless Slaps!" _

Aquilamon screeched angrily as Penguinmon delivered slaps with his wings onto Aquilamon's heads. As a champion Digimon he barely felt Penguinmon's attacks but he was surprised and annoyed. With a sharp flick of his head however he managed to knock Penguinmon down to the ground, causing the rookie to land on his head and was instantly knocked out unconscious.

"You've got spunk, kid…" Aquilamon groaned as he took a good look at the fallen rookie. "But, ah….you're the one I've been sent to retrieve."

Birdramon was shocked to hear what Aquilamon had just said. "What do you mean?" she demanded weakly. "Don't you dare take him away!"

The giant brown eagle snorted superiorly. "Feh. You're in no position to fight me, Birdramon. But this is your lucky day, I was only sent to pick this little runt. Kid's got guts, I see why the general wants him," Aquilamon said. He descended slowly and picked the KO-ed Penguinmon with one of his talon. "I've found one, now to look for the other. See you, wouldn't want to be you!" With a loud screech Aquilamon flapped his gigantic wings and soared towards the sky. Within a matter of minute, he was no more than a speck of dust from where the injured Birdramon was.

xxx

xxx

Aquilamon flew with top-speed towards a deserted rock quarry about a few miles away from the Green Meadow. On top of the highest rock hill there, three figures were seen standing. The eagle made a beeline towards them and halted when the three Digimon were only a few meters away from him. They were Shutumon and Sorcerymon, and standing in the middle of them was a humanoid Digimon with black feathery wings erupting from its back. The Digimon wore purple body armor and beige pants, its calves and forearms were also protected with light armors the same color as the body armor. The Digimon had avian qualities in form of its lower extremities, where talons replaced its feet, and it was wearing a purple helmet crafted similar to a crow's head and beak. Its brown eyes eyed Aquilamon. There was a sinister aura emanating from the Digimon, who stood as tall as Shutumon, but appeared more menacing with the twin swords it was carrying in its hands.

"I've brought you Penguinmon, just as you've ordered, general," Aquilamon said and lowered the unconscious rookie in front of the avian-humanoid Digimon.

The Digimon nodded in approval upon inspecting the Penguinmon. It looked up at Aquilamon and addressed the champion eagle with an authorative, masculine voice.

"Good work, Aquilamon, but what of the other one? Did you find him yet?"

"I'm sorry, but no, general; he was no where in sight," Aquilamon answered with reverence. "I'll go back right now and search for him."

"There is no rush, but see to it that you have retrieved him by the end of the day. The Master does not like to wait for too long," the Digimon said.

"Yes, general. I'll bring the other one by the end of the day."

"See that you will. We shall be waiting for your arrival. Now go."

xxx

xxx

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP_

"Hey, what's that beeping sound?" J.D. asked Adam and Liu Ying, as the beeping sounds seemed to be coming from their pockets. The same sound, but fainter, was heard coming from the table where Gayathri and Manny were occupying.

"Uh, an SMS?" Adam quickly said before Liu Ying could retort to the older teen.

J.D. raised an eyebrow skeptically. "That's not the sound of an SMS alert," he pointed out. "I should know. I've used different cell phones, and _none_ of them made sound like that."

"Well, weare using a new brand, one you might not have heard off…" Adam said, but Liu Ying immediately cut him off.

"And you know what, it's really none of your business," she said with a glare.

J.D. smirked as the school bell rang. "Alright, I could take a hint. But see you two next week," he winked at Liu Ying as he got up. Adam saw this and frowned, baffled.

As the tall blonde left, Adam looked at Liu Ying oddly as the girl groaned irritably. "Good riddance!" she breathed out.

"What was that all about?" Adam asked curiously.

"What?"

"Well, I don't know, maybe I was seeing things, but didn't J.D. just wink at you before he left?"

Liu Ying snorted dismissively. "Really?" she said, and took out her D-Terminal. She looked down at the screen. "I didn't notice anything, so it might be just you. Anyway, we're needed…"

"You don't have to tell _that_ to me, Liu Ying," Adam said with a smile. "Mine's beeped too. But maybe we should wait until the others leave the computer room."

The two of them then watched as the other students began to clear out from the classroom, with Jackie calling out instructions for their home assignments. The computer instructor's azure eyes however were transfixed on the DigiWira as he talked to the other students. He had heard the alert as well and was trying to make the students clear out the classroom as soon as possible without appearing as if he wanted to get rid of them all too quickly.

In the meantime, Gayathri was having a tough time of her own. She didn't want to leave Manny alone, but she had a bigger obligation to comply.

"So, uh…I'm planning to buy some reference books and stationeries after this, and I was wondering whether you could show me where the nearest bookshop from our housing area is?" Manny inquired. "I want to get prepared for Monday's class."

"Oh, sure thing Manny, there's this Big Bookshop – yup, that's the bookstore's name, corny, I know – but they do sell what you're planning to buy," Gayathri replied with a smile.

"That's great. Uh…can we go there straightaway after we've put our bags at our homes?" the Sabahan boy inquired again.

Gayathri's smile faltered a little. "I'd love to….but you see I need to remain at the computer classroom with Adam and Liu Ying. See, we're senior members and Mr. Chan would like to brief us about….uh, our special project…" she trailed off, hoping that Manny didn't decide to ask even further. Then she added quickly, fearing that the boy might be thinking that she was not interested in helping him. "But tell you what? I'll give you a call as soon as I'm done, and then we can go to the bookstore to get your stuff. What do you say?"

Manny nodded. "Ok then," he said, and got up. "Guess I should get going too. I think my mom's already waiting for me."

"See you later," Gayathri said, waving her hand as she watched Manny exited the classroom.

Jackie opened the door to his office and instantly, three Digimon could be seen, eating chocolates and some banana fritters. Tanemon had her mouth slightly smeared by the chocolate as Patamon watched with mild disapproval. Shaomon was enjoying the banana fritters, which had become his favorite food.

"Alright you guys, wrap it up. It's show time," Adam said with a smile. The three DigiWira assembled in front of Jackie's computer as the Digimon went to their respective DigiWira partners.

"Ok, let's get this over with," Gayathri said resolutely. "Because… I've got a date," she said happily.

"So now you're agreeing that Manny is your boyfriend?" Liu Ying asked her friend slyly.

"Oh, speak for yourself. You must be blind to not notice that J.D. hitting on you," Gayathri shot back with a smile of her own.

Liu Ying's fair cheeks colored a little, and she cleared her throat. "He did not! Well…if he did, then I'm so not interested!"

Adam shook his head and pointed his D3 Digivice towards the computer screen. "DIGIPORT OPEN!"

xxx

xxx

"This time, it's this big eagle Digimon. I saw him attacking Birdramon, the flight instructor," Agumon reported.

The DigiWira, now in their Digital World uniforms, listened intently as Agumon, a rookie level tyrannosaurus rex miniature, was explaining the current threat. Agumon had become TobuCatmon's eyes and ears of events transpiring outside the Forest Sanctum ever since Gayathri and Adam were appointed as DigiWira, as TobuCatmon was the Forest Sanctum's protector. There wasn't any rule governed that TobuCatmon was to stay inside the sanctum always, but the mentor of the DigiWira was at his best while inside the stronghold. The last time he had gone out from the sanctum was to aid Liu Ying in finding her Digimon partner, nearly half a year back.

"He was about to finish off Birdramon when a Penguinmon, one of her students, attacked the eagle from behind. That eagle got distracted and for some reason, abandoned Birdramon after seeing Penguinmon. He took Penguinmon and just flew off."

"That is strange," TobuCatmon said, frowning. "Why would Aquilamon spare Birdramon when she was at his mercy? What could be so interesting about this Penguinmon?"

"I don't know. I've asked Birdramon when she was treated by the Green Meadow Village healer. She said that Penguinmon didn't really have anything special to merit being kidnapped. Yet Aquilamon had mentioned that it's Penguinmon he was sent to retrieve, and that a certain general wants him," Agumon continued.

"General?" Adam inquired. He scratched his head. "Last time, it was a 'Master'. TobuCatmon, do you think they are both one same Digimon?"

TobuCatmon thought about the question. "No. I'm certain that they are two different beings. This is bad."

"What is bad?" Liu Ying asked. Then she remembered TobuCatmon's reaction when they revealed about the master. "Ok. Yesterday you freaked out when we told you about this 'Master'. Now you're acting the same when Agumon mentioned this general. I think you owe us an explanation. You've said yesterday that you needed to think about this before telling us."

"I did think about this," TobuCatmon said. "And last night I felt a terrible presence. A great evil has escaped."

"Um…I'm a little lost here," Gayathri said sheepishly.

"I shall explain, Gayathri," the champion mentor assured the girl. He took a deep breath and beckoned for the DigiWira and their partners to sit down on the rattan mat which was spread on the floor of the sanctum. The DigiWira and their partners formed a circle and TobuCatmon took his place in the center of the circle.

"Three hundred years ago there was an intense battle between the forces of good and evil. The good was led by Grademon, while the evil was represented by SkullSatamon. SkullSatamon had command over a large number of powerful Digimon, while Grademon was almost on his own. He did have allies but they were no match for the forces of evil. One by one, the forces of light fell until Grademon was the only one that was left.

"By sheer strength alone Grademon couldn't hope to defeat SkullSatamon, his generals and minions, but he did manage to fight off some of the lower-ranked ones. SkullSatamon knew this and was planning to drain Grademon of all his strength by sending out his generals and minions to fight him. However Grademon had a strategy and employed unexpected magical trickery and successfully sealed the generals and a few of the minions by encasing them in stone tombs. This led him to the final battle between Grademon and SkullSatamon, right at SkullSatamon's domain – the Shadow Realm.

"The battle took place for one whole day and still the victor of the battle couldn't be determined. Employing the aids of magical DigiSpheres, Grademon was equipped with additional elemental powers to enhance his own. Despite the enhancements Grademon still wasn't able to defeat SkullSatamon, and slowly his powers were depleting. Calling out his last remaining strength Grademon forced SkullSatamon into his castle and erected an impenetrable barrier around SkullSatamon's castle. The barrier is said to be able to block any Digimon from passing through. Thus the Digital World was saved from an evil menace."

The DigiWira were astounded upon hearing the story. They didn't expect the story to be that deep.

"So our DigiSpheres have played a part in sealing this evil…SkullSatamon in his own place?" Adam said in disbelief, after a moment of silence.

TobuCatmon seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding. "Yes. Yes, they had played their parts."

"Whatever happened to Grademon?" Patamon asked.

TobuCatmon frowned, as if trying to recall something. "Strangely, from that point the facts have always been rather hazy. Some said that Grademon had perished in order to erect the barrier around SkullSatamon's castle. Some said that he had vanished. Others speculated that he might be just around us. But one thing was known was that his DigiSpheres remained – the Forest Sanctum had been the place where Grademon and his allies resided three hundred years ago. With Grademon gone, Digimon were chosen to become its protector. By becoming the protector of this sanctum the chosen Digimon also would become the guardians of Grademon's DigiSpheres, guarding them until they are again needed to combat SkullSatamon's evil. And yes, now that they have chosen their wielders, it's apparent that SkullSatamon's evil is about to be unleashed once again."

"Woah," Floramon said, shuddering. "This is big."

"This is rather unexpected," Labramon agreed.

"I have always afraid that this moment would come, and my fear heightened when the White DigiSphere finally chose its wielder," TobuCatmon said slowly. "Dark time lays ahead, DigiWira. I fear that from this moment on, your enemies will become much more menacing that what you have faced previously. However by working together as a team I am certain that you will able to beat SkullSatamon."

"So it's obvious that SkullSatamon is this so called 'Master'," Liu Ying said. She looked at TobuCatmon. "And you've said earlier that you've sensed an evil presence escaped. So this Master has finally able to penetrate the barrier Grademon had placed around his castle, right?"

"No, not really," TobuCatmon said. "Not yet, anyway. SkullSatamon's evil is far greater than what I've felt last night. No…I think this evil aura belonged to one of his general. However, this general is far more powerful than any of your Digimon. I sincerely hoped that you will not face him at this time, your Digimon partners still lack the necessary powers to beat this general."

"Exactly how powerful is this general?" Adam inquired.

"Grademon, SkullSatamon and all of SkullSatamon's were known to be ultimate-level Digimon," TobuCatmon answered. "Ultimate-level is a level above champion and armor forms, and is very, very powerful. One ultimate Digimon is said to be able to outclass five champion Digimon, or more, depending on the Digimon's own strength. Grademon and SkullSatamon were at the pinnacle of their ultimate forms and the generals were known to be powerful Ultimates themselves. So should you meet the general, I do advise extreme caution."

"Or, we can try to make our partners reach their ultimate forms," Adam suggested.

TobuCatmon shook his head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Adam. Ultimate forms are very difficult to reach."

"But not in our case," Liu Ying said with a mysterious smile, "Because we are after all, the DigiWira."

"Gee, I didn't know you're this robust, Liu Ying," Gayathri commented.

"I'm not. It's just that, I've conversed with the DigiDestined team from other parts of the world occasionally. According to rank, the most powerful team of all are said to be the Japanese team, from Odaiba. Their Digimon partners are all able to reach ultimate levels with additional helps from…crests, or DNA-Digivolution," Liu Ying explained breathlessly. "And we have our DigiSpheres – Grademon's DigiSpheres. The Digivices alone can prompt our partners to Digivolve to champion level, what if the DigiSpheres are the keys needed to unlock their ultimate forms?"

TobuCatmon's expression brightened considerably. "That is indeed plausible. I didn't think of that. Good thinking, Liu Ying. So all we have to do is to figure out a way to unlock the DigiSpheres' potentials."

"Which could be a problem," Gayathri pointed out. "Exactly how are we going to do that?"

"All in due time, I hope," their mentor responded hopefully.

"So what are we going to do now?" Adam asked.

Agumon cleared his throat. "Aquilamon has mentioned another thing before he left with Penguinmon – Penguinmon was only one out of two Digimon he was sent to retrieve. Another Digimon is currently in danger of being kidnapped. The only problem is that we have no idea who's it going to be."

"Well, I think we need to stop this Aquilamon before he strikes again," Adam said. "We find him, demand from him the location of Penguinmon, and if it needs to be done…we battle Aquilamon."

"One more problem," Gayathri said. "Exactly, where is this Aquilamon?"

"According to Birdramon, Aquilamon seemed to be attracted towards rookie Digimon. When she was battling Aquilamon, he was fixing his attentions on Birdramon's pupils, who were mostly rookie Digimon with the exception of few – but they are small and can be mistaken as rookies as well," Agumon said. "What I have in mind is dangerous…but you guys are the only chance we've got now to lure Aquilamon out in the open."

"Oh? What's your plan?" Adam asked curiously.

"Live bait."

xxx

xxx

"So, what exactly do we have to do again?" Labramon asked grumpily. "A small concert? Is that really necessary?"

"Well, I like it," Floramon said happily.

Over at Green Meadow, several Digimon were helping the DigiWira partners on their current mission, which Agumon had dubbed as **_Operation: Attract Aquilamon_**. The three DigiWira partners would create noises to draw Aquilamon out in the open. Floramon however had added in her own two cents in the planning – rather than just noises why not elaborate it into a mini concert as she already had a song in mind.

"Oh please, please, let's do this right. If we want to attract this big bird out in the open, what better way to do it than organizing a mini concert? Everyone loves concerts and songs. This Aquilamon shouldn't be any different," Floramon suggested hopefully. "Besides, with my nice vocals I'm sure any guy would be a sucker to it."

Labramon groaned. "Fine, as long as YOU alone do the singing."

Floramon jumped happily. "Ok! The lyrics are already set – I got it from that cartoon Gayathri downloaded from the internet. It's JEM or something, but it's really cool. I just changed the lyrics a little to match myself. But I will need you and Patamon as background vocals. Don't worry; you two will only have to sing '_Come on, come on'_. That's all."

"Come on, come on?" Patamon asked, amused. "That's all, I hope?"

"That's all. We don't even have to rehearse. I'll make a signal with my left arm, like this…" Floramon raised her left hand and spread out her 'fingers' widely. "See? That's all."

"Well, fine!" Labramon huffed. "But nothing more."

A female Ogremon came to the three DigiWira partners, holding a stereo set complete with large speakers towards the makeshift stage, and three microphones.

"You've asked for upbeat tempo music, so I got you this music that I use for my aerobic class," Ogremon said. "Check it out."

The ogress placed the stereo down and pressed the play button. Floramon smiled upon hearing the cheerful music being played.

"It's perfect, Ogremon! Thanks!" she said bubbly.

Ogremon beamed happily. "No problem, hon. I'm more than happy to help. Oh and by the way, I've placed a blank tape inside one of the cassette slots. When you play your songs, can you press the record button as well? I'd like it if I can make a copy of your song for my aerobic class."

"Sure thing."

From a nearby forest, the three DigiWira and Agumon observed as their partners and several villagers prepared a makeshift stage for Floramon to perform. They hid themselves as not to tip off Aquilamon that it was all actually a trap to lure him out. The DigiWira sweatdropped upon seeing the elaborateness of the Floramon's plan.

"Well, it's this or Agumon's simple screaming matches between the three of them," Gayathri reasoned.

Thirty-minutes later the stage was set and Floramon took her position on the stage, striking a pose for her new Ogremon friend who was taking her pictures. Patamon and Labramon each held a smaller microphone and stood behind the flower-reptile. They then waited for everyone to clear out and Patamon pressed the play button on the CD player. The funky, cheerful music blared out loudly from the speakers and Floramon began her song after reminding her comrades of the signal she would give them.

"Yes, yes, start with it already, Floramon!" Labramon groaned.

"Ok. Here we go. One, two, three, go!"

x

_Me and my friends are DigiWira partners! _

_Floramon! That is my name!_

_Exciting adventure, fashion and fame,_

_Once you're a partner you're never the same,_

_Come on, come on,_

_And be a DigiWira partner, _

_Floramon! That is my name!_

x

As Floramon energetically began repeating the verses of her song, Labramon shot Patamon an incredulous look.

"She can't be serious!" she whispered at Patamon. "Adventure, fashion and fame?"

Patamon grinned. "It's her song. Anyway I kinda like it…it's catchy. Oh look, that's our cue…"

"COME ON, COME ON!"

"I do not know how much I can take this anymore…" Labramon groaned, and sweatdropped as Floramon began repeating the song for a third time.

"Hey, there's changes in the words," Patamon noted.

x

_Me and my friends are DigiWira partners! _

_Floramon! That is my name!_

_Truly outrageous,_

_With my human partner Gayathri, _

_We have glamour, fashion and fame!_

x

"Well, I hope she continues with this verse," Labramon said irritably. "At least we do not have to contribute."

"Don't be such a spoilsport, Labramon," Patamon chided.

"You are supposed to be the oldest among us three, please don't tell me that you actually like doing this?" the Labrador asked incredulously.

The orange-furred guinea pig shrugged. "Hey, like I've said, it's a catchy song. Oh, she's repeating the first verse. Better get ready for our cue."

"GAH!"

x

_Me and my friends are DigiWira partners! _

_Floramon! Floramon's my name!_

_Exciting adventure, fashion and fame,_

_Once you're a partner you're never the same,_

_Come on, come on,_

_And be a DigiWira partner, _

_Floramon, Floramon's my name!_

x

The music continued, but a loud screech halted Floramon from continuing with the song. All three partners looked up and saw a massive eagle appearing against the bright sun. Knowing that their plan had worked and Aquilamon had arrived, they abandoned the stage and began their fighting stances. Three beams of white, yellow and pink shot out from the forest and enveloped Patamon, Labramon and Floramon, transforming them into Sagittarimon, Youkomon and Fairymon.

"Now this is more like it," Youkomon muttered.

Aquilamon halted when he saw the three champion Digimon. While flying over the sky earlier he had heard a commotion and had decided to check it out. From afar he saw three rookies singing in the middle of the deserted Green Meadow, and was intrigued. He didn't expect that the trio of rookies had the ability to become champions.

"Bah! You're not the ones I'm looking for!" he spat out and turned around, preparing to leave. However he was intercepted by a roaring dragon scepter, which transformed back into Youkomon.

"You are not leaving until you tell us where you have taken the Penguinmon you kidnapped earlier this morning," the blue-furred fox demanded.

"You'll never find that little runt! He's a part of the general's plan!" Aquilamon replied grandly. "So you're the partners of the DigiWira. This is interesting. The general would be pleased with me if I'm able to finish off the three of you before finding the other rookie he wants. Prepare yourselves!"

"Um, hello? Three of us and one of you!" Fairymon said.

"Oh please…" Aquilamon snorted as his eyes glowed pink. _"Blast Rings!"_

"Woah!"

All three Digimon moved out of the way as two ring-shaped beams shot out from the great eagle's eyes. Fairymon flew at Aquilamon's eye level and generated a pink hurricane from her hands. Aquilamon was taken aback by the strong tornado and temporarily lost his balance. Taking advantage of Aquilamon's disconcertment Youkomon shot out nine fireballs from her tails, and the fireballs burnt the tips of Aquilamon's tail and wings. The eagle screeched in pain and retaliated by blasting his pink rings towards the two Digimon, but failed to hit the intended targets as he was also distracted by his burning wings. The beams however shot straight towards the forest, and screams were heard as the beams blasted the trees there.

Four figures ran out from the forest, and one of them instantly caught Aquilamon's attention.

"_Meteor Gallop!" _

However before he could take any action, Sagittarimon was heading his way with an attack. Aquilamon quickly flapped his massive wings, extinguishing the flames at the same time as he energized his horns with power. Then he flew towards Sagittarimon and rammed his horns on the centaur's body…only to find out that Sagittarimon's armor was too tough for his horns to break through. The giant bird yelped in pain as he was blasted by meteors erupting from Sagittarimon's hooves. The eagle tumbled on the ground, defeated by the three Digimon.

"Now, be smart, and tell us the location of that Penguinmon you've taken from Birdramon," Sagittarimon said.

Aquilamon groaned as he tried to stand on his talons. He was severely injured from Sagittarimon and Youkomon's attacks. It was obvious that he was no match for their prowess. And escaping would be impossible with him cornered on three sides by the three DigiWira partners.

"I…alright," he said dejectedly. "I'll tell, but in one condition. You'll let me escape after this."

Sagittarimon narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but decided that Aquilamon was injured and was no longer a threat to them. "Very well, it's a deal."

"Deal. Ok…this morning I took the Penguinmon to ….AAAAHHHH!"

To the three Digimon's surprise, the blades of two lithe swords suddenly burst out from Aquilamon's chest. The bird screeched in pain as black and purple smokes erupted from the tip of the swords and suffocated the giant bird. Aquilamon's eyes rolled back as his body disintegrated into data bits right in front of the three partners' eyes.

"What's going on?" Fairymon shrieked in surprise. "We didn't even lay a finger on him!"

"It was not our doing," Youkomon said grimly, her eyes narrowed watching as Aquilamon gave a bloodcurdling scream as he exploded into data particles. Her furs stood, sensing a menacing presence somewhere around the area. She immediately scanned the area, but couldn't find anybody.

The swords that killed Aquilamon also disintegrated after their prey was no longer existed.

Before everyone could process what just happened, a black energy orb zipped down from the sky and streaked past the partners, streaking towards the DigiWira and Agumon. Agumon attempted to defend the DigiWira by releasing a fireball from his snout, but the small orb flame was not enough to counter the orb. The orb surrounded Agumon after knocking all three DigiWira away at the same time, sending them tumbling on the grassy field. It then grew bigger and trapped Agumon.

"What's going on?" Gayathri cried, frightened of the sudden turn of events.

In a blink of the eyes, the orb which entrapped Agumon vanished in a puff of black and purple smokes, leaving the DigiWira and their partners speechless.

xxx

xxx

"It happened so fast, we didn't even know how or by whom Agumon was captured," Adam related the whole event to TobuCatmon.

"This is indeed strange and unexpected," TobuCatmon agreed, frowning as he processed the recent news he was hearing.

"What would the dark forces want with Agumon and Penguinmon?" Patamon wondered.

TobuCatmon remained silent, seemingly lost in his own world. He looked absolutely troubled. Something clicked on his mind. There was a hidden agenda behind the kidnapping of these two rookie Digimon. TobuCatmon saw the pattern instantly. He wasn't sure, but there was no other explanation that would sound as plausible as the one he'd come up with. Yet, there was no use troubling the DigiWira anymore than they had been.

"I believe we'll find out about that soon," he said finally, answering Patamon's question. "There's nothing we could do about this for the time being, except hoping that wherever they are, Agumon and Penguinmon are safe. Return to your world DigiWira, and get ample rest. I won't lie to you…the situation is getting more precarious. You and your partners really need to be well-rested, well-fed and on alert. There's no telling when the next time you will be summoned."

The DigiWira murmured their agreement and picked up their respective partners. Using the digital port they were all transported back to their home world, leaving TobuCatmon on his own.

TobuCatmon flew down onto the floor and pushed the rattan mat aside. Below the mat, etched on the floor was a large circle, with a pentagram drawn inside of the circle. Each of the five points ended with a circle, and they were chalked with different colors. They were white, yellow, pink, blue and red.

"Penguinmon is a marine Digimon…and Agumon is a fire-type," TobuCatmon said softly, his eyes watching intently the blue and red circles. "Could it be…after so long?"

xxx

xxx

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **I apologize for the long delay for my three stories. Although I've said that I would update Vengeance first, but the newest chapter proved to be rather difficult to write and I have been absent for quite a while, so I've decided that I would start updating with the currently-lighter Wira Digital series, which is easier to write at the moment. I can't promise when will the next update will be ready or which story will be updated next, but I will finish what I have started. Only time will tell. I really hope that I could update often during the summer holidays, as I now have my own laptop, compared to last year.


	5. Pink With Envy

"_Judgment Arrow!"_

"_Fox Tail Inferno!"_

"_Hurricane Wave!"_

The meteorites generated from Sagittarimon's hooves, combined with Youkomon's nine fireballs and Fairymon's pink hurricane, coalesced together in the midair of that cold night and rammed against a massive white rooster, sending it flying before crashing on the stony ground. The attacks from the DigiWira Digimon managed to scorch the chicken's formerly white feathers into shades of black and grey. The chicken crowed as it struggled to get up, its eyes flashing crimson as it did. Shaking its head which made its red plumage dangling left and right, it turned around to face its opponent and crowed loudly against the breezy Sunday night as its sharp talons scratched the barren ground.

"You know, I suddenly have this urge to go and buy some fried chickens after we're finished with this," Adam commented jokingly as he observed their latest Digimon menace. He grinned cheekily as his shoulder was lightly slapped by Gayathri. "Sorry. Pun fully intended, nevertheless."

"Ugh," Liu Ying said with disgust. "Out of all Digimon I've seen for the past six months I've been a DigiWira, this HAS to be the most ridiculous Digimon of all."

Gayathri crossed her arms over her body. "Tell me about it. But you've got to admit, this one's a tough one. The combined attacks from our partners didn't cause him to flee or anything. Instead he looks like he's seriously mad at us."

"And I thought we've finally got some leads on what's going on with the kidnappings of Agumon and Penguinmon yesterday," Adam grunted.

The three DigiWira were watching the battle between their partners and the strange rooster from a safe distance. Earlier, when they had received signals via their D3 Digivices and the D-Terminals, all of them had thought that TobuCatmon had contacted them regarding to the mysterious abductions of the two rookie Digimon that had occurred the previous day. As it was already nightfall and on a weekend, the three teens had quite a time trying to access the Digital World without rousing suspicion from their families. They were disappointed when TobuCatmon told them that he still didn't have the answers they wanted, but rather they were needed to deal with a somewhat minor threat.

"Welcome to the world of the DigiWira, Adam," Liu Ying said dryly. "Sometimes, occurrences like this happen."

Gayathri snorted. "But it certainly doesn't make it any less annoying. I still have one page of Science to cover for tomorrow, and Science is the first class Adam and I am going to have tomorrow."

"That'll teach you not to wait to do everything at the last minute," the fairer girl retorted, but there was no malice in her tone. She then offered Gayathri a smile to remove whatever little sting present in the comment.

And it seemed that Gayathri didn't take any offence of what had just been said to her. She smiled back, revealing her set of sparkling white teeth.

"Well…I've got a good reason for that. You see, we - my parents and I – went for a high-tea at Manny's house in the afternoon."

Adam cleared his throat. "What I'm interested to know is that how you two told your families about…this?"

"My family knows that I'm a DigiWira but still…it's a Sunday night and we have school tomorrow. My mother almost didn't allow me to go…and hadn't Shaomon been so polite and convincing I probably wouldn't be here by now," Liu Ying said as she observed the four Digimon, where everything seemed to have reached a standstill.

"At least you won't have to make up any stories to come here," Adam pointed out with a frown. "I'm just lucky my sister decides that she didn't feel like cooking tonight and decided to go to buy some takeouts instead rather than order a pizza."

"You still haven't told anyone about _us_?" Gayathri inquired disapprovingly. "Trust me, you really should, it'll make your life a lot easier."

"I'm waiting for the right time to tell my sister," Adam replied, thinking about his older sister. "She's been quite busy lately."

"She'd be wondering where in the world you are at this time of night, when she got back with those takeouts," Liu Ying reminded the sole male DigiWira.

"Oh shoot! They better fry that chicken quickly, or else, _I'll_ be the one who'd get fried!"

Unbeknownst to the DigiWira, several meters up and hidden against the darkened stratus, two Digimon were hovering silently as they too, observed the battle between the large rooster and the three DigiWira partners. The battle had resumed, but it looked like it was not going to be on the rooster's favor. The partners didn't even attack it altogether. Sagittarimon took a step back and observed as Fairymon delivered a flurry of high-kicks onto the bird's pelt and wings, while Youkomon standing guard nearby.

"I've told you; sending that Cockatrimon is not a good idea!" Shutumon groaned. "He can't hope to match the powers of those Digi-freaks."

"Hey, it was the best I could find in such a short notice," Sorcerymon said defensively. "The general wants a distraction while he executes the master's plan. And I've found us a distraction. Besides you know yourself that the Cockatrimon is only half of what I have in mind."

Shutumon shrugged. "Fine. Whatever. Have you got the spell ready?"

"I'm still memorizing it. Just give me a couple more minutes."

"I'd give you all the time you need; it's just that…that big bird you've got us probably won't be around after a few seconds!"

"Hey, Cockatrimon's not that bad. Besides the DigiWira partners don't delete Digimon unnecessarily, or so I heard."

"If the chicken doesn't come across those pesky kids, they won't," Shutumon grumbled. "HURRY UP! We don't have all night."

Sorcerymon closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, amidst the sounds of yells and small explosions down below. His mouth let out a barely audible string of chants. Shutumon glanced at her smaller companion with impatience reflected from her clear eyes. True to his word, Sorcerymon opened his eyes no longer than two minutes later, and nodded slightly with a smile. With a slight gesture with his head, the sorcerer in white gestured for his bird-woman companion to move down towards the ground slowly.

In the meantime, a pink tornado sent Cockatrimon flying several meters across the empty region as Fairymon pulled down her arms to her sides. Her glittering butterfly wings illuminated her beautiful features against the dark night; truly a sight to behold. She had defeated Cockatrimon soundly and seemed to be proud of her achievement as Sagittarimon and Youkomon approached her. Turning sideways, she smiled at her fellow partners.

"Looks like we get to call this a night," she declared, pointing towards the fallen Cockatrimon. "I believe I've knocked him out."

True enough, the Cockatrimon didn't move after being knocked down by Fairymon. Instead a faint black aura seemed to emanate from the chicken's body, before a thin wisp of vapor rose up from the avian Digimon's head and disappeared in the midst of the dark night. Cockatrimon was defeated, but the DigiWira partners didn't delete him as he was not a direct threat compared to Deltamon and Lynxmon which they had faced several days before. And the sudden deletion of Aquilamon the previous day was still fresh in their minds.

"Let's just leave him as that and go, I don't think he's going to pose any harm to anyone," Sagittarimon suggested, eyeing the disappearing smoke with his sharp eyes critically.

"Oh-HO! Not so fast you three!"

The DigiWira partners were stunned when they saw Shutumon and Sorcerymon descended from the sky. Sagittarimon and Youkomon groaned in displeasure upon seeing the reaction of their fellow partner when she saw the two sudden comers. The last thing they wanted to see was for their fairy friend to lose it once again, just like she had two days before. Both quadrupled Digimon inched closer to their humanoid comrade while keeping eyes on the two villainous Digimon.

"YOU!" Fairymon hissed.

"Me," Shutumon said with a wink. "And I've got a gift for you. Sorcerymon!"

Sorcerymon pointed his white staff towards the DigiWira partners and grinned wickedly. As he waved the staff a little, the staff began to shimmer with soft blue light. Then without warning a blue jet of light shot out from the staff, heading towards the partners with speed as quick as lightning.

However, alert as always, Youkomon successfully jumped out of way, although her tails were nearly grazed by the bolt of blue light. Sagittarimon attempted to move, but he need not to, the blue bolt knocked his crimson torso armor and was instantly deflected, much to the dismay of the bad duo. However Shutumon smirked as Fairymon was not as quick or as protected as her friends in avoiding the blast deflected from Sagittarimon's armor. The blast hit her squarely on the face and body, and Shutumon waited in anticipation for the attack to take effect.

Five seconds passed. Ten seconds passed. And fifteen seconds passed as Shutumon and Sorcerymon observed Fairymon with anticipation.

"Uh…ok, what was _that_?" Fairymon asked airily, confused and relieved at the same time. Nothing happened to her after being hit by the blue bolt.

Shutumon face-faulted and smacked Sorcerymon on the head. "Sorcerymon, you dolt! Your spell didn't work!"

"OWW!" the white wizard cried indignantly as he rubbed his head. "It should! I memorized all the words and methods of executing it. It should work!"

"Well it didn't! Obviously you screwed up something, somehow!" Shutumon seethed angrily.

"Um…yoo-hoo! You two?" Fairymon called out perkily, putting her hands on her hips. "We really need to get going and we don't have time for this?"

Sorcerymon snorted loftily and stepped forward, thrusting his staff forward. "Well, I suggest, you make time…now."

Nine streaks of red fireballs jetted over Fairymon's head and sides and collided with the ground in front of Sorcerymon with a solid sound of an explosion. The evil duo shivered slightly upon meeting the piercing glare of a blue-furred kitsune whose wrath seemed to be not the one they would like to incur.

"Or not," Sorcerymon said with a nervous giggle. "Ciao!"

With a poof of white smoke, both he and Shutumon vanished from the battlefield, to the confusion of the partners, and the DigiWira themselves. They went towards their partners as they de-Digivolved back into their rookie levels, and Gayathri quickly inspected Floramon for any wounds or scars.

"I'm fine, Gayathri, don't worry," Floramon assured her human partner. She was rewarded by a hug by Gayathri.

"If you ask me, this is rather odd," Labramon commented as Liu Ying patted her head.

"Why's that, Labramon?" Patamon inquired as he perched on top of Adam's head, after making sure that it was ok with the boy. He had recently found that it was very comfortable.

"Well, the battle we had with Cockatrimon was rather pointless, and suddenly those two showed up and fired a harmless bolt of light towards Fairymon before disappearing again…something seems to be wrong somewhere," Labramon explained.

"We can ask TobuCatmon to check our Digimon out for any…thing unusual?" Adam inquired, looking at the other two more experienced DigiWira.

"Yes, we can do that," Gayathri confirmed. "Then we can go back."

"What about that Cockatrimon?" Adam asked.

"Well…usually we just leave the defeated Digimon be. He'd be unconscious for quite a while," Liu Ying explained. "Let's go back to the Forest Sanctum."

Adam cast one last look at the unconscious Cockatrimon and frowned upon looking at his blackened feathers. Some of the feathers on his wings were frayed and bruises were evident on the left side of the cockatrice's face. It was a rather pitiful sight. "Ugh. I take back what I've said before. You know… the pun I've made about the chicken thing? On the contrary, I think I've had enough of chickens today."

"Hear, hear," Liu Ying muttered.

As they started their way back to the Forest Sanctum, which was not far away from where they were at, nobody noticed a very faint blue smoke coming out from Floramon and entered the D3 which was clipped on the belt of Gayathri's uniform. The D3's screen flickered momentarily and let out a buzz. Gayathri's hand instinctively reached for her D3, and in a blink of the eye the same transparent smoke entered her right hand and irradiated upwards towards her forearm, arm, shoulder, neck, and face before finally entering the pretty girl's almond eyes. Gayathri was walking behind Adam and Liu Ying, thus nobody noticed this occurrence taking place. Not even Gayathri or Floramon noticed that something had happened, thus it wasn't strange when TobuCatmon too didn't find anything strange on any of them and permitted them to return back to their home-world.

Upon exiting his computer, Adam quickly straightened himself up upon hearing the doorknob of his apartment's main door was being opened. Patamon remained still on the chair, pretending to be a stuffed toy. The monitor was not displaying anything other than the anime wallpaper Adam had installed. The teenage boy looked at the door eagerly as Alisha Ariff entered the apartment with two red-and-white colored plastic bags.

"Hi Adam," she said smilingly, and raised one of the plastic bags she was holding. "I hope you don't mind but I feel like eating KFC tonight."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 05 – Pink With Envy_**

xxx

xxx

After leaving Shaomon at the computer room Liu Ying started her way towards her classroom that Monday morning. Yesterday's attack didn't seem to faze her at all, as she had immediately went back to sleep after returning to the Digital World. Smiling inwardly, she was glad that her mother, grandfather and younger brother knew about her being a DigiWira – it had saved her from making up excuses whenever she needed to go to the Digital World.

Taking her seat in her classroom, she began taking out her stationeries when her teacher came in. Promptly all of the students rose from their seats to greet the elderly female teacher who taught them Geography for that first period. She was a woman in her late forties, known by her gray hairs held back in a bun and her large thick glasses. Those were her trademarks, as the students cheekily put in. That day she was wearing a red and yellow floral-patterned _baju kurung. _The teacher returned the greeting and beckoned for them to return to their seats and promptly opened her textbook to begin the lesson for that day. However before she could begin, a knock on the door interrupted her.

"Yes?" she asked with a mild irritation, and adjusted her large glasses while glancing sideways towards the door.

It was known that Mrs. Rohana Jalil was one of those teachers who disliked being interrupted while she was teaching, and students usually would remain silent as not to invoke her rather short temper. One student had made that mistake earlier that month, and the whole class had to endure a half-an-hour lecture by Mrs. Rohana of being respectful to the elderly and how important it was for them to pay attention in class if they wanted to receive good marks in the examination.

All twenty-nine students of Class 2B now had their attentions towards the door, where a strapping teenager with short black hair was standing nervously. Liu Ying immediately recognized the boy as she had met him last Saturday. Gayathri had introduced Emmanuel Abah to her and Adam, and they had joined the computer club together.

"Good morning, teacher," the teen greeted politely. "I…"

"Why are you late?" Mrs. Rohana asked promptly before the teen could continue, and he was taken aback by the question. "Class has started for five minutes."

"Um…I was told by the administration clerk that I'm supposed to come here to start today's class. I just got transferred from Sabah…"

The hardened expression on Mrs. Rohana's face softened slightly. "Oh. A new student. Excuse me. Come in and introduce yourself to the whole class."

Manny walked into the class and stood nervously in front of the whole classroom as the teacher moved to stand beside her table. He placed the indigo bag he was carrying down and looked at everyone, and his troubled face looked slightly relieved upon recognizing Liu Ying amidst the strangers. Liu Ying smiled slightly and gave an encouraging nod as her eyes traveled to the empty seat located at the back of the class, beside the table of a burly dark-skinned teenager who was looking outside the window. The empty seat had belonged to a boy who had transferred to another school about one week after the term had begun.

"Hello. I'm Emmanuel Abah, but people usually call me Manny. I come from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah," Manny said with a loud, but slightly quivering voice.

"Alright, that will do for now, you can get acquainted with the students later after my class," Mrs. Rohana said quickly. "You can take your seat beside Theeban….Theeban! Stop your daydreaming and raise your hand so that Emmanuel knows where he should be sitting!"

The burly teen sitting beside the empty seat immediately turned his face to look at the teacher and raised his hand, grinning sheepishly. Manny immediately took his seat and the teacher resumed her lesson, as if nothing had happened beforehand. The lesson went on non-stop for the next forty minutes before the bell rang, signaling the end of the first period. She immediately wrote down the list of tasks that she expected her students to complete and promptly walked out of the classroom.

Instantly the quiet classroom was filled with excited whispers and everyone turned their attentions towards the new boy. Some of them got up from their seats and took advantage of the five-minutes interval breaks to get to know Manny; many were intrigued by his accent which was slightly different from the people originated from Peninsular Malaysia. Liu Ying watched the commotion with an amused smile as another tall, but thin, male teenager, wearing a dark green tie with a red nametag marking the word _CLASS MONITOR _pinned on it, and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, approached her table. This was Class 2B's monitor, Hafiz.

"Hey, Millie, Liu Ying," he greeted towards Liu Ying and the girl sitting beside her.

"Just a sec, Hafiz," the girl beside Liu Ying said without raising her head up. She was busy writing something in her notebook while looking at the opened exercise book on Liu Ying's table. "Let me finish jotting the notes from Liu Ying's book."

Hafiz nodded and turned towards Liu Ying. "Usually you would be the one who would stop this kind of commotion," he remarked with a smile.

"Yes, I would. But actually, that's supposed to be _your_ job," Liu Ying replied as she observed her classmates welcoming Manny to the class.

Hafiz grinned. "You're the second assistant head prefect. They'd listen to you more than me."

"You have more leverage while _inside_ the class. _Outside_ however, is a different story," Liu Ying pointed out with a grin. "Besides, you know that the class would listen to you as well. You've done a pretty good job last year – that's why the class insisted that you remain the monitor."

"You out of all people in this classroom should know that they reelected me as monitor again this year because they know I won't have the heart to complain to the teacher of who's making the noises in this class," Hafiz snorted.

"That's why we love you," the girl beside Liu Ying chipped in with a playful smile. She was a vivacious brunette girl with straight, shoulder-length hair framing her oval face. Her dimpled smile made her look quite attractive.

"Yeah, right, Millie," Hafiz snorted, blushing slightly. He looked at the prefect instead of the girl beside her. "So…should I ask them to return to their seats?"

"Well, as long as it doesn't get out of control, let them be," Liu Ying assured Hafiz. "Won't you go and introduce yourself to Manny? You're the class monitor, after all."

"I would, and how about you?" Hafiz asked.

"I've known him already; he was here on Saturday with a friend of mine who brought him to school to have a look-around. He has joined the Computer Club and the Ninjutsu Club."

Millie looked at the prefect suspiciously. "Ooohh. _You_ seem to know _a lot_ about the new boy here, Liu Ying. Now, has our stickler prefect has interest…."

"Wait a second, and erase that thought," Liu Ying interrupted her friend and held up her palm just an inch away from Millie's mouth. Hafiz laughed lightly but turned it into a cough when Liu Ying glared at him as well. "We're just friends, Millie," she stated firmly. '_Besides I know someone who's having more interest in Manny, more than just friends_,' she added mentally.

"Oh…ok. Sorry. Well, come on Hafiz, let's go and introduce ourselves." Millie got up from her seat and went with the class monitor towards where Manny was sitting. Before leaving their tables however, she leaned closer to Liu Ying and whispered to the prefect's ear. "You know, if you do like him, it's not a problem. We're teenagers after all and…"

"Millie!" Liu Ying gave her friend a glare. She turned to Hafiz and gave him an incredulous look. "Hafiz, control your girlfriend!" she hissed.

Hafiz shrugged and Millie giggled hysterically. Liu Ying shook her head in amusement as she watched the couple heading towards Manny's table, deciding to inform Gayathri about Manny being her new classmate. She wondered whether Gayathri would be disappointed that Manny ended up in Class 2B instead of Class 2A where Gayathri and Adam were.

xxx

xxx

Gayathri was feeling uneasy the whole day. She got up in the morning with a headache, and had even considered skipping school for that one day before deciding to go, as she had spent quite some time the previous night to complete her homework and preparing for her lessons today. Her effort would be pointless if she missed school. Bypassing the mirror on her vanity table before going out from her room that morning, she was glad that her complexion was dark as it made the dark circles around her eyes looked less obvious.

School went by rather uneventfully for her. She simply could not concentrate on her lessons, and was not being particularly good with it as well. The girl sitting beside her had commented that she looked sick, and Gayathri believed her – there was no fever and it was not _that_ time of the month. All the time she tried to figure out what could be bugging her, only to be left even more in the dark. She kept having the urge to simply snap at somebody as a way to vent, but her natural easy-going tendencies had kept that at bay. At least, for the time being...

'_I don't know how long I can handle this,'_ she thought desperately. _'The pain is killing me…'_

Her temples ached by the time the recess ball rang. The students began to clear out from the classroom and Gayathri was relieved. The noises made by her classmates were not particularly loud, but to Gayathri somehow they were amplified to the point of deafening. She could hear the soft conversation between Adam and Hakim in front of her as if they were speaking over a microphone. Annoyance sparked from within her and she resisted the urge to snap towards the two boys, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Are you coming, Adam?"

"Well, you go first. There's something I need to ask Gayathri first."

"Ok… do you want me to buy you something? It's not a problem."

"A plate of that fried _kuey-teow _would be fine. Thanks Hakim, you're the best."

"Don't I know it? Heh. Anyway, don't take too long. And you're buying the drinks."

As Hakim went out of the classroom, Gayathri saw Adam turning towards her, looking at her with obvious concern. The throbbing on her temples had spread quickly towards her forehead and the back of her head. At the time, she wished for nobody to speak with her. Unfortunately for Gayathri, that was not going to happen.

"Is anything wrong, Gayathri? You look _awful_," Adam inquired with concern.

Something triggered inside Gayathri's mind, as the question Adam had posed echoed loudly in her head. Gayathri groaned and clutched her head, as the words '_You look awful'_ were echoed repeatedly, each reverberations changed the tone slowly from genuine concern to a simple unfeeling statement before the echoes began to sound terribly wrong…it had sounded downright insulting and before she knew it, anger swelled from out of nowhere.

"Are you saying that I look _ugly_?" Gayathri hissed towards the boy hoarsely.

Adam gasped in surprise. "What? No…that wasn't what I meant! I was just asking…"

"Oh, save it! Just get out and leave me alone," Gayathri barked back. "Get out!"

The dark-haired boy was absolutely taken aback with Gayathri's attitude, so shocked he was that he was left speechless. He tried to protest but suddenly his eyes caught a faint red glimmer from Gayathri's doe-like eyes. He blinked and the glow was gone. He looked around the classroom and was thankful that the class was empty, the commotion would have roused questions which he himself didn't have the answer. Wondering whether he was hallucinating or not, he waited for a while, staring at Gayathri to see whether he could catch the girl's eyes glowing again. His friend's attitude was puzzling him. However, what he was doing only served to infuriate the girl.

"I told you. Get. OUT. NOW!"

Unsure of what to do, Adam slowly exited the classroom via the back door. Gayathri saw the hurt look flashed briefly across Adam's face, but it was also over-layered with concern. The boy quickly exited the classroom and headed towards the stairs. The anger within her dimmed considerably.

"Oh dear, what have I done…" Gayathri whispered to herself regretfully. "What's gotten into me?"

Before she could ponder upon this however, Liu Ying appeared at the entrance of the classroom. "Oh good, you're here," the willowy girl said with a smile, but as soon as she saw the look on her friend's face instantly she knew something was amiss. "Are you ok?"

"No, I have a headache…" Gayathri moaned.

Liu Ying entered the classroom and went up to her friend's table. "Maybe you should go to the infirmary and lie down?"

"I guess so," Gayathri muttered as she hung her head down. She pressed her forehead, frowning in pain.

"Come on, I'll bring your bag with you," Liu Ying offered kindly. "And I have something to tell you. It's about Manny."

"What about him?" Gayathri asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. Hearing Liu Ying mentioning Manny caused a new feeling to emerge from within Gayathri's mind.

Liu Ying could have sworn that she saw something flickered from Gayathri's eyes, but it was gone just as sudden as it had appeared. She decided that it must have been a trick of light, and brushed it off. "Manny is in my class. He came in this morning."

"And I bet you're _thrilled_ about it, don't you?" Gayathri snapped angrily. Her tone was ugly and Liu Ying was taken aback by the response.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't play dumb, Liu Ying! Now that he's in your class, there's your chance to take him away from me!"

Liu Ying's eyebrows knitted together. "What in the world are you talking about?" she said in a low tone, glaring at her fellow DigiWira and friend.

"Oh, how about this…_Looks like we have something in common_," Gayathri said scathingly, mimicking Liu Ying's words towards Manny last Saturday when the two of them were talking about martial arts preferences. "Now that you're classmates, guess what? You two now have _more_ than one thing in common. I bet you're happy now. And I'll take that!" she snatched her bag from Liu Ying's hands and stared at her friend with a hardened look on her face.

Liu Ying was beyond surprised; she was now irritated by the accusations thrown towards her. And for that moment she lost control of her temper and let it got the best of her.

"Boy, jealousy is one ugly thing up close," she said tartly.

Gayathri snorted and brushed past the prefect, purposely bumping into the taller girl before rushing out from the classroom. Her brisk paces changed into a full sprint once she was outside, leaving her friend bewildered with her actions. But right then, she couldn't care less as the anger just would not go away, haunting her and echoes of what Liu Ying had just said remained in her head, further fueling her fury towards her friend.

"So she thinks that she's getting Manny?" she muttered to herself, her dark irises now harbored a faint red tint. "Not without a fight she will!"

xxx

xxx

_BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

The bell just rang when Liu Ying's D-Terminal beeped continuously. Luckily the beeping sound, loud as it was, was drowned by the noises made by the excited conversations of students as they were preparing to go back. The sounds of chairs being pulled out from the tables and the students getting up from their seats further made the beeping D-Terminal noise less obvious. Liu Ying wondered what the emergency was and as she waited for her classmates to clear out from the classroom, her thoughts drifted to Gayathri.

After recess, Liu Ying couldn't get herself to concentrate for her lessons. Once, Millie had asked her about a mathematical equation which Liu Ying should not have any problem in solving, yet she couldn't solve the question during the first try, whereas during every other day she could easily cracked the question without even thinking, she would just let her hands do all the solving. Millie had commented about Liu Ying being sluggish, but before Liu Ying could explain herself Millie laughed it off, saying that every person had their off moment, and that _she_ had actually spent the whole lesson daydreaming.

She was further disturbed when she had come across Adam at the canteen. The boy had commented that Gayathri was acting very strange in the class, being very quiet at one time and infuriated at the other, both didn't fit the vibrant girl's natural characteristic at all. Liu Ying had thought that Gayathri was overreacting about Manny being in her class, but there was no reason for the girl to be angry with Adam as well.

Her eyes suddenly set on a pretty girl with a ponytail, who was just about to leave the class. "Dina…wait up!" Liu Ying called as she got up from her seat. This girl was a close friend with Gayathri, and she might know what was actually bothering Gayathri.

Wardina Fadlullah halted, standing just by the doorway as she turned to face Liu Ying. "Yes?"

Liu Ying approached her and decided to just ask straight to the point. "Did you notice anything strange about Gayathri this morning?"

Dina thought about it, her small smile vanished as a look of concern replaced her face. "She did look rather odd before the assembly…and I didn't see her during recess. Strange, because usually she would hang out with Bel and me, but she didn't show up today. Why do you ask?" Dina eyed Liu Ying curiously. "I didn't know that you two are friends?"

Before Gayathri became a DigiWira, Liu Ying never had the reason to speak with her, and knew the other girl only by name as she was Dina's friend, and Dina was her classmate. Even after Gayathri was selected, their initial friendship was not known to others as they didn't get along well during the first couple of months, one of those month being the annual end of the year's one month holiday. It was only after school reopened and a few weeks before Adam found the White DigiSphere that the two DigiWira girls managed to get along with each other.

"We're in the same computer club," Liu Ying answered smoothly. It was the truth, but not wholly.

"Oh, right, Gaya did mention about it," Dina nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "Well, I don't know what's been troubling her, but Bel and I intend to ask her about it during our tonight's chatting session. I'll let you know about it tomorrow if you want."

'_Maybe you don't have to if I managed to get to the bottom of this, this afternoon,'_ Liu Ying thought silently, but nodded. "That will be great. Thanks, Dina."

"See you tomorrow," Dina said as she picked up her textbook from where she had placed it, and stepped out…only to run over into someone. "Ah..!"

"Oh! Sorry!" a familiar voice cried out, and Liu Ying was a little amused to see that Adam and Dina had bumped into each other. The girl had dropped her textbook on the floor, and both of them then attempted to retrieve the book at the same time, only to bump their heads into each other again. Adam then quickly bent down again to pick up the book as Dina was rubbing her forehead, now slightly reddish against her fair complexion.

"Uh…thanks, Adam," Dina said, barely audibly as her cheeks reddened as well.

Adam nodded, and Liu Ying took notice of how the two of them were blushing. She smiled inwardly as she recalled that Gayathri had mentioned some time ago that Dina did have a liking for Adam, it was before the boy became a DigiWira. What she _didn't_ know was that apparently the feeling was mutual.

"You're welcome," Liu Ying heard Adam replied, or rather, croaked. "Are you ok?" his voice became normal, with a somewhat bashful quality which didn't show up while directed to Liu Ying or Gayathri. "Sorry I bumped into you like that."

"No…I wasn't looking at where I was going," Dina assured, and smiled slightly at Adam who was standing right in front of her. "Uh…I need to go."

"Oh! Sorry. Sure thing." Adam quickly moved out of the way and watched as the pony-tailed girl walked past him with a careful pace. He then sighed as he turned towards Liu Ying.

Liu Ying smiled as she took out her D-Terminal. "What was that between you and Dina?"

"An accident, that's all," Adam said quickly as he walked into the classroom. The blush on his cheeks vanished as his face harbored a troubled look. "Gayathri didn't show up at all after class!"

"What!" Liu Ying gasped and flipped open her D-Terminal. She frowned and snorted, "I don't _believe_ this!" She held up her D-Terminal, the screen facing Adam. "It's from Gayathri."

The male DigiWira read out loud the digital words that showed up on the screen.

_Come to the Digital World's Green Meadow after school. We'll settle this once and for all with a battle between our partners. If I win, you can NOT approach Manny in any way at all. If you win…well, I will make sure THAT does not happen._

_P/S: Adam, if you're reading this, DO NOT interfere. This is between me and Liu Ying._

"Unbelievable," Adam said. "This could get ugly," he continued, as flashes of images of Fairymon and Shutumon's nasty catfight played in his mind. He cringed slightly as he imagined Fairymon and Youkomon having the same kind of fight. It didn't turn out very well as he'd somehow imagined Youkomon burning Fairymon's translucent wings and zigzagged purple hair. "Really, really ugly indeed."

Liu Ying snapped close her D-Terminal. Her thin brows furrowed with worry. "I better go to the computer room. You…well, although Gayathri did mention about you not interfering, it would be good if you come as well."

"Don't worry, I'll come," Adam assured the troubled girl. "Let me just tell Hakim that I won't be able to follow him back today, due to…uh…"

"Emergency computer club meeting," Liu Ying promptly said.

"That could work," Adam nodded.

"Just be quick about it. I'll wait for you at the computer room."

"Ok. Don't worry, Patamon's there as well. I left him with Jackie before the assembly."

A few minutes later Adam came into the computer room and Patamon instantly flew from the table and landed on Adam's head, messing up the boy's dark hair slightly. Not that Adam minded; his hair had always been easy to manage, and seemed to be fixed at its parted-in-the-middle state. Liu Ying was already holding Shaomon, who was nibbling some banana fritters.

"According to Jackie, Gayathri came in here during recess time, snatched Tanemon and went into the Digital World," Liu Ying briefed Adam with what Jackie had just told her earlier.

"She was acting really strange," Jackie Chan, the blue-eyed computer instructor agreed as he ran his hand into his spiky brown hair. "Strange for a girl like her. Gayathri has always been very polite…except for today. And now she's initiating a fight with Liu Ying, not just a fight…a Digimon Battle."

"She literally pushed Jackie aside and grabbed Tanemon by her leaves," Patamon added. "Rough, for a girl like her. She looked as if she was possessed. Poor Tanemon was whimpering in pain."

"The Gayathri I know will never do such a thing to anyone, let alone her own Digimon partner whom she is very closely attached to," Shaomon said sensibly. "Patamon may be right about this."

"Maybe you should talk to TobuCatmon about this," Jackie advised. "He might know what is going on."

"Hopefully. I really don't want to fight Gayathri," Liu Ying said worriedly, "and I don't want Shaomon to fight Tanemon as well."

"There's one way to solve this, and it could only be done in the Digital World," Adam said resolutely, holding up his D3 Digivice in front of the monitor. Liu Ying followed suit.

"DIGIPORT OPEN!"

xxx

xxx

"This is indeed very strange," TobuCatmon agreed after Liu Ying explained to the sagely bat-cat about Gayathri's bizarre behavior. "She came here earlier, but didn't offer any explanation at all. Floramon had simply Digivolved into Fairymon and carried Gayathri out from the Forest Sanctum."

"Patamon thought that Gayathri might've been possessed," Adam supplied.

"And how do you suppose that happened?" TobuCatmon inquired interestedly.

Adam glanced towards his partner and raised his brows. "Well, Patamon?"

The orange-furred bat-pig shrugged. "That, I don't know. And I only said that Gayathri _looked_ as if she was possessed."

"However, that's the only theory we have for now, illogical as how it may sound," Liu Ying said. "But I couldn't think of any other explanation too so I have to go with this one too." Then her D-Terminal beeped again, causing the pale-skinned girl to wince. She took out the said device and read it out loud for all others to hear.

_Hurry up! I don't have all day! Do I have to drag you here or would you come here yourself!_

"Until we get to the bottom of this, Labramon…try your very best not to attack Fairymon, only defend yourself. Adam, Patamon, you two will remain here with me for a moment."

"WHAT!" Both Liu Ying and Adam roared in protest.

"But TobuCatmon," Adam objected. "Youkomon might need Sagittarimon's help, especially if she's only going to defend herself."

Their mentor's face had a resolute look on it, meaning that nothing they say would be able to change his mind. "Liu Ying and Labramon shall handle Gayathri and her partner for the time being. It's important for you to remain here for now, I wish to ask you in detail of last night's event. Perhaps Gayathri's problem is rooted from there. Was she acting weird last night?"

"No," Liu Ying answered. "She was being her usual self."

"That's an important lead," TobuCatmon said. "Liu Ying, Labramon, go now. Adam and Patamon shall join you later."

The female team murmured their agreements reluctantly and hustled out from the thick jungle of the Forest Sanctum. TobuCatmon then hovered in front of the dark-haired male DigiWira.

"Now Adam, tell me in detail of last night's battle. Do not miss any single detail, however minute or insignificant it might seem."

Adam began explaining about the battle they had with Cockatrimon, and the sudden yet unfruitful, appearances of Shutumon and Sorcerymon. TobuCatmon's interest was roused when Adam mentioned lightly about Sorcerymon's failed attack on Fairymon.

"Wait. You didn't mention this to me last night," TobuCatmon pointed out.

"I didn't think it was important. It didn't have any effect on Fairymon at all, but Sorcerymon seemed really, really surprised that his 'spell' didn't work…"

"It _might_ have worked after all…only instead of affecting Fairymon, somehow this 'spell' Sorcerymon cast last night had affected Gayathri," TobuCatmon said.

"How's that possible?" Adam asked. "Gayathri wasn't even hit by the attack."

"There is a strong bond between a DigiWira and his or her Digimon partner. This bond works in a mysterious, yet wondrous way. I have heard tales from the other parts of the Digital World of how these bonds between humans and Digimon manifest. Just by being partners, the bond is established between them, at the most primal level. This will require more elaboration, but now is not the time. I am convinced however that Sorcerymon's spell is the reason behind Gayathri's misbehaviors today," TobuCatmon said with surety. "And Fairymon's too, now that I think of it," he added as an afterthought.

"So what should I do?" Adam inquired.

"To counter a wizard's spell we shall require assistance from another wizard. Sorcerymon's magical powers are moderate at best, but this spell seems to be at a higher level than what I would anticipate Sorcerymon would come up with. However there is still hope.

"There is a wizard Digimon living at the feet of the mountainous region over the west. He is called Wizardmon, and he is rumored to have been around since the time when Grademon was still alive, so experience-wise, he should have the upper-hand against Sorcerymon."

Adam nodded. "Is the mountain region far from here?"

"Nothing Sagittarimon can't handle," Patamon said confidently, and TobuCatmon nodded. "And I can recognize a Wizardmon so there shouldn't be a problem on that too."

"Then it's settled," Adam said. "We're going."

Together the sole male DigiWira team rushed out from the Forest Sanctum, and TobuCatmon watched them until both human and Digimon were out of his sight and their voices were no longer heard, drowned by the thickness of the jungle.

xxx

xxx

Liu Ying and Youkomon arrived at the Green Meadow within ten minutes after departing from the Forest Sanctum. The day was windy, and rather cloudy. Liu Ying shivered slightly as she felt the cool air emanating around her. Luckily her uniform prevented her from feeling any colder than she already was.

"It's quite chilly today," she commented, and tucked several strands of her straight raven hair behind her ears. However she was having difficulty in restraining her hair as the winds became stronger. The yellow headband she was wearing suddenly flew out from her head, causing her long hair to get messed as it flew in different directions.

"What in the world?" the girl groaned irritably and looked around.

"Nice of you to finally be here," a ringing voice called out to her. Turning towards their right, both representatives of the Yellow DigiSphere saw Gayathri standing several yards away from them, hands on her hips. She had a pleased look on her face, layered with an unexplainable menacing quality. Behind her was Fairymon, floating in midair about three meters from the grassy ground.

"I was getting tired of waiting," Gayathri continued with a voice quite unlike her own. Instead of sounding cheerful and perky as it usually sounded, her voice was rather forceful. "Now that you're here…"

"Gayathri, wait!" Liu Ying interrupted. "This isn't like you. What's going on? I don't want to fight you."

Gayathri snorted. "Really? How touching," she said, and smirked. Her usual pleasant pretty face no longer looked that way, the smirk merely caused her to look somewhat frightening. Her curly brown hair was flying askew behind her, due to the winds generated by Fairymon. Both of them looked equally frightening, and Liu Ying felt a chill running down her spine. Gayathri let out a laugh. "Well, too bad for you because I do want to fight you! Fairymon, now!"

"_Hurricane Wave!"_ Fairymon shouted, and blasted out a pink hurricane towards Youkomon, and Liu Ying who was riding on the blue-furred fox. The force erupting from the attack was unlike what Youkomon had felt before.

"Liu Ying, hold on to me very tight!" the kitsune cautioned loudly as she planted her feet firmly onto the ground. There was no time for her to evade the hurricane, as it might place Liu Ying at risk. The hurricane would caught up with them while Youkomon was jumping in midair, and Liu Ying would be blasted with the attack. Youkomon could withstand such attack, but her human partner couldn't. By staying put the danger was lessened. Her sharp nails dug into the earth as she began to brace herself. Liu Ying in the meantime wrapped one arm around the fox's thick furred neck, grasping onto the white furs as she couldn't reach for the skin. The other arm was clutching the accessory Youkomon had wrapped around her neck tightly.

The hurricane blast was blasted upon them, but Youkomon's prediction proved to be correct as such attack didn't faze her that much. And more importantly, Liu Ying was also safe, for the time being, but she wouldn't be if Youkomon remained defending herself. Reluctantly, Youkomon realized that she had to fight back, regardless of what TobuCatmon had cautioned earlier. It was for Liu Ying's sake, and also for her own.

"Liu Ying, you will need to get down from me," Youkomon whispered urgently. "By only defending ourselves, we will not stand a chance against Fairymon. I will try to not hurt Fairymon or Gayathri…but I could not do it with you around as I would need to watch for your safety as well. Go and take cover behind the large rock near the lake, or at the village."

"The rock's closer," Liu Ying said decisively. She got down from Youkomon and glanced behind to make sure that she didn't become Fairymon's target. The fairy watched over her silently, and Gayathri's face harbored a sickening satisfied look. Liu Ying quickly made a beeline towards the rock, hoping that Adam and his partner would come to her aid soon.

xxx

xxx

It was a race against time for Adam and Sagittarimon as they headed towards the mountainous region as directed by TobuCatmon. Despite his bulky stature Sagittarimon was capable of galloping at top speed, which served to their advantage.

"Almost there," Sagittarimon announced as the mountains came into view. It was a beautiful sight to behold, the grayish blue mountains soared towards the brilliant sunny sky, and at the foot of the mountains were lush green trees lined against a river coming down from the mountains.

"If we don't have an emergency right now I could stay here for hours and appreciate the beauty of this nature. It's like the advertisements on TVs back home," Adam commented as Sagittarimon halted.

Sagittarimon let out a small laugh. "Indeed. Perhaps we can all come here and have a DigiWira picnic someday," the draconic centaur suggested. "But now we need to look for somewhere that has some semblance to a house. Wizardmon is a humanoid Digimon. Tell me Adam, if given a chance to stay here, where would _you_ build your house?"

"Me?" Adam replied, startled with the inquiry. Then he saw Sagittarimon's point and thought about it. "Well…if it were me, I'd choose a place close to the river where I can easily get water and fish, and for washing and bathing…but not too close so that the river won't flood my house when it's raining. I'll also prefer somewhere cool and shady, away from the sunray, a house is meant as a place for relaxing and I can't relax if my house is warm. And…that's about it for now, I can't think of any other criteria for now."

"That will do for now," Sagittarimon said assuringly. "We'll follow your direction to look for Wizardmon's home. Let's enter the forest."

As the pair got into the forest, little did they know that they were being followed by someone, who was floating in the air. The figure waved the staff it was holding slowly and moved towards the forest as well carefully.

"I've worked too hard for this plan, and I'm sure not going to let you two Digi-nincompoops to ruin it," the lone figure muttered to itself as it approached the forest.

For the next fifteen minutes, Adam and Patamon (Sagittarimon had devolved back to his rookie form to preserve his energy) looked around the riverside area for Wizardmon's house. They went deeper into the forest, following against the river flow. Not long after they were by the river, suddenly Patamon let out a delighted squeal.

"You really have a good instinct, Adam!" the bat-winged guinea pig shouted. "Look up ahead, there's a cottage, or something. I bet Wizardmon's staying there."

Adam looked up ahead as directed by his partner, smiling inwardly at Patamon's reaction. It was rather amusing for the boy to see that his partner was quite mature, almost on par with Youkomon, when he was in his champion-armor form, but retained a child-like quality like Floramon when he reverted into his rookie form. Patamon had flown towards the wooden hut, and his eyes widened at the look of the house. He stopped dead on his track, staring at the house.

It was a wooden square-ish house built on four thick, sturdy wooden pillars which supported the house from the four corners of the house. The roof, also made out of wood, was constructed into a triangular shape with ventilation holes at various direction. The windows were all closed, so was the wooden door. A simple wooden stairs was built from the door downwards to the ground at a forty-five degrees angle.

"Adam?" Patamon called, causing Adam to start slightly. The rookie Digimon flew back towards his human partner. "You ok?"

"Oh…yeah, yeah I am," Adam replied slowly, his dark grey eyes still were fixated on the house. "It's just that…this house, reminds me of where I used to live." Adam paused for a while to take a deep breath, and Patamon saw immediately that something was troubling the young boy. However he decided to wait for Adam to gather his thoughts rather than to ask him straight out. But unexpectedly, Adam then let out a small smile and the troubled look on his face vanished.

"It's like a traditional ­_kampung_-house, that's all," Adam said with a shrug.

Patamon saw the sudden changes in his partner's mood but decided that perhaps it was something from the real world that Adam was referring to, something which he still wasn't familiar with. After all, he was only partnered to Adam for a week.

"I'll fly up there and knock the door," the rookie offered. Adam nodded his approval.

However before Patamon could fly up, the door opened without warning and a humanoid figure stepped out. Adam gasped in shock upon setting sight of the familiar pointed hat, cape and outfit…but there were several obvious differences. The colors of his cape and hat, for example, were purple instead of white.

"Sorcerymon!" he muttered in disbelief, but unconvincingly as well. He knew that whoever there at the doorway, it was not Sorcerymon, but the resemblance was uncanny.

"I beg your pardon?" the humanoid figure asked back with a wizened voice, perfectly matched by his spiky, grayish-white hairs and the long beard which he had grown down towards his chest. Adam then saw that he was hunched, and was standing with help of his wooden staff. "I am Wizardmon. I heard commotions outside my house…" the Digimon paused and let out a small cough. "…and thought that I'd better check it out…" The cough came again. "…as it's not often that I receive guests." He stopped and observed his visitors with curious green eyes.

"Oh…I'm sorry," Adam said, and bowed slightly in respect as Wizardmon looked about old enough to fit to be his grandfather. "It's just that…you look somewhat similar to…somebody."

"Somebody you know, child?" Wizardmon asked curiously.

"Not a friend, trust me," Adam said hastily. Patamon then flew closer to Adam and nudged his shoulder. The boy turned to his partner and received a meaningful look from the Digimon. Adam immediately got the hint and let out a sheepish smile. "Oh, where are my manners? Sorry…I'm Adam, and this is my partner, Patamon."

"You're a human boy," Wizardmon noted, and Adam thought that he sounded as if he approved of it. "A DigiWira you are, perhaps, Adam?" Wizardmon ended the inquiry with a cough, then looked expectantly towards Adam.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I am," Adam nodded.

"And what color of Grademon's DigiSpheres that you possess?" Wizardmon asked interestedly, crooning his head slightly. He coughed again.

"I have the White DigiSphere," Adam responded quickly. "Wait a minute, you knew Grademon?"

"Ah, you are the leader of the group," Wizardmon said delightfully. "And about Grademon, as a matter of fact, yes, I did. A great, chivalrous hero. Did you know that I've been around, as Wizardmon, ever since Grademon was merely a baby Digimon?" Wizardmon laughed lightly, which only resulted in yet another cough. "Forgive me, child. Do come into my humble home. That is, if you are not in a hurry, but I sense that you are here for a mission."

"Unfortunately, we have an emergency, and we need your help," Adam said apologetically and quickly summarized the whole story to Wizardmon, who listened to it intently. He told the wizened wizard everything, from the battle they had with Cockatrimon the previous night, Gayathri's sudden behavior changes, and TobuCatmon's theory.

"It seems to me that your friend Gayathri has fallen into an abhorrence spell," Wizardmon said after Adam had finished. He coughed again before continuing, "The feelings of hate, anger, jealousy…they all fall into the abhorrence spell category. Only immoral wizard-type Digimon can come up with such a sordid curse."

"Sorcerymon must be behind this, then," Patamon said.

"I believe so, Patamon," Wizardmon agreed. "But do not worry. Your mentor is right when he sends you here to find me. During the days when Grademon rose up against SkullSatamon's evil regime, such spell was a problem to the side of good. It was a dirty trick, turning good Digimon against each other. It was lucky for us that _I_ have managed to come up with a counter-curse for the abhorrence spell."

"That's great!" both Adam and Patamon exclaimed together.

"Oh, no it's NOT!" a voice screamed back at them, somewhere from the trees. As Adam and Patamon turned to look for the source of the voice, a white blur shot towards them and Adam felt like something kicked him squarely on his chest. The boy groaned in pain as he fell onto the ground on his back. Patamon too was knocked by the intruder, and was sent flying towards the walls of Wizardmon's house. The white blur then landed on the ground and a familiar enemy stared back at the good guys.

"Sorcerymon!" Adam said, and coughed. He rubbed his chest, resisting the stinging pain that resulted from the kick.

"My spell is working perfectly on that girl with the Fairymon," Sorcerymon said vehemently. "Do you actually think that I'd let you ruin it? The general is pleased with the outcome, and so I heard, the master is too. Shutumon will now look at me with respect. I'm not gonna let you trash my achievement!"

"Yeah? Well I'M not going to let you get away with what you've done to Adam!" Patamon shouted angrily and launched himself towards Sorcerymon. Adam's D3 sparked with brilliant white, black and crimson lights and Patamon instantly transformed into a large, black-scaled dragon-centaur hybrid with shining red armor adorning his torso, shoulders and head.

"**Patamon Digivolve to…Sagittarimon!"**

"_Meteor Gallop!" _Sagittarimon exclaimed loudly, and at close range Sorcerymon was overwhelmed with torrents of meteorites which were projected from the sparks generated from Sagittarimon's hooves.

However the boyish sorcerer let out a snicker and waved his white staff, which let out a freezing ice-blue wave. Instantly the meteorites were frozen into balls of ice, and shattered into digital dusts. Adam gaped in surprise; Sorcerymon was stronger than he had expected, but then again, he had never seen the white sorcerer in action before. He'd only assumed that from the way Shutumon was treating him, Sorcerymon would be the less-powerful of the duo.

"Surprised?" Sorcerymon asked sardonically. "Heh heh. Wait till you get a load of these!"

Sorcerymon waved his staff back and thrust his left arm forward. A blast of icy laser shot out from his palm, and knocked away the much larger Sagittarimon. The place where the laser hit him – the chest – was instantly frozen. It was lucky that Sagittarimon's chest was protected by strong armor. It looked like Sorcerymon was currently having the upper hand in this duel…

…Which made it totally unexpected when suddenly, a laugh was heard coming from the house. All the others were stunned to see Wizardmon laughing, in a mocking sort of way. But Adam saw that Wizardmon's attention was fixed onto Sorcerymon alone.

"What are you laughing about, old man?" Sorcerymon demanded.

Wizardmon observed Sorcerymon with a pair of critical eyes, and smiled slightly. The smile looked innocent enough, but somehow hid the superiority that also hinted by the way his mouth crooked slightly towards the left and upwards. "I recognize an improvement charm anywhere," he stated simply.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sorcerymon shot back, but Adam saw how the last trace of color on Sorcerymon's pale face was drained. It looked like Wizardmon had hit a nerve.

Wizardmon snorted derisively. "I remember you being around during the great war between good and evil three hundred years ago. You were _incompetent_ back then, Grademon was able to seal you easily with the charm _I _taught him."

Sorcerymon's eyes widened. His body trembled as he pointed his staff towards Wizardmon. The old wizard knew too much, and it was totally unexpected for Sorcerymon. However he quickly regained his stature and let out a confident smirk towards the elder wizard.

"Heh. That was in the past, you senile crusty old grandpa. The general and the master will be so pleased if I managed to destroy _you_ AND the DigiWira at the same time. The DigiWira girls are battling each other, and who knows…perhaps they'll end up destroying each other. Then I can make a move and destroy this boy. Improvement charm or not, I shall be known as the ones who destroy the DigiWira! I'll be promoted to general for sure!" Sorcerymon boasted.

"Aha. So you _do_ have an improvement charm cast on you," Wizardmon let out a triumphant grin. "I was only guessing – there is no way for me to actually _know_ that you have charmed yourself with one, so I tricked you into admitting. How foolish of you. You still have a lot to learn, little child. Now…" Wizardmon struggled slightly to stand erect and coughed violently as his staff shimmered with golden light. The sun-shaped upper end of his staff was shining as if it was the real sun itself. "A thorough _cleansing _spell shall do the trick just fine. _Thunder Blast!"_

A streak of gold lightning shot out from the sun-staff Wizardmon was holding and struck Sorcerymon squarely on his chest. Sorcerymon collapsed onto the ground and writhed aggressively as the gold lightning electrocuted his whole body. Sorcerymon's body shone with blue light for a while and when it was gone, somehow the confident aura Sorcerymon had previously vanished.

Sorcerymon struggled to get up, only to find a glittering crimson arrow being pointed towards his head. Looking up, he saw the towering figure of Sagittarimon looming against him, eyes blazing with anger.

"This…is only the beginning!" Sorcerymon shouted as he took a few steps back. He waved his white staff and the air rippled as the white sorcerer vanished out of sight.

Sagittarimon let out a relieved sigh and took a few steps back. A golden warm light suddenly coalesced around his frozen armor and to his delight, the ice melted and Sagittarimon felt invigorated.

"One of my specialties…the healing charm," Wizardmon said kindly. "And this…" he waved his wooden staff and a brown satchel materialized in midair. The satchel hovered and Wizardmon beckoned for the satchel to move towards Adam. "Adam, take this…this is the powdered form of my cleansing charm…another one of my specialties. It should be sufficient to eradicate the abhorrence curse cast upon your friend."

"Really?" Adam said delightfully as he clutched the satchel. It felt slightly heavy for its small size. "Thank you, Wizardmon sir."

"It is my pleasure to be of assistance to you, young hero," Wizardmon smiled. Adam blushed slightly in response to Wizardmon's compliment. "It feels so good to be of use again, after three long centuries of retirement."

"Why don't you come with us, Wizardmon? We sure could use your help," Sagittarimon inquired. "I was surprised to know that you actually fought alongside Grademon during the great war. Your power and experience must be profound."

Wizardmon shook his head slowly. "Alas, my time of glory has long since passed. I am old. It is time for you young ones to take over in this fight against evil. However…" Adam and Sagittarimon looked up expectantly, thinking that maybe Wizardmon was about to change his mind. The old wizard coughed again and cleared his throat loudly. "…I would love it if you two come by tomorrow to my house again. I will demonstrate some of my tea-making skills…no charm needed to make good tea. What do you say?"

Both DigiWira human and partner sweatdropped upon hearing the invitation, but immediately hid their surprise.

"We'd love to," Adam replied. Sagittarimon nodded as well in agreement.

"And do not forget to bring your friends along. There are so many things that I cannot wait to share with you young ones. So many tales, of the battle of good and evil that I want to tell you. But now, my young friends…you must go. Your friends need you now more than I do."

Adam nodded and hopped on Sagittarimon. "Thanks again, Wizardmon. And I'll see you tomorrow for tea."

"I look forward for tomorrow, and you are very much welcome," Wizardmon said and watched as Sagittarimon galloped away, back towards outside of the forest. After the lasts of the galloping sounds were heard, Wizardmon closed the door to retire for the day.

xxx

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The Green Meadow was a battlefield, with a pink windstorm spiraling from the grounds towards the sky. Inside the windstorm was Fairymon, arms spread wide and a burning pink aura glimmering from her body. She screamed loudly and thrust the hurricane over towards Youkomon, who was staying put, her paws were firmly placed onto the ground. The strong windstorm however nearly caused her to be lifted up from the ground before moving away from her and dissipated as it soared from the ground.

The battle had been almost one-sided, with only Fairymon delivering the attacks. As long as the attacks had not been a danger to Liu Ying, Youkomon simply diverted or avoided contact with the attacks. Once, she had to morph into her flaming dragon mode in an attempt to nullify a whirlwind directed towards the village, but her flames only served to make the hurricane bigger. It was almost impossible for Youkomon to fight the wind powers of Fairymon. Fairymon's power also seemed to have been amplified…she didn't hold back at all in an attempt to initiate Youkomon to fight her back. Remembering TobuCatmon's advise, Youkomon didn't do so and waited in full faith for Adam and Sagittarimon to come.

"What's taking Adam so long?" Liu Ying groaned in frustration as she grasped a protrusion of a sturdy stone. She was soaked from head to toe, no thanks to one whirlwind which had coursed over the lake and sent waters raining onto her. She was shivering, and once in a while, she sneezed. The willowy girl could only guess what was happening as she was hiding behind the stone.

"I'm going to get a pneumonia if this thing continues on," Liu Ying muttered, and sneezed again.

"Well, that'll serve you right for trying to take Manny away from me!" Gayathri exclaimed shrilly as she walked over to Liu Ying. She stared at Liu Ying intently and pointed her index finger towards Liu Ying. "I SAW him first!"

"This is really getting ridiculous," Liu Ying breathed to herself, and stood up. She glared back towards the darker girl but didn't say anything. She had been shouting towards Gayathri throughout the whole time Fairymon was attacking Youkomon, and was now too tired to even try convincing Gayathri again.

Suddenly, a familiar galloping sound was heard coming from a distance. Relieved, Liu Ying peered over the stone and saw Sagittarimon braving the winds generated by Fairymon. The fairy stopped attacking and observed Sagittarimon with mild curiosity; she wasn't ordered to attack him and thus, she wasn't sure of what to do. Sagittarimon merely stood somewhere close to Fairymon and Adam lowered himself from his partner, looking around.

"Adam! Over here!" Liu Ying called out loudly. She quickly approached the boy, who looked at her with a strange indifference. He didn't acknowledge Liu Ying's presence, but the girl couldn't care less. She hoped that Adam would be able to assist her. "Thank goodness you're here, Adam. What took you so long? Has TobuCatmon come up with something to snap Gayathri out of it?"

Gayathri walked away from the stone as well and stared at Adam venomously. Adam ignored Liu Ying and saw Gayathri. He smirked slightly and Liu Ying was starting to worry; Adam's behavior was strange.

"Who says I'm here to help you?" Adam asked loudly, which shocked Liu Ying. He laughed. "That's right…be surprised. I'm actually here…to help HER!" Adam pointed towards Gayathri, who seemed surprised to hear what Adam had just said. Curious, the curly-haired girl approached the other two DigiWira.

"What did she do to you, Adam?" Gayathri asked with a satisfied tone. But then she held her palm up and flashed a sinister-looking grin. "Never mind. What matters now that she has wronged us both. We can team up against her."

"Can't agree with you more…" Adam murmured, and Liu Ying saw Adam's hand moving towards his back, and he took out a small brown satchel and held it up for both girls to see. "See this, Gayathri? This will help us to combat Liu Ying."

"Oh…what's that?" Gayathri inquired, her tone now was surprised and excited.

Liu Ying, scared of the sudden outcome, took a few steps back. Both Adam and Gayathri were now against her, and she didn't even know what caused Adam to turn against her as well. She was in grave danger now that both her fellow teammates were now against her.

Adam slowly opened the satchel as Gayathri approached him closer. He held the opened satchel near to Gayathri's face. Inside the satchel was a small pile of gold-colored powders.

"What is this?" Gayathri asked, sounding disappointed. "How can a pile of sand help us fight Liu Ying?"

"This…is a powdered cleansing spell! Now hold still!" Adam announced loudly and blew the powders hard towards Gayathri's face. Gayathri screamed in surprised as the powders entered her nostrils, eyes and her opened mouth. She collapsed onto the ground as a warm golden light emanated from her body, and for a while, she struggled hard. But a few seconds later, she stopped trashing about and calmed down. Her D3 Digivice shone slightly with pink light and a loud gasp was heard. Adam and Liu Ying saw Fairymon limped onto the ground and devolved back all the way into Tanemon, her in-training form.

Gayathri's eyes were closed and her body was still. Liu Ying, still trying to register what had just happened, approached Adam, who was watching intently at Gayathri's body. His face was etched with worry and concern.

"Adam?" Liu Ying asked cautiously.

"Yeah?" Adam replied back, and turned towards Liu Ying. "Oh…sorry about earlier. I needed to make the possessed-Gayathri believed that I was on her side…lest she wouldn't even come closer to me and the cleansing spell would be wasted being blown by the winds."

Liu Ying exhaled in relief. "That's ok. Good thinking, by the way. But you scared me…you're quite a good actor…"

"Look, she's moving," Adam cut in, pointing towards Gayathri, who was starting to stir slightly. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around, confused.

"Adam? Liu Ying?" she asked weakly. She tried to raise her body and was further confused at her body's weakened state. Adam and Liu Ying knelt down, and Liu Ying cautiously helped her up. "How did I get here?" she inquired, her doe eyes widened as she saw an unconscious Tanemon being carried by Sagittarimon, with Youkomon following him closely at the side. "What happened to Tanemon?"

Adam smiled assuringly towards her fellow DigiWira. "That's a long story."

Liu Ying smiled too and patted Gayathri's shoulder. She was happy that Gayathri seemed to be alright. "Welcome back, Gayathri. Let's go home."

xxx

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"I'm sorry, general," Sorcerymon said, and knelt towards a looming black figure who was standing in front of him. "I've tried and the spell was successful on one of the DigiWira girls, but the DigiWira boy and one Wizardmon had messed things up; the Wizardmon gave him a counter-curse for my abhorrence spell."

A moment of silence was heard, and curious, Sorcerymon risked a glance up and saw that the one called general seemed to be in deep thought. The pale moonlight bathed the dark features of this avian-humanoid general, and his raven-black feathers reflected the shine, giving him a glowing-like appearance. This added to the dark quality possessed by the general. Then, as if aware of being observed, the general's yellow eyes then caught Sorcerymon's icy green, causing the sorcerer to immediately lower his gaze back on the darkened ground.

"Rise, Sorcerymon," the general commanded, his voice neither high nor low, but demanded reverence all the same. "You have not failed me completely. There is no need to feel remorseful, but should you succeed the Master and I would be extremely pleased with you. But your failure has been anticipated by the Master; he merely wished to test the effectiveness of the abhorrence curse on its own, and the result has proven to be rather destructive, which is excellent. The DigiWira girl with the Floramon has proven to be dangerous enemies to their own friends, and supposedly the Patamon and the Labramon are stronger than the Floramon. I shall only need to strengthen the curse, and coat it with the power of darkness from the master himself…and the curse shall be UNBREAKABLE!"

Sorcerymon merely nodded, and out of curiosity, he dared himself to ask the general about what the general's plan.

"If you don't mind me asking, general…what do you have in mind?" he asked meekly. His inquiry was rewarded with an intense glare from the general's yellow eyes. His dark-colored beak opened slightly, making him appear as if he was grinning.

"Let's just say that we are going to fight _fire_ with FIRE," he said softly, but his low tone was far from comforting. Instead it contained a tone marked with pure evil. So evil the statement had sounded, it gave Sorcerymon the chills.

"You have done your part for today, Sorcerymon," the general continued. "Now return to your friend Shutumon, you have done enough, and she might be wondering how you have fared for today. It is best not to keep her waiting, right?"

The way the general had said it, polite as it had sounded, there was no mistaking the dismissive gesture which the general had given to Sorcerymon. Not wanting to invoke the general's anger, Sorcerymon silently gave him a slight bow and retreated into the darkness of the night.

The general watched Sorcerymon go and in a puff of purple smokes, his swords appeared within his grasps. The metallic blade reflected the moonlight, and the general's eyes glinted maliciously.

"And now, there is only one little thing that needs…_settling_, in order for Master SkullSatamon's plan to be executed," he whispered darkly as his sharp crimson fingernails caressed the sharp blades of his swords. "The Digital World can only have _one _experienced wizard…"

xxx

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**Author's Note:**

Yet another chapter of Wira Digital completed. I'm in the process of regaining my writing groove…it is now holidays and I'm back at my homeland and have a lot of free time at my disposal.

Wizardmon's house is actually a reference to traditional village houses which can be found at the rural parts of Malaysia – the countryside region. _Kampung_ is Malay for village.

_Kuey-teow_ – This is one of the well-known Malaysian foods. It is somewhat similar to noodles or pasta in shape and textures, but the way of preparing this food is absolutely different. Kuey-teow is usually prepared by frying it with a mixture of soy sauce and chili paste, with vegetables, onions, egg, and meat.


	6. Looming Trouble

Adam walked into the school compound, deep in thoughts. He didn't need to look at his wristwatch to know that he was _very_ early this day. The sky was still quite dark and the air cool, but Adam didn't mind being at school earlier than usual. His sister was needed at the main branch of the IT Corporation – where she served as a system analyst – instead of the smaller branch in town where she usually worked. The main branch was located at the heart of Kuala Lumpur, and Alisha wanted to beat the early traffic to avoid being late as the nation capital was quite infamous for its traffic jams during the mornings and the evenings. As his sister was the one who sent him to school, Adam too, had to be up earlier than usual that day.

Feeling the sensation of yawning coming by, Adam quickly covered his mouth as he entered the school canteen. The school canteen's vendors were seen setting up their stalls and preparing meals for those who hadn't had breakfast yet before coming to school, Adam included. After scanning through the limited selections, Adam settled in for his favorite meal – the nasi lemak – and went towards an empty table so that he could have his meal uninterrupted.

Yawning again, Adam considered whether he should be buying coffee or not. He considered himself quite young to be drinking coffee, unlike his sister who seemed to be _relying_ on coffee every morning. But then again, he couldn't get enough sleep the night before.

"Stupid nightmare," Adam muttered to himself as he decided that a cup of coffee would be good for him if he wanted to be alert that day. A bad dream the previous night had rendered him sleepless for the rest of the night, and now he was sporting dark bags under his eyes. He went over to the drinks stall and asked for a cup of iced coffee. Appreciating the quietness around him, with the only noises came from urgent whispers from two students sitting at the table behind him, trying to finish their uncompleted homework and the silent chatters of a group of girls two tables in front of Adam's. He then spent the next ten minutes thinking over what had happened the previous three days.

Nothing much had happened, actually. Three days had passed since the incident involving a 180-degree change in Gayathri's persona. Gayathri was left with the memory of her being mean to Liu Ying and Adam intact, and she couldn't believe herself to be able to even act such ways. Liu Ying and Adam had assured Gayathri that they didn't blame her for what had happened, and Adam's story about Sorcerymon admitting the whole thing to him relieved Gayathri from the burden of carrying the blame.

However, for the next two days following that day, both female DigiWira had come down with a flu. Gayathri wisely took two days off from school in order to rest and recover, but Liu Ying had insisted in going to school in order not to miss any lesson. As a result, Gayathri had gotten better after resting at home and was able to attend school the previous day, while Liu Ying's flu had only worsened and she had to take a couple of days off from school _and_ any DigiWira duties. She was absent the previous day and Adam didn't expect to see her until the day after tomorrow, according to the first DigiWira herself.

Things had gotten quiet for the last three days, which was good for the recovering Liu Ying and Gayathri, but for Adam who remained hale and hearty, it started to make him wonder. Ever since he was appointed as DigiWira following his finding of the White DigiSphere, the past one week had been somewhat _interesting_ for the thirteen-year-old. His teammates had mentioned that things had gotten more intense ever since Adam joined them. When he mentioned this to Gayathri, the girl merely scoffed and told Adam to just enjoy their days off.

"Hmm…maybe I should visit Wizardmon again today? It's been three days, and he did say that Patamon and I can come and meet him anytime," Adam said to himself as he used a fork to jab at the remaining slices of cucumber, which he didn't eat as he thought that it had tasted somewhat bitter that day. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, pushed the otherwise-empty plate sideways, and finished up his coffee. "I have to ask Patamon about this…maybe I should've brought him to school today."

It was the bat-pig who had insisted on being left at home, and he had been staying home for the past two days whenever Adam was at school. His main reason was to get accustomed to 'Earthly stuffs' as he had put it in, but the previous day Adam had returned to find Patamon watching some soap operas in the television. But actually Patamon had come up with one very good rationale from his list of reasons why Adam should left him at the house instead of bringing him over to school.

"The school's computer lab is rather boring." While Patamon liked being around Shaomon and Floramon, but he rather detest having to hide in Jackie's office the whole time.

"I learn many things from watching the television." Patamon had proven himself to know things happening in the country, ranging from the weather forecast, current political issues, what was on the movie theaters, various TV programs and many other things which were alien to Adam himself.

"I love those Thai/Japanese/Korean/Indonesian/Malaysian dramas!" The previous day Adam found Patamon holding a wet tissue in his palm and a bundle of used tissue on the couch.

"You were adorable when you were a baby." Adam could only sweatdrop upon hearing this particular comment.

"I learned how to use the microwave today." Adam had considered installing a lock on the refrigerator after finding three empty boxes of instant pizzas in the trash bin, and a messy kitchen. Even Adam couldn't finish three boxes of pizzas in one go; his sister would surely wonder what had happened to the pizzas. But on the plus side, now Adam could ask his partner to prepare frozen nuggets or pizzas for him to have after school.

But the boy had to agree when Patamon pointed out this particular reason to him. "That friend of yours…Hakim, right? He is going to wonder why you're always running off after school and told him to go back home alone, as usually you would be following him back. Yesterday when you left me home, I've made a calculation. See…your school ends at 1.10p.m., and you're back here at around 1.20 to 1.30p.m the latest. So just leave me home, and should anything happen to the Digital World, just follow Hakim back home as you usually do, and when you reach home we can go to the Digital World together."

His partner was right. However Adam really was grateful that Hakim was not one who enjoyed prying on other people's lives. However Adam could see that his best friend _had_ been wondering about what Adam had been doing for the past one week. They were close, and Hakim was Adam's first friend when Adam was transferred to the school. And usually, Hakim didn't hesitate to share any secret with Adam, and vice-versa. The DigiWira then realized that he had been rather tight-lipped with Hakim whenever the subject of him running off after school was brought up. Patamon was right about this. Any best friend would be suspicious when his friend was doing whatever Adam was doing.

"I wonder what Liu Ying would think about this?" Adam wondered; the first DigiWira of the team was the one who came up with the idea of bringing their partners to school in order not to waste any valuable time whenever they were needed at the Digital World.

However, before Adam could ponder about this any further, he spotted Hakim arriving at the school gate. Quickly he grabbed his bag and went to greet his best friend, but as he was walking he could see that something was wrong with Hakim. The other boy looked somewhat downcast, judging by the lack of jovial expression which usually was reflected from his face. Hakim was usually a cheerful person, sometimes Adam suspected that it was his merry manner was what that had made them clicked together as friends in the first place. Adam increased his pace towards his best friend, intending to ask Hakim immediately of what was troubling him.

"_Salam_, Hakim!" Adam quickly greeted his friend with a broad smile. "What's on your mind?"

Hakim saw Adam and seemed to consider how to reply to his friends greeting. The slightly plump boy studied Adam's face for a moment, which unnerved Adam for a moment. Adam thought that Hakim seemed torn between to reply or not to reply to Adam's greeting. This surprised Adam; usually Hakim was quick with the greetings. Besides Adam had greeted him with a salutation which merit a compulsory reply from the one who received it.

"Salam to you as well," finally the songkok-wearing boy said, with a rushed tone. "I'll see you in class."

With that Hakim immediately walked past Adam, rushing towards their classroom. Adam looked over Hakim's retreating figure with stupefaction; there certainly was no need to rush, the school bell won't be ringing for the next fifteen minutes. And Hakim somehow lacked his usual warmness.

"What's up with him?" Adam wondered, and trotted towards the classroom as well, making a mental note to ask Hakim about this.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 06 – Looming Trouble_**

xxx

xxx

"Hakim, do you know how to calculate this one?" Adam whispered towards Hakim during their math period. It was an easy problem actually, but Adam couldn't come up with any conversation topic, and Mrs. Elena Kwan, their math teacher, usually did not allow any conversation in her class. However, strict as she was, she had finished teaching the syllabus of the day and the class still had ten minutes to go before the period ended, and recess would follow. Trying to be somewhat lenient that day, the strict teacher allowed the class to talk, but only about the lesson and in silence as she was correcting the previous day's homework.

Hakim looked over the equation for a moment before wordlessly wrote down the equation on a free space in Adam's textbook with a pencil as Adam looked over. Usually Hakim would explain the methods of solving the equation to him rather than writing them down. This puzzled Adam even further. What could be troubling his friend so deeply and Adam knew for a fact that it wasn't just towards him that Hakim was acting strangely; it seemed that Hakim was distant to nearly everyone in class. At least, Adam thought, now he was sure that it wasn't for anything that he had done. Adam tried to think of any reason anyway.

'Birthday? No…his is in August. Maybe he's sick? He looks healthy to me, but that's a possibility. Trouble back home? I really don't think so. His parents and big brothers and sisters are very nice. Maybe just a small fight? No…couldn't be. A disagreement won't make Hakim to be like this.'

"Hello, earth to Adam?"

Adam looked up, only to find Gayathri standing beside his table. The class seemed to be half-empty and Adam was surprised to see that Hakim was no longer beside him. "Huh?"

"You seemed to be deep in thought," the girl said. "No need to explain though, we all think that Hakim is acting a little bit strange today. We're planning to ask you about it, but it seems that you yourself are in the dark about this."

Adam nodded slowly. "I've never seen him like this, actually."

Gayathri patted her fellow DigiWira's shoulder. "Hmm…everyone has his 'down' day. I'm quite lucky that _I_ could say that three days ago was just not my day." Gayathri had fallen into Sorcerymon's abhorrence spell and had acted unlike her usual self that day.

Adam seemed to consider what Gayathri had just said. "You don't think…maybe…?"

"Of course not!" Gayathri snorted. She leaned closer towards Adam and dropped her tone. "First of all, Hakim is not at the Digital World with us, and secondly and most importantly, Hakim is not even a DigiWira! There's no way that he could've fallen into Sorcerymon's spell. Oooh, just wait till I get my hands on that excuse-of-a-magician, I'll sic Fairymon to him and…"

"Ok, ok," Adam laughed. "I get your point."

Gayathri realized that she had drawled, and smiled back. "Ok then. Just remember that everyone has his moments…and this might just be Hakim's. Just be supportive of him, maybe he'll tell you what's the problem, and you can help him. Ok?"

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Adam nodded. He got up from his seat.

"So, I guess I'll see you after recess then," Gayathri said, and walked away from Adam's table. However, after a couple of steps away she paused and turned back to face her classmate and teammate. "You know, you can always join me and the girls if you want, I'm sure Dina would love that, heh heh," Gayathri said with a wink. Seeing the boy blush a little, Gayathri had to suppress her laugh, "Ok, bad idea. It will be awkward, so scratch that, but the offer still stands if you want. Or, maybe you can join Manny?"

"You talk as if I don't have any other friends except Hakim and you," Adam said with a mock-frown.

"Ha ha," Gayathri said sarcastically. "Fine, I'm sure that you can manage being Hakim-less for one day, so I'll see you later then. But really, yesterday when Manny and I were accompanying his little sister at the playground, we talked for a while and _you_ came up."

"Huh? I wasn't even at the playground yesterday. I was at home."

"No, silly…I mean, we talked for a while about the computer club meeting last Saturday, and Manny was telling me about you and him being interested in all things computer," Gayathri paused, seemingly to think whether she had managed to get her point straight. She then shook her head slightly. "Or whatever. He's looking forward to meet you again and discuss more about it."

"Oh," Adam said with a smile, remembering his conversation with Emmanuel Abah, Liu Ying's new classmate from Sabah and Gayathri's neighbor. It was strange that three days ago, it was about the Sabahan boy that got Gayathri and Liu Ying fighting, although the boy was not at fault at all. In fact, it was no one's fault but Sorcerymon's. Adam smiled back towards Gayathri and nodded. "Sure, you tell Manny that I'd love to meet him again and continue our discussion about how to make our own websites."

"I will." Gayathri then quickly walked out from the classroom to meet her friends, while Adam took his time. He had his breakfast already in the morning, so he didn't feel like eating anymore. However he did feel that he needed some fresh air and a trip to the toilet, so he quickly walked out from the classroom as well, and into an empty hallway. Most students had already gone to the canteen, the library, the toilet or anywhere else than the classrooms.

Walking towards the toilet, Adam enjoyed the calmness of the deserted hallways. The hallways were also shielded by the sun by the school's blocks, which made them a cool, shady place to be in the fairly warm morning. Distinct noises were heard from the canteen but that didn't disrupt the coolness and quietness of the hallways. However, Adam suddenly felt that _something_ was slightly off with the hallways. He paused for a while and looked around. There was no one around. Shrugging, he took a few steps and again, the fine hairs on his neck stood up. Adam tried to regard this as a reaction to the sudden coolness of the hallway, as he had been walking under direct sunlight earlier. Adam ran his hand over the hairs before resuming his walk again, but there was no mistaking the sudden _creepiness_ that seemed to come out of nowhere. The hallway he was at was fairly dark, but Adam wasn't one who was afraid of the dark.

So why, all of a sudden, the hallways spooked him? Adam looked around again, trying to determine what exactly was bothering him. He found nothing…but a stranger sensation arose.

It felt as if somebody was watching him.

xxx

xxx

"_Ha-ha-ha-ha….CCCHHHEEEWW!_ Ugh…stupid cold!"

Liu Ying was lying down on the sofa, with a half-emptied box of tissue beside her. It was her second day for her to be out of school, and it was upon the doctor's orders that she remained at home until her cold subsided, which didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. After the battle with the under-a-spell Gayathri and Fairymon, both Gayathri and Liu Ying got a cold, probably induced by the coldness of the rains and storms caused by Fairymon. However Liu Ying had not let the cold, which she had deemed as minor, to hamper her from going to school. It was until she got feverish that her mother and grandfather decided that it was best for Liu Ying to remain home. Her mother had taken her to see the doctor at a clinic nearby the hair-salon business she owned, and the doctor had agreed that Liu Ying needed to stay at home until she was at the pink of health once again.

"No going to school, and certainly no going to that…Digital World," her mother had reminded her earlier in the morning before she stepped out to work.

Liu Ying groaned once again as she felt a tickling sensation inside her nostrils. Once more, she sneezed and wiped her nose with a tissue. The waste basket was conveniently left beside the sofa where she was lying down, courtesy of her little brother Liu Meng, who was currently out with her grandfather on some errands at a grocery store a couple of blocks away from their house. Shaomon was somewhere in the house, Liu Ying knew, probably still eating the banana fritters Grandfather Chang had gotten her from the nearby stall.

"Shaomon?" Liu Ying called out tentatively, and winced slightly at the hoarseness of her voice. She had a sore throat as well.

A plopping sound was heard from the kitchen, and Liu Ying raised her head slightly and peered towards the dry kitchen where the dining table was at. The small figure of puppy-like Shaomon appeared from below the table, and Liu Ying's eyes were still sharp enough to notice the oil traces on the furs around Shaomon's mouth.

"Yes, Liu Ying?" Shaomon replied. "I was eating the banana fritters your grandfather had bought for me."

"For _us_," Liu Ying corrected her Digimon partner with a slight smile.

"No, only for me," Shaomon insisted with a small frown, which didn't really go well with her very cute puppy features. "You have a sore throat, so there will be nothing oily for you."

"Oh…" Liu Ying said with a resigned tone and plopped her head down once again. She sighed. "I really hate getting sick. What if something happens in the Digital World?"

"There has been no strange activity in the Digital World for three days now," Shaomon said thoughtfully. "Do not worry yourself incessantly, and take this as an opportunity for you to recover. Besides, I am sure that Adam, Gayathri and their partners can handle any enemy attack on their own."

"I hope so…But did you notice that the enemies seem to get stronger ever since Adam joined the team? Deltamon, Lynxmon, Cockatrimon…three of us were needed to take care of each one of them," Liu Ying insisted, thinking about the Digimon they had faced for the past one week. "And with Shutumon and Sorcerymon in the picture, things seem to be getting much more dangerous. Shutumon seems to be as strong as Fairymon, and Fairymon is absolutely powerful when she is unrestrained. Sorcerymon…well, he certainly doesn't seem to be dangerous at first sight, but his spells really had given us a hard time."

"I do notice…which makes it imperative for you to recover as soon as possible," Shaomon pointed out. "I draw my strength from you to Digivolve, not just from the D3 Digivice and the Yellow DigiSphere. However I am certainly not pressuring you to get better. We shall wait until you have fully recovered before setting out to the Digital World if there is any trouble."

The raven-haired DigiWira nodded, as what Shaomon had just said was absolutely true. She settled her head back on the fluffy cushion she had used as a pillow and sighed deeply. Shaomon decided that what her human partner really needed at the moment was a company and decided to remain with Liu Ying, at least until the girl was asleep. However just as Shaomon was about to settle down, Liu Ying's body jerked up.

"There are some things else I've been thinking about…" Liu Ying said.

"Do share it with me," Shaomon said with interest. She stood back on her tiny paws.

"After Adam joined the DigiWira team, we know a lot more of the enemy," Liu Ying began, and paused, trying to organize the sudden rush of ideas she was having into proper sentences. "We know that the head honcho of all the bad guys we have faced, and are about to face in future, is a Digimon called SkullSatamon. And we now see quite a lot more of Sorcerymon and Shutumon, and they seem to be serving one master, who is SkullSatamon. And last but not least, our enemies had gotten more and more powerful as of late."

"What you have said are all true," Shaomon said. "Please continue."

"I'm getting on that," Liu Ying said, as her face harbored a worried expression. "It seems to me, that perhaps we shouldn't really be glad of the three days break. Maybe our enemies are simply bidding their time, preparing for a much grander attack upon us. Perhaps they are just waiting for us to let our guards down." Liu Ying had been thinking of all these since the previous day, when she had all the time to herself and nothing much to be done. She had the same feeling prior to Adam's inclusion into the DigiWira team. Although she didn't expect another teammate, she had been correct about the enemy being more dangerous than ever.

Shaomon too, thought about what her partner had just said. She had no reason to contradict Liu Ying's ideas, as her partner was a sensible person and known for her cautiousness and sensibility. And it did seem like Liu Ying had thought about this for quite a while; her ideas didn't sound like one that came out at a spur of the moment.

"You are most probably right," Shaomon said. "Which makes it much more important for you to recover, and be prepared."

"I better inform Gayathri and Adam about this," Liu Ying decided, and glanced up at the clock hung on the living room's wall. "It's almost the end of the recess break, so I'll wait until the end of the school day and send them a message via the D-Terminals."

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"Are you coming, Adam?" Hakim asked, after the school bell rang signing the end of the school day. His tone was low, somewhat resigned, coupled with what Adam thought was a hint of anxiety as well. However, throughout the whole day Hakim had been really quiet, only talking when he was talked to or when a direct question was posed towards him. He didn't initiate any conversation with Adam or any of his other classmates. Adam wasn't going to complain about the way Hakim spoke towards him, not when Hakim seemed to be warming up to him. Perhaps something was troubling Hakim and he was ready to share it with Adam.

"Home, you mean? Of course," Adam said brightly and grinned, hoping to draw out a smile from his best friend. His effort however was fruitless, but Adam wasn't undeterred.

"Good. Let's go," Hakim replied. He lifted his bag and made his way towards the door, but this time around he didn't move quickly as if waiting for Adam to join him.

Adam glanced towards Gayathri, who smiled and nodded encouragingly towards him and made a shooing motion with her hands. The male DigiWira quickly caught up with Hakim and the two walked down the stairs. Upon entering the hallways, now full of students rushing about to go home, Adam was reminded of the creepy sensation he had felt while he was there alone earlier. Adam just made a quick look-around before realizing that Hakim was watching him. The boy however didn't inquire anything but there was a questioning look on his face.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just…so full of people going here and there," Adam supplied. There was no need for Adam to elaborate to Hakim about his experience at the hallways, as it might had been his own imagination.

Hakim observed his friend for a moment before looking satisfied and beckoned for them to head towards the school gate. Adam thought that Hakim seemed more curious than he had been before, but immediately brushed off that thought, as he had been acting suspicious lately.

Outside the gate, they made their way towards a metallic blue Aeroback _Proton Iswara_, the car which belonged to Hakim's family. It was their usual routine after school for the past one year – Hakim's mother would pick up both of them from school, and would drop Adam at a junction near the apartment complex where Adam lived before heading towards their own house. The previous year, Adam would usually take the school bus to return home. After a week of befriending Hakim, the boy had insisted that Adam to hitch a ride with him back home, and his mother also had agreed with the arrangement, and even called up Alisha to assure her that it was no trouble for Adam to follow them back.

"Salam, aunty," Adam greeted Halimah Mokhtar, Hakim's mother as he entered the backseat.

Mrs. Halimah, a forty-year-old housewife, clad in a simple plain green headscarf, a large white T-shirt and black pants, smiled towards her son's friend and returned the greeting before averting her sight towards Hakim. Immediately from the way Hakim and his mother exchanged their greetings, Adam saw the strain in their conversation. Hakim's greeting lacked the usual warmness, which made Adam wonder whether Hakim's personal problem actually stemmed from home. However it was not his place to pry over another family's going-on, so he just leaned back and listened to the radio deejay's antiques, which he found less than amusing.

The whole trip back was a rather silent one, which Adam found to be absolutely odd. He had never seen Hakim fight with his family before, and as far as Adam remembered both of Hakim's parents were very warm individuals who loved their three sons and two daughters dearly. Hakim would usually tell his mother about his day, and today was the first time Adam had seen Hakim seemed to avoid a conversation with his mother. Seeing this, Adam's heart ached a little, but he immediately averted his thoughts to what would he be doing later.

"I'm home!" Adam announced as he opened the door to his apartment. Immediately the sound of a woman crying dramatically reached Adam's ears, causing Adam to cringe slightly. However he was immediately made aware that the cries actually had come from the television set inside the apartment, which was switched on.

"Oh. Hey Adam, welcome home. Your lunch is on the dinner table!" Patamon called out from the sofa.

"Really? Thanks!" Adam said delightedly.

"Shhh. She's about to confess her love to her boyfriend!" Patamon said, beckoning towards the television.

Adam shook his head amusedly when he saw that Patamon was totally engrossed in yet another soap drama which Adam didn't really bother to know what it was all about. On the table Patamon had prepared several chicken nuggets and two slices of pizza. They were still rather warm so Adam just dropped his bag and began eating his lunch, thinking of teaching Patamon on how to prepare sandwiches in future. He then did his after school routine – which consisted of showering, afternoon prayer and completing his homework. While doing homework he received a message from Liu Ying about being on guard of future dangerous threats of the Digital World, and replied back, assuring his fellow DigiWira that he would heed her advice. Two hours later, Adam had finished his homework and found Patamon already waiting up for him, his favorite dramas had long since finished and he had already caught up with the latest current news which the TV aired every one hour.

"Ready for our digital trip, Patamon?" Adam asked as he closed his Malay language studies textbook.

Patamon's blue eyes widened with delight. "Of course! Going anyplace special? I don't think there's any threat today."

"Oh, I'm thinking that we could visit Wizardmon today," Adam replied, already looking forward in meeting the old sage again.

Patamon immediately squealed his agreement, and a couple of minutes later they were already in the Forest Sanctum of the Digital World.

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TobuCatmon had immediately given his permission for Adam and Patamon to meet Wizardmon, and had even asked them to extend his regards to the old wizard. Before setting out to the mountains Adam had inquired the mentor of the DigiWira about any strange thing happening for the past three days. TobuCatmon had mentioned that he had not heard of any news, but ever since his messenger Agumon was captured by Aquilamon it was rather difficult for him to detect any mishap at all. He also had expressed his concern that the calmness of the past three days was rather uncomforting.

"It's like the calm prior to a storm. But I suppose I'm being such an old coot that I am. Perhaps there is nothing to worry about at all," TobuCatmon had said.

Thinking of what Liu Ying had said in her message, Adam thought that perhaps TobuCatmon's worries had their reason. After all both TobuCatmon and Liu Ying were the more experienced ones in their team. "Don't worry, TobuCatmon. Patamon and I will keep on a lookout for anything that requires some DigiWira intervention," Adam then promised his mentor to ease his mentor's anxiety.

And now, about an hour after setting out towards the mountainous region on Sagittarimon, Adam had reached the domain where Wizardmon lived. The view was breathtaking as ever, but along their journey Adam couldn't shake off a sensation that the two of them were currently being watched. Strangely it was the same feeling he had felt while at school, while at the deserted hallway. It was the exactly same uncanny feeling. Yet, there was no one around the nearby vicinity except for some occasional wild Digimon they had come across while on their journey. Based on what Sagittarimon had said about those Digimon, Adam didn't think that any of the wild Digimon could be the one causing him to have all these creepy sensations. He didn't mention this to Sagittarimon as he didn't want to hamper Sagittarimon from his task of bringing both of them to Wizardmon's home as quickly as the draconic centaur could muster. Perhaps he was imagining things, Adam thought.

"We're here!" Sagittarimon announced. "Safe and sound."

Adam slid down from his massive partner, and just as his feet touched the ground the large dark centaur glowed with white light and regressed to his lovable flying guinea pig form. Patamon plopped himself onto Adam's head, taking the opportunity to rest for a while as Adam began making his way into the forest. Suddenly, the boy felt his partner stiffened, his paws gripped the four sides of his head tightly. It was not painful, but it showed that something was bothering Patamon greatly.

"Something wrong, Patamon?" Adam asked.

Patamon released his grip and flapped his wings. Floating in front of Adam's head, Patamon scanned the whole area with a frown etched on his adorable features.

"I feel…something very…dark and sinister nearby," finally Patamon said slowly. "I can't explain it, but I can somewhat sense it. This…feeling is giving me goose-bumps all over my body." Adam could see that the fine orange furs on Patamon were all erected.

"You too?" Adam asked. "I thought _I_ am the only one who's been feeling strange all day."

"What do you mean? I only feel this…vibe, right now, while we're near the forest," Patamon said, bewildered. "It has the word DANGER radiating all over."

"Oh..." Adam let his reply hang as he scanned around the lush forest thoughtfully; trying to sense what Patamon had told him. He then realized what his partner had meant. The forest was deathly quiet and the air seemed somewhat still. They continued walking, hoping to meet Wizardmon as soon as possible. Perhaps the old wizard could provide a sensible explanation for what they were feeling. As they were reaching Wizardmon's home near the river, both human and Digimon could detect a faint reek, its presence was irritating to the both of them. However, while Adam only complained of the odor, Patamon's eyes widened with realization. He recognized the smell.

"Dark magic!" Patamon gasped. "But…surely Wizardmon…"

"Dark magic?" Adam questioned, his brows furrowed. "Is that the same as black magic? Because if it is, Wizardmon can't be the one who caused it. I'm sure of it. Those who practice black magic are evil, and Wizardmon certainly didn't look like a black magic practitioner to me. Sorcerymon on the other hand…I won't put it past him to be a likely candidate."

"I agree with you, and yes, dark magic does fall into the same category as black magic in some retrospect, and only evil sorcerers can practice such dark arts. Wizardmon is certainly not evil, which makes me puzzled as this putrid stench seems to be radiating from the direction of his house."

"Let's go there and check it out," Adam said, and covered his nose and mouth with his palm. The two of them hastened their pace and flight towards the river, and gasped loudly in disbelief upon what they saw in front of their eyes.

Where Wizardmon's wooden house once stood, in its place was a pile of broken, blackened woods, which seemed to be burnt out halfway before the river washed down the flames. The woods, once dull brown and used as materials of the house, they were now ash black and completely unusable. It was like Wizardmon's house had caught fire, somehow.

"Come on, we have to find Wizardmon. Maybe he's under these piles of woods!" Adam gasped, quickly began extracting some woods from the pile. The woods felt cool, meaning that if the house had caught fire, it didn't happen recently. Adam paused, thinking that if the fire had occurred two or three days back, even if Wizardmon had survived back then, there was only a slim chance that the wizened old wizard still managed to survive until today. And if Wizardmon didn't survive the accident, they could no longer find his body, as a dead Digimon's body would split into data particles instead of being intact.

Seeing that Adam had paused, Patamon used his Boom Bubble technique, which delivered more force. The technique, used repeatedly, managed to blast away the piles of woods but there was no sign of Wizardmon at all. However, at the bottom of the pile, one piece of wood caught Adam's attention. It was not black as the other woods, and both Adam and Patamon had seen Wizardmon using it when they had first, and apparently, last, met.

"Wizardmon's staff," Patamon said as Adam picked up the staff.

Unexpectedly, when the staff was in Adam's firm grasp, it sparked with warm electricity and the sun-shaped end of the staff glimmered with pale yellow light. The rounded part of the staff then rippled slightly in the manner which resembled a surface of calm water being disturbed, before images were shown. The images were moving, similar to a movie. Yet there was no sound at all, so it was like watching a muted movie. The images were also not clear, as there were buzzes of noises, similar to what could be seen in old videotapes, which constantly interrupted the flow of the images.

"What's going on?" Adam said worriedly, but his gray orbs were immediately fixed on the staff when Wizardmon appeared on the staff.

The staff displayed Wizardmon inside his house, which was still intact at the moment. It seemed that the wizard was meditating. Suddenly the door was blasted open by a ray of purple light and an explosion ensued. The force from the blast enveloped Wizardmon after the door exploded, apparently very strong as it threw the wizard against the wooden hall. The attack further cracked the wall, and a second blast created a gaping hole on the wall. The blast had also thrown Wizardmon out and onto the ground, and the old sage fell on his back. Wizardmon struggled hard to raise himself from the ground, but was unfortunately too weak and relied on his staff to stand up straight, the unexpected attack had severely decreased his prowess. Staggering, he was having a cough fit, and was spitting out red liquid – blood – all over his singed attire and cape. His hat was nowhere in sight, and his white-gray hair was covered with soot.

A new figure appeared in the sun-staff – a tall, dark creature resembling a humanoid crow with malicious eyes, wielding twin swords. Exchanges of words were seen happening between the intruder and Wizardmon, and the intruder was seen laughing. The intruder projecting a sinister aura by his mere presence and Wizardmon looked like he was threatened. Yet, the old wizard still had the determined look etched on his face as he struggled to stand up straight, only to be blasted with feather-like projectiles from the avian dark warrior, which slashed his body and extremities. This was followed by a blast of purple energy orb which hit Wizardmon on the body, sending him flying. Finally, the intruder unleashed his twin ivory swords which streaked the air and struck through Wizardmon's flying body. Wizardmon was seen crashing on the ground, and the DigiWira human and partner both gasped when they saw Wizardmon's hand slowly disintegrating into bits of data.

"No!" Adam said despairingly. He had liked the wizard, and now he was watching the death of the wizard via his magical staff. His heart ached with sadness, but Adam shook his head and forced himself to watch what was being displayed by the staff.

Wizardmon's whole body then exploded into data particles and the data flew around the air. The intruder was seen laughing gloatingly and with a wave of his hand, he sent another energy orb towards the wooden hut. Wizardmon's house was seen shaking as the intruder had begun destroying the pillars of the house, which served as the house's foundation. With the pillars gone, the house crumbled on top of the fallen pillars. The intruder, laughing, then generated a large energy orb and sent it towards the house. An explosion ensued and the staff crackled loudly before it died out.

A moment of silence passed before Adam took a sharp deep breath. Patamon gazed at his partner intently, feeling very sad himself and was in a verge of tears before Adam spoke up.

"We…we better tell TobuCatmon and the others about this," Adam said slowly, but resolutely as well. He gripped the staff tightly, intending of bringing the staff to the Forest Sanctum with them, in hope that the staff would once again display Wizardmon's fight to the death. "I…I can't believe that Liu Ying and TobuCatmon are right. How come we didn't get alerted when this happened?" Adam demanded, to no one in particular, but just to vent out his frustration.

"Adam…with Agumon gone, TobuCatmon has no means of knowing what was wrong in the Digital World," Patamon said gently.

"I know that. It's just…I was so looking forward to meet Wizardmon this morning. And now…I…I won't be able to," Adam said sadly. He shuddered slightly as something flashed in his mind, which caused a pang of bitterness in his heart. He closed his eyes shut and began taking deep breaths.

Patamon was absolutely bewildered upon seeing such response being displayed by his human partner. He had never seen Adam like this before. It was as if Adam was taking this not too well, and a little too personally.

"Adam?"

Adam opened his eyes as the shuddering stopped. His expression became stoic, and Patamon was baffled with Adam's sudden change of mood. One moment he was too emotional, and the other, he became…eerily calm? Patamon didn't know what to make of it. This was one side of Adam which Patamon had never seen. He then saw Adam taking out his silver-sky blue D3 Digivice and braced himself as the power of Digivolution coursed through his body, ascending him into his champion-armor form of Sagittarimon.

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As Adam and Sagittarimon raced back to the Forest Sanctum, little did they notice that their every movement was being observed by several pairs of eyes. Those eyes belonged to two humans and two Digimon of exact opposites and of near equal sizes, standing on top of a stone hill not far from the forest where Wizardmon had lived. The humans had been watching Adam and Sagittarimon for a while now, ever since the DigiWira pair had emerged from the forest. The mysterious observers had been following them silently as the DigiWira made their way across the paddock before reaching the bare, rocky area where they had settled.

"Let's attack them. Now's a good time, considering that they're alone without their friends to assist them," one of the human spoke up brashly as his eyes trailed the movements of Adam and Sagittarimon. He was standing in front of a hulking, flaming figure of a dragon-like creature standing on two legs. Apart from the upper half of its head, which was covered by metallic helmet molded to fit its head, and its claws, the rest of its body seemed to be made out of burning orange fire.

"I'm sure that I can take down that Sagittarimon. He's not so tough," the fiery dragon added.

The figure next to the dragon was enveloped by a swirling tornado of water which covered its lower torso. At one glance, it looked like a merman – with its head and upper torso resembling a man and its lower body was a gleaming, sleek, gray fish tail. Blue armor covered its body, and extra shoulder-guards the same color of the armor were donned on the shoulders. Metallic gauntlets were worn by the merman on both hands. Its face was hidden by a blue helmet with a white visor; the helmet completely covered the merman's face similar to a scuba-diver's helmet. Orange spiky hair emerged from the back of the helmet.

In front of the merman stood another human, also male and stood at near-equal height compared to the first.

"No, not yet," the second human spoke with a calm tone, completely contrasting his companion's bold demeanor. "We haven't received the order either from the general or the master yet."

"But we have our chance right here, and right now," the first human protested. "Surely the general…"

"No. We don't want to invoke the general or the master's fury, lest we'd suffer the same fate as that Wizardmon," the merman interrupted with an echoic voice. "It's best for us to follow the general's order. Besides, he did say that our time to strike will come very, very soon."

The humans' eyes flashed green as the dragon's eyes and the merman's visor glowed with deep crimson light. They then let out a deep, sinister chortle simultaneously before vanishing out of sight.

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Once they had reached the Forest Sanctum, Adam breathlessly explained the situation to TobuCatmon, who was very shocked to learn of Wizardmon's sudden demise. The DigiWira also gave TobuCatmon the sun-staff, which had belonged to the late Wizardmon. But before Adam could explain what had been shown by the staff, it glowed once again, and repeated the images it had shown Adam and Patamon earlier.

"Oh, no…" TobuCatmon said, turning pale when he saw the intruder responsible for Wizardmon's death. "It is as I have feared. _He_ has escaped as well."

Adam turned towards the bat-cat. "He? Did you know this…murderer, TobuCatmon?"

TobuCatmon nodded. "This Digimon is known as Karatenmon, a powerful dark sorcerer and one of SkullSatamon's generals. He is a very dangerous opponent, Adam, Patamon. I was afraid that this day would come…it appears that you and the other DigiWira will cross path with him soon."

"He's gonna pay for what he had done to Wizardmon," Adam said with determination.

TobuCatmon shook his head. "I'm afraid that is not going to be easy, Adam. Karatenmon wields extraordinary magical powers, and is also a sly and devious Digimon. Many had fell prey to his dark ways a long time ago. And…"

Adam and Patamon waited for TobuCatmon to continue, but their mentor seemed to be loss of words. The wise Digimon seemed absolutely troubled by the turn of events.

"And what, TobuCatmon?" Patamon prompted.

TobuCatmon stared towards the DigiWira pair and sighed. "I have told you not too long ago about ultimate level Digimon, haven't I?"

"Yes, you have," Adam nodded. "You told us that ultimate level Digimon are very powerful. One Ultimate can easily defeat up to five champion level Digimon, but that also depends on the level of experience the Ultimate has."

"You are correct, Adam," TobuCatmon said grimly. "Karatenmon, I'm afraid, is also a very experienced Ultimate, and a seasoned fighter. Not many can defeat Wizardmon, but Karatenmon has done it without too much effort. Adam, Patamon…I fear that the situation has just become more perilous."

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**Author's Notes:**

Compared to the other Wira Digital chapters, this one is relatively short. But it does convey what I have planned for this chapter. I'm sorry for the lack of replies for the reviews, as I am now on my holiday and have seldom access to the internet (and whenever I am at a wireless hotspot, I didn't have my laptop with me!) But I did read the reviews. Thanks. I do plan on continuing Legends of the DigiDestined and Vengeance, but as I haven't been writing those stories for half a year, so it will take a while. Please bear with me for the time being, ok?

Anyway, Malaysian references are here and there. Proton Iswara is perhaps one of the oldest models of the nation's line of cars – the second one, actually, after Proton Saga. I think I've mentioned about the traffic jams in the second chapter, although perhaps not extensively, so…moving on. The greeting 'Salam' is an abbreviation of a longer version used generally by Malays, or much more specifically, Muslims, upon meeting each other.


	7. Two For One

The tapping sound of someone typing on a keyboard was heard amidst the quiet, dark room. Once in a while the air-conditioner let out a rattle which signed its old age, but otherwise it was working just fine to cool the air inside the room. Faint lights emerging from the computer monitor illuminated the table where a man was seen working on something on the computer. From the small speakers situated at either sides of the monitor, a soft instrumental tune of the classical music of Beethoven was heard, set on low volume. Every once in a while, the man – his face barely lit by the lights from the monitor – was heard humming along with the tunes. His body was stiff and his attention was solely focused on what was displayed on the computer screen. Sometimes, the man's right hand was seen navigating the optical mouse, which emitted blinking red lights, furiously, whenever he was not typing on the keyboards. These movements – tapping the keyboards and moving the mouse – were done alternately.

"Now that I've restored this thing, it's time to modify it and equip it with some enhancements," the man murmured, and his attention shifted to the time displayed on the lower right side of the monitor screen. "Seven thirty five already? Wow, time sure flies when you're hard at work."

Wearily he stood up and stretched his body. He then went over to the window, which was covered by blinds to block excessive outdoor lights from entering the room, and peeked through it. It was almost dark outside and nobody was in sight. The man stretched once again and returned to his working table. Sighing, he resumed working on his computer once again for the next one hour, doing the exact same things he had been doing for the last three and a half hours before. It was something urgent that needed completing as soon as possible, and the man had no intention to go home until the project was completed.

Just as the computer clock displayed the numbers '8:40 PM', the man let out a triumphant shout. His work for the day was done.

"Finally; I thought I couldn't even finish it by midnight," he said softly, relieved. "Now all I need to do is to send this to him, and I'm done."

The man got up and packed his stuffs before leaving the room. He didn't even bother to switch off the computer, as he would be using it again the next day. He merely closed the multimedia application which was still playing a selection of songs in the play list, and the program which he had used to work on his project. Then he walked out from the room, and closed the door quickly. A sound of the door being locked was heard, and from the windows, the shadow of the man could be seen walking away.

Over the computer monitor, the file was still being sent to its recipient.

_Sending…_

_Sending…_

And finally,

_File **ModifiedSunStaff.exe **__is sent to **TobuCatmon**_

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 07 – Two For One_**

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After two days of resting, coupled with the weekends, Liu Ying now felt that she was ready to go to school again. It was now Monday. Her fever had subsided since the previous day's evening, her soar throat was gone, and her runny nose was not as bad as before. Her mother had insisted for her to remain home for just one more day, until her nose was better – meaning fully healed – but Liu Ying didn't want to spend yet another day at home. She didn't feel sick anymore so there was no point of her being at home, where she would only laze around. She had done all her homework already, thanks to her fellow classmates Hafiz and Millie who had kept her up to date with the previous two days' assignments. All had seemed well at school, according to her classmates, but the same could not be said at the Digital World.

The previous night, Liu Ying had received unsettling news from Adam. The message however was rather short and ambiguous – it simply told Liu Ying that she was right, and big trouble was indeed going to happen in the Digital World. Apparently Adam had gone to the Digital World last Friday, and had found trouble. When she replied with a message, asking Adam to elaborate, the boy didn't reply. That annoyed Liu Ying, and she was furthermore agitated throughout the weekends when she realized that she didn't have Adam's home or cell phone numbers. She did manage to contact Gayathri, but the other girl was as in the dark as Liu Ying. The lack of information made Liu Ying more determined to go to school, and interrogate Adam whenever the chance presented itself to her.

As she crossed the park, located just beside the mosque, which in turn, was just by the higher ground where the school was built, Liu Ying's ears caught muffled conversations coming somewhere from her right. Trees were there, and as the sun had just begun to rise Liu Ying had difficulty in determining what was being said. However she then saw bicycles parked nearby the trees and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. The conversations were alternated with laughter, and a moment of quiet. Curious, Liu Ying moved closer towards the trees, intending to just take a quick peek just to make sure that whoever that were speaking behind those trees, they had better not be the students of the school. The bikes seemed to belong to teenagers, and the voices Liu Ying had heard too, sounded somewhat young, pre-adult like.

"I can take a look without being noticed by hiding behind these shrubs," Liu Ying decided, and moved quietly towards the said plants, careful not to make any sudden or noticeable movements. She walked silently along the green shrubs, noting that their color, height and closeness to each other had effectively camouflaged her, as her prefect uniform was two shades of green. By the end of the line of shrubberies, Liu Ying managed to get a good view of what was behind the trees, and her eyes widened of the sight in front of her, just about ten to fifteen meters away from where she was hiding.

There, leaning against the trees, were four students whom Liu Ying immediately recognized, and somewhat detested. She saw Kenny Ling, a bespectacled boy whose hairstyle reminded Liu Ying of a mushroom, sitting on the tree's roots, writing furiously on an exercise book. Probably doing the homework of the other three's, Liu Ying thought snidely. Among the foursome, Kenny was known to be the brainy one. Liu Ying's attention then averted to the other boy – a gangly boy with very dark complexion, way darker than Gayathri's complexion. He was talking with another boy, one with curly hair parted at the side and, to Liu Ying's opinion, a major case of pimples. Once in a while, they would cast a look at Kenny, and at their watches, before resuming their conversation. The two boys were Samy and Megat; Liu Ying didn't know their full names and only knew them by reputation. As far as she knew however, those two were the best of friends. The willowy girl then eyed the fourth boy – tallest of the four, rugged with dishwater blonde hair – leaning against the tree, staring towards the sky. Frowning, Liu Ying noticed a half-finished cigarette being held between the blonde boy's fingers, its faint smoke rising towards the early morning sky. This boy Liu Ying recognized more than just reputation as she had several run-ins with him. But then, nearly everyone in school, students and teachers alike, knew J.D. Kamaruzaman, and his small gang of troublemakers.

"Smoking, hmm?" Liu Ying muttered to herself, not the least surprised.

It wasn't a new revelation to Liu Ying at all that JD was smoking, but the school considered smoking while wearing the school uniform as an act which would tarnish the school's reputation. Thinking quickly, the second assistant head prefect then decided to confiscate the cigarettes from J.D., but not while at the park. She was not scared, but outside the school compound she could not exercise her power as a prefect. She retreated from the shrubs slowly, careful not to attract any attention from J.D. and his gangs.

As she arrived at the school, she saw a fellow prefect, wearing a long sleeved light green shirt and dark green pants and tie, standing by the school gate. He was talking with another student, whom Liu Ying recognized as classmate to the prefect. Quickly, she made a beeline towards the male prefect and seized his hands, pulling him towards her.

"I need to borrow Tin Kong for a while Johnny, sorry," she said quickly to the other boy who was talking to the male prefect.

"Be my guest, Liu Ying," Johnny Choo said. "See ya in class, Tin Kong."

"Hey…" the prefect protested. "Liu Ying, what is…?"

"Tin Kong, listen," Liu Ying stopped Ho Tin Kong, the prefect who was assigned at the gate for the week. "I saw J.D. Kamaruzaman smoking at the park just now."

The wiry, dark brown-haired prefect shrugged and crossed his arms across his chest. "So what else is new?"

"Don't you get it?" Liu Ying asked Tin Kong irritably, narrowing her eyes towards the other prefect. "We have to confiscate the cigarettes from J.D., and probably from his gang as well."

"Probably?"

"Well, I didn't exactly see Kenny, Megat and Samy smoke, so I don't know."

Tin Kong laughed. "Kenny doesn't smoke, that I know for sure. Megat, I'm not so sure but Samy does. I saw him doing so while I went to Subang Parade yesterday," Tin Kong said. He snorted and shifted his arms towards his back. "The way he smoked, he seemed to think that he's a full-fledged adult."

"Smoking doesn't make you an adult," Liu Ying said wistfully.

"True. Wish you could say that to my older brother," Tin Kong replied with a laugh. He then tapped Liu Ying's shoulder and pointed outside the school compound. "Look who's here."

The two prefects observed as J.D. and his friends cycling along the road recklessly. They were laughing loudly with each other as one by one, they – except for Kenny – showed off some moves with their bikes. One car which was heading towards the school honked at them, but the foursome simply ignored the car and continued with their moves. Students who were walking towards the school wisely moved out of the way to avoid colliding with the bikers. The prefects shook their heads and walked out to the outer side of the school gate, attempting to stop the four troublemakers from entering the school.

"Hey, what's all these!" J.D. demanded roughly, stopping his bike just inches away from the prefects.

"Yeah, what's the big idea?" Kenny squeaked out from behind of J.D., echoing the latter.

"Kenny, shut up," J.D. groaned, his hazel eyes staring into Liu Ying's obsidian orbs. "Well?" he asked the prefects with a smirk. He got off from his bike and walked over towards the two prefects, stopping just a couple of inches away from them. Both Liu Ying and Tin Kong were in near equal heights, and both were also considered tall, but J.D. practically towered over both of them. The fact that he was of mixed ancestry and that he was active in basketball seemed to have contributed in his gangling height. Nevertheless, they were not intimidated.

"Either tell me what do you two want or get the hell out of my way!" J.D. said harshly.

"Watch it, J.D.," Tin Kong warned, stepping forward, in front of Liu Ying. He wrinkled his nose as he caught the familiar odor of cigarette smokes emanating from J.D. "Were you smoking?"

J.D. let out a lopsided grin and crossed his arms against his broad chest. He cocked his head to the side, looking at them challengingly. "Hmm… maybe. So? Were you snooping?"

"Just…hand over your bag, J.D.," Liu Ying instructed irritably, fighting the urge not to blush, as she did spy on the foursome earlier. It was simply a lucky coincidence that J.D. had mentioned about it at that time, she thought. With that, she quickly composed herself and stated calmly towards the foursome, "No student is to enter the school if they possess cigarettes. It's the school's rule."

"What is this, early mornings spot-check? Never remembered the school has one for the last couple of years I'm here," J.D. said with a sarcastic chuckle as he handed over his school bag towards the two prefects. "Well, Mr. and Miss Prefects, do your job then. I won't stop you."

Liu Ying let Tin Kong check J.D.'s bag for any cigarettes, but after a minute of inspecting the male prefect looked up from the bag and shook his head. "No cigarettes," he said, and handed over the school bag back to J.D. "Not even anything that can be confiscated," he whispered into Liu Ying's ear.

J.D. snatched back his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "No one's dumb enough to actually bring cigarettes _inside_ the school," he pointed out with a loud laugh. "That would spell trouble with old Gurmit Singh…not that I'm scared of that big oaf. _Outside_ the school, however, is a different matter. Heh, heh."

"It's still the school concern if you go around smoking while wearing the school's uniform. Not even the school, the education ministry and the police are also against it!" Liu Ying said hotly.

J.D. shrugged. "Whatever. I know how to take care of myself. And by the way, Miss Prefect…I know for sure that you were around the park earlier. I just chose not to call you out," he said, and winked at Liu Ying, who was shocked to hear what J.D. had just said. J.D. flashed his lopsided grin once again and pointed his index finger towards Liu Ying. Smiling, he wiggled his finger at the female prefect. "Better luck next time."

Liu Ying fumed silently as she eyed J.D. from up to down, scrutinizing his uniform in order to find something to tell him off. It was not like Liu Ying to find fault in anyone, but the boy with a mixed heritage simply irked her. Yet, that day J.D. had his white shirt decently tucked in over his earth green pants. His straight hair was messy, as if intentionally uncombed, but as its length was permissible and J.D. didn't exactly look horrible with his messy hair, Liu Ying didn't mention anything. Under J.D.'s shirt, with its topmost and second buttons were left undone, Liu Ying could see that he was wearing a thin metallic necklace. The school badge was intact on his chest pocket.

"If you like what you're seeing, maybe you should take a picture," J.D. teased with a laugh. He dug in the pocket of his trousers and took out a camera-phone. "Here, I have a camera."

"Just…go in, now!" Liu Ying snapped back in annoyance and moved out of their way. J.D. exchanged high-fives with his fellow cohorts before getting on his bike again. After the foursome were nowhere in sight, she decided to excuse herself from Tin Kong as well. "Sorry for dragging you into this, Tin Kong. Apparently J.D. is smart enough to throw away the cigarettes before coming over to school."

"Eh…it's not a problem at all, Liu Ying," Tin Kong assured his fellow prefect with a smile. "He was smoking, that's for sure. The stench is evident, but it's a shame we couldn't turn him over to the disciplinary teacher just because of how he smells."

Liu Ying nodded and walked into the school compound, forcing herself to repel the irritableness she was feeling out of her mind. However just as she calmed down, her thoughts drifted back to the park, where she had observed J.D. and his gang earlier. She was sure that she had kept herself hidden well and at a safe distance, and she didn't make any noise at all. Nobody was supposed to notice her at all. How on earth would he know that Liu Ying was snooping over him?

Sighing, Liu Ying dismissed the thought, thinking that since there was no way that she would ask J.D. about it, she would never know the answer. Hence it was best to just forget about it. Perhaps she had been careless and was spotted. Liu Ying really didn't think so, but there was no other explanation. She tried to think of other matters, and looked over her watch. Realizing that she still had fifteen minutes before school started, she decided to make full use of the remaining free time.

"Now where is Adam?"

xxx

xxx

"My mom will be taking me and Debbie out for a lunch at some fast-food outlet this afternoon," Manny said nervously, his russet eyes were looking everywhere else except at the person he was talking too. "She let us choose; I wanted to go to Kenny Rogers, but Debbie opts for McDonald's as she wants this week's Happy Meal."

"Oh…well, ok," Gayathri replied, wondering why Manny was telling her this. She looked at Manny with puzzlement reflected from her doe eyes.

It was fifteen minutes before the school would start for the day, and Gayathri had arrived at school on seven in the morning, as she usually did. For the last ten minutes she was hanging out with her two best friends, as she usually did, when suddenly her new neighbor approached her. The boy asked to speak with Gayathri alone, and that had caused Gayathri's heart to skip a few beats. Her friends however had giggled, causing Manny to blush heavily. Gayathri had decided to spare Manny of the embarrassment, and took Manny a few meters away from Belinda and Wardina, knowing that her friends would be trotting along to spy on them.

Gayathri sighed wistfully. Not that she minded – Belinda and Wardina after all were her best friends – but they could at least did the spying a little bit more inconspicuously. At the moment, she could see clearly half of her friends' profiles, partially hidden by the walls around the corner. Gayathri had taken Manny to the school's artificial fountain, and they were currently sitting on some of the stone toadstools made by the Arts Club members. The curly haired girl was sitting opposite Manny, who had his back facing the direction where Belinda and Wardina were at.

"Oh…hmm, actually, the thing I want to say is," Manny said, as he rubbed his hand along his spiky black hair. "My mom actually said that we could bring… you along. What do you say?"

Gayathri's face brightened instantly upon hearing the request. It sounded as if Manny was asking her out. Despite with two chaperons – namely his mother and sister – but Gayathri decided that this was a good start. She smiled widely, showing two rows of white teeth.

"Oh, sure! I'd love to join you guys," Gayathri said excitedly. "I'll call home during recess to inform that I'll be going out for lunch with you and your family."

"Great," Manny nodded, smiling. "Erm…listen. Now that you're going with us…will you choose Kenny Rogers instead of McDonald's? Please?"

Gayathri immediately sweatdropped upon hearing Manny's request, and tried hard not to do a double-take as well. She certainly didn't expect that to come out of Manny. And to make it even weirder, Manny really had sounded genuinely like he was hoping that Gayathri would choose his choice over his sister's.

"Well…I did have a McDonald's burger with the girls not too long ago…" Gayathri managed to answer. "So I guess I'll choose Kenny Rogers."

The strapping, spike-haired boy beamed upon hearing Gayathri's choice. "Good."

"What about Debbie?" Gayathri inquired. She remembered Manny's little sister and was very fond of her. "Won't she get mad or anything…?"

"Not when she hears that _you_ are the one who chooses Kenny Rogers instead of McDonald's," Manny replied confidently. "Besides, she'd always want to eat at McDonald's whenever there's a new Happy Meals toys advertised on TV. There was this time last year's August, when the Happy Meals toys were those Hello Kitty stuffs. There were six different kitties, so…"

"Don't tell me that you guys went to McD's for six days straight," Gayathri said, laughing.

"Oh…actually we managed to make it only for five days," Manny replied, joining with the laughing as well.

Gayathri liked this development. Manny, once shy and introverted when they had first met, had gradually warmed up to her. When Gayathri was absent for two days, Manny and his little sister had dropped by her house for a visit. Yet, Manny's last visit to her house the previous week's Wednesday had been the last time she had spoken with Manny. Whenever they were at school, Gayathri had decided to give Manny room to get to know his fellow classmates. And now, for Gayathri, to have a decent conversation with the boy she was growing to like a lot…well, she loved the development. Gayathri didn't know how else to phrase her happiness.

'Here's hoping that no Digital World problem would interfere with my 'date' with Manny…and his family,' Gayathri thought hopefully.

"Well…so I guess I'll see you later," Manny said. He turned around before Gayathri could stop him...and sweatdropped.

Both of them could see the heads of Wardina and Belinda poking out from one of the wall's corner. Upon realizing that they had been caught snooping, the girls giggled hysterically and averted their heads away so that Gayathri and Manny could not see them, never mind that it was already too late. Gayathri shook her head while Manny scratched his head in mild bashfulness. Manny looked at Gayathri questioningly and gave her a nervous, small smile.

"Oh boy," Gayathri said, rolling her eyes. "Those two…I better get back to them. See you later, Manny."

Manny watched Gayathri go for a moment, and nodded. His smile was gone. "Yeah…see you later," he said softly.

xxx

xxx

Thunders echoed over the cloudy sky of the Shadow Realm as five figures were seen crossing its barren grounds. All over the dark region, ghosts Digimon in forms of Bakemon were floating about, emitting haunting sounds as they observed the quintet. However, ghastly as the sounds were, they had no effect upon the five figures. The Bakemon too, stayed away from the five, merely watching from afar with bared yellow teeth and gleaming evil eyes. It was said that those who dared intrude the grounds of SkullSatamon would fall prey to the Bakemon. As the Bakemon themselves avoided the five Digimon that had stepped into the valley, it was highly probable that these Digimon far surpassed the Bakemon in terms of power.

The group of five was led by a dark and dastardly humanoid Digimon who looked like a cross between a human warrior and a raven. He was dressed in white puffy trousers and purple armor. This was Karatenmon, an ultimate level Digimon, a master of sorcery and dark arts, and one of SkullSatamon's generals. He was flanked on both sides by a flaming bipedal lizard on his right, and a merman whose lower body was enveloped by swirling water. And finally behind the three Digimon walked Shutumon and Sorcerymon, henchmen to SkullSatamon with ranks lower than Karatenmon. As they were walking, both Shutumon and Sorcerymon cast looks of hatred towards the Bakemon around them, as if daring them to attack. They knew however that Bakemon, despite their appearances, were smart enough not to do so.

Soon they reached the Horror Hall, a gleaming onyx skull-shaped bastion perched on a stone mountain which seemed to be projected out of a bottomless pit around it. Over the end of the stone bridge which connected the moss-green staircases and the ground across the abyss, there stood a hulking demonic Digimon, whose sight alone would make anyone quiver in fear. It was a skeletal humanoid Digimon, whose head, body and extremities were all skinless and consisted only of crimson bones. Inside his ribcage there was a DigiCore, obsidian in color and gleamed against the pale lights emitted by the force-field around the crater in which the Horror Hall was at. At the moment, the DigiCore was tinted with yellow at the bottom.

"Master SkullSatamon," Karatenmon greeted the frightful Digimon with reverence, and knelt on the dry, cracked ground. The other four Digimon behind him followed suits immediately.

"Rise, General," SkullSatamon said hoarsely. He perched forward his head – which in actuality was a black skull with a crimson bat tattooed over the forehead with bat wings erupted from the sides. The demon observed his visitors with his empty eye sockets; his sight worked in a mysterious way unknown to no one but a similar species to himself – not many could see without eyes, yet the way SkullSatamon look at the Digimon ensemble in front of him it was as if he possessed eyes like any other Digimon. The emptiness of his eye sockets were unnerving to those who dared to see directly towards it – which was why many chose wisely to avoid staring into the darkness of SkullSatamon's eye sockets.

"I see you have selected two excellent candidates in order for my plan to be executed, Karatenmon. Flarelizamon and Depthmon, excellent choices indeed. You have carried out my order flawlessly."

"Thank you, my master," Karatenmon said as he rose regally from the ground.

From behind the dark avian Digimon and the fire and water duo, Sorcerymon and Shutumon watched each other from the corners of their eyes. They felt somewhat dissatisfied that only Karatenmon received all the good rapport from their master as they too, had done their parts. However it was not their place to object to what they perceived as unfairness, and their loyalty to SkullSatamon still surpassed their own ego. Thus, they kept their mouths shut and watched the event that took place before their very eyes.

Karatenmon then beckoned for Flarelizamon, the flaming lizard, and Depthmon the merman, to move forward. A flash of crimson was seen from Flarelizamon's eyes and Depthmon's visor before both moved forward. Once directly in front of SkullSatamon, with only the force-field being in the way, the two Digimon bowed their heads, lowering their gazes onto the dark dry grounds.

"Karatenmon, proceed." SkullSatamon gave a nod to his minion.

"Yes, master."

Karatenmon then stretched his thin arms forward, one towards the back of Flarelizamon and the other towards the back of Depthmon. He began chanting an incantation in a foreign language which sounded dark and mystical. As he chanted, flashes of lightning streaked against the sky, followed by earthshaking thunderclaps which made Sorcerymon and Shutumon jump and hugged each other in reflex. However upon realizing the position they were currently at, they quickly unlatched from each other and Shutumon dunked Sorcerymon on the head for seemingly 'taking advantage' of her.

Dark smokes appeared from Karatenmon's fingertips before two crimson beams shot out from the wizard's hands. The beams hit Flarelizamon and Depthmon at the back of their heads, which made them scream in surprise. They immediately clutched their heads and roared in pain as Karatenmon continued chanting his dark spell. Crackles of lightning were generated from out of nowhere, spiraling around Flarelizamon's and Depthmon's bodies, and Karatenmon quickened his spell in a crescendo as Shutumon, Sorcerymon and SkullSatamon all looked upon them in anticipation. The two Digimon's roars of pain echoed all over the Shadow Realm, sending any visible Bakemon out of sight in a blink of the eye.

"At this moment I really don't want to be in their shoes," Sorcerymon whispered into Shutumon's ears.

"Who says I want to be in their shoes in the first place?" Shutumon replied with a low voice, not wanting to attract any attention at all.

Several minutes passed by painfully before Flarelizamon and Depthmon stopped screaming. The crackles of lightning had now disappeared, and they were silently standing (or hovering, in Depthmon's case) in front of SkullSatamon. A notable difference was present in both of them – they now had the crimson emblem of a bat tattooed at the center of Flarelizamon's fiery forehead and Depthmon's helmet. The emblem was the same insignia that was on SkullSatamon's skull.

"The mark of evil has been bestowed upon them, master," Karatenmon informed.

"Good. Now I can control them telepathically, even though I am confined within this barrier," SkullSatamon said viciously.

"Indeed, master. They are at your beck and calls."

SkullSatamon nodded, satisfied with the explanation. "And what of their… _human _partners?"

"Do not worry, master," Karatenmon said convincingly. "The ones chosen are perfect."

"Good. Despite I'm having control over Flarelizamon and Depthmon now, they will however, obey their human partners more than they do me. You must make sure that their human partners will never stray from evil, Karatenmon! This will be your responsibility."

"It has been taken care of, master," Karatenmon said. "With your evil mark on these two, your influence shall seep through the minds of their human partners as well. I have tested this before by making Sorcerymon cast the abhorrence spell upon the partner of one of the DigiWira. While the human partner of that Fairymon was not hit directly by the spell, she exhibited stronger signs of being influenced by the spell more than her partner. If not for that meddling Wizardmon, the wielder of the Pink DigiSphere would have ordered her partner Digimon to destroy her comrades."

"Is that so? And have you taken the necessary action against the meddler?"

"Yes, master. The said obstacle has been removed. I have made sure of that myself."

"You have done well, Karatenmon. Now, leave Shadow Realm and carry out the next step of the plan."

"Of course, master."

xxx

xxx

Watching as students walking past him, Adam sat at the sitting area constructed along the drains in front of the school's pavement. It was already ten minutes after the end of the day's school session. Usually he would go back home with Hakim, but earlier that day Hakim had informed him that the he needed to go to Kuala Lumpur right after school. There was something that he needed to do and his mother had asked Hakim to inform Adam that she couldn't send Adam back home today.

Adam sighed. He didn't mind that at all; something like this had happened previously. It was something that Adam had to accept, since he was hitching a ride along with his friend, for free. Adam remembered there was one time that Hakim's brother got sick and they had to go to the hospital right after school had let up. Adam had simply used his cell phone to contact a public cab in order to return back to his apartment. Unfortunately, he couldn't utilize the same solution today.

"Really need to talk to Kak Lisha about changing that phone's battery," Adam made a mental reminder to himself.

Adam regretted the fact that he didn't have his cell phone with him. The battery was dead and Adam was forced to leave it home to have its battery charged. To make things worse for Adam, the public phone could not be used anymore. A few weeks before it was vandalized and the school hadn't gotten round to fix it.

However, what was strange to Adam this time around was the fact that Hakim seemed somewhat secretive about this. He didn't want to elaborate of what he would do at the nation's capital, and Adam could only guess that it wasn't just a usual trip. This brought Adam's mind back to Hakim's change of demeanor these past few days. Hakim had indeed become quieter than before, and would talk only when someone engaged a question towards him. During the nights when Adam had enough free time to log on the internet and the online chatting client, he'd see Hakim being online as well but whenever Adam tried to engage an online conversation with him, he would receive only short replies or no replies at all.

"Finally, there you are! I've been trying to find you since this morning!"

Interrupted all of a sudden, Adam glanced sideways and saw a familiar girl marching towards him with a stern expression on her face. She looked rather harassed, and somehow it seemed to Adam that _he _was the reason for it. Then it immediately occurred to him that he himself was acting strange towards his fellow DigiWira by not replying to her messages. It somehow comforted him; perhaps Hakim had something bothering his mind, and it was somewhat personal that he didn't want Adam or anybody else to know about it. After all, Adam didn't tell Hakim about him being a DigiWira too, did he?

"Hey, Adam…did you hear me?" Liu Ying asked. Adam nearly jumped when he saw that the straight-haired prefect was now standing by his side.

"Oh…hi, Liu Ying," he greeted with a smile, quickly pushing his earlier thoughts to the back of his mind.

"Don't _Hi, Liu Ying_ me, Adam!" Liu Ying snapped irritably. She however had managed to keep herself from raising her tone in order not to attract the other student's attentions. She looked around and glared to anybody that gave them curious looks, making students who did so to turn away instantly. Most people knew better than to harass the strict second assistant head prefect.

"What gives? Why didn't you reply to my messages? All you said was that you ran into trouble while at the Digital World last Friday. Care to explain more about it?"

"Woah, Liu Ying. Sorry about that. I'll explain now."

Adam thought carefully about the events that had taken place the previous week's Friday. He was bothered greatly by Wizardmon's death, and Patamon had told him that Adam was having nightmares about it that he had to wake Adam up. Adam shook his head and decided since Liu Ying was here, he might as well tell her about it. Then, knowing that Liu Ying's house was nearby, he planned to ask a favor from the girl. And so he began explaining slowly about Wizardmon, and about his untimely death based on what he had seen on Wizardmon's staff.

"Oh…" Liu Ying said as her brain processed the information she had just gathered from Adam. "I'm sorry about your friend Wizardmon."

"I really was looking forward to meet him again that Friday," Adam said glumly. "And he was already gone – killed without mercy by this Karatenmon."

"Gayathri and I didn't even get the chance to meet him. We too owed him a great favor," Liu Ying said and placed a comforting hand on Adam's shoulder. "This Karatenmon is a very dangerous adversary indeed. We've never faced an Ultimate Digimon before. Our partners simply don't have enough experience yet to face him."

"But from the looks of it, it could be Karatenmon who we're gonna face next," Adam pointed out worriedly. "What are we going to do?"

"Shaomon, what do you think?" Liu Ying asked; her eyes averted slightly to her slightly bulging school bag.

"I am willing to do my best, as best as I could ever deliver as Youkomon," Shaomon's muffled reply was heard. "Perhaps three Champions would be enough to deal with an Ultimate."

"That's the spirit, Shaomon. I'll have to check with Izzy Izumi about that," Liu Ying decided promptly.

Adam looked puzzled. The name Liu Ying had just said was not familiar to him. "Who?"

"One of the earliest DigiDestined in the world. He's from Odaiba, Japan."

Adam's gray eyes lit up with interest. "Will you be chatting with him today?"

Liu Ying nodded. "He's always online at this forum he has established for all the DigiDestined around the world. There's also a special chat room he has created over the mIRC, exclusive for all the chosen children around the world. He's usually around every day, and even if he doesn't there are a lot more chosen children that we could ask about this. Experience-wise however, the Japanese team has been doing this since 1999, so you can say that they know what they are doing the most."

"1999? That's like six years ago! How cool is that?" Adam said excitedly. "I wanna join the conversation too."

"Ok. When you get home, give me a message via the D-Terminal. I'll give you all the necessary info for you to access the chat room."

"Oh…heh, heh…umm…Liu Ying? About getting home, is it ok for me to use your phone? I've left mine home, and Hakim has something to do at KL and I really need to make a call."

"No problem, Adam, but I don't have my cell with me now. But you can tag along to my house and use my house phone. Who're you planning to call?"

"The cab."

Liu Ying nodded and smiled. "No problem, then. Come on."

"Won't your family mind?" Adam inquired.

"Of course not. Now come on."

Together, the two DigiWira walked down the road before making a right turn at the junction. Along the way they talked more about what Liu Ying had learned from her chatting sessions with the DigiDestined from various countries. Apparently Liu Ying had first found the chat rooms and forums just a few days after she had been chosen to be Malaysia's first DigiDestined – or DigiWira. She was attempting on doing some research about Digimon over the internet and had stumbled upon someone who at first remained anonymous to her. They had corresponded over three times before the anonymous person then pointed her to Izzy Izumi.

"So who was that anonymous person?" Adam asked as they walked past the park.

"I didn't manage to get to know about him, or her," Liu Ying said. "Whoever he is however, he had been very helpful."

Adam was about to reply when a gust of wind interrupted their conversation. It wasn't particularly strong, but was forceful enough to have its presence recognized. Coming from behind, the wind had messed up Liu Ying's sleek black hair, but Adam had worn a hair gel to keep his dark hair in place. Both DigiWira thought that it was strange, as the air had been rather still throughout the day. It was a warm day and no winds were expected. Looking up, neither DigiWira saw any signs of impending rain or storm, judging by the brilliantly clear sky and the little amount of clouds over the stratus.

Suddenly, Adam felt a prickling sensation over the back of his neck. It was the same feeling he had felt a few days ago, over the empty corridor – the feeling of being watched closely. He instinctively ran his hand there, and to his surprise, he saw Liu Ying doing the same thing as she adjusted her hair back in place. He looked at Liu Ying questioningly. Could the girl also was experiencing the same creepy feeling Adam was feeling.

"What?" the girl asked curiously, when she noticed Adam looking at her with an odd expression over his face.

"I know this will sound silly…but I've the strangest feeling that we're being watched," Adam admitted quickly.

"Really?" Liu Ying replied, immediately looking around them. "I don't see anyone." Then she paused as a new feeling dawned upon her. There was no one around, true, but she couldn't shake the sinister aura she had just picked up from out of nowhere. She understood quickly what Adam had just said – at the moment, she too, could feel an intense, piercing gaze being fixed upon both of them. But she couldn't pinpoint from where exactly the gaze originated. It could be anywhere around the nearby vicinity. However the nearby places around them – the park, the mosque, the cluster of benches near the basketball court and along the road – were completely deserted of people, with the exception of the two of them.

"You know what? I think I believe you," Liu Ying said, with the calmest tone she could muster. "Let's…"

Before they could decide on what they should do, their Digivices suddenly let out a single, loud beep and vibrated within their pockets.

"Uh oh, trouble," Liu Ying immediately said as she eyed the LCD screen of her yellow-rimmed white D3 Digivice. "Hey, is Gayathri around here?"

"No, why?" Adam replied. "She told me that she would be following Manny's family for lunch. I think they've already gone there."

"Strange…because there are three dots on my D3," Liu Ying said. "Look at yours."

"One for you, one for me, and the other for Gayathri," Adam responded lightly as he eyed his sky blue and silver D3 Digivice. Suddenly, he frowned. "But hey, Gayathri isn't with us right now. And this third dot is really close with the other two dots."

"Exactly. And my D3 isn't set on wide scale scanning," Liu Ying agreed.

"Huh?" Adam looked dumbfounded. "Wide scale scanning?"

"One of the functions of our D3 that TobuCatmon, and Izzy Izumi, told me maybe once or twice before," Liu Ying explained quickly. "Right now, by default our D3's parameter is set for only about one kilometer radius, which is its minimal setting. It's maximum however…let's just say that it can cover the whole of Malaysia, and probably include Singapore, Brunei and some parts of Thailand and Indonesia as well."

"Really? _That_ far?" Adam asked.

"There's so much that you still have to know Adam," Liu Ying said. "Which makes it imperative for you to go to the DigiDestined channel and…well, start learning."

Adam nodded. "Ok. Back to the mystery of these three dots. It's really weird. What do you think…hey look, the third dot's gone!" he said and held his D3 up for Liu Ying to see.

On the LCD screen of their D3s were now only two blinking neon green dots against a black background, instead of three. The third dot was gone as soon as it had appeared.

"This is very, very odd…and creepy," Adam said with a shiver. "I'm sure that both of us saw that third dot."

"Let's just go to my house quickly. We can ask the DigiDestined later about this, I'm sure they can explain this to us," Liu Ying decided promptly.

Adam nodded his head vigorously. "I'm way ahead of you."

Immediately the two DigiWira hastened their paces towards Liu Ying's house without looking back at all. When both of them were far away, another figure stepped out from behind a big tree. The tree was big and shady enough to hide the person well, and the shrubs in front of the tree were sufficient to block the person from view. The figure watched as both Adam and Liu Ying entered the latter's house before fully emerging from his hiding.

"That was close," the figure muttered. The mysterious person then took out a very modern cell phone and fiddled with the buttons. "DIGIPORT OPEN!"

xxx

xxx

Liu Ying was just beginning to close the gate of her house when all of a sudden her D3 beeped. This was followed by another series of buzzes from her D-Terminal. These signs were familiar to the wielder of the Yellow DigiSphere – there was trouble at the Digital World and she was needed. True enough, she saw a rather urgent message on the screen of her D-Terminal.

_DigiWira, there is a major Digimon attack over East Lake City. You three and your partners are direly needed. Please hurry. Many Digimon have been injured._

_Signed, TobuCatmon_

"Oh no," Liu Ying said softly. "East Lake City…"

Liu Ying and Labramon had been to East Lake City before, and that was before Gayathri and Adam joined the DigiWira team. It had been only a small threat before, one that was resolved by Youkomon easily. The leader of the city, an Exveemon, was grateful for their help that he had welcomed them to come over the city anytime. Liu Ying had taken Gayathri there once; the second day after Gayathri became a DigiWira, in order to get her acquainted with more Digimon.

Her thoughts then raced to her fellow DigiWira. Adam had just taken a cab back to his apartment, and according to him it would take him another fifteen to twenty minutes before he would arrive at his home. Liu Ying nonetheless was confident that Adam had received the message too, and would do his best to join Liu Ying at the Digital World as soon as possible. On the other hand, she was concerned of how would Gayathri attempt to go to the Digital World. She was with Manny's family at a restaurant.

"Liu Ying? I heard the D-Terminal and the D3 Digivice beeping?" Shaomon inquired. Inside the compounds of Liu Ying's home, Shaomon was now free to move about.

Liu Ying nodded. "Yes, we're needed. And it looks like we'll be the ones to go to the Digital World first."

"Adam and Patamon will join us soon, that I am sure," Shaomon said as she trotted along her partner to enter the house. "And as for Gayathri, do not worry. That girl is very resourceful. Somehow, she will manage to find a way to free herself of her current engagement in order to join us as soon as she could manage. Let's not forget that she and Floramon have been to East Lake City before, Floramon will know how to get to the city."

"What about Adam?"

"I trust Patamon is experienced enough to know where East Lake City is. After all, he was the leader of the Green Meadow Village. Some diplomatic meetings must have occurred between Green Meadow Village and East Lake City. In fact, I think I can recall Exveemon once mentioned that they bought some food items from Green Meadow Village."

The fair-skinned girl merely smiled upon hearing her partner's attempt to console her. The way Shaomon speak had never ceased to amaze her. They immediately went to the computer and seconds later, they were already inside the Forest Sanctum where TobuCatmon was waiting for them patiently. The first thing Liu Ying realized however, instead of their mentor or the fact that her partner had Digivolved into Labramon, was that a certain change was done inside what she had termed as the DigiWira's base of operation.

"Welcome back, Liu Ying, Labramon," TobuCatmon greeted. His tone however, harbored a great worry.

"Hi. Umm…what is that?" Liu Ying asked, pointing towards a wooden device that stood erect near the fountain. She had been a DigiWira for six months, and she hadn't seen the device before.

"That is Wizardmon's sun-staff," TobuCatmon explained. "I trust Adam has already explained to you about Wizardmon?"

Liu Ying nodded. TobuCatmon then continued, "Behold!"

The sun-shaped upper end of the staff glimmered with pale gold lights, and to Liu Ying's amazement, it began to show something. A small city in chaos was shown. Digimon – In-trainings, Rookies and Champions were seen running about, shouting and pleading at the same time. Explosions were heard as a stream of fire was seen coming from the tallest building, coming from a flaming bipedal dragon-like creature which Liu Ying had never seen before. The torrents of fire released by the flaming dragon were blasted against a flying blue-scaled bipedal dragon, which was seen protecting a group of small Digimon.

The scene then shifted away slightly towards the lake nearby the city, where another threat was seen. An armored Digimon, partly submerged by the water, was seen flooding the city with streams of water from the lake. At the same time, the Digimon wielded the waters to attack any Digimon who were seen nearby. Some water types Digimon were seen trying to protect the city from the Digimon, but the enemy seemed to be too strong for them to handle.

"Exveemon's not going to stand a chance against that flaming lizard. We have to go to help him," Liu Ying said breathlessly.

"Who are those intruders of East Lake City?" Labramon wondered.

TobuCatmon sighed as he observed the sun-staff. Liu Ying thought that there was something reflected from TobuCatmon's eyes, and was puzzled upon realizing that it was _sadness_. Their mentor had never exhibited that reaction towards the enemies – especially destructive ones such as the flaming dragon and the armored merman.

"They are Flarelizamon and Depthmon," finally answered the bat-cat hybrid.

Liu Ying nodded in understanding. "It's time to put a stop to them. Ready, Labramon?"

Labramon exclaimed her readiness and was instantly washed up with dazzling yellow lights emitted from Liu Ying's D3. She grew bigger, and her fur changed color from pale beige into a shining coat of night blue. At first glance, Youkomon seemed to resemble a creature of darkness – her dark features would send the shivers to any unsuspecting Digimon – but in actuality she was merely a creature of the night.

Within a few minutes, both of them were out of the jungle surrounding the Forest Sanctum. Youkomon began to pick up speed as she began heading towards the northeast direction, with the Forest Sanctum as the referral point. She was about to make a big sprint when a familiar, deep voice called out to her from behind.

"Hey guys, wait up!"

Liu Ying glanced behind and smiled as she saw a dragon-centaur in crimson armor coming their way. On top of the centaur was a boy all too familiar to the girl. She recognized the voice that called out to them earlier too, it belonged to Sagittarimon. The girl was further impressed by the quickness they had managed to make it to the Digital World.

"Right on time, Adam!" Liu Ying called out as Sagittarimon began to level with Youkomon. "Actually, you're rather early. I didn't think that you'd make it until another twenty minutes!"

Adam gave her a thumbs-up. "That taxi driver is a young guy with an adrenaline rush. I don't know what his problem was, but he got me back to the apartment in record speed, so who am I to complain?" he hollered back with a grin. Then, for the next half an hour, the two duos raced towards East Lake City, where their helps were needed. They hoped that Gayathri and Floramon would be able to join them as soon as possible; their current threats seemed to be much too treacherous than before.

Upon arriving at the city's gateway, Adam and Liu Ying gasped upon seeing the total destruction the city had suffered. The grounds were soaked and wet, traces of floods were evident. Buildings harbored traces of scorches, no doubt a souvenir from Flarelizamon. Casualties were sprawled everywhere, from small Rookies and In-trainings, to much stronger Champions and Armors. Judging from some of the crying Digimon, there had been fatalities as well.

Over the sky, a battle was taking place. Looking up, the DigiWira saw a large bipedal blue-scaled dragon with white draconic wings, holding his own against Flarelizamon and Depthmon. Muscular and looking tough, it was obvious however that the blue dragon had taken some heavy beatings. The enemies in the meantime didn't look tired at all. Streams of fire and water were fired alternately against the flying dragon, who avoided them by gliding away from the two streams. From the movements exhibited by the dragon however, it looked like he won't be able to sustain such evasive movements any longer. His movements were lagging; it was apparent that he was getting tired.

"Exveemon!" Liu Ying called out towards the blue dragon.

The dragon looked down, and a look of relief washed across his face, made clearer by the twinkle of his crimson eyes. "DigiWira! Thank goodness you're here."

"Exveemon, stand down. Let us take over the fight!" Sagittarimon exclaimed, as Adam jumped down from his body.

"Let's get down to business," he said, as his gray eyes scanned over their surroundings. "Liu Ying and I will help the injured Digimon in any way we can, Youkomon and Sagittarimon can fight that Flarelizamon and Depthmon. What do you say, guys?"

Liu Ying nodded as she too, got down from her nine-tailed Digimon partner. "Sounds good to me. Exveemon can help us too by giving us protection against any stray blasts that might come from our partners, or our enemies."

"I second that," Sagittarimon said, and Youkomon nodded her agreement.

"The only problem we have right now is to make those two come down here, since neither of us have the advantage Exveemon has," the kitsune remarked calmly. Her sharp eyes glinted as she erected her nine tails up, red flames flaring wildly from each tips. "Perhaps I can engage Flarelizamon in a battle, as Depthmon's water abilities will serve as a great disadvantage to me." With that said, she leapt upwards as Exveemon descended down. The bipedal blue dragon then used his hands for Youkomon to use as a stepping stone for her to jump even higher towards the sky. Then, she was enveloped in glaring red and orange flames, and transformed into a spectral dragon.

"They've done that before now, haven't they?" Adam asked Liu Ying, pertaining to Youkomon and Exveemon's brief team-up.

"Yes, they have. Now let's get busy."

As the two DigiWira approached the casualties, Sagittarimon looked up for his foe. He saw Youkomon and Flarelizamon began to fight each other in a glorious display of firepower exchanges. Youkomon, aided by her swiftness and her magical attributes layering her fire attacks, proved to be a challenge for Flarelizamon. Yet Flarelizamon himself was no ordinary Digimon. His lack of agility was made up by his raw powers. So far, the two Digimon proved to be equals, so Sagittarimon needn't worry for Youkomon's safety for the time being. Then, from the corner of his eyes he saw Depthmon attempting to assist Flarelizamon, his hands beginning to generate some water bubbles.

"Ah ah ah, I don't think so, buddy!" Sagittarimon said as he took out his bow. Swiftly he took a precise aim towards Depthmon and yelled, _"Judgment Arrow!"_

xxx

xxx

Gayathri fidgeted nervously on her seat as she ate her roasted chicken. She wanted to finish eating up the chicken as soon as possible, as she needed to get home soon. Sitting next to her, Manny was chatting with his sister Debbie animatedly – actually he was teasing his little sister gently for not being able to go to McDonald's that day. Debbie had accused Manny to be the one who had persuaded Gayathri to go to Kenny Rogers that day. Yet the noises the two siblings made didn't stop Gayathri from thinking about her fellow DigiWira? What could be the problem today? Can they solve it without her for the time being?

"Would you _please_ tell Debbie once again that I am not responsible for you choosing Kenny Rogers instead of McD's?" Manny's voice broke Gayathri's trails of thought.

"Hmm?" Gayathri looked up. "Oh…well, it's kind of been a while since I've had Kenny Rogers."

"See?" Manny said to his sister with a triumphant grin. Debbie merely responded by sticking her tongue out and blew raspberries towards her older brother.

"Now, now, you two, settle down," Mrs. Kimberly Bhatt, Manny and Debbie's mother, reprimanded them gently. "Have you no shame for our guest?" She then turned her attention towards her daughter. "How about tomorrow, the two of us go to McDonald's. Ok?" she asked Debbie. "They'll still have that Happy Meal toy that you want."

"Ok," Debbie said glumly as she picked on the mashed potatoes and macaroni, which were served along her roasted chicken.

"Debbie, don't pick on your food."

"Sorry, mommy."

Kimberly shook her head and smiled at Gayathri, who was sitting in front of her. "It's so nice to see you two getting along. I was worried at first that Manny would take a long time to fit in, but thanks to you, Manny's now already joined a club at school, and already has so many friends in only one week."

"It's my pleasure, aunty, but really, I didn't do much," Gayathri said smilingly. "And thank you for this lunch."

"Oh, don't mention it," Kimberly replied. She then checked her watch and looked at her son expectantly. "Manny, could you go over the counter and ask whether the vanilla muffins I ordered are ready. I think we're ready to have them, now that you have finished your meal."

"Sure, mom," Manny said. He got up from their table and went to the counter.

Kimberly then leaned closer towards Gayathri. Her brown eyes were twinkling. "Truthfully, Gayathri dear, I'm quite surprised that Manny asked me last night whether it would be ok if he asked you to join us for lunch today."

Gayathri, who was sipping her drink, nearly choked upon hearing Mrs. Abah's statement. It was totally unexpected, and a startling revelation. She coughed slightly and took another sip of her Diet Coke to settle her cough down. _Didn't Manny say to her that it was **his mother** who asked her to join them for lunch? _

"Are you ok, dear?" Kimberly asked, concerned.

"Oh, I'm ok, aunty. Sorry about that," Gayathri said quickly, and smiled. "It's just that I'm as surprised as you are," she quickly added.

Kimberly nodded, satisfied, and continued, "He was always a very shy boy back at Kota Kinabalu, but here, he's becoming more outgoing. I think it's because of you he managed to overcome his shyness. It's a really good change on him. I have to thank you for that."

"Really…I didn't do much, aunty, you don't have to thank me," Gayathri protested. "In fact, I'm the one who should be thanking you for the lunch. It's really wonderful."

"Oh, it's only fast food, dear. I'll invite you for a proper home-cooked lunch when we've finished stocking our kitchen with all the essentials," Kimberly said and pressed Gayathri's hand warmly.

Manny then came back with a plate of muffins, which the four of them ate quickly. All the time while they were eating, Gayathri managed to catch Manny stealing glances at her, and every time she had caught him, he merely gave her a smile, which made her blush. What Manny's mother had said suddenly occurred to Gayathri's mind – Manny did seem to have warmed up to her greatly – there was a confidence layered with the smile, it was no longer the bashful one that Gayathri had seen when the two first met. Gayathri liked the confidence exuded with Manny's smile, in fact she liked it a lot and that made her heart raced, but at the same time she was reminded that it was the bashful smile that made the butterflies in her stomach fluttered.

'_He was the one who wanted to ask me out for lunch with his family, yet he still says that it was his mom who wants me over for lunch,'_ Gayathri thought as she watched Manny drink his glass of Coke. Then, it was Manny who managed to catch Gayathri staring at him, and Gayathri saw the straw nearly slipped out of his mouth. She tried hard to sustain her laugh; it would be impolite for her to laugh at Manny, especially in front of his mother and sister.

'_Well, I guess there's still that bashful Manny somewhere – he's probably still shy to admit that he wants to ask me out,'_ Gayathri thought smilingly. _'I can deal with that for now.'_

"Looks like we're all done now," Kimberly announced. "It's time to go home."

Gayathri sighed in relief. Now she could go and help her fellow DigiWira out. She tried hard not to look so eager to leave, which she partially was not, but it had been nearly an hour after her D-Terminal and D3 beeped. She really hoped that Adam and Liu Ying managed to get things under control during her absence.

xxx

xxx

It was a battle of equals between Flarelizamon and Youkomon, and between Depthmon and Sagittarimon. Two Digimon with fire-based powers pitting strength against each other, and two Armor Digimon with equally high defenses that they could not even injure the other. For the past forty minutes they had been battling each other and no one could beat the other. Youkomon, with her unparalleled stealth and agility, managed to use her many magical abilities to her advantage, but even with those backing her up she couldn't match the raw powers that Flarelizamon possessed. Her fireballs were simply neutralized by Flarelizamon's very own high temperature flame bullets, and Youkomon often found herself having to relinquish her Dragon Wheel technique when Flarelizamon countered it with his powerful Flame Tower ability – which generated an enormous pillar of fire as barrier to protect him from Youkomon's fire.

In the meantime, Sagittarimon too faced difficulty fighting against Depthmon. Both were Champion-Armor Digimon, which meant that both had high defenses. Sagittarimon's arrows, while powerful, did little to injure Depthmon, although they did manage to cause dents to form on his armor. Depthmon's water techniques however couldn't even budge the hulking centaur, but his sharp claws had done to Sagittarimon's armor what the centaur's arrows had done to his. Once or twice Depthmon attempted to drag Sagittarimon into the lake, where he would possess the advantage, but Sagittarimon saw through that immediately and resisted simply with his weight. But Sagittarimon had found himself at a severe disadvantage, as his meteorites attack could simply be nullified by the waters that Depthmon could wield at his whim.

As the four Digimon battled, Adam and Liu Ying did their best to help the injured casualties retreating to a safer shelter. The city's leader, Exveemon, had helped them by shielding them from any attack. Once, Flarelizamon's flame bullets had strayed from Youkomon, and hadn't Exveemon been quick with his X-Laser technique the bullets would have incinerated the DigiWira. And on another equally dire occasion, Depthmon's flood of water would have drowned the DigiWira and some Rookies and In-trainings, if it wasn't for Exveemon to carry them away to safety, and firing an abandoned building, which reduced it into rubbles, which in turn protected them from the full-force of the water.

"Hang on, little one," Adam said as he applied a medical ointment on a Nyaromon's injury. The little green-furred In-training yelped in pain but understood that the DigiWira was helping her, so she kept herself from struggling hard. "There. All done. A few days later and you'll be as good as new." The Nyaromon purred happily and licked Adam with her large tongue.

Liu Ying was helping two puppy-types Salamon, whose legs were dislocated due to a fall, by bandaging their legs. She then passed the puppies over to Exveemon to be transported into a sturdy building, where many Digimon had been transferred for medical care by the city's doctor – a Leomon who was completely attired with a white coat and a stethoscope.

"If only Gayathri and Floramon are here, maybe we can win this fight against those two," Liu Ying said to Adam. "Where are they?"

"She'll be here," Adam said assuringly, and passed the Nyaromon to her. However, the Nyaromon hissed slightly at Liu Ying and wrapped its long tail around Adam's arm.

"Looks like she's taken a liking for you," Liu Ying observed.

"Oh boy," Adam groaned.

Suddenly, two figures entered the site of massive destruction. To Adam and Liu Ying's relieves, it was reinforcements – in the form of their friends Gayathri and the fully-Digivolved Fairymon, who was carrying her partner as she flew inside the city. Spotting the other two DigiWira, Fairymon descended quickly, narrowly avoiding a torrent of fire coming from Flarelizamon, which was successfully evaded by Youkomon.

"Hey, watch it, lizard-breath! I'm right here!" Fairymon shouted in annoyance. "You nearly burned my hair off my head!"

"Umm…Fairymon? Before you pick a fight, mind putting me down first?" Gayathri asked meekly.

Fairymon did as she was requested and flew up towards the sky once again. She took a moment to assess her friends' conditions – a trait she had gotten from Youkomon – rather than jumping into a battle recklessly. She saw Youkomon leaping from one rooftop to another as she alternately attacked and defended herself from one that Fairymon could immediately identify as Flarelizamon. She turned her gaze around and saw Sagittarimon battling a marine-type Digimon, who was sending streams of water jets towards the centaur.

"I think I know just what to do," Fairymon said with a smirk, and flew towards Sagittarimon.

"Gayathri, what took you so long?" Liu Ying demanded, just as the curly haired DigiWira joined her and Adam. "We could use you and Fairymon ever since…yesterday!"

Gayathri rolled her eyes. "Now _that's_ so exaggerating. But really, I'm sorry guys. It's just that I was with Manny's family and I didn't know how to get out of it."

"It's cool," Adam said quickly. He noticed Fairymon's shadow went past him and looked up. "Now what could your partner be up to?"

In the meantime, Sagittarimon was busy fending off bubble-bombs that were sent to him by Depthmon by firing away his arrows. Whenever his arrow hit a bubble-bomb, an explosion resulted. Sagittarimon had learnt that when he had unwittingly let one bubble, which looked harmless at first glance, to hit his armor. It had caused his armor to be slightly chipped along the edge, which irked the centaur slightly. The result of the attack was unexpected, but he had learned his lesson. Thus, he resorted to use his arrows, and occasionally his Meteor Gallop technique, to repel the bubble-bombs.

"Yoo-hoo, Sagittarimon!"

Sagittarimon couldn't be gladder when he heard the slightly flirtatious voice, knowing that it belonged to a friend.

"Fairymon, glad that you could come. Ugh… _Judgment Arrow!"_

"Fishface's giving you trouble?" Fairymon asked as she descended on Sagittarimon's back. "Then let's turn the tides on him. _Hurricane Wave!"_

Fairymon's pink hurricane attack had done what Sagittarimon's attacks couldn't possibly come up with – it had deflected all the bubble-bombs back towards Depthmon. It happened too quickly that Depthmon was unprepared to defend himself. As a result, the bubble-bombs combusted upon contact with his body, damaging his own sleek aquamarine armor. Depthmon was thrown into the lake, and this was witnessed by many Digimon of the East Lake City. A thunderous cheer erupted from all over the city.

"She shoots, and she scores!" Fairymon squealed in delight.

"Um…I think it's actually _he_ shoots, and she scores," Sagittarimon pointed out. "Since it was Depthmon who did all the shootings…"

"Oh, you get my point," Fairymon said, waving her hands dismissingly. "Anyway, Sagittarimon…I have a plan to help Youkomon. But we need to egg that fishface. I need him to…"

As Fairymon whispered her plan to Sagittarimon, the battle between Youkomon and Flarelizamon escalated one degree higher. Flarelizamon was getting impatient of seeing Youkomon surviving and evading his attacks, and decided to come up with a bigger, forceful attack. The fires that flared from his body began to become wilder and higher. The temperature around him increased twice as high as before, and the fires on his body actually emitted sounds – burning sounds, which didn't seem too well for Youkomon.

"He is unleashing his mightiest attack yet. I cannot believe that all this while he has been holding back. I…have given my best shot," Youkomon muttered desperately. "I need help."

"_Raging….INFERNO!" _Flarelizamon shouted forcefully, and the flames on his body erupted in all directions, threatening to burn anything in nearby vicinity. The rooftop where Flarelizamon was standing caught the fire and began to burn wildly. The building began to rumble as the fires were spreading rapidly.

To make things worse, Youkomon's sharp ears caught the sound of an impending tsunami – even though East Lake City was located merely beside a lake, but a very, very big lake. Even Sagittarimon and Fairymon together couldn't beat Depthmon, the kitsune thought. What chance could she have against the raging Flarelizamon, whose power was beginning to show whereas Youkomon had used up all of her own powers.

"Youkomon, duck!"

Startled, Youkomon turned around and her eyes widened in a somewhat pleasant surprise. She saw Fairymon flying towards her at top speed, wielding three hurricanes of water with her. It was an amazing sight, and Youkomon was reminded of what Fairymon could actually do if pushed at full strength. She had witnessed it herself when Fairymon was influenced by Sorcerymon's spell. Quickly she jumped onto the ground as Fairymon approached Flarelizamon.

"Hey, lizard-breath! Cool it!"

Too consumed in his own fiery rage, Flarelizamon didn't have enough time to avoid three massive water hurricanes coming his way. Fairymon thrust all three water hurricanes towards Flarelizamon, which took out all the fire in a blink of the eye and sent Flarelizamon plummeting down from the building he was on. When he got up, to his horror, his body was no longer flaring with flames – all the fire had died out, leaving him in his orange scales.

"Without all the flames, you look just like an overgrown Agumon, now that I think of it."

Flarelizamon immediately jumped back to his feet when he saw Youkomon's approaching him with a menacing look reflected over her brilliant blue eyes. The blue-furred fox still managed to move with elegance and grace, despite her being overtaxed from the earlier battle. Her tails were still lit with red flames. With one look, Flarelizamon knew that he couldn't win the day's battle.

"We'll meet again, Youkomon. Mark my words," Flarelizamon swore, and with a wave of his arm, he vanished in a puff of dark purple smokes.

Both Sagittarimon and Depthmon saw that Flarelizamon had retreated. Sagittarimon then gave Depthmon a piercing glare.

"Your friend has chickened out. What are you gonna do?" Sagittarimon challenged.

Depthmon knew that with Flarelizamon defeated, he couldn't hope to match the power of three DigiWira Digimon. He would have to retreat as well. Deep within, he was irked with Fairymon for outsmarting him – he didn't realize that Fairymon, who appeared to be an airhead in his opinion, was the one who would eventually cause their humiliating defeat. He had let himself being affected by Fairymon's taunts that he'd sent a giant tsunami-like attack, not knowing that it was what Fairymon had wanted him to do, in order for her to save the blue-furred fox that was battling Flarelizamon.

"Enjoy your victory now, DigiWira, because it will be your last. We'll see who's going to have the last laugh!"

With a vicious laugh, Depthmon too disappeared in a puff of dark purple smokes.

"Well, good riddance," Fairymon said as she descended beside Youkomon. Her body then glimmered with pink lights as she regressed back into Floramon. "Wow, all the battle, brief as it was, had taken a great deal out of me. Still…I managed to do some good, right Youkomon?" Floramon asked weakly.

"You did well, my friend. We could never have won the battle without you," Youkomon assured, as she reverted into Labramon.

"That's good to hear," Floramon said slowly, and dozed off right on the wet, floppy ground.

"She must be really tired," Sagittarimon remarked as he de-Digivolved back into Patamon. "She has exerted a lot of energy trying to wield all those waters that Depthmon had sent her way. Just look at the lake now…or lack thereof, there's barely a room for one Seadramon now. It's too shallow now that this city should change its name into East Waterhole City instead of East Lake City!"

"Flarelizamon and Depthmon seem to be our greatest match at the moment," Labramon said grimly. "And I have a feeling that our paths will cross again soon."

"Depthmon's made that pretty clear before he retreated," Patamon pointed out.

"You guys ok?" Adam asked as he retrieved his tired partner. "You've taken some pretty serious beatings there."

"We'll be ok, but those two sure are tough," Patamon admitted as he settled down on Adam's head. "Very tough, actually."

"I don't like the sound of that," Gayathri said. She picked up her sleeping partner, and wiped away some mud that got stuck on her partner's body before cradling her.

Liu Ying nodded her agreement and observed the conditions of their Digimon partners. Both Labramon and Patamon, while awake, were already too tired to Digivolve once more. "Umm… guys? How are we going back to the Forest Sanctum?" she inquired.

"Oh, don't worry about that, my young friends," a deep, throaty voice replied. It was Exveemon, who was beaming as he approached them. Despite being injured, the bipedal dragon still managed to walk steadily. He was quite a sight to behold; it was not everyday that the DigiWira could see a full-fledged dragon. "You have done us a great favor," he continued, his crimson eyes twinkling merrily. "Our city is saved thanks to your efforts. The least we could do as a token of our gratitude is to offer you transports back home. You all must be really tired now, and want to return to your home world as soon as possible. I believe three Raidramon would be up for the task. They are after all, the swiftest Digimon in this city. You'll be home in no time."

xxx

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"You have failed, Karatenmon. Flarelizamon and Depthmon are defeated by the DigiWira."

"This is just a temporary setback, my master. Flarelizamon and Depthmon still lacked battle experience in comparison to Sagittarimon, Youkomon and Fairymon. However, they have proven to be a great challenge for the DigiWira. Even though they have lost their first battle, the DigiWira partners too suffered. They are greatly weakened. In my humble opinion, my master, the first battle is actually, quite a success. Both Flarelizamon and Depthmon have now gained fight experience, which they can now use against the DigiWira. They are now familiar with the DigiWira partners' powers and styles. The dark powers they have received are now backed up by their experience, which have unlocked a new ability which I have concocted for them, master."

"Interesting. When will I be able to see the fruits of your plan?"

"We shall need more time, master. I will give them three days from now. They will be undergoing strict practice to hone their skills and to further increase their experience."

"Time is a luxury that we cannot afford, Karatenmon."

"I understand, master. But I am sure that the end results will fully justify our patience."

"Very well. See to it that I will not be disappointed."

The transmission between SkullSatamon and Karatenmon was then cut off. Footsteps were then heard coming from Karatenmon's back. The avian dark warrior turned around and saw two human figures approaching the stone podium where he was standing. They were wearing outfits identical in pattern to the DigiWira, but instead of gray they were black. On the middle of their belts were gleaming metallic crimson bats – the same symbol which SkullSatamon had on his forehead. Behind the two humans were an Agumon and a Penguinmon.

"Welcome back, ShadoWira."


	8. Enter the ShadoWira, Part I

After the transmission between SkullSatamon and Karatenmon was cut off, footsteps were heard coming from Karatenmon's back. The avian dark warrior turned around and saw two human figures approaching the stone podium where he was standing. Their movements weren't conspicuous, and any other Digimon wouldn't notice their presences until the two of them were directly in front of their eyes, but Karatenmon possessed good hearing as well as sharp eyes. His yellow eyes observed his new guests with mirth reflected from his eyes.

"Welcome back, ShadoWira."

The humans referred by Karatenmon as the ShadoWira wore outfits identical in pattern to the DigiWira, but with notable differences. For starters, instead of gray they were black. Similar to the DigiWira's uniforms, their uniform too had color accents. One of the human's uniform had two shades of red – bright red and crimson – accents on his uniform, while the other had two shades of blue – sky blue and navy – on his. But what stood out the most was the gleaming metallic bat insignias they had attached on the middle of their belts, the same symbol which SkullSatamon had on his forehead.

"I trust the training has gone well?" Karatenmon inquired.

"Define _well_," the ShadoWira with red-accented uniform said with a challenging tone in his voice. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms against his chest. Beside him, Agumon was standing motionlessly; his eyes had a glazed look. "If you mean that whether the two of us able to trash about those rookies as _well_…then yes, the training has gone _well_." The Red ShadoWira laughed. "Those Black Biyomon were no challenge to us."

Karatenmon, as a General in rank, usually would command reverence from his allies, except SkullSatamon whom he served as a subject, but he decided that the ShadoWira were also exceptions. He knew that despite the lack of humbleness shown by the Red ShadoWira, he was still, and would continue be, loyal to him. He had taken measures to ensure that the Red and Blue ShadoWira, whom he had recruited into his services, to never stray from his command. He decided to simply ignore the lack of respect the Red ShadoWira had on him.

"Those Black Biyomon are not very strong, considering the special powers you have received," Karatenmon remarked indifferently. While he was pleased with the development achieved by the ShadoWira, as the Black Biyomon were still dangerous if they were to attack a human in a flock, but he felt that from time to time he had to establish the fact that he, Karatenmon, was in control and the one with the authority, and the ShadoWira his minions. Praising them for a small development would only boost their ego, so Karatenmon refrained from doing so. Not that it was difficult for him doing so either, as Karatenmon wasn't one who would give complements easily. "I shall arrange to have you train with some of the tougher rookies. We shall see whether Shutumon and Sorcerymon could capture some decent opponents for the two of you. If you are able to defeat them, then you are ready to start your _real_ training with Champion-level Digimon. It is during that time too, that you will make your grand entrance in front of the DigiWira."

The Red ShadoWira snorted derisively. "The DigiWira don't even have any special power. Blue and I can easily take care of them right now."

"It is curious that they do not possess special powers," Karatenmon agreed. "But it would not do to underestimate them. Your partners, for instance, are defeated by theirs today."

"That's because you've made us train with those birds instead of being with our partners," the Red ShadoWira shot back. "If we're with them today, those DigiWira won't stand a chance."

"Perhaps," Karatenmon said mildly. He observed Agumon and Penguinmon, who upon realizing that they were being gazed upon immediately lowered their own gazes onto the dark ground. "They were merely sent to East Lake City so that I could compare their powers with the DigiWira partners' powers. Both Flarelizamon and Depthmon could hold their own on a one-on-one, but the DigiWira have the advantage in numbers, which is why your partners are defeated today."

"So what are we going to do about that?" the Blue ShadoWira spoke up.

Karatenmon shifted his attentions from the Digimon to the other ShadoWira. In comparison, the Red ShadoWira was the more vocal of the two, while the Blue ShadoWira was the quieter one.

"_You_ two, as I have said earlier, are going to continue with your trainings. You are to come here everyday to train for two days. By the end of the second day I expect you to be able to beat any Rookie, and we can proceed with you holding your own against champion level Digimon. Your powers have just been awakened, and thus, are not completely stable and rather limited. And since your special powers are inaccessible in your home world, you will need to train with them here. The Cave of Solitude is a perfect ground for you to learn using your powers, wielding them by all means necessary.

"In the meantime, your partners too shall need additional help to counter the three partners of the DigiWira. They have more battle experience than Flarelizamon and Depthmon, which also gives them the _absolute_ advantage." Karatenmon paused for a moment, studying Agumon and Penguinmon intently with his sharp eyes. His attention then shifted to the ShadoWira, who were both meeting his gaze directly. His eyes glinted as an idea came to him, but at the moment he didn't feel like sharing it with the ShadoWira. "I will need to think of this deeply."

The Red ShadoWira gave a derisive snort upon hearing it. "Well, maybe instead of sending us, _you _can go and battle the DigiWira yourself. After all, you're an Ultimate."

"Oh believe me when I say I shall fight them, but only when the right moment has arrived. Rest assured however that I am powerful enough to annihilate the DigiWira right now, but the Master is very precise with his plan. He wants the downfall of the DigiWira to be in the hands of his own ShadoWira, and we will carry out his plan," Karatenmon answered darkly. The dark avian warrior then stared coldly at the ShadoWira and held his head up high. For the first time, the ShadoWira could see a very human facial feature on the general. They could see a pale-skinned face underneath the crow-shaped helmet, and a sinister-looking mouth. "I can fight them, but it will be down to the two of you, and your partners, to complete the given task."

"Why is it that the Master wants us to finish off the DigiWira?" the Red ShadoWira asked. The Blue ShadoWira too, bore his eyes at Karatenmon curiously, wanting to know the answer as well.

"It is not your place to question the Master's intention," Karatenmon replied coolly.

"Fine. Whatever," the Red ShadoWira snapped irritably. "If you don't know the answer, that's fine. Just say that you don't know. No need to bite my head off." He waved both his hands up to further emphasize his annoyance with Karatenmon's answer. "It's getting late. I'm outta here."

"You two are excused, but your partners are not," Karatenmon instructed. "Leave them here; I have a plan for them."

The ShadoWira left their partners behind obligingly and walked out of the dark Cave of Solitude, the place where Karatenmon dwelled. A flash of bright light from outside the cavern where Karatenmon was at told him that the ShadoWira had opened the digital gateway back to their home world. Within a few seconds, the light was quick to die out, leaving the cave dark and quiet as it was before.

"Insufferable insects," Karatenmon muttered scornfully.

Hours later, over the Forest Sanctum, TobuCatmon was already sleeping. It was past midnight, and there was nothing much that the mentor of the DigiWira could do at this hour. However, judging by him tossing and turning over the large stuffed cushion he was sleeping on, the bat-cat hybrid was having an uneasy sleep. Occasionally he'd let out a grunt, and turned his head sideways, then above, then sideways again.

Underneath the floor mat, a faint glow suddenly was emitted from whatever that was under the mat. Being rather thin and with many gaps in between the rattan strands that constituted the mat, the light escaped through the gaps in between the strands, as well as through the thin strands. The Forest Sanctum, formerly dark with only the moon's pale light as its source of illumination, was suddenly brightly lit with a myriad of light.

Viewed from above, one could see five circles of light glowing brightly with five different colors. White, yellow, pink, blue and red circles of light were glimmering, and the five circles were positioned to form a shape of a pentagon. Neon green lines began to form between the circles, connecting one circle to another, until finally forming a five-pointed star shimmering in green light. Then, an orange circular line began to form outside the five-pointed star, containing all the circles and the green lines within, before lastly another orange circular line formed about five inches away from the first orange line.

The flashes of multicolor lights managed to awaken TobuCatmon from his slumber. The champion level Digimon immediately saw what was happening and leapt from the table where he was sleeping at. His blue eyes widened in surprise as he saw what was happening. As he was observing the unnatural phenomena occurring right in front of his own very eyes, several Digital World alphabetic characters began to form within the gap between the two orange circular lines. Nothing changed thereafter, and for a brief few seconds TobuCatmon read the digital alphabets silently. A look of full-comprehension crossed his face just a second before the lights died down gradually. The orange circles were gone first, followed by the green lines before finally the white, yellow and pink circles dimmed to nothingness. The red and blue circles however, continued glowing for another few seconds before their colors turned to dark violet, lined with black. The circles afterward dimmed as well, and the Forest Sanctum was dark once again, with the moon as its sole source of light. No trace of the strange occurring earlier was seen.

But it was not the end of strange happenings in the Forest Sanctum. A floor's stone slab nearby the sanctum's artificial fountain suddenly rumbled before it was lifted by unseen forces. It rose higher and higher, before a shining white stone hovered out from underneath. The stone had three small orbs of light with three different colors orbiting around it. TobuCatmon inhaled his breath deeply as the glimmering white stone approached him slowly. TobuCatmon stretched out one paw when the stone was within his reach. Then, as if the unseen force which had made it moved earlier gone, the stone plopped down lifelessly on TobuCatmon's outstretched paw.

"Could it be?" he wondered. "Is it time?"

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 08 – Enter the ShadoWira, Part I_**

xxx

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_Prepare for your destruction, DigiWira. Mistakes won't happen again. This time, we will be the victors. _

"Did you get this message too, Liu Ying?" Gayathri inquired with a worried tone. It was recess time on Friday, three days after their last battle at the Digital World. The corridors were bustling with rowdy students who were glad of the break they had gotten after two hours of studying. The pretty dark-skinned girl was no exception, but the message she had gotten on her D-Terminal dampened the mood slightly. Her classmate and fellow DigiWira, Adam, had also received the message although he didn't notice it at first until Gayathri had shown hers to him.

Right now, she was showing the message to Liu Ying, whom she had immediately found after exiting her classroom. Their classrooms were located side by side, and thus it wasn't difficult for Gayathri to catch on with the prefect. Upon finding the willowy girl Gayathri had whisked her aside to the corridor and waited momentarily until most students had cleared away before showing her D-Terminal to the most senior DigiWira.

Liu Ying only looked at the D-Terminal's rectangular screen for a brief second before she nodded grimly. "I get this message too, and it nearly caused trouble for me," Liu Ying said with an annoyed tone in her voice. "I got it during History lesson, and the beeping had attracted Mr. Gurmit Singh's attention instantly. Luckily he was in a good mood and just let me off with a warning to switch-off my 'handphone'. I've been getting glances from my classmates for getting scolded."

"Yikes," Gayathri said, surprised. "Didn't you activate its silent mode before class?"

"I forgot," Liu Ying admitted grudgingly. "After three days of peace, I should know better to expect that the peacefulness would last, but I guess I got too comfy for my own good." Gayathri tried not to smile, but Liu Ying usually was so well-coordinated and somewhat a no-nonsense perfectionist. It wasn't often for her to see her fellow teammate this flustered. Her mind then was brought back to the threatening message they had gotten.

"So who do you think sent this message?" she asked. "It can't be TobuCatmon."

"I don't know, and I don't think it's TobuCatmon either…but who else have access to the D-Terminal's messaging system? It's only the three of us and TobuCatmon. This message doesn't contain the sender's identity." Liu Ying handed the pink D-Terminal back to Gayathri and took out her own yellow D-Terminal from her skirt pocket. She was about to flip open the device when it vibrated – signaling another message being received. Precisely a couple of seconds after, Gayathri's D-Terminal too vibrated. Immediately they read the new message, and frowned.

_Meet us at the Megalith Coliseum at four o'clock today. If you're late, the village nearby the coliseum will be obliterated._

"Whoever sent us these messages must have a grudge against us," Gayathri remarked.

Liu Ying nodded her head in agreement. "The first message confirms that pretty much. It seems that we've beaten this guy…"

"Guys," Gayathri corrected. "They're referring themselves as 'we' in the first message, and 'us' in the second one."

"These guys…" Liu Ying amended her sentence. "We've beaten them before, and now they want some sort of a rematch. Talk about sore losers."

"Well, I could think of a few Digimon who'd have a grudge against us," Gayathri surmised. She held up two fingers. "Shutumon and Sorcerymon, for once." As she said each name, she lowered one finger. "What do you think?"

"Shutumon has a grudge against _your_ partner, not mine or Adam's. Sorcerymon might have a grudge on Adam and Patamon both, based on what I've heard from Adam," Liu Ying pointed out before shaking her head. "But seriously, I don't think it's them. I'm thinking of our most recent encounters…Flarelizamon and Depthmon. We've beaten them but they swore that we'll meet them again, remember?"

"Of course!" Gayathri exclaimed in realization. "It has to be them. 'Mistakes won't happen again'…it fits the bill perfectly."

"What I don't get is how on earth did they manage to convey these messages to us?" Liu Ying wondered.

"Beats me," Gayathri said, shrugging.

"Looks like we'll be busy today," Liu Ying said. "Thankfully it's Friday, and the clubs and society meetings for tomorrow are cancelled." The raven-haired girl then decided to change the topic of their conversation. "Anyway, where is Adam? We should let him know about this."

"I'll tell him," Gayathri volunteered, raising her right hand up slightly to emphasize her willingness. "I think he's with Hakim right now at the canteen. You know, his best friend? Anyway that boy has been acting rather strange lately and Adam is determined to find out why. It's been going on since last week."

Liu Ying nodded but didn't offer any input, as she barely knew Hakim. She had other things in mind. "I'm sure Adam gets the messages as well, but tell him that we'll meet at TobuCatmon's around three in the afternoon. That way we can reach Megalith Coliseum within forty-five minutes from the Forest Sanctum."

"You know where Megalith Coliseum is?" Gayathri asked.

The wielder of the Yellow DigiSphere nodded. "Youkomon and I passed there once while pursuing a rogue Tortomon. It was our sixth assignment, and about two weeks before you became DigiWira as well," Liu Ying explained. "It's a beautiful place and has a slight resemblance to the coliseum at Rome. However we've never gotten around visiting it. If a battle is going to occur there, we better make sure that we don't end up wrecking the place either, as it would be a terrible shame for such a unique place to be destroyed."

"You can tell that to Flarelizamon and Depthmon," Gayathri said, making a face. She looked at her watch. "Well, recess is still on for another ten minutes, so I'll be going to the canteen to grab a bite. Where are you going? If you're heading to the canteen too, we can go there together."

"No, but thanks," Liu Ying declined. "There's a book I need to return to the library and since we're going to be busy this afternoon I think I better return the book now instead."

The DigiWira girls soon parted ways. As soon as the girls were out of side, someone stepped out from an empty classroom nearby the corridor where the girls had their conversation. It was a teenage male student, and his presence was undetected by the DigiWira. He had been listening to their conversation, and let out a snicker as he placed a device resembling a D-Terminal into his trousers pocket.

"See you soon, DigiWira."

xxx

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"We're here," Liu Ying said softly about five and a half hours later. Youkomon slowly skidded into a halt several meters from the Megalith Coliseum, and looked back for her fellow partners. Not far from where the duo was at, they could see a draconic centaur approaching in top speed, followed closely by a beautiful sprite gliding across the air spiritedly. Sagittarimon stopped just beside the nine-tailed fox, with Adam and Gayathri in tow, and Fairymon descended from the sky gracefully. The DigiWira then dismounted the Digimon and took a closer look on the wondrous monumental building in front of her.

"You were right, Liu Ying," Gayathri said breathlessly, walking beside the taller girl as her doe eyes taking in every features of the Megalith Coliseum. "This building is magnificent!"

"Wow," Adam simply remarked. His gray eyes sparkled with delight. "I should've brought my sister's digital camera along – I don't need to go to Rome now! I never knew the Digital World has an almost the same kind of building." He walked past the girls to touch the coliseum's wall, and ran his hand through the cracked stone bricks that constituted the wall of the gray-black coliseum. "This is amazing…too bad we're here for another mission."

The Megalith Coliseum was an elliptical building measuring nearly four times the size of a normal soccer field. A glance from the outside would reveal that the coliseum had three levels, and each level had arches constructed, with each arch almost equal in size with the other, though inconsistencies were rather notable even by first glance. Yet those inconsistencies did nothing to hamper the overall beauty of the old structure. The arches on the ground level of the coliseum were blocked with the exception of some, which formed the entrances. The entrances were large enough to accommodate Sagittarimon, as tested when the DigiWira chose one entrance to get inside the coliseum.

Through the entrance they were led to the inner side of the coliseum by a hallway, with sunlight streaming in from both the hallway's ends to provide adequate illumination for the DigiWira to walk. There was nothing remarkable with the hallway except for the green mosses that grew in between the stones. The air was slightly stuffy, due to the constricted space, and had the smell of an old, deserted building coupled with what the DigiWira presumed to be the smell emitted by the mosses.

"WOW!" Adam whispered loudly, full of admiration, as he exited the hallway. The boy paused to bask in the breathtaking interior view of the coliseum, nearly forgetting that others were still walking behind him. This caused the girls to accidentally bump on him.

"Adam!" Liu Ying and Gayathri simultaneously cried out.

"Sorry! But look. Isn't it amazing?" Adam smiled sheepishly and scooted further, turned around and spread both his arms wide. "I really SHOULD have brought the digital camera."

Upon exiting the hallway, the DigiWira were given the wonderful interior view of the coliseum. The hallway they had just exited was connected with an onyx stone bridge, which linked the hallway to a sandy arena. The arena itself was about the size of one soccer field, and had wooden floors but the floors were then covered by sands. On either sides of the black bridge was an underground labyrinth, with unique stone formations sticking out from the grassy ground below. The stone peaks were rather flat, enough for Sagittarimon to stand on without struggle, and didn't quite reach the level of the bridge, but the depth of the labyrinth was rather deep. Sagittarimon and Youkomon could jump down into the maze without getting themselves hurt, but it was high enough to cause injury to any human who attempted to do so.

"It's amazing alright, but don't forget that we have a death threat imposed on us," Liu Ying stated grimly. "We should not lower our guards."

"You're right. Sorry," Adam said quickly. He then looked around the spectators sitting places, his eyes still glazed with an awed look. "Nevertheless, when we're done with whomever that have send us the message, I'm so gonna come back here and take some pic…" Roars of thunder suddenly blared across the clear sky, causing the boy to start in surprise. "Thunder?" he wondered, rubbing his dark hair as he looked up the clear sky. "But the sky's clear and..."

The clear blue sky suddenly darkened into different shades of purple and rumbled with thunder once more. The thunder was first preceded by lightning which streaked across the darkening sky. The warm air suddenly dropped a few degrees as winds started blowing from out of nowhere, making the environment somewhat chilly. Clouds began to materialize, blocking the sun from shining its light to the Digital World below.

"What's going on?" Liu Ying exclaimed, looking around her nervously. "This isn't normal."

"Guys, look at the arena!" Adam beckoned with a quivering voice.

The air over the arena suddenly rippled as two figures stepped out from nowhere. Their appearances shocked the DigiWira as they were evidently humans. What surprised them even more was the fact that the two humans wore uniforms with design patterns similar to their own, but the color schemes were different. In fact, it looked like their uniforms were the exact copies of Adam's own DigiWira uniform, since both of them were clearly males. While Adam's uniform was gray, with white color accent and black lines, their uniforms were mainly black.

One of them had his black uniform with red accent lined with crimson, while the other had azure blue accented uniform lined with navy. In addition to their uniforms was the fact that they wore black hooded capes, with the hoods over their heads. Their faces were concealed with ivory masks, patterned to resemble skulls, giving them a gruesome appearance. The eye parts were glowing with green light, blocking their real eyes from view. And finally, their belt each had a metallic insignia of a bat clipped on the middle.

The ShadoWira had appeared.

The air behind the ShadoWira then rippled once again, and two bigger figures stepped out. The DigiWira and their partners immediately recognized their previously-fought-and-won foes, Flarelizamon and Depthmon. Flarelizamon stood behind the ShadoWira with the red accents, while Depthmon hovered silently behind the ShadoWira with the blue accents. Both had their eyes and visor shining with red hue. Together, the humans and Digimon looked formidable and the ShadoWira's ghastly masks alone were enough to shake the DigiWira's confidence.

For a moment, there was a nerve-wrecking standstill between the DigiWira and the ShadoWira. The DigiWira stared towards the ShadoWira with mixed feelings of disbelief, shock, and increasing fear. Gayathri had turned pale upon the sight of the ShadoWira, her eyes widened and her mouth hung open. Liu Ying, being the most composed of the three, took a deep breath as her eyes never left the ShadoWira. Adam, being the leader, but also the most junior member of the DigiWira, stood very still, sweat trickling down the sides of his face. He stepped forward and positioned himself in the middle, with Liu Ying on his right and Gayathri on his left. Their partners stood behind them, mirroring the positions of the DigiWira. Upon the sight of Flarelizamon and Depthmon, they had readied themselves instantly with their respective attacks.

"Who are they?" Gayathri whispered urgently to her friends. Her hand reached out and grasped Adam's right shoulder. "Adam? Liu Ying?"

The Red ShadoWira barked out a harsh laugh. "Who are _we_? We're your worst nightmare!" Then, without any warning, he thrust his right arm forward, palm erected and all five fingers spread out. Making a circular motion with the stretched arm, the DigiWira gasped as red aura began to form, followed by sparks of flames. He pulled the outstretched arm back a little, igniting the small flames into wild fire, and pushed his arm forward once again. With this motion his palm was set ablaze and a stream of raging fire streaked past the onyx bridge, and towards the DigiWira.

"Duck!" Adam yelled, and pushed both Liu Ying and Gayathri onto the ground. Sagittarimon leapt past the DigiWira and countered the fire streak with his Meteor Gallop. Three meteorites shot out from his hooves and sailed across the bridge, meeting the fire stream in midcourse. Upon collision the fire stream vanished, while the meteorites streaked towards the ShadoWira and the Digimon behind them.

The Blue ShadoWira stepped forward and copied the movement made by the Red ShadoWira earlier. Bubbles of water began to form on his palm, and he then released a powerful jet of water blast towards the incoming meteorites. Some of the flames blazing on the meteorites were extinguished, but it was soon proved that the Blue ShadoWira's attempt was not strong enough to counter Sagittarimon's attack. But then, Depthmon glided in front of the Blue ShadoWira, and released a much more powerful torrent of water blast against the meteorites. This time around, the two attacks managed to cancel each other out.

"They have _special powers_?" Adam exclaimed disbelievingly as he pulled himself up. He then offered a hand for Gayathri, who took it, and helped her up, while Liu Ying got back to her feet on her own. Grimacing, he cast the most senior DigiWira a questioning look. "How's that possible? How can _they_ have special powers?" he asked in a rush.

Liu Ying's expression answered Adam's question instantly before she could express herself verbally. She looked as totally in the dark as Adam and Gayathri were. "I don't know, Adam. I've never encountered humans with special powers before. It's always just the Digimon."

"Could they be Digimon with a very human look?" Gayathri asked as she took a few steps back.

The Red ShadoWira scoffed loudly. "HAH! Digimon? Oh hell, no! We're humans as well, and guess what…? We're also DigiWira! Only difference is that we serve the dark side, thus we are called the _ShadoWira_!" Upon meeting the DigiWira's unbelieving gazes, the Red ShadoWira laughed scornfully and removed the metallic bat on his belt. Behind the bat, attached in the middle, was a black D3 with red accents. The Red ShadoWira removed the D3 and held it up high for the DigiWira to see. "There! Proof enough for you?" He then placed the bat back on his belt while his palm still clutching the red and black D3. While doing so he made a gesture with his head towards the Blue ShadoWira, whom upon seeing it, also took out his D3 Digivice – which was also black, but with blue accents.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot…these two Digimon," the Red ShadoWira pointed at Flarelizamon and Depthmon. "They're _our_ partners."

The revelation was something the DigiWira had guessed when the ShadoWira revealed their D3 Digivices, but still, the fact that they had expected to hear the two Digimon being their partners didn't make it less-surprising for the three DigiWira.

"They have D3 Digivices and Digimon partners," Adam said disbelievingly.

"Which technically make them DigiWira just like us," Liu Ying continued, with a tone sounding as if she didn't approve.

"Oh will you just stop with the not-believing mumbo-jumbo already!" the Red ShadoWira snapped at them.

"I've never expected evil DigiWira," Gayathri retorted weakly. The truth was, she was beginning to feel afraid of the two ShadoWira. They had powers that the DigiWira didn't have, which made them absolutely very dangerous. It was clear that the ShadoWira were evil, as the Red ShadoWira had declared it himself. She cast a desperate look at Adam, who met her gaze. There was something else that they needed to know about the ShadoWira.

"What do you want from us?" Adam asked.

"What—didn't you get the memo?" the Red ShadoWira said in mock-surprise. "I was the one who sent you the messages. What does that tell you?"

"Pretty much what I've already figured out," Liu Ying shot back in a rush of annoyance.

"Ahh…so you do know what's up next?" the Red ShadoWira asked. Despite him wearing a mask, the DigiWira could've sworn that he was at the moment grinning at them maliciously. The way his inquiry ended sounded just like it.

"We've beaten Flarelizamon and Depthmon once, and we can do so again!" Sagittarimon declared. He took out one arrow from the holster and began taking aim towards the enemies.

The Red ShadoWira shrugged. "I've no intention to let you fight Flarelizamon and Depthmon. What's the use? You've beaten them once." He let out a snicker as his D3 shimmered with eerie black and crimson auras. He pointed his shimmering D3 towards Flarelizamon. The Blue ShadoWira followed suit by hoisting his D3 towards Depthmon, and the D3 began to glow with black and blue auras. Waves of black aura were released from the Red ShadoWira's D3, while flickers of electricity sparked out from the Blue ShadoWira's D3.

With a roar of thunder following a flash of lightning, the sky suddenly became cloudier and the sun was completely blocked, voiding the Megalith Coliseum of sunlight. The coliseum was instantly blanketed by unnatural darkness, and the DigiWira could hardly see a thing. To add to the frightful setting, smokes began to rise from the labyrinth below, and covered the entire arena. The dark clouds above flashed with yellow light as thunder rumbled.

The smokes then began to dissipate, and the ShadoWira emerged. Behind them, a hulking humanoid figure began to step out from the smokes. The DigiWira couldn't make out the figure's profile as it was so dark inside the coliseum, they could barely see each other. It was like a moonless night. The clouds flashed with lightning once more and the DigiWira saw a sight that made their blood ran cold – the figure had stepped out from the smokes fully, giving them an opportunity to witness its profile.

It was a fearsome warrior Digimon, standing twice the height of the ShadoWira, completely draped in thick, gleaming multi-layer obsidian armor. The Digimon had a fierce black leathery face, with shining crimson eyes and a complete set of sharp teeth which seemed to be permanently bared. He had no hair, but dark yellow triangular metal plates grew from his head, from the temple up to the scalp. His armor was completely black with golden accents lining each armor parts for the main body, shoulders, arms and forearms, hip region and thighs. The boots were polished gold, with claw-shaped ends. Shining blood-red sphere adorned the center of his body armor, and soft blue sphere was fixed at the center of the armor protecting his crotch. He was wielding a spear, which had a black handle and a metallic blade. And finally, two pairs of metallic golden wings shot out from his back, and spread out wide.

"Meet Reichmon, our DNA Digivolved partners!" the Red ShadoWira exclaimed. "DigiWira, you're doomed!"

Reichmon raised his spear towards the darkened cosmos and instantly, a lightning bolt plummeted down from the sky and struck the spear. The blade was instantly illuminated with electric sparks, and with a forward thrust of the spear, Reichmon redirected the lightning bolt towards the unsuspecting DigiWira.

"Look out!" Sagittarimon shouted, and fired his lightning-based arrow to counter the incoming thunderbolt. "_Judgment Arrow!_"

However, as the Judgment Arrow collided with the thunderbolt, it was revealed that Sagittarimon's attack was no match to the strength of the thunderbolt. The arrow combusted but the thunderbolt continued streaking its way towards the DigiWira. Seeing the impending danger the DigiWira immediately made a run for it, but the thunderbolt was quicker. It grazed Sagittarimon's arm before striking the stone grounds merely a meter away from the running DigiWira, causing an explosion. The momentum sent the DigiWira and their partners flying, while Sagittarimon had injured his arm.

Fairymon immediately stabilized her body, being most adapted to the currents of the wind, and glided back to catch Gayathri and Liu Ying by their arms just seconds before they collided with the wall. She hovered in midair as smokes and debris from Reichmon's attack filled the ground below. In the meantime the lither Youkomon sped forward and used her paws to capture Adam, and pinned him towards the ground. The bewitching beast rolled on her back before reaching the concrete stone floor to avoid Adam from being crashed heads-on onto the floor, as it would hurt the boy gravely. She then spun sideways and released her clutch, allowing Adam to stand back on his feet.

"Youkomon, thanks," Adam said gratefully. "You saved my life."

"Think nothing of it, Adam. It is my obligation to protect all DigiWira, not just my partner," Youkomon replied hurriedly. Her sharp ice-blue eyes were scanning her surrounding with one quick glance. She then saw Sagittarimon; the centaur's body was in an odd angle. "Besides, your partner is injured due to the thunderbolt," she informed Adam.

"What!" Adam cried out. He then saw Sagittarimon as well; who looked relieved upon seeing Adam was safe. He was clutching his injured arm with his good arm. "Sagittarimon!"

"Adam, stay back with the girls," Sagittarimon cautioned immediately. "It's not safe!"

Youkomon assessed their chances, and looked down at the underground labyrinth. She then saw Fairymon landing close to her, with the two girls in tow. An idea came to her and she looked back at Adam. "Adam, Sagittarimon is right. The situation here is much too precarious for you to be around. Reichmon is the result of the DNA Digivolution between Flarelizamon and Depthmon, who are both Champion and Champion-Armor level Digimon, which makes Reichmon an Ultimate Digimon. An Ultimate is a very dangerous and formidable opponent – even I do not know whether the three of us could match his power. You and the girls will need to retreat to a safer place."

Adam nodded. "Ok, Youkomon. You're right. What should we do?"

xxx

xxx

"The sun staff works," said a man softly as he leaned back against his chair, watching the computer monitor in front of him. On the desktop, aside from a clutter of file shortcuts there was an opened window, taking up about a quarter of the monitor's fifteen inches display. The man frowned as he observed the window, which was a window of a multimedia player. The player was currently showing a battle – the battle which was the DigiWira currently engaged in with the ShadoWira. The man frowned, his blue eyes widened as he watched the ShadoWira demonstrating their powers towards the DigiWira.

Another smaller window popped out suddenly. _"Jackie,"_ a voice called out from the speakers, and a lilac-furred cat with purple bat wings appeared within the window.

"TobuCatmon," Jackie acknowledged. He didn't seem surprised at all with the sudden appearance of the DigiWira's mentor. "Are you watching the battle?"

"_I am, thanks to the sun-staff which you have repaired and improved. Jackie, I'm worried about the DigiWira," _TobuCatmon confessed fearfully. _"It seems that the dark side has decided to fight the DigiWira with their own team of DigiWira. I have expected before that the Lost DigiSpheres will come into the picture, but what I _didn't_ expect is that Karatenmon and SkullSatamon managed to find two suitable humans to wield those DigiSpheres."_

"Didn't you tell me before that it's not up to us to choose who to wield the DigiSpheres?" Jackie inquired. "Rather, it's the DigiSpheres that choose their wielders."

TobuCatmon replied with a weak nod. _"I did tell you that. However, I am also shocked, as the chances of the dark side to find two suitable humans for the Lost DigiSpheres were very slim."_

"And so were the chances for the White, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres to find _their_ wielders," Jackie pointed out. "But they've found Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri." He resumed watching the battle displayed within the larger window. He saw the ShadoWira raising their D3 Digivices towards their Digimon partners, and a transformation began to take place. "Wait a minute. Don't tell me…" He huffed when Reichmon stepped in the picture. "Blast! How did _they_ manage to unlock the DNA Digivolution powers so quickly?"

"_While DNA Digivolution can be called forth just by possessing the D3 Digivices, I believe Reichmon's appearance is also made possible by tapping in the Lost DigiSpheres' powers," _TobuCatmon explained. _"And the same is true for the reason why the ShadoWira possess special powers."_

"Then why the DigiWira don't have any kind of special powers?" Jackie questioned instantly. There was a frustrated tone in his voice. He harbored a pointed look towards the opened window.

At the Forest Sanctum, TobuCatmon hesitated for a moment, until he saw Jackie's blue eyes turned cold as they were fixed upon him, via half of the sun-staff's display part. The other half was showing him the battle happening at the Megalith Coliseum at the moment. Several seconds passed in painful silence as the mentor of the DigiWira shifted his gaze to the white stone which had appeared the previous night. It was still shining, and the orbs of white, yellow and pink were still seen orbiting the stone. He then returned his gaze back to the sun-staff, where Jackie was still staring at him questioningly.

"It's my fault they don't have powers," TobuCatmon said softly. "Before Liu Ying was chosen to become a DigiWira, I have bound the ability for the DigiSpheres to give their wielders additional powers into the Ivory Gem, and have kept the gem for safekeeping until the right moment."

"_What? Why did you do THAT for?" _Jackie was practically shouting, and his digitized voice echoed all over the Forest Sanctum.

"I've thought that it would be too dangerous for the DigiWira to have powers of their own, when they are unfamiliar with the Digital World concept when they were first chosen by the DigiSpheres," TobuCatmon answered weakly. "So far, they have never required the powers…"

"_Well, with the ShadoWira appearing in the picture and with special powers, I wonder when the DigiWira will need _their_ special powers." _Jackie said sarcastically. The computer instructor then breathed slowly to calm himself down. It would be no good for him to get mad of TobuCatmon, whose initial intention was just for the DigiWira's safeties. _"TobuCatmon," _he began again with a calmer voice. _"I'm not too familiar with the DigiSpheres and how far their powers are, but I do know that the DigiWira will be able to control their powers. Liu Ying has been a DigiWira for six months, Gayathri has been one for two months, while Adam…well, he might be new, but it's been two weeks since he received his White DigiSphere. I believe they're more than able to control what special powers they're bound to get," _Jackie pointed out. _"And if they don't, we're obligated to teach them. You are their mentor, and I've been assigned to watch over the protectors of this part of the Digital World."_

"You and I have the same opinion," TobuCatmon said with a weak smile. "And apparently, so is the Ivory Gem."

"_You mean…?"_

"Yes. I have placed a spell on the Ivory Gem, to only appear before me when the time is absolutely necessary for me to unbind the special powers associated with the White, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres," TobuCatmon explained, once again looking at the white stone. "That time has come. The Ivory Gem has appeared to me last night."

xxx

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The ShadoWira observed as the DigiWira huddled near the nine-tailed fox and the butterfly woman, seemingly up to something. Sagittarimon, who was injured on his left arm, was standing guard. The centaur was obviously resisting his pain as he raised his injured arm, which was the arm he used to hold his bow. His right arm was fixing the arrow on the bow, but the ShadoWira could see the bow shaking, or rather, the injured arm shaking.

"The centaur would be easy to beat," the Blue ShadoWira noted. "He's injured. Reichmon can easily take him down."

"Right. But what are those DigiWira up to?" the Red ShadoWira asked, making a gesture towards their opponents with a slight movement of his head. He snickered. "I'm tired of waiting. Reichmon, attack them!"

"Wait," the Blue ShadoWira instructed. "Look at that fairy. She's attempting to escape with one of the DigiWira."

The Red ShadoWira followed the Blue ShadoWira's gesture and saw Fairymon carrying Adam in her arms the way a mother cradled her baby as she was making a beeline towards the entrance which they had used to enter the coliseum earlier.

"Run, Adam!" Gayathri screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Go get help!" Liu Ying shouted, gazing hopefully towards the retreating figures of Fairymon and Adam.

"No!" the Red ShadoWira yelled, his voice harsh. "Nobody's going to escape!"

His arm shot up forward and flames began to ignite within his palm. A stream of fire was shot towards Fairymon, who was flying as fast as she could. The sprite of wind turned around and saw the incoming fire stream, which Sagittarimon had avoided narrowly. She saw the girls both dropped down on Youkomon's back, and heaved a relieved sigh.

"Brace yourself, Adam," she instructed. "You might be feeling dizzy after this, but it'll be worth it, I hope."

As she reached the entrance, Fairymon suddenly soared up instead of going into the entrance at top speed, similar to a jet being launched. She flew towards the third level of the spectators' seating area and glided through the many arches of the coliseum, exiting through one while reentering the coliseum using another arch with incredible speed. She successfully evaded the fire stream which was tailing her and scorching everything else that blocked its path from her, until from the corner of her eyes – which despite being covered by a visor – she could see an incoming water stream from the Blue ShadoWira.

"Incoming!" Adam exclaimed as he held on Fairymon's bare shoulder tightly. His cheeks had a fair tint of pink due to the position he was in with Fairymon. Fairymon, who was oblivious of the uncomfortable condition her human friend was in, unwittingly pulled the boy close to her body as she performed a spectacular midair somersault to evade the water stream. Her effort was fruitful – the freezing water stream had instead collided with the blazing fire stream, producing harmless warm steam.

Fairymon smirked in satisfaction as she heard a loud frustrated yell coming from the Red ShadoWira. "Looks like our plan worked, Adam. Look down. Youkomon has taken the girl down to the labyrinth, where they'll be safe."

Adam subconsciously followed Fairymon's instruction; he however had a different reason to turn his head out towards the open air. However, his face paled upon seeing just how high up in the sky there were at. "I think I'm gonna be sick," Adam squeaked as he wiggled slightly; Fairymon was pulling him to her body just a little bit _too_ tightly.

"Adam! Hold still, or you're gonna fall!" Fairymon reprimanded. She then saw Adam's face and felt slightly sorry for the boy. "Hang on. I'm putting you at the topmost level of the spectators' seating; that'll keep you safe and away from the ShadoWira and that big, black-armored guy."

Over the arena, the ShadoWira observed as their attacks collided with each other, with Fairymon left unscathed. "We've been tricked," the Blue ShadoWira stated indifferently, as he lowered his hand. Youkomon was nowhere in sight anymore; no doubt she had gone down into the labyrinth while the two ShadoWira were trying to prevent Fairymon from escaping with Adam.

"Damn!" the Red ShadoWira cursed angrily. The ShadoWira saw Fairymon placing Adam on the top level seating, and instantly the boy vanished within the many stones and seats. The boy's slight frame made it easy for him to hide within the seating. "Blast that flying woman!"

"Cool it," the Blue ShadoWira said calmly. "Screaming won't get you anywhere."

"They've escaped!" the Red ShadoWira retorted back.

"So?" the Blue ShadoWira asked, his tone still maintained the indifferent quality heard with his every spoken word. "We'll just go after them. White is there somewhere at the top level seating, while Yellow and Pink are down there in the underground labyrinth. We can split up and look for them."

The Red ShadoWira considered his counterpart's suggestion and nodded. "You're right," he admitted grudgingly. He then thumped his right fist into his left palm. "I'll go after White; you can go after the girls."

"Whatever," the Blue ShadoWira said. "It makes no difference whether we're together or not, the DigiWira are still without any special power. We can still finish the jobs, while Reichmon can take care of their partners. That centaur's almost down for the count; all we need to worry about are that fairy and the fox. Come on, I know how we can access the underground labyrinth and the second and third level seating areas."

"Right," the Red ShadoWira responded. He then glanced at the towering Reichmon, who was standing still, waiting for his partners' command. "Reichmon…don't hold back. Finish them!" With the command issued, the two ShadoWira then retreated from the arena to begin looking for the DigiWira.

xxx

xxx

Within the darkness of the Cave of Solitude, Karatenmon was watching the intense battle currently happening at the Megalith Coliseum via a magical viewing orb which he had summoned using his dark mystical power. The orb was hovering in midair at the level equal to his eye level. He snickered in satisfaction when he saw the ShadoWira were gaining the advantage, and the DigiWira were forced into hiding.

However, he couldn't concentrate his full attention on the battle, due to constant bickering of two other Digimon who currently were also watching the viewing orb with him.

"I bet that the battle will end with at least _one_ of the DigiWira's Digimon partner being deleted," Sorcerymon predicted. He was leaning against the stone wall, with his staff lying down on the barren cavern ground.

"Yeah? Well, I've no problem with that, as long as the one who's going to be destroyed is that wretched Fairymon!" Shutumon said vehemently as she twiddled with her long fingers. She was sitting on the cave floor in a meditative posture, but she was doing anything else other than meditating. "That'll rid me of one major pain."

"No. _I_ want Sagittarimon destroyed. Or that human partner of his," Sorcerymon countered. "They've wrecked my plan and…"

"QUIET!" Karatenmon bellowed. Shutumon and Sorcerymon immediately ceased their bickering, for fear they had angered the Ultimate. Unexpectedly however, Karatenmon smiled, which unnerved the two champion-levels even more. "Why pick only one to be destroyed? Why one, when we can ensure that ALL of them cease from existence before this day ends!"

"Don't you think that's a tad bit greedy, for wanting all?" Sorcerymon asked, before he could control himself. Without realizing his folly yet, he continued, despite warning looks given by Shutumon. "I always think that we should eliminate our enemy one…by…one…" The white wizard stopped talking upon seeing the general glaring at him with a look that could kill. "Err…or maybe, it'll be easier to wipe them out all at once if possible…"

xxx

xxx

After about fifteen minutes of looking for a place to hide, Adam finally settled in hiding himself at the second level of the coliseum. He thought that with Fairymon dropping him at the topmost level, the ShadoWira would think of searching him there. His slight size proved effective in hiding amongst the big stone benches.

"Maybe I should hide under the bench? I think I can fit in there quite nicely," he murmured to himself, when an explosion caught his attention. He stalled, wondering what had gone wrong. "What's happening down there?" The boy then looked around, seeing whether it was safe for him to have a brief look down. He wasn't that far from the railing, and should he hear somebody's coming he could just roll under the stone bench nearest to the railing.

"I'll just take a one quick look," Adam decided.

He rushed towards the railing, and had the perfect view of the arena, which was actually the opposite of where he was currently standing. The battle between the Digimon was taking place on the stone bridge. He saw Fairymon flying up to evade being struck by a thunderbolt released by Reichmon's staff. Sagittarimon in the meantime, seemed to be already defeated by the dark ultimate warrior. He was lying on the ground, and his bow was pulverized…Adam could see the blackened bow lying near Sagittarimon, who also had collapsed.

"Sagittarimon's beaten," Adam realized fearfully.

"_Blazing Spear!"_

Next, Adam saw Reichmon raising his staff towards the dark sky, and realized that Reichmon was about to summon another thunderbolt attack, like the one he had initiated earlier. However, the DigiWira then noticed a difference in the attack. When the lightning struck the spear, the crackles of electricity generated from the staff ignited a blazing flame. And instead of normal-looking flames, like the reddish orange flames produced by the Red ShadoWira, the flames were yellowish green in color, with dark purple aura shimmering from the flames and the spear. Adam had never seen anything like it, and his attention was raptly focused on the battle.

Reichmon swung the spear just as Youkomon initiated her finishing move – the Dragon Wheel. The spear managed to be evaded by Youkomon, who was in her spectral dragon form, and she made way towards the black warrior. However, the flames ignited by Reichmon's spear suddenly set ablaze, the green flames soaring towards the sky and formed a grotesque flying creature, with a body similar to a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.

"Gryphon?" Adam said, amazed and fearing for Youkomon's safety at the same time.

The flaming gryphon created by Reichmon's staff roared with a lion-like roar and jumped out from the flames that were blazing from the staff. Being almost twice the size of Youkomon's red dragon spectral form, the green gryphon struck the dragon with its head and flapped its massive spectral wings over the dragon. For a moment, Youkomon attempted to resist Reichmon's gryphon, but being bigger and supplied with more power from the Ultimate Digimon, the gryphon soon overpowered Youkomon, causing her to revert back to her kitsune form.

"Oh no, Youkomon!" Adam whispered.

With one swift motion, Reichmon attempted to deliver a hard kick on Youkomon's head when a gust of pink hurricane steered his leg away from Youkomon. Looking up, the warrior saw Fairymon hovering in midair. He ignored the sprite and made his away towards Youkomon, who attempted a Fox Tail Inferno attack on him. Reichmon saw the incoming nine fireballs blasted from Youkomon's tails, but made no attempt to evade it. Instead, as he leapt forward, his dark gold wings spread upwards before folding down over his torso, thus offering extra protection for his body.

"_Defense Shield!"_

The nine fireballs bounced off the wing-shield harmlessly. Reichmon then swung his staff forward, generating the same attack he had used before, to finish Youkomon off once and for all.

"_Blazing Spear!"_

The flaming green gryphon leapt out from Reichmon's staff and enveloped Youkomon fully before the kitsune could evade it. She doubled over as her body was scorched by the shrieking gryphon, and with the green gryphon obscuring her sight Youkomon couldn't see where she was rolling at. Her body felt drained – the gryphon was injuring her internally and externally at the same time. She reached at the side of the bridge and attempted to stop, but it was too late. She had crossed the line…and felt herself plummeting down towards the underground labyrinth.

Adam gasped. "Youkomon's been beaten!" He then set his sight towards the remaining DigiWira partner. With two DigiWira partners down, Reichmon's only opponent now was Fairymon. Adam saw the dark warrior observing Fairymon, who was attempting to launch her trademark hurricane attack onto him. The pink hurricane, which Adam had seen its effectiveness before, collided with Reichmon harmlessly before the warrior used his spear to douse the hurricane with dark energy. He then, to Fairymon and to Adam's surprise, unfolded his metallic wings from his torso and leapt from the bridge.

"He could fly!" Adam said, astonished as he saw Reichmon began chasing after Fairymon. However, his attention was suddenly disrupted when he felt a firm hand grasped on the collar of his uniform from behind, and yanked him back. He let out a gasp as his back collided with a firmer, sturdy body.

"Having fun?" a familiar voice whispered into Adam's right ear, which made the boy's blood ran cold. Turning slowly to his right, he saw the gleaming green eyes and the expressionless masked face of the Red ShadoWira. "Curiosity kills the cat, they say, or more befittingly, kills the foolish DigiWira." The Red ShadoWira turned Adam around violently, causing the boy to yelp in pain of being roughed up, until his hideous masked visage was facing the boy's terrified face.

"Hide and seek has ended kid, and I've played your game. How about now we play mine's?" He then pushed Adam with such a force that the smaller boy fell on his back onto the stone floor.

"AAH!"

Adam felt an intense pain on his back as he tried to raise his body up. However, he stopped dead upon seeing the Red ShadoWira pointing his right palm down, just several inches away from Adam's face. His palm began to emit a red aura, and a spark of flame materialized. The flame grew bigger and bigger before coalescing around the Red ShadoWira's palm.

There was no escape. Behind Adam was the railing, and in front of him was the ruthless Red ShadoWira. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead; the searing heat emitted from the blazing palm of the Red ShadoWira was even hotter than the warmest day Adam had ever experienced.

Adam's gray eyes widened in shock and fear. Could the Red ShadoWira, being a human, was capable of killing? He didn't want to believe that, but with a blazing palm pointed at his face…Adam had never felt much fear in his life.

The Red ShadoWira laughed viciously. "I call this game, 'Burning the DigiWira'."


	9. Enter the ShadoWira, Part II

Adam's body became stiff as the Red ShadoWira advanced one step towards him. Fires were ignited on the villainous DigiWira's palm, red and orange, swirling around his palm. Adam cast a pleading look on the ShadoWira's expressionless face, which was masked with an ivory mask crafted to resemble a skull, with the hollow eye regions glimmering with green hue. No voice could escape the White DigiSphere's holder's throat – no cry, no plea, nothing – all inhibited by the sheer amount of fear the boy was currently feeling. Beads of sweats began to form on his forehead, trickling down the sides of his face due to the heat escaping the Red ShadoWira's palm.

The Red ShadoWira snickered sinisterly. "Any last words before I incinerate you?" he growled. "I'll be sure to pass it to your two girl friends…if they survive Blue's water power, that is."

Adam's gray eyes shot up wide. His friends were in danger as well, but there was nothing he could do about it. Sagittarimon was injured, Youkomon was defeated and from the shrieks he was hearing behind him, Fairymon wasn't faring well against the dark warrior Reichmon. He could hear the roar let out by the fiery gryphon generated by Reichmon's spear, and a loud shriek from Fairymon followed by a flash of yellow-green light reflected by the stone seats of the Megalith Coliseum, and knew that Fairymon was beaten as well.

Could this day really be the end of the DigiWira? Not the way Adam had always pictured about the good guys.

"Please…whoever you are…" Adam managed to choke out. "Don't do this."

"Ok," the Red ShadoWira said. Adam let out a gasp in disbelief – could it really be this simple? He couldn't believe that the Red ShadoWira had agreed to his plea. He saw the Red ShadoWira lowering his palm slowly, and his rapidly beating heart began to slow down. Suddenly, the Red ShadoWira laughed loudly, which surprised and disturbed Adam so greatly that his body shook violently. "Now that you've said your last words, your time is up! Goodbye, White DigiWira!"

Executing rapid movements with his arm, the Red ShadoWira once again directed his fiery palm directly towards Adam's face. A stream of raging fire instantly was omitted from the palm, streaking towards Adam violently. In reflex, Adam could only raise his right arm to defend his face, and prayed desperately in his heart for a miracle to happen.

All of a sudden, Adam felt a change of his environment just as the aura of the Red ShadoWira's fire began to reach his arm. Brilliant orbs of bluish white light began to appear out of nowhere, enveloping him fully from head to toe. Adam felt his body grew lighter, as if he was losing a tremendous amount of weight for less than a second, and at the same time the burning aura of the fire he was feeling had dissipated. It all happened so swiftly that Adam didn't even have the time to register the strange occurrence when he felt his weight returning to him. The white orbs of light around him disappeared gradually and Adam blinked his eyes, realizing that he could see the environment around him once again. He was still somewhere at the coliseum's seating places, and was still in his defensive position, but the Red ShadoWira and his precarious fire had vanished.

The boy breathed a relieved sigh. "What happened to me just now?" he wondered. "How did I escape?"

With the vicious ShadoWira gone, Adam began to rise up to his feet slowly. However, a loud cry that abruptly echoed against the stony surroundings caused the boy to flinch. Recognizing the harsh voice of the Red ShadoWira instantly, the junior member of the DigiWira team immediately bent down against the railing reflexively. From the sounds of it, the Red ShadoWira was still somewhere in the vicinity, and Adam realized that he was still at the second level of the coliseum. He hadn't gone far, but thankfully was currently out of sight.

"BLAST IT! HOW DID HE _DO_ THAT!"

_I have no idea,_ Adam thought grimly and decided to remain out of the murderous Red ShadoWira's sight. Flashes of red and orange were seen coming from the direction of the Red ShadoWira's voice, followed by a faint smell of smoke. Adam now realized that he was only a few meters away from the Red ShadoWira, and the only reason the ShadoWira wasn't able to see Adam was attributed to the elliptical design of the coliseum. Where Adam and the Red ShadoWira were at previously, they were near the parallel region of the oval coliseum. Right now, Adam could hazard a guess that he was currently hidden at the semicircular end region of the coliseum.

"Of all the times for math," Adam whispered silently, and began backing away by crawling in reverse. "He didn't see me yet. I better find a way to escape."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 09 – Enter the ShadoWira, Part II_**

xxx

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"Youkomon!"

Liu Ying cried agitatedly when she saw her partner plummeting down from the stone bridge above towards the stone maze below. The DigiWira had been staying hidden behind one of the big stone formation underneath the bridge, where earlier Youkomon had instructed for her and Gayathri to remain at. All the while, the two girls remained within the shadows behind the stones quietly, knowing that they were in a very dangerous situation. Their newest enemies were undeniably much stronger than their previous opponents, and the ShadoWira seemed to be absolutely driven to get rid of the DigiWira once and for all.

Earlier while they were still above at the onyx stone bridge, Youkomon had devised a plan for them. The blue-furred kitsune explained that one of the DigiWira was to become bait for the ShadoWira to go after, while the other two would be taken to the safety of the underground labyrinth below the coliseum. Youkomon was convinced that there should be an escape hatch somewhere below the coliseum. Fairymon would take the DigiWira that would become bait towards the upper levels of the coliseum where he or she would be out of danger, while Youkomon would take the other two down for them to hide until the three Digimon managed to defeat Reichmon.

As Fairymon was the one who would be with the bait, Gayathri said that she would be the bait as the sprite was her Digimon partner. Liu Ying argued with the other girl, offering herself to be the lure as she was the most senior member of the team. Adam then countered both girls, saying that as he was the only guy in the team, it was _he_ should be the one to become bait. The girls were about to argue again but Adam was adamant of his decision, mentioning that aside from being the only male member of the trio he was also their leader, although at the same time he was a junior member of the team. He also persisted that a guy should put the priority on the girls' safeties first, which in Liu Ying's opinion, was a clumsy gallantry coming from the boy. However she had nothing to dispute of the boy's claims and Youkomon insisted that they had not much time. And so, they went with Adam being the bait and Youkomon then took them into the safety of the labyrinth.

Liu Ying was snapped out of her reverie when she saw Youkomon glimmered with faint yellow light before reverting back into a battered looking Labramon. The rookie's eyes were closed, and her body limped, as she continued to plummet into the labyrinth. Liu Ying realized that she had to save her partner – Labramon couldn't survive the fall in her current state, she'd crash her head due to impact with the ground.

"Gayathri, I'm going out," Liu Ying announced softly as she took a step out of her hiding. She received no reply, and amidst the darkness she began to search for her fellow DigiWira by flailing her hands about, but her hands didn't come into contact with anyone. "Where'd she go?" Liu Ying wondered, realizing that Gayathri was missing from their hiding spot. Then she averted her attention back to her fallen partner, who was approaching the ground. Immediately she jumped out from the shadows and positioned herself so that she could catch Labramon before the rookie crashed onto the ground. The shadow of the rookie Digimon began to loom on the female DigiWira and Liu Ying instinctively raised both arms up. Her palms came into contact with Labramon's fur-coated stomach, but the dog's weight had pushed the DigiWira down on her knee. Liu Ying lost grip of her partner and fell face-first onto the ground, with Labramon rolling down her back and onto the ground, where she sprawled helplessly and unmoving.

Liu Ying immediately got up; she could feel that her face had smudges of dirt on the cheeks, but she couldn't care less. "Labramon?"

"Liu…Ying," Labramon answered weakly. Her voice was hoarse and it sounded as if the rookie was making a big effort just to answer to her DigiWira partner. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, followed by a weak grunt, and Labramon was forced to close her eyes once again.

"You're alright!" Liu Ying realized, relieved. Her partner was defeated and battered, but still alive. "Hang on; I'll take you to safety."

Labramon didn't reply as Liu Ying bent down to grab hold of her partner. However, a blast of cold water suddenly came from somewhere in front of her, knocking her away from Labramon. Liu Ying rolled on the ground due to the force of the water blast, which drenched her instantly from head to toe. Soot and grime were instantly plastered on her face, hair and uniform due to her sodden state. However, the DigiWira realized that otherwise the fact that she was filthy and soaking wet, she was unharmed. Liu Ying shivered slightly – the water blast had been very cold, and with the strong winds coming from the clouds, the environment made her feel as if she was trapped inside a refrigerator. Resisting the cold, she stood up and pushed her soaked jet black hair back, and from the corner of her eyes she saw a silhouette of a caped figure coming her way from the shadows.

"One of the ShadoWira," Liu Ying realized when she saw the blue accents on the newcomer's black uniform. "The one with the power of water…"

"Hello, Yellow DigiWira," the Blue ShadoWira greeted coldly. "Glad I've managed to catch you before you ran off."

_He's got to be kidding! '**Yellow** DigiWira'? And he's what…? '**Blue** ShadoWira'?_ Liu Ying thought incredulously, but realized that this was not the time for her to be catty. The Blue ShadoWira stopped several meters away from where Labramon was sprawled, and Liu Ying couldn't help but shudder upon the eerie sight of the Blue ShadoWira. Amidst the shadowy environment, the Blue ShadoWira's most prominent feature was his glimmering green eyes, which light was reflected on the white skull-like mask he was wearing. And with the hooded cape the Blue ShadoWira was wearing Liu Ying felt as if she was face to face with a menacing specter that she had only seen in horror ghost stories.

Liu Ying gathered her remaining courage and stood up, wincing as her drenched hair caused her head to feel slightly heavier towards the back. She however ignored the sensation and straightened her head, and fixed a glare on her enemy.

The Blue ShadoWira let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Isn't it a bit cold for a shower?" he inquired.

Liu Ying didn't reply. Her mind, at the moment, was assessing the Blue ShadoWira and she couldn't help but to compare him to the Red ShadoWira. They were rather different in characteristics – the Red ShadoWira had come out as brash and ill-tempered, while the Blue ShadoWira seemed to be calmer, yet colder, of the duo. In fact, this was the first time Liu Ying had heard the Blue ShadoWira spoke; he was silent all the while when they first appeared, the Red ShadoWira was the only one who did all the talking. Yet, Liu Ying noticed that his quietness didn't seem to make the Blue ShadoWira any less dangerous.

"Not one to talk now, are you?" the Blue ShadoWira asked again, when Liu Ying remained silent. He averted his gaze from Liu Ying to the fallen Labramon, and then back to Liu Ying once again. He shrugged. "Oh well, guess I'll just make this quick for you and your partner. You first, then your dog."

The DigiWira with the Yellow DigiSphere let out a loud gasp when she saw the Blue ShadoWira began making circular movement with his right palm. Bubbles of water began to form on his palm, and the bubbles exploded to form swirls of water which spiraled around his palm. He made a rotating motion with his arm twice before pulling his palm back, as more water emerged seemingly from his palm. With a cry, the Blue ShadoWira thrust his arm forward and a powerful jet of pressurized water blast shot out from his palm, heading towards the defenseless DigiWira.

Liu Ying saw that this water blast attack from the Blue ShadoWira was very dangerous; it was unlike the one which had drenched her earlier, which seemed to be done only to spite her instead of meaning actual harm. However, this water blast which was heading towards her was similar to the one the ShadoWira had unleashed much earlier when he attempted to counter Sagittarimon's Meteor Gallop attack when the attack had neutralized the Red ShadoWira's fire attack. While his attack had proven fruitless against the meteorites, there was no doubt that it would prove to be near fatal should it come into contact with any of the DigiWira.

And right now, she was about to be at the receiving end of the Blue ShadoWira's deadly water attack. Liu Ying realized that there was no escape from the attack; her uniform was too drenched and would render her movement sluggish. Without thinking, she raised her right arm forward, thrust fully forward as if she was attempting to counter the Blue ShadoWira's attack. She didn't know what she was doing, in all actuality, and she was rather fazed with the apparently doomed fate she was about to face.

Yet, her hand suddenly have a tingling feeling over the palm, and a faint chiming sound was heard as the water blast was about to collide with Liu Ying's outstretched palm. Liu Ying closed her eyes and began to expect herself being drowned by the water, but after a couple of seconds had passed she realized that the water blast still hadn't hit her. Cautiously she opened her eyes, and gaped in surprise when she saw what was happening.

The water blast was being _deflected_ by her palm! Two streams of water went towards two opposite directions when the main water blast released from the Blue ShadoWira collided with an unseen force, seemingly an inch away from her outstretched palm. Only harmless water sprinkles came into contact with her face. Liu Ying's small eyes widened, and all the time she could hear faint chimes over and over again. _What is going on here?_

Apparently, she was not the only one surprised with the strange outcome of the attacks. The Blue ShadoWira too, seemed shocked of witnessing his attack being deflected by the girl.

"What's this?" he exclaimed, and immediately ceased attack. He lowered his arm down and pointed his index finger towards Liu Ying in an accusing way. "_You_ have a special power too?"

**_I_ **_have a special power? What is he talking about?_ Liu Ying thought with incredulity, a reflexive silent retort from her sharp-witted mind. She lowered her arm, which felt a little bit strained over the elbow region due to prolonged overstretching. Then the DigiWira realized about the strange occurrence that she had just experienced. She was able to stop the water blast from hitting her, and thus, had saved her own life. _Wait a minute…could it be?_

"This isn't expected at all. Karatenmon has given us wrong information," Liu Ying could hear the Blue ShadoWira muttering. Then she saw the Blue ShadoWira fixing his gaze towards the unconscious Labramon, who was sprawled near him rather than Liu Ying. "Oh well, as unexpected this event turns out to be, I can still finish off your partner with one pressurized water blast! Without your partner, you too will perish in due time, Yellow DigiWira!" he said menacingly, and pointed his right palm towards the helpless rookie Digimon.

"No! Stop!" Liu Ying cried out, and flailed her right arm desperately. She heard the same chime sound again, only this time something unexpected happened.

In front of her own eyes, she saw the Blue ShadoWira being thrown away from her Digimon partner by an unseen force. The villain was flung backward and collided against one of the stones that were sticking out from the ground, and fell on the ground face-on. Shocked, Liu Ying looked at her right palm. _Did I do that? _she thought in astonishment. Looking up, she saw the Blue ShadoWira struggling to get back up on his feet, grunting in frustration. However, he seemed to be facing with great difficulty in doing so. _It's impossible. I couldn't possibly do that to him. He's even bigger than me, size-wise. He's even stronger than me… this is just too weird! _Her black eyes then fell upon her partner, immediately realizing that she had better used the opportunity to escape into the labyrinth with Labramon, and if possible, look for the coliseum's exit or search for the missing Gayathri.

Cautiously she approached Labramon, one step at a time with her palm raised up just in case the Blue ShadoWira attempted to attack her again. The Blue ShadoWira however seemed somewhat distracted; it seemed that whatever Liu Ying had done, she had unwittingly caused the Blue ShadoWira to be helpless for the time being. Quickly she grabbed hold on Labramon with both hands, pulled the dog into a tight embrace before making way into the dark labyrinth.

_What is going on with me? How did I manage to do that to the Blue ShadoWira?_

xxx

xxx

Sagittarimon watched helplessly as in midair, Reichmon had struck Fairymon with the same attack he had used on Youkomon. The yellow-green fiery gryphon released from his spear was three times larger than the beautiful sprite of wind, and thus, it had enveloped her wholly. Unlike Youkomon, who possessed resistance to fire due to her possessing fire type attacks, Fairymon was a Digimon of the wind, air and nature. She couldn't resist fire attacks so easily. With a loud scream, Fairymon instantly devolved back into Floramon and crashed onto the stone bridge. Sagittarimon saw that the impact had knocked the plant type rookie Digimon unconscious.

He realized now that it was now a battle between him and Reichmon. The silent warrior of darkness had defeated his fellow comrades, and the only reason why Sagittarimon was still left standing was the fact that he had been injured much earlier by a thunderbolt released by Reichmon. When Reichmon had decided to combat Youkomon, Sagittarimon had quickly fired his arrow, drawing his attention when it seemed to him that Youkomon couldn't handle the enemy. In retaliation, Reichmon had launched his Blazing Spear attack against Sagittarimon, which instantly pulverized his crimson bow. Sagittarimon was caught with the attack as well, but being an Armored Champion, he was more resistant to the attack as his defense level was rather high. Still, Reichmon had deemed the centaur to be nearly out of commission, and had struck against the ones that weren't harmed by him first. Up till now, the pain was still rather unbearable, with clear liquid data began dripping from his grazed arm onto the stone bridge. Sagittarimon used his good hand to cover the wounded area.

He was in no condition for a combat, but it looked like he had no choice as the looming shadow of Reichmon began to form above him.

Reichmon landed on the stone bridge with a loud crash ten meters away from Sagittarimon, who was attempting to retrieve his fallen friend. Apparently, the warrior had decided not to waste any more time on Sagittarimon as he aimed his shining black staff towards the draconic centaur. Crackles of thunderbolt began to spark out of the metallic tip of his staff as the thunder rumbled from the sky. Suddenly lightning streaked down from the darkened heavens and struck the staff. With a skillful maneuver Reichmon spun his staff, forming a large circular thunderbolt.

Sagittarimon didn't like the looks of it. It seemed that Reichmon wasn't going to hold back with this attack. With his bow pulverized and unusable, Sagittarimon had to rely on his secondary technique – the Meteor Gallop. A meter away from him sprawled the unconscious body of Floramon, with scorch marks evident on her scaly green body. The centaur decided that he would do whatever it took him to defend the plant reptile; after all, she had taken Adam to safety and Sagittarimon was very grateful for that.

But then, could he actually accomplish the feat, when his body was already taken abuse from Reichmon's earlier assaults?

Somebody stepped out from the shadows from one of the coliseum's arches. Nobody noticed the newcomer's presence.

_He wouldn't be able to last long; Reichmon's too powerful for him. And where's Fairymon…? I don't see her._

The silent knight of darkness then waved his spear, releasing the spherical thunderbolt towards Sagittarimon. The thunder ball streaked with the remarkable speed of lightning, and although Sagittarimon had managed to retaliate with his meteorites attack, those meteors were destroyed by the lightning ball upon contact. All the remaining pieces of the meteorites broke into million bits of data particles and floated away before disappearing. The thunder ball however, blasted against Sagittarimon's armored torso, electrocuting him wholly. Sagittarimon screamed in pain as he began to lose his hold of his Digivolved form.

"Sagittarimon!" cried a familiar ringing voice, which caused Sagittarimon to start a little. He turned around as the electrical bolts began to dissipate, and to his utmost surprise he saw Gayathri, stepping out from one of the arched doorway. Apparently that was the doorway which led to the underground labyrinth below, but what had led her back up to the stone bridge when she and Liu Ying were safely hidden in the labyrinth below? Before he could figure out the answer, Sagittarimon's body jerked back and convulsed momentarily until he reverted to Patamon. The orange, pudgy guinea pig dropped on his feet weakly, feeling his body drained out of all the energy necessary to sustain his Champion-Armor form.

"Gayathri, get back, it's too dangerous," Patamon squeaked weakly.

"Patamon, where's Floramon?" Gayathri called out with a quivering voice. Her large eyes scanned the surrounding with worry. "I heard screaming…and saw flashes of yellow and green light…then I heard nothing from her anymore…I was so worried. Is she…?" Her face immediately reflected the dread she was feeling.

"She's knocked out, but otherwise, she's alive," Patamon said, trying to sound as assuring as possible. He didn't want to worry the DigiWira.

The DigiWira girl looked very relieved upon hearing the answer, and her eyes darted on the unmoving body of Floramon, whom she had just found after a gesture made by Patamon's bat ears. Her expressive dark brown eyes then lingered on Reichmon, who stood poised, ready to attack in a minute time. Shivering, Gayathri finally returned her gaze towards the partner of her fellow DigiWira as her eyes caught Reichmon beginning to spin his spear once again.

_Patamon and Floramon can't survive another blast from Reichmon, _the dark-skinned girl thought quickly. _Patamon's injured and Floramon's unconscious. _She had seen how fast Sagittarimon was beaten by Reichmon. She had heard the piercing, pained shriek of her own partner when she was attacked by Reichmon. Patamon and the unconscious Floramon couldn't even move away from the path of Reichmon's incoming attack. It dawned to her then of what she needed to do. It was dangerous, and she was absolutely terrified, but Gayathri didn't want to see Floramon or Patamon being deleted by the unmerciful dark knight.

_I have to help them. They'd do the same thing if I'm in trouble…_

"Are you ok, Patamon?" Gayathri asked worriedly. She approached the rookie Digimon cautiously, eyes still fixed upon Reichmon. The ultimate level black knight didn't seem to pay heed towards her presence at all, him being preoccupied with generating another thunderbolt. Within a few seconds she was already beside Patamon. "I saw the battle…you're injured."

"What are you doing? Get back in hiding, Gayathri! I'll be ok, but you need to go back down there," Patamon replied hurriedly. He cast a grim look upon Reichmon. "Hurry! He's about to attack!"

"No. You two are no longer in condition to fight Reichmon," Gayathri pointed out. Patamon tried to protest but Gayathri gestured with one finger towards his gashed tiny arm, which caused him to realize that the DigiWira was right. Seeing that Patamon had given her a silent agreement, Gayathri cradled Patamon with one arm, surprised at how light the rookie Digimon was compared to her own rookie partner. Amidst Patamon's protest for her to just leave him to fight Reichmon, the curly-haired DigiWira made her way towards the fallen Floramon. She grimaced slightly upon realizing that Floramon was about two times heavier than Adam's partner. She could carry her, but her movement would be compromised.

"HAH! There you are, Digi-brat!" another voice bellowed loudly from above, causing both Patamon and Gayathri to wince. They recognized the voice instantly.

"The ShadoWira!" Patamon gasped, his blue eyes looking up at the second level of the Megalith Coliseum. Behind the railing, there stood the menacing Red ShadoWira.

"Hmm…you're not the White DigiWira, but no matter…" the Red ShadoWira said. He raised his palm high, and fires were ignited instantly. "REICHMON! Finish them off, now!"

Simultaneously, Reichmon waived his spear and launched another thunderbolt towards Gayathri, Patamon and Floramon, and just about the same time, the Red ShadoWira launched his own attack towards the trio. Seeing the impending danger, Gayathri immediately picked up Floramon, bending over towards the right due to the rookie's weight, and set her eyes towards the coliseum's entrance which they had taken. Gayathri knew that she wouldn't be able to make it in time, as she wasn't even a track athlete, but even the fastest runner in the world would barely escape the two-way assaults coming towards them.

_I can just stay here and get ourselves burned, or electrocuted…or I could try to make a run for it and be burned or electrocuted anyway…but at least that way I could say that I've tried…that is if I survive these double assaults and live to tell the story. There's no other way to go anyway, so I better make a run for it, NOW!_

Gayathri began taking a few sprints, with Patamon and Floramon in tow, just as Reichmon's thunderbolt was about to reach her. All of a sudden, she felt her body being pushed from the back by the currents of the wind. The wind seemed to be encouraging her, urging her to go faster, and somehow Gayathri felt as if the wind was actually fueling her body with energy. Everything around her suddenly became blurry, with the only clear spot being the hallway leading to the coliseum's exit. If she could just make it outside, she would have saved not only her own life, but Patamon's and Floramon's as well. Just about a second after she had thought of that, the hallway suddenly seemed to be already right in front of her!

_Huh? So quick!_

Then, just about a couple of seconds after she had moved from the stone bridge, she could hear an explosion due to the collision between Reichmon's thunderbolt and the Red ShadoWira's fire assault – the impact from the explosion further shoved Gayathri, Patamon and Floramon directly into the entrance hallway. Still running, Gayathri somehow managed to maintain her balance with the help of the wind currents, and successfully made it out of the coliseum, all within just less than ten seconds!

"Gayathri…what just happened?" Patamon asked bewilderedly as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't know…but I'm glad it happened when it did," Gayathri replied distractedly. _What just happened to me? I've never run **that** fast before. And I'm not even panting at all right now…I don't even feel tired. This is just too weird…_

"You were running with such incredible speed!" Patamon commented in awe, unaware of Gayathri's silent thoughts as he recalled back their escape from the villains. "In my life I've only seen few Digimon whose swiftness could be compared to you. You can easily keep up with Youkomon and me, when I'm Sagittarimon, or with the Raidramon we used to return to Forest Sanctum from the East Lake City, with your speed. You're amazing. But…" The rookie's eyes drooped a little when he realized that something was off with Gayathri. "I've never thought you could do it, actually, nor have I ever seen you ran with such speed before. But I'm glad that you're able to do so. You've saved our lives today."

Gayathri smiled faintly and looked down her curvy body slightly. One of her two best friends, Belinda Foo, was the school's track athlete and she had the body of one. Gayathri however, didn't like sports that much, with the exception of rollerblading, and she had the body of one that didn't indulge in sport as well. She wasn't fat, but she was not thin either.

"We're still not out of danger yet," she finally said, pushing her recent thoughts to the back of her mind. "We better find a place to hide before Reichmon and the ShadoWira decide to come out to look for us. And Adam, Liu Ying and Labramon…they're still inside."

"No, look," Patamon said, and gestured towards the corner of the coliseum.

Gayathri followed the rookie's gesture and saw, to her utmost delight, Liu Ying emerging from one of the ground level's archway. She was carrying an unconscious Labramon with both arms, and Gayathri had never seen the willowy girl, who was always so poised and elegant, so filthy and unkempt that day.

"Liu Ying!" she called out, immediately attracting the attention of the other girl.

"Gayathri! Thank goodness I've found you," Liu Ying replied, immediately heading towards where Gayathri was standing. She sounded slightly agitated, as if something was bothering her. "Where did you go? I was so worried!"

"I'm sorry, but I was so worried about Fairymon, so I've left you to get a better look of her battle with Reichmon," Gayathri explained, simply relieved and happy to see her fellow DigiWira and friend alive, albeit covered with soot and mud. Her nose wrinkled slightly – her friend didn't smell too good as well, but she wasn't about to tell Liu Ying _that_. "What happened to you?"

"I've encountered the Blue ShadoWira," Liu Ying answered with disgust, completely aware of what Gayathri was thinking just by seeing the other girl's facial reaction. She lowered the unconscious Labramon on the ground. "Then something weird happened to me. I don't know how to explain it…anyway, I've managed to escape from the Blue ShadoWira and I've decided to look for you or for the exit. The next thing I know, I ended up here." The girl looked at Gayathri, then shifted her attention towards the unconscious Floramon before her black eyes settled to the injured Patamon, and realized that somebody was missing.

"Gayathri…where's Adam?"

xxx

xxx

"Wow! She's got a special power too," Adam whispered, as he witnessed how Gayathri escaped Reichmon and the Red ShadoWira. With one blink of the eye, Gayathri had managed to reach the hallway from the stone bridge, and with another blink of the eye she was already gone, with Patamon and Floramon in tow. "I'm glad that Patamon's already safe. Now if I can just find a way out of here without being detected."

Still at the second level of the coliseum, Adam had relied on the bigger stone seats to remain hidden from the Red ShadoWira's sight. The DigiWira knew that his adversary would be even more furious now than ever, with two DigiWira escaping his clutch. He could hear the villainous DigiWira shouting in anger, and flashes of red and orange were seen. Adam assumed that the Red ShadoWira was venting his anger by releasing blasts of fire upon the stone seats, and was glad that he was already quite far from the ShadoWira. He shivered upon hearing the Red ShadoWira's outburst – he didn't think that he had ever heard anyone to be _that_ angry.

"Gayathri must already be outside by now," Adam said to himself, keeping his voice low although he knew that the Red ShadoWira wouldn't be able to hear him. Adam was nervous, and he felt that talking to himself would help him quench his nervousness a little as well as making his mind clearer. "Ok, all I need to do now is to get to the ground level. So far, the ShadoWira with the fire power is the only one here on this level, and I haven't seen the other one anywhere. He could be pursuing Liu Ying right now…"

Adam was now too preoccupied with his trails of thought that he didn't notice a shadow loomed just a few meters away from his back. His main concern was the Red ShadoWira, and he could still hear him berating Reichmon for letting Gayathri escape with Patamon and Floramon. At the moment, he was bending his body in a ninety-degree posture as he walked behind a row of stone seats, somewhere in the middle between the railings and the window arches. The seats' sizes were big enough to hide him from view; Adam could move within the audience area undetected.

Or so he thought.

"Fancy seeing _you_ here, White DigiWira," a voice suddenly called out. It made Adam flinch as he slowly turned his head, and found himself crouching just a few meters away from the tall figure of the Blue ShadoWira, who was standing on top of one of the lower stone benches. The DigiWira frowned – something was rather familiar about the Blue ShadoWira's voice. He thought that he had heard it somewhere before. However he immediately pushed the thought back; Adam had never met anyone who wanted to harm him before, so it was impossible for him to have encountered the voice before. The ShadoWira that had called out for him seemed to have every intention to do Adam harm.

Granted however, the Blue ShadoWira did look like he had seen better days. His posture was slightly odd, with him bending forward slightly and had one arm on his back. His voice was cold, and somewhat angry, despite the greeting he had given.

Adam immediately got up to his feat, eyes widened in fear once again. He had escaped the Red ShadoWira, but could he escape the Blue ShadoWira now? He saw the Blue ShadoWira raising his palm up, in a manner similar to his companion, but Adam saw that his hand was trembling. Low grunts were heard, and the Blue ShadoWira was forced to lower his hand. The villain lowered his head, as if trying to stifle the grunts escaping his mouth. _He seems to be injured, but who could've done that to him?_ Adam wondered. _Did Liu Ying or Gayathri cause this ShadoWira's injury?_

The Blue ShadoWira then raised his head up and gazed upon Adam with his shining green eyes. Despite being apparently injured, the Blue ShadoWira still projected an image fearsome enough for Adam to slightly cower involuntarily. The ShadoWira subsequently raised his hand up once again, struggling in doing so. Nevertheless it seemed that whenever he raised his arm, the Blue ShadoWira would experience something painful enough to cause him to lower his arm back. Adam relaxed a little.

"You're injured," the wielder of the White DigiSphere blurted out without thinking.

The Blue ShadoWira grunted. "What do you care? It's that Yellow DigiWira…she and that power of hers who'd done this to me. And since she's nowhere around, _you'll_ be paying the price for her doing!"

_Liu Ying did this to him, _Adam realized. _This ShadoWira **is **injured. I don't know how Liu Ying managed to do that…must be that special power he's been talking about. I wonder what kind of special power she has… _Upon seeing the condition the Blue ShadoWira was in, Adam ceased to panic. He knew now that the Blue ShadoWira couldn't harm him – he couldn't even lift up his arms. Adam slowly backed away from the ShadoWira, heading towards the window arches.

"Don't move, or I…AAAAH!" The Blue ShadoWira had attempted to stop Adam from moving, and had reflexively raised his hand – only to feel the pain on his back once again.

"What's going on over there?" bellowed another voice, which echoed all over the second level of the coliseum. This time, it was the voice Adam had been dreading to hear. It was the voice of his pursuer, strong and harsh.

Rapid footsteps were heard approaching them. Adam knew that unlike the Blue ShadoWira, the incoming person was not injured at all. Adam had escaped this particular person once; there was no telling whether he could do so one more time. Thus, reacting solely on impulse, Adam made his way towards one of the window arches, ignoring the warning from the Blue ShadoWira. He looked out the window arc, and saw the environment outside the coliseum. Then without thinking, he looked down and saw that it was going to be a long fall. Gulping, Adam took a step back – he couldn't possibly jump down without hurting himself. From where he was, Adam looked over the grass-less land in front of the Megalith Coliseum, and saw several recognizable figures.

_They've made it,_ Adam realized, gulping once again. _All of them are outside there, except for me…and it seems that they haven't realized that I'm up here. _Adam really wanted to cry out for his fellow DigiWira to help him, but nothing came out from his throat. He was, once again, scared stiff.

"So, the little white mouse is still around, looking for a way to escape," the Red ShadoWira sneered as he came into view. He glanced at his fellow ShadoWira, and paused; seemingly surprised to see the condition the Blue ShadoWira was in. "Don't tell me this boy here did this to _you?"_

"It was the Yellow DigiWira," the Blue ShadoWira grunted. "Her special power is remarkably strong."

The Red ShadoWira snorted haughtily. "You've been beaten by a _girl? _Oh well, we'll tend to her later. Right now, step aside, and let me incinerate this little White DigiWira for making a fool out of me earlier!"

Adam stepped back, and inhaled his breath sharply upon noticing that he was already at the end of the line. He was under the window arch right now, and one more step taken would cause him to fall. Once again, he had no means of escaping the Red ShadoWira. Remain standing, and his life would be ended instantly with the Red ShadoWira's fire. Jump down the window, and there was no guarantee that he could survive the fall. At this dire moment, he could only hope for another miracle.

"ADAM!"

"LOOK OUT!"

Shouts were heard coming from below, on the safety of the ground. _Liu Ying and Gayathri had seen him_, Adam thought.

"I believe your last words right now should be…'goodbye, cruel world,'" the Red ShadoWira said contemptuously. His palm raised and ignited with fire, the Red ShadoWira then thrust his hand forward. A raging stream of fire exploded from his palm and like a burning dragon, the stream of fire made its way towards its helpless target, with every intention to devour the target wholly until nothing remained.

Without thinking, Adam took a step backward and slipped from the window, falling down just as the fire stream raged in a straight, forward direction. Adam shouted hollowly, but then his hands managed to grab hold on the arched window's sill. The DigiWira immediately griped his fingers tightly around the uneven edges of the stones that constituted the windowsill as his body thumped against the wall. It was painful, but Adam ignored the pain as his whole life was currently at stake. His legs had nowhere to step onto, and thus wiggled as he struggled to find an even footing.

The Red ShadoWira, groaning loudly for having missed his target once more, stepped up at the edge of the arched window. His expressionless masked face looked down upon Adam's pleading face. "And once again, you managed to escape me," the ShadoWira said disdainfully. Then, he raised his right leg, attempting to stomp on Adam's hands which were grasping the windowsill. "But not for long…" he continued, with an eerie tone laced in his voice. His eyes flashed with a brighter green light as he was about to step on Adam's hand with force. However, before his foot could come into contact with the DigiWira's hand, Adam's right hand slipped down from the windowsill involuntarily, leaving only his left hand grabbing the windowsill. The full weight of Adam's body was now supported by only one hand, and Adam's body was flailing about against the walls of the coliseum. It was only a matter of time before he would lose grip on his other hand.

"This should be interesting," the Red ShadoWira remarked with a deep chortle. He stepped aside and leaned against the wall, looking down with his glowing eyes. "Let's see how long you could hold on with only one hand."

With only one hand grabbing the windowsill, Adam couldn't hold on much longer. His left hand slipped from the windowsill and Adam plummeted towards the ground. Yet, at the nick of time suddenly brilliant white orbs of light with tints of aquamarine appeared from all around his body, enveloping him wholly. The orbs then vanished in a flash of light, taking Adam with them. Then, no more than a couple of seconds later, closer to the ground and near the other two DigiWira, the orbs rematerialized and within them, Adam appeared, still in mid-fall position. However he was only a few inches from the ground now and thus landed on his face harmlessly.

"Ughh…" Adam grunted as he struggled to rise up. _Once again, those light thingies have saved me from the ShadoWira…, _he thought with deep appreciation. _I guess this is my special power._ He then felt two pairs of hands tugging his uniform from the back, and pulled him back up to his feet.

"Adam, you're alright!" Gayathri squealed in delight. When Adam managed to look at her, he saw that the girl was about to cry, judging from the waters at the rims of her eyes. He shifted his gaze towards a very unruly-looking Liu Ying, who was looking at him with pure concern etched on her dirty face.

"You scared us for a moment," she said breathlessly. "We thought you're almost gone…until your special power showed up."

Adam, still overwhelmed with the feeling of having nearly facing death twice in a day, could only nod weakly upon the reactions of his fellow DigiWira teammates. Yet the other two DigiWira didn't mind his lack of response; they were just glad to see him successfully escaping the wrath of the Red ShadoWira. Together the two girls helped Adam to stand back on his feet, with Gayathri starting to fuss over his face of being covered with soot and dirt.

"Adam, you're ok! Thank goodness, I was so worried!" Patamon jumped into his DigiWira partner's arms, and settled there.

"Patamon…you're injured," Adam realized, seeing a deep cut on the rookie's frontal right leg. He was reminded of the thunderbolt grazing Sagittarimon's arm earlier, and the battle between Sagittarimon and Reichmon.

"Don't worry about me, Adam, I'll heal," Patamon assured his partner. "I'm just so glad that you're alright. We were all so worried about you when you were the only one who didn't show up out here."

The Red ShadoWira however, was far from delighted. He was infuriated for Adam had escaped him for the second time in a row. Angered, he thrust his right arm forward and released another powerful stream of fire, now targeted towards the three DigiWira and their partners.

"Look out!" Gayathri screamed fearfully.

"Not if I can help it!" Liu Ying snapped irritably, and stepped forward. "I've had enough of this." Before Gayathri and Adam could protest, the tallest of the three DigiWira made a forceful waving gesture with her right arm, as if slapping somebody unseen by their eyes. To their amazement, the fire stream was suddenly diverted towards the nearest tree, which instantly set it on fire. Adam and Gayathri instantly jumped away from the tree, dragging the three rookie Digimon with them to avoid the burning tree. Liu Ying however ignored the tree and fixed a hateful gaze upon the Red ShadoWira. Gritting her teeth and with a loud grunt, she made another slapping gesture with her right arm. This time around, Adam and Gayathri saw in amazement as the Red ShadoWira was thrown backward, as if pushed back from the windows by an unseen entity.

"Woah…" Gayathri said, awed. "Liu Ying, that was…"

"Truly awesome!" Adam finished quickly.

Liu Ying merely shook her head, unable to stifle a smile that was forming on her thin-lipped mouth. _I could get used to this special power stuff, _she thought inwardly. "Let's get out of here before the ShadoWira decide to chase us."

xxx

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"BLAST THOSE DIGIWIRA!"

The Red ShadoWira swept up on his feet once again after being thrown by what seemed to be the Yellow DigiWira's special power. He had felt as if an invisible force – something which felt like pure energy – slammed against his body and threw him off his feet. He saw what the girl did to stop his attack; his fire stream had been diverted towards a tree instead of the DigiWira. Before he could register his shock – Karatenmon had told them that the DigiWira possessed no special powers at all – he too became the receiving end of the girl's power.

"I've told you; the Yellow DigiWira's power is strong," the Blue ShadoWira remarked tiredly. He was sitting on one of the stone seats, leaning his back slowly. "And you told me that _I_ was defeated by a girl…" He let out a sigh, which sounded somewhat mockingly.

"Shut up," the Red ShadoWira muttered. He eyed the Blue ShadoWira and saw that despite the sarcastic remark given by the water-powered ShadoWira, he was hurt. "Hey, you ok?" the fire-powered ShadoWira inquired.

"Nothing I can't handle," the Blue ShadoWira said confidently. "I was just caught off guard, that's all. That Sorcerymon can heal me, I'm sure."

The Red ShadoWira nodded, and sidestepped the stone seats as he made way towards the arched window. Looking out, he noticed instantly that the DigiWira had left the Megalith Coliseum's compound. However, he could still see them about a few meters away from the compound. The DigiWira were all walking at brisk pace, carrying their defeated partners in their arms. He suddenly noticed three quadrupled Digimon in black armor, and one bipedal blue-scaled dragon Digimon flying above them, approaching the DigiWira. At first, he assumed that the DigiWira had met with trouble once again, and his interest rose immediately. However, his hope was dampened when he saw that after a brief conversation, the bipedal dragon took the DigiWira's three partners in his large palm and took off towards the horizon with incredible speed. The DigiWira then mounted the armored canine Digimon, and followed the flying dragon.

"Damn it," he cursed angrily. "There's no way we could give chase to the DigiWira now."

"Let them go, for now," the Blue ShadoWira said. "I'm in no condition to fight them, and you can't beat them alone."

"Says who?" the Red ShadoWira barked. He twisted his palm upward and generated a ball of flame. "I can take the three of them down anytime!"

"Perhaps," the Blue ShadoWira replied placidly. "But it'd do us good if we know more about their powers first. If not, we'd be back at square one."

The Red ShadoWira wanted to retort to his companion's statement, but realized that he had a valid point. "Maybe you're right," he admitted grudgingly, extinguishing the fireball he had generated by forming a fist. "But next time, the DigiWira won't be able to escape us! I'll finish them off one by one…starting with Yellow, followed by White…"

"And I'll get Pink," the Blue ShadoWira said humorlessly. "Whatever makes you happy. But now, we better return back to the Cave of Solitude. Karatenmon won't be psyched when he knows about this. And chances are, he already knows about this. Go get Reichmon; I'll summon the portal which will take us back to the cave."

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"What was that all about, TobuCatmon?"

"We have superpowers? I never thought that we're gonna have superpowers?"

"Who are those ShadoWira?"

"And where did they come from?"

"They have superpowers too…"

"Reichmon's so powerful, our Digimon were all beaten so easily."

"We've barely made our way out from the Megalith Coliseum…"

"How come there are _bad_ DigiWira? I thought DigiWira are supposed to protect the Digital World from evil bad guys, not _be _the bad guys?"

"How did Exveemon and the Raidramon know that we're going to need help getting back to the Forest Sanctum?"

TobuCatmon blinked rapidly as he was bombarded with questions, one after another almost simultaneously from the three DigiWira as soon as they stepped back in the Forest Sanctum. The three humans were speaking and inquiring so quickly that their mentor had barely enough time to register an answer for one question before he was blasted with another. Their Digimon partners however remained quiet in the background, with both Floramon and Labramon unconscious and Patamon looking out for them. TobuCatmon was almost beginning to feel thankful for that; he didn't think that he could handle _six_ people bombarding him with questions that demanded to be answered. Three was more than a handful.

"Calm down, DigiWira!" finally the champion-level Digimon said firmly, with a clear voice. The DigiWira instantly became silent, and TobuCatmon was at the receiving ends of three pairs of eyes colored black, gray and brown. "I shall explain all, if you'd let me. Please, settle down and let me take a look at the three of you first, to make sure that you have no injuries at all."

"We're not injured, TobuCatmon," Adam said immediately. "A little bruised and scratched, and I think Liu Ying seriously needs a bath…" Liu Ying scowled upon hearing that, but Adam continued, oblivious to the girl. "…but otherwise, we're all ok. Our Digimon aren't in their best of shapes however, so you can tend to them first."

"And can you give us some answers while you're mending our partners?" Gayathri asked, but the way she asked didn't make the inquiry sounded like an inquiry at all. It sounded more like a very politely-made demand, judging from the tone of her voice and the way she was standing with her hands on her hips.

TobuCatmon nodded as he approached Patamon and examined his injured stubby foot. "What do you want to know first?" he asked, as he approached a parlor where several jars stood in one straight line. He picked one jar and flew down towards the rookie Digimon. He opened the lid and took out the spatula from inside the jar, and placed some ointment on Patamon's injury. The rookie Digimon yelped a little, but soon his face calmed down as the herbal concoction began to take effect.

"The special powers," Adam said promptly.

At the same time, Liu Ying and Gayathri both said simultaneously, "The ShadoWira." They shot incredulous looks towards the boy, who cringed ever so slightly upon meeting their gazes.

"What…? We already know that the ShadoWira are bad guys, but we don't quite have a clue of our special powers," he reasoned, smiling weakly towards the two girls. Gayathri seemed to consider Adam's reasoning while Liu Ying remained stoic.

"Settle down, DigiWira," TobuCatmon said, and gestured towards the marble floor of the sanctum. "Sit down. Make yourself comfortable. I shall explain both inquiries at the same time, and more. It's time for you to know the history of the DigiSpheres' creation and their fullest potential."


	10. Unbound

Sounds of explosions were heard in the background as a warrior in golden armor streaked past the thick smokes. Glitters of pink light emitted out from his eyes as he ran past the smoke with lightning speed. Using his swords, he cut through the boulders that rained from the darkened sky, slashing them into pieces with one clean strike. With a grunt he sped through the stone debris, ignoring the stones slamming against his damaged armor. Every once in a while he glanced back, as if he was being pursued by somebody. The billowing blue cape he was wearing, shredded over the edges, blocked him from seeing clearly, but what he _could_ see unnerved him.

"GET HIM!" a loud commanding voice echoed.

All of a sudden the warrior found himself surrounded by a flock of purple-feathered avian warriors, with thick legs which ended with formidable-looking crimson talons and winged arms. The creatures were lightly armored over the torso and shoulders and their faces were expressionless. There were six of them, and they had cornered the golden-armored warrior in all possible directions. Their shining light-blue eyes observed the warrior with a way akin to vultures eyeing their dying prey, ready to strike at any moment's notice.

The smoky air above rippled as purple smokes erupted from the ripple, and a figure stepped out from the rift. Another avian warrior appeared, but with his darker feathers, crow-shaped helmet and twin blades, this newcomer looked even more fearsome than the half-dozen bird warriors below him. His eyes shone with dark red, and beneath the crow helmet the lower half of a human face could be seen, grinning maliciously over the sight of the surrounded warrior. A dark aura seemed to emanate all over him.

"There is no escape this time, Grademon," the newcomer said with an evil tone. "You are surrounded."

"Karatenmon," the golden-armored warrior, Grademon, said hatefully, recognizing the newcomer just by hearing his voice. He quickly held up his weapons – a pair of gleaming ivory swords. His voice was deep and heroic, compared to the dark voice which his opponent possessed. Similar to the dark avian warrior, Grademon too possessed twin swords, and he raised them up to protect himself. Cocking his pronged helmeted head upward, his blue eyes shone with determination as he gave Karatenmon a piercing glare. "Let's settle this."

"Oh, but you are weakened," Karatenmon said darkly. "There is no use for you to fight even further. Your precious DigiSpheres are now under my command."

With a flick of his hand, two glowing spheres materialized from out of nowhere, and hovered above Karatenmon's right palm. One shone with brilliant red, and the other glimmered with calm blue. The blue sphere then jumped onto Karatenmon's left palm as the red sphere began to ignite with flames. Swirls of water then appeared from the blue sphere as Karatenmon began to cackle maniacally.

"The powers of fire and water," he said with amazement. "Now, they are mine!"

"They are not yours to control!" Grademon yelled, and jumped up. His eyes glimmered with yellowish light, and suddenly the warrior gained momentum and shot up, reaching the level where Karatenmon was hovering. "You can never wield the Red and Blue DigiSpheres. I created them with the ability for them to choose their own wielders! They will never obey your commands! It is futile for you to force their powers out."

And with that said, the flames on the red sphere died out while the swirls of water generated from the blue sphere evaporated into thin air. Both spheres then began to vibrate wildly and shot out from Karatenmon's palms, heading towards Grademon.

"And now they shall return to their creator once again!" Grademon exclaimed triumphantly. Quickly he transferred the sword held with his right hand onto his left hand, freeing the hand in order to grab the two spheres which were heading his way. "Return to me, DigiSpheres!"

"Oh, no, they won't!" Karatenmon shouted, and waved his twin blades forward. Two sickle-shaped purple energy bolts shot out from the blades and struck the two spheres, surrounding them with a spherical energy barrier. The red and blue spheres attempted to resist the dark sphere which was containing them, by slamming against the inner walls of the barrier, but they couldn't penetrate it. The dark sphere then rotated with top speed and vanished out of sight.

Grademon was shocked. "What did you do to the Red and Blue DigiSpheres?" he demanded.

"Kept for safekeeping," Karatenmon said airily, and laughed. "I have expected you to come up with such trick, Grademon. After all, _your_ mentor was also _my_ teacher some time ago. Apparently that old coot did not teach you well enough for you to face your crafty senior."

"Don't insult Wizardmon!" Grademon growled angrily.

Karatenmon merely shrugged, not at all perturbed with his opponent's warning. His twin blades then vanished as he crossed his arms over his lightly armored chest. He fixed his eyes onto Grademon, and snickered insultingly. "I shall find a way to make the Red and Blue DigiSpheres obey me, one way or the other. If I cannot be in command of them, then I shall find the ones _destined_ to wield those spheres, and control _them_!"

Grademon was immediately taken aback with Karatenmon's declaration. "Not if I can help it!" he exclaimed, and charged towards the dark warrior, with both blades thrust forward.

Karatenmon jumped towards the sky and stepped onto the glittering ivory blades wielded by his opponent. He used the swords as a stepping stone for him to approach Grademon, and delivered a powerful kick onto the golden warrior's helmeted face, before slapping him with his thick black wings. When Grademon plummeted towards the ground, Karatenmon expanded his wings, and shot out powerful projectiles in shape of feathers, but with the deadly precision of gun bullets, towards the fallen warrior. The feather bullets slammed onto Grademon's armor and cape, surprisingly damaging the armor even more and tore the already-shredded cape into tiny bits.

"Harpymon, attack him!" Karatenmon commanded the half-dozen bird warriors below. "Take no prisoner!"

Grademon's eyes shone with yellow light and once again he managed to steady himself, while still in mid-air. However, he was weakened and realized that he couldn't fight Karatenmon and his Harpymon foot soldiers. Looking around, the warrior saw that he was going to be overpowered soon. The Harpymon were beginning to spread out their arm-wings, flying towards him with every intention to finish him off, like vultures hungry to devour their preys.

"We shall fight again another day, Karatenmon!" Grademon declared, as white glitters began to replace the yellow lights within his eyes.

Brilliant orbs of pure golden light began to emanate from his body, surrounding and circling around him from the tip of his pronged helmet until the end of his golden boots. With a flash of white and golden light, the last thing Grademon could hear was the confused squawks and screeches of the Harpymon, followed by Karatenmon's frustrated yell, when his surroundings shifted from the smoky environment into a wide clearing within a lush green forest. The orbs of light vanished as Grademon stepped onto the marble floors of the clearing. Grademon's knees buckled slightly and he collapsed onto the marble floors with a loud crash, immediately attracting the attention of a smaller humanoid figure in purple cape and hat.

"Grademon!" the figure exclaimed, turning around immediately to face the fallen warrior.

"Wizardmon…" Grademon said weakly, as the purple-caped figure rushed towards him. From the corner of his eyes, Grademon could see the wooden sun staff belonged to the wizard, hovering in mid air. The staff was emitting bolts of thunder towards three spheres which were orbiting around it.

"What happened?" Wizardmon inquired, with great concern evident in his wizened voice. "You are gravely hurt! Sit and I shall heal you."

Grademon obeyed the wizard's command and allowed the elder Digimon to assist him to sit up. Wizardmon cast a look over the three spheres which were orbiting around his wooden staff before returning his gaze towards Grademon. He made a few gestures with his palms and read an incantation softly before placing one palm on Grademon's armored chest, and the other palm on Grademon's left thigh. Cool orange aura was emitted by Wizardmon's palm and slowly, Grademon began to heal.

"The other DigiSpheres…how are they progressing?" Grademon inquired urgently. His voice was still weak, but not as weak as before.

"Two of them are almost ready," Wizardmon replied. "One has been infused with the power of wind, and the other with the power of magic. The elements of nature and earth are still free; I am planning to infuse both of them into the third, unoccupied DigiSphere as the two elements are nearly similar in terms of power. I shall have to find two other elements which will compliment the powers of magic and wind later. I am thinking of the elements of ice and light…"

"We will need to change our original plan," Grademon interrupted. "Karatenmon has seized the Red and Blue DigiSpheres, and has placed them in his control."

"What!" Wizardmon exclaimed, shocked. "And you did not manage to recover them back?"

"I am only one mon," Grademon said grimly. "All of our allies have been defeated by SkullSatamon and his evil minions."

"Oh, my stars…" Wizardmon said, removing his hands slowly from Grademon. "This development is seriously not in our favor. The DigiSpheres are our last resort in order to combat SkullSatamon's evil forces. And what is more troubling is the fact that the Red and Blue DigiSpheres are our first creations, and are the most forceful, with the elements of fire, water, darkness and thunder infused within them."

Grademon nodded. "That is why we will need to change our original plan. Wizardmon, what other elements do we have in our possession right now? Other than nature and earth?"

"None," Wizardmon answered. "I'm planning to seek out the elements of ice and light from Digimon that bear those elements."

Grademon did some quick thinking, observing the three clear DigiSpheres which were still being powered up by Wizardmon's sun staff. "Infuse the elements of nature and earth within the same two DigiSpheres that already housed the elements of magic and wind. They will serve as secondary elements to magic and wind, similar to the elements of darkness and thunder being the secondary elements to fire and water."

Cocking his head sideways, towards the direction of the three DigiSpheres, Grademon lifted his right arm up. "HAA!" he breathed out loudly, and from his eyes, three beams of yellow, pink and white light shot out continuously. Each beam hit a DigiSphere and gave the DigiSphere the same color as the beam which had hit it. The energy bolts from Wizardmon's staff died down as the three DigiSpheres approached Grademon, and landed on his palms.

Wizardmon gazed down onto the White, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres, and nodded.

"Very well, Grademon. It shall be done," he said, and took the yellow and pink spheres. "The Yellow DigiSphere shall contain the powers of magic and earth, while the Pink DigiSphere shall house the powers of wind and nature. But what of the White DigiSphere? It has no element at all."

"Each DigiSphere can contain two elements," Grademon said, gazing at the White DigiSphere. "But the situation has changed. The Red and Blue DigiSpheres have been taken to the dark side, with the Red DigiSphere being more vulnerable than Blue, having had the element of darkness within it as well. SkullSatamon and Karatenmon will waste no time to use their own evil powers to corrupt the lost two spheres and their future wielders." He closed his palm, with the White DigiSphere within it.

"What are you going to do with the White DigiSphere?" Wizardmon inquired.

Grademon opened his palm again and the White DigiSphere rose from his hand. "I shall go to the Lost Mountain and seek the sacred lady Ophanimon to obtain the element of light from her."

Wizardmon's eyes widened. "But…the journey to the Lost Mountain is treacherous! And there is no guarantee that the sacred lady will agree to assist you. Besides, the Lost Mountain only appears once every one hundred years! It will not appear until…" Wizardmon made some mental calculations, opening and closing his fingers one by one alternately. Finally, he returned his gaze towards his pupil, now the Digital World's greatest champion. "…until three days from now, during the alignment of the three moons of the Digital World."

"Precisely," Grademon said. "Luckily, time is at our side. Three days are enough for me to heal."

Wizardmon grimaced, and didn't bother to hide his feeling from Grademon. "But, there is still no guarantee for the sacred lady to help you. You know, and I know, that the lady is very eccentric and indifferent to the goings-on of our world," he pointed out earnestly. "Surely you can seek out any other light-powered or angel Digimon to obtain the element of light? There is Lobomon, the healer of the West City of Light, or Angemon from the Radiant Village. Or even from the powerful duo MagnaAngemon and Angewomon who are currently leading the rebellion against Phelesmon, another general of SkullSatamon. And what about the White DigiSphere's second element? What element would it be?"

Grademon shook his head. "The ones you have stated are excellent choices, but you are forgetting one other important thing. Each of them has their own responsibility for the people they are serving. Taking their powers will only result in the ones they are protecting to be vulnerable against the evil forces."

"But…"

"**And** there will be _no_ compromising for the White DigiSphere, as well as there will be no secondary element for it," Grademon immediately countered, before his mentor could argue about his opinion. The golden warrior's voice was firm and stern that Wizardmon, whose mouth was partially opened as he was about to protest, closed his mouth. His green eyes however, looked at Grademon inquiringly, urging the warrior to continue.

Grademon saw his mentor's eyes and resumed his explanation. "I want the White DigiSphere to be infused purely with the element of light from the strongest source possible. Ophanimon, eccentric and indifferent as she may be, is a _Mega_ Digimon, and thus is far stronger than me, SkullSatamon, Karatenmon and all the noble warriors you have mentioned. With her power, the White DigiSphere shall be the key for us to regain the lost spheres, as well as neutralizing the evil influence that has been placed within them."

"But there is still the pressing matter of how are you going to convince Ophanimon to help you," Wizardmon said.

Grademon's ice-blue eyes blazed with determination. "I will do whatever it takes to acquire her assistance."

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 10 – Unbound_**

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"So, what happened?" Adam asked eagerly. "Did Grademon manage to get this…Ophanimon's, help?"

TobuCatmon observed the excited look on Adam's face, his blue eyes looking worried. He had just concluded regaling the tales of the DigiSpheres' creation a long time ago to the three DigiWira. Something bothered him, but looking at the earnestness of the wielder of the White DigiSphere's face, he couldn't help but to smile.

"Oh, he did. It wasn't easy, but he managed to convince the sacred lady Ophanimon to help him," TobuCatmon answered finally.

"But…?" Liu Ying asked, raising her thin eyebrow.

TobuCatmon turned his attention towards the wielder of the Yellow DigiSphere. "What makes you think that there is a 'but'?"

"I don't know, but I do know that there is a 'but'," the senior DigiWira answered simply.

"And you're right," TobuCatmon said. "Although Grademon was successful and the White DigiSphere is infused fully with the power of light, the forces of evil were still too strong for him to handle. He never managed to recover the lost Red and Blue DigiSpheres from Karatenmon, whom during a combat with Wizardmon, was sentenced into stone imprisonment by the wizard. And yes, Adam, if you are wondering…" TobuCatmon returned his gaze towards the male DigiWira. "This Wizardmon is the same Wizardmon you have met before, and who has fallen victim to Karatenmon's treachery. It seemed that Karatenmon had personally deleted Wizardmon out of spite, since it was his old mentor who had imprisoned him."

Adam merely nodded his head sadly. Images of the old wizard flashed by his mind temporarily – it was Wizardmon who had helped him against Sorcerymon, and he also had given Adam the antidote to Sorcerymon's abhorrence spell over Gayathri and Floramon – before Gayathri's voice brought his attention back to the real world. Yet he found himself somewhat unable to concentrate as his mind was still on the kindred wizard.

"Back to the lost DigiSpheres," the curly-haired DigiWira said as she fingered the ends of her hair. "Now they've found their wielders, just like ours found us?"

"You are correct, Gayathri," TobuCatmon said. "Apparently, the ShadoWira are the ones destined to wield the Red and Blue DigiSpheres, just as the three of you are chosen to wield your own." He gazed at the three DigiWira with an unfathomable look, his blue eyes shifted from Gayathri to Liu Ying before lingering on Adam for a while. Then he cleared his throat, seeing that the boy to be still somewhat distracted – he knew that the boy's mind was still on the late Wizardmon. When Adam finally looked up, the gloomy look on his face slowly passing, TobuCatmon said, "Release your DigiSpheres from your D-Terminals, please. I will now explain about the special powers you now possess."

The gloominess in Adam's gray eyes was instantly replaced with enthusiasm and he eagerly did what TobuCatmon had suggested. Liu Ying and Gayathri looked at each other, and shrugged, before they too heeded their mentor's instruction. Pressing the buttons on their D-Terminals, the digitized DigiSpheres materialized from the devices and hovered in front of their respective DigiWira, who were sitting in a triangular position with TobuCatmon sitting in the middle of the triangle. The three DigiSpheres then projected a beam of light towards the center of the triangle in accordance to their color. When the three beams met, just above TobuCatmon's head, a hologram of a heroic-looking warrior in pure golden armor, wearing a three-pronged helmet, a flowing cape and wielding two swords, was produced.

"This is Grademon," TobuCatmon explained. This was ensued by a series of '_Oooh'_ from the DigiWira. "It is from him that you receive your powers, as Grademon has placed each of his power in his five mystical DigiSpheres, to be inherited by the spheres' future wielders in their quest to aid their Digimon partners against the evilness of SkullSatamon. Originally however, Grademon didn't possess those powers; but felt the need to gain several extra powers as he was facing the greatest evil known to the Digital World at the moment. He sought out several masters from the vast regions of the Digital World in order to do so, and eventually met them and becoming their pupil. Each master granted him with one skill."

An image of a masked, muscular, humanoid Digimon with a black body and four arms appeared beside Grademon. They were standing at equal height, but the black-skinned Digimon were bulkier in size, yet clothed little in comparison to the fully-armored Grademon. The two holograms sparred with each other, with the quadra-armed Digimon firing streams of fire one after another towards Grademon, who to the DigiWira's surprise, was blocking the Digimon's fire attacks with streams of fire generated from his own palm.

"From Asuramon, master of fire, Grademon received the power to control fire," TobuCatmon explained.

"_Asura_?" Gayathri said, surprised. "That's one of the Gods in Hindu myth."

"Power of fire?" Adam wondered audibly, at about the same time Gayathri was mentioning about Asuramon. "The Red ShadoWira…?"

"Correct, Adam and Gayathri," TobuCatmon nodded.

The hologram of Asuramon vanished, and was replaced with a blonde mermaid with a sleek black tail, wielding a golden trident. The mermaid and Grademon were exchanging water blasts one after another, sparring in a similar fashion shown between Grademon and Asuramon earlier.

"From the mistress of the ocean, Mermaidmon, Grademon is bestowed the ability to control water," TobuCatmon informed.

"The Blue ShadoWira…" Liu Ying stated, more towards herself than to the others, as she recollected the event of her encounter with the evil DigiWira.

Mermaidmon's image was then replaced with a hologram of a poised Digimon, who was a humanoid yellow-furred fox Digimon in a Taoist garb. The Digimon had a stern face, sharp ice blue eyes which reminded all of them of Youkomon, and wielded, out of all kinds of weapons, a giant paintbrush. However the priestess Digimon and Grademon seemed to be evenly matched in a battle of minds, with Grademon throwing various weaponries to the priestess by just flicking his arms, and his opponent resisting the objects thrown to her by merely flicking her palms.

"With guidance from the mistress of magic, Taomon, Grademon learned how to move objects with his mind," TobuCatmon said.

Liu Ying was snapped out of her brief reverie, and realized that this was the source of her new-found gift.

Taomon's image vanished and a visor-wearing bird-man appeared in her place. He was a muscular Digimon with avian qualities displayed by his lower extremities – which was thick and brown-feathered, and ended with yellow and magenta talons. His upper body however was humanlike, protected by a white leather suit and further armored with a metallic plate. His arms were thick as well, with large white feathers jutting out from the arms. The DigiWira saw Grademon racing with the Digimon, first in running, later by flying.

"Thanks to the master of air, Silphymon, Grademon's speed was greatly enhanced," TobuCatmon told them.

Gayathri placed a hand on her chest and beamed, recollecting how she had narrowly escaped Reichmon's attack, back at the Megalith Coliseum. Silphymon's hologram dissipated as well, and in his place appeared a very familiar looking mage Digimon.

"That's Wizardmon!" Patamon, who was resting on Adam's head, gasped.

"Indeed," TobuCatmon said, nodding. "Although Grademon has learned four powerful skills from Asuramon, Mermaidmon, Taomon and Silphymon, his greatest skill is bestowed upon him by his own mentor. Observe."

The DigiWira then saw the projected images of Wizardmon and Grademon on a vast empty field. Wizardmon waved his staff and blinked out of sight, and reappeared about a hundred meters away from where he had stood. He waved his staff again, and disappeared again before reappearing in front of Grademon. Grademon tried to follow his mentor's movement, but instead of blinking out of sight like the wizard had done, the ability imparted to him manifested in a slightly different way. His armored body glimmered and orbs of golden light were emitted from it, surrounding the golden warrior. The orbs then vanished with Grademon consumed within them, before rematerializing a distance away with Grademon within them.

"And from Wizardmon, Grademon learns the rare art of teleportation," TobuCatmon concluded as the holograms vanished.

"He teleports differently from how Wizardmon had taught him," Adam pointed out. "I think _I_ teleported the same way Grademon did. Only the colors seem to be different."

TobuCatmon nodded, smiling slightly. "Strange, isn't it? In my opinion it was simply due to the fact that Grademon didn't want to teleport the same manner his mentor did, thus the ability manifested in a slightly different, but still very much effective, way. It was said that Grademon did have a rebellious streak within him."

The DigiWira laughed upon hearing this explanation. Liu Ying was the first who stopped laughing – she was only chuckling lightly, while Adam and Gayathri were the ones laughing – and cleared her throat slightly to attract the attentions of her fellow DigiWira as she ran a finger into her wet, but clean, straight jet-black hair.

"So now, I have the power to move object with my mind?" she inquired.

"Apparently, yes," TobuCatmon nodded.

Liu Ying looked around the Forest Sanctum and spotted a small stone lying just outside the marbled floor. Frowning, she attempted to move the stone by willing her mind to stir it. Nothing happened – the stone won't even budge from its place. She then raised her palm and turned it horizontally, and tried to move it by moving her palm upward. Still, nothing happened. Annoyed, she flicked her hand and the stone flew away, colliding against a tree.

"And apparently, a lot of training is still required before you can truly master this ability," TobuCatmon said, sweatdropping. He then turned to face Adam and Gayathri, who seemed about to attempt with their own special powers. "The same applies to the two of you as well. The three of you need trainings."

The DigiWira nodded. "So, Liu Ying has telekinesis, Gayathri has super speed, and I have teleportation?" Adam clarified.

TobuCatmon pondered about Adam's statement for a moment. "Telekinesis…is that the same word which applies to the power of moving object with the power of the mind?" he inquired.

Adam sweatdropped. "Uh…yeah, that's how it is said in those comic books I've read. And…" the boy's expression turned slightly grim. "The ShadoWira are pyrokinetic and hydrokinetic?"

"I'm sorry, but I have never heard of such words before," TobuCatmon said apologetically. "But I think you are right. The words _pyro_ and _hydro_ do relate to fire and water, so yes, the ShadoWira have been given the power to manipulate, or even generate, fire and water at will. Yes…" TobuCatmon inhaled deeply before continuing, "Grademon's five special abilities are then transferred to the five DigiSpheres he has created in order to give their future wielders the same abilities as well. The Red and Blue DigiSpheres were taken soon after the powers of fire and water were bestowed to them, and the remaining DigiSpheres were given the other remaining powers prior to Grademon's trip to seek out the element of light from Ophanimon of the Lost Mountain. The three DigiSpheres are then kept within the safety of the Forest Sanctum, where no evil can penetrate."

xxx

xxx

"Damn it, Karatenmon!" the Red ShadoWira bellowed as soon as he stepped out of the portal. "You told us those DigiWira have no special powers! Well guess what? They do!"

Karatenmon observed the ShadoWira coolly, albeit slightly irritated over the Red ShadoWira's outburst. However he too was as surprised as the ShadoWira over the outcome of the battle today; he too hadn't expected that Grademon's other three powers would be reawakened by the three DigiWira just as when the ShadoWira were about to defeat them once and for all.

"I too, have not anticipated this to happen," he said icily. Glaring at the Red ShadoWira, he pointed his index finger towards the human. "And you will do well to remember your place."

The Red ShadoWira stood still, staring at the pointed finger uncertainly. He wasn't sure whether Karatenmon was simply warning him, or would actually attack him. There was a chilling frostiness in the way he was being addressed by the ultimate Digimon, and he knew that it would be as easy as a flick of a palm for the Digimon to destroy him. The Red ShadoWira decided not to risk it as he wouldn't be able to win, so he took a step back with a loud snort and leaned against the wall.

"What do you mean?" the Blue ShadoWira spoke up. "You didn't see this coming too, did you?"

"As far as I know, Grademon has imparted his abilities to control fire and water into your Red and Blue DigiSpheres," Karatenmon answered. "And I am aware that in order to counter the Red and Blue DigiSpheres, Grademon has created another three DigiSpheres – namely the White, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres – but I do not know that he had also included his other powers into them as well, which apparently was what he had done. I have however seen Grademon demonstrating his powers during our last encounter. But you still have the advantage against the DigiWira."

"The DNA Digivolution works perfectly. Reichmon's trashed their partners," the Red ShadoWira said cockily.

"And the DigiWira trashed you," Karatenmon retorted, attempting to deflate the arrogance evident from the Red ShadoWira.

"But they too weren't faring so well; they had to run away as their partners are all knocked out," the Red ShadoWira shot back smartly.

Karatenmon snorted. "In short, the two teams are still evenly matched. And soon, the DigiWira will also be able to tap further into the DigiSpheres' hidden powers and possibly, also unlock the DNA Digivolution for their partners. This will not do; I have groomed you to be more superior to the DigiWira, not on par with them. But there is nothing you can do now. For now, you shall return to your home world and rest."

He made a dismissing gesture towards the Red ShadoWira, who simply turned his back against the dark avian warrior and stalked away outside the main cave. A flash of light ensued from outside the main chamber of the Cave of Solitude before silence once again prevailed. Karatenmon then shifted his attention towards the Blue ShadoWira, who was still standing at an odd posture. He narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue in a manner that seemed to be mocking the Blue ShadoWira.

"I shall heal you, but it is not done out of pity," Karatenmon said with a tone that mirrored his words exactly. "Rather, the last thing I want to happen is for the DigiWira to be able to exactly pinpoint your secret identities when you two are around the school tomorrow."

"Win-win for both of us," the Blue ShadoWira murmured uncaringly.

Karatenmon waved his right arm while chanting a mantra in a foreign language. A purple wave of light was released by his hand and collided with the Blue ShadoWira. Immediately the Blue ShadoWira's body jolted up straight, no longer forced to be in an odd posture where the pain he was feeling would be at its least. The wave soon dissipated and the Blue ShadoWira nodded towards Karatenmon.

"Thanks, General," he said simply. If he was grateful towards the General for healing him, it didn't show in his voice's tone.

Karatenmon nodded curtly; he didn't really care whether the ShadoWira were polite or rude towards him, as long as they served their purposes for him and for the master. "Return to your home now, and remember not to attract the attentions of the three DigiWira while you are at school. Do not give them any reason to suspect you. And keep an eye on your fellow ShadoWira partner. His brashness would ruin my future plan."

"Don't worry, I know how to handle Red," the Blue ShadoWira answered. "After all, only water can keep raging fire in check."

xxx

xxx

For a moment, the DigiWira were all silent. They were processing the barrages of new information they had just been given, and coupled with the slight fatigue they were feeling as an aftermath from their battle with the ShadoWira earlier, all of them were ready to call it a day and return to their home world. But…

"But there's something I still am not getting about our special powers, TobuCatmon," Liu Ying said.

TobuCatmon looked at the tallest DigiWira knowingly. "You want to know why your powers haven't appeared to you before." It was more of a statement than an inquiry.

Liu Ying's questioning look turned into a scowl. "Are you psychic, by any chance?"

"No," TobuCatmon answered. His face turned apologetic as he resumed with his answer, "Actually, the reason is…before this, your powers have been bound. I have just released the bindings over them today, when I saw that you'd need those powers to face the ShadoWira."

"What?" all three DigiWira cried out. "Why'd you do that?" Gayathri continued.

TobuCatmon looked apologetic and for a moment, his gaze fell onto Adam. When Adam's gray eyes met his blue orbs, TobuCatmon shifted his attention away. "Please believe me when I say that I have my reason, and it is done solely for your own safety," he finally said to the three DigiWira, but Adam could have sworn that he saw the champion level Digimon was looking at him from the corner of his blue eyes.

"But… we could've used those powers before!" Liu Ying snapped. "I could think of many situations which with this power to move object with my mind, would aid me and Labramon greatly. _Especially_ when we were the only team before Gayathri and Adam became DigiWira as well."

"And yet, you've prevailed again and again, even without your special power," TobuCatmon said calmly; he had expected this kind of reaction from the DigiWira when he first decided to bind their powers into the Ivory Gem before Liu Ying became a DigiWira. "Your special powers were bound inside a special gem called the Ivory Gem, but they couldn't be taken away from their destined wielders forever. When the time when they were greatly needed came, they would eventually overpower the binding enchantment placed upon them and would seek out their masters."

"As they did today," Adam said, shivering when he remembered when exactly his power came to him. "And just in the nick of time, too."

TobuCatmon nodded. "I apologize again, DigiWira. But you will see in the future of the reason why I have prevented your powers from bonding with you…although…" his eyes once again fell on Adam, who was starting to realize of the number of times the champion Digimon was looking at him. _Although personally I hope that you will not have to see the reason, _he added silently.

"In my opinion, TobuCatmon, that's rather weak," Gayathri pointed out. "But…I trust your judgment. You must've your reasons, and the powers did help us in our time of need."

"I appreciate that, Gayathri," TobuCatmon replied. "As I appreciated your honest opinion in this matter. Yours too, Liu Ying." The said girl nodded slowly, realizing that TobuCatmon was indeed sorry for keeping the DigiWira from their powers before. "There is something that you should know though about your special powers."

Liu Ying held her palm up, in a motion as if she was stopping TobuCatmon from speaking any further. "What _we_ need to know is that how is it possible for us, being humans, to be able to get these powers in the first place? I mean, this is something you can only see in storybooks or movies…something fantasy-like. Real humans don't have these abilities; it is nearly impossible to comprehend. I get it that we now have powers, and the DigiSpheres are responsible for it, but _how_?"

TobuCatmon nodded solemnly. "A very good question, Liu Ying," he commented, and took a deep breath. "It's true that, from where you all come from, humans having special powers are just something mentioned in fairy-tale, which is why your powers _won't_ work in your home world. What you need to know for now that in the Digital World, everything is made up of data, derived from the computers from your home world. The data is further enforced by the hopes and dreams of the people in your home world, which gives the Digital World a rather mystical quality in it as well. The possibilities are endless in the Digital World, and you three have seen varieties of Digimon here that the people in your home world could never comprehend. That is just one of many examples. Take your own partners, for instance. I don't believe that you will find a larger-than-life guinea pig, who talks, or a very eloquent dog, or a hybrid between a plant and an animal."

"That's true," Adam concurred. His face looked somewhat disappointed. "Too bad our powers won't work back home; I could think of many things to do with my power."

"Ah…Adam," TobuCatmon said, his eyes twinkling. "The powers are _not_ to be used selfishly; they come with a heavy responsibility. In the past, DigiDestined are known to be able to lend their support for their partners; lending their inner strength and believes for their Digimon to become more powerful. But that's just how far they are able to do, but for you…you have been given the heavy task of wielding special powers of your own, which I believe is for you to give your partners a helping hand in order to combat SkullSatamon's growing forces of evil. In the past, I was afraid to present you with the burden, which was…why, I've bounded your powers before. I didn't think that you were ready."

The three DigiWira now realized of their mentor's intention, and nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier," Liu Ying spoke out. "I understand your reason now."

"It's alright," TobuCatmon said. He looked at the faces of the DigiWira he had mentored, and smiled slightly. "There's one last thing you should know about your powers, though."

"What's that?" Gayathri asked.

"Back when Grademon possessed the five powers, they were at their most preliminary stages before he stored them in the DigiSpheres," TobuCatmon began, choosing his words carefully to make sure that he could make the DigiWira understand what they currently had in their hands. "For three hundred years, the powers waited to be bonded with the future wielders of the DigiSpheres, as Grademon has intended. Now that they have been released and bonded with you three, and the ShadoWira, they will not remain at their early stages for long."

"Huh?" Adam wondered. "What do you mean?"

TobuCatmon's eyes met the boy's gray orbs. "They will evolve," he said slowly. "Your Digimon partners have the ability to Digivolve into higher, more powerful levels. The same is true for your special powers. In time, they will grow. They will not remain as only teleportation, telekinesis, super speed, hydro- and pyrokinesis forever; they will evolve, branch out to many possibilities, trying to reach their fullest potentials." He finished his statement with a grim note.

"Whoa, neat!" Adam exclaimed delightfully, missing out the grimness in TobuCatmon's voice.

Liu Ying however, caught on to their mentor's true meaning. A look of dread was reflected from her shining black eyes. "Adam, I don't think that's true. Don't you see? If the powers are growing, that means that our situation with the ShadoWira has just gotten more dangerous. We've narrowly escaped them today, and we've seen their proficiency with their powers. They've mastered their powers, or at least the basics of their powers, while we…we're just starting out."

"And both ShadoWira get the offensive powers," Gayathri continued glumly, and also with dawning comprehension. She adjusted a stray of curly bangs to the back of her ear before continuing, "and out of three of us, only Liu Ying has an attack power. We…" she looked at Adam with growing trepidation reflected in her large, brown eyes. "Our abilities make us able to run away, but not attacking. When we meet the ShadoWira again, Liu Ying won't be able to handle both ShadoWira on her own for long."

The look of delight on the boy's face was immediately wiped away. He suddenly looked anxious.

"You're right," he whispered as he massaged his temples slowly. "I've escaped the Red ShadoWira twice, and both times, if it weren't for my teleportation power I won't be able to sit here with you guys, knowing all these stuffs about our powers, Grademon and all." Slowly, he pushed back the bangs of his very dark brown hair from his forehead, only for the bangs to once again fall just right above his dark eyebrows when he removed his hand. "I'd be…gone," he said hollowly.

Silence prevailed for a minute, as the DigiWira realized that if it weren't for their powers, they all wouldn't be able to have this conversation at all.

"But…it'd be good if I have at least another power to counterattack the Red ShadoWira's," Adam added with a low tone, but audible enough to be heard by TobuCatmon.

"Yeah," Gayathri agreed. "Don't get me wrong though; I love my new power. But I'd do no good for the team if all I do is running away," she added, referring to her super speed power.

"Adam, Gayathri, do not despair, for your powers have yet to evolve. And I'm sure that you will learn how to fully utilize your current powers in future encounters with the ShadoWira," TobuCatmon consoled. He took a deep breath and his expression became more serious. "I've nearly lost you three today. I must make sure that will never happen again. I will find a way to train you three to master your gifts."

Both Adam and Gayathri nodded, but it was obvious that they were still worried. Liu Ying reached out and held Gayathri's hand comfortingly, while placing another hand on Adam's left shoulder.

"And now, we still have another one important matter to address upon," TobuCatmon said, attempting to draw the DigiWira's attention again. "The ShadoWira."

xxx

xxx

Karatenmon walked brusquely on his own inside the many dark chambers of the Cave of Solitude, navigating his ways with precision despite the darkness. His crimson eyes flashed every now and then, reflecting the fact that he was in a deep thought.

"The master has been very specific," he muttered, and slowed down upon reaching a junction, which led to three ways – straight ahead, left or right. Without even thinking, he made a left turn and reached a narrow stony staircase which spiraled down towards the depth of the cave. The Cave of Solitude was constructed within a stone mountain, and Karatenmon intended to go to the mountain's base. He knew that he needed to be very careful while going down those steps, as the cavern was almost pitch-black and one mistake while taking the step, one could slip across the steps and fell through the empty circular space at the edges of the spiral staircases.

_It is however, the shortest way to reach the bottom of the Black Peak, _Karatenmon thought, and without hesitation, he jumped from the stairs and quickly expanded his wings. He allowed gravity to take its natural course and felt his body being pulled down towards the base of the mountain. For ten minutes, he plummeted down without even bothering to break his fall, and his eyes gazed on the purple and black stones which constituted the inner part of the Black Peak Mountain, where inside, was built the Cave of Solitude – his dwelling.

Karatenmon recalled the brief conversation he had with SkullSatamon earlier. The master had been watching the battle via the viewing orb Karatenmon had supplied to him, and had seen the awakenings of the DigiWira's powers. He had his eyes on one particular DigiWira, and demanded Karatenmon to see to it that it was done. This brought the dark avian general to where he was at right now, going down the staircases of the Cave of Solitude to reach the prison at the base.

Faint cries were heard coming from below, and Karatenmon realized that he was nearing his destination. He immediately exerted some force in his wings, which flapped once to prevent him from crash-landing on the hard granite ground. He landed gracefully, and grandly, on his two feet, and his eyes fell on two figures that were standing in front of a large, wooden door. From the barred square hole at the middle of the door, cries and pleadings of help were heard.

"General Karatenmon," Sorcerymon and Shutumon both said simultaneously. "As you've ordered, we've found six rookie-level avian Digimon for your evil purposes," Shutumon continued.

"Five Biyomon and a rather feisty Hawkmon," Sorcerymon stated. "Birdramon was so tweaked when more of her students disappeared; luckily Shutumon was able to deal with her."

"Excellent," Karatenmon said, pleased. "You have done well. They will serve me soundly in my next plan."

"Whatever you're planning to do with us, you'll never succeed!" a loud cry came from behind the door.

"I take it that belongs to the Hawkmon you were telling me earlier?" Karatenmon inquired with a smirk.

"Yup, that's her alright," Sorcerymon said, and revealed a gash beside his mouth, formerly hidden by the collars of his white cape. "Scratched me with her sharp wings and talons, but I was able to subdue her in no time," he stated smugly, and tapped the door with his white staff. The door began to open.

"Proud to be able to overpower a rookie," Karatenmon stated with a mild tone. "How _quaint_."

Sorcerymon blushed upon hearing the comment, while Shutumon let out a whistle as the dark general was being sarcastic.

The sturdy door opened fully to reveal a cramped stone prison, with straws scattered around the floor. Five Biyomon were chained together with a Hawkmon, who was looking up at Karatenmon with a defiant look in her clear blue eyes. Karatenmon could see that among the six new prisoners brought by the two servants of SkullSatamon, the Hawkmon was the one who seemed to receive the most beatings, judging by the number of bruises and scratches on her face and body. The five Biyomon had suffered less abuse, and compared to the Hawkmon they did seem to look weaker. Three of the Biyomon were crying, while the other two were seen comforting their crying friends.

_Weak the Biyomon might be, but that is about to change very soon_, Karatenmon thought slyly.

"What do you want from us?" the Hawkmon demanded. "What did we ever do to you?"

"Patience, dear Hawkmon," Karatenmon said darkly. "Your purposes shall be revealed very, very soon."

Raising his right hand up, Karatenmon began to chant an incantation in a foreign language as dark clouds began to emanate from his raised hand. The clouds went towards the prisoners and engulfed them fully, and the last thing that could be seen from them was their widened, fearful eyes before the clouds obscured those eyes as well. Their figures were what could be seen from the clouds, black in color and all writhing in pain. Thunderbolts struck them, causing the rookies to let out pained squawks and chirps, which after a couple of minutes, began to turn into hideous shrieks as from the clouds their small bodies began to grow.

"Rise, my foot soldiers!"

From the corner of the small ground-level cavern, hidden within the dark shadows, someone clad in black stepped out silently. The faint light coming from the cracks on the stone walls fell onto his uniform, causing the crimson and red accents on it to glitter slightly, reflecting the shine of the leather material. He observed the transformations of the small avian Digimon into shrieking, mindless humanoid avian warriors with mild interest, and recalled the conversation he'd heard exchanged between Karatenmon and SkullSatamon earlier.

_The DigiWira won't know what's gonna hit them,_ he snickered silently, and retreated back into the shadows.

xxx

xxx

"What about the ShadoWira?" Adam immediately asked, his thought were instantly brought back to his near-fatal encounters with the Red ShadoWira. "What's their deal anyway?"

"Who are they exactly?" Liu Ying inquired, almost simultaneously to Adam's own question.

"And why are they so bent on destroying us? What have we done to irk them anyway?" Gayathri continued.

"Well, other than beating their partners back at East Lake City," Patamon chimed in thoughtfully from Adam's head.

And as if they too wanted to voice out their questions, the unconscious Labramon and Floramon both grunted softly.

TobuCatmon sighed. "The ShadoWira are also DigiDestined, like the three of you. Possessing the DigiSpheres, they are also effectively DigiWira. As for their identities, they could be anybody from your home world. And with the capes and their masks, it would be impossible to determine their identities. But just be on a lookout for any strange behavior amongst the ones you know; for all we know _they_ could be the ShadoWira."

Adam felt a slight chill upon hearing this. Something came across his mind; something at school which had been bothering him for the past few days. He looked at Liu Ying, who at the same time, was also glancing towards the boy. From the expressions on their faces, it was evident that something similar had crossed their minds. However nobody volunteered to voice out what he or she was currently thinking, which prompted the other DigiWira to speak up.

"Hello? I'm a little lost here?" Gayathri said dramatically, noticing her teammates exchanging odd looks at each other. "What's with the faces?"

"Adam, I've nearly forgotten about that," Liu Ying whispered towards the dark-haired boy. She took out her D3 Digivice from its compartment on her belt and held it within her palms as she addressed Gayathri and TobuCatmon. "About four days ago ago, Adam and I noticed a D3 signal somewhere near us when we were walking to my house from school. But that time, you weren't around Gayathri, and the D3 was at its default close-ranged scale. You were with Manny and his family, which was out of the scale's range. Adam and I were around the park beside the school and the signal appeared somewhere around us, presumably the park. But before we could even realize what was going on, the signal disappeared."

"That's not all. Earlier than that, I've already been getting the feelings that I'm being closely watched while at school," Adam said with a shiver. "At first, I thought that it was just my imagination, but then Liu Ying too felt the…umm…_creepy_ sensation that I've been getting whenever I felt that I was being watched. She felt it too at the same time when we managed to detect a D3 signal."

TobuCatmon registered silently what Adam and Liu Ying had just said in his mind, his eyes looking slightly alarmed. It sounded uncanny, and something immediately clicked within his mind. "Being DigiDestined, means that they ShadoWira too would possess D3 Digivices," he said slowly, trying to organize the sudden rush of thought he was getting. "So it's highly possible that the D3 signal you have seen belonged to one of the ShadoWira. And this also means that at least one out of the two ShadoWira is attending your school."

"Or live nearby the school," Gayathri opinioned.

"Perhaps, but I'd go with my opinion, because Adam has mentioned that he was being watched while at school," TobuCatmon reminded.

"I _thought_ I was being watched," Adam mumbled uncertainly.

"Trust your instinct, Adam," TobuCatmon said encouragingly. "Besides, doesn't Liu Ying also have perceived the same sensation of being watched?"

"Yes, and I'm positively sure about it," Liu Ying said.

"In that case, be on a lookout for the students attending your school, DigiWira. The ShadoWira could be anybody. They could even be your own friends. Do not rule out the possibilities of your close friends to be ShadoWira, because Karatenmon can easily change their original personas into characteristics he desires. But please remember that the ShadoWira might not be acting in accordance to their own free will. They might even be good persons, but Karatenmon's magic is very strong and even powerful Digimon than he had succumbed to his dark magical powers. I implore you not to initiate any battle with the ShadoWira, and only use your powers for defending yourselves."

"Some of us already have defense-only powers," Adam pointed out.

TobuCatmon shook his head. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be of assistance to you in searching for the ShadoWira's civilian identities while you're at your home world, but perhaps your school teacher – Jackie – could help you with this daunting task."

"You're right, TobuCatmon. We can ask for Jackie's help," Liu Ying agreed. "He knows more students in our school than we do."

"Wait till he hears about our new special powers!" Gayathri exclaimed. "I bet he would be so surprised. Even I'm still having a hard time believing that I actually have a special power."

TobuCatmon's eyes darted on Adam once again when Gayathri mentioned about the special powers, and saw that the boy was suddenly reminded of what he'd wanted to ask to the mentor of the DigiWira. There was no escaping the question this time, with Liu Ying and Gayathri both looking settled to go back to their home world. TobuCatmon had to act fast.

"And…"

"Adam," TobuCatmon countered quickly, flying over the pentagonal wooden table and picked up something from the surface of the simple furniture. He returned to the DigiWira and approached the boy, and held out the item he was holding. It was a small, triangular shaped, lightweight white stone, which glistened with light. "Adam, this is the Ivory Gem. Earlier, I have used this gem's magical attribute to bind the powers of you three within it. Now that your powers have been unleashed, this stone has no use, but I would like it very much if _you_ keep this safe for me, as it will serve you well when the right time comes."

"Thanks, TobuCatmon. I'll keep it safe." Adam gingerly accepted the stone, and examined it. The Ivory Gem had rough surfaces, with the exception of its base, which seemed to be cleanly cut. "It looks like the Ivory Gem's actually a part of a bigger stone. Someone had cut it into half…" he said slowly before whipping out his D-Terminal. Similar to how the device reacted to his White DigiSphere, the Ivory Gem too was digitized and stored inside the D-Terminal as data. "What do you mean it will serve me well when the right time comes?"

TobuCatmon merely gave Adam a mysterious smile. "That will be revealed when the right time comes, Adam."

Adam grimaced; the answer wasn't what he'd wanted to hear. Then, he remembered that he had other thing to ask about.

"Ok. And…"

"Oh, look at the time! It's getting late and you need your rest!" TobuCatmon immediately announced, effectively cutting off the boy's attempt of asking him a question which he was dreading to answer. Adam looked dumbfounded, but the feline was adamant in his decision to spare Adam from the _true_ reason why he had kept the DigiWira from their powers. Instead, he interjected with a tone of finality, "Whenever you are free tomorrow, do come to the Forest Sanctum, and we shall begin your training with your new gifts."


	11. Divide and Conquer

_There they are, three of them, gathering at the school's pond. All looking nervous, unaware that they are being watched. _

He sat there, leaned against the trunk of a tree, shadowed from the morning sun by the tree's thick canopy. He wasn't alone, but the other school pupils around him were of no concern to him. He was only after three particular pupils. Two girls, one boy. It was Saturday, and the extracurricular activities were on. Looking at the time displayed on his cell phone – he didn't bother to wear a watch – he knew that it was still early, but people were already bustling about. Some ignored him, which suited him just fine, but some did pause to stare at him, which irked him. He didn't bother them and was minding his own business, and with a glare, he sent them scurrying away.

_Works every time_, he thought_. Fools._ _None of them are aware of what I can do…it's just their lucky day that I can't use my power here, _he thought maliciously, and snapped his finger with a smirk. He had to chuckle lightly upon the dark thought he was thinking_. Really, given my way I wouldn't even be here, but it is fun stalking them without them knowing. The boy seemed to realize that someone's tailing him, but he didn't know that it was me. It was almost a close call that day when they almost noticed me…it won't happen again. It has been taken care of._

The boy and the girls then parted ways when the school bell rang, forcing him to get up as well. His eyes darted on the girl with curly brown hair, who was joined by her two giggling girlfriends. He recognized them immediately; the three girls were quite popular – always together, all perky, all pretty, and all could get on his nerves sometimes. They were wearing identical uniforms – light green shirts and navy blue knee-length skirt.

_The Girl Guides. No good in tailing them. If she doesn't notice me, her two friends would. Strength in numbers, eh? Pah._

His eyes then turned to look for the other girl of the trio. Taking notice of the girl's all-white Tae-Kwan-Do uniform with a black belt around her waist, his mouth twisted into a smile. _Probably the strongest the three_, he thought with a grin as he observed the girl doing some warm-up movements with mild interest. _Very fluid and graceful, _he thought silently. One could say that he was checking the girl out, but he had an ulterior motive for his action. Finally after five minutes, he saw the raven-haired girl then proceeded with the rest of the Tae-Kwan-Do members towards one of the school's three game courts, which was still within his view. Suddenly he saw that she was about to turn around_. Mustn't let her see me watching, might give her some ideas_, he mused and darted away, blending in with the crowd.

Looking around the school compound, he finally settled to sit at the nearly vacant canteen, which gave him a clear view of the school's open assembly hall, where a group of students dressed in white shirts and black pants were lining up in three lines. He searched for a familiar face, and saw him, lining up at the middle of the second row. For a moment, he watched as the boy and his fellow society teammates making several steps and movements, obeying the senior member standing in front of the lines who were shouting out the commands for them. He had been keeping a closer watch on this boy for some times now, and was settled to further observe the boy from the vicinity of the school canteen.

"Hey," a friendly voice coming from his back interrupted his thoughts.

_Hmmm,_ he grunted inwardly. Turning around, he saw a group of five guys he didn't know, all looking at him expectantly. He raised an eyebrow inquiringly towards the one who had called out for him - a boy with wiry brown hair, with slightly slanted eyes and sharp facial features.

"If you're not doing anything, how about joining us for a game? We could use an extra person," the boy said with a wide, expectant, toothy grin. "What do you say?"

He got up and wiped his hands on the shirt he was wearing. "Sure. I've got time to _kill_." Looking back at the assembling troop of the first aid cadet members, he smirked.

_Until later._

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 11 – Divide and Conquer_**

xxx

xxx

"Ok, so you type everything else between the body tags," Adam instructed. "Go ahead; write something like…_this is just a test page_."

Liu Ying followed Adam's instruction, and typed '**_This is just a test page'_** onto the screen.

(BODY) This is just a test page (/BODY)

"Then save the document, and go to the web browser," Adam continued. "Press the control button and the letter 'S' at the same time to save the document quicker. Then go to the browser and press the F5 button to refresh it." He watched as his friend followed his guides, and saw the delighted look on the girl's face when she saw the page loaded by the web browser.

- This is just a test page -

"Hey, it works," Liu Ying said happily.

"Told you," Adam replied with a grin. "Go ahead; make another opening and closing tags between the sentences you have just typed. Put the letter…'B' between those tags. Save the document, and reload it on the browser. See what happens."

(BODY) (B) This is just a test page (/B) (/BODY)

**- This is just a test page – **

"The sentence is now in bold," Liu Ying realized.

"Ok, now replace the letter 'B' with the letter 'I'," Adam encouraged.

"Like this?" Liu Ying asked, typing out the command Adam had just given.

(BODY) (I) This is just a test page (/I) (/BODY)

"Yeah, that's it. Now do the same procedures in order to see the alterations you've made."

_- This is just a test page – _

"It's italicized," Liu Ying said. She beamed at the gray-eyed boy. Suddenly, the girl's hand shot up in front of her face, just in time to cover a yawn. "You made this interesting, Adam. I didn't quite understand when Jack…Mr. Chan, gave us the instructions, but with you, making a website doesn't seem to be too hard at all," she said with a slightly muffled voice. Then she realized how it must have looked like to the boy, and frowned a little. Another untimely yawn ensued and she quickly gave Adam an apologetic look.

Adam pretended to look puzzled. "Now that's an oxymoron…saying that this is interesting and yet, yawning _twice_. I'm not that boring, am I?"

"No!" Liu Ying said quickly, as if scandalized by the thought that she was bored. "It's just that, I'm so tired. After yesterday…" she added with a whisper audible only to Adam, her eyes looking at the one sitting on Adam's other side.

Granted, the teen sitting beside Adam didn't seem to be paying them any attention at all. He was preoccupied with his handphone, seemingly absorbed playing with the game inside the phone. Connected to his cell phone was an earphone set, which the dirty-blond teen had on both ears. Faint rock music could be heard escaping the earphones. Clad in a slightly drenched white shirt with the emerald-colored school insignia emblazoned over the left chest side, and knee-length black Bermuda shorts, he seemed to realize that he was being watched by Adam and Liu Ying, and raised his head up, revealing a chiseled face and a pair of hazel eyes.

"What?" J.D. Kamaruzaman demanded, unplugging one earphone from his right ear.

"Nothing," Adam said quickly and returned his attention towards the computer screen. However, Liu Ying's face remained fixed towards the blond teen.

"Aren't you going to watch or hear him teach HTML?" she snapped. "It's today's assignment."

"No need," J.D. said smugly. "I have FrontPage at home."

"So what are you doing here in the first place?" Liu Ying demanded. "_We…_" she indicated herself and Adam, "…could use some _free_ space around here."

J.D. shrugged. "I'm here for the attendance, what else?" He placed the earphone back on his free ear and leaned against the chair. He grinned once again upon seeing Liu Ying scowling at him. Pressing a button on his handphone, the loud music which escaped the earpieces gradually decreased. "Besides, the music's actually low enough for me to hear what he's been talking about."

"You call _that_ low?" Liu Ying asked skeptically. "You might as well put yourself beside an airplane's engine."

"And…" J.D. continued, ignoring what Liu Ying had just said, and held up his black and orange cell phone. On the small colored screen there were the same instructions which Adam was teaching Liu Ying. The example sentences however was different – instead of the one Adam and Liu Ying were using, they were simply the two letters of his initials, the letter 'J' and 'D'. One was a plain text version, the second was bolded, and the third was italicized. Seeing the disgruntled look on Liu Ying's face, the Form Three student smiled lopsidedly.

"Oh," Adam said. "Why don't you just practice here with us?" he offered, ignoring the pointed look Liu Ying was giving him.

J.D. chuckled and typed something on his keyboard rapidly. Then he held up the cell phone and smiled haughtily, as Adam observed what he had just written. Whatever it was, Adam seemed to be somewhat rattled, and with a slight scowl he returned his attention towards the screen, with Liu Ying looking at him questioningly. Then, after seeing the look on Adam's face, she glared at the blond boy, who looked as if he didn't care.

As he continued to give more instructions to his fellow DigiWira partner, Adam cast a look at the computer table across the one he and Liu Ying were using, seeing Gayathri and her partner, Emmanuel Abah, watching them. Gayathri looked somewhat amused with the small commotion, making a grimacing face while at it, while Manny merely smiled at both of them before averting his eyes away when J.D. looked up from the cell phone. Adam then continued giving Liu Ying more instructions of basic HTML knowledge for the next ten minutes before the school bell rang.

Liu Ying rose up from her chair immediately and stalked towards the instructor's table. Adam had to smile upon seeing that; Liu Ying certainly didn't seem to want to waste time in informing Jackie of the recent happenings at the Digital World just as the other students cleared out of the classroom. A few students remained in the classroom, presumably to finish up their assignments before calling it a day. Adam saw Gayathri and Manny both stood up, and the pretty girl told something towards the russet-eyed boy – presumably an excuse for him to go along while she remained in the computer classroom. Looking at his side, to Adam's surprise, J.D. was still there; he'd assumed that J.D. would be the first one to step out of the computer room.

The DigiWira watched with mild interest as the other boy stood up and went towards the unoccupied computer two tables away from Adam after giving the near-empty classroom a good look around. The table beside Adam's was also empty, but apparently whatever J.D. was doing, he certainly didn't want anybody else around him to notice. Adam could easily hazard a guess that J.D. was surfing the web, from the way he was typing the keyboard and tapping on the mouse. Then he pressed the buttons on his keyboard, and typed a sequence of numbers and letters on the keyboard, occasionally shifting his attention back and forth between the keyboard and the computer screen.

However, before the blond could proceed with what he was doing, a voice called out to him.

"Joshua! What are you doing?" Mr. Jackie Chan, the computer instructor, demanded.

J.D. immediately closed the window and stood up. "Nothing," he said irritably. "Can't a guy check his e-mail in peace?" he grumbled, and stalked out wordlessly from the computer classroom along with the rest of the students, save for three in particular. With J.D. now gone, the classroom was almost empty, except for Adam, Liu Ying, Gayathri and the computer instructor.

"Adam, please make sure that whatever he's opened on that computer…if it's still running, shut it down and log the computer off," Jackie instructed with a sigh.

"I'm on it."

Darting towards the computer, Adam saw nothing peculiar. There was the usual _Windows XP_ background and several shortcut icons. Looking down at the right and bottom side of the computer screen, Adam saw a yellow smiley face icon, recognizing it as an opened instant messaging program. The boy realized that J.D. must have forgotten to close the program properly in his haste to get out of the classroom. Adam clicked on the icon, intending to close the program properly when a chat box popped out.

_Happy 16th Birthday, J.D.! _

_It's his birthday today?_ Adam wondered, eyeing the message that followed the birthday wish. It was a string of words wishing the recipient the best of everything and more, and finally signed with a nickname that could only belong to a girl who was trying to sound very cute. Adam had to smile – this girl, whoever she was, sounded really like a love-struck girl; Adam doubted that J.D. even knew this girl personally. His eyes then darted towards the lower left side of the monitor and saw that while J.D. had closed the window he was viewing before Jackie called him; another window was still left opened. Clicking on it, Adam was brought to a page where he was familiar with, but didn't participate. Adam was about to close the webpage too, when something on the webpage caught his attention.

_Hakim? _The dark-haired boy wondered, clicking on a small picture of the boy, which was with five picture boxes on the webpage's right corner. He was brought quickly into another webpage, bearing a picture of his best friend and a brief profile. _I didn't know that Hakim _knows_ J.D.? _

His mind was brought back to the brief meeting he had with Hakim before going to the Computer Club's meeting. _Well, it's a meeting if you count watching from afar as meeting,_ the boy mused wistfully. Adam had attempted to find Hakim much earlier at the scout's meeting, but the scout leader had informed him that Hakim had signed out from the society. The scout-leader however didn't manage to give out the reason of Hakim's quitting the scout team as a teacher had called for his help, and he was forced to go. Adam then had wondered about the school when he saw Hakim at the badminton court. He was dressed normally, and had just finished a game of badminton with a group of students who didn't join any uniformed societies.

_Hakim had been acting strange_, Adam thought, but today, as he watched his friend from a corner, his friend seemed to be almost normal. _Well, normal if counted out the fact that he had dropped out from the scout's society, and as far as I know Hakim loves being a scout – he's been one since primary school. I wonder why he quits, _Adam thought as he browsed the webpage. Adam didn't have an account yet with the renowned website, so he didn't expect to find his picture there. _Well, I suppose it's not so strange after all if Hakim has J.D. as a friend here; you can add virtually anybody as your friend here, even though you don't know that person in real life._

Two more chat box windows then popped out, and more birthday wishes for J.D. came out in strings of colorful, curvy fonts. The wishes however disrupted Adam's train of thoughts, and he realized that he had spent more time than he ought to just to shut down the computer. Deciding that he had pried long enough, Adam decided to do him a favor and properly logged J.D. out of the website and the instant messaging client after taking note of the username. J.D. probably didn't even realize that these messages came to him, so Adam thought that he'd just drop a message to J.D. later to tell him to check his saved messages. He made a mental note to check out the website as well, whenever he had the time. The boy finally logged off the computer and went to join his teammates who were just finished regaling the story of how they received their special powers to their computer instructor.

"What was so interesting on that computer that it took you so long to log it off?" Liu Ying asked curiously as Adam took a seat beside her.

"Nothing much," Adam replied. "Just properly logging out of the website and the chatting client that J.D. was using earlier," he added casually.

"Nu-uh. I saw you browsing through a _MySpace_ page and using the _Yahoo Messenger_," Gayathri pointed out.

_Sharp girl,_ Adam thought as he shook his head. "They weren't mine, and like I've said just now, I was only logging out from J.D.'s MySpace page and Yahoo account," he explained. Something then crossed his mind and he decided to share it with his teammates. "Hey, did you guys know that it's his _sixteenth_ birthday today?"

"Adam, you don't even _know_ that guy," Liu Ying pointed out indifferently. "Why should you care? I know I don't. It can be his _sixtieth _birthday and I still won't care."

"Wait a minute. He's sixteen? I thought he's _fifteen_?" Gayathri interrupted interestedly.

"That's what I thought. Being a Form Three student, I thought he's fifteen like any other Form Three students," Adam said. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Although, if you ask me, he can say that he's eighteen and I'll still believe him."

"Well, that's not usually the case. Take Liu Ying here; she's in Form Two and she's entering fifteen before the school year ends," Gayathri explained. Suddenly her brown eyes widened and she immediately covered her mouth. "Oops! Sorry!" she said and gave Liu Ying an apologetic look. The other girl in the meantime was glaring and scowling at the dark-skinned girl at the same time. Adam didn't look too surprised upon hearing it, but still he looked at Liu Ying inquiringly.

"Let me guess…you were in vernacular primary school before?" he attempted.

"Yes, and that's not the point," Liu Ying said, shooting an annoyed look to the other female DigiWira, who looked like she was sincerely sorry, as if she had just mentioned something that she wasn't supposed to. The taller girl nodded slightly, signaling that she was cool with it, to Gayathri's relief. "Enough about ages and whatever, we have other important issues to address."

"Right'O, big sis," Adam said cheekily. Gayathri chuckled upon hearing it but immediately, but hopelessly, turned it into a fake cough. Liu Ying gave Adam a scowl which Adam had seen her giving J.D. earlier and was rather thankful that the DigiWira couldn't access their special powers while in their home world, or else he would be hurled onto the wall already by Liu Ying's new telekinetic powers.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

"Speaking of urgent," Jackie noted, upon hearing the beeps coming from the DigiWira's D-Terminals. "Looks like you're needed in the Digital World."

Gayathri groaned. "Do we have to? I'm still tired from yesterday's fight…" she complained, but headed towards the door leading to Jackie's office. Opening it, Patamon flew out, followed by Shaomon and Tanemon who trotted along the rookie's back. "I thought we're just going to practice with our new powers…"

"No…No…None of that," Liu Ying said warningly to the other girl, who was beginning to launch out a string of complains out of tiredness. She collected Shaomon, who as usual, was chewing on a banana fritter, and placed Tanemon on Gayathri's arms while Patamon landed on Adam's head. "I'm tired too, but you don't hear me complain."

"It's not just Gayathri," Shaomon said. "I'm still rather exhausted from yesterday's battle myself. I do not know whether I can Digivolve into Youkomon."

"Same here," Tanemon said tiredly. "I don't even know whether I can Digivolve to Floramon. How about you, Patamon?"

"Drained," the orange rookie said worriedly. "No way can I become Sagittarimon, that's for sure. I hope it's nothing too serious at the Digital World."

Gayathri grimaced and turned to the male DigiWira. "Well, leader, do the honors."

"Thought you'd never ask," Adam murmured, and took out his silvery white and azure-accented D3 Digivice. "Digiport Open!"

xxx

xxx

"If we aren't going to attack them today, then _why_ are we here exactly?"

"You'll see. But right now, we're here to see how far the DigiWira have mastered their new powers."

"_Just to see? _I'm not wasting my time sight-seeing!"

"Patient, Red, _be_ patient. We certainly don't want to get thrown away again by Yellow's telekinetic power, or let White escapes us with his teleportation power, or let Pink slips past us with her remarkable speed."

"What's the big deal, Blue? Before they could even lift their hands, I'd burn them with my fire!"

"_You_ can go attack the DigiWira if you want, but _I_ am going to remain here for now and analyze their skills."

"For now?" the Red ShadoWira questioned, with interest.

"For now," the Blue ShadoWira said mildly.

"Oh, and why's that?"

"You'll see."

xxx

xxx

Loud, echoing wails could be heard all over the once-beautiful Green Meadow Village. Digimon were seen running about in panic, screaming for their safety. Over the sky above, six avian warriors identical in form and color, save for one, could be seen flying in circles as they released a blast of hypersonic sound all over the village. The blast of sound uprooted trees from the grounds and destroyed many wooden huts in the village, as well as sending many innocent Digimon flying about. Once in a while, the villagers who were able to take flight, such as a flock of peaceful-looking swans were seen trying to save their friends, but the vicious avian warriors immediately attacked the swans instead, and deleted them without mercy.

"The Swanmon!" shouted a Centarumon. He aimed a cannon which was attached to his arm, and his eyes – hidden inside the metallic helmet he was wearing – glinted crimson. "You'll pay for that, wretched Harpymon! _Hunting Cannon!"_

A blast of pure energy cannonball erupted from the cannon, sailing all the way towards one of the Harpymon – the one who was different from the other five. While the other Harpymon were purple-feathered, the one targeted by Centarumon was white-feathered, thus making it an easy target. The avian warrior saw the incoming attack and immediately made a back-flip, evading the attack. Its eyes glinted with blood red light as it prepared for a retaliating counterattack.

"_Wind Seeker!"_

Centarumon immediately made haste, but the white Harpymon's blast of hypersonic shriek caught up with his palomino body. His legs lost their balance and limped, followed by his horse-like body. The brown centaur quickly attempted to stand back up on his feet once again, only to be attacked by a purple Harpymon. Another wave of shriek hit him squarely on the chest and his body emitted faint yellow light. Everything around him suddenly seemed to be bigger, and his body felt lighter and lighter. A second attack came and almost collided with him, but to his disbelief, the attack suddenly seemed to be pushed away by an unseen force.

"Gabumon!"

Centarumon wondered why someone had called out to him by his rookie-level name when he realized that…he was a rookie Digimon now. No longer a centaur, he was now a yellow-scaled reptilian draped in blue canine fur-coat. Turning his head sideways, he saw one boy and two girls at the village's gate; one girl was thrusting her arm forward while the other was helping the villagers clearing out the village. To his amazement he saw the curly-haired girl zipped towards a couple of Palmon in a flash-like speed, with pink aura lines emitted from her body, and successfully pushed the two plant-reptile rookies out of a Harpymon's attack. His eyes searched for the one who had called out to him earlier, and they fell on an orange hamster that was hovering in front of the boy with dark hair, blowing away anything that came their way. He watched in shock as the boy grabbed the hamster and together they vanished in brilliant orbs of bluish white light, and within a split second they materialized right in front of him. His mouth hung open in surprise.

"Patamon," he noted, recognizing the rookie form of the former leader of the village instantly.

"Gabumon, you're hurt," Patamon said as he hovered down from the human boy's hold. The rookie then looked up to the human boy inquiringly. "Adam, do you think you can…?"

"I can try," Gabumon watched the boy said after a moment of hesitation. "I can teleport with you alone, but remember that I couldn't even teleport out of the Forest Sanctum with the girls earlier," he said glumly, and held his palm on Gabumon's blue pelt, while the other palm landed on Patamon's back. The boy then closed his eyes, seemingly trying to concentrate onto something. Then the reptilian rookie noticed that orbs of light began to surround the boy, before enveloping Patamon, and finally as the boy and the rookie vanished, the orbs extended slowly to envelop Gabumon as well, and he too, dematerialized out of sight just as a Harpymon swoop down from the sky to grab hold onto them.

The DigiWira and the two Digimon then reappeared behind the other two DigiWira, and Gabumon saw that the boy staggered a little, holding one hand onto the village's bamboo gates.

"Are you alright?" Gabumon asked concernedly, trying to search his memory for the boy's name. Patamon had told him that before he passed on the torch of being the village's leader to him two weeks before. "Adam?" he finally managed to recall.

"I'm ok," Adam answered, and stood still. "Still need to get used to this teleportation stuff, that's all."

"Adam, there's a Digimon near the tree there, it looks like she couldn't escape and Gayathri's somewhere around the village, trying to look for any Digimon who needs help escaping," the long-haired girl near them said quickly. "Do you think you can get to him? I'll distract the Harpymon," she said further and flicked her arm towards several wood planks that had been walls of a ruined hut. The planks flew away towards one Harpymon, whom Gabumon saw was about to attack a cowering bear cub Digimon.

"I'm on it," Adam said, and vanished again in a shower of light orbs. The planks shoved telekinetically by Liu Ying came into contact with the Harpymon and it shrieked in anger. It turned its attention towards Liu Ying and the two rookies, and began to charge towards them. Liu Ying saw a streak of pink crossed the Harpymon's back and saw Adam reappearing behind the Harpymon, right just behind the Bearmon. Then with a thumbs-up, Adam held Bearmon's paw and together they vanished, and Liu Ying took the chance to throw away another few planks and a group of pebbles towards the Harpymon. Couple of seconds later, Adam and Bearmon reappeared behind Liu Ying, and not too long after, Gayathri too halted close to her teammates with a cute puppy in her arms. The three DigiWira observed as the Harpymon easily swiped away the incoming wooden planks and pebbles that came its way.

"Bearmon, Salamon, you're alright!" Gabumon exclaimed, relieved.

"Gabumon, take them away now," Patamon instructed. "We'll handle the Harpymon."

Gabumon took heed of the former leader's order and immediately exited the village under siege with the other two rookies. The three DigiWira and Patamon then braced themselves against the six Harpymon – five of them purple and one white. All six had their sights fixed on the three teenagers and one Digimon.

"Ok, any strategy?" Adam, who was standing in the middle, whispered to his teammates.

"I absolutely have no idea," Gayathri replied promptly. "Now that we've got the remaining villagers out of the way, I don't know what else I could do."

Liu Ying thought of their chances silently. She knew that power and strength-wise, they still couldn't be compared to the Harpymon, but perhaps they could outsmart them with wits and good strategies. They could protect themselves fairly but only Liu Ying could deliver a half-decent attack on the Harpymon. And Patamon, still weakened due to his injury sustained during the battle at the Megalith Coliseum the day before, couldn't Digivolve into his strong Armored Champion form. Shaomon and Tanemon in the meantime were still too drained that they remained un-Digivolved, watched over by the worried TobuCatmon at the Forest Sanctum.

"We can't fight the Harpymon while they're together, so _we_ need to split up," Liu Ying finally said.

"I think you're right," Adam concurred. He gulped slightly, but his face was set with determination.

"I think you're _crazy!_" Gayathri said incredulously. "Haven't you heard of the phrase _Together We Stand_?" She sweatdropped when Liu Ying walked speedily towards the direction of the ruined village houses, arms ready in case she was being attacked. Adam stalked towards the opposite direction with Patamon following him closely, and Gayathri sweatdropped even more upon seeing that Adam had picked up a fair-sized wooden stick and swung it twice before bearing a satisfied smile on his face. He then vanished with Patamon in swirls of white orbs. "Apparently not," Gayathri muttered to herself and be on her fullest guard.

The Harpymon saw that the DigiWira had split up and they too, decided to do the same. They split into three groups of two, and each group went after one DigiWira. The white Harpymon and its purple teammate remained on their place while the other two groups took flight and went towards the girls.

"Hey, ugly!" called out Adam's voice as the voice-owner appeared right behind of a purple Harpymon. The boy immediately used the thick wood stick he was holding and delivered a loud, audible smack on the Harpymon's back, before teleporting away to safety. The avian warrior squawked loudly and turned away, but all it could see was faint traces of Adam's teleportation after-effects. It angrily swiped the particles with its wings; his action attracted the attention of the white Harpymon, who began observing its purple companion warily. It braced itself upon seeing the glowing orbs of light began materializing behind the purple Harpymon, and delivered a flurry of sharp feathery bullets in an attempt to strike the offending DigiWira.

"Adam, look out behind you!" cried Patamon's voice, which seemed to be coming from above a nearby tree.

"Huh?" Adam had just finished his teleportation sequence and barely could turn his head back when his ears caught the swift sounds of projectiles heading his way. Panicked, he quickly willed himself to teleport away from the impending danger, and felt some of the feather projectiles grazing his shoulders, arms and body as the light orbs surrounded his body. The boy vanished out of sight just as the projectiles sailed past the spot where he was standing, and reappeared at the same spot just in time to witness the projectiles hitting the purple Harpymon on the back. The victim Harpymon shrieked agonizingly before exploding into data particles.

"One…down," Adam whispered with a pained smile before he collapsed onto the ground. Faint trickles of blood were seen seeping through his light gray uniform, over the arms, shoulders and right waist. He was still conscious, but the white Harpymon's attack had injured him. The injuries were nowhere fatal, but they caused Adam pain and he had never felt such physical pain before, nor had he ever sustained such injuries during his lifetime.

"ADAM!" Patamon yelled and jumped down from the tree where he was hiding, immediately coming to his partner's aid. In his mind, he didn't even care that he was in danger of being attacked by the other Harpymon; his mind was simply set to protect his fallen DigiWira partner. Suddenly, as if sensing his need, a white streak of light then shot out from Adam's D3 Digivice and hit him, supplying the rookie Digimon with enough power for one Digivolution process.

"**_Patamon… Digivolve to…. CENTARUMON!"_**

"Huh?" Adam blinked weakly, surprised by the Digivolution of his partner. "Centarumon?"

Patamon, now Digivolved to his former champion form, was extremely agitated about his human partner's safety that he couldn't care less about the difference of his own form. He landed on all fours just a meter away from his sprawled human partner. Quickly he made way to Adam and picked him up, holding him close to his body before galloping away to safety. The white Harpymon didn't give chase; it was warily watching Centarumon, who as a Champion Digimon was able to present it a challenge.

"Patamon…Centarumon…how?" Adam asked, as Centarumon placed him gently behind a large stone, just a few meters from the village's gate.

Centarumon simply shook his head and set his sights on the white Harpymon who had caused his human partner pain. His upper body shook in anger and Adam felt a pulsating throb coming from his vibrating D3. A shriek coming from the inner side of the village then caught his ear. It was familiar, but Adam couldn't decide whether it belonged to Liu Ying or Gayathri. But apparently, Centarumon didn't hear it as his attention was solely fixed onto the white Harpymon. Adam grew worried as he watched his partner, for the first time, seemed to be _caught up_ in anger.

"You've injured Adam…" Centarumon muttered darkly towards the white Harpymon. A crimson flash came out from the helmet visor he was wearing. "Unforgivable…"

"Centarumon…" he said slowly; the throbbing suddenly became more intense. "Centarumon? Centarumon!" Adam called urgently, when his partner didn't answer his first call. "CENTARUMON!"

"Huh?" Adam's shout finally snapped Centarumon out of his thirst to avenge his fallen human partner. The crimson glow within his visor disappeared, replaced by the normal beige hue. The brown centaur gasped loudly, and turned away from the white Harpymon to focus on his human partner. He stopped shaking and felt his anger slowly dissipating. His mind became clearer as he finally was able to fix a gaze on his human partner, who looked absolutely troubled and in pain. The boy's hand was clutching his D3 Digivice, which seemed to just have stopped shaking.

"Centarumon," Adam said again, this time in relief. "Forget about that Harpymon…I'm fine, but Gayathri and Liu Ying need your help. Go help them, I'll be ok here."

"But…are you sure you're going to be alright here?" Centarumon asked worriedly.

Adam rolled his eyes weakly. "I can just _teleport_ away if that Harpymon approaches me, you know," he said, making a motion with his arm to emphasize his point. "Go."

Centarumon hesitated for a moment before one of the blue spheres on his body glimmered, and the sphere affixed on his chest rolled out, leaving an empty spherical compartment on his chest. The half-man, half-palomino caught the blue sphere gingerly with his hand, and held it to Adam.

"Take this, Adam. If that Harpymon tries anything, just throw this at it."

"What does it do?"

"Enough to tell me that you're in trouble."

With that said, Centarumon galloped away before Adam could ask him of what the sphere could do.

xxx

xxx

"Out with it, Blue. What's the deal? Why are we here exactly?"

"You just can't wait now, can you?"

"Not when I know there's something more that I should know."

"Then you should've come to the cave earlier. I was early and saw the conversation between Karatenmon and the master himself."

"Oh? What does ol' bag-of-bones want?"

"If he hears you speak of him like that…"

"So what? I'm not afraid of him. And he's stuck in that barrier-thing. Now tell me, what should I know?"

The Blue ShadoWira chuckled darkly. "What if I tell you that the Harpymon are merely a distraction to split up the DigiWira?"

xxx

xxx

In the meantime, Gayathri was running at top speed in order to avoid the attacks from the two purple Harpymon who were giving chase to her. Acting solely by instinct, she just ran and ran, occasionally and narrowly avoiding the hypersonic beams generated by the Harpymon. The curly-haired girl couldn't figure out what her super speed could do towards the Harpymon, so she just kept on running to save her own life.

It was lucky for the DigiWira girl that her super speed had so far served her well in avoiding the Harpymon. The Armor Digimon were fairly swift while flying, but aided with a power coming from one of the fastest Digimon known who was also the master of air, Gayathri still had the advantage. But she also realized that her speed of the winds ability still was fairly limited; she was beginning to feel tired and her speed was slowly decreasing. Gayathri had been running around the village for almost fifteen minutes, nearly non-stop, which would explain her sudden weariness. And to make matters worse, even though her speed wasn't decreasing she still would need to stop, as a weird sensation arose from within her body. It was as if her windpipe was expanding, as her chest throbbed slightly. It wasn't painful, but it was distracting and somewhat irritating to the dark-skinned girl.

_This way, the Harpymon could catch up with me!_ Gayathri thought in panic. Her eyes began to search for any means to escape the Harpymon. _I need to get out of this village and hide!_

A bamboo gate came in view, and Gayathri saw an exit from the village. Behind the village was a lush green forest with exotic trees, which reminded her of the forests surrounding the Forest Sanctum. Summoning her remaining energy Gayathri sped towards the exit and into lush forest. Hearing the shrieks of the Harpymon Gayathri didn't hesitate and quickly jumped into a thick green bush…only to hit her head against something which was soft, and had the ability to _yelp._

"AACK!"

"AAH!" Gayathri gasped loudly, but her cries were muffled as her head was stuck inside the bush.

"Get out of there!" hissed an indignant high-pitched voice, faintly masculine and sounded extremely embarrassed.

The DigiWira wiggled her head free and pulled herself out from the thick bush. She then felt the bush moving, and gasped upon seeing that the bush was actually _attached_ into the back of an avian creature with blue feathers, which looked like a distinct hybrid between a penguin and a bird. He had large brown eyes and was wearing a shining, small crown on his head. The height of the bird was as tall as a kneeling Gayathri, and he looked extremely miffed.

"What are you, a pervert or something?" the bird inquired soundly, with exaggerated wiggling of his body as he flapped his wings about. He was clearly blushing.

"Oops, I'm sorry," Gayathri apologized quickly. She caught her breath slowly, and the pain in her chest slowly faded. Then she realized that she didn't know this Digimon. "Uhh…?"

"Deramon's the name, and hiding's my game," the bird answered quickly with a dawdling manner. His eyes widened upon hearing the shrieks of the Harpymon. "Well hun, I'd love to stay and chat, but with those harpies around here it's best to make like a banana…and _split_." The bird-plant Digimon then tottered away noisily, still with a slightly exaggerating, unnecessary manner, and Gayathri sweatdropped upon seeing that Deramon didn't really move far away. He stopped just behind a tree with thick trunk, and bent his body down while raising his backside up. From where Gayathri was standing, Deramon didn't look more than just a normal bulky shrub.

Suddenly the purple Harpymon came in view and squawked triumphantly upon finding Gayathri. The throbbing inside her chest came back and she was weary from all the running. The girl tumbled on her back as the Harpymon approached her slowly. Raising her body back slightly using her hand, the girl didn't know what else to do.

She just closed her eyes tight, and let out a scream. An extremely _earsplitting, high-pitched, _scream.

xxx

xxx

The Red ShadoWira chortled loudly and derisively upon hearing what the Blue ShadoWira had just said. "Hah! What you've seen was merely a reminder from SkullSatamon to Karatenmon. Tsk, tsk, Blue… I was at the cave _last night_, and I saw the whole conversation! And I bet Karatenmon didn't even _know_ I was there."

"Hmmm. Then why were you so persistent in asking?"

"Heh. It's fun to see you being high and mighty over a piece of worthless info. Just remember, Blue, that unlike you, I have no restrictions! I can come here anytime and no one would ask anything. Unlike you…heh, heh," said the Red ShadoWira arrogantly.

"Whatever," the Blue ShadoWira snorted coldly. "So you do know what we're supposed to do, right?"

"Just leave it to me. I can get the job done easily."

"I doubt it. He's already escaped you twice."

"Says the one who couldn't even attack him when you two met yesterday."

"I was injured."

"Thanks to the Yellow DigiWira," the Red ShadoWira snickered.

The Blue ShadoWira remained quiet, not interested to let the conversation stray even further. He cleared his throat and spoke again. "What if he sees you? Admit it, Red. You can't do this alone. The moment the White DigiWira sees you, he'll teleport away to his partner."

"Fine. You win. So what are _we_ going to do?"

"Well, if you want to get the White DigiWira so badly, then go. Leave the distraction to me, I'll make it easier for you to grab him and take off."

"It'll be like taking candy from a baby."

"Really? Well, we'll just have to wait and see now won't we?"

xxx

xxx

Amongst the three DigiWira, Liu Ying had the best fighting chance with her telekinetic power. Despite having the power just the day before, the girl was growing more and more adept in using her power. The willowy female DigiWira found out that she could throw various objects, up to those nearing her own weight, to her opponents with a mere flick of her hand or arm, although for the time being she couldn't control her power to retrieve simple objects. Right now, that suited her just fine, she thought, as she flicked her right arm over and over again towards anything around her which would stop the pursuing Harpymon. Stones, wooden planks, even small uprooted trees, she had thrown it all…but there was no stopping the two Harpymon from attempting to harm her.

And so far, she had managed to not get herself injured. But she didn't know for how much longer she could do this.

Whenever the Harpymon attacked, Liu Ying realized that she could either throw an object to stop it, or if that wasn't possible she could hold her hand up to stop the incoming attack. The latter option seemed to work by generating an invisible energy barrier in front of her. The barrier was somewhat effective; it had deflected the Blue ShadoWira's water blast attack the day before, and today, it seemed to work in _absorbing_ the supersonic sound waves generated by the Harpymon. However, effective as it might be, the senior DigiWira preferred to just throw an object to intercept the incoming attack, because shielding herself from the attack caused a feeling of numbness and a burning sensation to her arms, and Liu Ying thought that it would just hinder her from defending herself against the enemies.

_But no matter what I do, I just can't stop them from coming,_ Liu Ying thought desperately as she flicked her arm towards a metallic oval tray that flew out from a collapsing hut. The tray changed course and zoomed towards a Harpymon, who saw it and swiped the tray away with its wing. However it seemed that the edges of the tray was rather sharp, as while swiping away the tray the avian warrior shrieked painfully. A straight line of cut was seen on its purple-feathered wings, and liquefied data leaked out from it. The avian warrior looked up towards the DigiWira with malice, and with a loud wail it soared towards the sky, before plummeting down towards her.

"Oh great, now I've ticked it off," Liu Ying muttered.

She grunted and swung her arm as forcefully as she could muster. Her effort caused the Harpymon to stagger while in midair, but the creature regained its balance immediately and resumed its earlier intention. The DigiWira looked around desperately for anything to throw towards the Harpymon, who was beginning to open its mouth. Liu Ying knew what was about to come, and since forcing the avian warrior away telekinetically didn't seem to work she had to resort in blocking the incoming sound wave attack. At close range, one arm won't going to be enough so Liu Ying immediately rose up both arms, and felt the barrier generating from her palms. The faint sounds of chimes which came out of nowhere confirmed it.

The Harpymon's attack collided with the barrier put up by the girl, and Liu Ying let out a scream as she was pushed down by the sheer force of the Harpymon's attack. Her boots buried into the earth, rendering her immobilized. There was nowhere to run with her feet sunk into the ground. The Harpymon hovered ten meters away from where Liu Ying was standing, screaming its lung out without the intention to stop anytime soon. Soon, Liu Ying felt her arms became warmer as they began to vibrate wildly. Liu Ying screamed – it felt as if her arms were going to be detached from the sockets of her shoulder joints. Yellow aura began to emit from her arms and enveloped her body, pulling her backward without her consent before thrusting her body forward. The warmness and the numbness she was feeling on her arms suddenly evaporated as a glittering yellow energy wave was blasted onto the Harpymon, hitting it all over its body. For a moment it hovered in midair, looking like it had the wind knocked out from its body before limping spinelessly. It then plummeted towards the ground and crash-landed with a loud explosion.

"Did I…did I do that?" Liu Ying whispered in disbelief, as her knees buckled. She felt completely drained and collapsed onto the ground. The last thing she saw was a visage of Centarumon jumping in front of her, with his cannon raised up, before her vision began to blur into blackness. The centaur was saying something to her, but Liu Ying didn't hear anything. Her head was heavy, and she felt like lying down and close her eyes to will the pain away.

xxx

xxx

Tired and battered, Adam's half-closed eyes shot up upon hearing an ear-splitting scream coming from the farthest back area of the village, which was a thick forest. He'd first thought that the scream belonged to the Harpymon, but noticed that it sounded oddly familiar. This was followed by several faint squawks, which no doubt belonged to the Harpymon. Then from the corner of the village, Adam heard a loud chiming sound and a glowing yellow wave soaring towards the sky before dissipating into data particles. This was ensued by a faint, defeated squawk.

"What's going on?" he wondered, fingering the sphere given by Centarumon anxiously. "I hope the girls are ok."

Suddenly, Adam noticed that from outside the Green Meadow Village's gate, mists began to form. He looked up and saw the clear sky; there was no sign of the dark clouds which would cause any rain. Yet the mists, oddly cool and mysterious, seemed to be approaching the village. It began as faint fogs, but thickened as it reached Adam. Adam could feel his skin dampened when the mists made contact with his face and hands, and felt a slight twinge of pain over the places where he was cut by the Harpymon's feathery projectiles. It caused him to flinch inwardly, but mists on a clear day were strange and Adam focused his attention on that to prevent himself into thinking about the pain he was feeling.

"Odd," Adam said, beginning to notice something peculiar about the mists. The mists seemed to be focused around him, circling around him and obscuring his vision. He could no longer see the Green Meadow Village clearly. All around him was whiteness, which was beginning to unnerve him.

Faint sounds of footsteps were suddenly heard coming from his back, and in reflex, the dark-haired boy turned around. He thought he saw a shadow darting within the mists – something human-shaped, black, and…wait a minute, _blue_? However before Adam could identify the shadow even further, it vanished just as soon as it appeared. The bearer of the White DigiSphere began to realize that the mists weren't natural, and readied to teleport himself away.

"Oh no, you don't! You're not going to get away so easily!"

The rough voice was all too familiar for Adam, but before he could even initiate his teleportation power, an arm enveloped around his waist and Adam was pulled back towards a taller presence behind him. Before he could register what was going on, another hand shot across his right cheek, and cupped his mouth and nose tight. For a moment Adam struggled to break free, but his nose, desperate for air, detected a strange smell permeated from the leather-gloved hand. The smell was neither good nor foul, but was very strong, causing Adam to become dizzy instantly. A feeling of cloudiness invaded his mind and he was beginning to lose his sense of balance. The world seemed to be spinning around him and his eyelids suddenly felt heavy. He then felt as if his body was hoisted up and placed onto the shoulder of the one who had seized him. Feeling that he was losing his consciousness rapidly, Adam let down his hand and released the sphere he was holding as his eyelids began to droop down.

The last thing he heard before everything became dark was a very familiar laugh, sinister and loud, coming from the person who was carrying him. The laughter was eerily familiar; Adam had heard it just the day before. But in his current state of mind it was difficult for the DigiWira to place the voice with the owner. Before closing his eyes completely, the boy finally registered the voice, but it was already too late. There was nothing he could do; he couldn't even access his power anymore. Everything suddenly became very still and black.

"Sleep tight…Adam."


	12. Light Amidst Shadow

The sound of the crickets and the calm fountain water, coupled with a conversation between TobuCatmon and Gayathri, was what Liu Ying heard first as she opened her eyes slowly. The girl winced as the light invaded her eyes, and immediately flung her hand in front of her face to block it. A loud crash ensued and Liu Ying's body jerked slightly upwards. Instantly the conversation she was hearing died out, and she tentatively lowered her arm. Carefully, she opened her eyes slowly, glad that her eyes were adjusting to the brightness of the Forest Sanctum.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," Gayathri said, but Liu Ying noticed hollowness in her voice. Her expressive eyes were reflecting something which looked like…_anxiety? _Realizing that the raven-haired girl was observing her eyes, she averted her eyes onto a half-broken chair, which lay atop the roots of a tree growing just around the corner of the sanctum. No doubt, that was the stool which Liu Ying had inadvertently threw with a flick of her hand while she was waking up.

"How long was I out?" Liu Ying asked as she massaged her temple. It ached, but it was nothing serious.

The curly-haired DigiWira seemed to be doing a mental calculation before returning her gaze to her teammate. "You were out like light for almost three hours," she replied, and instantly grimaced as a gruff snort was heard coming from somewhere around the corner. Gayathri winced and lowered her gaze. "Pun not intended, really. Sorry, Centarumon."

Confused, Liu Ying looked around the marble-stoned Forest Sanctum, taking in the presence of Gayathri, a very worried TobuCatmon, Floramon and Labramon, and standing at the corner of the Forest Sanctum with his arms crossed against his chest, Centarumon. A flash of memory flooded her mind, of a Centarumon approaching her as she was about to lose consciousness at Green Meadow Village. Then something occurred to her when she noticed that there were one person and one Digimon missing.

"Gayathri…where are Adam and Patamon?"

"That's Patamon," Gayathri answered, pointing towards Centarumon.

"Huh?" Liu Ying returned her gaze towards Centarumon. "But I thought…" she paused, remembering their first encounter with this particular Centarumon. "Oh…" she said, realizing that somehow, Adam's partner had Digivolved into his former Champion mode. They had seen Centarumon during the time when Adam first became a DigiWira. His D3 Digivice and the White DigiSphere had caused Centarumon to unlock a stronger form in Sagittarimon. "But where's Adam?" she asked.

"That's what we all would like to know too," Gayathri said softly. "Adam's missing."

"What? But how?"

Gayathri shook her head worriedly. "I don't know. None of us do…but we do know for sure that Adam didn't go off wandering around on his own, because he was injured by a Harpymon. Centarumon took him to rest by the village's gate, and gave him a sphere from his body. When he returned for Adam, only the sphere was around, lying just inches from the gate."

For a moment, everyone was silent. Gayathri gave out a sigh and hugged her knees to herself. Liu Ying took the time to analyze what Gayathri had informed her.

"Sounds like Adam have been kidnapped," she finally deduced.

"I thought that, too," Gayathri concurred.

"Everyone," TobuCatmon called out. He was floating by the sun staff, which stood erect beside the pentagonal table at the center of the sanctum. Right now, the mystical staff which formerly belonged to the deceased Wizardmon was glowing. "There is something all of you should see. Please observe the sun staff. It's about Adam."

Instantly, the DigiWira girls whipped their attentions towards the sun staff. The smaller Digimon all huddled on the floor, while Centarumon, his attention piqued by the mere mention of his DigiWira partner, leaped from where he was standing, landing merely a few inches away from Floramon and Labramon, who had to jump away to avoid meeting the centaur's formidable hooves. Labramon let out a bark, marking her disapproval, while Floramon narrowed her eyes in annoyance, but Centarumon didn't seem to care.

"Adam!" he said, upon witnessing his partner on the sun staff.

On the staff, Adam was shown, being surrounded by mists which seemed to be concentrated around him. He was looking around, confused, when a caped, hooded figure in black emerged from the mists. The crimson and red outlines of the figure's outfit were instantly recognizable.

"The Red ShadoWira!" both Liu Ying and Gayathri gasped. Centarumon growled in anger, knowing that the Red ShadoWira had attempted on his partner's life twice just the day before.

Everyone watched as the Red ShadoWira seized Adam from the back, and after a brief struggle they saw the boy limped. The Red ShadoWira then hoisted the unconscious wielder of the White DigiSphere on his shoulder as another figure in black outfit with blue and navy accents joined him. The two ShadoWira exchanged a brief conversation before the mists dissipated, and the air near them rippled. The ShadoWira then entered the portal and vanished out of sight. The sun staff too, died out after displaying the disappearance of the male DigiWira.

"Your suspicions are correct," TobuCatmon said worriedly.

"Is this what you're trying to keep from us, TobuCatmon?" Centarumon demanded loudly. Upon seeing TobuCatmon's inquiring eyes, and the confused looks exchanged by the two DigiWira girls, he huffed loudly. "Don't play dumb with me. Adam has confided in me yesterday, saying that you kept on looking at him whenever the subject of special powers, and the reason why you've kept it from the DigiWira, came up. And I've seen the way you intercepted his attempts of asking about it yesterday – I wasn't unconscious like Labramon and Floramon. Is _this_ the reason? Because I can see from the look on your face now that this is what you're so worried about!"

"I've suspected this would happen," TobuCatmon said evenly. "I didn't know for sure."

"Where are those two evil brats are taking Adam?" Centarumon asked. "TobuCatmon, tell me! I have to rescue Adam."

TobuCatmon sighed. "I believe the ShadoWira, being Karatenmon's underlings; have taken Adam to the Black Peak Mountain, located beyond the border of the Shadow Realm and the Recycle Swamp. Inside the Black Peak Mountain lies the Cave of Solitude, where Karatenmon dwells. It was his base of operation three hundred years ago, during the war between Grademon and SkullSatamon. I believe he still considers the dark caverns home."

"I'll go there instantly!" Centarumon declared.

"Centarumon, wait," TobuCatmon instructed. "Do not be rash. You won't be able to save Adam if you act like this. We need a strategy."

"Adam is in danger!" the brown-furred centaur bellowed angrily. "Do you think I'm going to just sit around here, when _my partner_ is probably being tortured by Karatenmon and those two ShadoWira monsters?"

"It will do Adam no good if _you_ ended up getting captured as well," Labramon snapped evenly.

Centarumon was about to retort back to the canine Digimon's remark when their feline mentor intervened.

"Centarumon, please, calm down. I understand your feelings, but we have to plan carefully our strategy in order to successfully rescue Adam. The Cave of Solitude is impregnable, and Karatenmon probably has hordes of those Harpymon guarding its entrance alone. Then there are the ShadoWira and Reichmon to consider."

Centarumon grunted, but realized that TobuCatmon had pointed out a valid reasoning. Grudgingly, he nodded in agreement.

Gayathri snapped her fingers. "Can't Adam teleport out of the caves? He is the one with the power to teleport," she said hopefully.

TobuCatmon shook his head, to the girls' dismay. "It might be possible, but I don't think it's going to be easy. Adam's teleportation power is still fairly limited, as demonstrated earlier when he attempted to teleport to Green Meadow Village with you two, and I believe Karatenmon, being a dark wizard Digimon, has placed many dark enchantments within the caves to render Adam's light-based power useless." Adam had tried to teleport along with Liu Ying and Gayathri to the village, but had found out that not only he couldn't do so but his teleportation skill could not even be initiated when somebody else was holding on to him. Strangely however, he could do so with one or two Digimon. TobuCatmon had deduced that this could be due to the fact that rookie Digimon were smaller in size, as in computer-size, as compared to humans and higher-level Digimon.

"Limited? But both of our powers _evolved_ today," Gayathri pointed out. Liu Ying shot her a confused look, which the girl caught immediately. "While you were sleeping, I talked to TobuCatmon about our powers, because something strange happened earlier when I was almost being attacked by two Harpymon," she explained.

"What happened?"

"Well, I fell, and the Harpymon were going to attack me. I didn't know what else to do, so I just screamed…and screamed…_and screamed!"_

"I'm not sure I get what you mean," Liu Ying said, frowning and wondering why Gayathri was repeating herself.

"Gayathri has developed another special ability," TobuCatmon clarified, and Gayathri beamed. "The _supersonic scream_, to compliment her super speed."

"I screamed so loud, even the Harpymon couldn't stand it…and they are the ones with the screaming powers," Gayathri said excitedly. She was making some movements with her hands as she explained this, emphasizing her delight of the awakening of her new power. "It's a weird power, though, but I like it. An attack power of my own."

"You too, Liu Ying, have developed your telekinetic power today," TobuCatmon pointed out. "But while Gayathri's power evolved in a different way, your power simply grows stronger. Formerly you were able to erect simple energy shield to block an attack, as well as moving objects with your mind. Your power evolves by combining those two abilities into one…the energy shield you have generated gathers power from the attack you are blocking, then deflects the gathered power back towards the offender."

Liu Ying nodded, still weak from the aftermath of the battle she had with the Harpymon. She was happy of the progress her telekinesis power had taken on such short time, but right now, she was too drained to think about it even further. Besides, she was also worried about Adam. Apparently these factors were reflected on her fair face, as TobuCatmon had correctly translated it into his next statement.

"But apparently, using the evolved form of your power seems to drain you greatly, so I advise against using it unless it is really necessary," the feline Digimon cautioned.

"Ok," Liu Ying agreed. "How is it possible for our powers to evolve so quickly? We just got them yesterday," she inquired curiously.

TobuCatmon thought for a moment for an answer. "I believe that your special powers are activated along with the DigiSpheres. You have been a DigiWira for more than six months, which means that your power, while still being bound until yesterday, have already been activated for six months. The same applies to Gayathri, whose power has been active for three months and Adam's for three weeks."

"Does that mean that Adam's power will not evolve anytime soon?" Gayathri asked worriedly. "Cause he'll need it, more than we do, more than ever."

"That may not be the case, Gayathri," TobuCatmon answered. "Your powers evolved due to natural course of time. Remember that the ShadoWira have just appeared as well…I believe the Red and Blue DigiSpheres found their wielders after the White DigiSphere bonded with Adam, because it was during that time too when Karatenmon was released from his entombment. Yet as you can see, the ShadoWira's fire and water powers have reached a fearsome level…probably due to vigorous training Karatenmon has placed upon them."

"So you are saying that the DigiWira's powers evolve in the same manner for Digimon to Digivolve?" Labramon inquired, trying to translate TobuCatmon's explanation into simpler words, for her and Floramon's sake, if not for their human partners. She did so upon seeing a dazed look on Floramon's face.

"Exactly!" TobuCatmon concurred loudly. "Exactly. Labramon is correct. Digimon usually Digivolve naturally after reaching certain power and experience level or aided by the power from their human partners, or during great need, such as when they or their partners are faced with great peril." TobuCatmon gulped slightly as his eyes darted momentarily to Centarumon. "It's also known for Digimon to Digivolve due to rage…but I personally have not seen one," he finished.

"So Adam still has a chance," Gayathri said hopefully. She was glad to see that the feline Digimon nodded his head, agreeing to her statement.

Liu Ying still looked a little bit dazed. "What happened after I passed out? How was the village?"

"Unsalvageable," Centarumon said solemnly. He seemed to have calmed down considerably, after listening to TobuCatmon's explanation. "Those wretched Harpymon…the villagers would have to build a new village from scratch. Luckily we won't be seeing any of those birdbrains for the time being."

"What do you mean?" Liu Ying inquired.

Gayathri gulped as Centarumon huffed. "Well, uh…you nearly deleted one Harpymon today…Centarumon just finished the job for you. The other Harpymon attempted to attack you, but Centarumon took care of that too. I gave two Harpymon a blast of my supersonic screams…they were knocked out but they managed to escape. Then after finding out that Adam is missing… Centarumon deleted another Harpymon as the white one escaped."

Liu Ying shuddered as she looked at Centarumon, finding it difficult for the centaur standing in front of her right now was the same, lovable Patamon she had grown to know for the past three weeks. The apparent danger his partner was facing was driving the centaur to the edge, she observed. _We need to save Adam as quickly as possible, if not for Adam's sake it's for Centarumon's sake. We can't have him going berserk like that, _she thought grimly. _Or else he'd…_

"What should we do now, TobuCatmon?" Gayathri suddenly asked, drawing Liu Ying's attention before she could end her thoughts. "It's already evening. Adam's sister would be very worried if Adam doesn't return home today. I bet Adam still hasn't told her about him being a DigiWira, and about Digimon. Centarumon?"

"You're right, Liu Ying," Centarumon admitted gruffly. "He still couldn't find the time to tell her yet."

"There's nothing you can do right now, girls," TobuCatmon said sadly. "Both of you are still weakened from your fight with the Harpymon. You shall need rest if you are going to rescue Adam. Labramon and Floramon will be able to help you and Centarumon tomorrow. I will try to figure out the best way for us to save Adam tonight."

"But…Adam's sister would report Adam as missing to the police," Liu Ying pointed out. "It would make things even more complicated."

TobuCatmon sighed. "As of now, I believe your computer instructor – Jackie – is breaking the news to Adam's sister."

"Jackie? How does Jackie know about this? We haven't told him anything yet," Liu Ying wondered loudly.

"TobuCatmon contacted Jackie via the sun staff," Gayathri supplied. "He didn't look surprised much, Jackie, I mean…he just says ok and logged off."

"Oh…" Liu Ying said, not interested to think about Jackie's lack of surprise when Adam was in captive of the bad guys. "But I'll feel so bad about having to leave Adam in the hands of Karatenmon and the ShadoWira. I doubt I can sleep well tonight. Who knows what they're doing to him. I can't imagine…we'll be going home, and Adam is kidnapped, probably imprisoned." She didn't realize that she was now babbling, out of concern for her fellow DigiWira, but nobody pointed this out to her. It just showed them how much she cared for the leader, as a good friend to another.

"Me too," Gayathri said glumly, her brown eyes brimmed with what looked like early formations of tears. "Poor Adam. If only we're strong enough now…"

"Conserve your powers!" Centarumon snapped loudly without warning, causing the girls to shudder. They had never heard the centaur to sound so stern and solemn like that. TobuCatmon, Labramon and Floramon glared at the large centaur for shouting at the girls, but the girls both shook their heads slowly. They couldn't blame Centarumon for feeling extremely agitated; as much as they were worried about their leader, the centaur shared a special bond with Adam, and thus, his worry was a degree higher than theirs. The girls nodded as they collected their partners hesitantly, heading towards the television on the table. They cast one last look on the centaur, which would be staying at the Forest Sanctum until they managed to recover Adam.

The centaur's eyes flashed crimson. "Save your strengths, girls," he said again, with a calmer tone which sounded slightly apologetic. "We'll need it _tomorrow_, to rescue Adam."

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 12 – Light Amidst Shadow_**

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"Adam?" called a woman's voice as she entered the empty apartment. She scanned the darkened apartment, wondering why her brother didn't bother to switch on the lights as it was almost dark, as she removed the sandals she was wearing with her feet before closing the door. Her one hand was carrying a large green plastic bag, which contained the grocery items she had bought for the week, while her other hand set down a smaller white packet bag, containing the dinner for her and her little brother.

_Is he asleep? _Alisha Ariff wondered as she set both bags on the kitchen table, before proceeding to remove the elegantly-styled yellow headscarf she was wearing, and let her long dark locks cascaded down her shoulders. She switched on the light, letting the dark apartment being illuminated by the ceiling lamps before heading towards her brother's bedroom. The door was closed, and Alisha tapped it gently before opening the door. The room was empty – the bed was made, as she had seen early in the morning before she sent her brother to school. Nothing seemed to have changed position, except for the new orange plush toy Alisha had seen in her brother's room – the large guinea pig toy wasn't on the cupboard as it usually was.

Looking at the clock hanging on the wall, right above the television, the young woman sighed. "It's almost dusk…maybe he's out playing or at Hakim's house," she murmured, and decided to unload the grocery items and kept them in the fridge or the cupboard. It was what Adam would usually do on the Saturdays when Alisha had to go to work, and so she wasn't worried. Adam could take care of himself just fine. _And he's going to be fourteen at the end of the year,_ Alisha thought pensively, as her gray eyes set on a framed picture on the telephone table.

It was a picture of five people – two adults and three children. On the left-side corner of the picture was a tall man with thick black moustache, wearing a blue shirt and dark pants. He was flanked on the left by a teenager aged about thirteen or fourteen, who looked almost like Adam, with the exception of the boy's much tanned skin, sturdier built, short wavy dark hair and brown eyes. The teen was grinning, wearing similar attire to the man beside him. Sitting on the chair in the middle of the picture was a plump woman, with a pleasant smile, fair skin and wearing a matching light blue, floral-patterned _baju kurung_ and a simple blue headscarf which covered half of her upper body and shoulders. Standing behind the woman was a slightly younger Alisha, wearing a baju kurung as well, but without the floral pattern as the woman sitting on the chair. In the picture Alisha wasn't wearing a headscarf, and her dark hair, slightly tinted with lighter highlights, was straightened down to just below her shoulder. And finally, standing beside Alisha was a boy who was unmistakably a younger Adam, who looked about ten to eleven years old, wearing the same-colored shirt and pants the man and the other boy in the picture was wearing, smiling for the camera.

"Adam's almost as old as Aizad now before…" Alisha murmured, running her finger on the latter-mentioned boy in the picture. "How time flies."

Suddenly the doorbell rang twice, and Alisha immediately was snapped back from her slight reverie. She wondered who could that be; it was nearing dusk and she wasn't expecting anyone, and Adam would usually open the door without ringing the bell. She darted towards the door and peered through the peeking hole to see who was at the other side of the door, and saw a man she didn't recognize. He had somewhat spiky, swept back brown hair and blue eyes, and was wearing a white buttoned-down shirt and ebony brown pants. His left hand was holding a black leather laptop briefcase.

"Who is it?" she called out tentatively, hoping that the visitor was not a salesman. What salesman would come to her doorstep at this hour?

"Miss Alisha, I'm Mr. Jackie Chan…Adam's computer club instructor," the man at the other side of the door answered. "I'm here about Adam."

Feeling that her heart had skipped a beat, Alisha reached for a simpler pink headscarf she had hung near the door and adjusted her long hair before putting it on. She then opened the door.

"Adam?" she asked worriedly. "Has something happened to him?" she asked quickly. "Mr…Chan?" she asked tentatively, wondering briefly how the man in front of her had gotten the same name as the famous movie star who went with the same name and surname.

The look on the handsome man's face was steady as he nodded, yet Alisha could detect hesitation reflected from his shining blue eyes. Those eyes seemed to exude wisdom unbefitting the youthful look of the man's face.

"Jackie, please," Jackie said politely. "This could take a while. May I come in, miss?"

"I afraid not," Alisha answered. "I'm sorry, but there isn't anybody else home, and it would be improper. But…you said that this is about Adam…"

Jackie almost smacked his forehead, forgetting about the custom and the inappropriateness of his request. "I'm sorry. I totally forgot about it. Yes, it's about Adam, and there are a few things that I need to tell you as well. And I prefer if it's done away from other people's presence, as this is something not all people could comprehend."

Alisha hesitated for a moment. It was not like her to accept a request from a stranger, even for a conversation. She had dated once, while she was attending university, although it didn't work out. And she had a few male friends, acquaintances and colleagues, but this was a stranger. There were few times that she would let men she didn't know into the house, but they were usually the plumber, or the gas seller, or the electrician, but during those times Adam was always with her. This man in front of her was a stranger, and his statements were giving Alisha the creeps, yet she could feel that he could be trusted, and he seemed to be genuinely concerned about Adam.

"How do I know for sure that you're here about my brother?" Alisha asked finally; she had to be sure, a woman couldn't be too careful. Adam had told her about him joining the computer club, but he never really mentioned about the teacher. The stranger in front of her could be anyone.

Jackie smiled faintly, understanding the woman's vacillation. But the situation was urgent and he needed to tell Adam's older sister about Adam's current predicament.

"Miss, I can't prove it to you out here, and I just knew your brother for three weeks," Jackie said urgently. "But…you can leave the door open if you want."

Alisha then recalled Adam telling her three weeks ago that he was going to join the computer club. It was a rather weak evidence, but it was all she had going for now, until she heard the man's explanation. Nodding, she stepped aside and let Jackie into the apartment, and left the door open. As Jackie headed to the living room, Alisha went to get a glass of juice for the visitor. She took the drink to the living room and saw Jackie setting up the laptop on the living room table.

"It's the quickest way of explaining what is going on," Jackie said, upon noticing Alisha's questioning look, and accepted the drink he was offered gratefully.

Thinking that her guest was slightly weird, Alisha remained silent and watched as Jackie loaded a program on the computer. Instantly, lights shot out from the laptop's monitor and to Alisha's utmost surprise, a hologram of Adam and two girls appeared. They were wearing identical dark gray suits, with white, yellow and pink accents – Adam's suit lacked the skirt which the girls had. And to her surprise, she recognized Adam's weird new plush toy flying around the three teenagers, and there was a large dog standing beside the girl with straight black hair, and a peculiar flowery creature that looked very much alive.

But that wasn't the end of the strange things Alisha was seeing, but her mind reeled to the first strange thing she had witnessed. She was a system analyst and she kept herself up to date with the ever-growing information technology, but she had never seen a laptop which could project holograms. Even with the aid of a projector, a laptop couldn't produce real three dimensional holograms such as the ones she was witnessing right now.

"What's going on?" she asked, bewildered as she took a seat on the two-seater black leather sofa adjacent to the three-sitter sofa which Jackie was occupying at the moment.

"Miss, you probably won't going to believe what I was about to tell you, but please bear with me until the end of my explanation," Jackie said quickly. "Firstly, you should know that your brother, Mohammed Adam bin Ahmad Ariff, along with Chang Liu Ying and Gayathri d/o Nadarajah, are DigiDestined – which is a select group of chosen children destined to protect the Digital World – home to the digital monsters known as Digimon created by the data from the computers of the human world. The Malaysian DigiDestined team are given the code-name DigiWira, which set them apart from various DigiDestined team around the globe.

"As DigiDestined, the chosen three are partnered with Digimon partners. Adam is partnered with Patamon; Liu Ying finds partnership with Labramon while Gayathri's partner is called Floramon. Wielding the devices known as the D3 Digivices and the mystical spheres known as the DigiSpheres, the DigiWira have the ability to travel back and forth between two worlds via the computers, and to evolve their Digimon partners into higher, more powerful levels to combat the growing evil of the south-eastern part of the Digital World, which they are chosen to protect."

The holograms of the DigiWira were shown to direct the Digivices towards their partner Digimon, who were bathed in white, yellow and pink lights. Alisha's eyes widened when she saw the three small, docile-looking Digimon emerged out from the lights as a fearsome armored centaur, an elegant nine-tailed fox and a very feminine-looking sprite.

"Mentored by a wise Digimon called TobuCatmon, the DigiWira learn about the evil which are threatening the safety of the Digital World – the dark forces of SkullSatamon, who was imprisoned by the exalted warrior Grademon three hundred digital years ago. In our world's time, I am not sure exactly when the battle between Grademon and SkullSatamon took place, but the time settings for our world and the Digital World paralleled each other when the Japanese DigiDestined team defeated the Dark Masters and Apocalymon in 1999. Prior to that, time in the Digital World ran much faster compared with this world."

Alisha couldn't make sense of what Jackie was telling her; she was too surprised on her own but she knew that if she kept silence Jackie would continue on explaining, and she would know about Adam eventually. The holograms of Adam and his friends vanished, replaced by a visage of a frightful skeletal demonic figure which caused Alisha to wince. She guessed that this was probably the one called SkullSatamon. On one side of the skeletal being was a short, white-attired human with pale skin and holding a white staff and on the other side was a bird-woman hybrid.

"Right now, SkullSatamon depends on his lackeys – Sorcerymon and Shutumon – to initiate his master plan and to free his entombed generals. The first general has been released from his entombment – the Mage General Karatenmon. Before that, he could only rely on his lackeys to persuade wild Digimon to attack villages and cities of the Digital World, but thanks to the DigiWira the threats were all eliminated easily. But the rise of Karatenmon marks a dangerous time for the DigiWira, for SkullSatamon has chosen the perfect general to be awakened. Karatenmon possessed the same artifacts the DigiWira have – the DigiSpheres he had stolen a long time ago from the creator of the five DigiSpheres, Grademon. Using the two stolen DigiSpheres Karatenmon has called forth two humans to wield their powers, becoming the evil counterparts of the DigiWira known as the ShadoWira."

An image of a formidable black-feathered avian warrior materialized on the hologram, followed by two humans draped in suits similar to the DigiWira, only that they were black, with red and blue linings. The humans wore white masks, had glowing green eyes, and in addition to their suits were black hooded capes.

"The appearances of the ShadoWira brought force the hidden powers of the DigiWira, when both ShadoWira are revealed to possess the power to command fire and water at will. Your brother receives the gift of teleportation; Liu Ying is bestowed with telekinesis while Gayathri gets the ability of super speed."

The holographic images of the three DigiWira and the two ShadoWira were seen demonstrating their special powers. Alisha couldn't believe her eyes upon seeing her little brother disappearing in brilliant orbs of white light, before reappearing again. The other DigiWira and the ShadoWira were also displaying their own powers, but Alisha had her eyes solely fixed on her brother. It was almost unbelievable, if it weren't for the fact that she was witnessing this with her own eyes.

"Right now," Jackie said after taking a sip of the glass of apple juice offered to him, "we have a pressing matter in our hand. Your brother has been captured by the ShadoWira earlier this day."

"What?" Alisha gasped; her face stricken with surprise and grief as Jackie's words registered fully in his mind. "Captured? You mean kidnapped?"

"Yes," Jackie said solemnly. "The other DigiWira and their mentor are doing what they could to find Adam, and I've been given the task to inform you about this. It seems that he has yet to tell you about this, right?"

"Adam's never told me about him being a Digi…Wira," Alisha said slowly. "I wonder why…he could just come up to me and tell me."

"Would you believe him if he told you?"

"I would have," Alisha insisted; her face fell. She took a deep breath before continuing, "I might not at first, but if he just told me that his plush toy is actually alive, I would have believed him completely." Alisha slowly slumped back and buried her face inside her palms. "It's because I'm too busy working," she said to herself despairingly, and Jackie could hear the woman stifling a sob. "I didn't have enough time….he had to fend for himself….my little brother…" were the words which Jackie heard escaping from Alisha, in between sobs. She then tried to regain her composure, and raised her face up. Her face was botched with smeared make-ups, and she was crying silently. "Do…do they ask for ransom?" she choked out. "I'd give anything!"

"No," Jackie replied slowly. "It's nothing that you could give."

"No? Then, what would they do to him?" Alisha asked quickly. Several possibilities crossed her minds, and each sent the shivers down her spine. She was reminded of some of the kidnapping news she had come across on the news and the newspapers, and almost none of them were found. But that happened in this world, nothing out of the ordinary was involved. Her brother's kidnapping however was linked with something _digital_.

"They won't harm him," Jackie promised earnestly; he hated to see how his news had caused grieve upon the beautiful young woman sitting opposite him. "I don't know for sure why Adam was targeted instead of Liu Ying or Gayathri, but I suspect it must have something to do with the awakening of their special powers yesterday. If that's the case, then they couldn't risk harming him. Your brother is alive, and tomorrow the other two DigiWira, along with the three partner Digimon, will go to the place where Karatenmon dwells to rescue Adam."

"Tomorrow?" Alisha asked loudly, her voice broken. "Tomorrow might be too late. Can't they do it today?"

"Miss," Jackie said gently. "The girls are completely drained after a long battle with Karatenmon's foot soldiers earlier today. It turned out that the battle was simply a diversion to lure Adam out. They won't stand a chance against Karatenmon and the ShadoWira should they go today. The girls' partners have almost recovered from their battle with the ShadoWira's partners yesterday, and give them a good night rest and they might be able to save Adam tomorrow. Adam's own partner, Centarumon, is currently staying at the Digital World, ready at any moment's notice to save your brother. Do trust me when I tell you that Centarumon would do whatever it takes to recover Adam from the evil forces. The same is true for the girls and their partners – they are totally dedicated in looking out for each other."

Alisha considered Jackie's words and the man realized that she understood what he had told her. However, just by understanding him didn't make Alisha to be able to accept it. Her face harbored an unsatisfied look, coupled with worry.

"Can't the police go and save my brother?" Alisha asked with a sob.

"Miss…the police forces in our world have no way of accessing the Digital World. Even if they do, without partner Digimon they won't stand a chance against the wild Digimon, much less Karatenmon and the ShadoWira. No weapons from the human world could beat the extraordinary powers wielded by the Digimon. Liu Ying, Gayathri and their partners, along with Adam's own Digimon companion, are our current best bet to save Adam."

For a moment, there was a passing silent between Jackie and Alisha. The woman dried her tears as the man switched off his laptop and stored it inside his leather briefcase.

"What…what can I do?" Alisha asked desperately, seeing that her guest was leaving. "How can I help my brother? Just tell me anything…I'll…I'll do it!"

Jackie's face was grave, his eyes serious as he stood up. As he walked towards the door, Alisha got up from her seat and tailed him from behind, eagerly waiting for an answer from him. Frankly, Jackie didn't know what Alisha could do. His eyes darted around the apartment, cozy and decently furnished, until his eyes set on a decorative scripture in gold letterings against a black background, framed and hung on top of an otherwise empty wall space. Jackie couldn't read the scripture, but knew what language it was written, and that gave him an idea.

"Pray for your brother's safety, Miss Alisha," he said softly, looking at the woman from his shoulders. "Pray for his safe return. That much is what you can do for now. And…leave the computer on."

Jackie walked out from the apartment and just as the door was closing, he could hear Adam's older sister sobbing once again. Sighing, he closed the door tight.

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At first, everything was dark. He felt cold, and attempted to reach out for a blanket for warmth. Yet he couldn't find the desired blanket. As his senses returned to him, he realized that he was currently lying down on a hard, cold, rough surface. Shivering, he shot up and looked around in bewilderment.

"Where am I?"

Adam pressed his slightly aching head as he looked around in bewilderment. It was nearly pitch black, and the only source of light came from the barred square window on what appeared to be a door of the chamber where he was in. He attempted to stand up, wincing in pain as the wounds on his shoulders and arms were still unhealed. A sense of heaviness came from his right ankle, and using his hands Adam traced something ring-shaped and metallic, shackled onto his right ankle. Heavy chains were connected from the shackle to the wall.

Searching his memory banks, Adam recalled the fight at Green Meadow Village. He remembered staying alone before peculiar mists surrounded him. Someone clutched him from behind and knocked him out with weird-smelling substance. Everything else after that were blurred…Adam remembered being hoisted up and placed onto a shoulder, and a familiar laugh.

"The Red ShadoWira," he whispered, as comprehension dawned to him. The laughter that belonged to the Red ShadoWira could still be vividly heard in his mind. "I'm captured," he realized. Looking around, he registered the confinement he was placed in. "I'm imprisoned."

A wave of panic and fear seared up his spine as he did the first thing that came to his mind – attempt to teleport out. Summoning his power, Adam focused his thought to teleport _out _of the prison cell he was in. He felt the familiar sense of warmth emanating from within his body, and small sparkles of white orbs of light began to appear…before suddenly they disappeared.

"Huh? Why—"

Confused, Adam attempted to summon his power again; he knew that he was strong enough to teleport. White glitters materialized from his body, but they vanished just as soon as they appeared. The boy then noticed a faint glow released by the shackle and the chains which was confining him – they were glimmering with eerie purple glow.

"Save your strength, White DigiWira!" a voice called out from outside the door. "Those chains and shackle are able to resist your power. Not to mention, the whole Cave of Solitude is guarded with anti-spells to block you from using your power."

Adam's face shot up as a loud creak echoed the small chamber as the door began to open. He saw a human figure standing over the doorway, with one hand placed on the door and the other on his left-side hip. One quick look on the human and Adam recognized him instantly; no one else wore black uniform with red accents.

"You," Adam whispered hoarsely.

"Me," the Red ShadoWira said mockingly. He sauntered inside the prison cell and pulled the door back in, leaving it slightly ajar. Faint light permeated through the small opened space, and the barred windowsill, enough for both of them to get a good glimpse of each other, and of the gloomy cell.

For a moment, there was a brief silence as the good and bad DigiWira stared at each other. From where he was sprawled, Adam's whole body was loomed with the Red ShadoWira's shadow. The deathly silence unnerved the DigiWira; the glowing green eyes of the Red ShadoWira seemed to bore onto him. Yet the boy, for the first time, wasn't overwhelmed by fear as he had previously for the ShadoWira. The fear was there, but so was a new feeling.

Anger.

"What do you want from me?" Adam demanded. He could never make his voice as stern as Liu Ying, but at this moment, he was surprised of the austerity he was hearing from his own voice. Adam was always known by his friends to be a laid-back, mild-mannered boy.

However, the Red ShadoWira wasn't intimidated. He simply straightened his back, and crossed his arms against his chest. "It doesn't matter what _I_ want; the master has plans for you. I'm simply doing what was expected of me – to capture you."

"That much I've figured," Adam muttered, feeling his confidence growing. Then he halted; something about the words chosen by the Red ShadoWira when he was answering Adam's inquiry bugged the dark haired boy slightly. "What do you mean…it doesn't matter what _you_ want?" he asked suspiciously.

The Red ShadoWira let out a brief chuckle before looming closer to the chained boy. "Given my way, I'd finish what I've started," he said darkly, and laughed.

Adam's gray eyes widened, realizing that the Red ShadoWira was hinting on destroying him, a task he had failed twice during their first encounter the previous day. As the ShadoWira laughed at him mockingly, Adam realized that being angry wouldn't solve anything. He had to find out why the Red ShadoWira was personally targeting him. Taking a deep breath, Adam willed the silent anger he was feeling to go away, or at least buried deep in his mind for the time being, and focused his attention to the Red ShadoWira. The villainous DigiDestined was being rather conversational, and Adam wanted to get as many answers as he could from him, while he still had the chance.

"Why?" he finally asked.

The Red ShadoWira's laugh faltered. "Why?" he repeated. "Hmm…why indeed." He whipped out a D-Terminal, a black terminal with glistening crimson accents, from its compartment, and released the holographic image of a red sphere. "The Red DigiSphere… with the elements of fire and darkness in it. The White DigiSphere…" To Adam's surprise, the Red ShadoWira took out Adam's own pale blue and silvery white D-Terminal from his back, and called forth the image of the said white sphere. "…is purely infused with the element of light. Darkness is threatened with the presence of light, and so, the light will simply have to be…_extinguished_."

"Not if the fire in your dark heart is extinguished first!" Adam snapped quickly in response, wriggling his chained feet in an attempt to break free. The Red ShadoWira had just said that he was intent on destroying Adam, simply because of the elements of their DigiSpheres. Adam couldn't accept it.

"Brave words coming from one with a threat of a kitten," the Red ShadoWira mocked, and pocketed both D-Terminals inside the compartment built for the said devices.

"Give back my D-Terminal! It's not yours!" Adam exclaimed. He stood up quickly and attempted to seize his D-Terminal, but failed as he couldn't even reach the door where the ShadoWira was standing. The Red ShadoWira shook his head and approached the chained DigiWira, until he was merely inches away within Adam's grasp, as if daring Adam to try and take the stored D-Terminals from him. Adam's fingers however barely touched his body, causing the ShadoWira to snicker.

"I don't think so. I'd like to keep a souvenir from you, as a token to remember you by, before the master disposes you after he gets what he wants," the Red ShadoWira said. He leaned forward and mockingly patted his right cheek twice before guffawing gloatingly. "Now just be a good boy, like you usually are, and _stay quiet_."

Seething, Adam balled his right hand into a fist and struck a punch onto the Red ShadoWira's chest. Surprised over the violent reaction from the boy, which was unlike him, the Red ShadoWira grunted before he retaliated by roughly shoving Adam onto the floor. The boy cried out in pain as he fell on the sides of his body, further aggravating the wounds he had sustained from the Harpymon earlier that day. Flames erupted from the Red ShadoWira's palms and he pointed one palm towards the fallen DigiWira. Adam's eyes widened, now dreading the impending doom he was about to face should the ShadoWira decided to finish him off once and for all.

"I could incinerate you now," the Red ShadoWira said vehemently. "You know that, do you?"

To Adam's surprise, the flames on the ShadoWira's palms died out. The Red ShadoWira lowered his palms, and touched the spot where Adam had punched him, laughing softly. "But, maybe some other time. I'd really like to see what the master has in store for you. I know what he wants, but seeing is believing, they say." Laughing, the Red ShadoWira made his way towards the door. Before exiting he glanced back at Adam.

"Oh, and just so you know, I also have your D3 in my possession," he revealed, and took out Adam's Digivice from within his mantle. He seemed settled to want to spite Adam for the time being. Alarmed, Adam realized that in his brief anger and panic, he didn't realize the absence of the devices from the belt he was wearing. They must have been taken away from him while he was unconscious. And there was no way for him to retrieve those devices from the Red ShadoWira. Without them, Adam could not make Patamon Digivolve.

"You'll never get away with this!" Adam shouted.

The Red ShadoWira stopped laughing and his eyes flashed greener than before. "Really? But…I'm not the one who's chained by the walls!" He roared with a contemptuous chortle and closed the prison door after exiting it, and Adam sighed in despair upon hearing the sound of the door being locked. The Red ShadoWira's laughter echoed all over the area outside the prison door, growing fainter and fainter before deathly quietness prevailed the inner sides of the Black Peak Mountain. Adam leaned against the wall, and pulled his knees close to his face. He looked over the gloomy prison cell he was in, and sighed despairingly.

"What am I going to do?"

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Adam didn't remember how long he had slept before he felt his body being shook up violently. As he opened his eyes he saw the Red ShadoWira hoisting up to his feet, and gasped. The said ShadoWira didn't bother to be subtle with his action, and he didn't seem to care less of the fact that Adam was currently injured. Down at his feet, the Blue ShadoWira was quietly undoing the shackle which was what keeping him from moving.

"Try any funny moves and it'll be the end of you," the Red ShadoWira warned, as the Blue ShadoWira stood up. "Open the portal," he instructed to his fellow companion.

Silently, the Blue ShadoWira waved his hand slightly and the air in front of them rippled. Adam watched with his still bleary eyes as the Blue ShadoWira entered the portal, disappearing out of sight. The Red ShadoWira shoved him towards the portal, and Adam felt as if he was being sucked in – it was like entering a DigiPort. The surroundings around him changed gradually as the Red ShadoWira pushed him from the back, from the dark cell prison, into a wide arid region with cracked grounds and dark reddish brown clouds covering the sky. Thunders rumbled all over, and Adam's eyes widened upon the gruesome sight in front of him.

"Greetings, young Adam," said a hulking demonic skeletal figure, from behind what looked like an invisible force-field. This being had a dark, menacing voice which sounded slightly scratchy, but evil nonetheless. Behind the demon was a mountain, with a horrific-looking bastion perched on top of it. The mere sight of the bastion caused Adam to shiver – it was patented as a large skull. "I have been expecting you. You don't look too well, but I suppose the fact that you are here after all will have to do. A task done well, ShadoWira."

From the sight of the monstrosity, Adam immediately guessed that this was the one Grademon had been opposing three centuries ago. This monstrous Digimon was speaking with a breathy, hoarse, old-sounding voice which was laced with spite in every sentence.

"Skull…SkullSatamon!" he gasped, feeling his knees buckling. Never in his life had he imagined that he would be facing a demon, and nothing had prepared him for this today. He would've fallen onto the ground if it wasn't for the fact that the ShadoWira were both flanking him on both sides.

"Indeed. I'm glad that we could skip the introductions, as I have known you, and you me," SkullSatamon rasped throatily.

Adam gulped as he dared himself to look around. He could see Sorcerymon and Shutumon, standing in front of a flock of four Harpymon – three purple, one white. Then, to his horror, he could see Reichmon, standing silently somewhere farther from the rest of the evil Digimon. Should Adam be able to break free from the ShadoWira's holds, Reichmon was there to prevent him from escaping. And there was another Digimon he didn't recognize – but could guess easily. He knew the names of the villains, and there was only one more name that Adam needed to put a face on.

_Karatenmon, _Adam thought with a shudder, remembering TobuCatmon's story. The avian warrior was not looking at him; his attention was solely fixed on SkullSatamon. Even so, Adam couldn't help but to feel scared, as he remembered what exactly Karatenmon had done in the story. _He's the one who stole the Red and Blue DigiSpheres from Grademon._

"I expect you have been made aware of the reason of you being in my audience this fine morning," SkullSatamon continued.

Adam stood silently, feeling uncomfortable as the Red and Blue ShadoWira were both holding his arms too tightly. He squirmed a little, and by looking around once more he realized one thing.

"There is no escape, young Adam," SkullSatamon said softly, exactly mirroring Adam's thought. "It seems that you're not aware yet of the reason I want you here. But no matter, I shall _enlighten_ you." SkullSatamon laughed upon the pun he had made on Adam's attribute, yet Adam could see no humor from it. Then, fixing his eyeless eye sockets onto the boy, he resumed, "You see, Adam. There's a barrier surrounding my Horror Hall, and it's impenetrable from both outside and inside. Nobody could come in and out, no thanks to that accursed Grademon and his mentor Wizardmon. For three hundred years I am imprisoned in my own home, with my generals and minions entombed. Luckily, luck has it be that fate has made me cross path with you…" A malicious chuckle escaped the demon's bony mouth. "The power of teleportation…exactly what I need to escape my centuries-long imprisonment."

Instantly, Adam's thought was brought back to TobuCatmon's evasiveness behavior the day before. He now realized that this was probably the reason why the feline mentor kept on giving him worried looks whenever the subject of the DigiWira's special powers was brought up.

"However, I should make you aware of one thing, dear boy," SkullSatamon said, in a tone that was made to cause wonder on the one spoken to, that Adam couldn't help but speculate what exactly was on the demon's mind. To Adam, it seemed as if having his power taken away from him wasn't what he should be worried about. Although to the captured DigiWira, having his power taken away from would diminish out all the possibilities for him to escape.

"By forcing your power out of you, my child of light," SkullSatamon began, this time adopting a creepier tone, "it would spell out your doom. You will cease to exist, once your power is fully forced out of your body! As far as I am made aware of, my mage general's power-transferring spell is fatal to the one whose power is taken away from. I am glad however that no repercussions would befall the one who is taking the power, so I guess I shouldn't have worried too much now, should I?"

Adam's gray eyes widened in surprise, and he unwittingly let out a loud gasp. _I'd be killed? _And SkullSatamon was acting like he didn't care that Adam would die; he simply had Adam's power in his mind. Adam's eyes began to burn, out of shock and grief.

"But…but…I'd die!" Adam managed to choke out, finally.

SkullSatamon leaned closer to the barrier, his eyeless eye sockets glinted darkly. "_So?_"

Adam felt weak all of a sudden; it seemed that nothing he could do would make SkullSatamon spare his life. His heart was beating wildly that Adam believed that his chest would explode anytime soon. But then again, it wasn't any different from the other fate he was going to face. From his eyes, Adam could feel a tear almost trickling out from the brim, but he was determined not to show any sign of weakness in front of his enemies.

"But of course, child, I'm always ready for a bargain," SkullSatamon said lightly. "You can still keep your power, and your life, if…"

Adam looked up hopefully, ready to listen but knew instantly that whatever SkullSatamon was about to suggest, it would be something Adam won't be able to agree for. After all, you don't make deals with the devils, and SkullSatamon fit the bill as a devil. But, there was no harm in asking now, was it not?

"If what?"

SkullSatamon leaned his skull-head closer, examining Adam's face. "If you serve me, Adam. Become my loyal subordinate and I shall make you the leader of the ShadoWira!" he declared. "The White ShadoWira…it does have a nice ring to it, don't you think so, Adam?"

Adam could hear a soft snarl coming from the Red ShadoWira, and winced as the grasp on his right arm tightened. His right arm felt almost numb. On his left, the Blue ShadoWira seemed not to care at all. Adam turned his attention back to SkullSatamon, and tried his best to fix a determined look on his face, despite the real fact that he was still scared out of his wits. Adam supposed that the Red ShadoWira had nothing to worry about – Adam would never accept SkullSatamon's offer.

By becoming a ShadoWira would mean that Adam would have to fight his own friends – Liu Ying and Gayathri – and he despised the mere thought of it.

"Think about it, Adam," SkullSatamon persuaded with his guttural voice. "Accept my offer, and I will make your power evolve rapidly. You can see how strong the ShadoWira are now, despite the shorter time they have spent being ShadoWira. You too, are new…yet I see _so much_ potential to your power. I can make it grow to a _deadly_ proportion. You might think of your power merely as only a way for you to transport yourself away from harm… but join me, be my spawn of evil, and I will make your power the most destructive of all! Nothing can ever stand in your way – not the other DigiWira, not even the ShadoWira, even **Grademon** will pale in comparison to you!"

_That's it, _Adam thought bitterly. _He wants to make me his killing machine._ Adam choked out a sob; ignoring the pain he was feeling from where the Red ShadoWira was clutching him. A tear trickled down his right cheek and he quickly looked down, staring at the dry earth. He didn't want SkullSatamon to see it as a sign of weakness on his part, although there was no point in hiding. _I can escape, but the only way I can do so is by serving SkullSatamon. I doubt that it would go well…I'd be condemned for all eternity if I say yes…I cannot be selfish… I mustn't._ He raised his head once again when the single tear dropped between the cracks on the desiccated ground, and gave SkullSatamon a defiant look. _God help me…_

"I will never serve you!" Adam declared loudly. "I'll never serve evil! Not now, not ever!"

"As I've expected," SkullSatamon replied with a bored tone. "In that case, I have no use of you, except for your teleportation power. Karatenmon, begin the power transfer spell!"

"With pleasure, my liege," Karatenmon bowed slightly, and beckoned for the ShadoWira to release Adam.

Adam took this moment's opportunity to escape, but suddenly felt his body froze as he was about to raise his right leg, ready to make a run for it. He was now immobilized. His heart thumped faster as he realized what he was about to face, and attempted to summon his teleportation power. Similar to his experience the previous night, while he was imprisoned, faint sparkles of white light orbs appeared out from his body, before vanishing again. His power was inhibited by Karatenmon's spell.

Karatenmon began chanting something in a dark, strange language. He pointed one feathery arm towards Adam, and the other towards SkullSatamon. Both arms then emitted dark purple glow, and purple beams were emitted towards Adam and SkullSatamon. Adam yelled out in pain as he felt something being sucked out from within him, feeling weaker than ever. Another beam, heading towards SkullSatamon, made its way towards the barrier which stood between SkullSatamon and the outside world…

"Yes…finally, after three long centuries," SkullSatamon rasped in anticipation.

Then, something unexpected happened.

The barrier suddenly crackled viciously with electricity and a thunderbolt struck Karatenmon squarely on his armored chest, throwing him off his feet and sending him flying. Similarly, another thunderbolt zapped SkullSatamon, causing the dark master to growl in pain, but with a wave of his staff the thunderbolt vanished, engulfed within the dark aura emitted from his staff. No thunderbolt however appeared to struck Adam.

The boy suddenly felt his body was set free from the immobilizing spell Karatenmon had placed on him. He could move his limbs again, and without thinking, he activated his teleportation powers and vanished in magnificent swirls of bright white light orbs.

"Do not let the boy escape!" SkullSatamon bellowed. "Seize him!"

Adam reappeared again about several meters away from where he had stood before. To his horror, the ShadoWira and the other evil Digimon were already on their way to seize him, with the Red ShadoWira on the lead. Reichmon, Sorcerymon, Shutumon, and the Harpymon – all of them were currently after him. Adam didn't think that he could teleport away in time – the Red ShadoWira was nearly within three arms' length.

_I need something to defend myself,_ Adam thought desperately, and closed his eyes. _Anything! Please…any weapon would do…_

As if his silent prayer had been answered, swirls of white orbs began to envelop both his right and left hands. The hands were brought together closely and to Adam's amazement when he opened his eyes, a blade began to appear within his grasp. It was a thin sword, but slightly heavy that it required Adam to hold it with both hands. The sword had a black handle and shining metallic blade about a little bit more than an inch wide, and nearly twice Adam's arm length.

"Curse it! How dare the boy teleports my sword to him!" Adam heard Karatenmon yelling angrily. "Seize him, ShadoWira!"

Adam heard a rough roar incoming, and without thinking he swung the sword forward.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!"

To his horror, he had accidentally grazed the blade onto the Red ShadoWira's arm, right above the elbow and upwards along the triceps. A thin red line was formed through the black sleeve of the ShadoWira, causing blood to drip instantly. The ShadoWira screamed in pain and clutched his wounded arm as Adam stood by, transfixed; his eyes widened upon the sight of blood soaking up the sleeve of the Red ShadoWira's uniform. Luckily, it was only a superficial wound, but before he could do anything else he saw the Red ShadoWira raising his uninjured arm, and with a loud guttural grunt he struck Adam hard on the face using the back of his forearm. The smaller boy was knocked onto the ground, and a blast of concentrated water jet pushed the sword out of his grasp. The boy felt something trickled out of his nasal cavity, and wiped it with his hand – only to see dark scarlet blood smearing his soiled hand.

The Red ShadoWira loomed onto Adam, his good hand was holding on to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. He was staggering a little, no doubt a little bit fatigued from the loss of blood. The Blue ShadoWira and the other Digimon paused a meter away behind the Red ShadoWira, observing with anticipation as the evil ShadoWira was about to finish the bearer of light once and for all.

"I'll teach you a lesson, you little brat!" the Red ShadoWira declared venomously, and raised his bloody hand up. Flames flared from the hand, and combined with the blood on the palm, a faint rusty smell was emitted. "Say goodbye, Adam!" he said with pure malice, and began to lower his palm. He was too transfixed on the boy that he didn't notice a group of Digimon appearing at the border of the Shadow Realm. Either he didn't notice, or he simply didn't care, as the newcomers were shouting out demands for him to stay away from Adam.

"_Hunting Cannon!"_ a loud cry was heard, and the earth rumbled as from a distance, a brown centaur galloped towards them, cannon hoisted up and ready to attack. A yellow thunderbolt streaked out from the centaur's cannon and sailed past the dry grounds, with its target being the ShadoWira that was attempting to harm Adam.

"Reichmon! Block the attack!" the Red ShadoWira growled quickly as he was forced to cancel his attack in order to evade the incoming blast.

Obediently, Reichmon lowered his black spear just in time, as it was struck by the thunderbolt instead of the targeted ShadoWira. Any delay and the bolt would've hit the Red ShadoWira. The thunderbolt shook the spear slightly, but it took more than an attack from a champion Digimon to stagger Reichmon. The ultimate Digimon spun his spear once and the thunderbolt was redirected onto the dry earth, causing an explosion of dusts and soils which rained on everybody.

"Centarumon!" Adam called out weakly, trying to raise his body from the ground.

"Adam!" the centaur replied loudly as he was about to arrive to his partner's aid. However, before he could do so he was intercepted by Reichmon, who stood in his way to reach for Adam. "Make way!" he demanded, pointing his cannon onto the ultimate Digimon's body. "I'm warning you!"

The black-armored warrior didn't budge. He only spun his spear and the green flames emitted from the spear grazed Centarumon's chest, throwing the champion Digimon away. The centaur landed merely a foot away from his approaching comrades. He immediately attempted to stand back on his feet as Youkomon approached him, standing on his right side. Fairymon in the meantime, landed from the air above to the centaur's left side. And finally, two girls walked past Centarumon and their partners, before standing in front of the three Digimon.

The DigiWira had arrived.

"Don't anybody move!" the Red ShadoWira warned loudly. "Or else, your precious _leader_ will be gone!"

Liu Ying and Gayathri saw that the Red ShadoWira had seized their friend, head-locking the boy with his bleeding arm. His free arm was pointed towards Adam's face. The girls gasped; Adam could be incinerated by the Red ShadoWira's deadly flames instantly, due to his close proximity with the ShadoWira. Their hearts nearly broke upon seeing the condition their leader was in – bruised on the face, nose bleeding, filthy all over and looked absolutely drained. He looked helpless.

However they could see that Adam didn't go down without a fight when they saw the Red ShadoWira's bleeding arm. Despite that, Adam had been overpowered.

"If you hurt him, I will hunt you down!" Liu Ying said severely.

"How touching," the Red ShadoWira snickered. "Pah! I'm not afraid of you, girly!"

"MONSTER!" Centarumon bellowed angrily. His body shook in rage upon seeing the dangerous predicament his partner was in. "LET ADAM GO, OR I…"

"Centarumon, control yourself," Youkomon said worriedly. Her blue furs stood up, sensing something malicious emanating from Centarumon. Her sharp eyes detected strange energy vibes originating from the centaur, and it caused her to let out an involuntary growl as she stepped away from the enraged centaur. "Centarumon, do not let your anger consume you!" she said sternly.

"CAN IT, FOX!" growled Centarumon, with a deep, thunderous voice which caused Youkomon to be taken aback. Never had she heard her fellow partner Digimon talk in this kind of manner. Youkomon knew that Centarumon needed to be restrained. Throughout the previous day she had seen Centarumon's anger, a completely different personality from when he was with Adam. And there was the fact that somehow, even without his partner near him; Centarumon was able to hold on to his champion mode. Youkomon could guess what was about to come, and knew that Centarumon must not be allowed to go on further with what he was about to attempt.

However, there was no restraining Centarumon this time around. He was enraged, that was a surety. His human partner was in dire threat, and if he didn't do something Adam would not see the light of the day again. His body shook even more violently and from within his visor, his eyes flashed crimson continuously as black aura began to coat his half horse, half man body. Something within him snapped out of control, and Centarumon allowed it to take control of his body.

_If it means that I can save Adam, then so be it!_

"**_CENTARUMON…."_**

"Centarumon, don't do it!" Fairymon cried shrilly. She had heard about the Digivolution Centarumon was undergoing, and knew that it was not natural, and that it was very, very dangerous. She also knew that there was no stopping Centarumon, and was forced to fly away near the DigiWira to make sure that they were not harmed.

A dark gray energy beam swirled around the centaur's body as smokes rippled out from the earth. Thunders rumbled across the cloudy sky above as chilling winds erupted from the clouds. The smokes and the winds all spun around Centarumon's body, obscuring him out of sight. A menacing growl was all everyone could hear coming from Centarumon. This unnatural phenomenon seemed to give the Shadow Realm a higher degree of eeriness.

Karatenmon, beginning to regain his composure from the backfired spell he had attempted earlier, quietly rose from the ground. He decided that it was best to stay out of sight for the time being, and observe the sudden turn-around of events. The dark avian warrior was weakened from the thunderbolt that resulted from the collision of spells between his power transfer spell and Grademon's impenetrable barrier.

The Red ShadoWira stood with Adam in his clutch, transfixed of the sudden turn of event in front of him. He didn't know why, but he could sense a focused amount of _darkness_ coming from the partner of the DigiWira with the power of light. It didn't bode well, and caused him to wonder. Nevertheless, he kept a firm grasp on the boy he was holding.

And finally, SkullSatamon, watching from his confinement, was amazed of how the partner of the DigiWira of Light succumbed into the power of darkness. His decaying bony mouth formed a smile and he eagerly awaited the outcome of the event. _So, the boy has resisted me with all his heart, but ironically, it is his partner who's given in to darkness. They are indeed, the most interesting pair of all. I shall have to observe them even more closely in future…_

"…**_DARK DIGIVOLVE…"_**

"Liu Ying, Gayathri, move away from Centarumon, NOW!" Youkomon shouted anxiously. "Move!"

Centarumon's whole body began to shine with unholy green and gray lights, and his body expanded nearly twice as large. The posterior half of the palomino part of his body began to disappear into data particles, while the anterior half intact was left intact, forming a fully humanoid figure draped in black light. All the while, his eyes let out crimson glows one after another. The data particles generated from the disintegrated half of his body spun around his remaining one, and transformed into heavyset metallic armor that began to drape his newly-formed human body from head to toe. The new steel armor gave him the appearance of a bulky, medieval knight from the old European era.

Heeding Youkomon's warning, Gayathri seized Liu Ying's arm and darted away from Centarumon with her lightning speed. Fairymon trailed the two girls from the air.

"…**_TO…"_**

The armors on Centarumon's new body took on a jet-black hue, even blacker than Reichmon's dark armor. The blackness of his armor was offset by the pale, sickly green linings on the sides of the armors. A massive onyx sword materialized on the knightly Digimon's right hand, and seconds later an equally-massive shield with similar dark shades appeared on the knight's left arm. Both weapons glistened when lightning struck the cloudy sky above. The knight slammed the blade of his sword onto the ground, causing a terrible earthquake which caused everyone around him, good or bad, friends or foes, to lose their footings. All of them, with the exception of Reichmon, Fairymon and Youkomon, fell onto the dry, cracking grounds. The knight then raised his sword up towards the sky and a thunderbolt streaked down from the darkened heavens, striking the tip of the sword's blade. The thunderbolt then began energizing the sword.

Swinging the sword mightily, the Digivolution process was complete. Lightning struck the barren earth behind him, causing another round of explosion of earth and rubble. The sparks from the explosion were reflected on his completely obsidian armor, glinting with malice. Centarumon had Digivolved, into a mighty ultimate level Digimon, who went by the name of…

"… **_BLACK KNIGHTMON!"_**

Adam wriggled free from the Red ShadoWira's clutch as his grip loosened when Black Knightmon caused the sudden earthquake. The Red ShadoWira had fallen on his back, taking Adam down with him. The pain caused by the wound on his right arm was aggravated even more, and Adam took this crucial chance to free himself from the villainous ShadoWira. When he was out of the ShadoWira's clutch, Adam let his power do the rest of the running, and teleported right towards Gayathri and Liu Ying.

"Black…Knightmon?" he breathed out disbelievingly. "No…"

"He must not be allowed to delete any Digimon!" Youkomon exclaimed anxiously, "because if he does, then he will remain as Black Knightmon forever. He will never return to being good. He will cease to forget about his former life, and turns into a vicious, bloodthirsty Digimon."

Adam slumped onto the ground, still conscious. He was supported to a sitting position by his fellow teammates. The boy frowned in despair upon witnessing his partner, formerly the adorable Patamon, the courageous Centarumon and the noble Sagittarimon, now as the ferocious Black Knightmon. What Youkomon had just said only served to deepen his pain. He could lose his dear partner today, and it was all because of his partner's extreme care for him.

Black Knightmon charged towards Reichmon, and blocked the DNA warrior's spear with his massive sturdy shield. A loud clang was heard as the spear collided with the unbreakable shield. With speed belying his bulky form, Black Knightmon raised his sword towards the heavens and allowed a thunderbolt to strike the sword. Using the accumulated energy gathered by the sword, he slammed it onto Reichmon, who attempted to block it with his spear. There was a brief standoff between the two dark knights, both looked to be evenly matched, before Black Knightmon withdrew his sword, and raised his shield up to block Reichmon's spear. Then, he swung his sword forcefully and the added momentum caused the sword to flicker to life, charged with raging electricity. A flash of crimson was emitted from the visor of the knight.

"_Berserk Sword!"_ he growled, and slammed his sword once more towards Reichmon after lowering his shield. This time around, the sword sliced Reichmon's spear into half before colliding with the silent knight's armored chest. The sword hit the gleaming scarlet stone embedded on Reichmon's armor, and the electric charge from Black Knightmon's sword electrocuted Reichmon severely. The DNA warrior let out an anguished pain, but Black Knightmon simply growled menacingly and transferred more power on his sword. He wasn't going to let this chance to finish off Reichmon, who had caused the defeat of the DigiWira partners the previous day, to go wasted.

By destroying Reichmon, Black Knightmon would permanently reduce the threat of the ShadoWira. And those two humans, even with their powers, could never match his ultimate-level might. In the end, Black Knightmon was doing the DigiWira a favor.

In the meantime, all the evil Digimon hesitated, not knowing what to do. Sorcerymon and Shutumon wisely retreated to the background, knowing that they didn't even stand a chance against Black Knightmon. Attempting to attack the raging Black Knightmon would spell their own doom, and the duo loved their lives still. They were aware of the angry, disapproving hisses they were hearing from their master right inside the Horror Hall, but right now, their fear of Black Knightmon far surpassed that of SkullSatamon.

The Blue ShadoWira merely stood up, transfixed, close to the Red ShadoWira, who was too injured now to attempt anything. The White DigiWira had surprised him when he managed to call forth one of Karatenmon's twin swords and attacked the Red ShadoWira with it. And now, his partner had Dark Digivolved into an ultimate Digimon independently, while the ShadoWira had to merge their partners in order to obtain an ultimate Digimon. It didn't take the Blue ShadoWira long to figure out that they were once again outmatched by the DigiWira.

When he could not stand it any longer, Reichmon screamed loudly as his body glowed with red and blue aura. He had lost control of the DNA Digivolution power, and felt his body breaking into half. An explosion of lights ensued, causing Black Knightmon to jerk backwards. He raised his shield to protect his vision, waiting for the lights to die down. What he then saw after the lights dissipated was not Reichmon, but two unconscious rookie Digimon rolling helplessly on the dry cracked ground. An Agumon and a Penguinmon. Both looked heavily battered and too weak to fight any more. Black Knightmon let out a satisfied, dark chortle as he raised his sword to finish off the two rookies once and for all.

"I'll rid you two off once and for all, rendering your evil partners harmless to my friends!" Black Knightmon declared menacingly. "_Berserk…_"

"Black Knightmon, NO!" Adam cried out, causing the ultimate Digimon to halt instantly. "Don't do it, please. Don't delete them…"

"Adam…?" Black Knightmon said, his voice broken. He could not understand why his partner was stopping him. "Why?" Wasn't he doing them a favor?

"Black Knightmon, do not succumb to your anger anymore," Youkomon insisted. "Adam is safe. Look. He is safe and sound."

_Adam is safe?_ Black Knightmon wondered. _Isn't that what matters most? Yes…NO! NO! These evil villains will seek to harm Adam and his friends again. I have to finish them off once and for all. The Digital World has no use of the evil ShadoWira._

"Black Knightmon, this is not the way," Youkomon insisted again, somewhat pleading this time around. The blue-furred kitsune approached the black knight with apprehension, but knew that she was getting through him. However she also knew that by placing herself near the unpredictable Black Knightmon, she would be at risk of getting attacked by the darkened warrior. She decided to take that risk, and stepped forward. "Once you have done the deed, there is NO turning back. You must not delete, not while you are in your Dark Digivolved state. The process will then be irreversible, and you will lose Adam forever! You will forget about Adam completely, and you might even try to delete him in future. Your mind will be fully clouded by darkness, and you will be no better than these evil Digimon you are trying to delete."

"Please, Black Knightmon, come back to us," Fairymon continued. "You can delete them while you're Sagittarimon or Centarumon…" she halted when Youkomon glared at her icily.

_Lose Adam forever? _Black Knightmon thought, and lowered his sword slowly. He looked around in hesitation. The maddening crimson glow within his visor vanished, revealing a pair of brown eyes. _I don't want that. I don't want to lose Adam…_

"Pathetic!" cackled a maniacal voice. "You should have finished them off while you have the chance. Unfortunately, now you never will encounter such chance! _Ballistic Feathers!"_

Suddenly, rains of dark energy projectiles rained onto Black Knightmon from the sky. Looking up, the DigiWira saw Karatenmon, seizing the opportunity to assail Black Knightmon with his special attack. Despite being heavily armored, somehow the projectiles managed to penetrate the armor and injured Black Knightmon from within. Not long after, Black Knightmon collapsed onto the ground with a loud clanking sound. His body glimmered with white light and the massive knight was reduced, becoming smaller and smaller in an alarming rate. When the light diminished, Black Knightmon was no more. In his place was not Centarumon or Patamon, but a smaller, white Digimon with four stubby feet, black button eyes and long, ribbon-like ears.

"That is Tokomon," Youkomon said, recognizing the Digimon instantly. "Patamon's in-training form."

"He's going to be done for if we don't do something!" Gayathri screamed. "He's so little."

Adam was reminded of how he had teleported Karatenmon's sword to him earlier, and immediately decided to try it out again. He outstretched his right arm quickly, wanting to test out the new form of his teleportation power. At first nothing happened, and Adam grew anxious. He didn't know how to activate his power. Seeing his partner being attacked, his heart quenched in pain and he immediately cried out his partner's name despairingly. "Tokomon!"

To the DigiWira girls' amazement, Tokomon, who could barely survive any more of Karatenmon's attacks, was suddenly enveloped with bright orbs of light before disappearing out of sight. Seconds later the Digimon reappeared on Adam's hand, unconscious and heavily injured, but still alive. He was breathing slowly and weakly. Adam slumped onto the ground feebly – he was already very weak, and he had not eaten since the previous day's afternoon. Besides that he had stretched out his powers to the limit. Not to mention that he was also injured.

"We need to get you two to the Forest Sanctum, and we have got to do it fast!" Liu Ying realized as she inspected Adam's shoulder, arm and waist. "Your wounds are going to be infected."

"Follow the plan TobuCatmon has devised this morning," Youkomon instructed.

"What plan?" Adam croaked.

"Come on, Adam," Gayathri offered, and helped Adam up. She slung Adam's left arm across the back of her neck, positioning his hand onto her left shoulder. Her right arm then moved past Adam's back, and was secured onto Adam's right waist. The boy looked visibly uncomfortable, but didn't say anything as he held Tokomon close to him.

"But, that'll leave only Liu Ying, Youkomon and Fairymon against the bad guys," Adam protested. "We have to stick together to fight them all."

"Adam, don't worry about us. The Red ShadoWira and Reichmon are both down for the count," Liu Ying pointed out. "I'm sure Youkomon and Fairymon will be able to handle those Harpymon, and I can defend myself against the Blue ShadoWira. Sorcerymon and Shutumon don't seem to want to take part in the battle. The only problem is Karatenmon…"

"Wait," Adam requested, and pointed towards the fallen Red ShadoWira, who had already stood back up on his feet. "My D3 and D-Terminals…they're with him."

"Can you teleport them here?" Gayathri inquired, preparing to make a run for it. "We're certainly not going to go to him, that's for sure."

"I can try," Adam said, and spread his right fingers wide. "D3! D-Terminal!"

The Red ShadoWira saw what Adam was attempting as he felt a tingling feeling from the back of his leather belt. His good hand shot back and managed to seize his and Adam's D-Terminals, but he couldn't reach Adam's Digivice in time. He could feel that the compartment holding the Digivice becoming lighter, as if emptied in a second. Then he saw swirls of light appearing on Adam's outstretched hand, and the D3 Digivice appeared there.

"_SHIT!"_ he cursed loudly. Seething, he curled his fingers tight on Adam's D-Terminal and calmed himself down. He still had the White DigiSphere and the Ivory Gem in his possession, and apparently, nobody else knew about that. The Blue ShadoWira gave him a strange look, although it wasn't visible from the emotionless mask he had donned on his face.

"What are you so angry about all of a sudden?" the Blue ShadoWira asked curiously.

Nobody should know about this, the Red ShadoWira decided. Not Blue. Not Karatenmon. And, certainly NOT SkullSatamon.

"Nothing," the Red ShadoWira replied, with the most nonchalant tone he could generate to cover up for his anger. He kept his hold on Adam's D-Terminal tight, and was glad for once that he was wearing a mantle. Nobody could see through his mantle. He ignored his bleeding arm and focused on not letting the DigiWira boy reclaim his D-Terminal.

And apparently, he had nothing to worry about. The boy had used the last of his strength on his attempt to seize both his Digivice and D-Terminal. Hadn't the Red ShadoWira been quick enough to grab hold onto the D-Terminal, Adam would have successfully teleported both devices back. Now the boy wouldn't have the strength to attempt another teleportation. It was not a total loss, so the Red ShadoWira snickered silently and watched as Gayathri was about to escape with Adam.

"My D-Terminal!" Adam cried out. "It's still with the Red ShadoWira."

"We'll try to get it back if it's possible," Liu Ying promised. "But you have to go now. Gayathri, move!"

Before Adam could protest, Gayathri grabbed hold on him firmly and began running, taking him along with her. Adam felt as if the winds were pushing them both from behind; his dark hair flapped up and down above his head, and some of the longer bangs were plastered on his forehead. He couldn't see clearly the surroundings, but noticed the rapid changes in the environment. The dark sky began to clear, and gradually rays of warm sunshine bathed him. Adam was glad for the sunshine's presence – he was kept inside a very dark dungeon for the night, and spent nearly the entire morning inside the Shadow Realm. They then climbed a rocky hill, with Gayathri maneuvering both of them with apparent ease, and reached the end of the Shadow Realm. On the other side of the hill, Adam smiled faintly upon the sight of slight greenery, as Gayathri halted to a stop.

"Let me rest for a while, ok?" Gayathri said breathlessly and plopped onto the ground. She stretched her legs forward and massaged her thighs and calves slowly. The girl was catching her breath as she looked back upon the dark region behind her, wondering about Liu Ying.

In the meantime, Liu Ying found herself and her Digimon friends being approached by the Blue ShadoWira and four Harpymon. Above them hovered Karatenmon, who was expanding his wings widely. His eyes had the look that could kill.

"Well, well, well, child," Karatenmon said with malice. "Your friends might have escaped, but you will not!"

"Don't be too sure," Liu Ying said as she mounted Youkomon, grabbing a firm hold onto the fox's fluffy fur. _Looks like we're not going to be able to retrieve Adam's D-Terminal now_, the girl thought grimly as she looked up to the butterfly woman hovering above them. "Fairymon, do it!"

Fairymon spread out her slender arms wide, collecting as much energy as possible from the winds that were blowing from the clouds. One thing the sprite had learned during her short stint of being brainwashed by Sorcerymon's abhorrence spell was that she could harness the winds around her to energize her own special technique. She could normally generate a forceful enough Hurricane Wave technique without collecting energy from around her, but today was different. Their opponent was not only an ultimate level Digimon, he was also very powerful. She calmed herself down and willed the winds to focus on her. Her arms began to emit pink energy waves as the winds began to focus on her, surrounding her hovering body. The pink waves from her hands infused with the swirling winds, and in a blink of the eyes the swirling winds were transformed into a shrieking tornado!

"_Hurricane….WAVE!" _

Liu Ying then sensed Youkomon's nine tails being raised, and felt a burning sensation as the tips of the tails burst with red flames. The kitsune bowed her head down a little, and spread out her legs – she seemed to attempt to channel as much power as she could into her attack.

"_Fox Tail…INFERNO!"_

Nine fireballs were released, and they streaked towards the screaming hurricane before entering them. Fairymon, airborne in the middle of the hurricane, waved her arms and allowed the nine fireballs to merge with the tornado she had created. The fireballs burst and instantly, the Hurricane Wave technique was infused with flames!

Together, Youkomon and Fairymon shouted, _"HURRICANE INFERNO!"_

With a loud cry, Fairymon released the super-energized combo technique towards the enemies. The Blue ShadoWira was thrown off his feet, colliding with the Red ShadoWira, who yelled out a violent swear as the Blue ShadoWira had accidentally elbowed his wounded arm when they collided. Yet, with a wave of his hands the Blue ShadoWira immediately generated streams of water and soaked both himself and his fellow ShadoWira with the water to avoid getting burned by the amazing technique.

The Harpymon were also blown away, squawking incessantly as the fiery hurricane lifted them off the ground, spinning them around before throwing them all in four different directions. No Harpymon escaped the hurricane unscathed. All of them suffered burning feathers, and were rolling onto the earth madly to quench the flames with dusts and sands.

Karatenmon watched the approaching hurricane warily and channeled his dark energy to counter-attack the Hurricane Inferno. Thousands of feather-shaped projectiles were fired relentlessly onto the pink typhoon, but the pellets were simply absorbed by the flaming windstorm. The feather projectiles crackled with black electricity while within the tornado, and began to weaken the hurricane. Karatenmon then generated an energy sphere, filled with dark energy, and fired exactly where he deemed to be the position of the eye of the storm. The sphere hit the desired target and the hurricane evaporated instantly in a flash of purple and pink lights.

But, the hurricane was not only the one which had vanished, as Karatenmon was about to find out.

The DigiWira and the two partners Digimon were also gone.

xxx

xxx

Following Jackie's last parting instruction; Alisha had left the computer open ever since the previous night. She had been waiting around the living room anxiously, hoping that her brother would be alright. The CPU fan was letting out a louder whirring sound than before, but Alisha didn't care. She didn't manage to ask Jackie why would she have to leave the computer on, but she trusted the computer instructor. Her mind reeled back to what Jackie had told her earlier; even until this day, she couldn't manage to fully grasp all the things which had been revealed to her.

It was difficult enough to comprehend that there was another world existed parallel to the real world. What was more perplexing was the fact that this Digital World was created from the data of the computers worldwide. Alisha considered herself quite an expert with computers, hardware and software alike, and she had a double-degree on Information Technology and Software Engineering from the most prestigious university in Malaysia, but nothing had been said about the Digital World. She attempted on some research on her own the previous night, and with her skills it wasn't difficult for her to find out more about Digimon.

Digimon had been known to appear worldwide during Christmas Eve of the year 2002, with the appearances being concentrated on Odaiba, Japan. A group of children known as the DigiDestined had reclaimed all the Digimon appearing in various locations of the world and returned them back to the Digital World. A huge scale attack ensued in Odaiba, and Alisha managed to trace an image pertaining to the attack. The website was rather hard to find, but Alisha found it to be most informative compared to the major news website she managed to encounter. Clicking the link towards the image, a picture of a massive armored bipedal dragon was shown, towering the buildings around it. The image file was named "_ImperialdramonOdaibaBattle2002.jpg"_ and right now, the image was left opened by a picture manager in Alisha's home computer.

_It's no wonder that I hadn't heard about the attack,_ Alisha mused silently. _2002 was a hard year for us. There was that accident. And I was struggling to finish up my studies as soon as possible, so that I could start work immediately and take care of Adam…_

Just thinking about her younger brother being kidnapped caused tears to brim her eyes once again. Faint eye bags were visible under her eyes; she hadn't been able to sleep the night before. She had never imagined that Adam would be kidnapped; not to mention, by otherworldly beings instead of the normal kidnappers. On the table, she eyed a bowl of cereal which was left half-finished, and on the kitchen counter, the dinner for two that she had bought the previous day were left untouched. The groceries she had gotten too were still in their plastic bags.

_Please, Adam…come back safely. I can't lose you. You're all I have now. The only family I have…_

Suddenly, the monitor flashed with brilliant white light, immediately drawing Alisha's attention. Her eyes widened upon seeing the figure of a teenaged boy materializing, clad in the first aid society's uniform he was wearing the previous day. He was cradling a slumbering white creature which looked like a guinea pig. Gray eyes identical to hers were looking at her, widened with surprise. When the lights died out, Alisha let out a grateful shriek, jumped from the sofa she was sitting on and seized the boy into a hug.

"Adam! Oh, Adam…thank God you're alright!" she cried. "I was so worried when I heard that you're kidnapped. And who's this? Your partner? But he looks different…"

Adam winced slightly, he was still in pain from the wounds he had sustained, but he didn't say a word as his sister continued remarking something rapidly. Adam managed to catch on certain phrases like Jackie, Digimon, Digital World, captured, DigiWira, Patamon, and many other things that his slightly fatigued mind couldn't comprehend for the time being. TobuCatmon had dabbed some herbal medicine onto the wounds, and Gayathri had managed to bandage the wounds on his body and declared that luckily there were no infections sustained by Adam. The wounds would heal, but right now, the pain coming from the wounds were becoming more and more unbearable.

"Ow, ow…Kak Lisha…" he accidentally let out a cry, which prompted Alisha to let go.

"Adam, what's wrong?" she immediately asked as she pulled herself away from her brother. It was then she noticed that Adam was far from alright. His face, slightly bruised on the right side cheek, seemed to be straining to control what looked like pain. "What happened to your face, Adam?" she asked quickly as she guided her brother to the two-sitter sofa. They sat down on the leathery sofa together, side by side.

Adam hesitated for a moment, before deciding to spin the tale. He didn't want to say that a strong punch from the Red ShadoWira was the reason of his bruised face. That would make his older sister worry. Rubbing his face softly with his hand, he smiled, "My face? Well…I got hit by something, how careless of me, heh heh…Should've watched where I was going. See? No pain at all, TobuCatmon's medicine works great!" _That was a horrible lie,_ Adam thought grimly, but kept the smile plastered on his face.

Alisha scrutinized his brother's face. "Are you sure? It's not painful at all now?" She tentatively rubbed her thumb over the bruise.

"Sure I'm sure," Adam said quickly; it was lucky for him that Alisha's touch was gentle – it caused a mild irritation on the bruise, but nothing else. Should she decide to press on the bruise Adam would've jumped out the sofa in response to the pain he'd be feeling. He was relieved when Alisha withdrew her hand away, but she didn't look quite convinced.

"Maybe we should see a doctor," she said uncertainly. The bruise didn't look serious, but it looked odd on her brother's face. Adam wasn't one who would get into a fight.

"No way," Adam said slowly, and exaggeratedly, emphasizing every syllable in great detail and with an overdone tone. "He'd just prescribe me with a cream or something. I can get something more potent for free from TobuCatmon." _Well, that is true, at least,_ Adam thought silently.

Alisha was about to protest when she was reminded that her little brother was a part of a triumvirate of protectors of another world. He'd been doing this for weeks; surely he knew better about taking care of himself now. "If you say so, Adam," she sighed.

Adam clasped his sister's hand. "Don't worry about me, Kak Lisha. I'll be fine."

"I know you will," Alisha said, and smiled. "What I'm worried about is what would the neighbors think when they see your bruised face? God forbids they think I'm abusing you!" She nudged her brother's forehead playfully with one finger.

Adam grinned. "Scary thought," he replied. "Maybe you should write me an excuse slip for me to stay at home until my bruise is gone," he said cheekily.

"Don't play smart with me," Alisha scolded. Then, she smiled deviously. "I can think of more effective ways to make the bruise disappear."

"Oh yeah? Name two," Adam challenged, raising two fingers up.

"Ok. How about, I dab on some of my make-up on your face to hide the bruise?"

The dark-haired DigiWira wrinkled his face in disgust, appalled of the idea of his sister putting make-up on his face. "Ewww."

"Or, you go to this TobuCatmon, and get something that will cure the bruise."

"I'll go with option number two," Adam said immediately.

The siblings laughed together of their banters. Adam loved this; it felt normal, and it made him forget of the wounds he had sustained on his body, and about the incident that had led him to it. It was lucky that his civilian clothes were not affected – his DigiWira uniform would really require some major fixing up should they were brought back to the human's world. He was also thankful of TobuCatmon's many healing ointments, which had stopped the bleeding on his body, despite the pain not alleviated completely. Should the wounds still bled, they would stain his white shirt horribly, and there would be no way for Adam to explain that to Alisha.

Then, he noticed Alisha's face growing solemn.

"Adam, what were you thinking? Why didn't you tell me about you being DigiWira? I'd rather found out about this _from you _than your teacher," she said.

"I…I wanted to tell you, Kak Lisha," Adam answered, which was the truth. "I just…couldn't find the right time. And I was afraid of how you'd react."

Alisha shook her head and had a faraway look on her face.

"Kak Lisha? Is something wrong?" Adam asked nervously. "I'm sorry for making you worry. I was afraid that you'd be, that's why I decided not to tell you before. I was hoping that you wouldn't find out about this too…Don't be mad…"

"I'm not," Alisha cut him off gently. She grasped her brother's hands. "But promise me one thing, please?"

Adam nodded. "Ok."

"I want you to promise to me that there'll be no secret about you being a DigiWira anymore, ok?" Alisha requested urgently. Her eyes twinkled slightly, offsetting her slightly pale skin and her long dark brown locks which cascaded down her shoulders to the half of her back. She smiled slightly. "I will be worried, of course, because I'm your big sister. But I can tell that you like doing this…"

"I am," Adam concurred, nodding his head as emphasis. "What we're doing is important. We can't back off now."

"…so I won't stop you," Alisha finished, and saw her brother beaming. "But, on one condition," she added, wiggling her index finger.

Adam's smiling face faltered slightly. "Umm…what's the condition?"

"I want you to let me help you. I know I might not be a DigiWira, like you and your friends, but surely I can help you with something," Alisha said. "Other than just a moral support, I hope."

"I'm glad that you're ok with this," Adam said, relieved. "I don't know how you can help, though. You're not a DigiWira so you can't go to the Digital World. But maybe you can be like Jackie. Some sort of mentor with tips for us. And…" he grinned. "You can let me play with the computer longer than my two hours per day quota," he added impishly.

"Smart aleck!" Alisha laughed and ruffled her younger brother's hair. She wrinkled her nose slightly when noticing the dusts and the oiliness of her brother's hair, and strained a smile when he heard a loud growl coming from the boy's stomach. "March to the bathroom this instance, little brother, while I fix something for us to eat. It's past three now, and you probably didn't have anything to eat while being…kidnapped." Alisha grimaced slightly upon mentioning about the kidnapping, but apart from his bruised face, Adam looked perfectly fine.

What she didn't know that Adam had asked TobuCatmon and Gayathri to fix him up as best as they could. He had cleaned his face, and washed out the dry blood that had caked in front of his nose – a parting souvenir from the Red ShadoWira. He didn't want to worry his sister, not when his sister was already too vexed about him being kidnapped already. His bruised face was the only thing for now that would concern his sister, and Adam hoped that it stayed that way. The wounds on his shoulder, waist and right arm would be hidden as long as he kept a shirt on his body until they healed naturally.

"Oh, and one other thing…" Adam said, smiling as he pushed his thoughts away. He followed his sister towards the kitchen.

"What's that?" Alisha asked, dumping the previous day's dinner inside the waste basket.

"I'm craving for your homemade _nasi lemak_," Adam told her, and smiled charmingly. "Can you make it for me?"

"Sure," Alisha said, rolling her eyes. She knew that she didn't make the perfect nasi lemak, but for some reason that was what Adam loved the most out of all her home-cooked meals. Her brother was just being very sweet, in her opinion. "Ok. I can see why not. I was planning to make nasi lemak anyway for quite some time now. Today's as good as any day. Looks like it will be a lunch for three if your partner wakes up soon. Patamon, right? Go ahead and take a shower, and take your time."

"Yeah, but he's Tokomon for now. Better make it a lunch for _five_," Adam grinned. "I could eat as much as two people, and Tokomon will be able to consume much, much more!" He glanced towards the sofa, where he had placed the sleeping Tokomon on. "So much more," he emphasized with a grin.

"Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me," Alisha said with a mock-grimace, as Adam walked towards the bathroom. She had just solved the puzzle of the mysterious disappearance of a large amount of food items from the fridge and the cabinet – Adam didn't eat much usually, which explained his slight figure.

Suddenly she was reminded of the laundry basket inside the bathroom, which was nearly full. If she didn't do the laundry today, they might not have enough clothes to wear for the following week. She remembered there were three sets of Adam's school uniform in the laundry basket already, and they had to be washed in order for the boy to have enough uniforms to be worn to school on the following week. Quickly, she put down the groceries and headed towards the bathroom, planning to ask Adam to just hand out the laundry basket.

However, she was stopped short as she saw the mirror in the bathroom. The door was still open, and Alisha saw her brother's reflection on the mirror. The teenaged boy had already discarded his shirt and trousers, and a clean white towel was wrapped below his waist as he was brushing his teeth in front of the mirror. From the angle she was standing, it was impossible for her brother to be aware of her watching him. The young woman gasped silently, horrified upon seeing the gashes on Adam's right shoulder, waist and arm.

_What happened to you, Adam?_ Alisha wondered, feeling like almost crying all over again upon the sight of her brother's wounds. They looked bad, but seemed to be already treated. On the sink the young woman could see some used bandages – Adam might have removed them prior to brushing his teeth. _How can he act so…normally, with all those wounds?_ Alisha wondered, leaning against the wall for support. _Adam, why didn't you want to tell me about those wounds?_ she wondered despairingly.

_This business he has with this Digital World…could it be the cause of those wounds? _Alisha thought. She strained to recall the details Jackie had given her. _Their latest threat is with humans as well –what are they called? Anti-DigiWira…oh yes…ShadoWira. They're the ones who have kidnapped Adam for their master. Could a fight between Adam and the ShadoWira cause Adam to sustain these injuries? _

It instantly dawned to Alisha that her younger brother was involved with something very serious. She had known it before after Jackie briefed her with the details the previous day, but seeing with her own eyes that her little brother was wounded enforced the knowledge even more into her mind. It caused her to wonder whether she should stop Adam from participating with this DigiWira business anymore.

_But he likes doing this;_ Alisha recalled her brother's exact words. _What they are doing is important. And he does seem genuinely happy about becoming a DigiWira. So happy that even though he's hurt, he would go all out in making sure that I won't find out about it. And he keeps on worrying that _I'd_ be worried of him. Maybe he thinks that I won't allow him to go to the Digital World anymore if I'm made aware of these injuries?_

Alisha then realized that Adam was only going to be honest to her as long as he knew that whatever he would have to reveal wasn't going to make her worry. He'd keep all the gory parts out, of course, and would give her details that didn't seem to be so major. It was just so like Adam.

_I've nearly lost him to the evil Digimon in the Digital World,_ Alisha thought grimly, as she saw the bathroom door being closed and locked. Seconds later the sound of the showers were heard, and a distinct song being hummed by her brother was heard. _He's all I have now… my only family. I don't want him to endanger his life…but he seems so happy. _Alisha reflected back on an event occurring a few years ago, and she recalled for the past two weeks, Adam had seemed so spirited and energetic. Alisha didn't have the heart to stop her brother from doing what he enjoyed to do.

As she made her way back to the kitchen, she knew that she needed to do more than just giving tips and moral support to her brother. But what else could she do?

A thought crossed her mind. A crazy notion, which she didn't believe she could come up with, but which might just work.

_I'll call up the office first thing tomorrow morning and tell them that I won't be able to make it_, she decided promptly. _Then, I'll go meet that computer instructor, Jackie Chan. He'll know what to do. And I still am curious of how on earth could his laptop project out holograms from the screen. And besides, there's something slightly off about that man. _

Wistfully, Alisha began to scoop some rice from the rice bucket using a plastic cup, and poured the rice into the pot of the electric rice cooker. After placing three cups of rice, she washed the raw rice first before measuring the exact amount of water needed to cook the rice. Next, she added some powdered coconut milk into the pot and stirred the contents evenly. Placing the pot inside the rice cooker, Alisha closed the lid and set the rice cooker to cook the rice.

_If Adam's happy becoming a DigiWira, I won't stop him. _

_But…_

_I'll watch over him. _

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

It's been a while since I've done author notes. Mainly it's because of the continuity of the chapters, and author notes would just diminish the effect of the cliffhanger. But this chapter doesn't end with a cliffhanger (at least not a major one) so I can squeeze in some Author Notes.

Black Knightmon is not a canon Digimon, although Knightmon is. Think of Black Knightmon as a corrupted form of Knightmon.

**Glossaries **(things that I think need some explaining, from Light Amidst Shadow and Unbound)

**_Baju Kurung_ – **Traditional Malay women attire, suitable to be worn to almost all places and occasions. Despite being a Malay attire, baju kurung is widely accepted by the other races in Malaysia as well.

**_MySpace, Yahoo Messenger – _**Somewhat cultural phenomena for mostly youngsters and young adults in Malaysia, and probably the whole world. :D Rather self-explanatory.

**_Nasi Lemak_ – **Rice cooked with coconut milk. A local Malaysian delicacy enjoyed by all. Is usually served with boiled egg, fried anchovies and fried ground nuts, and chili paste.

**_Vernacular schools_ (mentioned in previous chapter) – **Schools where most subjects are taught in Chinese or Tamil. They are available both as primary and secondary schools. If one was enrolled in a primary vernacular school, and wishes to further his study in a national secondary school, he is required to undergo one year of intensive study in Malaysian language to ensure that he will be able to grasp on the subjects taught – as most subjects, with the exception of Math, Science subjects, and English language, are taught in Malaysian language. Thus one who has gone to vernacular school before entering Form One would be one year older than his classmates.

In Liu Ying's case, she has attended vernacular primary school prior to going to the national secondary school. That makes her a year older than the rest of her classmates – who being Form Two students, are mostly fourteen or going to be fourteen (like Adam and Gayathri). In certain cases, Form Two students can also be thirteen, but that's another story.


	13. Yin and Yang

It was Monday, early in the morning. 6.15 a.m. to be exact.

Inside a rather spacious, dimly-lit, square-shaped room, a figure was sitting on a queen-sized bed. The room's lamp was not lit, and the only source of light came from the window across the right side of the bed. The light illuminated the silhouette of the one on the bed, who was leaning his back against the wooden railing, and had his legs stretched forward. The blankets were thrown to the sides, signing that the bed had been slept off, but not yet being made.

The one on the bed was clearly a male, and in the dark room it was impossible to make out his features. The scanty light was enough to reveal that he was currently, despite the coolness of the room due to the air-conditioner, wearing nothing more than a black pair of shorts. His face was hidden, indiscernible in darkness. His toned right arm was revealed to have a thin, nearly three inches long scar. The scar looked healed, but somewhat fresh.

He was currently inspecting a contraption he was holding. He pressed on one button, and the device let out a holographic image of a glittering white sphere.

The White DigiSphere.

Another press of the button revealed another holographic image – this time it was a small gemstone, not as burnished as the White DigiSphere, but shining nonetheless.

The Ivory Gem.

_What does this Ivory Gem do?_ He wondered, examining the rough edges of the gem, taking note of the gem's smooth surface. _Looks like the gem has been cut into two. Where's the other half?_

He pressed another button, and the image of the Ivory Gem vanished. The screen flashed with light as details were displayed. He peered closer to the screen and read the details lazily. He had read them before, the previous night, but as he had nothing else to do, he reread them again. The text was displayed in gray-white digitized letterings against a black background.

xx

_**DigiWira: Adam Ariff**_

_**DigiSphere: White – Light**_

**_Digital Abilities – Teleportation / Teleportation-Summoning_**

_**Digimon Partner: Tokomon (In-training) / Patamon (Rookie) / Centarumon (Champion) / Sagittarimon (Armored Champion) / Black Knightmon (Corrupted Ultimate)**_

xx

_How the hell did HE, out of all DigiWira, manage to unlock an independent Ultimate-level Digivolution?_ He pondered silently, rubbing his chin as he thought about it. It simply didn't make any sense to him. _He's the newest one, the least experienced – yet his partner is the one who Digivolved to Ultimate first. Even our Digimon partners couldn't achieve Ultimate form without DNA Digivolution. Who cares if his partner is corrupted? An Ultimate is an Ultimate. _

_Then there's his power…_ he continued silently, reading Adam's Digital Abilities over and over again. He had seen the boy's power the previous day, and it didn't impress him the slightest. But what SkullSatamon had told Adam unnerved him.

"**I see so much potential to your power. I can make it grow to a deadly proportion. You might think of your power merely as only a way for you to transport yourself away from harm; but join me, be my spawn of evil, and I will make your power the most destructive of all! Nothing can ever stand in your way – not the other DigiWira, not even the ShadoWira, even Grademon will pale in comparison to you."**

The words of SkullSatamon echoed in his mind many times the previous day (the underlined words in particular) and it had been the reason for his lack of sleep that night. _What did SkullSatamon see in him, exactly? He couldn't even pick his own fight…wait, that's not exactly true. He did pack quite a punch…_ As he thought about that, a brief smile flashed on his face as his hand went up towards his right chest side, where he had been punched by Adam that late Saturday night. _Not exactly painful, but quite surprising…_

_But what about his power? What about it that makes it so fascinating? What makes it destructive? _

_This Grademon guy; he's supposed to be very powerful. He's the one who imprisoned SkullSatamon, thank goodness for that. I don't think I can stand the smell of his decaying bones…even with the barrier up the smell's already nauseating enough. But Adam…corrupted fully, and he'll have the power which will eclipse even Grademon? _

_Inconceivable. He's just a mere boy._

_And that boy didn't even have a clue, judging from his reaction yesterday. No clue at all. _

_Leader of the ShadoWira? Pah. My fire power can easily kill him._

_Bullshit,_ he thought finally. _Utter crap. How can the power of teleportation can be harmful to any of us? _He thought, as his left hand traced a scar on his exposed right arm, right above the elbow, along the triceps. _Damn,_ he cursed silently. _That's how the power of teleportation can be harmful. Out of the blue, he just teleported Karatenmon's sword and used it against me! That little brat! But still, that doesn't prove that Adam is that powerful. Just what did SkullSatamon see in him?_

_Pah. Maybe that decrepit ol' demon was just saying that. Senile, after three centuries of imprisonment. Confinement could do that to anyone, right? He was after the teleportation power simply to escape that barrier around his decrepit ol' castle._

_That had to be it._

With that settled, the Red ShadoWira was satisfied. Within the darkness, flashes of crimson were seen, presumably coming from his eyes. The flashes of light however were gone just as soon as he blinked his eyes, and everything was dark again. He then let out a brief chuckle, before getting up and walking over to his study table, where a desktop system was placed. He placed Adam's D-Terminal right beside his own, which was beside the monitor, before picking up the towel he had placed on the chair in front of the table. Then, he turned around to look at the time.

The digital clock placed on the bedside table displayed the time in red numbers, against black background.

6.30 a.m.

_Time to get ready for school._

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 13 – Yin and Yang_**

xxx

xxx

The time was 6.45 a.m. and Adam was already awake.

Not only that, he was already in front of the computer, browsing the internet idly after his sister had stepped out. Until the bruise on his face faded, Alisha wanted Adam to remain at home, which Adam obeyed gladly. He too was not keen of having his bruised face – a souvenir from the Red ShadoWira – displayed to all, especially on a Monday where the school would be having its weekly assembly. It would simply rouse suspicion.

At the kitchen, the rice cooker was cooking some nasi lemak that Alisha had prepared before going out. There were many leftovers from the day before which were now stored in the refrigerator to avoid the remaining condiments from being spoiled, and Adam simply would need to reheat them to eat with the rice for breakfast. To pass some time, he decided to surf the net instead of taking a shower.

Well, it wasn't everyday that he was allowed to stay at home, and he would take the opportunity to relax. After all, he had brushed his teeth, he had performed his morning prayer, and Tokomon was still asleep. The TV had nothing interesting on, and Adam didn't want to watch any movies until _after_ he had showered. And he'd have that shower _after_ he had his breakfast. And just to be cheeky, he had mentioned all of what he had intended to do to his sister as he was sending her off to the door.

Alisha shrugged, saying that Adam could do whatever he wanted to do, only on one condition.

He was to remain at home. That meant not only no school, but also no Digital World activity as well for the day.

Adam would have insisted that he was needed at the Digital World, but his sister (having seen her brother's injuries by accident the previous day, although Adam didn't realize about it) had pointed out that Adam would need his rest. Until he had healed, he would remain at home. And besides, there was no use going to the Digital World if Tokomon wasn't up to it. The Digimon was still very weak from the previous day's battle, which had drained a lot out of him.

Adam knew that Tokomon wasn't kidding; it was the first time he had seen his partner de-Digivolving all the way into in-training level. Usually, his partner retained his rookie form while at the human world. Not only that, the fact that his partner spent nearly the whole Sunday sleeping also unnerved him.

Speaking of Tokomon, Adam's mind reeled back to the conversation he had with his de-Digivolved partner, last night, before they went to sleep.

/Flashback/

"Adam, I'm really, really sorry," Tokomon said profusely, as Adam settled in his bed right beside him. It was 9.30 in the night, way too early for Adam's usual bedtime, but the boy had been so tired that he didn't want to do anything else other than retire for the night. The boy had switched off the lights, but some lights came through the window, dimly illuminating the room.

"What for, Tokomon?"

"Earlier today, I've…Dark Digivolved into Black Knightmon. I've put everyone's lives in danger. Yours, the other DigiWira, Youkomon, Fairymon…"

Adam grimaced, recollecting the event occurring at the Shadow Realm that very morning. True, his partner had Dark Digivolved. And according to TobuCatmon and Labramon, back at the Forest Sanctum, after the battle and with much coaxing from the DigiWira, the DigiWira were told that Dark Digivolution was something that shouldn't be attempted by any Digimon, as it would cause the Digimon to be corrupted by it permanently upon its first kill.

It was lucky that Black Knightmon didn't delete any Digimon, although he had nearly done so to the partners of the ShadoWira.

"It wasn't your fault, Tokomon," he assured, patting the little Digimon gently.

"But I succumbed to my anger, Adam. I've put everyone's lives in danger," Tokomon said with a disheartened tone. "I knew the repercussion of Dark Digivolution, but still, I let it get me."

Adam sighed as he placed his head on the pillow. He turned sideways, and bore his gray eyes on the in-training's black, button eyes.

"Tokomon, let's put it this way. If you didn't become Black Knightmon, how do you think today's event would turn out?"

Tokomon thought about it. If he hadn't Dark Digivolved, Reichmon would once again overpower the DigiWira partners. With Reichmon winning, the ShadoWira would also be triumphant against the DigiWira. The evil forces of SkullSatamon would win the battle instantly – other than the ShadoWira and Reichmon, there was Karatenmon, who was the Dark Mage General and one of SkullSatamon's generals. There were also the Harpymon. Not forgetting, Sorcerymon and Shutumon.

Without Black Knightmon, Adam wouldn't be able to be rescued. It was his appearance that had caused the Red ShadoWira to lose his hold on Adam, enabling Adam to escape.

Tokomon shivered. Without his Dark Ultimate form, he wouldn't be able to have Adam lying beside him at all.

But still…

"Tokomon," Adam began, "If you need someone to put blame upon, put it on me."

The button-eyes belonging to the in-training Digimon shot wide. "Adam, no! No way. I can't do that!"

"Why not?" Adam asked back. "If I was careful not to get myself captured at the Green Meadow Village, I wouldn't need any rescuing at all. I won't get kidnapped, my D-Terminal wouldn't get stolen by the Red ShadoWira, you wouldn't have Dark Digivolved, Liu Ying and Gayathri wouldn't have to go all the way to the Forest Sanctum to rescue me…"

"You couldn't help it. We saw how you were captured. There's no way you could escape those dirty ShadoWira. Don't blame yourself."

"See?" Adam smiled gently. "We can turn this into one major guilt-fest if we let this go on and on. My opinion; what's past is past."

"But," Tokomon said, still downcast. He looked up at his human partner, with tears forming at the brims of his small eyes. "I don't know whether I can Digivolve again. I'm just…too scared now. I kept seeing Black Knightmon in my head. I...I don't know. There's still this creepiness I feel inside of me, the same feeling I have when I was Black Knightmon. I can't risk Digivolving again; I don't want to become Black Knightmon again, Adam. I don't want to place you all in danger anymore."

Adam was dumbfounded; he didn't know how to response to this. Tokomon was looking so depressed and dejected, his confidence lost. It was so unlike him. As Centarumon, when they had first met, the centaur had proven to be a courageous protector of the Green Meadow Village. As Sagittarimon, partner to a DigiWira, he had helped hamper the evil plans of their archenemies. As Patamon, he possessed knowledge and wit which belied his physical outlook. To see him now, as a small in-training, afraid and crestfallen, caused Adam to share his pain.

Adam didn't want to pressure his partner into Digivolving when Tokomon had just stated that he was afraid in doing so.

But, what if they were needed by the other DigiWira?

The ShadoWira were very strong enemies, and the girls' partners couldn't achieve ultimate level. Powers alone, Adam believed both Liu Ying and Gayathri could hold themselves well against the ShadoWira, but if the ShadoWira unleashed Reichmon, all would be lost.

Tokomon was shivering again, and Adam didn't have the heart to point out what he was thinking to his partner. He quickly pushed his thoughts away, and pulled Tokomon close to him.

"I owe you my life today, Tokomon. Thank you, partner," he said softly. Tokomon was about to reply, but Adam placed a finger on his mouth, effectively blocking the in-training from speaking. He smiled gently and closed his eyes. "Go to sleep, Tokomon. We'll think about this tomorrow."

/End Flashback/

It was now 7.00 in the morning, and as he stared at the computer, his Digivice on top of the computer table (Alisha had wanted to inspect the Digivice the previous day, and Adam had neglected to take it back to his room before going to bed) blinked. A message box suddenly popped out on the screen.

It was the same thing that had happened, Adam remembered, three weeks ago, when TobuCatmon first contacted him to become a DigiWira.

Eagerly, Adam leaned forward and read the message that was typed in the opened window.

_**Adam, this is TobuCatmon. I have been expecting you to log on the internet this morning, as you have informed me yesterday that you might be staying at home for a while, at least until the bruise on your face is healed. Without your D-Terminal, we can't contact you directly, so here's what I need you to do.**_

**_1. Download a chatting client – either Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. For your information, both Liu Ying and Gayathri used Yahoo Messenger before the D-Terminal's appearances. It was how I contacted them whenever there was trouble in the Digital World, before you came along._**

_**2. Install this program WHILE you are installing Yahoo Messenger.**_

**_3. If everything goes well, when Yahoo Messenger has been installed on your computer, you should be seeing my name – TobuCatmon – in your friends' list. I will be appearing as 'Online'. Just click on my name, and we can converse. Just give me a 'Buzz' and I will reply to you shortly._**

_**4. If you don't see my name, it means that the installation didn't go perfectly. In that case, uninstall both programs – go to the Add/Remove section to do so – and reinstall the two programs again simultaneously. **_

"Kak Lisha won't like this," Adam murmured, but then shrugged. "But since I've got nothing else to do today, why not? It's not like I'll be chatting with people I don't know."

Adam took notice of another small box popping out from out of nowhere on the screen, prompting him to begin installing the program that was embedded on it. Remembering TobuCatmon's instruction, Adam opened the Yahoo! Search engine webpage, and found the link to download the chatting client program. He followed TobuCatmon's instruction and installed both programs simultaneously.

After a few minutes, the Yahoo Messenger program was loaded and Adam saw TobuCatmon's name on top of his list.

"Be right back?" Adam pondered, sweat-dropping upon noticing the feline Digimon's status. He gave a 'buzz' to TobuCatmon, and leaned back against his chair, waiting.

No reply came after two minutes had passed, and Adam grew restless. He didn't know what else to do, but his eyes then trailed on the icon that said 'Send a Message'. An idea crossed his mind; there was something he'd been meaning to do, but due to his capture by the ShadoWira, he was unable to do so. His thoughts reeled back to the latest Computer Club meeting last Saturday, and what he had discovered after the club's meeting.

"I forgot to notify J.D. Kamaruzaman about the birthday messages he'd gotten from his friends," he said loudly, and began thinking of J.D.'s username.

Recalling quickly of the said teen's username, Adam began typing a message after entering the recipient's username. He decided not to add the teen in his list yet – he didn't even know much about the mixed-blood teenager in the first place – but he figured that it was J.D.'s birthday last Saturday, and it would be a shame if the teen didn't get the wishes that were meant for him.

"Even though he could be a jerk sometimes, but…here goes," Adam muttered, and typed out the message.

"**_Hey. Hmm…this is Adam Ariff. From the Computer Club, if you don't remember. Anyway, you didn't log off from your YM and MySpace properly when you got out from the class, and Mr. Chan told me to do it for you. But when I was about to log you off, several birthday wishes came for you. I thought that you should know about this, but since you won't be able to know about those messages when you open your YM at your home, I figured that I'd drop you a message telling you about it."_**

Realizing that he was two days late in doing so, Adam added one more sentence in his message.

"**_Sorry for the lateness though; I would've sent this message on Saturday, but-"_**

_But what?_ Adam wondered. _But I was kidnapped by two murderous guys I don't know, and one of them seems to want my head, so that's why I couldn't send you this message earlier. While at it, would you believe it if I say that I was taken to a strange world with out-of-this-world creatures? I guess not._

If it weren't for the grimness of the situation he had experienced the day before, Adam would have laughed off the silly thought he was thinking. There was no way he would include _that_ on a message he was sending to somebody he didn't even know. J.D. would think that he was crazy, or worse, yet another person who was desperate to become his friend. Despite the blond teen's bad-boy status at school, there was no denying that many people, girls and guys alike, were curious of the teen and would like to get to know him, but many were turned off instantly due to the teen's tough-guy behavior and his tendency to get into trouble.

Adam scoffed; he wasn't one of those persons though. He was curious too, yes, but certainly not desperate. Having J.D. joining him and Liu Ying at the Computer Club was more than he could handle, although he couldn't deny that he was slightly amused of how Liu Ying reacted to the teen.

The senior DigiWira simply _loathed_ having the mixed-blood teen at their table.

Composing his thought once again, Adam thought up of how to continue the message. He decided that the best way was to be vague.

"**_but something came up, and I was only able to do so today."_**

"These should be enough," Adam murmured, and was about to hit the 'SEND' button when something crossed his mind. He wondered whether he should put it into words or not, as he was curious about it. _Oh, and by the way, I was curious of how you know Hakim…I don't remember you two being friends at all at school. _"Nah, that's not my business," Adam decided. "But, maybe I can include this."

"**_Oh, and by the way, Happy belated 16th Birthday."_**

_Oh. And how come you're 16? Shouldn't you be 15? Hmm…once again, not my business. Don't be nosy, Adam. Remember what curiosity did to you. _He shivered, recollecting the event happening between him and the Red ShadoWira when they first faced each other off at the Megalith Coliseum. Due to his slightly curious nature, he had let himself becoming vulnerable to the Red ShadoWira. It was thanks to his teleportation power that he managed to escape the perilous predicament.

_But if Liu Ying sees this, she'd be yelling in my ears,_ Adam thought with a grin, and hit the 'SEND' button. _I wonder why Liu Ying hates having J.D. around, anyway. Maybe I'll ask her later._

'**BUZZ!'**

A chat-box appeared, and Adam saw that TobuCatmon's status had changed from 'Be Right Back' to 'Online'.

xxx

xxx

It was 7.05 a.m. at USJ 2 National Secondary School, and teenagers in school uniforms were bustling about. There were still twenty five minutes before the weekly assembly would begin, but many had gathered at the open-air assembly hall to avoid having to rush about when the school bell rang. Some were sitting at the canteen, discussing about their weekends' activities, or doing their homework, or having breakfast. Some students stood by the corridors, or sitting on the plain cemented floor of the hall, enjoying the cool morning air and the not-so-warm morning sunshine, as they observed the prefects arranging some chairs for the principal, vice-principal and the other teachers to sit on, right in front of the hall, in one straight line. A prefect was testing the microphone on the hall's podium, to make sure that it was working, while three other were tying the Malaysian flag, the Selangor state flag and the school's official flag on three flagpoles.

Near the gates, most of the school pupils who gathered there were males, who would sit by the benches and artificial fountains in groups and just chatting idly. Occasionally, hearty laughs were heard from the more boisterous of the guys, while the quieter ones would simply smile. Yet, a sight of a woman made them stopped their conversation instantly; their eyes trailed the unfamiliar woman in peach-colored baju kurung and headscarf as she walked into the school, oblivious to the attention she was garnering from many of the school's male students.

All of them were thinking along the same lines.

"Wow! She's so stunning!"

"What a knockout!"

"Is she a new teacher?"

"Man, I'd give anything for her to teach my class, instead of boring ol' Gurmit Singh/Elena Kwan/Rohana Jalil!"

"Is she married or single?"

"Beautiful as a fairy, personified!"

"I think I'm in love…"

She paused after walking past one of the school's artificial fountain, which was built right by the school canteen. Her gray eyes scanned the whole school, unsure of where she was going, or where she could find the one she was looking for. Turning around, she saw several school pupils and contemplated whether to ask them about the computer instructor, but decided that it would be better for her to ask the school prefects instead. The prefects were easily identifiable with their green uniform.

She then heard a single wolf-whistle coming from a group of male students who were sitting along the benches near the gate, followed by rowdy laughter from a couple of students, from the way they sounded. Grimacing, her eyes fell on a group of guys, but one stood out from the rest easily with his taller built, chiseled good-looking face and messy dirty blond hair.

To her surprise, the blond student grinned lopsidedly and gave her a wink. These were followed by a laugh and a slap on the back by the ones sitting on his sides.

_Kids these days!_ Alisha Ariff groaned irritably and shifted her gaze away to hide her reddening cheeks.

"Umm…miss? Can I help you?" a feminine voice inquired from her side, causing her to start slightly.

Alisha turned to her side, and saw a familiar face. It was a prefect; a girl, with long black hair tied neatly with a yellow headband. But what made Alisha gladder was the fact that this particular prefect was familiar; she had seen her before.

"Chang…Liu Ying?" she inquired, although she needn't to; the prefect's name was emblazoned on the name-tag she had pinned on her dark green tie.

The prefect girl observed the woman quietly before nodding. She was thinking that the woman's gray eyes were rather familiar. She hadn't seen the woman before, but she was sure that she had seen an identical pair of gray eyes before, belonging to a particular good friend of hers.

"Yes. I saw that you were looking around, and was wondering whether you needed to get to somewhere," Liu Ying said steadily, as something clicked in her head. _She has Adam's eyes; could she be related to him in any way? His older sister, maybe?_

"Actually, I was looking for the school's computer instructor, Mr. Jackie Chan," Alisha clarified, and smiled. "But it's a good thing I ran into you first. You're a friend of Adam."

"I am," Liu Ying said, curious of the older woman in front of her. She then shot an annoyed look at the group of boys across the road, who were laughing and talking loudly, her glare seemed to be fixed on the student sitting at the center of the benches – the teen with the blond hair. They became silent for a moment, but to Liu Ying's utmost annoyance, the blond teen then winked at _her_ and grinned so widely that his face seemed to almost split up in two. With a low huff, she returned her gaze to the woman.

"And you're also a DigiWira," Alisha said with a hushed, knowing voice. She gazed into Liu Ying's dark irises intently, and had to admire the girl's ability to conceal her surprise upon the revelation and the way she was handling the attention from the noisy boys at the benches.

Liu Ying smiled. "You _must_ be Adam's older sister," she said. "It's so nice to meet you. I take it that Adam has told you about him being a DigiWira?"

"Actually, it was Mr. Chan…Jackie, who told me," Alisha confided. "And my name is Alisha; since you're Adam's friend you can call me Kak Lisha."

Liu Ying nodded. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Kak Lisha. Let me take you to the computer classroom. Jackie is always there, although I think he'll be down here in the assembly hall soon – today's the weekly assembly – but maybe we can still catch him at the computer room. And…" She shot a glare once again at the rowdy male teens, who were all staring back at the beautiful woman she was talking to. "…excuse them, please. They simply don't know how to behave…"

"Don't worry about it," Alisha said evenly. "I've seen similar stuff from my days at school. Some things never change."

"If you don't mind me asking, Kak Lisha," Liu Ying began as she guided Alisha through the crowd of students, until they reached the corridors. The corridors were rather empty, except for one and two students walking about. This enabled Liu Ying to speak more freely with the older woman. "What brings you here, Kak Lisha? I don't see Adam with you, though."

"Oh, Adam's resting at home," Alisha replied. "I want him to heal first before resuming his school. Kidnapping is a tough ordeal to handle, and there's that horrible bruise on his face…Can you help him catch up with his schoolwork when he returns to school?"

"I'll be happy too, but I think that's Gayathri's department," Liu Ying explained.

"Gayathri Nadarajah? She's a DigiWira too, right?" Alisha inquired, remembering that Jackie had mentioned about the other girl as well.

"Yes, and she's also Adam's classmate." Liu Ying looked around her. "I don't see her around yet; maybe she's still on her way here."

Alisha nodded. "It's alright. Before I forget, I'd really like to thank you and Gayathri for saving Adam yesterday," she said softly, as they reached a particularly empty corridor. They took a flight of stairs and reached the second level, and Liu Ying guided Alisha towards the computer room. "I don't know what would happen if…"

"Don't worry about it, Kak Lisha," Liu Ying assured. "If it were me or Gayathri who was kidnapped, Adam would've done the same thing."

Alisha beamed proudly. "Yes…he would," she said, halting as Liu Ying stopped by a dark tinted door. The sign on the door read 'Computer Classroom'. She watched as Liu Ying opened the door and followed her in. Immediately, she saw Jackie sitting by the table. The brown-haired man was just putting on a dark blue tie.

"Jackie, we have a visitor," Liu Ying announced.

Jackie turned sideways and nodded a greeting towards Liu Ying before his eyes registered on their guest. "Oh. Miss Alisha," he greeted smilingly. "To what do I owe you the pleasure?"

Looking around the spacious, air-conditioned, yet empty classroom, Alisha inhaled deeply before stating her intention.

"Good morning, Jackie," she said, and began explaining her intention to Jackie and Liu Ying.

xxx

xxx

The avian woman Digimon looked at the area around her silently. Large, red stony mountains were what she could see, their peaks stretching up towards the clouds. A gust of wind blew down from the clouds, making the environment rather chilly, especially for one as scantily clad as her. However, it was lucky for her that her feathers protected her from the cold. She looked up the clouds, seemingly trying to make a mental calculation of where she was at.

"He should be around here, somewhere," Shutumon remarked to her companion, whose height merely reached her shoulders. She looked down at the wizardly Digimon. "Well?"

"I don't know, Shutumon," Sorcerymon admitted, waving his white staff to the right, and to the left, then to the right once again. "No reaction from the staff."

"Are you sure it's working?" Shutumon demanded. "He's here, I know it. I just don't know where, exactly."

"Sure I'm sure," Sorcerymon said indignantly. Then, right on time, his staff vibrated. "There! You're right, Shutumon. He's here." He pointed his staff towards his right, extending the staff farther. The staff vibrated more intensely. "This way, Shutumon; come on!"

The duo walked briskly towards the stone mountains, with Sorcerymon in the lead. They reached the foot of the mountains, and saw that there were next to no footholds, marks or potholes at all. It would be impossible for anybody to climb the mountain, and the vibration grew more intense as Sorcerymon hoisted his staff up. It signed that whoever they were looking for, he was somewhere above the mountain, and they would need to climb it. It was lucky that both of them were able to fly.

"Come on. Fly!" Shutumon spread her avian wings, and took flight with a graceful leap towards the air.

Sorcerymon waved his staff, and magically levitated from the ground. Waving his staff a little, he gained control of the levitation and wielded it to follow his companion.

The duo flew up for nearly a hundred meters, before they arrived at a small entrance of a cave. The entrance was big enough for both of them to enter. They walked into the cave warily, with the light projected from Sorcerymon's vibrating staff guiding them. After several minutes of walking, they reached what seemed to be the end of the cave.

"We've found it!" Shutumon said, running her hands against a large rocky statue, which looked oddly familiar to Sorcerymon.

"Uhh, Shutumon? You sure this is it? Y'know, he does look a lot like…"

"I'm sure! Come on, say out that spell already. I bet he's stronger than _her_! Besides, the Master didn't really say specifically what Digimon we could send to the DigiWira now, did he? He just say that it's up to us to make sure that whoever we decided to send, that Digimon had better be able to do the job. And I'm sure that our imprisoned friend here is more than able to do so."

"How can you be so sure?" Sorcerymon asked skeptically.

Shutumon's blue eyes glinted in the midst of the darkness of the cave. "Well, I for once, have gotten information that in the human world today; the one with the White DigiSphere didn't show up to school. And the one with the Pink DigiSphere would be preoccupied with something after school; there's no way she could be in the Digital World today. Only that girl with the Yellow DigiSphere will be around. It's a perfect opportunity for us to strike her and that partner of hers."

"Why can't Karatenmon or the ShadoWira do the job? After all, the Master likes them better than us," Sorcerymon said grumpily.

Shutumon smacked Sorcerymon's head with her balled knuckle, sending the wizard Digimon's hat flying. "Would you listen to yourself? Now's the time we can prove our worthiness to the Master! The general is currently meditating to heal his injury, the ShadoWira and their partners are down for the count…well, the Blue ShadoWira isn't, but he couldn't fight the DigiWira without that penguin partner of his. Lucky for us, that didn't mean that he's of no use to us. He's the one who gave us all the information about the DigiWira."

"But why attack the Yellow DigiWira? I thought you have a grudge against the Pink DigiWira's Fairymon?" Sorcerymon asked, rubbing the sore spot on his head where he'd been pummeled.

"I am, but the pink pair isn't going to be around today, so I figure I'll start with the yellow duo first," Shutumon replied easily. "No big deal."

"Ok, Shutumon, if you say so." Sorcerymon pointed his staff towards the statue and chanted loudly, "Fallen Digimon of long before, with my magic you shall rise once more, IYYAH!"

A beam of white and blue light streamed out from Sorcerymon's staff and enveloped the statue. Slowly, the stones crumbled down noisily before exploding. Shutumon used her power over the wind to divert the stones from hitting her and Sorcerymon, and watched as a glowing silver creature stepped out from the cloud of dust generated from the explosion.

It was a magnificent creature – a quadrupled vulpine Digimon, with glittering silver furs and nine tails. Each tip of his tails was burning with orange flame. His eyes were burning red, sharp and watchful. He was walking with fluid and grace. And he stood nearly twice Shutumon's height.

"Welcome back, Kyuubimon," Shutumon said.

"Ah, Shutumon," Kyuubimon replied back with a drawling, masculine voice. He was talking with an airy tone, as if nothing in the world could call out for his interest. Yet, he seemed to have his attention fixed on the avian woman. "Dear friend. Thank you for releasing me from my entombment."

"Well, I'm glad that you still remembered our friendship," Shutumon said, as Kyuubimon approached her. She patted the vulpine Digimon's muzzle twice.

"You two seem to go way back," Sorcerymon said sulkily.

Shutumon winked. "What's the matter, jealous?"

"No, but you took the credit. I was the one who freed Kyuubimon, y'know."

Kyuubimon shifted his attention towards Sorcerymon. His shadow loomed against the small child-like wizard, who cowered in fear upon meeting the gaze of the regal nine-tailed fox. Kyuubimon was observing the shivering wizard with a curious expression on his face.

"Ah, Shutumon…but who is this little fellow who claimed that he has released me?"

"_Little?_" Sorcerymon yelped indignantly, but Shutumon immediately blocked his mouth firmly with her palm.

"Kyuubimon, this is Sorcerymon. Also a friend and it's true, he released you, but I was the one who took him here."

"Ah, really? Then, I owe you both a favor. Come now, Sorcerymon, there's no need for that silliness gesture of fear. Any friend of Shutumon is a friend of mine. Come, Shutumon. Name me the favor that I must return to you, and I shall do it in the most satisfactory way possible."

"I'll take your word for it," Shutumon murmured, and poked at Sorcerymon. "Show him the yellow duo."

Sorcerymon wordlessly waved his staff, and projected an image of Liu Ying and Labramon from it. It was a scene from the battle between the DigiWira and Lynxmon. Kyuubimon looked at the image projection curiously, and his eyes widened upon witnessing Labramon Digivolving into someone like him, but with midnight blue fur instead of silver. The flames on her nine tails were crimson red as opposed to his orange flames.

"Ah, but who is this doppelganger of mine, Shutumon? It is very, very curious. Not to mention, very ugly too."

"This ugly doppelganger of yours is called Youkomon, and she's been a thorn on the side of evil for quite some time now. So, Kyuubimon…" Shutumon's eyes glinted evilly. "I have an easy task for you. Destroy this Youkomon, and her human partner too while you're at it. The Master will surely reward you greatly should you be successful!"

"Ah, consider it done, Shutumon. The Digital World would be too crowded with _two_ kitsune Digimon roaming around now, wouldn't it?"

xxx

xxx

Gayathri leaned back against the passenger's seat, and waited patiently as Anding and her parents got into the car. The family's driver had already started on the car, and Gayathri, knowing that there was nothing more that she could do after placing her father's laptop briefcase at the back seat, settled on her seat. She ran a hand on her plaited hair, inspecting it idly, wondering whether the ribbon she had used matched the pink top she was wearing.

From the rearview mirror, she could see Anding dragging a big travel baggage, and placed it into the car's baggage compartment. He then put in small hand-luggage Gayathri's mother was carrying into the luggage compartment as well before closing it. After that, the twenty-five year old man bustled forward and opened the backseat door for his employers – Gayathri's mother and father – and closed it after they had gotten in. He then promptly got in the driver's seat.

"Are you sure that's everything, dear?" asked a slightly ringing female voice. This was Vanitha, Gayathri's mother. She was a forty one years old businesswoman, and had stylish short hair the same color as Gayathri. Her hair was straightened and she had a very pleasant face, but strict looking eyes. Her skin tone was the same as Gayathri; it didn't take a wild guess to see that Gayathri had inherited most of her mother's features, with one exception. Vanitha's eyes were dark brown, while Gayathri's were a lighter shade of brown. She was dressed in businesswoman attire – a blue suit and skirt which reached her knees.

"That should be everything. We'll only be going for a week to UK, dear," answered a firm, business-like voice. This was Nadarajah, Gayathri's father. He was a successful corporate businessman and owned a famous telecommunications company at Putrajaya. His skin tone was considerably darker than his wife and daughter, but his eyes were light brown which his daughter inherited. His curly, black hair was cropped short and showed signs of aging by the gray hairs over the temples. He was dressed in a smart blazer suit. "What's most important is that I've already have our passports, our flight tickets and the important documents. Anything else we might forget, we can get it at UK."

"If you say so, dear," Mrs. Vanitha (or Mrs. Nadarajah, as she will be referred in future) replied.

Gayathri chuckled and turned her head around, watching her parents. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Relax, you two. It's not like this is your first time going on a business trip."

"Our daughter has a point," Mr. Nadarajah said with a smile. He leaned forward and tapped the driver's shoulder lightly. "Anding, you may drive now, but there's no need to rush; our flight is on 6.00 in the evening. and now it's only 2.30 p.m. We only need to be at the airport at around 4.00 o'clock, and there's plenty time for that."

"Will do, sir," Anding replied, and shifted the gear of the car from 'P' to 'R'. He began maneuvering the steering wheel as Gayathri watched him with apparent interest.

But, her thoughts were somewhere else.

Adam had been absent at school that day, but she was surprised to see that it was Adam's sister who had come to their school to meet them personally. She liked Alisha Ariff instantly and was surprised that she knew so much already about the Digimon and the Digital World. However, she was surprised to hear her request, which she had voiced during their brief meeting at recess time that day. Her minds recollected the meeting she had with Liu Ying, Jackie and Alisha during their recess time.

She had gotten to know not just about Adam's sister, but also a great deal more.

/Flashback/

"I'd like to be of help, in any way possible," Alisha said, after introductions were made between her and Gayathri. Gayathri had inquired of what had brought the woman here.

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked.

"I told Adam yesterday that I want to be of help, kind of like what you're doing for the kids now, Jackie," Alisha said briskly. "Mentoring, and more, I hope."

Liu Ying and Gayathri exchanged sideways glances; careful not to make it noticeable to the woman and the computer instructor. Of course, even they had no idea of Jackie's involvement with the sun staff, and Gayathri had only seen Jackie communicating with TobuCatmon once.

However, Jackie seemed to be considering Alisha's request. He leaned back against his chair, and rubbed his chin.

Then, he smiled. It seemed that he had made up his mind.

"What exactly do you do for a living, Alisha?" Jackie inquired. They had immediately got into referring themselves by first-name basis, sans the formalities of Miss and Mister.

"I'm a system analyst," Alisha answered promptly. "I graduated from University of Malaya with Bachelor of Science, in Information Technology and Software Engineering."

Jackie nodded. "So you know your stuffs about all things IT, I presume?"

"Of course."

"Ok, maybe we can arrange something for you to do. Girls," Jackie called out for Liu Ying and Gayathri. "There's something I'd like to show you. Come over here to the computer. You too, Alisha."

The girls and the twenty-three years old woman peered closer to the computer Jackie was using, as the blue-eyed man began clicking on his electronic optical mouse. He launched a graphic editor program and opened a file titled 'DigiWira uniform'. To the girls' surprise, the file displayed three sets of familiar-looking uniforms – gray uniforms with three different accents.

"Hey, that's our uniforms," Gayathri pointed out to a smiling Jackie.

"_You_ created it?" Liu Ying asked incredulously.

Alisha shifted her gaze from the girls to the computer instructor with a slightly bemused look.

"Yup. What do you think?" Jackie asked proudly.

"_Chic!" _Gayathri exclaimed.

"Somewhat ridiculous," Liu Ying muttered.

Jackie sweat-dropped and shifted his gaze towards the computer screen. "Well, everyone's a critic. Anyway, when you first told me about you becoming a DigiWira, Liu Ying, I was feeling the same way as Alisha here. I wanted to help more. But for months, I couldn't do much, and it frustrated me. Liu Ying was in the Digital World on her own, only with her partner, and she was doing what normal girls her age wouldn't even dream of doing. She was in a war, and I couldn't help much. My worry only increased when Gayathri and Tanemon joined you and Shaomon.

"Then, I found out how the two of you communicated with TobuCatmon before the D-Terminals came to you, and I decided to do the same. I downloaded Yahoo Messenger, and added TobuCatmon after asking Liu Ying of his username. How he'd managed to get a Yahoo account was beyond me, but I soon learned that that little kitty has his ways of doing so. We conversed from time to time via the chatting client, and I was kept up to date of your adventures.

"Three weeks ago, Adam came into the picture, and TobuCatmon announced to me that the team was complete. So, I thought at that time, with the team completed…why not design a set of uniform for you three? It didn't take me much effort, and I was able to send the designs to TobuCatmon. The designs were digitized by the mystical attribute of the Digital World and your Digivices, and they became your uniforms.

"But then, something mysterious happened…" Jackie paused and gazed intently to his audience.

"What's that?" Liu Ying asked.

"About a week and a half after you guys got your uniform, I was here doing some work when I was called for an emergency meeting between the teachers and the principle. I left my computer on after closing all programs, and locked the door. When I came back, the door was already unlocked, but no one was in the computer room. And somebody had opened the DigiWira Uniform file, but had neglected to close the file. When I asked at the main office whether anybody had come to request for the keys to the computer classroom, Mrs. Asiah Jafar, the clerk there, said that nobody did. It freaked me out slightly that the lock to the computer classroom had been easily picked open, and somebody in this school probably knew about you three.

"The timing was impeccable, though. A couple of weeks passed and I heard nothing about anybody mentioning the uniform…until the appearance of the ShadoWira."

Gayathri's eyes widened. "So that's why they have the same uniforms as ours!"

"No wonder," Liu Ying said softly.

"That means that one of the ShadoWira had broken into here, and probably copied the file," Alisha deduced.

"Right," Jackie said.

"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Liu Ying asked.

"Back then, you weren't supposed to know of my involvement," Jackie said evasively. "I was planning to help you from the background. Y'know, like those shows where they have this invisible mentor who guides them silently, and gives them help whenever they need it?"

"I must have missed that show," Liu Ying muttered, but decided not to press the issue anymore.

Apparently, Gayathri was thinking along the same lines, as she too kept her silence.

Jackie cracked his knuckles and smiled at his female guests. "Anyway, I probably should sue the ShadoWira for breach of copyright! That design was hundred-percent original creation of Jackie Chan Wai Lung!" he cracked. This did the trick, and the tensed look on Liu Ying and Gayathri dissipated. Alisha merely smiled. "Ok, that aside. There's another thing I've created, after TobuCatmon's messenger was kidnapped by Karatenmon."

He opened another program, which looked more complex to the DigiWira. Alisha however seemed to recognize it, and told the girls that the program required sound knowledge in information technology in order to be able to use it fully. It involved the usage of several programming languages combined with a graphic editor. Usually it was used to design complex simulations. She had never used it, but had read about it. Then, Jackie called them to look at a blueprint of what looked like a wooden stick with a sunflower-shaped end.

"That's the sun staff!" Liu Ying exclaimed, surprised. "You designed it too?"

"Actually, I only improvised it. TobuCatmon sent me the staff after Adam brought it back from Wizardmon's destroyed home, asking me whether there was anything I could do to salvage it. I did what I could, and presto! What you get is a staff, with the ability to give you some insight of troubles happening in the Digital World. Wizardmon has placed many enchantments in the staff, but those spells were translated as programming language, and I was able to tweak the language a little, and did some editing here and there…"

"I wonder what else you're keeping from us," Gayathri said suspiciously.

Jackie grinned. "For a moment, that's all you're getting. I don't have many secrets left in me."

Gayathri nodded, Liu Ying looked somewhat skeptical, but Alisha didn't seem to think that Jackie was being entirely truthful, judging from the suspicious expression on her face. But, Gayathri then saw the time and gasped.

"It's almost end of recess time! I could never go to the canteen and buy any food now…"

"Here, Gayathri," Alisha said kindly, and passed her a pack of banana fritters. "I bought three packets just now, and Shaomon had taken one. I've eaten one, and there's this one, the last one. I'm already full. You can have it."

"You're my best friend, Kak Lisha," Gayathri said gratefully and took the packet.

"Jackie," Liu Ying said, shaking her head as she observed her hungry friend eating the banana fritters. "Now that you've shown us that you're able to help us, can you design something to help us find Adam's D-Terminal? We couldn't retrieve it yesterday from the Red ShadoWira."

"I could, maybe," Jackie nodded. "I'll need your Digivice and D-Terminal for that. Maybe I can include the Digital-Detect-Discover program in your D3s into the D-Terminals, enabling them to track other D-Terminals the same way the Digivices can detect other Digivices. But retrieving it would be rather tricky – when Adam's back in shape, he should use his new Teleportation ability to summon back his D-Terminal, whenever he and the Red ShadoWira meet face to face once more."

"I'll help," Alisha offered. "Just show me some of the basic stuff; I can deal with the programming, but I'm not familiar with the Digivices or the D-Terminals."

"Shouldn't you go to work?" Jackie inquired.

"I took the day off."

"Then welcome onboard," Jackie said warmly. "The kids are called DigiWira; maybe we ought to call ourselves the DigiMentors."

Alisha sweat-dropped. "Uhh…I think mentors will do just fine."

The brown-haired man shrugged easily. "Whichever suits you fine. Anyway, I think with two of us here we can do the job a lot quicker. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours; all we need to do is copy the program from the Digivices and paste it in the D-Terminals. Maybe after school, you two can go to the Digital World and test it out?" He ended, and looked at the two DigiWira girls, expecting an answer from them.

"Uhh…I don't think I can make it today," Gayathri said regretfully, as she finished up the last of the banana fritters. She rose up from her seat and threw the empty plastic packet into the waste basket right beside Jackie's table, before taking her place again. "Today I'm supposed to tag along with Anding to send my parents to KLIA today; my folks are going on a business trip to UK this evening. Probably to their 1100th honeymoon too, while they're at it," she added, rolling her eyes.

"Oh. That's ok, Gayathri. I can go to the Digital World by myself today; hopefully there's no trouble there today," Liu Ying assured. She glanced towards the gray-eyed woman sitting next to her. "Kak Lisha, how about Adam? Is he ok?"

"My brother's fine, actually, but I don't think his partner is. Adam mentioned to me this morning about his partner being afraid to evolve…Digivolve," she amended.

"Dark Digivolution could cause a lot of trauma for the Digimon who has experienced it, and retained his state of mind to tell another about it," Shaomon, who had been sitting on Liu Ying's thigh silently for the past fifteen minutes, commented. "We're lucky that Tokomon managed to snap out of it."

Liu Ying nodded silently. "So I guess it's just me and Shaomon then, today."

"Call me if you need me," Gayathri said earnestly. "I don't think we'll be at the airport for a long time. Probably to just send my folks at the check-in counter and I'll get something to eat after they've gone to passport control area. If you need me, Anding can take me home in a jiffy."

/End Flashback/

Gayathri traced the outlines of her D-Terminal, which she had placed inside her jeans pocket, anxiously. Liu Ying should have been in the Digital World by now, and there was no news from her. Looking out at the palm trees that grew alongside the highway towards the airport, Gayathri sighed softly and leaned back to her chair. Her parents were chatting animatedly of what they were planning to do after arriving at the United Kingdom from the backseat, while Anding's attention was too focused on the road for Gayathri to talk to him.

Not that she wanted to; not so much, anyway. She'd kept the black-haired man updated almost everyday of her exploits at the Digital World. Anding was always so interested in hearing her story; Gayathri had never gotten tired to tell him anything. She guessed that it was a good thing that at least someone in her house knew about her being DigiWira.

But now, she was worried. She didn't know why; her D-Terminal wasn't even beeping, but she had a sinking feeling that something was up at the Digital World.

She hoped that there would be no trouble.

And if there would be, hopefully that it was something that Liu Ying and Labramon could take care of on their own.

xxx

xxx

Bored, Adam looked at the clock, which showed the time: 2.30 p.m.

"No school, no Digital World, nothing's on TV except those boring soaps," he muttered. "And Tokomon's _still_ asleep. He'll miss out all his favorite soaps. Poor little guy."

His eyes fell on the rack of DVDs his sister had bought a long time ago. His interest piqued immediately as he began browsing the titles. He found one that caught his eyes instantly.

"Cool! _The Shutter_!" (A Thai horror movie)

The boy immediately switched off all lights, effectively causing the apartment to become very dark. He then went to the freezer and took out a small box of ice-cream. Using a big spoon he dug out several scoops of the vanilla ice-creams and put them inside a big mug. Then he stored the ice-cream back inside the freezer and gingerly went back to the living room.

Grinning, he placed the DVD inside the player. "No school, no homework…" The title screen appeared on the TV. He immediately got settled on the sofa, with his big mug of ice-cream in tow, and used the remote control to navigate the movie's menu.

Something crossed his mind, which made his grin faltered. A creepy sensation which went away as suddenly as it had appeared.

_Is everything ok at the Digital World? _He wondered silently. _I hope so. _

xxx

xxx

Liu Ying pointed her D-Terminal forward, towards the direction of the Shadow Realm, and pressed a button on the device.

Nothing. No reaction from the device at all.

She was at the Green Meadow – no way would she venture near the dark home of SkullSatamon ever again without backup – but as the device had been modified to match the ability of the D3 Digivice, she could stand at the lush green field and her device would be able to detect any D-Terminal signal coming from anywhere within a hundred mile radius. It was the current maximum setting of the range the D-Terminal was able to scan, and it was enough. The Shadow Realm was only approximately fifty miles from the Forest Sanctum.

The raven-haired girl peered to the screen, making sure that she had gotten all the settings correct. Jackie, with help of Adam's sister Alisha, had already finished installing the program Digital-Detect-Discover on her D-Terminal when the school bell rung, and she had immediately go to the Digital World to begin testing the device, as well as trying to detect the signal which would point her towards Adam's stolen D-Terminal.

It had been an hour, and she'd gotten no reaction from the D-Terminal. Sighing, she pressed another button on the device, and begun typing a message for Jackie and Alisha.

"**No signal from Adam's D-Terminal at all. Not even from the Shadow Realm, and I've checked everywhere – even the Megalith Coliseum, the East Lake City and the destroyed Green Meadow Village. The Red ShadoWira probably has the device with him back at our world."**

"Should we be going now, Liu Ying?" Labramon inquired, looking up at her human partner. "It has been nearly an hour."

"I guess we better," Liu Ying replied. "Let's head back to the Forest Sanctum now, shall we?"

The duo of magical and earth began making their way towards the Forest Sanctum, which was somewhat nearby. They didn't rush themselves; there was no other Digimon in sight. The weather was slightly windy, with cumulus clouds hovering over the sky. But it felt nice. Liu Ying enjoyed the freshness of the air of the Digital World, compared to the one back home. It was the reason why she didn't really mind going to the Digital World to test out the new function of the D-Terminal, as it gave her the opportunity to escape the real world for the time being.

All of a sudden, she noticed that her partner tensed. Labramon had stopped walking, and was looking around her anxiously. Her beige furs were standing at their ends.

"Labramon?"

"Liu Ying, I am detecting a strange presence from around here," the rookie level Labrador said quietly. "But I cannot determine exactly where."

"Really?" Liu Ying said, but she needn't to. Her partner's sensitive sense was reliable. If she said that they should be wary, then Liu Ying knew that it was best for her to follow the dog's advice.

Suddenly, a hundred meters away from them, right by the lake, the air rippled. A Digimon materialized from the ripple, whose appearance caused surprise to both Liu Ying and Labramon. To Labramon, it was like looking in a mirror; the approaching bestial Digimon looked almost like her when she was in her champion form, save for its silver furs and orange flames. Otherwise, one could say that Youkomon had a twin sibling.

"Labramon, does Youkomon have a twin brother or sister that I don't know about?" Liu Ying asked her partner nervously as the nine-tailed fox approached them slowly.

"I really do not think so," Labramon replied. "But what I do know is that this newcomer here…its intention is not good."

"He's really big now, isn't he? You're only at the level of his chest when you're Youkomon."

"Not the point, Liu Ying. I think you better prepare to give me a power boost!"

The silver fox creature was easily three meters tall, and his outspread burning nine tails gave him a fearsome aura. His eyes were glinting with malice. He stopped walking when he was only about fifty meters from where the duo was standing and peered at them curiously.

"Ah, but are you not the DigiWira and her partner that I've been ordered to destroy?" he inquired with an excruciatingly polite tone. "Ah, but first! Greetings are in order. I'm called Kyuubimon!"

Despite the strange courtesy displayed by Kyuubimon, Liu Ying's alarm was set off immediately upon hearing Kyuubimon's inquiry. She immediately took out her D3 Digivice and pointed it towards Labramon, who was ready for action.

"_**Labramon…Digivolve to……YOUKOMON!"**_

"Destroy us? Not until you can get pass me!" Youkomon declared derisively. "Just who are you?"

"Ah, but I thought I've already introduced myself? Perhaps you require a longer introduction? Very well," Kyuubimon said calmly. "I am Kyuubimon; vaccine type, champion level bewitching beast Digimon. I incinerate my enemies with my _Fox Flame Dragon_ attack and if it's not enough, they shall suffer the wrath of my _Demon Fireball_!"

Liu Ying and Youkomon sweatdropped upon hearing the lengthy introduction. This was not what they have expected.

"What do you want from us?" Youkomon demanded.

"Ah, but you are one curious little vixen now, aren't you? It's simple, actually. A dear friend of mine, Shutumon, has released me from my three centuries long entombment. To repay her favor, she's asked me to destroy you. So here I am." Kyuubimon spoke with such a calm manner, that one who didn't understand what he was saying might think that this Digimon was friendly. Yet, one look into the fox's crimson eyes would easily tell them otherwise.

Youkomon took her stance, and Liu Ying slowly backed away.

"Let's commence with the battle now, shall we?" Kyuubimon said, and raised his tails up. The orange flames on his tails instantly blazed; the flames rose higher and higher until a nine-headed fiery dragon specter materialized from the flames. It roared with a deafening cry before snaking its way towards Youkomon. It was a fearsome sight to behold, and the usually poised Youkomon was flustered by the degree of power the nine-headed dragon specter was exhibiting.

She didn't know whether she could match Kyuubimon's power.

"Youkomon, look out!" Liu Ying shouted worriedly. She quickly raised her hand and activated her telekinetic energy barrier to prevent herself from the attack.

Youkomon immediately launched nine fireballs to counter the nine-headed dragon that was coming her way, but the dragon simply opened its nine mouths and swallowed the nine energy balls that shot its way. Shocked, the midnight blue fox had to resort to her more powerful attack, and transformed herself into a roaring dragon specter. She launched herself towards the incoming nine-headed dragon, summoning all her power and might to fight Kyuubimon's dragon specter.

Within the flames, she didn't notice the Yin and Yang symbol emblazoned on her four limbs glowing. The darker half of the symbol was radiating with yellow light.

Youkomon streaked towards Kyuubimon, and collided with one of the nine heads. To her delight, the head which she had collided with dissipated into a puff of smokes as she sailed towards Kyuubimon, who was looking at her with a calm expression. Ignoring the look, Youkomon knew what was to be done. She simply needed to ram herself through the nine heads (now eight heads) of the dragon in order to counter the attack.

She couldn't believe that it was that simple.

"Ah, Youkomon. In your hurry to counter-attack me, you have neglected your own partner!" Kyuubimon announced gleefully.

Youkomon was shocked and turned her head around. True enough, Kyuubimon's eight-headed dragon was now approaching Liu Ying. Liu Ying was having her arms raised; Youkomon knew that she was attempting to defend herself, and calmed down slightly. She raced towards the eight-headed dragon as quickly as she could as the dragon rammed into Liu Ying. Turning around, she saw the mildly surprised expression on Kyuubimon's face when he witnessed that a yellow energy barrier was shielding Liu Ying from his dragons.

"Ah, but this is unexpected. Shutumon has neglected to inform me that the child also has powers," he muttered. "But no matter; I love a challenge!"

Youkomon panicked upon hearing Liu Ying screaming; the attack was too much for her to handle! The yellow barrier was dissipating instead of absorbing the energy – Liu Ying was not strong enough to deal with Kyuubimon, who looked like a seasoned fighter. She increased her pace and paled upon seeing Liu Ying being thrown away, the barrier she had erected simply was consumed by the raging eight-headed dragons.

_I won't make it in time!_ Youkomon realized. _But I have to try…for Liu Ying! Hold on, I am coming!_

She raced towards Liu Ying as the eight-headed dragon streaked towards the fallen DigiWira. But even with the fastest speed she could muster, Youkomon realized that it was futile. She was not going to make it in time! It was only her determination that pushed her to not give up, and continue running as fast as she could.

The dragon inched its way closer to the beaten DigiWira, threatening to burn her with its eight fiery heads. They had already opened their mouths, and their fiery tongues slithered out. Each tongue had two points, and each point was laced with inferno.

While she was running, Youkomon didn't notice that the yellow light that was glowing on the darker half of the Yin-Yang symbols on her body began to shift to the lighter half. Her silent determination was fueling energy to the Yin and Yang symbol, without her aware of it. When the white portions of the symbols were glowing with yellow light, Youkomon found herself bathed with dazzling yellow light as something unexpected happened.

Youkomon didn't know how, but her body suddenly seemed to cease functioning. She seemed to have halted in midway, but she could still see herself rushing, now with greater speed, to aid her fallen DigiWira partner. The environment shifted around her in top speed, but she felt no wind slamming against her face or the sense of her feet hitting the ground. All her sensations were gone, but she continued on running. Looking back, she was surprised to see her body, eyes closed and head limped, hanging in midair on stasis. Her body was not moving, but _she_ was moving…she found herself magically in front of Liu Ying now, and was glowing with brilliant yellow light.

"Ah, what trickery is this?" Kyuubimon demanded, looking frazzled for the first time.

Formerly, Youkomon knew that she stood merely as high as Kyuubimon's shoulders, but now, she found herself standing at equal heights with the silver kitsune. Everything around her became smaller all of a sudden. Looking down, she was surprised to find that her furs were no longer midnight blue; instead they were shining yellow as gold. The tubes she had coalescing around her neck were white with red lines, instead of white with blue lines. Icy blue flames seemed to be radiating all over her body.

Seeing the approaching eight-headed dragon, Youkomon lifted her nine tails solemnly and channeled all her might to it. Her whole body blazed with blue fire, strangely cold and hot at the same time. Her energy was dispersed equally to the tips of her nine tails, and blue flaming orbs were formed.

"_FOX TAIL INFERNO!"_

The blue fiery orbs were launched with one forceful swish of her tails, and Youkomon saw nine orbs sailed past her. Each orb slammed against a dragon head, effectively neutralizing it. The two attacks seemed to be canceling each other, signing the fact that Youkomon now possessed the same firepower as her opponent; but she had one advantage. The dragons had only eight heads, she had blasted _nine_ fire orbs. Eight orbs were used to neutralize the dragon, and Youkomon saw as the ninth fire orb went straight towards Kyuubimon's head.

Kyuubimon had no time to evade the single orb, which was as big as the size of his head; his energy was siphoned towards the dragon he had projected from his tail. Thus, he was transfixed on where he was standing. He struggled to redirect his energy back to his body after witnessing the cancellation of his technique, but it was too late. The single azure orb collided against his head, directly between his eyes, directly on the Yin and Yang symbol.

_**CRAACCKK!**_

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The loud, sickening sound of a cracking skull was heard, and with one loud yell, Kyuubimon combusted into millions bit of data particles. His silver data particles were dispersed all over the lush greenery of the paddock, which didn't suffer much from the brief battle between the two kitsunes.

"He starts his every sentence with an _Ah,_ and his life also ended with an _Ah_," Youkomon, the glittering yellow-furred version, spoke softly with a bemused tone.

"Youkomon?"

The glowing apparition of the bigger, yellow-furred, Youkomon turned around and saw her human partner beginning to stand on her feet. She was struggling, but she didn't seem to need any help. She was bewildered beyond belief as she looked up to her towering partner.

"What happened, Youkomon?"

Youkomon looked down at her own body – the midnight-blue furred one, which hung on stasis not very far away from where she was currently at – and shrugged. She didn't know the answer; she herself was having a hard time comprehending what had just happened to her. Her mind reflected the battle she had with Kyuubimon, and was struck by the fact that it was perhaps her shortest battle she had ever had for the last five months (The first one month's battle had been easy, but at that time she wasn't as experienced as she was right now).

"I am not sure, Liu Ying," she finally replied.

As soon as she had said that, she felt as if her body was dissipating. Her solid body began to become spirit-like; transparent and weightless. Her icy blue eyes saw that her stasis body – the blue-furred one – now glimmering with yellow light. Looking down, she could see the grasses through her transparent body.

"Youkomon, what's going on? Why are you…transparent?"

A panicked cry from Liu Ying was heard, but Youkomon couldn't do anything. Not knowing what else to do, she closed her eyes.

And when she opened her eyes again, everything looked…normal. The stones, the trees, the lake, the village not so far away…all looked as if they were the right size. Looking down, she saw that her fur was once again, midnight blue. She felt a drain in her power, and experienced the familiar sensation of de-Digivolution. There was nothing to worry about; everything around her became nothing but yellow lights.

When the light was gone, everything around her looked a lot bigger than they usually were.

"SHAOMON!" Liu Ying cried in relief, and picked up the little in-training Digimon. She held the little puppy close to her body, looking very, very relieved. "You're alright!"

_No wonder,_ Shaomon thought, feeling a lot sleepier than before. _I have regressed all the way to in-training level._

"What was that all about, Shaomon?" the DigiWira asked again.

"No…idea," Shaomon replied sleepily, and dozed off instantly in Liu Ying's arms.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

Securing Shaomon with one arm, Liu Ying used her free hand to retrieve her D-Terminal. She flipped open the cover, and saw a message from TobuCatmon.

"**Congratulations on winning the fight, you two! I've watched the battle from the sun staff, and I think I know what's going on. Go to the details of yourself, partner and DigiSphere, which you have seen before and you will see a link from Youkomon's name."**

Liu Ying pressed a sequence of buttons on the D-Terminal, and a statistic was displayed on the screen, in yellow digitized letterings against a black background.

xx

_**DigiWira: Chang Liu Ying**_

_**DigiSphere: Yellow – Earth, Magical**_

_**Digital Abilities – Telekinesis / Telekinesis-Barrier / Telekinesis-Barrier-Deflector **_

**_Digimon Partner: Shaomon (In-training) / Labramon (Rookie) / Youkomon (Champion)_**

xx

Liu Ying saw that the name Youkomon was underlined and was represented with an orange color instead of yellow, like the rest of the displayed text. TobuCatmon had said that Youkomon's name had now become a link, so she navigated her way through the screen. The arrow pointer became the symbol of a hand, with the index finger extended, when she positioned the pointer on Youkomon's name. She pressed it, and the stats on the screen disappeared.

A new data file was opened, and Liu Ying read the stats eagerly.

xx

**_Digimon: Youkomon_**

**_Attribute: Data_**

_**Level: Champion**_

**_Techniques: Fox Tail Inferno, Dragon Wheel, Astral Projection_**

xx

"Astral projection?" Liu Ying wondered, and pressed on the link. New stats were then displayed on the screen of the D-Terminal.

xx

**_Astral Projection – A unique ability which can be used by the Data version of the Youkomon and Kyuubimon species, and all their Digivolutionary forms, stemmed from their power of Yin and Yang. Vaccine and Viral forms of the species cannot perform this technique. The reason behind this is currently unknown._**

_**This technique manifests upon the Youkomon/Kyuubimon's dire need to be in two places at one time.**_

**_Youkomon, a Yin-type, can astral projects its latent Yang mode out of its body whenever the need arises. Similarly, Kyuubimon, a Yang-type, can also astral projects its latent Yin mode out of its body. _**

**_While performing this ability, the original body will cease to function, while the astral body will gain additional, but temporary, power boost. The astral body can perform any technique which the original body has mastered. But beware; the original body will be vulnerable to attack, so one should take care not to let its original body predisposed to the enemy, as when the original body is deleted, its astral self will remain trapped in the digital astral plane for eternity._**

_**After performing this technique, a Youkomon or a Kyuubimon will be severely weakened, and will de-Digivolve one level below the usual level they can maintain. **_

xx

"Will the wonders of the Digital World never end?" Liu Ying wondered wistfully, and smiled. "Let's go home. Gayathri and Adam won't believe this."

xxx

xxx

Sorcerymon and Shutumon face-faulted upon watching the result of the battle between Youkomon and Kyuubimon, with Youkomon ended up being the victor. They were hidden from within the cumulus clouds; Shutumon was able to fly, and Sorcerymon used his levitation spell. They had guided Kyuubimon to the Green Meadow Village earlier.

"That…was quick," Sorcerymon commented dryly. "I thought he's supposed to be very powerful?"

"He is!" Shutumon said shrilly. "Or, he was! Did you know that, three hundred years ago, he had caused devastation to one whole city on his own?"

"Did he? Well, it must have been a city of rookies and in-trainings then. It only took that Youkomon, without Sagittarimon and Fairymon, to take care of him today."

"I can't believe this…"

"If you don't mind me asking…how come you two were friends? I didn't know about it at all."

"Well, _you_ were already entombed," Shutumon pointed out. "During those brief time when I was still free, I met Kyuubimon, and helped him massacred a village. He'd been such a gentlemon about it; he'd let me do the honors of demolishing the houses; said that a lady like me should have the chance to flesh out my skills."

Sorcerymon snorted. "Apparently, he was only all-talk. He'd let you do the entire job, because he couldn't do so on his own."

"But I've watched him!" Shutumon insisted. "And you've seen his prowess yourself; that nine dragon head thing was out of this world, don't you think so?"

"Well, maybe he _was_ powerful, but he was past his prime now. Or maybe he was just so full of himself, that's why it was so easy for that Youkomon to beat him to smithereens!"

"I still can't believe it…"

"There, there…" Sorcerymon said consolingly. "We'll find more monsters to set loose for those pesky DigiWira now, won't we? Now, look at there; isn't that the Red ShadoWira?"

"Where?" Shutumon turned her head, following Sorcerymon's gaze direction. Indeed, she then saw a lone figure in black uniform and cape. This time around however, he didn't wear the mask and hood, but from the distance it was hard to discern his face. "What's he doing down there?"

"Dunno. Checking out the Yellow DigiWira, maybe?"

"Oh, that's so sweet! Let's watch them!"

xxx

xxx

He was watching the battle from afar, without interfering. The idea of the Yellow DigiWira and her partner being crushed by the Kyuubimon which Sorcerymon and Shutumon had released seemed appealing to him. He was no condition for battle, as his right arm was still sore. The wound still hurt whenever he exerted his right arm.

So, when he came to the Digital World today, it was just to observe the demise of the Yellow DigiWira. Nothing more.

_That fox partner of hers has gotten more powerful,_ he noted, as the giant, golden Youkomon had successfully deleted the opposing Kyuubimon. _While nowhere as strong as Reichmon…or Black Knightmon…Champion to Champion, her Digimon's got the edge. Flarelizamon won't last a minute if I sic him to face her. Damn. That's score one to the DigiWira again._

Earlier, he had witnessed the Yellow DigiWira using her D-Terminal to detect the signal coming from any other D-Terminal in the Digital World. It was fortunate for him that he managed to use Karatenmon's dark spell to cloak Adam's D-Terminal as well, making it impossible for being detected. Karatenmon had done the same thing to the ShadoWira's Digivices and D-Terminals, and he was merely using the same brand of power on the D-Terminal he had stolen from the White DigiWira.

_Luckily I've managed to spy on their conversation today, during school's recess time. I can't really depend on Blue to do all the spying around the school…but with White skipping school today, school's gotten even more boring than ever. Couldn't make him freak out by tailing him without him knowing. Although…today wasn't a total loss. There was that smokin' hot lady today at school…who'd thought that she's actually White's older sister? Heh heh…_

He watched as Liu Ying returned to the deep lush forest where she had come out from earlier, and snickered.

_Forest Sanctum. Home to their Digimon mentor, TobuCatmon. The DigiWira's base of operation. Impenetrable by evil. No way can I enter the forest…I might as well go back home for now…I haven't been online on the net for quite a while now. _

He took out a black and orange cell phone from the pocket of his black trousers, and pointed his Digivice towards it. "DigiPort Open!"

A flash of light ensued, and his surroundings changed from the green field of the Digital World, to his familiar spacious, somewhat messy, bedroom. His attires had reverted back to his school uniform, which consisted of white short-sleeved button-up shirt, which he had left un-tucked prior to his trip to the Digital World, and earth green pants. As he undid the buttons of his shirt, his free hand switched on the desktop system on his study table. He pulled up the chair and sat on it as he watched the program loaded one by one on the monitor.

_Let's do some surfin'…chillin'…killin'…._

Activating the internet connection, he watched as the Antivirus program he had installed began to update its files. A peer-to-peer file transfer program was also automatically loaded, and he immediately minimized the window in favor of the chatting client program, which had just begun to connect to the internet.

The Yahoo Messenger program was opened.

And to his surprise, there was an offline message for him – from someone he didn't expect. Clicking on it, a separate window was opened, displaying the full content of the message.

"**_Hey. Hmm…this is Adam Ariff. From the Computer Club, if you don't remember. Anyway, you didn't log off from your YM and MySpace properly when you got out from the class, and Mr. Chan told me to do it for you. But when I was about to log you off, several birthday wishes came for you. I thought that you should know about this, but since you won't be able to know about those messages when you open your YM at your home, I figured that I'd drop you a message telling you about it. Sorry for the lateness though; I would've sent this message on Saturday, but something came up, and I was only able to do so today. Oh, and by the way, Happy belated 16th Birthday."_**

J.D. Kamaruzaman snickered as he ran his hand through his messy, blond hair. _Isn't this ironic?_ _I tried to end your life twice in the Digital World, and still, you offer a hand of friendship to me? Of course, you have no idea that I'm the Red ShadoWira now, have you? _

He lowered his left hand from his hair to the sore spot on his right arm, tracing the scar Adam had inflicted on him the previous day, with Karatenmon's sword. It was just his luck that Karatenmon's sword wasn't laced with poison or anything lethal. The general had used his power to close up the wound, but he didn't really do a neat job on it. The ugly scar was what had remained from the battle at the Shadow Realm. Superficial as it was, the pain was still around.

_Happy birthday to me…from the White DigiWira,_ he thought bitterly. _Not everyday one gets a slash on the arm as a birthday gift. Of course, can't really blame him. Self-defense. I'd have done worse._

A brief flash of crimson emanated from his hazel eyes before it vanished. Then, he smirked as he leaned against the back of his chair; his left hand was now playing with the thin chain necklace he was wearing.

_What should I do with you, Adam? _He thought sinisterly, contemplating several plans in his mind. _Ignore this message? Just reply with a thanks and be done with it?_

_No…that's no fun._

_I know exactly what I should do. Heh heh…_

_The plan's so demented…I love it!_

J.D. pointed the mouse pointer towards where it was displayed **_'Add as Friend'_**, and clicked it.


	14. One Peaceful Day

It was still Monday, but already entering evening. 5.30 p.m. to be exact.

Adam was getting restless. He had spent nearly the entire day cooped in the apartment, with nothing much to be done. Tokomon had woken up somewhere during the time he was watching a movie on the television, but the little in-training had dozed off once more after having his lunch. It appeared that the Dark Digivolution was really a taxing ordeal for him, so Adam left Tokomon to rest and resumed with the movie thereafter.

His sister didn't even call once. Not that it was strange; Adam simply assumed that she was busy with work at the office. But she should already be on her way back home by now, although Adam only expected her to arrive at their apartment by 7.00 p.m. That was, if she was lucky enough to be able to escape the town's evening traffic jams.

He had even taken the initiative to clean the house in whichever way he could. The trash bag was full; Adam took it out at the dumpster, careful of not letting anyone see his bruised face. The oven was slightly soiled with oil from the previous day; Adam wiped it off clean. Then he took out the vacuum cleaner and began vacuuming the whole apartment idly. Feeling hungry, he made himself a sandwich and took liberty of another ice-cream serving.

Plain and simple; he was bored. But then, his eyes trailed to the computer – which was in its hibernating mode – and smiled.

Maybe he could contact TobuCatmon, and ask him whether anything had happened in the Digital World. There was no news from Liu Ying, and Gayathri had informed him earlier that she would be going to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to send off her parents, who were going for a business trip to the United Kingdom. She would have been back by now, but Adam didn't think that the girl would know of anything.

Just by moving the mouse a little and Adam was brought back to the main screen. The internet connection was immediately reestablished, and as Adam had set up for the Yahoo Messenger program to connect to the net immediately after detecting a connection, the chatting client's window was also on.

There was an offline message for him, but before he could read it a gray box popped up at the screen.

"Add contact request?" Adam wondered, his eyes searching for the name. He found none, but recognized the username anyway. "JD?" he wondered. Refusing the request would be rude, so Adam decided to just approve the request and see what would happen. The gray box then was closed and Adam managed to read the offline message, which was also from JD.

"**_Thanks for the thought…" _**Adam read, and smiled. **_"…although I didn't expect you to message me about it. Heck, I didn't even expect you to message me, period. Late? Well, better late than never, right? Anyhow, I appreciate it." _**

"You're welcome," Adam said, to nobody in particular. _Is it just me, or does JD actually sound friendly in this message?_ He thought silently, before hearing a knocking sound from the speaker.

Someone was just online. Looking at the name, Adam saw that it was JD.

Before he could contemplate on what to do, a chatting window popped open in front of him just as a **'Buzz'** was heard from the speaker. It didn't take Adam long to figure out who had sent him that buzz; TobuCatmon was offline, and both Liu Ying and Gayathri haven't approved his request to add them as contacts. The only one who was online was JD.

And it was he who'd buzzed him.

"_**Yo."**_

"_Uhh…hi," _Adam typed, unsure of how to respond to the brief greeting JD had given him.

"_**Wassup?" **_

"_Fine, thanks."_

"_**What'cha doin'?"**_

"_Nothing, really. Just cooped up inside the house."_

"_**Why? You sick or something?"**_

Adam pondered on how to answer the inquiry; he wasn't actually friends with JD, but the way JD asked him about it sounded as if they had been friends for a long time. In fact, he had only spoken to the blonde teen twice, and that was during the Computer Club meeting. Even so, the older teen didn't seem interested in becoming their friends at all. He was always either making Liu Ying mad, or in his own world.

_Why the sudden change?_ Adam wondered curiously. Then, he got an idea and his face lit up. _Oh, is it because I've sent that birthday message? Come to think of it, even if I'm having a bad day, a birthday wish like that would certainly cheer me up considerably. Yeah, that has to be it. Even a 'tough-guy' like JD has got to have a mellow spot, right? _

"_Sick? Well…that's one way of putting it."_

Adam wasn't going to tell JD that his face was currently bruised, or the fact that his body suffered injuries due to a fight with the Harpymon. He settled for being vague with JD. Even if he explained the whole truth to JD, he doubted that JD would be able to grasp it fully. (Of course, Adam didn't know how wrong he was)

"**_Bummer."_**

"_Tell me about it."_

A brief pause ensued between both of them. Adam eyed the chat window's status bar…it seemed that JD was trying to come up with something to say, but nothing came up in the mainframe window. It was like he had typed something up, then changed his mind and deleted it. This went on until a couple of minutes, and all the while, Adam tapped his fingers on the table patiently.

Then, after another minute had passed, a reply came up, in a form of an inquiry.

"_**Hey, listen…you doing anything right now?"**_

"_No. Not really, why?"_

"'**_Cos I've got like NOTHING to do right now, and I'm bored out of my wits, and I don't feel like going out. Mind chatting with me?"_**

And right at the end of the sentence, a pleading-looking smiley face was placed, seemingly emphasizing the request. Adam sweatdropped; he didn't know why he was resisting the urge to laugh as there was nobody around. He just thought that it was a funny request, somewhat unbefitting to the teen whom everyone had thought to be 'cool'.

But then again, this was cyberspace. Things weren't always what they seemed. For all Adam knew, JD might just add that smiley out of habit.

"_Uhh, you ARE chatting with me now," _Adam pointed out directly.

A red, angry-looking smiley was placed, followed by a purple, devil-like one. This time around, it managed to make Adam laugh. **_"Heh. Not like that. I mean, really chat, y'know? Not just, 'Hi, How are you, I'm fine, Bye'…but maybe discuss something. Like, favorite movies, or sports, or hobbies… you get what I mean?"_**

"He sure likes to use those smiley faces," Adam muttered as he typed, _"Oh…ok. How about hobbies?"_

"**_Fine with me. Mine's basketball and videogames. What's yours?"_**

_What's my hobby?_ Adam wondered, and a flicker of smile came from his lips. _Lately, it's been saving the Digital World. But…_

"_I like reading storybooks when I have some free time."_

"_**READING?"** _A wide-eyed, gaping smiley was included to further emphasize what seemed like a shock to JD. The way the smiley ensued the capitalized inquiry sounded somewhat teasing, in Adam's opinion. Then on a new line, a laughing smiley followed, with a statement beside it. **_"Don't you do that enough for school already? What kind of books do you read anyway?"_**

"_I like Hardy Boys and Harry Potter, among other things."_

"**_Ok, help me out here, Adam."_ **A pause ensued before the second sentence popped out in a new line. **_"What's so big about Harry Potter anyway? I don't read the books, or see the movies; I don't get it why many people are so hyped about it. Care to tell me?" _**A smiley with a questioning mark embedded with it was included at the end of the sentence.

Adam chuckled. _"I'll tell you…" _

The dark-haired DigiWira then began typing a brief explanation about 'Harry Potter' to his chatting companion, being very careful not to let any vital plot being spoiled as JD wasn't familiar with the story at all. Well, since Adam had some time to spare, he might as well use it. It was better than doing nothing at all.

_Of all the things I thought JD would ask me, I didn't expect it would be Harry Potter… _Adam thought as he typed. _Some people are just not what you've expected. At school, I thought JD is just one of the school's troublemakers. But he seems decent enough to chat with in cyberspace. Hmm…maybe this is why Hakim has him as a friend in his MySpace?_

-

At the same time, inside a darkened room where its sole source of illumination came from the computer screen, JD let out a dark chortle as he watched (without really reading) the text messages that were sent to him, explaining briefly to him of the adventures of a boy wizard and his two loyal friends.

"Gotcha!" he said with a smirk. "How gullible of you, Adam."

Cracking his knuckles, he leaned back against his chair, letting out a satisfied smirk as his eyes flashed with crimson glow, before reverting back to their former bluish-green hue. He was satisfied of the quick progress of his plan. The best thing was that Adam didn't suspect anything at all. It was slightly difficult to initiate a chat conversation with Adam at first, but JD decided to make himself appear friendly while online to get Adam to warm up to him. The plan worked.

"You have no idea now, have you, Adam?" he said softly.

His left hand pushed up the sleeve of his red shirt before tracing the thin scar that was on his right arm. He grimaced upon setting sight on it. Against his toned arm, the scar looked ugly. He grunted and pulled his hand away, letting the short sleeve of his shirt fell back to his elbow, hiding the scar.

As Adam continued on explaining about Harry Potter, JD decided to use that time to surf the web. He typed out an address at the URL box, which brought him to the main page of MySpace. The username and password had already been entered in asterisks, so he just pressed on the enter button and waited for his main profile page to load. Then, his eyes were brought to his mailbox, which indicated that he had several unread messages.

Clicking on the link, he scanned the titles of the messages. _Friend request…friend request…trash…rubbish…nothing important…AHA! There it is. Just the message I'm looking forward to._

He clicked on the message eagerly and scanned its content His eyes narrowed slightly upon reading the message.

_Well, it's nothing that I don't know, but thanks anyway, Hakim…for nothing, _JD thought snidely. He then checked on all the messages in his mailbox, not bothering to open any of the other unread messages, and hit the delete button.

Then, noticing that Adam had stopped with his explanation, JD immediately minimized the browser window and scanned the messages rapidly in order to come up with a response. He found out that Adam had just finished explaining about the three major characters of the Harry Potter books briefly. He grinned devilishly as he saw an opening where he could comment on.

"_**Umm…about this Hermione girl; she sounds hot. Tell me more about her."**_

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 14 – One Peaceful Day_**

xxx

xxx

One Tuesday afternoon, Alisha stared at the screen of her monitor in confusion as she was eating a sandwich. Her left hand was expertly navigating the blinking optical mouse, despite her not being a left-handed person.

A black window was being displayed by the monitor. It took up nearly three-quarters of the whole screen. Inside, there were many lines of codes in green letterings.

The codes looked encrypted, or were written in a completely foreign language. Alisha had never seen such alphabets before. They didn't make any sense at all to her.

"I nearly forgot," she murmured. "The translation program; Jackie's burned it for me in a CD yesterday."

The previous day, around evening when she was about to make her leave, Alisha had insisted for Jackie to let her copy some of the programs he had designed for the DigiWira, so that she would be able to start learning whenever she had the time. She was sure that she would be able to understand the programming behind them.

Jackie had warned her that they would be too much for her to take on. Alisha however had insisted that she was a fast learner.

And thus, the brown-haired computer instructor had relented to Alisha's wish. He immediately burned all the programs he had written so far for the DigiWira inside a CD. Alisha had brought along with her a pen-drive, but the programs proved to be too large for the pen-drive alone. She managed to copy the Digital-Detect-Discover program that Jackie had copied from Liu Ying's Digivice into the D-Terminals, and was determined to grasp the way the program was designed while she was working that day.

"Now where did I put the CD?" Alisha wondered, and reached for her handbag, which she had placed beside the monitor. She dug into it, and smiled as she took a CD jewel case out. "Aha!"

Alisha took out the CD from its casing and inserted it in the CD slot of the desktop system in her office. A burring sound was heard as the CD was being read. Looking around the office, she could see that the office was currently deserted. No one was around as it was break time. She could hear voices coming from the room where people would go for a cup of coffee, but in the main office no one was around.

It was a perfect time for her to check out her newest task, which she had given herself.

"_DigiMentor_," Alisha whispered, shaking her head. "I guess that's what I am right now – a mentor to the DigiWira."

A dialogue box then appeared on the screen, imploring for a program to be installed. Alisha agreed; and spent the next three and a half minutes waiting for the translation program to finish being installed. When the installation was completed, Alisha watched with amazement as slowly, the strange alphabets exhibited by the opened window began to be replaced with some characters which Alisha was familiar with.

"Now this is more like it," Alisha murmured, and began scrolling the program.

xxx

xxx

Gayathri's thoughts were rather preoccupied these past two days. A few things went through her mind.

Upon seeing that the afternoon was slightly cloudy, but with no sign that it was going to rain anytime soon, she had decided to put off doing her homework until later, and opted to go out for a few rounds of rollerblading. Hopefully it would ease her mind slightly. Things were too quiet at home to her liking, with her parents at the United Kingdom. Mak Mirah, the family cook, was out to the hypermarket with her son Anding to stock up some of the food supplies and other household items, leaving her alone in the Nadarajah family's big bungalow house. They wouldn't be back until at least another hour or so.

It was now Tuesday, and while rollerblading down the empty street in front of her house, her thoughts rolled back to events that had happened to her these past two days.

_/Flashback/_

On Monday morning, right before the weekly assembly was about to start, Gayathri found her two best friends approaching her. They didn't look too happy, and judging from the way they were looking at her, it was as if Gayathri was the reason for that. She wondered what could be wrong.

"Gaya, you didn't show up at all at Sunway Pyramid yesterday!" Belinda Foo began. "Dina and I were waiting for you there. Remember? Our every two-weeks shopping trip?"

Gayathri nearly smacked her head; she had totally forgotten about it. In fact, it didn't even cross her mind at all. She was doing something far more important than a shopping spree – she and Liu Ying were rescuing their captured teammate Adam from the evil Digimon of the Digital World.

"We tried to call you since Saturday evening, but you weren't home," Wardina Fadlullah added, but her tone was not as loud as Belinda. She was demure as always, but a curious look was reflected from her calm brown eyes. "So we just assumed that you'd show up like you always would. We tried calling you again yesterday morning, but your cook told us that you've left the house already. We thought you've already on your way there."

"But you never showed," Belinda finished. She placed her arms on her hips. "What gives?"

Gayathri quickly ran several thoughts in her mind. She knew that she couldn't just say out that she was a DigiWira and the previous day, if she was out shopping, Adam wouldn't be at home recuperating from his ordeal that day. Usually she managed to clear out some time on Sundays to go out with her friends, but with Adam being kidnapped by the ShadoWira…

"I'm really sorry, girls," Gayathri finally said. "I was out...with Liu Ying. She needed my help on something, and I kind of promised her that I'd do it." _Well, that's stretching the truth, but definitely not a flat out lie,_ she thought silently, hoping that Belinda and Dina would accept her explanation. Then, before any of them could ask her more questions, Gayathri quickly came up with her own inquiry. "By the way, what did you two buy yesterday?"

"Nothing much, really," Dina answered. "I bought a new top. Bel bought a storybook. It wasn't as fun as when you are around."

"Sorry, sorry," Gayathri said, daring herself to smile a little. "Am I forgiven?"

"Sure," Dina nodded, smiling back to her dark-skinned friend. "You promised Liu Ying, after all. Did you manage to get it done…whatever it is?"

"Thankfully, yes," Gayathri replied promptly.

"And I take it that we're not going to know about whatever the two of you were doing?" Belinda asked pointedly.

"There's someone we both know, and Liu Ying doesn't want…or can't, actually, go alone; that's all I can say," Gayathri said evasively, hoping that her well-placed hints would mislead her friends. "You can ask her for details if you want."

Both of her friends smiled slightly upon hearing this. Apparently, they had misperceived Gayathri's patchy explanation, just like she'd wanted them to.

"Say, Gaya, I don't know whether I'm the only who notice this, but you seem to be hanging out around Liu Ying a lot lately," Gayathri's athletic friend suddenly pointed out. "Last year, you didn't seem to realize that Liu Ying exists, but from when the school first opens until today, you are very friendly to her. That, I don't understand."

"Well, let's just say that during the holidays, while you two were off to somewhere on a holiday and I was bored at home, I met Liu Ying. She helped me out from one tight situation, and I've done her the same favor. We then decided to be friends." Gayathri was amazed of how she had managed to summarize two of her adventures at the Digital World with Liu Ying, without even mentioning Digimon at all. Her explanation didn't sound suspicious at all.

"Oh," Dina said smilingly, adjusting a stray of her brown hair which obscured her eyes. "Well, I'm her classmate this year, and she's quite nice. Although outside the class, she can be very strict."

"Tell me about it," Belinda said glumly. She ran a hair through her short hair. "She chided me for missing the spot when I threw a can of Coke into the rubbish bin two weeks ago."

"Did you pick the Coke can up after you missed the shot?" Gayathri hazarded a guess. Knowing her friend, Belinda would just pretend that she didn't see that she had missed the target.

"Um…no," Belinda admitted. "But still, she didn't have to bite my head off. Luckily no one was around."

"She isn't made the second assistant of head prefect for nothing," Gayathri pointed out.

The bell then rang and the girls split up. When she met up with Liu Ying later during the recess period, she had totally forgotten about the conversation she had with her two best friends when Liu Ying introduced her to Adam's older sister, Alisha Ariff.

_/End Flashback/_

That was one of her problem – her best friends from primary school getting suspicious of what she were doing hanging around Liu Ying and Adam lately. Adam seemed to have the same problem; Hakim seemed somewhat distant from him. But then again, Gayathri noticed that Hakim was slightly distant to _everyone_, not just Adam. What his problem was, Gayathri could only wonder. The previous day, when Adam was absent, Hakim did seem to be worried, although he didn't voice it out.

Suddenly, her own problem didn't seem too big anymore, Gayathri thought, as she rollerbladed down the slightly steep road. Getting kidnapped was bad enough; getting kidnapped by demonic creatures and evil people with superpowers was a lot worse. No one deserved to go through that kind of ordeal. And in the real world, his best friend was being cold to him. If it happened to her – if Belinda and Wardina suddenly gave _her_ the cold shoulders – Gayathri would have cried.

Yet, Adam seemed to handle this just fine. Calm, optimistic and cheerful, as he always was.

All of a sudden, she was reminded of what Dina had mentioned about Adam a couple of weeks back. (Refer Chapter 03 – Fairymon's Vice Versa)

"_Back then he was…well, rather withdrawn. Aloof too; I sometimes saw him having faraway looks while in class." _

"_Adam was different. I mean, he was perfectly civil and all but unless talked to, he usually would stay silent and preferred to watch everybody in class. Everyone thought he was…well, a little weird. He didn't laugh at any jokes anybody made in class. It was hard actually to know what he was thinking back then, his face was always neutral. Nobody really knew whether he was happy or sad, he was always…well…unnaturally calm."_

_And it was after meeting Hakim that Adam began to actually look happy, and friendlier,_ Gayathri thought as she swung her hips slightly, maneuvering her way on the empty road. _The Adam I know now is very, very likable. It's no wonder Dina likes him…_ Gayathri smiled inwardly upon thinking about her best friend Dina, and her DigiWira teammate Adam. _Both cute, both nearly equal in heights, both are just very, very shy to ask each other out._

She shook her head, brushing that thought about Adam and Dina away. Thinking about them caused her mind to think of one particular person.

That particular person was one charming guy with dark spiky hair and russet-colored eyes. The strong and silent type of guy, in Gayathri's opinion. Just thinking about him made her heart flutter, and sent the butterflies in her stomach flying. Nobody had that kind of effect on her before.

_Do I like him?_ Gayathri thought. _I just knew him for a few weeks…not even close to a month yet._

In these few weeks, her new neighbor, Emmanuel Abah, had transformed from a shy, introverted guy that she had first met, into a slightly more outgoing, confident type. The lunch trip she at Kenny Rogers not too long ago came back to her mind.

While asking her to join his family for that lunch trip, Manny had mentioned that it was his mother who had wanted Manny to bring her along.

But while Manny was getting some desserts after their meal, his mother, Kimberly, had confided to Gayathri that it was Manny who had asked her whether he could bring Gayathri along to the lunch trip.

That particular day had been lingering within the curly-haired girl's thought for a while, too. She didn't know what to make out of it.

And earlier that day, she had been invited once more to lunch by Manny's family.

_/Flashback/_

Earlier that day, during recess time, Manny had managed to catch up to Gayathri before she joined Belinda and Wardina. He seemed somewhat eager about something.

"Manny? What is it?" Gayathri inquired curiously.

Manny smiled at her. "Gayathri…remember about what my mom said about another lunch invitation? Well, how about tomorrow? She's going to prepare her special chicken, using the family's recipe. She's asked me to ask you whether you want to join us again. I bet you one thing; it's way better than Kenny Rogers!"

Gayathri's eyes lit up, but before she could stop herself, she blurted out. "Really? Is it your mom who asked you to invite me…or is it you who want me to come?"

She had meant for the question to sound lighthearted, and had even added a smile to it, just in case Manny perceive the question wrongly.

However, what she didn't expect to happen was to have Manny's smile vanish from his face. It happened so quick, Gayathri didn't think that her newfound super speed power could even match the quickness of Manny's smile being wiped away from his face.

"What…what do you mean?"

"Well, when we were at Kenny Rogers, while you were down to take the muffins up, your mom told me that you were the one who asked her whether it was ok for you to bring me along. Really, Manny, I think that's so sweet, actually. You should just have told me directly, you know."

The smile on Manny's face returned, but looked somewhat strained. His dark reddish-brown eyes had a nervous look on them.

"Oh…ok. So…you still coming tomorrow, right?" he asked carefully.

"I'd love to."

_/End Flashback/_

_That was odd,_ Gayathri thought finally. _But still, I think that's sweet of him, even though he 'uses' his mom as a reason to get me to join his family for lunch. I shouldn't have confronted him on trivial things like that. Me and my big mouth._

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice somebody coming up from her front. A loud warning cry was heard, but it was too late.

**THUDD!**

"OOOF!"

"AACK!"

Gayathri felt as if the wind was knocked out of her chest as she felt herself losing her balance. A pair of slightly damp arms attempted to catch her in order to stop her from falling, but failed to do so as everything was happening all too quickly. Gayathri managed to clutch on those arms, which resulted in both of them to fall onto the grassy sidewalk beside the road.

And Gayathri, to her utmost embarrassment, found herself on top of a very familiar person. Even their position was very suggestive; the two of them were somewhat tangled up between each other. Both of them were blushing furiously, and tried to get up. The person was trying to get himself up; he was currently lying on his back, and Gayathri's added weight on his body made it somewhat difficult for him to get back up.

"Gayathri?" Manny called out to her. "Uh…mind getting up from me, please?"

"Oh, Manny!" Gayathri said, and scrambled back up to her feet. She however nearly lost her footing once again – the rollerblades she was wearing made it difficult for her to stand straight up. Manny quickly shot up to his feet and helped Gayathri regained her balance. He was smiling slightly…and embarrassedly.

"You ok?" he asked, holding both of Gayathri's arms. Gayathri noticed that his palms were a little sweaty, but didn't make any mention about it.

"Yeah, I'm ok…" she said, her eyes were looking down. She was too embarrassed herself to look up. She couldn't believe that she didn't see Manny, and ended up crashing onto him instead.

"Good," Manny said, finally letting out an amused smile. "What were you thinking back there, if you don't mind me asking? I was jogging, on my way back actually, when I saw you coming my way. I waved at you, but you didn't wave back…you seemed to be very deep in thought."

Gayathri took a second to look at Manny. The burly boy was wearing a sleeveless dark blue T-shirt, which was soaked in sweat, and a pair of light blue shorts. His arms and face were all sweaty, and so were his short cropped brown-maroon hair. He was breathing heavily, and his face was slightly flushed.

"I'm so sorry," Gayathri said; she couldn't possibly say that she was thinking about him – which ended up in her colliding onto him! What would he think of her then? Then she realized that Manny too, was observing her as he waited for her answer. _Not observing…staring. _All of a sudden, she became self-conscious. What was he staring at? She was wearing a pink top with a red heart logo and blue jeans shorts, with knees and elbows protections, and a pink helmet. Her curly brown hair was done in two plaits, and for every plait she had tied a purple ribbon on.

She cleared her throat, which effectively caused the boy to avert his gaze back to her eyes. "Umm…yeah, something was on my mind just now, I'm so sorry that I didn't see you, and collided onto you instead. Are you hurt?"

Manny was rubbing his back with one hand. A strained look shot up his face, but he shook it off with a smile. "Don't worry about it, Gayathri."

"Does your back hurt?" Gayathri asked worriedly; she didn't miss the look on the boy's face. "Is it because of the fall that your back's hurt?" she pressed on.

"My back?" Manny asked back; his smile gone, replaced by a frown. Then, the smile returned back. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's not because of the fall. It's just that…I got into trouble with something involving water. You see; I was swimming on Sunday, and somehow, I swung my arms wrongly. Until now, the pain's there."

"Shouldn't you see a doctor about it?" Gayathri asked, concerned.

"I did get it looked up too," Manny assured her. "At least, now it's not as bad as it used to be. Don't worry."

"Ok," Gayathri nodded, and then noticed that Manny was still holding her right wrist with his left hand, trying to balance her straight. "Umm…" she said, her brown eyes shot towards her hands.

"Oops, sorry about that," Manny apologized, removing his hand slowly, as if afraid that Gayathri would fall back onto the ground if he'd let go.

"It's ok. So…you were jogging?"

"Yeah. Trying to lose some fats," Manny answered, and smiled sheepishly. "Until my back's ok, I won't be swimming for a while, I think. So I decided to jog."

"I don't see any fats," Gayathri said playfully. Then she grimaced as she looked down on her own body. "Now that you've mentioned it, I think _I'm_ the one who needs to jog, as I've got lots of fat to get rid off." Gayathri was not actually fat, but she was leaning towards the plump side.

"I think you look fine, actually," Manny pointed out earnestly. "Healthy. Not so thin, not fat at all; just perfect."

Gayathri's cheeks colored a little. "Um…thanks, I guess. Anyway…I'm going to go for a round around the block with my rollerblades now. See you later?"

"Oh, ok, sure," Manny said, and stepped aside. As Gayathri rollerbladed past him, he waved towards her retreating form. Gayathri turned around and waved back before increasing her momentum. When she turned around the corner and disappeared from the road lane, Manny's left arm rubbed his aching back once again. "Man, my back hurts."

xxx

xxx

"Grandpa, are you doing something?" Liu Ying called. She cocked her head back towards the sofa, where her grandfather was sitting on, and saw the elderly man reading a newspaper.

It was Wednesday afternoon, and she was spending time with her family. With no homework needed to be done, she used the free time she had to accompany her five-year-old brother Liu Meng to watch some cartoon DVDs. She had already changed into much more comfortable clothing, which were a simple yellow sleeveless V-necked T-shirt and a pair of knee-length sweatpants. Her long, black hair was left untied, secured out of her face by an orange headband.

Grandpa Chang placed the newspaper down on his lap and lifted his reading glasses. He peered to his granddaughter with his small eyes from under the glasses, and shook his head.

"Is there something you wish to ask me, Ying?" he inquired.

Liu Ying cast a look at Shaomon, who was asleep on the big cushion which was placed on the carpeted floor. Liu Meng was patting on the Digimon, seemingly singing a mispronounced lullaby to the little in-training. Smiling, she turned back to face her grandfather.

"Yes. You see, I'm somewhat curious about the concept of Yin and Yang."

"Oh?" Grandpa Chang smiled upon hearing his granddaughter's inquiry. "Why the sudden interest in that?"

The previous day, Liu Ying and Shaomon had encountered Kyuubimon; a perfect mirror image for Youkomon, with the differences being their size, gender and color. And in order to defeat Kyuubimon, Youkomon had unlocked a latent power – a hidden power which was linked to her affinity to the concept of Yin and Yang. It was only yesterday that she had gotten to know that Youkomon was a Yin-type, and had a dormant Yang-form within her. After gaining the art of astral projection, she could project her dormant Yang mode as her astral self.

_Definitely an attribute linked to the magical element of the Yellow DigiSphere,_ she mused silently, and began telling her grandfather about the previous day's event.

"That is definitely interesting," Grandpa Chang commented ten minutes later. "Shaomon is actually an embodiment of the Yin and Yang concept; how very curious."

"That's why I want to know more about it," Liu Ying said.

"Well, in that case, I'll do my best to explain it to you," Grandpa Chang said with a smile. "Alright, firstly, what you should know is that the concepts of Yin and Yang are actually from the ancient Chinese philosophy, which describes two opposing forces which complement each other in various ways. These are found in nearly every thing in this world. _Yin_ refers to the darker element, which is linked to sadness, dark, passive and feminine, while _Yang_ refers to the elements of light, such as happiness, brightness, active and masculine. _Yin _is night, while _Yang _is day. _Yin_ is water, while _Yang_ is fire. You see, Ying, all of the examples I have given you are complimentary, while also opposing, to each other. Do you understand this?"

"I understand now, grandpa, thank you," Liu Ying nodded, but one of her grandfather's examples caused her to shiver slightly.

"Do you have anymore inquiry that you'd like me to explain?"

Liu Ying smiled and shook her head. "No. I think I get the concept. Thank you, grandpa."

"You're very welcome, Ying."

_Yin is water, and Yang is fire?_ she thought; her mind immediately reeled back to the perfect example of water and fire. _The ShadoWira?_

Hiding the uneasiness she was feeling, she resumed her attention back to the TV as her grandfather lifted the newspaper back to in front of his face. It was certainly fitting, Liu Ying thought. The ShadoWira, when together, were an unbeatable force. But separate them, and they were able to be defeated.

Her sharp mind then found another connection.

_Yin is dark, and Yang is light._ _The Red DigiSphere has an element of darkness…and the White DigiSphere is purely of light. Could it be the reason why the Red ShadoWira seem to focus all his attack only on Adam, instead of the three of us? He's the one who abducts Adam, he's the one who hits Adam, he's the one who has attempted on Adam's life…more than twice, and he's the one who stole Adam's D-Terminal. Adam sure has a very dangerous enemy…_

The thought sent her shivers down her spine; if it was true, then she had to warn Adam about this.

_But then again, the other element of the Red DigiSphere… the fire element, isn't it an element of Yang? Light also is an element of Yang. Oh dear, this is all getting too confusing!_

Her eyes then fell onto the sleeping Shaomon, who looked content and comfortable being babied by her little brother. Liu Meng had thought of Shaomon as the family's pet, which Shaomon had found to be rather offending to her at first. But now, the Digimon realized that Liu Meng didn't harbor any ill intention when he said that, and settled for that.

_Youkomon is Yin, Kyuubimon is Yang. Why would Labramon Digivolve into Youkomon, instead of Kyuubimon?_

_Female is Yin, Male is Yang? Is that the reason? _

Liu Ying pressed her temples in frustration. _These Yin and Yang concepts are brilliant, yet very complex. Maybe it's best if I don't think about this too much. Besides, this seems to be a free day for me. I should be using it to enjoy a quality time with my family, not thinking of things I don't have to._

xxx

xxx

Adam stared at his reflection in the mirror. _Perfect! TobuCatmon's medicine works wonderfully! No way would Kak Lisha be able to make me stay in the apartment tomorrow. Only small traces of bruise remain now…and I think I can fix that!_

His face now was almost bruise-free. There was a slight bluish tint along the lines of his right nose, which extended until the wings of his nose. However, it was not really detectable. It was still bright outside; Adam would just have to wear a cap, and the shadow would hide his face. No one would know that he was bruised.

After spending Sunday and Monday, and the first sixteen hours of Tuesday cooped up in the apartment, Adam couldn't wait to get outside. He was only going to a shop nearby to get something to drink – something cold and carbonated, instead of the ranges of fruit juices his sister had bought. Hey, he was a teenager, and teens loved carbonated drinks!

"Tokomon, will you be alright here all alone?" Adam called towards the living room.

"Shh! Don't interrupt me. This guy is trying to fool the other guy into thinking that he's his friend; while actually, he's the enemy! It's so suspenseful!"

"Want anything? I'm heading to the shop."

"Shh! Oh, look! That poor guy doesn't even know what's coming to him. That evil fiend is tricking him, and still he believes…"

Adam shook his head; Tokomon was back to his usual afternoon routine – soap marathon! He had been disappointed that he had missed out the drama serials for the previous day, but luckily the stories were excruciatingly slow in progress from one episode to another; (too slow for Adam's liking) it was easy for Tokomon to catch up what he had missed.

"I'll be back in a few!"

"Bye…"

Adam could hear a muttered reply elicited from Tokomon as he exited the apartment. He locked up the door and began jogging his way down the stairs.

Dressed in white T-shirt with orange accents lining the sleeves and collars, and a pair of light brown pants which reached just past his knees, and a maroon hat, Adam was ready to head his way towards the nearby shop. It was not a very sunny day; Adam could jog his way there without breaking a sweat. And when he passed a parked car in the apartment complex compound, he took the time to look at his reflection at the car's tinted window. He saw that his face was shadowed by the cap – perfect for his attempt to cover up the bruise.

Within ten minutes, he had arrived at the shop. He jogged his way in and waved his hand towards the shopkeeper, whom he was familiar with. The shopkeeper waved back as he entertained one customer, whom had his back turned. Adam immediately went to the refrigerator and chose one drink before stepping towards the counter. The conversation between the shopkeeper and his customer could be heard; the customer seemed to be somewhat irritated, from the way he sounded, and the shopkeeper was trying to reason with him.

"I'm sorry, young man, but we don't have enough change for RM100. Do you have a smaller note?" The voice of the shopkeeper was heard, slightly exasperated.

"No. I only have RM100 with me. What kind of a shop is this? A hundred _ringgit_ isn't that much, yet you still don't have a change for it. How much money you're short of anyway?" Adam thought that this voice was somewhat familiar, but couldn't place it directly.

The shopkeeper, a man with a receding hairline, looked at his calculator. "Well, I've given you RM91.20, so the remaining change is RM1.50. Maybe if you get another canned drink…"

By that time, Adam had reached the counter, and saw a familiar person arguing with the shopkeeper. His eyes widened instantly.

The said customer was wearing a dark red shirt which clasped onto his arms and chest, but was loose on his lower torso, and a pair of black Bermuda. What identified the customer to Adam instantly however were not his clothes, but the fact that he had a slightly messy mop of dishwater blonde hair. Not many people around the town had blonde hair. The customer turned around, and Adam saw a pair of hazel eyes glinted with mirth upon setting sight on him…or rather, the carbonated drink he was holding. A too-familiar lopsided grin then ensued.

"How much is that drink he's holding?" JD Kamaruzaman demanded to the shopkeeper, pointing towards the green canned drink Adam was holding.

"Huh?" Adam said, surprised. Why JD would be asking about the cost of his drink, Adam wondered.

"That one?" The shopkeeper took a moment to think before replying. "Mountain Dew costs RM1.30."

JD nodded. "Ok then. That's on me, too. And you can keep the change."

"Hey…you don't have to…" Adam began protesting, but he was too late. JD had already paid for the drink he was holding, and was about to leave the shop.

Before exiting, the blond teen cocked his head back and smirked at Adam. He made a slight gesture with his head, signaling for Adam to follow him before walking out of the shop. Adam saw that JD had paused nearby the parlor of newspapers, presumably waiting for him.

"Um…" he said uncertainly, and nodded at the shopkeeper before following JD.

Then he walked out, and approached JD. Adam dug into his pocket, but was stopped short when the older teen raised his right palm.

"Don't bother; it's my treat."

"Really?"

"No, you'll have to pay it back with 100 percent interest," JD replied with a smirk, which caused Adam to face-fault. "Nah, I'm just kidding you. My treat, seriously."

"In that case, thanks."

"No sweat," JD replied, before fishing his hand into the bag he was holding, and took out another can of carbonated drink (Coca Cola). He opened the seal and took a sip of his drink. He gestured for them to walk away from the shop, towards the sidewalks of the road. For a moment, neither spoke anything as they walked, until JD broke the awkward silence. "So, not cooped up in the house anymore, huh?" he asked with a smirk, referring to their online conversation the previous day.

"No. Not really," Adam replied unsurely. He opened his drink and took a sip as well, careful not to lift his head too high, lest JD would be able to see his bruised face.

"You come here often?" JD asked, taking another gulp of his drink. He was wondering why Adam kept his eyes down from him, but he had a pretty good idea.

"Yeah," Adam said, nodding. He stalled his steps slightly on purpose, so JD would be in the lead.

"What's with the short answers, Harry Potter fan? Cat bit your tongue?" JD asked, slowing down his paces to let Adam catch up to him. Seeing the boy to be slightly tensed up, JD gave him his trademark lopsided grin. "Relax, man; I don't bite."

Adam raised his head up slightly, and was about to reply when he realized that he had done a mistake. Quickly, he lowered his gaze back down, but it was too late.

"Hey…" JD said, and without warning, he snatched up Adam's red cap. In reflex, Adam's head shot up, and the faint bruise was visible for JD to see. Adam grimaced instantly as JD's hazel eyes widened in surprise. A small smirk formed on the older teen's face. "Wow. Took a nasty beating now, haven't you?"

"It's nothing like that," Adam said hastily.

JD leaned closer to get a closer look on the bruise, which made the younger teen took a step back. Raising his arms up, JD drew his lips into his mouth, giving himself a grim look. "Look, Adam. I for one know a beating when I see one. After all, I've got my fair share of beatings too sometimes."

Adam nodded. "I've heard," he said with a small voice. This year only, Adam had heard about JD being caught up in a fight with a Form Four student, as the latter was commenting of JD's ancestry in a rather insulting way. That was during the first week after school had opened.

"So you've heard," JD nodded. "So there's no use fooling me now. But I don't think you're one that would get yourself tangled in a fight."

"I wasn't fighting," Adam said indignantly. Then he raked his brain for a reason of the bruise on his face. "Actually, I was…mugged," he finished weakly. _Well,_ he thought. _It's still true._

JD didn't look convinced. "Mugged, huh?"JD resisted the attempt to smirk upon the thought; after all Adam didn't flat out lie to him – JD (as the Red ShadoWira, unknown to Adam) did mug him off his D-Terminal. The blonde teen saw that the young teen was getting uncomfortable about the subject, and decided to drop it. But there was one last thing that he wanted to ask Adam about the bruise.

"Anyway, it looks like it's healing," JD pointed out. He was surprised of that, too. A bruise like what he had inflicted on Adam would take days to fade. But the remaining trace of the bruise on Adam's face was the slightly bluish tint on his otherwise fair complexion.

"I've got some good bruise-removing cream," Adam replied evasively. He couldn't tell JD that the remedy he was using didn't come from their world.

JD saw Adam's evasiveness and decided to change the subject, realizing that his plan won't work if Adam was withdrawing away from him. For his plan to work, he needed Adam to be relaxed around him…which could take some work.

"Anyway, where you're heading to?" he asked as he twirled Adam's cap with his right index finger.

"Home," Adam answered; his eyes lingered on his maroon cap. "Can I have my cap back, please?"

"Hm? Oh, sure," JD said, and instead of giving the cap on Adam's slightly extended hand, he placed the cap back on Adam's head. "There you go."

"Uh…thanks," Adam said, unsure of how to react. He was wondering why, all of a sudden, the school's famous troublemaker, was being so sociable to him. It couldn't be just because of a simple birthday wish, could it? Curious, Adam decided to ask JD about it. "Umm, I have a question before I go?"

JD raised an eyebrow, and crossed one arm (which hand was holding the plastic bag) across his chest, while the other was used to hold his drink. "Shoot."

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm just curious…why are you suddenly so friendly to me all of a sudden? It couldn't be just because of a simple birthday wish, right? During at the computer club meeting, you didn't look too interested in becoming our friends." Then Adam's cheek colored a little. "And there was that rude message you've shown me with your phone when I asked you whether you'd like to join us…"

JD groaned inwardly, but nothing escaped his mouth. He just stared at Adam's face while contemplating an answer. _Oh, damn it. He had to ask…Well, one way to answer this kind of question. _

Adam suddenly felt JD staring at him pointedly. With his height, bigger stature, and add those with the glinting effect his hazel eyes seemed to be projecting, JD seemed to give out a somewhat intimidating aura. The younger boy suddenly thought that the older teen looked somewhat dangerous. Now he knew why people don't mess with JD.

"What's the matter? Too good to be friends with me?"

Adam flinched. "No, it's not like that! It's just…"

The glare from JD suddenly vanished as the blonde teen smirked at him. "Don't worry; I was just kidding you," he said, and pushed Adam's cap downward with a finger, fixing it tight on Adam's forehead. He chuckled lightly before continuing, "Anyway, about that little message…" he said, grinning. "Sorry 'bout that, ok? I didn't mean to show you that swear message like that, but…let's just say that I wasn't really having a good day."

"On your birthday?" Adam inquired curiously.

"Let's just say that I've got into a fight…with my dad. Verbally, if you're wondering. We didn't exactly see from eye to eye." _Now why the hell am I getting personal all of a sudden? Well…if it means gaining Adam's trust, then I might as well. _"Don't even think about asking."

"Wasn't going to."

"Good." JD cleared his throat and looked down to the younger boy, who was listening to him. JD resisted the urge to smirk, but it seemed that his plan was working. Now all he needed to do was to seal the deal. "Look, I know you have some not-so-good impressions on me. Ah ah ah…don't deny it; half the school has that kind of impression, the other half perhaps were thinking why in the world the school is still keeping me. I don't really care. Anyway, why not let me become your friend? I'm sure that after a couple days or so, your impression on me might change."

JD did make a valid point. Adam suddenly felt horrible for questioning his intention. He didn't know what to say in response to JD's statements.

"And…okay, what you called as a simple-birthday-message actually meant a lot, 'cos not many people knew about it."

Adam rolled his eyes slightly. "Not many? What about your… gang? What about your online friends? The ones who'd sent you birthday messages?"

JD winced inwardly. _Man, this kid is sharp!_ He held up his finger up. "Ok, firstly – Kenny, Samy and Megat didn't even have a clue about my birthday. Secondly, who you called as my online friends, well, I don't even know them. I don't broadcast my MySpace profile to everyone at school. Most of the people in my friends list…I don't even know nearly 90 percent of them! You know how the site works. People just add anybody they want as their friends."

"But my friend Hakim is in your list," Adam pointed out before he could stop himself. He had been wondering about it since yesterday, and since JD had brought up about that topic…

_Oh man, looks like my plan really need a LOT of work._ "Ok…I didn't exactly know that best friend of yours, but he'd helped me out once with…something. So I added him."

Adam thought that JD's explanation was somewhat stalled, but didn't think much about it. It was fine if Hakim had helped JD out with something, and JD didn't have the obligation to say exactly what it was to Adam.

JD then looked at Adam suspiciously. _Damn! He could've seen those messages! I've to make sure that he didn't. _"How did you know that I have Hakim as my MySpace friend? You didn't snoop around the page now, did you?"

Adam scowled, missing the tensed look on JD's face. "No. I just saw his picture on the main page before I logged you off. Honest."

JD instantly looked somewhat relieved. "Oh. Ok. Sorry about that." He gave Adam a lopsided grin. "There's something you're not supposed to see in my mailbox; it'd tarnish your innocent mind." JD decided to be bold; after all, the truth was what people would least expected to belief.

And it looked like Adam fell for it instantly. The dark-haired boy gave him another scowl. The blonde teen laughed.

"Tell you what, Adam. Do you need to go back home right now? It's only 5.30."

"My curfew is actually before _Maghrib_," Adam informed. "But I don't have any plans, so I might as well head home."

"Nope. Guess what? You have plan now," JD immediately said. "Come on, I haven't celebrated my birthday properly yet. Don't worry; Maghrib's _my_ curfew too…although I always break it." He grinned slightly. "On purpose, usually."

"Didn't you celebrate your birthday with your family?" Adam asked curiously.

"I did…but it didn't go well. Anyway, not the point. Let's go to _Taipan_. Wanna go grab a bite or something? My treat."

Adam blinked. "What? You don't have to do that."

"Ok, so it'll be your treat," JD said with a serious face.

"But I don't have a lot of money with me now," Adam protested weakly. "But if I go home…"

"I'm kidding," JD assured quickly. "And I have enough money for both of us. C'mon. Let's go. Where do you want to go eat? Mc-Ds? KFC? Pizza? Malay cafes? Coffee Bean? _Mamak_'s?"

"Um…" Adam thought. When he stepped out from the apartment, this wasn't what he had in mind. Tokomon would be wondering where he'd gone to. But then again, the little in-training knew how to use the telephone, and Adam had his cell-phone with him right now. And, looking at the watch, the TV still had some soaps airing in _NTV7_, which would be followed by a Chinese serial dramas on _TV3_. Adam knew Tokomon wouldn't want to miss those if he didn't have to, so he guessed that the little in-training wouldn't mind if he would come back late.

"Mamak's sounds nice," Adam said finally.

"Great," JD grinned widely. _Looks like the cat is in the bag now…_ "To Mamak's it is. Let's go!"

xxx

xxx

It was past the work hours, but Alisha was too caught up with her 'extra work'. Her colleagues assumed that she was simply making up for her absence the previous day, and didn't ask her about it when they were on their way back. Her boss was slightly curious as Alisha _had_ completed her work way before the end of the work hours. But as Alisha had always been a diligent employee and a competent worker, he didn't question her intention before he too stepped out from the office.

In truth, Alisha was juggling between her work and the extra work she had decided to partake.

She had been studying the programs Jackie had given her for the past five hours. She had now understood the Digital-Detect-Discover function of the Digivices and the D-Terminals, and she had taken the time to study briefly the way Jackie had modified the sun staff to work as a visual projector for the Forest Sanctum and to his own computer in his office. The programming was a little too complex for Alisha – which made her wonder where exactly Jackie had acquired his profound skills in I.T.

"The complexity behind this is _way_ beyond our current technology," Alisha said to herself.

Alisha had tried asking her fellow colleagues about it, quizzing the more experienced ones about it while being subtle, anytime when she managed to engage a conversation with them. Even the smartest of them all couldn't come up with a decent answer. This made Alisha more curious.

Looking at the time, she realized that it was just past six. She realized that there was no use stepping out from the office now; she would just get herself stuck in the legendary traffic jams at the roads connecting the nation's capital to the town where she lived. It was better if she waited until after Maghrib. However, that would mean that she'd reach her home around 9.00 to 9.30 p.m., and her brother and his partner would be very hungry by then.

Reaching for her cell-phone, she pushed the second button, accessing the quick dial function which would connect her phone to Adam's cell phone. A ring tone was heard, and Adam picked it up after the second ring.

"**Hello, Kak Lisha."**

"Hi, Adam….where are you right now? I hear noises." Adam seemed to be somewhere which was filled with noises, conversations and laughter.

"**I'm at Taipan…at 'Canai & Such' café. A friend's treating me a meal for his belated birthday,"** came Adam's excited reply.

"You're outside?" Alisha asked. "Your bruise…"

"**Don't worry. I got it covered."**

"Ok…anyway, Adam, I'm still at the office. Do you think you can fix something for yourself and Tokomon to eat while I'm not back? I think I'll be home around 9 or so, and I'll get something for you two to eat while on the way back. Is it ok with you?"

"**It's fine. I'm already eating here and…little Toko has eaten too."**

"Little Toko?" Alisha wondered, and then remembered that Adam was in the company of a friend, who might not know about Digimon. Hence, little Toko instead of Tokomon. She had to chuckle of her brother's creativity. "Ok, Adam. So I don't have to buy anything for you guys?"

"**I don't think so…you see, this guy here is forcing me to eat a lot more than I can take. Maybe you should tell him to stop…"**

A laugh was heard coming from somebody who was not Adam, but sounded near enough to the phone. Alisha assumed that this was the friend Adam was talking about.

"Well, ok. I'm glad that you're already eating. Don't forget to thank your friend before you go back."

"**I won't. Hey! I thought I've told you that I don't want these chocolate cakes? I'm already full enough as it is…Umm, sorry, Kak Lisha, I wasn't talking to you just now. Seriously I'm so going to get a stomachache tonight."**

Another voice, somewhat loud and adult-like compared to Adam's boyish tone, which Alisha didn't recognize, added, **_"_Well, too bad, you're eating them anyway!"**

"How nice of your friend to give you a treat like that," Alisha said smilingly. "Well, Adam, I won't interrupt your meal anymore. Enjoy the cake! Bye."

"**Bye, Kak Lisha. See you tonight. Salaam..." **And the connection was cut off.

She placed her light-green cell phone on the table and resumed her focus to the monitor. She had opened a Microsoft Word new document, and typed in bold, caps-locked letterings at the center of the blank page was **'FUTURE DIGIWIRA PROJECTS'.**

She then clicked on the numbering list button on the list of shortcuts on the top of the word program.

"Ok, what should Jackie and I focus on doing which would help Adam and his friends greatly?" Alisha wondered. Thinking about it for a while, she smiled and began typing the first project that came to mind. "Since the DigiWira are still pretty much in the dark about these ShadoWira's civilian identities, our two top priorities now are…"

_**1. Find a way to increase the scanning range for the Digivices, so that they could detect the ShadoWira's Digivice signals. **_

_**2. Find a way to track Adam's missing D-Terminal.**_

She leaned back against the back of the leather chair, and wondered what else she could do. She had understood the D3's functions, so that was what she and Jackie would do first. She had sent Jackie an SMS, asking whether he could help her with a third project. It was the biggest project she could think of, and some research would need to be done. Her office mates would know about this, and could give her some tips. There were some reference materials in the office which she could use as templates.

But to integrate the project to the Digital World…that was not Alisha's forte. She would need Jackie, and TobuCatmon's, helps with that.

Jackie had replied to her SMS; he had praised her brilliantly and lamented himself for not thinking of that sooner. He mentioned that TobuCatmon had thought of her suggestion as a good idea too, and he knew just where in the Forest Sanctum to accommodate the program Alisha had in mind. The three of them would be working closely together for this project, and for the time being, the DigiWira would not know about it.

Why? Because for one, there was a chance that this project would fail, and it would cause them to be disappointed.

Two; they were already preoccupied with the ShadoWira business. No need to get them riled up about the project.

Excitedly, she began to type the third planned program for the DigiWira.

"There's no way the kids could practice their powers with real Digimon, as they might end up hurting them by accident. So…"

_**3. Design a simulation program for the DigiWira to practice their special powers.**_

* * *

****

**Author's Notes**:

This is one of a non-battle chapter focusing on the DigiWira. At first I wanted to skip this chapter, but it does have some building up elements which will be important in later chapters. Also, this chapter gives me the chance to write more about JD's plan on Adam, as well as exposing more about Gayathri's thought and dilemma. Also brought to highlight is Alisha's further involvement as the newest mentor of the DigiWira team. And to balance out this chapter by making sure that all DigiWira are included – the Yin and Yang dialogue between Liu Ying and her grandfather, and the inclusions of the sidelines characters such as Dina, Belinda, Hakim and Manny.

**TERM GLOSSARIES:**

**Maghrib**

Its actual meaning is the dusk praying time for Muslims. Used more commonly among the Malays to refer the time of sunset.

**Mamak's** **(or Mamak Stall)**

Popular al fresco style dining eateries among Malaysians operated predominantly by Indian Muslims. The foods served there usually of Indian origins. The mamak stall has been etched permanently in the Malaysian culture as a popular hang-out place for people of all races, religion and age.

More info about Mamak's at this link, just delete all the spaces: _en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Mamak(underscore)stall_

Replace (underscore) with an actual underscore mark.

**NTV-7 and TV-3**

Two of Malaysian TV channels.

**RM**

_Ringgit Malaysia_ – the term referring to Malaysian money, similar to US's dollar sign. In comparison: USD$1.00 about RM3.70

**Taipan**

A business center area in the township where the DigiWira live in. It has restaurants, shops, banks, private offices, hardware shops, and many other.

**Sunway Pyramid**:

A popular shopping complex in Malaysia, located in Petaling Jaya. The country's first themed shopping complex inspired from the Egyptian's Sphinx and pyramid. The shopping complex's main design is a pyramid with a big lion statue guarding it. The rest of building is designed as a monument style with hieroglyphics decorations.


	15. Day of the Flowers

Liu Ying stood warily from a distance as she witnessed Youkomon facing off a recent threat of the Digital World.

The said threat was a lithe mechanical avian digimon standing at eight-feet tall, clad from head to toe with blue metallic armor. The facial armor was curved towards the front, downward, with its end crafted to bear the shape of a bird's beak. On each side of its metallic face, shimmering red glows were emitted from the slits which were done to expose its eyes. The body armor was also smoothly designed, with two different shades of blue – sky blue, and dark blue. The armor which covered its thighs were also patterned the same way as the body, but the lower leg's armor as well as the armors donning the creature's upper extremities were different. They had a rougher quality; the armors protecting its shins and knees were pointier in shape, while spikes protruded from the sidelines of the arms. From underneath the spikes there were rectangular slits, and from those slits semi-transparent, yet hard, 'feathers' protruded from them. These 'feathers' exuded a myriad shades of aura.

This digimon was called Peacockmon, an armor-level digimon. The Armored Champion had been demolishing a small colony of rookies and in-trainings which were unable to defend themselves against it, before the duo representing the Yellow DigiSphere turned up to stop it.

"Where are they?" Liu Ying grumbled nervously as she looked around. Her face was slightly sweaty; the afternoon heat was searing, and she had been warding off any stray attacks from the Peacockmon with her telekinetic power for the last thirty minutes. Behind her was the Elecmon with two different color schemes – one was the regular red with purple stripes, the other was purple with yellow stripes – and an assortment of in-training digimon, all cowering in fear as they watched the battle, and the destruction of their colony.

"_Rainbow Flapping!"_

The female DigiWira watched as Peacockmon's transparent 'feathers' shone with bright blue aura. The machine digimon flapped its mechanical wings, letting out a multicolored energy wave towards Youkomon. The midnight-blue furred fox digimon leaped from her feet and blazed with striking red flames, which instantly took form of a roaring draconic specter. Youkomon's Dragon Wheel attack rammed against the wave of rainbow, diminishing it into specks of data particles.

"Insolent whelp! I will not be made a fool of like this!" Peacockmon squawked with a raven-like voice. The shrill voice indicated immediately that Peacockmon was a 'he'.

"It is not my fault that your attack is not unstoppable," Youkomon replied evenly as the red flames evaporated from her body as soon as she landed back on her feet.

"How dare you! You haven't tasted my true power!" Peacockmon shouted. He pointed one wing towards the kitsune, his eyes glinting madly as he summoned, _"Peahen Assistance!"_

Immediately, three of Peacockmon's transparent 'feathers' shot out from the slits of his wings, and transformed into smaller, plainer-looking versions of the Armored Champion digimon. They stood at merely four-foot high, and were much simpler in design as compared to Peacockmon. Their armors were of two shades of brown, and they lacked the fearsome-looking wings of Peacockmon. Their wings were shorter with stubbed, yet sharp, orange claws embedded towards the end of the tips of the feathers. Their feet also ended with talons of orange color. And lastly, they didn't look solid – they were semitransparent and looked only about eighty-percent solid.

"Attack her, my _peahens_!" Peacockmon commanded loudly.

The semitransparent peahens obeyed Peacockmon's command and rushed towards their target – Youkomon. Youkomon managed to evade two peahens by simply rolling away, but she was caught off guard when she collided with the third peahen. To both her and Liu Ying's surprise, upon collision with the peahen, the peahen exploded soundly. The explosion was not the same as the one resulted in a digimon being deleted – this was a true explosion, with flames ignited and smokes ensuing.

From the sheer force of the explosion, Youkomon was thrown off her footings. She sailed into the air, and landed loudly on her back with a thud. Her visions were a blur; she could see the other two peahens zooming towards her, with the intention of colliding with her. Quickly she attempted to stand back up on her feet, but her back knees wobbled weakly and she stumped back onto the ground. The exploded peahen had collided with her on the back as Youkomon was rolling away to escape the first two peahens, thus injuring her back legs.

"YOUKOMON!"

Liu Ying rushed forward towards her injured partner, and flicked her arms forcefully. The two peahens were immediately thrown away, colliding into each other and exploded, much to the displeasure of Peacockmon. The DigiWira however couldn't care less; she knelt beside her digimon partner and quickly inspected the wounds. She coiled slightly upon seeing that Youkomon had suffered physical injury on her hind legs – a portion of her blue furs were scraped, revealing gashes underneath the furs. Clear liquid was oozing out from it.

"Youkomon, are you alright?" Liu Ying asked concernedly.

Youkomon didn't nod or shake her head. She merely gazed onto Liu Ying's eyes. "Liu Ying, has Gayathri or Adam reply to the call? Are they on their way here?"

"I don't know," Liu Ying answered distractedly; she couldn't tear her gaze away from the wounds on Youkomon's legs. "They should have been here by now. We've been battling Peacockmon for more than half an hour," she trailed. "It's not like them at all. Where could they be?" she babbled nervously. "We could really use their help."

Youkomon narrowed her eyes slightly; Liu Ying was normally calm and collected, but the kitsune had seen this kind of behavior in her human partner before. It was something Liu Ying didn't demonstrate often. The champion digimon remembered exactly when was the last time she had seen Liu Ying in a nervous wreck like this – it was during their second adventure, and they were up against a viral champion digimon called Kuwagamon. The insect digimon had injured Youkomon with its pincers, and Liu Ying was scared out of her wits. Luckily, Youkomon was able to initiate the Dragon Wheel attack which incinerated Kuwagamon instantly.

It didn't bode well to the kitsune digimon at all to see Liu Ying like this. She knew that she had to end the battle quickly.

"Liu Ying, I may not be able to move right now," the champion vixen began steadily, "but I have an idea of how to end this. But I will need you to guard my body."

Liu Ying calmed down slowly upon seeing her partner speaking. "You mean…?"

Youkomon nodded; one of the qualities she admired on her human partner was her ability to grasp quickly anything that was presented to her. It came with her experience as being the longest-running DigiWira out of the three DigiWira. She closed her eyes slowly and her body glimmered with yellow aura.

Liu Ying recognized immediately what her partner was intending to do – she was summoning her newest ability, the astral projection. She immediately pushed herself back on her feet, guarding the now-unconscious body of Youkomon as she saw Peacockmon waving his arms furiously. The armored peacock digimon had sent out more semitransparent 'feathers' out from their slits on his metallic wings. Seven peahens materialized when the 'feathers' landed on the ground. Seeing this, Liu Ying quickly assumed a ready stance, sensing a presence of something glowing with bright golden yellow light appearing behind her.

"Charge, my peahens!" Peacockmon commanded. "Destroy them!"

"Oh, that is so cliché," Liu Ying muttered, as her confidence returned to her. With a smirk, she flicked her arm towards one charging peahen, sending it flying towards the peahen behind its back. The unlucky peahens instantly exploded loudly into flames, smokes and data particles upon crashing each other, much to the chagrin of Peacockmon. The remaining five peahens saw this and immediately scrambled away from Liu Ying, recognizing the dangerousness of them being near the girl.

"_Fox Tail Inferno!"_

From behind Liu Ying, nine blue fireballs sailed past her head and hit the remaining five peahens. The peahens instantly suffered the same fate as their fallen comrades when they too, exploded.

Peacockmon looked on nervously as he saw the teenage girl approaching him with a stern look plastered on her face. Behind her, a magnificent, glowing golden-furred version of the fox he had been fighting with stood at an impressive nine-foot height. His peahens destroyed effortlessly by the duo, leaving him with his other two attacks. At this moment, the warnings given by Shutumon and Sorcerymon when they had set him free from his entombment echoed in his mind.

"_You might be facing with only one pair of DigiWira, but don't underestimate them,"_ Shutumon had cautioned.

"_Yeah, because they are the ones who have destroyed many of us before!"_ Sorcerymon added with a huff. _"They're the most experienced ones. Trust me, don't look down on them."_

"_HAH! What could one girl and one dog do to me?"_ Peacockmon had retorted boastfully_. "I've defeated many who dare stand in my way with my glorious Rainbow Flapping, many stronger digimon fell to the might of my dear peahens, and I've even managed to slash one of Grademon's swords with my Strelizia!" _

"_Might I remind you that the sword you've slashed with your Stre-whatever-its-name-is isn't Grademon's true sword! He just borrowed that from one Leomon blacksmith as the lion fixed his true, made-out of-Chrome Digizoid swords!" _Shutumon had shot back severely, irritated of his boastings.

"_No difference,"_ Peacockmon had replied back airily. _"I'm fully confident of what my Strelizia could do."_

"_It's your funeral," _he had heard Sorcerymon muttered as he bid his farewell to the servants of SkullSatamon, earlier that day.

And now, Peacockmon had wished that he didn't underestimate the duo. He tried to look for any way for him to win the battle. He was wary of the girl, whose power to throw anything with a mere flick of her hands, could easily toss him away should he attempted to charge towards her. Then there was also the glowing fox to consider. Then, his eyes fell onto the limp body of the midnight-blue furred fox, who was sprawled behind the girl. It looked like she was unconscious, and the girl was protecting her.

_What happened to her?_ Peacockmon wondered. _My peahens' explosion isn't fatal, that I know for sure. I just like to pretend that they are, sometimes, just to scare off enemies. She just fell limp and…died? No, if she's dead then she'd get deleted. Then there's the glowing fox that look just like her, but with different color schemes. Something is not right here, and I bet the KO-ed fox holds the key. The girl seems to not want to leave the fox's side. Maybe if I…_

Peacockmon extended both the metallic skeletons of his wings to his sides, and they glowed with crimson aura.

_Luck favors the bold,_ Peacockmon decided with a smirk from its beak. _The gold fox doesn't look real – she's just like my peahens! And I know that if I were to be destroyed then my peahens won't make it as well. Maybe it's the same way with these guys._

Peacockmon knew instantly what he should do. With that decided, he slinked forward slyly, eyes watching the unconscious fox. He repeated what he had thought over and over again, and soon grew to believe it. He leaped off his feet and zoomed towards the girl first – she was protecting the fox, and therefore, she had to be eliminated first.

"_Strelizia!"_ he shouted, and swung forward one wing towards the girl, who now stood merely six meters away from him.

Liu Ying gasped in shock and held both arms forward, generating a pale yellow telekinetic barrier in front of her just in time before the crimson energy blade crashed onto her hands. The energy blade sizzled with electricity and Liu Ying felt her arms vibrating. The power from the energy blade was too strong; Liu Ying felt her hands burning as the yellow aura emanating from her hands and arms became more and more vibrant. Then, something seemed to push her body forward, and the yellow aura from her hands accumulated into a yellow energy wave which sent Peacockmon flying back to where he had once stood.

"What is this!" Peacockmon gaped in shock. He had fallen on his back with a loud crash, and now struggled to get back on his feet. "How could a mere girl deflect my attack? This is impossible!"

However, he smirked when he saw the human girl fell on her knees onto the ground, right in front of the blue fox. Apparently, she was direly weakened from the attack she had deflected back to him. Looking down to his armor, Peacockmon was more pleased to find out that the energy wave did nothing to damage his armored body. Some of the blue colors had given out, revealing the metallic patina underneath on various parts of the armors, but otherwise, Peacockmon didn't suffer any bodily damage. The favor was still on his side.

"Victory is still at my side," Peacockmon declared softly, and re-summoned his crimson blades.

On the other hand, Youkomon had seen what Peacockmon was trying to do, and it infuriated her. She had seen him eyeing her physical body, and had attacked Liu Ying in order to reach to it. Apparently he was not aware that Liu Ying was more than able to protect herself, but seeing that Liu Ying had fallen in the process made her realize that it was impertinent that she ended this as soon as possible. Her whole astral-projected Yang body flared with bluish white flames, and she leaped across the demolished colony of the Elecmon species.

"_Dragon Wheel!"_

She transformed into a powerful, ice-blue colored draconic specter, much larger than the one she generated when she was in her physical body. She felt more power coursing through her ghostly body as she slithered towards the Armored Champion digimon, who was ready to intercept her with his blades. She didn't even faze when she saw that Peacockmon was going to jump off his feet for a counter attack. For all she knew, she could defeat him.

Seeing that the spectral dragon was approaching, Peacockmon charged towards her, attempting to slash the dragon into many astral pieces. He was confident that he could win, and quenched any sense of doubt that was flickering deep in his heart.

The two digimon collided in midair, and there was a bright flash of light ensued. A deafening, primeval draconic roar was heard echoing the surrounding, followed by a defeated yell which sounded very much like a raven. The sound of a digimon combusted into data particles then followed before finally the light, which had caused Liu Ying, the Elecmon and their in-training forms to close their eyes, subsided. A second later, everyone began to open/uncover their eyes and looked around the quiet surrounding of the demolished village of the Elecmon.

"Youkomon?" Liu Ying called, seeing that there was no trace of the astral-Youkomon or Peacockmon anywhere. Nervous, she got back up on her feet and was about to sprint forward, when…

"Easy, Liu Ying," a weak whisper said, causing Liu Ying to stop dead on her track. "I am fine. A little bit weak, but fine nonetheless. And I am glad to say that Peacockmon is not as fortunate. He did not survive the attack."

Liu Ying felt relieved as she spun around, and saw Youkomon's eyes fluttered open. The blue kitsune then glowed with pale yellow light as she reverted into Labramon…then went another step down as Labramon shrunk smaller, turning into Shaomon.

The black-haired DigiWira bent down to pick up her in-training partner digimon, and held her close to her body. "Once again, we did it, Shaomon." She looked around the colony – or what remained of it – and her joyous mood dampened considerably. "But it's too bad that we couldn't say the same thing about the colony."

**Meanwhile…**

Gayathri sat down on the soft sofa, her eyes landed at the little girl who was sitting beside her. Debbie Abah was watching the television while holding a cup of ice-creams on her left hand. She was watching cartoons and was laughing at the antics of the characters of the cartoon. She didn't seem to realize that Gayathri was watching her, which suit Gayathri just fine. The dark-skinned girl was content on watching the little girl silently.

_I wish I have a little sister,_ she thought wistfully.

She cocked her head back towards the dining table, where Manny and Debbie's mother – Kimberly (or Aunty Kim) – was gathering the remaining dishes to be sent to the kitchen. Gayathri had helped bringing some plates to the sink, but was immediately ushered by Aunty Kim to the living room to rest after a hefty homemade lunch, which consisted of a very delicious chicken casserole with salads and mashed potatoes. Manny had claimed that these were the family's secret recipe, brought down from his mother's side of the family.

_I wish Mother can cook like that,_ Gayathri thought silently. Her mother was a very busy businesswoman and a corporate lady; she simply didn't have the time to cook. But Gayathri knew that her mother – and father – both loved her dearly, and quenched that thought instantly.

"Are you sure you don't need my help, Aunty Kim?" she inquired. "It's no problem, really."

"Oh no, Gayathri, you sit there with Debbie and we'll wait for Manny to finish making his secret milkshakes," Aunty Kim said warmly.

And as if on cue, the loud burring sound of a blender emanated from the kitchen.

Gayathri smiled and settled back to the sofa she was sitting. Her eyes looked around the living room for her small pink handbag – where she had kept some money, her house keys, and her cell phone and not to forget her D-3 Digivice and D-Terminal. She had thought that she had placed it on the three-sitter sofa when she had arrived at Manny's house, but now she couldn't find it there.

"Debbie…have you seen my handbag?" she asked the maroon-brown-haired girl sitting beside her.

Debbie turned her attention to Gayathri and her doe-like eyes reflected the fact that she was thinking about what Gayathri had just asked her. She rubbed her chin slowly, before she blinked and smiled to the older girl. "Um…is it pink?" she inquired thoughtfully. "And this big…?" The pony-tailed girl made a notion with her hands, turning the palms sideways facing each other and about a half-a-meter apart.

"That's it," Gayathri said encouragingly. "Do you know where it is? I think I've put it on the sofa…but now I couldn't find it."

"I think _Abang_ put it on the table over there, near the foyer," the six-year-old girl said. "He said that someone might accidentally sit on it, so he's moving it there so that you can get it when you are on your way out. Are you leaving now, _Kak_ Gayathri? It's only four o'clock…we still haven't watched 'MULAN II_'_ Abang had bought yesterday…"

Gayathri smiled over hearing the honorary 'older sister' title Debbie had bestowed upon her. "No…not yet. I just thought of checking my handphone, that's all. You sit here while I'll go check. I'll be back in a minute, ok?"

"Oh…ok," Debbie said, nodding her head cutely as Gayathri made her way towards the foyer. She then resumed her attention to the television.

The foyer was located just by the living room, but it was covered by a large wooden cupboard which housed a collection of Aunty Kim's china set. There was a mirror hung on the wall, and on the handsome wooden table under the mirror, where a small pot of bonsai was placed on the center, was Gayathri's pink handbag, just beside the bonsai pot. The table was just adjacent to the shoe-rack, which in turn, was adjacent to the door.

"How thoughtful of Manny," Gayathri smiled. "There's no way I'd be able to forget to take my handbag when it is here, all pink against the dark brown wood and white walls."

She dug into her handbag and retrieved her handphone first. She saw that she had a few messages – but they turned out to be some forwarded jokes from Belinda and Dina, and a message from Anding, saying that he and Mak Mirah would be stepping out of the house for a while to buy some _kuih_ from the stalls by the gas station. The last message came about thirty minutes before, and was from Anding, so Gayathri had no doubt that he and his mother were already out of the house by now.

Gayathri then took out her D-Terminal, and paled instantly upon opening the cover of the device. She saw that she'd gotten two messages, one from TobuCatmon, and the other from Liu Ying.

One, sent about an hour ago, read: **_There's trouble in the Digital World, DigiWira, and you are needed. Please hurry. Signed, TobuCatmon._**

The second message was longer, and sent only about ten minutes before. It read: **_Don't bother coming, it's taken care of. Where WERE you anyway? I understand Adam's being a no-show because his D-Terminal is with that Red ShadoWira (although knowing that, Adam SHOULD be watching out for any message from his YM)…but YOU? You better have a good explanation for this; we could have used your help! Signed, Liu Ying._**

"She sounds mad," Gayathri whispered. There was no way she could hear her D-Terminal all the way from the dining area, with her handbag at the foyer.

But, as she was about to reply to Liu Ying's message, the sound of footsteps coming to the foyer made her stash the D-Terminal hastily back into her handbag. Less than a second later, Manny appeared at the entrance of the living room, holding two big glasses of vanilla milkshake with his hands. He peered curiously at her.

"Umm…milkshakes' ready," he said, grinning. "Hope you like vanilla."

**And at the same time**…

"I can't believe that I've won," Adam murmured in awe as he sat down on a wooden bench. He placed his badminton racket beside him and took a gulp of the mineral water he had brought.

"Why not?" JD asked, standing in front of the bench where Adam was sitting. He took the bottle of mineral water and downed a large gulp of the refreshingly cold water.

Adam scowled slightly upon seeing the three-quarter empty bottle which the blonde teen returned to him. He immediately finished up the remaining of the water; it was a warm day and after several games of badminton they were in dire need of water. "Well, it's just that I've heard that you're good in many sports."

"Good in sports, huh?" JD repeated with a smirk. "How about academically; what have you heard about me in that aspect?"

Adam sweatdropped. "Uhh…"

JD raised an eyebrow. "Nothing, huh? So are you saying that I'm just a dumb jock?"

"I didn't say that." Before, when he didn't know the blond teen, Adam would have cowered upon hearing the question coming from the bigger teen. However, his previous day's encounter with JD proved to be a pleasant rendezvous to him, if not somewhat amusing – with the end result of him getting too stuffed to move that he didn't even bother to have breakfast come morning. This caused Adam to have a different opinion on JD, and he no longer felt threatened by the older teen's imposing ways.

Hearing the reply, JD shrugged. "Eh…maybe I'm not _that_ good in badminton."

JD grinned as he plopped down on the cemented badminton court, which was right in front of the bench where Adam was sitting. He outstretched his legs forward and had his dark red racket balanced on his thighs. He then looked at Adam and wiped his sweaty face with the sleeve of his red cotton shirt, and grinned at the younger boy cockily.

"Or…maybe I have let you won!"

Adam laughed. "Well, maybe… as if!"

_Well, trust me kid, if I just put half my effort on that game, you won't stand a chance,_ JD thought silently, with his lopsided grin plastered on his face. He looked at his watch. _4 o'clock…the Yellow DigiWira should've finished off that Peacockmon by now. That birdbrain didn't look too tough at all… not with her partner's new power-up. But she should really be mad with Pink and White by now. Heh, heh, it's a good thing I've managed to pry Adam away from his house… and sources say that the Pink DigiWira is preoccupied on her own..._

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 15 – Day of the Flowers_**

xxx

xxx

"Where were you two yesterday?" Liu Ying questioned crossly. She was standing, and glaring at the two persons who were sitting in front of her with a piercing look.

Upon reaching the school that Friday morning, Liu Ying had attempted to look for Adam and Gayathri, as none of them had filled her in with what that kept them preoccupied from going to the Digital World the previous day. However, she had been asked by one teacher to monitor the school gate for any late students, as the prefect who was assigned for the duty was absent. She tried looking for the other two DigiWira again, but was once again hampered by another duty to help maintain the order at the canteen.

And so, she had seized the opportunity to seize both her teammates right after the school bell rang. The bewildered looks given by Gayathri's best friends Dina and Belinda, as well as Adam's best friend Hakim, were pointedly ignored by the prefect as she dragged them both to the computer room, and sat them down. Jackie too, was curious of the sudden commotion, but had chosen wisely not to interfere; he was absorbed with some work he was doing on the computer.

"I was at Manny's house," Gayathri replied with a sheepish grin. "I think I've forgotten to tell you…sorry about that."

"I was out…for a game of badminton," Adam explained, and raised both hands up. "But I did wait in front of the computer, for nearly a couple of hours, honest! You can ask TobuCatmon; he saw me online. Then JD came and asked me to play badminton with him at the badminton court in my apartment compound."

"JD?" Liu Ying repeated questioningly. "As in, Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman? I didn't know that you two are _friends_?"

Gayathri immediately turned her head sideways, meeting the gray irises of her classmate-cum-teammate. "_You_ are?" she asked, with a penchant tone. "Since when?"

Upon meeting the questioning stares from his fellow DigiWira, Adam sweatdropped and cringed at the same time. "Uhh…since Monday. Wait a minute; I didn't know that JD's full name is…"

"Not the point," Liu Ying immediately countered. She sat on the chair opposite Adam's and Gayathri's and crossed her arms. "Well, it doesn't matter whether you two are friends, but he sure has an _impeccable_ sense of timing! If he weren't there to ask you for that badminton game, then perhaps you'd be able to help me! Never mind, you're forgiven."

Adam looked visibly relaxed, and looked at the clocked. He raised his hand. "Well, if I'm forgiven, then can I go now? It's fifteen minutes to 1.00 and today's Friday and I need…"

"Fine, fine, you can go," Liu Ying waved her hands. "But you better be around the computer today! Or else…"

"Don't worry!" Adam slung his schoolbag on his shoulders and sprinted out of the classroom. He paused upon exiting the classroom, and looked back at Liu Ying with a small grin. "Well, you know, I do have a quota for using the computer everyday. Maybe if you talk about this with Kak Lisha…"

"Adam, you're going to be late for your Friday prayers!" Liu Ying said irritably, through gritted teeth. "Just go already while I interrogate Gayathri."

"Ok, ok…bye! Good luck Gayathri!" Adam called out, causing the girls to sweatdrop.

"Now, about you," Liu Ying said slowly to Gayathri. She raised an eyebrow. "Well? Start explaining."

"What if I tell you that I have a swell time at Manny's house…and I've lost track of time?" Gayathri inquired hopefully. Seeing that Liu Ying wasn't budging, she sighed and decided to apologize. "I'm really, really sorry…but my handbag is placed so far from the dining table. Even if it's beeping I wouldn't be able to hear it. Not with Debbie's cartoons blaring over the home theater system Manny's family has."

"Debbie?" Liu Ying asked, unfamiliar with the name.

"Manny's six years old little sister; she's so adorable," Gayathri gushed. "You'll like her too, whenever you see her."

Liu Ying's curled thin lips broke into a small smile ever so slightly, and her stern façade crumbled upon seeing Gayathri's facial expression. The dark-skinned girl with her brown hair done in two plaits was positively beaming – Liu Ying didn't have the heart to scold the girl for not being able to show up for DigiWira duty the previous day. It was very obvious that Gayathri really liked Manny and his family, and Liu Ying couldn't find any reason for Gayathri _not_ to like Manny.

Emmanuel Abah had been her classmate for only a little less than three weeks, but already he had friends surrounding him. Most of her classmates had never even been to the _Land below the Wind_, and were curious of him being a native there. Then there was his slightly different accent, which added more to the people's curiousness. And many girls were wondering whether Manny was currently single, or had someone special back at _Sabah_. They were however disappointed when news had it that Manny and Gayathri were neighbors and were obviously into each other, despite no special declarations were made from neither Gayathri nor Manny. The former would evade the question, while the latter was simply too courteous to say no.

Yet, it was Liu Ying (and to certain extent, Adam) who knew how much Gayathri liked Manny exactly. After all, her fondness of the _Sabahan_ boy was what had caused her to fall prey of the effect of the abhorrence spell cast by Sorcerymon not too long ago. It was lucky that Adam had managed to get the antidote from the late Wizardmon, and the spell was broken. Sometimes, Liu Ying would find it amusing that the cause of the spell was the fact that Gayathri had thought _Liu Ying_ to have her eyes set on Manny. Yes, she liked Manny – but as a friend and classmate, and pretty much the same way she liked Adam as a friend and fellow teammate – but nothing more. She didn't want to get herself involved in what the teachers would term as the _'monkey-love'_, if roughly translated from the Malay language, or 'teenage love', which was the more appropriate translation for it.

"What are you thinking?" Gayathri asked curiously; her fellow teammate was suddenly very silent.

"Nothing much, really," Liu Ying said. She smiled slightly and said, "Ok, look. I won't ask you to stop seeing Manny or anything…but make sure that whenever you do so, you have your D-Terminal right beside you, so that you can bolt whenever you are needed."

Gayathri smiled embarrassedly. "Ok, ok. Fine. But…just _you_ wait whenever you're the one who has found somebody. Then perhaps you'd end up like me, if not worse!"

Liu Ying scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please. If I want to start seeing someone, I'll wait until I have finished school." Her shoulders then slouched slightly. "It's not that as if people are interested in me now anyway," she slipped up, before her eyes widened and her hands shot in front of her mouth.

"AHA!" Gayathri grinned widely. "What's this I hear? Oh no…Liu Ying, you really have no idea how many people are interested in you right now!"

"What—" Liu Ying's fair cheeks colored visibly with light pink tint. "Not funny, Gayathri."

"I'm serious. I've heard news, and some gossips…"

"You _always_ listen to gossip," Liu Ying accused.

"Whatever. Anyway, words have it that…well, our class monitor, for starters. You know David Liew, right?" Gayathri inquired dramatically.

"Yes, I know him. We're in Tae-Kwan-Do together, why?" Liu Ying asked back. Her black eyes then narrowed. "Don't tell me…"

"Yup. And you know…ok, if he knows I've spilled the beans to you, he'll probably write my name as the noisiest person in class whenever the teachers are not in class as a way of revenge, so don't go telling him about this, ok? Or…just don't tell them that _I'm_ the one who tell you this…well, ok, remember the chocolate dedication that you've got from one secret admirer last Valentine's Day? I'll give you one guess from who the chocolate actually comes from."

"No way," Liu Ying moaned. She remembered the event well. It was during a Math lesson when three girls came by the door – the Leo Club members who organized the chocolate dedications – to pass the dedications to the ones in her class. She hadn't been bothered to look up from her book, until Millie who sat beside her nudged her, saying that she'd received a dedication. After the Leo girls left, everyone – including the Math teacher Mrs. Elena Kwan – had been giving her odd looks. Some of her classmates had begun teasing her when the sender of the dedication had simply signed the dedication as one secret admirer.

And it had only been about more than two weeks since Valentine's Day…some of the girls still asked her about the mysterious secret admirer.

"Way," Gayathri persisted with a wide grin. "And what's wrong with David anyway? He's cute, he's tall, he's good with words, he's a soccer player, and he's good in academics too. Well, except History…he hates that subject."

"And how do _you_ know all this?" Liu Ying demanded.

"Don't you know? I've been his classmates since last year," Gayathri informed her fellow DigiWira. Her brown eyes lighted up instantly, signaling that she was not finished with the news yet. "And, apparently David is not the only one who has his eyes on you. Based on what I have seen at our Computer Club meetings – it's rather clear that JD Kamaruzaman also seems to like you. He gives you these winks and looks whenever you're not looking…"

"Oh please, anyone but him," Liu Ying rolled her eyes. "Did you know that he even wink at Kak Lisha when she was here last Monday?"

"NO!" Gayathri's gasped loudly, her already-wide eyes widened to emphasize her surprise; she wasn't aware of this new gossip at all. "Really?"

"Hmmph," Liu Ying said irritably. Suddenly a thoughtful look swept past her face and lingered there for a moment. "Wait a minute. When did Adam say about him and JD becoming friends?"

Gayathri rubbed her left cheek, thinking. "Monday. Why?"

"Kak Lisha came to our school on Monday. Then suddenly, Adam and JD become friends."

"That is weird," the plaited-haired girl agreed. "You're thinking that JD befriends Adam because he is interested to get to know Kak Lisha?"

"I know…it's exaggerating…and besides, Kak Lisha is _seven_ years older than JD."

Gayathri nodded. "You're right Liu Ying; that's _way_ too exaggerating. But it's not too weird, if you think about it. Seven years gap is not that long of an age gap; I've heard news of a man and a woman with far larger age gap getting married, and they are happy. By the way, my mom is older than my dad for about one year, but that's not the point. The point is, _you_ making this piece of gossip? And here I thought I'm the one who love to gossip."

"I'm NOT gossiping!" Liu Ying said hotly. Her cheeks flushed even pinker.

"Sure…you sounded just like the newspaper media," Gayathri rolled her eyes, and laughed.

Liu Ying merely scowled at the comment and huffed. "I still think that something doesn't bode well with this. JD doesn't strike me as the one who'd go and befriend people like that. And Adam told us that it was _JD _who came by the apartment complex where he's staying and asked him to join him for badminton. Besides, since when does he play badminton anyway? Isn't he a basketball player? How come suddenly he shows up at Adam's place and asks Adam to play badminton, which both of us know, is Adam's favorite sports?"

"Wow, what in-depth analysis!" Gayathri said with a wide grin. "Cool down, girl. Firstly, yesterday's not Adam's first meet with JD. I recalled Adam telling Hakim in class of how he'd met JD at a shop and JD paid for Adam the drink Adam was holding simply because the shopkeeper was short of change. Then they went to _Canai and Such_ over Taipan and JD gave him a treat…simply because Adam had wished him a belated happy birthday. Adam ended up being forced to eat much more than he could take."

Liu Ying frowned. "Is that so? Wow…that is strange," she commented.

"Now that you've mentioned it…" Gayathri rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "…yeah, that is weird, right? For once, JD sounds almost decent."

"My thoughts exactly," Liu Ying concurred. "Why with Adam, though? Why not celebrate with those gang-members of his – Kenny, Megat, and Samy? At least that won't sound weird."

"Maybe because they don't know when his birthday is?" Gayathri suggested. "Adam did mention last Saturday that it was JD's sixteenth birthday, remember? And he knew about that when he saw JD's MySpace webpage. To me, JD doesn't seem to be the one who'd broadcast his birthday verbally."

"Ok. That may be it. But I still think there's something strange about this," Liu Ying said; her eyes reflecting her dissatisfaction of not being able to figure out what was going on. She then shrugged. "I may be overreacting, though. Adam has the right to befriend anyone he likes…even JD. Hmm…how come you know about their trip to that mamak café, Gayathri?"

Gayathri grinned as she tapped her ears lightly. "I have antennas built inside my ears for the latest gossips. But seriously, it's because Adam is sitting in front of me. He was trying, without fail, to engage Hakim into a conversation – and I think Adam had meant for the story about him and JD as a joke as when I think about it again, it is rather funny. I can't imagine the somewhat scrawny Adam getting stuffed…anyway, not the point. But Hakim didn't look too happy upon hearing Adam's story, though. He just remained quiet, or quieter…that boy is strange lately."

Liu Ying merely listened to her talkative friend with a smile. Sometimes she wondered how, of all people, she had ended up with Gayathri as her teammate, before Adam showed up. They were exactly each other's opposites. She wasn't talkative, while Gayathri could be considered a chatterbox. Liu Ying's fashion sense was simple, while Gayathri's was more posh and sophisticated. She could list many more differences that set them apart, but all of them weren't important as, in the end, they were good friends and a team. That was the most essential thing of all.

Then her eyes saw the time at the clock, and realized that it had just past one o'clock.

"Aren't you usually home by now?" Liu Ying asked, careful not to let her tone sounded as if she wanted Gayathri to go away. On the contrary, she liked having her friend here.

"Nope. Not today," Gayathri said smilingly. "I feel guilty of not being able to help you yesterday, and I _should_ have known better than to abandon my D-3 and D-Terminal. So today, I'm gonna spend some time around the computer room with you and Jackie; see whatever that I could do to make up for yesterday. I've told Anding to pick me up at three as he needs to be around his college until noon, and probably he's going to go for his Friday prayer at the mosque near his college instead of the one around here, so we'll have…" Gayathri's brown eyes glanced at the analogue clock hung above the entrance to Jackie's office in the computer room. "…three hours, at our disposal. So what should we do?"

Liu Ying smiled. "Well…we can start by going to the canteen and buy some foods for our partners inside Jackie's office. I think both of them are asleep for now, but knowing them, they'll be hungry by the time they are awake. I hope there's still some banana fritters at the canteen…Shaomon _can_ get pretty grumpy without her banana fritters."

xxx

xxx

"KARATENMON!"

The dark avian warrior opened his eyes, and saw an apparition of a skull hovering in front of him, emanating pale yellow light all around the skull. The pale light didn't manage to illuminate the whole darkened surrounding of the Cave of Solitude, but it was enough for Karatenmon to fully recognize who had called upon him. He immediately stood up straight, fresh out of his meditation, and bowed grandly in front of the ghastly phantom.

"Master SkullSatamon! To what do I owe the honors?"

"My patience is growing thin, Karatenmon!" SkullSatamon exclaimed; his eyes flashing dangerously scarlet. "Five days have passed without any progress, other than Shutumon and Sorcerymon's two times attempts on attacking the DigiWira with the Yellow DigiSphere. Both of those attempts failed. Until when do I have to witness failure after failure?"

Karatenmon's face was steady, despite the harsh guttural tone from the ultimate-level demon. He had expected this coming from SkullSatamon, and was ready with the answer.

"Please be patient, my liege," he said steadily. "Throughout this week, I have been monitoring the progress of the ShadoWira's plan; the one they are referring to as their mind games. They attempt to gain the trust and confidence of the DigiWira while in the human world, and shatter those trusts in order to emotionally weaken the DigiWira. So far, I am elated to say that the DigiWira with the White and Pink DigiSpheres have fallen prey to this mind game."

"Only the child of light and the girl with the super speed?" SkullSatamon questioned, with a curious tone. "What of the other girl?"

"I have not received report from the ShadoWira pertaining to that, master, but apparently, the DigiWira with the Yellow DigiSphere is not affected by the mind game. The ShadoWira have ordered Shutumon and Sorcerymon to take care of her instead. They were supposed to weaken the girl and that partner of hers."

"But they've failed! The only thing those two have been doing is giving the girl's partner an extra power-up!" SkullSatamon exclaimed angrily.

"That is something we did not foresee," Karatenmon assured. "However, I can assure you that nothing similar will happen in the future."

"I don't want to hear empty promises, Karatenmon!" SkullSatamon bellowed, his eyes flashing dangerously with crimson light. "What I want to see is progress! Time and time again the DigiWira have proven to be victorious against many of my entombed servants. At this rate, I shall be losing all my servants come the next full moon. Stop sending some mindless lower minions, Karatenmon, and take action in your own hands. That way at least I can be assured of the victory of the side of evil. You are a general, Karatenmon; it's time that you prove your worthiness of the title I have bestowed upon you three centuries ago!"

Karatenmon was taken aback by the direct order from the dark master. He blinked momentarily, before regaining his composure once more.

"I assure you, my lord, that I will take matters in my own hand, when the perfect time comes."

"And when will that _perfect_ time be?" SkullSatamon asked, with a sneering sound coming from his hoarse, old voice.

"Soon, my master; during the coming of the digital solar eclipse," Karatenmon explained raptly. "That will be only four days from now. In the meantime, my master, I have a fine plan that will destroy the DigiWira once and for all. The ShadoWira's mind games will be put to rest as I have discovered a new, hidden power within their DigiSpheres. These powers are magnificent; far greater than the special powers which the ShadoWira and the DigiWira have been given one week ago. They are nothing like we have seen before."

SkullSatamon looked only mildly interested upon hearing this. "And how can you be certain that these powers will not be possessed by the DigiWira as well? You've thought before that the special powers of the Red and Blue DigiSpheres are unique to those two DigiSpheres only; but it turned out that the other three DigiSpheres also possessed these powers."

"I do not know for sure whether the White, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres also posses similar powers, but I think that it will be most likely. However, we shall have to take advantage of the time. We have discovered these powers – the DigiWira have not. I have used my power to fully unlock these powers for the ShadoWira, and they shall use it to destroy the DigiWira once and for all. Then we shall procure their DigiSpheres, and with the five DigiSpheres in our possession, you will be freed from your entombment!"

SkullSatamon listened to Karatenmon's words silently. He cleared his throat gruffly before replying, "And what is this power you're talking about, Karatenmon? Am I familiar with it?"

"I do not think so, master. It appears that these powers are developed without our knowledge three centuries ago. Grademon had never demonstrated these powers, unlike the special powers he was given by the four elemental masters and that ex-teacher of mine. I believe these powers are developed solely to be used by the wielders of the DigiSpheres. These powers were meant to be used against the forces of evil, but fortunately I was able to taint these powers with darkness. They will be used _against_ the forces of good instead. I call these powers the _Shadow Access_."

The skeletal demon nodded curtly. "Excellent. See to it that I won't be disappointed, Karatenmon. Or there will be hell to pay for that!"

Karatenmon lowered his gaze to the ground. "I will not fail, master. And neither will the ShadoWira. We shall assemble all of our troops and launch a full-scale attack tomorrow afternoon!"

"Very well. And, one more thing…" SkullSatamon said thoughtfully.

"Yes, master?"

"Do whatever you want with the female DigiWira, but I want Adam to be alive. I still desire his power of teleportation. Like I have said, I foresee great potential in his power. His teleportation power shall aid me greatly in the destruction of the Digital World. I have however, absolutely no interest in the other DigiWira, or the ShadoWira, when they have reached the limit of their usefulness. Make sure that everything is done according to what we have planned before."

Karatenmon nodded and smirked evilly. "It shall be done. The ShadoWira are expandable. The new powers I have discovered for them will stretch their abilities and usefulness to the very limit. Perhaps, if we are lucky, both the DigiWira and the ShadoWira will end up destroying each other. It will pave way for your quest for the domination of the Digital World."

"Don't forget what I have said about the child of light," SkullSatamon reminded his general.

"I will not, master."

"Very well. And, since this master plan of yours is set to begin tomorrow…what is there for those humans today? I don't plan on seeing the Digital World idle today."

The blue eyes of Karatenmon glinted with malice. "It has been a long while since the DigiWira battled Reichmon and the Harpymon. I shall send them today to entertain those teenagers. Besides, I plan on witnessing just how far the DigiWira are on par with the ShadoWira, pertaining to their special abilities, before bestowing them with the Shadow Access powers. It will be an interesting day, I believe."

"It had better be!" SkullSatamon bellowed, and the ghostly apparition vanished from the Cave of Solitude.

xxx

xxx

"How about today, we play basketball?" JD suggested. He was balancing the brown basketball skillfully on two fingers, with his left hand preventing the basketball from falling.

"Basketball?" Adam inquired doubtfully. "I don't know…I've never played basketball before."

It was Friday afternoon, and after staying in front of the computer for an hour and half, Adam found JD to be online. The blonde had asked whether Adam would like to play basketball, and that he was already by the basketball court inside the compound of Arcadia Apartment where Adam was staying. Adam was surprised to see that JD could be at the compound already and still talking to him online; and JD had informed him that he was online via his cell phone. Adam then found out that he could do the same thing with his own cell phone (despite his model being simpler compared to JD's very modern one, although both phones were of the same brand). The older teen then transferred the necessary program via the Bluetooth technology into the younger teen's cell phone, and Adam was enthralled to be able to still be online, while enjoying himself as well.

It couldn't be any more perfect; as he would be on alert if he was needed at the Digital World. And so far, no message came from TobuCatmon at all.

"Never played basketball?" JD asked, smirking as he dribbled the basketball expertly. He then caught the ball and spun the ball on his fingers once again. "Then you've missed out a lot of things! C'mon; try it, you'll love it. I can coach you."

"Really?" Adam asked. "That's very nice of you."

JD flipped his hand sideways and let the spinning basketball fell onto his palm, and held the ball against the sides of his body. His right palm was erected and his smirk vanished, replaced by a lopsided grin which Adam had begun to grow accustomed in seeing. Both of his eyebrows were raised, apparently surprised of hearing Adam's comment.

"Nope. I'm not nice. I'm coaching you so that it'll be a fair game when we play against each other, and I won't feel bad when I beat you!"

"That's not fair," Adam said with a low tone. "Even if I know how to play basketball…you are the one with more experience."

"Ok, ok, maybe I'll let you win once or twice, but that's it. Now c'mon, let's start with the basics…"

Suddenly, a loud bass music blared from the bench. It came from JD's slick black-and-orange cell phone, which had a good surround sound that the whole court was able to enjoy the music momentarily. JD threw the ball towards Adam, who caught it, and jogged towards the bench. He retrieved his phone and saw that he had gotten a message.

"Ah, looks like we have to reschedule basketball, Adam," JD said, with a tone that sounded like a feigned irritation.

"You're needed back home?" Adam inquired, approaching the taller teen.

"Sounds like it. Listen, we'll find another time for our game. I really have to go." JD collected his bag and waved his hand to the younger teen before bolting off towards the gate.

Adam watched JD's retreating figure with mild curiosity. Then he realized that JD had forgotten to take his basketball along with him in his rush to go back home. Seeing that JD had already too far away for him to catch up with, Adam decided that he would inform JD about it later tonight, now that he was able to open Yahoo Messenger by his cell phone. He then wondered what could be wrong, for JD to rush off all of a sudden.

"Weird," Adam muttered, shaking his head.

Then, his cell phone let out a chiming sound, signaling that he had received a message from somebody. Quickly he retrieved his cell phone and read the message, noticing immediately that it was from TobuCatmon, saying that he and the other DigiWira were needed in the Digital World pronto.

"Well, maybe not that weird, I guess," Adam murmured, thinking that even if JD didn't need to rush off, it would be Adam who would cancel their basketball session that day. He shrugged. "Well, everyone has their emergencies. I better get going. Hopefully Patamon is up for some digivolving today."

After a late night supper the previous night, Tokomon had digivolved back into his rookie form Patamon, right in front of the astonished Alisha and Adam. Despite regaining his stronger form, Patamon still expressed his doubt to digivolve to champion or armored-champion level – fearing that he would once again turn into Black Knightmon. Adam had no idea of what to reply to the worried Rookie, but Alisha had wisely said for Patamon to 'cross the bridge when he gets there'. That calmed Patamon considerably before they all turned in for the night.

As Adam jogged back to his apartment block, he failed to notice that from the corner of the opposite block, someone was watching him. That someone was one person that Adam knew well, with blonde hair and strapping figure. He chuckled darkly upon seeing Adam climbing up the stairs to reach his apartment, which was in the second floor.

"Heh, heh, see you later, Adam. You're in for a surprise," JD said, his eyes glinting red as he pointed his black-and-red D-3 towards his black-and-orange cell phone. "DigiPort Open!"

xxx

xxx

It took ten minutes for the DigiWira to regroup at Forest Sanctum, but TobuCatmon was glad to see that everyone showed up this time around, for the threat of that day was too dire for only one or two pairs of DigiWira to handle alone.

"Please observe the sun staff, DigiWira," the feline mentor beckoned quickly, as soon as Gayathri and Floramon – being the last pair to arrive – came out from the TV in the sanctum.

The three teenagers and their partners gathered in front of the glowing sun staff, and saw something that made their blood boil. Shown on the sun part of the staff was a scene of mass destruction, which took place inside a colorful forest with tall, thick trunks and full canopies of leaves. A flock of humanoid avian digimon was seen attacking a shinobi-like digimon in white, who was defending a group of smaller digimon of nature variety. The scene spanned out and the DigiWira saw that the battle between the avian warriors and the shinobi was taking place on top of a rounded colony built around a very large tree.

"That's the Harpymon!" Adam announced; his eyes widened as he remembered his encounter with Karatenmon's personal foot-soldiers. The memory caused him to flinch; he had been injured by an attack sent by the Harpymon with white feathers during the battle at the Green Meadow Village, nearly a week before. The said Harpymon could now be now leading the attack against the samurai digimon, who seemed quite adept in defending himself.

"Yes. I have received a visual transmission from Shurimon, leader of the Evergreen Village, a colony located on top of the trees of the Evergreen Forest, which is two miles to the south of the Forest Sanctum," TobuCatmon explained worriedly. "You can see what's happening there as we speak, but I'm afraid that is not our entire problem."

The pale-purple furred feline beckoned to the sun staff once again. The scene in the staff expanded to another side of the tree villages, where another fight took place. That part of the village looked even more ravaged than the ones attacked by the Harpymon. Houses were burning with eerie green flames, and stray thunderbolts were shot everyone, paralyzing the stronger of the villagers while wiping out the weaker ones completely. The thunderbolts were seen coming from the ground below, and the scene shifted from the tree villages to the grounds. There, the DigiWira gasped upon setting sight on a familiar enemy – a dark knight with a lion-like face, who was battling a moving tree that had a face resembling an elderly man.

"Cherrymon protects the lower grounds of the Evergreen Forest, and right now, he's defending the colony below from Reichmon," TobuCatmon said sadly. "I'm afraid that although Cherrymon is an ultimate level digimon, he is rather old and doesn't stand a chance against the might of Reichmon. Cherrymon is not a fighter, but he is a wise digimon and has a limited telepathic power which is in tune with the nature and earth. His skill is no match for Reichmon."

"He doesn't seem to even defending himself," Patamon said shrilly, as he watched the battle between the two Ultimates. Reichmon seemed to be gaining the upper hand, while Cherrymon was in dire need of backup.

"If Reichmon's there, then that means…" Liu Ying's voice trailed off as she watched Reichmon knocking Cherrymon away with one swift kick on the face.

"…the ShadoWira are there too," Gayathri finished, her hand clutching Floramon's petals tight.

"We have to go there," Adam said firmly. His gray eyes trailed the battle scenes wildly; he seemed to be anxious about something. His anxiety was clearly shown on his face. "The Red ShadoWira is there, although we haven't seen him yet. I must take back my D-Terminal from him. We haven't seen him all week; this is the best chance I've got to take back my DigiSphere and the Ivory Gem." The dark-haired boy then looked up to Patamon, who was perched on top of his head. "Patamon, are you ready to fight today?"

"I will try my best, Adam," Patamon assured. His blue eyes twinkled with renewed confidence as he added, "I'm willing to fight if you want me to."

"Then let's do it!" Adam's hand formed a fist as he turned to face his fellow DigiWira. "Let's go guys…"

Suddenly, before he could finish his words, swirls of brilliant white orbs enveloped him and Patamon wholly, and a split second later they both vanished out of sight. The echoes of Adam's remaining words were heard, but couldn't be discerned at all.

The two DigiWira and their partners blinked upon Adam's and Patamon's sudden disappearances.

"That…was quick," Labramon commented dryly.

"Uh…did Adam just teleport out of here?" Gayathri wondered.

"Seems like it…look! There he is!" Liu Ying said, pointing towards the sun staff.

Both DigiWira saw how Adam suddenly appeared on the tree village, right before a confused Shurimon. The Harpymon halted their attacks immediately, surprised of the sudden appearances of the DigiWira. Adam however didn't waste any time in whipping out his D-3 Digivice. Patamon digivolved instantly into Sagittarimon, and was poised for battle. Sagittarimon then was seen shooting his Judgment Arrow onto one purple-feathered Harpymon, which when combined with Shurimon's shuriken attack, caused the victimized Harpymon to explode into data particles.

"We better go there now," Liu Ying decided. "Adam can't handle the Harpymon, Reichmon and the ShadoWira on his own. He'll need our help."

xxx

xxx

"One down, three to go!" Adam cheered happily when he saw Sagittarimon and Shurimon's combined technique managed to take down one Harpymon. He didn't feel sorry for deleting the digimon; for all he knew, the Harpymon was destroying a village which was home to innocent digimon. The Harpymon had also destroyed the once-prosperous Green Meadow Village.

"That's for the Green Meadow Village!" Sagittarimon roared, and took aim, this time aiming for the white Harpymon. "And this one…is for injuring Adam! _Judgment Arrow!_"

The remaining three Harpymon, after seeing the fate which had befallen their fellow warrior, quickly gathered together and emitted loud, banshee-like screams which immediately destroyed Sagittarimon's arrow. The shockwave also managed to push Sagittarimon, Shurimon, Adam and many rookie digimon who were cowering behind the three of them, lifting them off their feet and crashing them against the wooden walls of the tree villages.

One rookie who resembled a mushroom was thrown against the railing. The little digimon screamed at the top of its lungs, pleading to be saved as it plummeted down towards the ground.

The others quickly got back up to their feet upon hearing the heart-wrenching cry. They had all fallen onto each other, dog-piling one another, with Shurimon and Adam being on top, and Sagittarimon at the bottom, with the other rookies in between them. Adam easily slid down the dog-pile and rolled onto the wooden floor before getting back up on his feet, with Shurimon springing down from the pile using his extendable extremities.

"Mushroomon!" Shurimon screamed agitatedly. "Oh no! There's no way he could survive that!"

"Not if I can help it!" Adam said and rushed towards the railing. Shurimon could be heard yelling in fear that the DigiWira would attempt to jump past the rails to save the Mushroomon. However Adam had no such intention. He merely grabbed hold on the wooden rails and thrust his body forward while maintaining even footing on the floors. His eyes saw the falling Mushroomon, who was already ten meters away from the village. The boy thrust his right hand forward, and bellowed, "Mushroomon!"

To the astonishment of Shurimon and the other villagers, swirls of light could be seen emanating from the boy's outstretched hand, and Mushroomon materialized there, still screaming for his life. The little rookie then blinked, seeing that he was now safe in Adam's arms, before breaking down into grateful sobs.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you…"

"Incredible!" Shurimon praised. He turned towards Sagittarimon, who had just begun to regain his standing. He was surprised greatly when the boy and a Patamon suddenly materialized in front of him just as he was battling the Harpymon. He had been even more taken aback when the boy digivolved the Patamon into a much larger Sagittarimon. And now, Shurimon realized that the DigiWira pair could be their only hope to save the village from the raging harpies. "Your partner has a unique power, Sagittarimon!"

Sagittarimon beamed as his eyes trailed Adam's movement, proud of hearing Shurimon's compliment for his partner. He made sure that the Harpymon would not take that chance to attack Adam, his arrow ready by his crimson bow just in case they would do so.

Adam immediately placed the crying Mushroomon amongst the other rookie digimon, who had quickly clamored around him, begging for Adam to save their villages.

"I'll do anything I can," Adam promised the rookies, which consisted of three Mushroomon (including the one Adam had just rescued), two Palmon, two Gotsumon, one Armadillomon, one Salamon, and three Gabumon.

Sagittarimon and Shurimon approached Adam and the rookies. Shurimon's sharp yellow eyes, hidden underneath his facial covers, glinted with will. He looked up at the hovering three Harpymon, who were watching them, wary of Sagittarimon's ready arrow.

"Let's finish this!" Shurimon exclaimed, and took out his large shuriken which formerly was attached to his back. He took aim to the nearest Harpymon, and exclaimed, _"Double Stars!"_

As Shurimon's shuriken spun with top speed towards the Harpymon, Sagittarimon decided to contribute to the attack. He couldn't utilize his Meteor Gallop attack, as the force from the attack could crumble the tree village instantly. Instead, he took another aim with his arrow and shot a sparkling Judgment Arrow.

The Harpymon however were speedy enough to evade both the arrow and the shuriken. To everyone's horror, the white-feathered Harpymon managed to seize Shurimon's shuriken, and threw it forcefully towards Adam and the rookies. The shuriken spun with top speed; there was no way for them to escape in time.

"Oh no!" the rookie digimon wailed. "HELP!"

Adam nervously thrust his arm forward; attempting to teleport the dangerously-close shuriken away before it could scrape his neck. "Uhh…star-weapon thingy!" He then held his breath, not daring to believe that his attempt would work.

But fortunately for him and the rookies, it worked! Swirls of bright orbs of light materialized all around the spinning shuriken and enveloped it wholly. Everyone gasped as the shuriken vanished – and screamed when the shuriken appeared again, exactly at the spot where it disappeared! However…there was something different of the way it was moving.

"Look! The shuriken's changing its direction – it's now heading towards the Harpymon!" Shurimon exclaimed.

_Shuriken!_ Adam thought with a weak grin. _So that's how it is called! Gotta remember that! _

Everything just happened within the course of two seconds; one moment the shuriken was heading to Adam and the rookie digimon, and the next moment, Adam's teleportation power had shifted its direction – making it spinning at lightning speed _back_ towards the Harpymon. The avian warriors didn't even have time to budge as the attack was totally unexpected. The large shuriken rammed against all three Harpymon, grazing them mercilessly on various parts of their bodies before moving past them towards a tree trunk. One of its sharp points was stuck inside the thick trunk, forcing the five-edged weapon into a complete halt.

All three Harpymon were instantly injured by the shuriken. It was an achievement neither of them had expected to achieve.

"Way to go, Adam!" Sagittarimon announced proudly, and took aim with his arrow towards the screaming Harpymon. "_Judgment Arrow!"_

Adam watched as the lightning arrow sailed with top speed towards the Harpymon, with only ten meters distance left before it would strike through one of the purple Harpymon's chest. Suddenly, Adam felt his knees buckling and stumbled onto the wooden floor of the village with a loud thud. His body began to emit faint white light, and despite feeling completely healthy, especially after four days of total rest, Adam felt an overwhelming draining sensation coming from every inches of his body.

"DigiWira!" the rookies gasped (they didn't know Adam's name) and all of them helped support him back up instantly.

Adam couldn't reply; his eyes were transfixed on a sudden turn of event that was happening, which didn't favor them at all. Sagittarimon's arrow suddenly burst into data particles before reaching its intended targets, and the Armored Champion himself was enveloped with pale white light as he regressed back to Patamon. Looking down at his own body, Adam realized that he was still glowing…and with every second passed, he became weaker.

A snide laugh was heard, followed by a lazy clapping, which came from the shadowy part of the tree village. Everyone turned their attentions there, and saw a human figure emerging from the shadows. The human was wearing black uniform, complete with hooded capes. His face was covered by white mask which gave him a permanent emotionless look. His eyes shone with a sinister green aura, and the red accents on his uniform were instantly recognizable. It was he who was clapping, and he stopped walking upon reaching the shadow-less area, keeping his distance from his adversaries.

"Heh, heh…as I have expected, without your White DigiSphere your powers will be fairly limited," the Red ShadoWira commented mildly.

"YOU!" Adam exclaimed, seething. He immediately thrust his hand forward and summoned, "D-Terminal!"

Nothing happened. No bright orbs of light, and no D-Terminal. Adam's outstretched hand then limped down onto one of the Gabumon's head.

"Nope. Nada. Zilch. Nothing happened," the Red ShadoWira said teasingly. He let out another chuckle before continuing, "You've exerted a lot of your powers during our last encounter at the Shadow Realm, Adam. And you have used the remaining of your teleportation power here. I've been watching you. Heh, heh, without the White DigiSphere…you're helpless! You and that guinea pig partner of yours! I have to admit that I didn't expect him to suffer the side effects of you losing the White DigiSphere too…apparently this is my lucky day!"

Patamon, who still felt as if he had some powers within him, was confused of the true cause of his de-digivolution. Usually, with the amount of energy inside him now, he could maintain his Armored Champion form for at least an hour more. But if what the Red ShadoWira had just said was true, then as long as the White DigiSphere was under the Red ShadoWira, he couldn't access his stronger champion mode and Adam couldn't use his powers.

But, Patamon silently thanked his lucky stars because he had an alternate champion form. This champion form was achieved by him independently, a long time before he had met Adam. _That_ power could not be taken away from him.

He was only afraid of the consequences of this digivolution, but there was no other way. Patamon silently hoped that he would not go too far this time.

"_**Patamon….Digivolve to….Centarumon!"**_

Centarumon was weaker compared to Sagittarimon, but he was way better than Patamon. With a glint coming from his brown eyes from the back of his metallic helmet, the brown centaur affixed his cannons solely towards the Red ShadoWira.

The Red ShadoWira gasped softly, but quickly regained his composure. He raised his arm in self-defense, wary of the fifteen pairs of eyes glaring at him. The twelve rookies whom had all surrounded Adam protectively didn't concern him – he could beat them easily with his firepower. Adam was powerless. The armored shinobi and Adam's centaur partner however were stronger; one on one, the Red ShadoWira could give either Shurimon or Centarumon a good match, but what if both champions decided to gang up on him?

And he had to be extra careful with Centarumon around. The centaur had displayed the capability to digivolve one step higher, into an uncontrollable Black Knightmon. If he laid a hand on Adam, Centarumon would snap.

"Heh," he snorted. "It's lucky that you have friends around you, Adam. Which reminds me…where are your two pretty friends?"

"Not your concern," Adam hissed back; his gray eyes flashed as he struggled to stand up.

A loud commotion suddenly was heard coming from the ground which was almost a kilometer down below. The Red ShadoWira chuckled and took a few steps back.

"Know what, Adam? That's probably them now. I think I'll go down to have some fun. Ciao!"

A ripple of air emerged out of nowhere from the Red ShadoWira's back. The Red ShadoWira turned around grandly and entered the portal, and vanished instantly.

xxx

xxx

"_Blazing Spear!"_

With a wave of his black spear, Reichmon sent another jet of eerie green flames onto his opponent, the wizened Cherrymon. The ultimate nature digimon was no match for Reichmon's fearsome powers, and with his current position – he had been sent falling on his back earlier with a kick on his head – he could no longer defend himself. The violent fire attack engulfed Cherrymon wholly, and if it weren't for the fact that Cherrymon was an ultimate digimon, he would have gotten himself deleted there and then.

"Fire again!" a voice commanded from the shadows.

Reichmon waved his spear once more, and this time around, there seemed to be no escape for Cherrymon.

Fortunately, just as the fiery gryphon technique was about to burn Cherrymon, a pink hurricane wave appeared from a distance. It diverted the fiery gryphon, changing its course away from the helpless Cherrymon. Instead, the attack burned a tree with a thick trunk.

A flash of pink light zipped into the battle scene and changed into the form of a female human with gray suits and hair done in two plaits. It was Gayathri; after Adam had accidentally teleported away from the Forest Sanctum, she and Liu Ying immediately made haste to the Evergreen Forest as well. The distance was far enough on human foot, but Gayathri had the power of super speed at her disposal. While Liu Ying had chosen to ride on Youkomon, Gayathri and Fairymon had taken turns to give each other a boost to reach Evergreen Forest. At first, Fairymon carried Gayathri, and used her power of the winds to propel her speed. After covering one mile, Gayathri chose to use her super speed and together they reached Evergreen Forest within less than an hour.

"Probably another thirty minutes before Liu Ying and Youkomon would be here," Gayathri said thoughtfully.

"Well, well, well…how nice for you to finally join in the party."

The low voice coming from the shadows startled Gayathri to the point that it caused her to yelp loudly. She spun around, and met face to face with someone who was dressed in black suits with two accents of blue lining his uniform. His face was hidden by the mask, and a hood covered his head. He was standing merely two meters away from Gayathri, who immediately took a few steps away from the villain in defense.

"Blue ShadoWira!"

"We've met, so let's not waste anymore time now, shall we?" the Blue ShadoWira said with a monotonous voice. He spun both arms slowly, and jets of water began to swirl around his palms.

Gayathri gasped when she saw the water jets streaming around the Blue ShadoWira's arms. The green lights in the Blue ShadoWira's eyes flashed seriously as the water seemed to become more and more concentrated around the villain's palms. He then made a side movement to the right, bringing his left palm below his erected right palm. The waters all began to concentrate into a blue sphere, and with a loud grunt the Blue ShadoWira pushed his hands forward and sent the sphere of concentrated water towards Gayathri.

Gayathri closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, before letting out an earsplitting scream. Pink spiraling waves were emitted from her opened mouth along with a banshee-like shriek.

The blue sphere and the pink energy wave collided into each other, and for a moment there was a standstill between Gayathri and the Blue ShadoWira. Both humans steadied their footings before the attacks finally were rebounded back onto their originators, with the Blue ShadoWira giving way first as he felt the intense need to cover his ears to protect his hearing from being damaged by Gayathri's supersonic scream. He was instantly thrown against a nearby tree, while Gayathri fell onto her back on the soft soil of the Evergreen Forest.

A loud laugh was then heard, and the Red ShadoWira stepped out from the shadows, right beside the Blue ShadoWira who was standing back up on his feet.

"The girl just screams her lung off and you were sent tumbling?" he asked the Blue ShadoWira sarcastically. "Shame."

"Shut up. I'd like to see you try her."

"With pleasure…never thought I'd hear that from _you_."

However, before the Red ShadoWira could attack Gayathri, a small pink hurricane was blasted onto him and he was sent crashing onto the same tree the Blue ShadoWira had collided with not too long ago. Looking up, all three humans saw Fairymon, her right arm extended and her hand balled into a fist, save for the index finger.

"Don't even think about it," Fairymon snapped angrily.

It was actually considered unethical for a digimon to attack a human, but Fairymon couldn't care less. The ShadoWira were endangering her partner's life, and she, as a digimon partner, had the obligation to do whatever it took her to defend Gayathri. However, she had only sent a reduced form of her Hurricane Wave as she didn't have the intention to kill the ShadoWira.

The Red ShadoWira snorted as he stood back on his feet. "You've just make this personal, _slut!_" he spat, and sent a torrent of fire towards the hovering sprite of the wind.

"My, my, your mouth needs washing!" Fairymon declared gleefully and deflected the flames effortlessly with another dose of her Hurricane Wave. The flames were redirected to the Blue ShadoWira, who quickly released a jet of water to nullify the fiery attack.

The Red ShadoWira cursed colorfully and was about to send another flame torrent to the beautiful fairy, when a loud shriek sent him tumbling down once again. He saw Gayathri already back up on her feet, her large eyes focused on both ShadoWira with a glare.

"Shut your trap, Pink DigiWira. All these screaming won't get you anywhere," the Red ShadoWira said spitefully. "Open your mouth again and I won't tell you what I've done to Adam…"

Gayathri was taken aback by the sudden threat concerning her fellow teammate. Her eyes narrowed as she gave a suspicious look to the taller ShadoWira. "What have you done to Adam?"

"Oh, don't worry your pretty little head about him," the Red ShadoWira said tauntingly as he hoisted himself back up. "You're only going to give yourself premature wrinkles and white hairs." He then wiped the soil off his black uniform and leaned against the tree trunk, arms crossed against his chest. "Why worry about him when you have two guys right here to think about?"

The Blue ShadoWira snorted, but didn't say anything. He merely cast a sideway glance to the Red ShadoWira, his green eyes flashed vibrantly for a moment before returning to their usual glow.

"Your friend is fine…but he won't be much help to you and the other DigiWira," the Red ShadoWira continued with a bored tone, ignoring the look the Blue ShadoWira was giving him. "He's lucky though to be partnered to a strong digimon. If that centaur wasn't around him all the time, well…" he didn't say anything else, but made a slicing motion over his neck.

Gayathri seethed angrily. "You won't get away with this, you evil…evil…"

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that line," the Red ShadoWira said, and looked around. "Where's that feisty teammate of yours I wonder? The Yellow DigiWira? She'll miss the show if she's late…oh yeah, did I forget to tell you about the show? Well, it's a new show actually…I think I'll call it 'Beauties and the Beast'...staring you, your partner, and our DNA-digivolved partners. Only in this story, the 'Beast' kills the beauties. Heh, heh… REICHMON! Begin the show!"

Reichmon gave a loud lion-like growl and advanced towards Fairymon and Gayathri, his spear ready to attack.

"Gayathri, stand back!" Fairymon ordered. She pointed one palm towards Reichmon, and prepared herself to attack.

Reichmon sent a roaring fire gryphon towards his enemies with a swish of his spear. The gryphon illuminated the entire forest with eerie green light, which made the darkened surrounding of the forest somewhat frightful. The gryphon sailed towards the air towards Fairymon; its fiery wings spread wide and burning everything it came into contact with. Trees that stood in the way of the gryphon were instantly caught into flames.

Fairymon immediately released a focused Hurricane Wave. She knew she wasn't able to take it on fully, so she would have to settle with deflecting them…towards the ShadoWira.

"Damn it! Not to us!" the Red ShadoWira roared. He released a jet of red-orange flames to counter the fiery gryphon, but his attack was simply absorbed by the stronger attack.

The Blue ShadoWira then countered the attack with his water streams, but he wasn't strong enough to counter an attack from an Ultimate. "Reichmon! Summon it back, NOW!" he ordered.

Reichmon immediately obeyed the Blue ShadoWira's command. He waved his staff, and Fairymon found herself at the receiving end of the gryphon once more. This time, she couldn't resort to divert the attack any more, and had to fly away for her life.

Luckily for her, help came by at the most unexpected time.

A blazing dragon made purely out of red fire streaked towards the forest and rammed onto the gryphon heads on. The gryphon was driven away from its intended target once again while the red dragon crashed onto the ground, changing back into a blue-furred, nine-tailed fox.

"Youkomon!" Fairymon shouted gladly. "Thanks for the help!"

The kitsune merely nod her reply, and focused her attention towards the open clearing where she was at right now. Trees were burning around her, sending smokes everywhere. Fairymon hovered in the middle of the clearing, with Reichmon standing on the ground below. A living tree – Cherrymon – was on its back, struggling in vain to get back up. Gayathri was somewhere at the corner of the clearing, with both ShadoWira not too far from her. And finally there was the spectral gryphon, still hovering over the clearing, not too far from Fairymon.

"Let's double team him, Youkomon!" Fairymon announced.

"I am ready." Youkomon moved closer to Fairymon, who had begun to summon more power from her surrounding to generate a supercharged Hurricane Wave.

A roaring pink tornado soon was formed all around Fairymon. Youkomon then wasted no time and fueled the tornado with her Fox Tail Inferno. The pink tornado became reddish pink, and flickered with blazing fire.

"_Hurricane Inferno!"_

Fairymon and Youkomon then willed the fiery windstorm towards the green fiery gryphon. There was a standstill between the two fire attacks before a loud explosion ensued and both attacks cancelled out each other. Reichmon was thrown onto the fallen Cherrymon, while the DigiWira partners were thrown off their footing towards the nearest tree.

"This is getting interesting," the Red ShadoWira commented. He fixed his attention towards Gayathri. "Well, pinky, it's time we finish you off once and for all!"

However before he could raise his hand up, the Red ShadoWira was thrown onto the ground by an invisible force, which knocked him from the back.

"I don't think so. Back off from her!" Liu Ying said venomously as she emerged from the tall bushes nearby. She stood by Gayathri and eyed the Red ShadoWira.

But then, a forceful jet of water knocked both girls from the back and sent them falling face on onto the ground.

"Should've watched your backs," the Blue ShadoWira said snidely.

"Why you…" Gayathri turned around quickly and let out a shriek, which blasted the Blue ShadoWira onto the ground as well.

"Warn me the next time you do that, Gayathri!" Liu Ying said with a wince; both of her ears were closed tight with her palms. She immediately stood back on her feet, but immediately found herself being grabbed on both hands from behind.

"Gotcha!" the Red ShadoWira said triumphantly as he pulled Liu Ying close to his body, seizing the girl firmly over the wrists.

Liu Ying's face colored considerably; she had never been this close with a guy before. Then her sense kicked in and she gritted her teeth angrily. She did the only thing she could think of, and that was stomping onto the Red ShadoWira's feet with enough force. The Red ShadoWira let out a grunt and his grip on her loosened. Liu Ying took the chance to turn around and kneed the Red ShadoWira over the gut.

"Heh, heh…nice attempt, DigiWira!" the Red ShadoWira grunted, rubbing his abdomen where Liu Ying had kneed him. "Let's see just how much you deserve your black belt in Tae-Kwan-Do."

The raven-haired DigiWira was slightly taken aback by the comment, but immediately positioned herself in a defensive stance, ready to attack. Her eyes narrowed as she observed the Red ShadoWira performing a stance as well, but it was nothing she was familiar with. He rocked back and forth and opened his feet to a shoulder-length width. Then he let out a roar and charged towards Liu Ying, before lowering his body and delivered an unexpected sweep onto Liu Ying's feet, sending the girl falling.

"How do you like that?" the Red ShadoWira asked smugly. "Bet you didn't even know that move."

Liu Ying seethed and made a flicking motion towards the Red ShadoWira, but to her surprise the Red ShadoWira was quick enough to dodge his way out of the path of her outgoing telekinetic attack. He made a back flip skillfully before performing a cartwheel sideways, successfully evading the attack.

"You're just not fast enough against a _Capoeirista_!" the Red ShadoWira boasted.

The villain's words clicked into Liu Ying's mind. "So you know Capoiera, so what?" she asked, lowering her gaze onto the ground. She found a stone the size of a brick, and smiled. Turning her attention back towards the Red ShadoWira, she decided to lower the villain's guard down first. "Your skills aren't exactly good enough for you to counter…THIS!" She immediately flicked her palm towards the stone, sending it flying directly towards the Red ShadoWira's chest.

"OOOFF!"

The suddenness of the attack took the Red ShadoWira by surprise. He felt an intense sting on his chest, where the large stone had hit him. However, he was in a stance which offered him the greatest balance, thus he didn't fall from the attack.

"You're good, I give you that," the Red ShadoWira sneered. "But not good enough against…THIS!" Mercilessly he released a powerful torrent of flames, not caring at all if his attack would incinerate the willowy girl into smithereens.

"Luckily for me, I still have one more trick up my sleeve," Liu Ying retorted, and erected her telekinetic barrier. She may not be able to handle an attack from a digimon stronger than rookie level, but she could certainly handle an attack from another fellow human. A yellow energy barrier was formed on her outstretched hand, protecting her from the flames.

As the Red ShadoWira and Liu Ying faced each other, Gayathri found herself being eyed by a silent Blue ShadoWira. Both of them had gotten up to their feet, and were momentarily distracted by the duel between the other ShadoWira and DigiWira, before realizing that they too had an unfinished business.

"Don't you know that it's rude to stare?" she said with a huff.

"Whoever says that I'm staring?" the Blue ShadoWira countered mildly. "What's there to stare at anyway? You may be pretty, but you're not _that_ pretty. Don't let it get over your head. Come to think of it...you're rather fat. You should think of dieting."

Gayathri's cheeks flushed upon hearing the comment, and she readied herself against the Blue ShadoWira.

"How are we going to fight each other, I wonder? Our attacks cancel each other, and it won't be fair for me to use a martial art skill against you. I know for a fact that you don't know any martial art," the Blue ShadoWira said with a calm tone.

"Since when do you guys fight fair anyway?" Gayathri said bitterly. Then, her eyes narrowed and she let out a smirk. "How about we fight like this…now you see me…" Gayathri then zipped away, deploying her super speed technique to move out of the Blue ShadoWira's sight in a flash. "Now you don't!" she taunted, but the direction of her voice couldn't be discerned.

All the Blue ShadoWira could see now was several streaks of pink light moving around him in a circular motion. Gayathri couldn't be seen clearly as she was moving too rapidly for his eyes. The Blue ShadoWira then shook her head, shrugging disinterestedly.

"Child's game," he muttered. He raised his arms to the sides, and instantly mist began to form around him. The mist thickened and soon, the whole area where he assumed Gayathri was still in was enveloped by mist. He chuckled when he heard the zipping sound generated by Gayathri's super speed technique gradually became less and less visible. He knew that Gayathri would stop running if she couldn't even see her surrounding, to avoid herself from colliding with any trees. The clearing was too narrow for her to run around aimlessly.

"Fine," Gayathri said dejectedly, and the mist vanished in a flash. "But let me ask you one thing, Blue ShadoWira. I hope you'll give this a thought."

The Blue ShadoWira chuckled darkly. "What's that? I'll answer that if I feel like answering it."

Gayathri took a deep breath. "Why are you dong this?"

In the meantime, Liu Ying too, was wondering the same thing as she held on to her telekinetic barrier as the Red ShadoWira relentlessly blasted his fire torrents towards the girl with no sign of him stopping. The DigiWira managed to hold on; the force that was sent to her was strong, but the Red ShadoWira was still a human. Unlike the attack sent by the Harpymon on the battle at the Green Meadow Village, this attack she could handle, at least for the time being.

However, she grew tired of just defending herself after ten minutes of doing so. It was then she felt the familiar burning sensation on her arms, signing the accumulated power she had managed to gather from the Red ShadoWira's attack. Braving herself, she decided to try and use the accumulated power now, before they became too strong for her too handle. She willed her hands backward, feeling the sensation of guiding something which was unseen with her hands, before pushing her hands forward once more.

Liu Ying's attempt worked gloriously; a glittering yellow wave of light was released and knocked the Red ShadoWira off his feet. The villain was sent rolling on the ground several times by the DigiWira's telekinetic deflector ability. However, the attack didn't cause any physical damage onto him – the injuries he had sustained were merely bruises due to rolling on some stones that were scattered around the forest ground.

The Red ShadoWira got back up on his feet and chuckled. "You're strong, Yellow DigiWira. Too bad I can't say the same thing about the White DigiWira." He then let out a laugh.

"What…what did you mean by that?" Liu Ying quickly asked, fearing the worst.

"Oh, you're just the same as the Pink DigiWira; stop worrying already. Adam isn't dead if that's what you're afraid of. His partner is there to protect him, as well as some bunch of riff raffs. No big deal. My biggest achievement is the fact that he can no longer utilize his teleportation power now!"

"What? How's that possible!"

The Red ShadoWira cast a glance towards the Blue ShadoWira, who stood out of the earshot of the conversation he was having with Liu Ying, before turning his attention back to the girl. "You know why. Didn't you remember that I have Adam's White DigiSphere with me? Heh, heh…apparently by taking the DigiSphere away, not only Adam loses his power, but that guinea pig of his cannot digivolve to that dragon centaur thing…he has to resort to the regular centaur form instead! And, don't even think of trying to confiscate the DigiSphere from me…although I'd love to let you try, if you want, I don't think I'd mind having a girl check me out…but the DigiSphere is not with me so don't waste your time."

Liu Ying's cheek colored a little, but something crossed her mind. She eyed the Red ShadoWira suspiciously, sensing something oddly familiar coming from the villain. There was his way of talking, for once, and if she wasn't mistaken…the villain was actually _flirting_ with her with his last sentence.

"Heh, heh, I see that you're getting something now…" the Red ShadoWira crossed his arms. "You're thinking too hard; that's not really a good pastime now."

"Why are you doing this?" Liu Ying asked; a horrible suspicion dawned into her. She would just have to prove it.

However, both the ShadoWira and the DigiWira were interrupted by a scream that sounded just like Fairymon's, followed by a loud demand coming from Youkomon. The four of them immediately turned their attentions towards their Digimon…and saw that Reichmon had rose back on his feet. He was clutching Cherrymon just under his face, and Cherrymon seemed to be in deep pain. His other hand was holding his spear, and he was pointing the spear towards Cherrymon's face.

"Excellent, Reichmon! DO IT!" the Red ShadoWira said elatedly. "Do the deed! Show those DigiWira partners what you're made of!"

Reichmon tightened his grip onto Cherrymon, who wiggled helplessly against the dark knight. He attempted to pelt Reichmon with his cherries but those attacks simply rebounded against the knight's thick armor without causing any real damage at all. The wizened tree's eyes looked around helplessly; he knew that his time was up. His eyes landed on Fairymon and Youkomon, who both looked horrified of his impending doom. He saw Fairymon was about to strike towards Reichmon, and Youkomon was crouched down with her tails up, each tip blazed with red flames. He felt at peace – his deletion would not go un-avenged.

But there was something that he needed to tell the DigiWira partners before he died. It was something important.

Upon facing Reichmon, Cherrymon had noticed that something was off with the knight digimon. He had sensed a shroud of darkness, which didn't seem to bode well with Reichmon, who despite his dark armors bore the appearance of a noble digimon. His years of staying in the forest and meditating, coupled with his less-developed telepathic ability, had made him in tune with the earth and nature. He had attempted to access Reichmon's mind prior to their battle, to learn of the dark warrior's reason for infiltrating the forest. He had gotten visions which horrified him, and he had received scrambled thoughts from Reichmon. He knew then, that Reichmon was not purely evil…but was manipulated so thoroughly that he had lost his sense of judgment.

"DigiWira…partners!" he managed to choke out, causing both female digimon to halt momentarily. "My time…is almost…up! I sense…confusion…in them. The humans….and this darkened warrior, they…are not…themselves. Something…is…controlling them! They are…not doing this…with their…own…will. Let my power…help you…guide them…back…to the right path!"

"Cherrymon, hang on! We'll save you!" Fairymon said shrilly.

"There is…no hope…for me. I have seen…frightening visions…but…it is my wish, that… this dark warrior…to be saved," Cherrymon choked out. "I cannot…do it…but with my skills…and power…you two…perhaps…will be able…to do it…for me!"

Youkomon frowned; what Cherrymon had just said unnerved her. It was as if Cherrymon wasn't blaming Reichmon for going to kill him.

Reichmon however, harbored no such remorse, and with one strike of his spear he deleted Cherrymon mercilessly. The tree digimon's data particles shimmering green and coalesced into the air as Cherrymon's last parting words echoed softly over the air.

"NOO!" Gayathri screamed. She looked at the Blue ShadoWira. "Don't do this! See what Reichmon has done!"

She didn't realize that her D-Terminal began to beep intensely.

Liu Ying stared hard at the Red ShadoWira. "Why are you doing this? TELL US! You're humans too, why are you working against us! You've done nothing but to cause us trouble from the moment you came into the picture!"

Something similar was happening to Liu Ying's D-Terminal, but she too, was too focused on the Red ShadoWira to notice it.

Both the Red and the Blue ShadoWira shrugged. "You're good, we're bad…do the math, why don't you?" the Red ShadoWira sneered.

"You're supposed to be good at it," the Blue ShadoWira added monotonously.

The data particles that came from Cherrymon shimmered and began to coalesce around Youkomon and Fairymon. Cherrymon's parting words could be heard, but they no longer echoed all around them. Instead, they now echoed inside of their minds. Visions flashed past their eyes – one by one at rapid speed. Both digimon recoiled in pain; Fairymon was clutching her head, screaming shrilly, while Youkomon froze while in semi-crouching position, her eyes closed tight.

"What's happening to them?" Gayathri wondered nervously.

"LIKE I CARE!" the Red ShadoWira said with a laugh. "They're in pain! Reichmon, finish them off at one go, NOW!"

All of a sudden, the girls' D-Terminals both let out streaks of yellow and pink, which coalesced with each other before forming one bigger, pure green light. The green beam of light hit Youkomon and Fairymon as Cherrymon's data particles began to float towards the sky. The two female digimon then relaxed; their minds now at peace, and their bodies invigorated by the green beam that came from their partners' D-Terminals. They could sense it – it was the power of the Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres…_combined!_

The girls' D-3s then shook violently and let out two different streaks that represented the colors of their DigiSpheres. A pink beam hit Fairymon, and transformed her into a brilliant mote of pink light. Similarly, a yellow beam came into contact with Youkomon and the fox morphed into a glowing yellow orb of light. Both light orbs then soared all the way up to the canopies, illuminating the shady forest with flashes of pink and yellow light.

The occupants of the tree village above were all dazzled by the sudden light show. Shurimon and the rookies were all gathered by the railing, witnessing the strange display of light, wondering what was going on.

Adam and Patamon too were watching from inside one of the wooden house – the infirmary. They were being checked up by a biped yellow-furred ape who was donning a white medical gown and a stethoscope on his neck, who was accompanied by a biped white-furred feline who was wearing a nurse hat.

"It's the girls!" Patamon said excitedly. "I recognize this! This is…"

Loud exclamations were then heard, echoing the whole Evergreen Forest.

"_**Fairymon…"**_

"_**Youkomon…"**_

"…_**DNA DIGIVOLVE TO…."**_

The two motes of light then suddenly plummeted down towards the ground, and with a loud crash entered the earth. Green beams of light were emitted from the ground's many pores, before the center of the forest clearing cracked and a magenta flower bloomed out from the ground. The flower was easily larger than life, and more green beams, mixed with yellow and pink ones, were emitted as the petals of the flower opened.

A winged humanoid figure glowing in green aura then flew out from the flower as the flower vanished. The green aura slowly dissipated, revealing a shapely woman garbed in yellow dress with pink accents. The skirt was designed to bore the shape of the flower petals. She wore green boots and gloves, all of them adorned with flowers with pink petals and a yellow center. Her hairs were made out of green vines which flowed down her back. Her tiara, patterned to look like a tulip, was pink with yellow accents towards the top. The green aura left her face last; revealing an enchantingly beautiful and flawless female face with dark green irises, wearing yellow eye makeup and a glittering pink lipstick.

She then opened her mouth, and spoke with a dual voice which reflected Youkomon's refined manner and Fairymon's headstrong quality. A heroine of earth and nature, she stood elegantly at seven feet high, hovering at the middle of the clearing, emitting out an interesting mixture of yellow, pink and green aura from her body.

"**_The earth nurtures….the nature blooms… floral maiden LILLYMON!"_**

"Wow…" Gayathri said in awe. "Lillymon is very beautiful!"

"Incredible!" Liu Ying gasped. "I've never thought that our partners can DNA digivolve!"

The Red ShadoWira snorted. "Pah! She may be a looker, I'd give her that…but still she's no match for Reichmon! Reichmon, finish her off!"

Lillymon looked down at the onlookers, giving a warm smile to her DigiWira partners, and fixed a soulful stare onto the ShadoWira. She noticed a loud roar coming from the back. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a yellow-green fiery gryphon coming towards her.

The elegant dryad twisted her body around and joined her two arms. Her palms faced each other before they morphed into glittering green cannon.

"_FLOWER CANNON!"_

The cannon emitted out a glowing green sphere and shot the sphere of pure nature and earth energies towards the shrieking gryphon. The cannonball impaled the gryphon's wide-opened mouth and emerged through the back of its head. The fiery gryphon dissipated instantly as the cannonball made its way towards Reichmon. Reichmon attempted to defend himself from the incoming attack by sending a hasty thunderbolt, but the thunderbolt missed the cannonball completely. Lillymon's attack then came into contact with Reichmon and a loud explosion ensued.

"I do not think that this battle should be ended in violence," Lillymon said with a refined manner which rivaled Youkomon's. "Cherrymon's visions have enlightened me. I know what is to be done."

She raised one arm up and pointed her index finger towards the heavens. _"FLOWER WREATHS!"_

Lillymon then flew all around the clearing, showering everything with pink and yellow flowers. Those flowers exuded a very sweet and refreshing scent. Upon touching the burnt trees, slowly those trees were restored to their previous forms. When the flowers landed on the ground, where it was bare green grasses began to sprout out from the earth, and where it was already grassy, shrubs grew out and flowers blossomed from the shrubs.

However, something different happened when those flowers landed on Reichmon, the ShadoWira and the DigiWira.

Around the ShadoWira and Reichmon, the pink and yellow flowers formed multiple beautiful wreaths of flower which enveloped around them. Simple and weak as they looked, the wreaths proved to be unbreakable when they attempted to break free from them. Black smokes began to emanate around the ShadoWira and Reichmon.

"What the hell is happening!" the Red ShadoWira screamed, and his body burst into raging flames which incinerated all the beautiful flowers that latched onto his body.

The Blue ShadoWira fell onto his knees as more black smokes escaped his body. Seeing this, the Red ShadoWira burned all the flowers on his comrade's body. He looked around wildly and saw that Reichmon was struggling hard. With a loud grunt the Red ShadoWira released a torrent of fire towards Reichmon and burned all the flowers off the warrior's body. Reichmon's body glowed with black aura before he de-digivolved back into unconscious forms of Agumon and Penguinmon.

"This isn't over, DigiWira," the Red ShadoWira said sneeringly. "We'll see each other again soon…very soon. HAHAHAHA!"

The air behind them rippled. The Red ShadoWira then pushed the Blue ShadoWira into the portal, before shoving the unconscious rookie partners of theirs into it as well. He then turned back to face the DigiWira and his eyes flashed dangerously before he entered the portal as well before it closed.

"Yeesh," Gayathri said, wrinkling her nose. "Didn't they realize that Lillymon is actually doing them a favor? The flower wreaths are actually healing all those scratches and bruises I got when battling those ShadoWira."

"Healing flowers," Liu Ying nodded with a smile as she smelled one flower. She then looked up and saw Lillymon descended towards them radiantly. "Lillymon…thanks!"

"You are welcome, my partners," Lillymon nodded smilingly.

Gayathri cocked her head sideways, a finger placed on her chin. "You know, now that I think about it…Lillymon looks a lot like Fairymon…don't you think so, Liu Ying?"

"Maybe," Liu Ying said. "But she gets Youkomon's mannerisms."

"I am both Youkomon and Fairymon, with added powers of nature and earth from the late Cherrymon. A normal Lillymon does not have this appearance," the ethereally beautiful Lillymon explained, the smile didn't leave her beaming face one bit. She looked up and saw the damaged tree village, and her smile faltered, but not gone completely. "Come on, my partners. Let us make our way up to the tree village. The village suffers damage as well, and my healing flowers will restore the village back to its former glory. And…" Lillymon became silent as she looked up at one particular direction on the tree village. "I sense Adam…he shall require my help too, and for quite some time, I think…"

Standing at seven feet tall, Lillymon was taller than any average woman. She then kneeled down in front of the DigiWira and beckoned for each girl to sit on an arm. When they sat, small flower wreaths materialized around their bodies, securing them to Lillymon's arms. The three of them then made their way up and reached the tree village in no time.

She placed Liu Ying and Gayathri on the balcony of the main house, where Shurimon stood. Then, she summoned her flower wreathes once more and gradually restored the village, which had suffered from the onslaught of the ShadoWira and Reichmon. She found the three injured Harpymon, and sensed a dark shroud clouding their minds. Despite them being the villains, Lillymon healed them as well, despite the protests from the villagers.

"They are not inherently evil," Lillymon said plainly. "With my help, they will no longer be."

Black smokes emanated from the Harpymon before they slowly reverted into two Biyomon and one Hawkmon. The three rookie avian digimon woke up and watched their surrounding with awe.

"What happened?" the Hawkmon asked, confused. "I remember being imprisoned inside the Cave of Solitude…then…Karatenmon…then nothing."

"See?" Lillymon said gently. "Give them a second chance. They have no place to go. Their home, the Green Meadow Village, was destroyed…" Lillymon refrained from mentioning that it was the Harpymon who had destroyed the village, for the three rookie avian digimon's sakes. She gave Shurimon a questioning look, for the village leader to consider her request.

Shurimon and the rookies there looked at each other, then at the three birds. The Armored Champion then watched as a Mushroomon, the one who Adam had rescued from falling, approaching the three confused birds.

"Hi! I'm Mushroomon, rookie level, virus type digimon. Although I'm a viral digimon, but don't let it fool you. I'm a peaceful-loving digimon. Wanna be friends?" he asked easily.

Seeing the Mushroomon extending the hand of friendship to the three formerly evil digimon, the other rookies immediately followed suit. Shurimon watched them with mirth glinting from his yellow eyes, and nodded to Lillymon.

"They are not naturally evil, so they are welcomed here," Shurimon said finally.

"Good. Then, there is one last thing I must do," Lillymon said. "Where are Adam and Patamon?"

"Here!" Adam called, walking out from the infirmary which was beside the main house of the village. Patamon was, as usual, perched on his head. His eyes widened upon setting sight on the beautiful fairy. He had his gray jacket slung on his right shoulder, and was wearing a form-fitting white shirt over the gray uniform trousers. "Woah…who's this?" he asked questioningly to his teammates.

"Adam," Lillymon said gently. "You know my pre-digivolved forms. I am their DNA digivolved ultimate form. My name is Lillymon."

"Labramon and Floramon?" Adam said, astonished. He turned his sight towards the girls. "Wow! She looks awesome."

"She easily sent the ShadoWira and that Reichmon running," Gayathri supplied, with a thumbs-up.

"And she has restored the village back to normal," Liu Ying added with a smile. Her face then changed into concern, which was mirrored by Gayathri's face as well. "Adam, how are you? The Red ShadoWira told us some unnerving stuffs…"

Adam's smiling face turned sour. "I'm ok, but I don't have my power anymore," he said glumly. "And Patamon cannot digivolve to Sagittarimon. It was the White DigiSphere which gives him the boost from Centarumon to Sagittarimon…and the sphere gives me my power too. Now that the Red ShadoWira has my DigiSphere, I'm sitting ducks whenever I meet him again."

Everyone became quiet. Liu Ying and Gayathri both gave their male teammate assuring looks, not daring to promise that they would help him recover his D-Terminal back. Without his teleportation power, Adam would be defenseless, and Patamon could only access his normal, weaker champion form.

Lillymon cleared her throat – even her way of doing that was refined, but at present no one would take notice of that. The DigiWira's attentions were immediately fixed on her.

"Before the DNA digivolution took place, I have perceived disturbing images from Cherrymon…"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

A long chapter with two battles, as opposed to the non-battle chapter previously. I've considered splicing this chapter into two separate ones, but then decided against it. Some small editing here and there, and I don't know what else that I could edit out. Perhaps the battle with Peacockmon is a little bit too long…it's actually an excerpt of one of the discarded chapter which I've decided to incorporate into the pre-credit segment of the chapter, adding the new astral projection power as the way to end it.

My main focus for this chapter is of course, the battle between the ShadoWira and the DigiWira girls, and the appearance of Lillymon. Of course, this is a different kind of Lillymon, and I have incorporated some of Rosemon's appearance to her. She is supposedly more womanly than the series' Lillymon. It's true that neither Youkomon nor Fairymon could digivolve into Lillymon, but work with me here. She's vital to the story.

Anyway, no new words in this chapter…except for "Abang" which is Malay for 'big brother'. Similarly, "Kakak" or "Kak" refer to 'older sister'.

Despite its brief mention, Capoiera is **not** something from Malaysia. It's actually a Brazilian martial art. Recently the martial art is also featured in computer games and films. I just thought of incorporating it as JD/Red ShadoWira's specialty.

Coming up next: The five-part **ShadoWira Unveiled** which will be the finale for the ShadoWira saga. Like the title suggests, the DigiWira will finally learn the identity of the ShadoWira, and more!


	16. ShadoWira Unveiled Part I: Shadow Access

The air within the dark Cave of Solitude rippled in front of the podium where Karatenmon stood. From it, he saw the Blue ShadoWira emerging, as if being thrown by someone judging by the way he attempted to regain his footing. He however failed and dropped onto his knees. Then the unconscious bodies of Agumon and Penguinmon flung out from the ripple of air, colliding with the Blue ShadoWira's hunched back, before finally the Red ShadoWira appeared as the portal closed.

They didn't look happy at all. The Blue ShadoWira merely let out a grunt upon setting sight of the fearsome avian general, while the Red ShadoWira let out an irritated growl and a huff.

"Once again, you have been outclassed by the DigiWira, and not to mention, by only the two girls," Karatenmon said snidely, seeing the harassed looks on the ShadoWira as both of them threw off their masks onto the solid, stony cavern ground. Those leather masks merely let out a faint 'flop' as they landed on the floor.

"Can it, Karatenmon," the Red ShadoWira growled tiredly as he lowered his hood, revealing medium-length and windswept dirty-blond hair against the dim light derived from the glowing orb hovering over the podium. His eyes flashed with green, which then became red, before turning to their original hazel color. His eyes landed onto the Blue ShadoWira, who was attempting to stand back up on his feet. "Those girls got an Ultimate as well – and that Lilymon's flowers somehow had a strange effect on him and the digimon."

The Red ShadoWira gestured towards the Blue ShadoWira, who merely grunted in annoyance.

"I saw it from here," the Mage General said calmly. "It was lucky that you have had the hindsight to burn the flowers before they could harm you."

The Red ShadoWira snorted and chuckled as he crossed his arms against his body. "Took the words out of my mouth. Who knows what would've happened if I let that wench's flowers take effect any longer? Reichmon got devolved easily…never thought that any digimon's capable of doing that."

"But you are wrong there," Karatenmon pointed out with his deep, regal voice. "I in fact, have known of a fellow general who has a similar power of forcing de-digivolution upon her opponent. But that is hardly the point we are making here right now. Our current situation is much more imperative to discuss. We now know that the DigiWira have managed to equalize their powers with the two of you, within the span of one week. The DigiWira have their digital powers and their partners are able to DNA digivolve, just like you are. But it seems that somehow…the DigiWira boy was not able to partake in the fight after the event at Shadow Realm earlier this week. Something does not seem to bode well here."

The Blue ShadoWira leaned his back over the wall and shrugged when Karatenmon eyed him curiously.

"Don't look at me," he said as he lowered his hood, revealing dark spiky hair which color was hard to discern due to the lack of light inside the cave. "I wasn't the one who's constantly after the White DigiWira. Someone among us seems to be spending quite some time with that boy as of late…" his voice trailed off as he gazed at his fellow comrade in crime.

"Watch it," the Red ShadoWira growled, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "I don't like your tone."

The Blue ShadoWira shrugged indifferently; he didn't look threatened at all by the menacing voice of the Red ShadoWira. "What I'm trying to say was…you've been copying _my_ idea. How unoriginal, but very curious as well; why'd you choose to hang out with Adam instead of Liu Ying, I wonder?"

"If you must know, I've been doing my homework," the Red ShadoWira said smugly. "Liu Ying puts the 'D' in difficult…so I chose the second best option, or perhaps, the best option, now that I think of it – Adam's the exact opposite of Liu Ying. He literally _is_ the letter 'E' in easy. So trusting, so willing to see the best in everyone, and so innocent…little did he know that his own best friend has unwittingly given me all the necessary information I need to break him completely, when the time's right. He now believes that I'm his friend…I can't wait when he finds out the truth that JD Kamaruzaman and the Red ShadoWira are actually the same person. That ought to make him pay for the little souvenir he's given me back at the Shadow Realm."

"You're conceited," the Blue ShadoWira said, as JD gestured towards his right arm.

"Speak for yourself," the Red ShadoWira snorted. "I'm not the one who's leading a girl to love me…ok, so I did break a few girls' hearts when I agreed to date them, before dumping them…but that's not the point here. But take it from someone who's actually has experience in doing this kind of stuff you're doing…what you're doing to that Gayathri girl…" the Red ShadoWira smirked as he leaned closer to the Blue ShadoWira's ear, and continued with a spiteful whisper, "to me, that's conceited, _squared_."

The Blue ShadoWira's dark eyes flashed dangerously, but he didn't reply to the Red ShadoWira's comment. In fact, for a brief moment a look of hesitance crossed his balanced facial features briefly before his eyes let out a green glow, followed by crimson, before reverting to their original reddish brown hue once more.

Karatenmon decided that the banter between the two ShadoWira had been going on long enough. He knew of the ShadoWira's mind games against the DigiWira, and had to admit that at some point it did sound brilliant, but he didn't like the way the Blue ShadoWira's plan had been going on with the DigiWira with the Pink DigiSphere. Such plan could backfire easily, if the Blue ShadoWira was not careful. For now however, Karatenmon was glad to see that his control of the ShadoWira prevailed their common senses.

"Now, now, Joshua, Emmanuel…there should be no fighting between the two of you," Karatenmon said idly. "Now, listen up. It is time for you to harness the deeper power of your DigiSpheres. The master has made it clear very recently that he wants _all_ of us to get rid of the DigiWira once and for all. That time has come. The coming of the solar eclipse is approaching soon. At that precise moment, my power will grow to its fullest potential and I shall be able to use that power against the DigiWira."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**- ShadoWira Unveiled, Part I –**_

**_Chapter 16 – Shadow Access_**

xxx

xxx

"You want to hang out somewhere after school?" JD asked Adam, as the younger boy was saving up their latest file.

"Uh…I don't think I can," Adam said distractedly as he closed the program on the computer. He then turned his gaze to his new friend, offering an apologetic look to him. "I…kind of offered to stay behind here…to help Mr. Chan with something."

"Oh really? Sucks being you," JD said with a smirk. "On a Saturday? Don't you have better stuff to do than hang out at school, of all places?"

A small 'humph' was heard coming from Adam's back. Liu Ying stood up from her seat and fixed a glare at the taller teen.

"It's something that we do voluntarily," she said curtly, when she saw that Adam couldn't come up with any reply for JD's question. "Something senior computer club members do after the usual meeting. Sometimes it's just a meeting and sometimes we check the computers."

"I don't see the club president staying back," JD pointed out.

Liu Ying realized that she had blundered a little, and huffed in annoyance. "As far as I know he has tuition after this, so he can't stay back. And Adam here…as the vice-president, representing the Form Ones, Twos and Threes, will stay back in his stead."

"What about you?"

"Me?" Liu Ying's cheek colored slightly upon the question. She wasn't even in the committee members. "I…I've joined this club since last year. I'm a senior."

"Fine," JD said, and took his orange basketball from below the table. "Anyway, I still remember that we have a basketball lesson that we didn't get to start yesterday," he told Adam. "So if you're free in the afternoon, drop me an SMS and we can start with it today."

Adam smiled. "Ok."

"Well, ciao." JD turned around and exited the computer classroom.

"He seems…well, somewhat chummy on you," Liu Ying commented as soon as she saw the classroom's glass door closed. She gave Adam a questioning look.

"Chummy?" Adam repeated, wide-eyed. He then shrugged. "I think he's just being friendly."

"Adam, this is JD we're talking about. Since when does he go to a person wanting to become friends? And he's offering to teach you basketball?"

"Well, I did wish him happy birthday," he reasoned.

Liu Ying crossed her arms. "And all of a sudden, he's being so nice to you?" she countered uneasily. "I don't know Adam…something just doesn't look right with it."

The dark-haired boy cocked his head sideways. "Oh, how come?"

"Well, I've never seen him being this nice to _anyone_ before, that's all. As far as I remembered, and mind you I've been in this school one extra year before you and Gayathri came along, this is the first time I've seen JD being so…well, companionable. I've never seen him acting like this with his own circle of friends. You know, I almost didn't believe that it was JD who was with us in today's meeting, if it weren't for the fact that this school only has one blonde, blue-eyed student."

"What's so hard to believe?" Adam asked back, clearly not seeing where Liu Ying was going. "And his eyes are this greenish-blue…"

"Not the point," Liu Ying sighed exasperatedly. "Adam, just…well, I don't know…it's just weird, that's all."

"Oookay," Adam said, lengthening every syllable on purpose. "But actually, it was him who offered the hand of friendship. It'd be rude for me to refuse…I mean, I don't really mind being friends with anybody; be it the school troublemaker or the future head prefect…" he grinned as he let his sentence hang.

Liu Ying saw Adam's clearly-defined hint and smiled. "Fine. Sorry I brought that up, it's just that it's so weird for me to believe, that's all."

"Not a problem," Adam shrugged, and turned his gaze to look for the other member of the DigiWira team.

Both of them then saw Gayathri watching Manny's retreating figure. "Hmm…Liu Ying? Do you notice that Gayathri looked somewhat…unwell, today?"

"I do notice," Liu Ying nodded, taking in the appearance of their pretty, curly-haired friend quickly.

Granted, Gayathri was still perfectly groomed for the day, with her hair done in her latest fashion favorite – in plaits which were let down her shoulders, and her forehead was secured with a light blue headband to keep some of her curly brown bangs out of her face. Her Girl Guide uniform was neatly pressed as usual. The only thing different with their teammate today was the fact that she looked rather weak today. Her usual bright chocolate brown eyes seemed to lose half of their usual spark. And the way she carried herself…it looked like she didn't have that much energy.

"Gayathri, are you feeling alright today?" Liu Ying asked as she approached Gayathri.

Gayathri let out a smile, which looked somewhat strained. "It's the fifth time I've heard that question today. My Girl Guide instructor, Bel and Dina, and Manny, then you…well, I'm ok."

"You look like you don't have any energy," Adam pointed out. "I'd look like you if I haven't eaten for one whole day, which never actually happened before..."

Gayathri grimaced as she observed her male teammate. Adam wasn't actually scrawny, but he was leaning more on the thin side, and it looked like he hadn't really completed his growth spurt yet. Liu Ying was a good inch taller than Adam and herself, and she was very slim, and willowy. Gayathri couldn't come up with an answer for Adam's statement, but luckily she didn't have to, as Jackie had called the three of them to his table.

"Look at this," he said, and revealed Adam's silver and pale blue D-3 Digivice. He pressed on a button on the Digivice, and instantly three dots were revealed on the screen, which had adapted a grid-like black background with green lines. Those dots were colored pink, white and yellow, and they were positioned in one same line. "These represent your D-3 signals."

Jackie then pressed the two buttons on the Digivice in a consecutive sequence, and increased the scanning range of the devices. Instantly, two other dots began to appear – and they were colored red and blue.

The DigiWira gasped as Jackie smiled triumphantly. "Alisha just sent me the completed programming codes an hour ago by e-mail. Your sister is an I.T. genius, Adam, no doubt about that. She has improved the scanning property of the D-3s. Now we can see the signals coming from the ShadoWira's D-3s."

Adam beamed as the girls took out their own D-3s. The similar thing was displayed on their D-3s.

"They look like they're quite a distance away from the school," Liu Ying noted, comparing the distance between the three dots that represented them to the dots that signaled the ShadoWira.

Jackie nodded. "They have been static for the last one hour," he said. "So, if you're not doing anything today, or if there's no attack at the Digital World, I think maybe we all can take a spin around town to discern the location of the ShadoWira's D-3s. That way, maybe we can meet them in their civilian forms, and try to convince them that they're not evil…"

The previous day, Lillymon had told them that Cherrymon had relayed a message to her before his demise. In that telepathic message, Lillymon had felt that something was not right about Reichmon and the ShadoWira. The dryad of nature and earth had claimed that she had felt an overwhelming sense of darkness coating the very beings of the ShadoWira and their digimon. She then had realized that the ShadoWira and their digimon, while evil, were _not_ _inherently_ evil.

At the same night, TobuCatmon had contacted the DigiWira to tell them about a special property within the healing Flower Wreath attack that Lillymon possessed. He had claimed that not only did the flowers could heal, but also it could remove any taint of evil from someone who was not inherently evil in the first place. The DigiWira had immediately recalled the black smokes that came out from Reichmon and the ShadoWira, before the Red ShadoWira burned all those flowers with his flame power.

"The black smokes would be the evil taint that is placed over the ShadoWira and their partners, by Karatenmon or SkullSatamon, or both of them altogether. Three hundred years ago Grademon had created all five DigiSpheres to be used by the forces of good to combat SkullSatamon's evil. Those DigiSpheres, and their wielders, are definitely not meant to be used by evil. While the DigiSpheres themselves cannot be used for evil directly, but should their destined wielders are tainted with evil, the Blue and Red DigiSpheres could be used against the forces of good," TobuCatmon had mentioned in his message.

"The ShadoWira might not be acting on their own accords, which mean that they actually need your rescuing, DigiWira," TobuCatmon had cautioned. "They are a dangerous force to be reckoned with as evil…but they will be the bane against evil if they are on our side."

The DigiWira had all thought that it would be impossible for them to be able to convince the ShadoWira that they were not actually evil. Adam especially, was rather apprehensive of the thought of convincing the Red ShadoWira in particular, as he held a personal grudge against the aforementioned villain for taking away his D-Terminal, thus taking away his White DigiSphere, rendering him powerless. The DigiWira leader's hesitation was backed up by the two girls instantly – neither one of them thought that the ShadoWira could be good people; the idea seemed too bizarre to comprehend.

They had been in the receiving ends of the ShadoWira's onslaught numerous times; first at the Megalith Coliseum where they had nearly lost their lives if it weren't for the timely arrival of their special abilities. With those new powers they managed to escape the villains while inflicting injuries on them at the same time. Then came the encounter at the Shadow Realm where Adam had been abducted by the ShadoWira for SkullSatamon's evil purpose; they escaped once more when Patamon dark digivolved into Black Knightmon, who had defeated Reichmon. Finally there was that recent battle they just had with the ShadoWira at the Evergreen Forest, where they were saved by the timely DNA digivolution of the girls' partners into Lillymon.

"What do we do when we meet the ShadoWira face to face?" Adam gulped, and eyed his D-3 with trepidation. "What if the Red ShadoWira tries to…kill me?" he squeaked on the last part unintentionally. "Again?" he added in a small voice.

"Well, you don't have to go alone; your sister and I will be going with you," Jackie assured. "And I have a few tricks up my sleeve for defensive purposes."

"What if they use their powers against you?" Adam asked again. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you or Kak Lisha."

"You're forgetting one thing, Adam," Liu Ying held up her index finger. "In our world, the special powers cannot be used. So they are not as dangerous as they are in the Digital World while being here." Her dark eyes then narrowed. "Unless, of course, something was done to enable the ShadoWira to use their powers while in this world as well; you never know, with them being evil, and with a powerful magician as their master."

Jackie nodded. "It is risky…but we have to at least try, right? For all we know, they might not have their powers. They might be vulnerable as much as you are right now. It will be the perfect opportunity for us to get through them."

"The ShadoWira…the Red one, in particular, is a very skilled fighter," Liu Ying noted, remembering her fight with the said villain the previous day. "I don't know about the Blue one…Gayathri?"

"He said yesterday that he knows how to fight too, but it wouldn't be fair of him to use it against me…he seemed to know that I don't know how to fight physically," Gayathri, who had been really quiet throughout the conversation, supplied with a low voice.

"Adam, just in case if it comes to this…do you know any martial arts?" Liu Ying asked. "I mean, with the ShadoWira both being probably excellent fighters, they still are a threat to us even here. The Red one knows Capoiera, and it didn't look like he's just an average fighter with that…his movements are very agile and swift. I don't know about the Blue ShadoWira, but I'm assuming that he's just as dangerous as Red."

"Well…" Adam ran his hand over his dark straight hair as a look of mild hesitation crossed his boyish face. "I've never gotten any official training…but someone taught me _Silat _a long time ago, long before I moved here. I know some basic skills…but I've never actually found the need to use it. I'm afraid that when it comes to Silat I'm just somewhat below average at best. Sorry."

"Don't worry, I know Kung Fu, I can defend the three of you," Jackie cracked up. "No, seriously, I'm not named after _the_ Jackie Chan for nothing!" he added hastily when he saw three pairs of skeptical eyes boring through his clear blue eyes. "Wanna me show you some moves?" he asked with a grin.

"Err…no thanks," Adam said, with both hands raised up and his face contorted to bear the mixed look of amused and uneasiness.

"We'll take your words for it," Liu Ying added. Gayathri merely nodded, but didn't mention anything.

"Ok then," Jackie said and loosened the dark blue tie he was wearing. "So, what do you think…"

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!_

"Looks like duty calls," Adam said, and stood up quickly. Looking at his D-3 once again, he saw that the red and blue dots had vanished from the scanning range. "Man, they don't waste time now, do they? No signs from the ShadoWira's D-3s anywhere."

"Umm…Adam? Not that I want to single you out or anything…but do you think that you should…well, sit this one out? Now that you're without your powers and all?" Liu Ying asked worriedly.

Adam made a face slightly, but he understood instantly his friend's intention and concern. Quickly, he wiped the look out with an assuring smile.

"Don't worry about me. I can help in any other way. Besides Patamon can still digivolve to Centarumon; he can protect me."

"That's not what I meant. You know that the Red ShadoWira somehow likes to target you. He's been doing so from the start; I'm just worried that he'd go for you again," Liu Ying reiterated.

"I know," Adam nodded glumly. "You're right. But I still think that I should be with you guys. I'll be fine…the Red ShadoWira won't attack me as long as Centarumon's around me."

"Ok…but the moment things are getting too ugly, you're getting out of the battle," Liu Ying decided. "Lillymon and the two of us can handle the ShadoWira and Reichmon."

Adam pouted, but nodded begrudgingly. "Fine. I really have to get back my D-Terminal and my White DigiSphere from the Red ShadoWira."

"Ok, if that's settled…" Liu Ying spun around and set her eyes on her other teammate. "You're being awfully quiet today, Gayathri. Are you sure you're feeling alright? You don't look too well to me," she pointed out with concern.

"I'm fine," Gayathri said evasively, but even so, the lack of luster in her voice didn't go unnoticed by the DigiWira. She didn't sound like the usual vibrant Gayathri that they knew at all.

"You sure?" Adam asked. "If you ask me…"

"I'm positive. Besides, you guys need me and Floramon to form Lillymon," the dark-skinned girl said more assertively, cutting Adam off midway through his sentence. Then before her teammates could counter her words, she quickly marched towards the door which led to Jackie's office, and opened it. She bent down and took Tanemon in her arms, while Shaomon stepped out from the office on her own, and Patamon flew out and landed on his partner's head. "We should get going," Gayathri said.

Adam and Liu Ying exchanged worried looks with each other, clearly thinking that something was up with their teammate, but didn't say anything.

"If you say so, Gayathri," Adam murmured and pointed his D-3 towards the monitor. "DigiPort Open!!"

xxx

xxx

While the DigiWira were discussing about the new improvements of their D-3s at the computer classroom, unbeknownst to them the two ShadoWira were racing off towards their own houses. They had purposely left their D-3s at home, knowing that it would be only a matter of time before the DigiWira would figure out a way to overcome the cloaking spell Karatenmon had placed on their D-3s, and it would give out their identities instantly should they brought their Digivices with them.

They reached the Cave of Solitude in record speed, where Karatenmon and their digimon partners awaited their arrivals.

"It is time," Karatenmon said, his eyes glinting with glee and malice. "Your Shadow Access power has been brought forth using my own dark powers. I shall be weakened slightly, but only temporarily. When the solar eclipse arrives in two days time, my power shall be replenished, and fluctuate. I will then challenge the DigiWira myself, so I cannot permit you to destroy them today. However, feel free to toy around with them as long as possible, in any way you see fit."

JD barked a laughter as the light from Karatenmon's floating viewing orb washed over his face, illuminating his rough-featured, yet good-looking, facial features. He leaned easily against the stone walls of the cavern, with Agumon standing very still at his side.

"I bet you want all the glory for yourself, Karatenmon," he accused.

"The glory for destroying the three DigiWira," Manny Abah continued with a monotonous voice, as if disinterested with the conversation. While JD was leaning against the wall, Manny simply stood three meters away from JD, with Penguinmon in front of him. He kept himself within the shadows, away from the orb's light, but some of the light did wash over him – revealing his gelled spiky dark maroon hair and russet eyes, high cheekbones and his balanced facial features, which was currently set in an emotionless expression.

"I did not say that I will be destroying them alone," Karatenmon pointed out calmly, knowing that his previous statement would garner that kind of response from the ShadoWira. "What I did say is that I will challenge them. You two shall prove instrumental in weakening them first; right now you are doing an excellent job with the DigiWira boy, so I will not question how exactly you manage to do so. All that is left is for you to weaken the girls and that Lillymon of theirs with your new power."

JD grew silent as the subject of Adam's powerlessness was brought to light. Manny noticed this, and glanced sideways towards his fellow ShadoWira.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that too – just how exactly you made Adam weaker? His power should be just as developed as Liu Ying's and Gayathri's, but we didn't see him taking part in yesterday's battle."

"That's because he was up at the tree village, helping out in any way he could," JD said. Then, he felt that he needed to steer the conversation about Adam's lack of power from his present companies – nobody else in the cave, not even his own partner Agumon, knew that he now possessed Adam's D-Terminal, which stored his White DigiSphere and the curious artifact known as the Ivory Gem. "Just so you know, I was up at the village before I came down joining the battle between you and that Pink DigiWira. I saw Adam using his power to save a rookie from falling. Better don't count him out yet," JD said, straining to hide his smirk from becoming apparent. "For all we know, he might just be hiding his power to surprise us. Like yesterday, when that Lillymon appeared. Before she came into the picture, we were winning!"

Karatenmon nodded. "You might be right. Nevertheless, with your new power there is no chance for you to be beaten."

JD's smirk widened as he raised his hood and wore his mask. "How about we give this Shadow Access power a test drive?"

"Let's do it," Manny nodded in agreement, following JD's suit to protect his identity from being discovered by the DigiWira.

The ShadoWira then summoned a portal out of the Cave of Solitude, and their destination was the Green Meadow. Upon arrival, they immediately set their sight upon some of the peaceful digimon who hung around the lush paddock, disrupting the calmness that once prevailed within the field of green. Streams of fire and water were released continuously, and they caught on some of the smaller rookie digimon who were not quick enough to evade the ShadoWira's wrath. The bigger champion ones attempted to stop the ShadoWira, but Flarelizamon and Depthmon then stepped in to aid their human partners. The two evil digimon quickly defeated the digimon that were brave enough to oppose them.

Smokes began to rise from the burned shrubberies and bushes, enveloping the atmosphere around the meadow. The air was suffocating, and many innocent digimon began to collapse due to suffocation from the intense smokes derived from the fires of the Red ShadoWira and Flarelizamon.

On the other side of the field, where it was smoke-free, the Blue ShadoWira used his water power to generate thick mists from the nearby lake. The innocent digimon of the paddock's sights were instantly obscured, rendering them unable to escape. The evil duo of water, whose sights were not affected by the mists, attacked the innocents with jets of water without conscience. Their water jets caused the innocents to tumble onto the ground, made wet by the water.

They were doing this merely because of one thing.

It was time to call the DigiWira's meeting at the computer club off; the ShadoWira were here to test their new powers.

xxx

xxx

"Wait a moment, DigiWira," TobuCatmon called, just as the DigiWira were about to step out from the Forest Sanctum. "I have an idea. Gather around me, please."

"What is it, TobuCatmon?" Adam questioned, halting instantly right before he stepped down from the marbled floor of the sanctum. He glanced across his shoulder as he addressed their feline mentor.

"Can't it wait?" Liu Ying asked with a rushed tone. "The ShadoWira are wrecking havoc right outside this forest."

"It won't take long," TobuCatmon promised. He beckoned for the DigiWira to approach him. "I've just figured out a way to give Adam his power back…but it's only something temporary and will be limited. However it's the best way I could think of for a moment and Adam won't be powerless against the ShadoWira."

Adam's face brightened considerably. "You can do that? How?"

"Adam, stand in the center, and girls, stand at Adam's either sides. Yes, that's it," TobuCatmon quickly instructed, and nodded his approval when he saw Liu Ying standing by Adam's right and behind, while Gayathri unquestioningly stood still at Adam's left side , towards the front. Their position was like one diagonal line.

Then the champion digimon asked the girls to summon their DigiSpheres out of their D-Terminals and to hold those spheres with their right hands, while pointing them towards the screens of their Digivices. The girls did as they were told unquestioningly and saw as pink and yellow aura emanated from their respective spheres, and their Digivices lit up with their respective colors.

"Ok, that's it. Good. Now, all three of you, hold your D-3s up."

Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri watched as the girls' Digivices let out a pink and a yellow electrical bolt into Adam's Digivice, which caused the silver device to spark with life. White aura began to emanate from the Digivice as it absorbed the pink and yellow energy bolts, and streaks of white electrical bolt were released from the device. They flowed down Adam's arms and body before disappearing.

"I feel…a little bit lightheaded," Adam commented, slightly disoriented from the experience, as he lowered his arm down.

"Try teleporting, Adam," TobuCatmon encouraged.

"Ok…" Adam closed his eyes and thought of something. He then vanished in brilliant orbs of white light, and reappeared again about two meters away from where he once stood, right beside the sanctum's fountain. His face lit up with delight. "This is great! I have my power back."

"Use it sparingly, Adam, as the power you are using right now is drawn from the Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres," TobuCatmon cautioned. "Your power is now fairly limited and continually using it will result in the loss of power again. Use it only when it is necessary. With the powers from the other DigiSpheres you can also power up Patamon straight away into Sagittarimon, but that will instantly deplete the power you have just received. Once again, Sagittarimon is only as a last resort. From time to time you may require another recharging from the girls' DigiSpheres."

"Oh…kind of like a rechargeable battery now, am I?" Adam said.

"You could say that," TobuCatmon agreed.

"Well, now that Adam has his power back, I think we're ready to face the ShadoWira," Liu Ying said. "Let's go."

xxx

xxx

As soon as the DigiWira stepped out of the forest, they were met with a sight that nearly caused them to jump in surprise. The Green Meadow was no longer a place of splendor; instead it was a total calamity. Thick smokes covered the sky above the paddock, coming from the burning shrubs and grasses. On the farther side of the meadow, they could see nothing more than thick mists, with sounds of water jets being strewn about. Weak cries of digimon were heard here and about, pleading for the ShadoWira to stop their relentless attacks.

The ShadoWira instantly saw that they had company, and ceased attacking the innocent digimon of the meadow.

"What took you so long?" the Red ShadoWira asked with a snide voice. "We almost thought that you won't show up."

Liu Ying leaned towards Adam and whispered to his ear, "Let us handle this…you digivolve Patamon to Centarumon and try help the digimon that have been attacked."

Adam nodded; he knew that he couldn't partake in the battle directly with his limited power, but he could be of use for other equally important thing. He took out his Digivice, and the girls followed suit. "Ready?" he asked, and Patamon leaped away from Adam's head. Adam pointed the Digivice towards the orange flying guinea pig. "Digivolve!"

"_**Patamon….digivolve to…. Centarumon!"**_

The male DigiWira immediately climbed on his centaur partner and held tight against the centaur's body. He turned around and met the gazes of his female teammates, frowning slightly upon seeing Gayathri's condition; no matter how she insisted that she was fine, Adam still thought that she looked sick. But now was not the time to point that out. Adam met Liu Ying's black irises and nodded grimly.

"You guys… be careful, ok?"

"You too, Adam," Liu Ying nodded. Gayathri followed suit and offered Adam a weak assuring smile, which didn't look too assuring in Adam's opinion.

"Heh, heh…we meet again, Adam," the Red ShadoWira said with a snicker. "You still have the guts to show up even though you have no powers at all. For that, I salute you." He made a saluting gesture which looked more on mocking rather than actual respect. His glowing green eyes were observing Adam and Centarumon.

Adam merely stared into the Red ShadoWira's hollow green eyes defiantly. Never in his life had he considered that he was able to hate someone, but if he was asked of whom he hated the most right then, automatically he'd say that the Red ShadoWira was the top on his otherwise empty list. His hand gripped onto Centarumon's human torso; he felt safe as long as he was with Centarumon. His digimon partner had proven that he'd go _all the way_ in order to make sure that Adam was safe, back when they were at Shadow Realm. Adam however had no intention of making Centarumon attempt such digivolution again.

"Ooh, what's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Or is the big bad ol' Red ShadoWira making you afraid?" the Red ShadoWira mocked, and laughed loudly. His cocky manner unnerved Adam. "Looks like you're feeling secure enough riding on your partner…" he said, and flicked his hand so that his palm would be facing up. Fire flared an inch above his palm.

"Don't even think about it, pal!" Centarumon's brown eyes glinted beneath the helmet he was wearing, and he hoisted his cannon towards the Red ShadoWira. "Don't think that I won't use it, because I will, if you come any step closer. The fact that you're human won't deter me if I think my partner's in any danger."

The Red ShadoWira snorted. "Well, if attacking a human is a bother to your conscience, I'll make it easier for you."

Both Adam and Centarumon were confused of the Red ShadoWira's statements, but didn't have the time to ask as they saw the Red ShadoWira taking out his black Digivice with red accents from the compartment on his belt. He thrust his right hand forward, and flexed his left arm – where the left hand was holding the Digivice – to his body. Then, the right arm was also adducted back to his body, with the index finger touching one red button on the device.

"Shadow Access!!"

The D-3 Digivice suddenly flared with bright red light before erupting with raging fire. The flames surrounded the Red ShadoWira from head to toe, and transformed the human into a blazing fireball which streaked towards the smoke-filled sky. Flarelizamon, the partner of the Red ShadoWira, also experienced the same thing as his blazing body too became a blazing fireball, and he soared towards the smoke-filled sky. A wide spectrum of reds was thrown out from the explosion that followed; a vicious blast of heat more intense than the hate in what came next: a thunderous roar, akin to the cries of a newborn volcano, and with more ferocity than the light of a newborn star echoed over Green Meadow.

All the DigiWira watched forebodingly as something red and fiery streaked down through the smokes. It resembled the fireball forms of the Red ShadoWira and Flarelizamon, but looked to be much more intense and was streaking with a velocity that rivaled Gayathri's super speed. The new fireball crashed onto the burning ground of the Green Meadow with a loud explosion, sending dirt and rubbles scattering all over the nearby vicinity. Smokes filled the place momentarily, obscuring the DigiWira from witnessing the newcomer.

Someone no less than seven-feet tall emerged from the flames. It looked very much human, masculine and muscular, armored in glistening red and crimson steel with black accents. The flaming aura that emanated from his whole body gave him a fearsome appearance. The head was protected by a helmet, which obscured the upper half of the man-like being's face, revealing a humanly lower-face. Scraggly rusty blonde hair emerged from the back of the helmet, which fell no further than its back. The helmet was patented to look draconic with glowing green eyes in place of the normal eyes. One horn protruded from each side of the helmet while sharp ivory fangs decorated the lower right and left side of the helmet. The sides of his face were lined with black leather, which extended downward to cover his neck and the rest of his body and extremities. The body armors were as elaborate in design as the helmet. Thick torso armor protected the chest region, while the abdomen was unarmored, merely protected by leathery jet-black hide. At the center of the torso armor was a six-centimeter diameter golden coin-shaped emblem, which depicted a coiled serpentine dragon. Fixed just at the bottom of the chest armor was the bat insignia he wore while as the Red ShadoWira. The arms were unarmored, but shoulder and elbow guards were there to offer additional protection to the arm joints. His right hand was equipped with a shining crimson gauntlet, with gold claws protruding at its end, while his left hand was unarmed. The lower extremities were as protected as the upper extremities, but with sleeker armor in similar colors. The crotch and the upper thighs were protected with blazing red armor and the lower thighs were left unarmored, merely protected by the black leathery material that draped the man's whole body. In the meantime, the lower extremities were protected by black steel boots which were joined with crimson quadrangular-shaped knee protection armors. Despite armored, the lower extremities of this man seemed to be nimble enough for agile movements, which was demonstrated by the way the man was walking.

"Sleek stuff," the man-digimon muttered in a voice that resembled the tough voice of the Red ShadoWira's laced with the deep growls of Flarelizamon as he looked down to examine his new appearance. He then looked up, and smirked at the horrified expressions of the DigiWira and their partners. "Just call me **Satriamon**!"

"What in the world…?" Liu Ying gasped in shock. "They…fused?" Similarly, Gayathri too let out a gasp, but it sounded more like a stifled scream.

Adam's gray eyes widened upon taking in the fear-inspiring features of Satriamon. His heart was beating wildly; there was a sense of pure power radiating from Satriamon, and Adam knew there and then that Centarumon could never protect him from the fused form of the Red ShadoWira and Flarelizamon. He could feel Centarumon's body tensed; a soft growl was heard coming from inside Centarumon's helmet.

"Show off," the Blue ShadoWira chuckled, drawing the attention of the DigiWira to himself. "Satriamon's not going to be the _only_ fused digimon around here." He took out his Digivice and performed a similar sequence of movements that was exhibited earlier by the Red ShadoWira. "Shadow Access!!"

"Not him too…" Gayathri said softly.

"Oh no," Liu Ying said, one hand instinctively moved in front of her mouth.

Both the Blue ShadoWira and Depthmon turned into two motes of blue lights before soaring towards the sky, where they coalesced with each other. The two fusion of light then, vanished within the dark smokes which coated the sky. An explosion of various shades of blue lights erupted from the sky, followed closely by the roars of massive tidal wave. Suddenly, a huge downpour came from the sky, drenching the DigiWira and their partners as a figure emanating with blue aura descended from the sky.

It was a man…or to be exact, a merman; the upper half part of him was a man; while the lower half of his body was a sleek fish tail in deep blue scales which ended in pale blue caudal fins, or tail fins. Similar to Satriamon, he too had a helmet which covered the upper half of his face. The helmet however was sleeker in design, and was colored sapphire. Lining the midline of the helmet was an erected fin, but otherwise the helmet was rather plain, with gray accent lining the bottom part of the helmet. Sleek pale aquamarine-colored hair cascaded down his back, reaching the beginning of his tail. His muscular torso was bare, with an X-shaped metallic armor crisscrossed his body. The X-shaped armor was colored steel gray, with indigo linings. At the center of the 'X' was a golden coin-shaped emblem similar to Satriamon's, but his depicted a merman. His shoulders were protected by navy shoulder armors with gray linings. Two straps of dark blue belts were latched on the each side of his arms. His elbows were protected by elbow pads similar in design to his shoulder armors. Dark gray belts with indigo linings were strapped around his abdomen, and defined the separation between his human torso and fish tail. Clasped on the middle of the belt was the bat insignia he wore while as the Blue ShadoWira. His skin was rather pale, and on the sides of his forearms and waist, traces of fish fins could be seen but they were not that obvious. And finally, like Satriamon, he too possessed a weapon in form of a shining metallic trident which he held with his right hand. When he nearly reached the ground, his tail glimmered in blue aura, and transformed into a pair of human legs draped in dark blue, form-fitting, leather trousers and a pair of metallic boots. Blue aura seemed to permeate out of his body.

"So this is the power of the Shadow Access," the merman said with a cool voice, clearly from the Blue ShadoWira's usual cold tone, layered with Depthmon's voice which sounded like one speaking whilst underwater – there was a distant, echoing quality in his voice which matched his cold demeanor. Then, staring at the DigiWira, although one could wonder how he would be able to see them as his vision was blocked by the helmet he was wearing, but he had his ways. The former merman, now a man, looked up to the DigiWira and a small trace of smile became evident from his thin, slightly pale lips. "I'm called **Samudramon**."

Satriamon and Samudramon both stood at near-equal heights, with Satriamon being the taller one out of the duo. Both had an imposing presence while looking impressive at the same time. Their influences over fire and water made more obvious now with them being digimon that bore close quality traits of a creature of fire (dragon) and a creature of water (merman).

"I don't like this," Liu Ying said, and looked at Labramon and Floramon. "You two better DNA digivolve to Lillymon quick."

"_**Labramon….digivolve to…. Youkomon!"**_

"_**Floramon….digivolve to…. Fairymon!"**_

"**_Fairymon…Youkomon… DNA digivolve to…. Lilymon!"_**

The beautiful floral maiden Lilymon stood protectively in front of her human partners, staring coolly at her opponents. Centarumon galloped nearby the girls and dropped Adam near the girls before joining Lilymon; the innocent digimon that were attacked previously by the ShadoWira had managed to escape while the transformation of Satriamon and Samudramon took place, thus Adam was not needed to help them out.

"Oh, it's on now," Satriamon smirked wildly. The flaming aura around him suddenly blazed wilder, and his whole physical body gained a magma-like appearance. He suddenly jetted towards the sky, propelled by his intense firepower before turning into a large, burning fireball.

"_Flaming Torch!!" _

The fireball then plummeted towards the three DigiWira with top speed; there was no way they could run. Lilymon and Centarumon tensed; both immediately released their signature attacks in order to stop Satriamon.

"_Flower Cannon!!"_

"_Hunting Cannon!!" _

The DigiWira looked on hopefully as two spheres of green and yellow soared to meet Satriamon. To their horror, their partners' electrical and nature based attacks didn't work! Instead of stopping the fireball or deflecting it, the spheres _melted_ when it collided with Satriamon, while the fused fire digimon continued plummeting down towards the DigiWira and their partners. They fired again towards the raging flaming sphere but once again, their attacks had no effect as Satriamon approached them closer and closer…

Looking back, the two digimon saw that their human partners were in more danger than they did. There was one thing else that they could do.

"Kids, run now!!" Centarumon shouted.

"We'll hold him off!" Lilymon added.

Gayathri quickly seized Liu Ying's hand and ran at top speed back towards the Forest Sanctum, while Adam turned around and vanished in swirls of white orbs just in time before Satriamon rammed against Lilymon and Centarumon. The two digimon could have avoided Satriamon but they wanted to buy some time for their partners to escape. An explosion ensued as both Lilymon and Centarumon fell onto the ground, while the fireball-Satriamon reeled back and reverted into his humanoid form.

"This is too easy," he snorted. "No challenge at all, and Karatenmon expected us to go easy on them today?"

"Don't be such a glory-hog," Samudramon said coolly. "It's my turn now; look at what you've done to them. They're scorched… perhaps a douse of water would cool them off."

Raising his trident towards the sky, Samudramon summoned, _"Ocean Submerge!!"_

Out of nowhere, blasts of water suddenly erupted from Samudramon's back and towards the fallen digimon. Satriamon gaped slightly and shifted into his fireball mode to avoid the sudden rush of water. Samudramon chuckled slightly upon witnessing Satriamon's reaction, but his hidden gaze was still fixed on Lilymon and Centarumon. The two digimon, scorched badly by Satriamon's fireball attack, gasped when they saw the rush of water coming their way. They were both hit by the waters, and were instantly submerged underwater.

Meanwhile, the three DigiWira looked on despairingly as their partners disappeared underwater, and gasped upon seeing Samudramon's rushing waters coming towards the Forest Sanctum. Liu Ying was about to raise her telekinetic barrier when a familiar voice called out for them.

"DigiWira, step into the forest now! The forest will protect you from harm."

Looking at their back, they saw TobuCatmon perched on top of a branch of one of the outer trees of the sanctum. They quickly turned around and made a run for it as the waters chased them with unmerciful speed. They successfully entered the forest and saw a faint energy barrier began to glow in front of the forest.

"TobuCatmon?" Adam asked questioningly.

The feline nodded, understanding what the boy wanted to ask even before the boy could do so. "No evil can enter the forest – this forest is magically enchanted. It will repel any threat which it sees coming its way, in any way it sees fit. Observe."

The three teens suddenly felt the earth rumbling intensely. The ground right in front of the sanctum cracked open, revealing a five-meter wide crevice which separated the forest that housed the Forest Sanctum and the Green Meadow outside. Most of Samudramon's waters entered the crevice and the flooded meadow slowly was drained out of water. A drenched Lilymon emerged from the clearing water, flapping her leaves-like wings furiously. Her vine hairs were plastered on her face and body. In her hand was Patamon, who looked barely conscious.

The grounds shook once again as the crevice began to close up. After about a minute, only one longitudinal crack on the ground remained as evidence of the phenomenon occurring before, aside from the very wet earth. The grounds inside the forest however remained dry.

Samudramon grunted; he hadn't expected this turn of event. He knew that the forest was immune to evil, but he had no idea that it was magically enchanted to repel anything harmful to it as well. He then eyed Lilymon and smirked as he held his trident with both hands.

"_Thunder Storm!!" _

The smokes which layered the sky above the Green Meadow were quickly replaced by deep blue clouds, and a roaring thunder was heard. A yellowish white lightning bolt streaked down from the clouds while winds blew furiously from all around the atmosphere. The bolt hit Samudramon's trident, and the merman thrust his weapon towards the levitating Lilymon. The thunderbolt changed into blue color and streaked wildly towards the dryad of nature and earth, hitting it squarely on the chest.

Lilymon screamed and accidentally let go of Patamon. The rookie digimon plunged earthward, but was suddenly enveloped by glittering orbs before vanishing. Lilymon saw this and knew that Patamon was in good hands. She waved her hands and vines flowed down her arms towards the earth. She then closed her eyes and transferred the lightning bolt towards the earth – her vines had served as grounding method. Thus she was saved from fatal harm with only some brutal scorches on her exposed hands and legs. She heaved her breath painfully, feeling that her energy was slowly draining.

She couldn't defeat both Samudramon and Satriamon today; she had to think of something. Her eyes saw Satriamon, who stayed at a distance, watching the fight between her and Samudramon with interest. The fire digimon could easily attack her when her attention was fixed on Samudramon. Her only comfort right now was the fact that she needn't look out for the DigiWira and Patamon anymore, which could hinder her even more from fighting at her best.

There was a brief standstill between Lilymon and the two fused digimon. The nature heroine began to analyze a strategy in order to beat Samudramon and Satriamon; the Youkomon half of her began to formulate a strategy. As it did so, something occurred in her mind.

'_Samudramon's two attacks are both derived from that trident of his. If only I can whisk it away from him…wait a minute, I know just how to do so.'_

Lilymon raised one arm towards the sky and summoned her secondary attack.

"_Flower Wreath!!" _

Flowers began to fall from the sky, and with a flick of her arm Lilymon willed the flowers to form a large garland of flowers which glowed with green aura. She broke a part of the garland, which turned the wreath into a long rope of flowers. She then threw her long flower rope around the merman's trident, coiling the broken garland tightly around the trident. Then she pulled the rope, attempting to seize the trident from Samudramon.

However, Samudramon's hold on his trident was forceful, causing Lilymon to fail in her attempt. Nevertheless, she didn't give up and continued tugging on the trident. Unfortunately for Lilymon, physically she was not a match for the strapping Samudramon.

Samudramon chuckled coldly and tugged his trident, pulling Lilymon along with it. "Trying to get my trident? It's such a shame that you've failed to do so..._not_! How about you become the receiving end of these sharp points of my trident instead?"

Lillymon's dark green eyes widened, but she immediately saw a way out whilst being pulled by Samudramon.

"Not until you become the receiving end of my flowers! _Flower Wreaths!!"_

Instantly the flowers on the rope multiplied and fluttered towards Samudramon's body. A fern-green glow emanated from the flowers before they turned into three sets of wreaths which wrapped themselves all over Samudramon's body. The magical flowers worked differently for good and bad people. For good people, the flowers healed, while for the bad due to other evil influence, the flowers worked to remove the dark taint. But for the inherently evil people – the flowers had no effect.

On Samudramon, the flowers worked…by the second manner. Black smokes began to emanate from Samudramon's body and the merman fell onto his knees and onto the ground. He released his trident and writhed in apparent pain.

"You are not inherently evil," Lilymon breathed silently. "My flowers will remove the taint."

Unfortunately, somebody didn't appreciate her good intention. Lilymon felt a blazing presence coming from her back, but before she could identify the origin of the heat…

"_Dragon-Force Striker!!"_

A loud primordial roar of a dragon was heard and Lilymon shrieked when she felt something sharp grazing her wings and back. The wounds inflicted by the attack scorched her greatly and caused her to instantly de-digivolve into her composite in-training selves. Shaomon and Tanemon rolled onto the ground not far from the writhing Samudramon, who began to relax as the flowers dissipated into data particles.

The two in-trainings looked up to see Satriamon landing on his feet, a smug grin was seen on his face. His gauntlet was blazing with a fiery aura.

"Good to see that my patience has finally paid off; I don't really have much patience usually," Satriamon remarked, and eyed Samudramon. "Hey, you cool?"

Samudramon merely grunted something incomprehensible as he began to stand up. Satriamon shrugged; it seemed that his comrade was fine.

"I think we've had enough fun for one day," Satriamon said, eyeing the fear-stricken in-trainings with a sense of superiority. "We've proven that we're stronger than the DigiWira. Although I have to say…" he turned his eyes to Samudramon and pointed his left index finger towards the merman. "…who's the glory-hog now? You practically steal my thunder…"

"Just…shut up," Samudramon muttered, heaving his breath slowly.

Satriamon shrugged; Samudramon's snappiness didn't faze him. Instead, he turned his attention back to the vulnerable in-trainings. "Until tomorrow," he said, and snapped his fingers. The air behind him suddenly rippled. Satriamon then took a step back before turning around and entered the portal.

Samudramon looked down at the two in-trainings for a moment, merely staring at them. His mouth was set to form a thin line, and for a while his body radiated with a deep blue aura – cold fury could be felt by the in-trainings coming from the water digimon which they had managed to defeat. Suddenly, he clutched his head and groaned in pain. He abandoned the in-trainings instantly and stepped into the portal.

Shaomon and Tanemon heaved in relief when the portal disappeared. They had beaten Samudramon, but a sneak attack from Satriamon had been their downfall.

"They…spared us," Tanemon squeaked weakly. "Why didn't they just…finish us off?"

"I don't know," Shaomon said softly. "And I don't want to know…I'm grateful they didn't finish us off. But…it looks like they have a bigger plan in store for us."

xxx

xxx

The DigiWira all returned to their home world soon after their partners received treatments from TobuCatmon. Patamon was relatively uninjured – he was merely forced to a de-digivolution due to near drowning, but otherwise he was fine. However both Shaomon and Tanemon, while in their DNA digivolved form, had suffered major blow from Satriamon's sneak attack. Identical red gashes could be seen on Shaomon and Tanemon's backs. It was lucky for the DigiWira that TobuCatmon had healing ointments in store, and the injuries soon subsided. TobuCatmon had advised the DigiWira to feed their digimon well while in the real world, as they could use of any extra energy supplement to combat the newer, more dangerous threat in the ShadoWira.

When asked about Satriamon and Samudramon, TobuCatmon regretfully said that he had no idea how the ShadoWira managed to fuse with their digimon partners to form two single warrior digimon. He swore earnestly that he hadn't been keeping anymore secret about the DigiSphere; the fusion had baffled him just as much as it had baffled the DigiWira.

Jackie, upon their arrival back from the Digital World, quickly offered to send the DigiWira home after making a quick stop at a McDonald's driveway to give the DigiWira a treat and to satiate the digimon's hungers. Both Adam and Liu Ying agreed to a free treat from their computer instructor, but Gayathri politely declined the offer, saying that she was feeling tired and wanted to head straight home to rest. Tanemon seconded her partner, saying that she didn't need human food – she would just need to be left in the open air where there was sunlight and soil – both were essential for plant-based digimon like her to gather energy. Thus, after sending Gayathri home Jackie took the other two DigiWira to the McDonald's driveway.

After making the stop to the fast food restaurant, Jackie suggested for them to resume the task that they had planned to do before the DigiWira were called off to the Digital World. Both DigiWira agreed – they didn't exert themselves at all and thus didn't really need the rest yet. The digimon were sleeping at the back seat after their meals, on either side of Adam. They had been fed, thus sleep was the only other thing that the digimon needed.

Using the DigiWira's own D-3s' signals as guide, Jackie drove around the township of UEP Subang Jaya, watching the Digivices closely in order to see whether they were nearing the red and blue signals coming from the ShadoWira's D-3s. At present, they were much nearer to the red point so they decided to go with it first. From the wide-range scale the DigiWira managed to turn it into a close-range scale after about an hour of driving around in random.

Jackie slowed down his dark blue _Proton Putra_ car as they reached a street lined by semi-detached houses. The red signal was nearby the white and yellow signals which represented Adam and Liu Ying's Digivices. Liu Ying immediately set her Digivice to the closest range scale, which was only about a hundred meter radius. The red signal was practically next to her yellow signal and Adam's white signal.

"Stop here," Liu Ying said, and looked out through the passenger seat's window. "Nice house."

"I've been around here before; it's not that far from my apartment," Adam informed Liu Ying and Jackie. He pointed towards the rooftops of several five-storey buildings which were visible from where Jackie had parked his car. "There. You can see the apartment complex from here."

"Hmm…" Liu Ying thought suspiciously. To her, it was uncanny that the Red ShadoWira happened to live nearby to Adam. The villain had been targeting Adam from the start, and now they discovered that the two opposing DigiWira somehow lived close to each other. "Adam, do you know anyone living nearby your apartment? That might give us a clue."

"Well…a couple of people actually," Adam answered. "Hakim lives around here, but not in these semi-Ds. I've been to his place – which is a corner-lot terrace house which is right beside my apartment complex. Then there's my class monitor David Liew who I think lives around here, but not at this house – I've gone to his house once to pick a homework assignment…" Adam paused upon seeing Liu Ying's cheeks colored a little, and wondered why she was blushing. "Hmm…Liu Ying?"

"What?" the flustered girl said. "Oh…nothing, continue."

"Nothing to continue," Adam shrugged. "Only Hakim and David live around here. Why are you blushing?"

"I'm not blushing!" Liu Ying protested; she was merely reminded of the conversation she had with Gayathri the previous day, about David Liew being the one who sent her the Valentine card. She chose to quickly change the topic of conversation. "Do you think we should press the bell?"

"No harm trying," Jackie said.

"Hold it. This isn't just anyone, this is the _Red ShadoWira_ we're talking about," Liu Ying cautioned. "And he's now more dangerous with that new fusion ability of his."

"So what should we do?" Adam asked. He peered through the right-side window, careful not to rouse the dozing Shaomon. "Doesn't look like anyone's home, though. No cars."

Liu Ying turned to face Jackie. "Maybe we should take this house's address. Jackie, you're good with computers. Do you think you can retrieve a name for whoever lives at this address from the school's computerized database?"

Jackie grimaced. "I can try. It'll be easier though if I have a name to start with. The student database isn't sort out by their address. It could take a while. And what's more…only the principal has access to the student database…they are classified information. But I'm sure that I can think of something. The principal will only step back into his office this Monday, so I think I'll go to his office saying that I want to update his antivirus or something…yeah, that could work."

"Okay, so now…we look for the Blue ShadoWira," Adam proposed. "But I think I need to go back for a while. I still need to…"

"Umm…I don't think I can make it all today," Liu Ying interrupted, and pointed towards the car's digitized clock. "It's almost four; I've promised my mom that I'll help her out at her hair saloon. Business increases in weekends, and I should already be there by now."

Jackie nodded. "Ok, why don't you look for the Blue ShadoWira's signal, and if it's near Gayathri's place we can ask her to scout around. If it's nowhere near her house we can look for the signal origin together tomorrow morning. What do you say?"

"Sounds ok," Liu Ying nodded. "I'm free in the morning."

"We can actually speed up the process," Adam said. "I can go with Kak Lisha, you go with Jackie, and Gayathri can go with her driver…Anding. As far as I know, he also knows of Gayathri being a DigiWira…even her parents don't know that she's one."

"Good idea," the raven-haired girl concurred. She then set her D-3 to a wider scale scanning. "Hmm…looks like the blue signal is rather close to her pink signal; somewhere around her own neighborhood. I'll send her a message to ask her look around, if she feels up to it."

"Ok," Jackie said. "Now, Adam…point me the direction of your apartment. I'll send you home."

As the black car sped away from the house, somebody peeked through the window curtain of the house's ground floor. From the slightly tinted window glass, it wasn't hard to discern the person's blond hair and the smirk on his face.

"So they've found their way here," JD Kamaruzaman said.

-

Later in the evening, Gayathri decided to go out for a jog, despite feeling rather weak. A low growl from her stomach caused her to grimace; she hadn't been eating properly since the previous day, after her return from the Digital World. Her appetite seemed to have vanished, despite her feeling hungry. Last night she only ate two apples before going to bed, to the bewilderment of Mak Mirah and Anding. For breakfast, she ate a bowl of cereals with milk. And just now, she had a cup of fruit yogurt and lots of plain water to diminish the hunger. The sudden change of her eating habit caused Mak Mirah to be slightly upset – she had claimed that there was no need for Gayathri to go for an extreme diet.

Dieting. It was something that Gayathri had never thought she'd do. At least, not anytime soon.

But she found herself doing so right now.

She had surfed the web the previous night, to find out how to lose weight. The Blue ShadoWira's offhanded remark during the previous day's battle disturbed her. Nobody had said that to her before, and she had never really thought herself as fat. To have someone said that out to her face upset her greatly.

Her quick research revealed that the fastest way to lose weight was to cut out carbohydrates, which came mainly with rice and bread. Couple that with exercising – something Gayathri quite despised of doing – and she'd slim down in no time. At least, that was the website had said. And Gayathri had decided to follow the website's instruction.

"Dieting is one tough business," Gayathri muttered as she adjusted her MP3 player on her pink tank-top, which she wore underneath her light-pink set of cotton zip-up sweatshirt and pants. Her hair was done in one ponytail and she used a white headband to secure some of the stray bangs. The sun was partially hidden from the clouds – a fact that Gayathri was really grateful about. The next thing after exercising which she hated was to expose herself to the sun.

She had received Liu Ying's message, and had decided that while she was jogging, she'd look for the Blue ShadoWira's signal. She took out her Digivice, and frowned upon seeing that the blue signal was blinking so close to her own pink signal.

"That can't be right," she muttered, and began jogging down the road, towards the Abah's household.

It didn't take her more than five minutes to reach there, but she stopped short before reaching in front of the house. She saw water pouring out from the house's gate…it looked like someone was washing the car at the driveway of Manny's house. Taking a deep breath, she approached the house slowly and could hear two familiar laughs which she recognized coming from Manny and Debbie. A playful warning was heard coming from Manny, followed by a delighted squeal from Debbie.

Gayathri looked at her D-3 Digivice again. The two signals of pink and blue seemed to be almost next to each other.

She peered from the side of the green shrub which grew beside Manny's house. The shrub was big enough to avoid her from being seen by Manny or Debbie, but peering from the side of it gave the dark-skinned girl a good view of the Abah's household driveway. She saw Debbie, wearing a light purple T-shirt and white shorts, drenched from top to bottom, running around the garden while Manny, wearing nothing more than a pair of light brown cargo shorts which reached just before his knees, holding the water hose and pointing it towards his little sister. He too, was drenched from head to toe, but his gelled hair was still in spikes, despite being wet. It looked like they were given the task of washing their father's black Honda Accord, but somehow had deviated away from the task. But it looked like they were enjoying themselves nonetheless.

Gayathri smiled lightly upon watching the brother and sister fooling around with the water…she had always wondered what would her life be if she had a sibling. Liu Ying had a little brother whom she mentioned every once in a while, and Adam had Kak Lisha who knew of him being a DigiWira. Belinda had two older sisters too, with whom she always been at odds with. Dina had an older brother and a younger sister, whom she got along with fine. She was the only one amongst her friend who was an only child…

And sometimes, she resented that. But she'd learned long ago that her mother couldn't give birth to another child after having her. Gayathri would forever be an only child. Sure, she had Anding who she looked up as an older brother, but it wasn't the same as having a real sibling. She'd love to have a younger sister, someone like Deborah Abah with whom she could fool around with, like what Manny was doing with his little sister.

Gayathri then noticed a warm feeling creeping up her cheeks, and she realized that she had been staring at Manny far too long than she should have. Anyone who passed by the street would think of her as a stalker should they see what she was doing. She then turned back, and decided to follow another path for her jogging. She'd take a look at the houses at the street beside her street; maybe the Blue ShadoWira lived there instead on her street.

'_Manny's so sweet and charming, there's no way he's the Blue ShadoWira. I'm feeling guilty now for even thinking about it,'_ Gayathri thought, brushing that thought instantly. _'Besides, the bad guys are always so obvious. Maybe there's somebody I don't know living at the street behind ours…someone who I can easily say to be the Blue ShadoWira. He should be living around the houses between mine's and Manny's.'_

Thus, the DigiWira girl turned around and jogged away from the shrubs, unaware that her retreating form didn't go unnoticed by Emmanuel Abah.

-----

**Author's Notes:**

The first part of the ShadoWira Unveiled mini-chapters is done. I'm glad that this chapter turns out the way I wanted it to be. I'm having some difficulties describing the battle scenes and introducing **_Satriamon_** and **_Samudramon_**. The battle scene is quite long that I have to cut out some of the real world scenes…but the necessary ones are left intact. Some of the cut-out scenes are still usable, and might appear in the latter four mini-chapters. Describing Satriamon and Samudramon's appearances are hard too; because they are both my creations and I really want you to be able to picture them as I'm picturing them.

OK, to make that easier for you, I've decided to put easier descriptions here at the author's notes segment – putting them in the story will just spoil the story's flow.

_**Satriamon**_

Name derivation: Satria (SA-TREE-YA) Satria means 'knight' in Malay language.

Comparison to other digimon: Somewhat derived from Agunimon with notable differences described in the chapter.

_**Samudramon**_

Name derivation: Samudra/Samudera (SA-MOO-DRA) Samudra means 'ocean' in Malay language.

Comparison to other digimon: In short, a male version of Ancient Mermaidmon.

On a different note: I'm in NO way condoning the dieting regime Gayathri is undergoing. Trust me, it's NOT healthy. Well, jogging is healthy, the non-carb diet isn't. Cutting out carbohydrates totally is actually very dangerous, but reducing its intake is actually good.

**Glossary:**

_**Proton Putra** –_ A type of Malaysian national car; it is one of the sportier ones from the Proton lines.

_**Silat** _– A type of martial arts rooted from the Malay culture. Do Wikipedia it if you have the time.

--

Last but not least, I'd like to wish all Hindus a Happy Diwali (Deepavali), and to all Muslims – Happy Eid (Aidilfitri). The celebrations are just two days apart with Diwali on Saturday and Eid on Monday. Times like this really make me wish I'm at Malaysia right now…

UPDATED 22nd October 06 – Fixed some major errors throughout the story. Thanks to _sugarhighnutjob_ for taking the time to point the mistakes out.


	17. ShadoWira Unveiled Part II: True Blue

Sorcerymon and Shutumon stood in awe in front of a large, intimidating rock statue. It was a demonic-looking statue that stood nearly nine meters in height; one that depicted a lanky humanoid figure, with two horns jutting out from the sides of its face, long arms and a massive pair of wings which extended all the way down to its ankle. Against the pale moonlight emitted by the semi-spherical yellow orb shining against the dark sky above, the humanoid statue glistened with a mixture of dark blue and gray.

"Even while imprisoned, he still scares me," Sorcerymon confessed, and cast a wary look on his companion. "You sure you want to release him?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Shutumon snapped irritably.

Something that sounded like a twig being stepped upon, and snapped to half, was heard all of a sudden. It came from their backs and sounded not so far away. The sound was audible enough, made even more obvious to the quietness of the night. However, both digimon could've sworn that they had not heard anyone following them, but a twig would not snap to half on its own. Somebody must have stepped on them by accident.

Quickly, the two digimon whirled around, with Sorcerymon pointing his staff towards whoever that was behind them while Shutumon braced herself to attack. They immediately calmed down upon setting eyes with a tall human in black, whose hair glistened against the pale moonlight. Beside the human was an orange miniature tyrannosaurus rex.

"Oh, it's just you," Shutumon groaned, and lowered her arm. Sorcerymon visibly relaxed.

"Oh, it's just _me_," JD Kamaruzaman mimicked, with a lopsided grin. With no DigiWira around, he had decided to forego his mask and cape, and now stood only in his black, red accented uniform. "Gee, that makes me feel _so_ wanted."

"Shouldn't you be in your world by now?" Sorcerymon inquired warily. He knew that JD couldn't harm him but, still, the Red ShadoWira had that seemingly imposing aura emanating around him. His slight apprehension however was understandable; it was just earlier that afternoon that the two ShadoWira had been given the ability to merge with their Digimon partners to form fully-fledged ultimate-level Digimon. In truth, both Sorcerymon and Shutumon were slightly put off with Karatenmon for granting the ShadoWira that ability – they would've given _anything_ to be able to digivolve into Ultimates. Yet, they had no say in this matter, and even SkullSatamon had granted Karatenmon the permission to proceed with bestowing the ShadoWira with the Shadow Access ability.

JD ran his hand over his straight, uncombed hair, which looked somewhat wet – like he had just taken a shower prior his trip to the Digital World. He shrugged upon hearing Sorcerymon's question. "Nah, it's boring at home and I can't sleep. So what are you guys up to?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Shutumon snapped. She crossed her arms and glared at the ShadoWira, who was waltzing towards her without a care of the world.

"Heh. What's with the hostility? I thought we're in the same team?" JD grinned. "Oh…I know! You two are jealous!" he declared, pointing a gloved finger towards the bird-woman.

Shutumon huffed. "Humph. What's there to be jealous about?"

"Oh, let me guess. How about…I can become an Ultimate and you two can't?" JD laughed loudly.

Neither Shutumon nor Sorcerymon replied to the bold ShadoWira's statement. They merely glared at him quietly.

"Ok, ok…enough about my nifty power-up. What are you guys up to? Are you gonna free some badass Digimon? I know _that's_ one freaky-looking guy… kinda look like a devil, if you ask me, with those huge wings, claws, horns and all."

It dawned upon the Digimon duo that they won't be able to make the Red ShadoWira go away. They might as well just entertain his questions.

"Well, this is IceDevimon. He's a champion-level, virus type, fallen angel Digimon," Sorcerymon explained.

JD snorted. "Only a champion? Heh…I could take him down. I thought that he's an Ultimate."

Shutumon laughed vindictively. "Shows just how much _you_ know. This IceDevimon isn't just any Champion; his power rivals many ultimate-level Digimon. Demonic and angelic Digimon have that kind of specialty – they usually are more powerful than any other Digimon types, despite them being the same level as the said demon or angel. This IceDevimon is even more unique – not only he's a demon-type; he also commands the power of ice! He could give any of you ShadoWira a good fight."

"Really?" JD didn't look like he believed Shutumon, but he didn't say anything more. "So, being all high and powerful as you say he was, what made him got captured?"

"As far as I know, IceDevimon was entombed by Grademon after he'd frozen the whole village of fire-type Digimon. Grademon couldn't keep him down using his own power, so he got himself an upgrade from the holy powers of the White DigiSphere and used it against IceDevimon. The power of light is always a bane to dark Digimon such as IceDevimon, weakening him enough before sentencing him into a life-long entombment," Sorcerymon explained.

JD didn't say anything, but his mind was processing what Sorcerymon had just mentioned; he was particularly interested in _how_ IceDevimon was captured.

'_It's lucky for me that I have the White DigiSphere in my possession,'_ the blonde thought silently. _'This could prove very useful for me. I could use the holy power of the White DigiSphere to increase my chance against any demon types…and I think I know two of them demon types…'_ he smirked.

"Well, why do you want to free this guy, then?" JD asked.

"Why?" Shutumon's eyes nearly bulged out upon hearing the inquiry. She looked at JD, as if JD had asked her the stupidest question ever. "Why…it's for us to use against the DigiWira, of course!"

"Duh," Sorcerymon added, rolling his emerald-green eyes.

"Yeah, I know what your plan is. But, what guarantee do you have that this IceDevimon would follow your orders? From the way you explained his history to me, sounds like this guy's pretty wild. He won't want to follow the orders from two dweebs such as you two."

"_Dweebs_?" Shutumon nearly shrieked upon hearing the insult coming from the human. "Why…why…I'll show you!"

Sorcerymon pointed his staff towards JD. "You take that back! Nobody call us dweebs and get away with it."

"Always a first time for everything," JD said, voice full of challenge. He turned his palm up and generated a sphere of flames, his chiseled features bathing in the warm glow. Despite the fact that the Red ShadoWira was grinning, there was no mistaking the dangerous glint exhibited by his hazel eyes. "Wanna make something out of it?"

"You think you're so hot now that you've got the Shadow Access power," Shutumon continued with a withering tone. Her light aquamarine eyes flashed with anger.

JD wiggled his straight, light brown eyebrows twice, and smirked as he caused the fireball on his palm to die down. "Yup, I know that I'm hot. But thanks for pointing that out. It's good to hear it every now and then, kinda like a boost to my ego." He chuckled and turned his back from the two Digimon, his hand lightly touching the head of his rookie-level partner. "Come, Agumon."

Agumon nodded and trotted along to his human partner. Shutumon and Sorcerymon watched the ShadoWira's retreating back, seething angrily.

"He's got some nerve," Sorcerymon muttered, when JD and Agumon were no longer in sight.

"Well, let's show him!" Shutumon said. "Free IceDevimon; and sic him to that JD and his Agumon first before making him go for the DigiWira."

Sorcerymon nodded, and pointed his white staff towards the demonic statue. The staff emitted a soft white glow as the boyish wizard chanted, "Fallen Digimon of long before, with my magic you shall rise once more! HIYYAAH!"

The staff let out a bolt of white sphere which came into contact with the statue. An explosion resulted and as the statue began to crumble, Sorcerymon and Shutumon watched with anticipation as the one imprisoned within the statue began to move his arms and wiggled his wings. It was revealed that the Digimon was all white, but looked nowhere holy, which the color white was so often associated with. Instead, IceDevimon radiated with an aura of pure evil.

"It's good to be free," he said icily, and his crimson eyes fell onto the two smaller Digimon in front of him. He said nothing, but looked at them inquiringly.

"IceDevimon, we've freed you," Shutumon said with a commanding tone. "And for your first task…go find that JD and his partner, and teach him a lesson."

"You freed me?" IceDevimon asked. His thin lips, which were set against a very pale bluish skin, curled into a smile, exhibiting his sharp fangs at the sides of his mouth. "Then allow me to show a token of my gratitude…_Zero Freeze!!" _

Spreading his wings wide, IceDevimon released a blizzard of subzero cold air with one flap of his wings directly towards Shutumon and Sorcerymon. The temperature around Shutumon and Sorcerymon dropped instantly and they felt their bodies being immobilized by an unseen force. Thick coat of ice began to form on their feet, and the ice radiated upwards at an alarming speed. Before long, the two Digimon were fully imprisoned inside a thick hoarfrost formation. Even the ground, stones and shrubs around them were also frozen solid.

"It's good to see that I haven't lost my icy touch after all those years of imprisoned," the demon said, and smiled coldly.

Suddenly, IceDevimon felt a searing heat coming from the sky, coupled with a sound which resembled a burning forest. He turned around and saw a large fireball streaking towards him. He smirked and whirled his body around quickly, readying to freeze the fireball. However, to his astonishment the fireball landed slowly on the ground and IceDevimon saw a magma-like humanoid took form from the fireball. The flames died away slowly and IceDevimon found himself standing face to face with a Digimon armored in red.

"And who might you be?" IceDevimon asked haughtily; he wasn't intimidated at all with the fiery Digimon.

"The name's Satriamon," the red-armored Digimon answered, with an equally proud tone. "I've a proposition for you."

"I don't make deals," IceDevimon said, and raised his long right arm. From his palm a jet of arrow-shaped icicles escaped, their sharp points could easily end any life being that stood their ways.

Satriamon snorted and released a powerful torrent of fire from his left hand. His flames easily melted the icy projectiles before they too died down due to the cold air generated from IceDevimon's attack. The fiery knight Digimon was immediately aware that Sorcerymon and Shutumon hadn't been lying when they described IceDevimon as being much more powerful than any average champion Digimon. This champion Digimon was able to cancel out his attack, despite Satriamon being an ultimate level Digimon.

"Then again, it won't hurt to just listen to this proposition of yours," IceDevimon said with a simper. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was impressed with Satriamon's prowess, and it showed from the look of his eyes.

Satriamon grinned. "Then listen closely."

xxx

xxx

**Help us…we need your assistance. Our world is in grave danger!**

_He sat there, eyes transfixed on the laptop's screen. _'How's this possible?'_ he thought. _'I haven't got the internet connected yet.'

_There was a chatting window that was opened as soon as Windows had finished loading. Confused, he looked at the telephone cable, which he hadn't connected to the laptop's modem receiver yet. The opened window resembled the chat client that he had so often used before, and it baffled him that the window had opened. _

'I just got this laptop this afternoon…'_ he thought, observing the pristine white laptop. _'This is the first time I've switched it on…'

_The message window was blinking, as if trying to draw his attention back to it. _

**You have been chosen.** **We need you. Are you willing to help?**

"_Sure, I'd love to," he muttered uncertainly. "The only problem is, I don't even know to whom I'm speaking with."_

**Type YES if you agree to help us. **

_He shrugged…and typed 'yes' as the message had implored. The screen flashed with calm blue light, and he suddenly felt as if his body became lighter. His vision was fully blinded, and he felt a sensation of being lifted off his chair, and…no matter how odd it sounded…he felt as if he was being sucked into the laptop's screen. _

_Not knowing what else to do, he screamed…_

Then, at a different time but at the same place, his scream died out as he opened his eyes, before bolting up from his bed. Despite the air-conditioned room, he was sweating profusely. His hair, no longer gelled, was plastered on his head. The loose blue tank top he wore to bed felt damp against his body. His chest heaved up and down slowly as he looked around his darkened bedroom with a slight confusion. He felt his temples throbbing, and proceeded to massage them with his hands.

The throbbing only grew more intense, eliciting a soft groan from the burly boy. However, soft green glow began to emanate from his russet eyes, and the throbbing slowly diminished.

When the aching sensation dulled gradually, Manny no longer remembered what he had dreamt about, and smiled as he lowered his body back onto his bed. He closed his eyes and willed himself back to sleep, as it was way too early to wake up yet.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**- ShadoWira Unveiled, Part II –**_

**_Chapter 17 – True Blue_**

xxx

xxx

"What do you mean; you're not coming back tonight? I thought your flight back here will be tonight…well, London's night time," Gayathri said exasperatedly towards the phone. She was sitting at the cushioned wooden chair beside the table where the house phone was placed.

"_Honey, there's something more that we have to do here. The business is not finished yet, so we were forced to extend stay,"_ a woman's voice, easily identified as Mrs. Nadarajah's, was heard over the phone speaker.

Gayathri sighed and looked at the faces of Mak Mirah and Anding, who were sitting at the sofa in front of the phone table. The elderly cook and the young man were listening to the conversation between mother and daughter, as Mrs. Nadarajah had indicated that she had wanted to speak to all three of them earlier.

"Ok… so when are you two coming back?" Gayathri asked.

"_Probably about three to four days from now,"_ Mrs. Nadarajah replied from the other side of the phone, inside her hotel room at Central London. _"Honey, you sound tired and it's morning there; have you eaten your breakfast already? I think it's about ten o'clock right now, right?"_

Gayathri groaned inaudibly and eyed her plate of barely-touched _roti canai _topped with curry gravy and dhal. _"I'm eating right now,"_ she replied, ignoring the disapproving look from Mak Mirah. For the last one hour, the dark-skinned girl had only eaten two bites of the roti canai before she decided that she'd had enough breakfast. Apart from that she had only drank a cup of _Milo_.

"_Ok then; I won't bother you. I'm going to bed now. See you soon, honey, I love you."_

"Love you too, _Amma._ Send _Appa _my regards," Gayathri replied, and heard a reply from her mother before there was a 'click' sound.

"Will you eat the rest of your roti canai?" Anding asked, pointing towards the unfinished meal on Gayathri's plate.

"No…do you want it?" Gayathri offered.

"Nope. I've already had two roti canai and one _roti telur _just now," Anding declined, rubbing the beard stubs on his chin lightly. "You should finish it though; they're tasty. It was lucky that I managed to buy them early this morning, before the stall got too crowded. Pak Mat's roti canai is the best."

Gayathri listened to Anding with a small envy; she really wanted to eat the roti canai, but a part of her was stopping her from finishing up the meal. She had been limiting herself to eating small portions of her meals ever since Friday, after the battle with the ShadoWira. The Blue ShadoWira's comment about her being fat really stung her, and that same night she had decided to start dieting and exercising in order to lose some weight. Her meals were changed instantly – she had decided that she would not eat rice anymore, and decided to eat a lot of fruits instead as she didn't really like eating salads. Throughout the previous day, her meals had been only fruits, yogurts, milk and some plain water. Gayathri didn't like the diet regime, but she had seen its effect the previous night, and had been positively enthralled. She had lost one kilogram from her weight.

"I think this whole dieting thing is nonsense," Mak Mirah commented, concern laced in her elderly voice. She was a rather stout woman, and her face had a bubbly look on it. She looked younger than her fifty-six years of age. Her graying hair was done in a bun. She was wearing a purple baju kurung, a light pattern going over it, and a deep blue _kain batik_.

"I just want to lose some weight, that's all," Gayathri assured the family cook. Mak Mirah had been like a second mother to her, she had no secrets from the elderly woman. Even her own mother didn't know about her being a DigiWira, and Mak Mirah had known about it ever since the day Gayathri was first called to the Digital World.

"Exercising is fine," Mak Mirah replied. "But…at least take some heavy meals during breakfast or afternoon, and for dinner you can have only fruits and yogurts. The day's meals give you energy."

"I've lost one kilogram," Gayathri diverted, with a small smile. "So my diet is working. I'm going to lose four more kilograms before I touch rice again."

Anding, who was leaning against the sofa, shook his head slowly. He fixed his dark brown eyes into Gayathri's lighter brown irises. "I hope you're not doing this whole dieting thing the wrong way, like puking out your food after eating them. You barely ate these couple of days, the last thing you'd need is to throw up three times per day…"

"I'm not bulimic!" Gayathri exclaimed indignantly.

"Or end up being an anorexic," the black-haired man finished. "Really, Gayathri; whoever told you to lose weight should just go date a lamp pole with a skirt on. Personally, I like women with some curves…" he grinned. Then, something crossed his mind and a sly grin was fixed on his unshaven face. "Wait a minute; all this dieting…it's not to impress that Emmanuel boy now, isn't it?"

"What? No!" Gayathri yelped, blushing slightly. "I'm doing this for myself."

Both Mak Mirah and Anding exchanged looks between each other. "Well, as long as you know what you're doing. But you should at least eat something solid…at least finish up the roti canai," Mak Mirah advised. "And I'll fix you some chicken sandwiches with tomatoes and salads, if you want, for lunch."

Gayathri beamed. "You're the best, Mak Mirah. But I think I've had enough of roti canai for now…however I'm looking forward for those chicken sandwiches." She stood up and smoothes out the creases of her light pink T-shirt and black pair of shorts. "I'm going out for a while, just for a walk around the neighborhood. It's not that hot now."

"Where's your Digimon?" Anding inquired, adjusting the short sleeves of his dark green, form-fitting T-shirt that nicely contrasted his faded blue jeans. "Haven't seen her this morning."

"Tanemon is at the backyard," Mak Mirah answered. "She's enjoying the sunlight and the soil…says that she's doing photo…err, photosyn-…"

"Photosynthesis," Gayathri finished. "Let her have her 'meals'. I'm just gonna step out for a while to check out a new function of my D-3 Digivice…the thing that I use to go to the Digital World," Gayathri clarified, upon seeing Mak Mirah's blank expression.

"Well, just come back for lunch," Mak Mirah said, and stood up. "I'm going to wash the dishes."

"And I have some major test tomorrow that I need to study for," Anding sighed, and rose up from the sofa when his mother did. Anding made his way towards the back of the house, where his room was located, right beside his mother's room.

Gayathri went outside her house and took out her D-3 Digivice. A worried expression laced her face as she adjusted several stray strands of her brown curls, tucking them behind her ears. The result of her investigation yesterday was played out in her mind as she stepped outside the gate.

After watching Manny and Debbie washing their father's car the previous evening, Gayathri had set out to encircle the lane where her house was situated, and the lanes behind her house. Unfortunately for her, there was not one other male teenager other than Manny who lived around the nearby vicinity. There were a couple of rowdy boys living at the house right behind Manny's house, but Gayathri had instantly ruled them both out as being ShadoWira…as they were even younger than Debbie.

She had ruled everyone out the previous day, with the exception of two persons. The first was Anding, but Gayathri found that extremely hard to believe as the times of the Blue ShadoWira's appearances clashed with Anding's work and college schedules.

The other person was Manny; and Gayathri had tried her hardest to cross him off her list.

'_He's too sweet,'_ Gayathri mused silently as she eyed her D-3. Granted, there was only one pink dot displayed on the screen, as opposed to the pink _and_ blue dots that seemed almost next to each other just the previous day's evening. _'Hmm…the signal's gone.' _She was now standing in front of Manny's house, and saw that the gate was locked and no sign of the family's main car – the black Honda Accord. However Gayathri knew perfectly where the Sabahan family were at right then; it was Sunday morning and usually the family would attend the church located somewhere in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. They usually would be back only during the afternoon.

'_Wait a minute…that day when we rescued Adam at the Shadow Realm, it was on a Sunday. And the Blue ShadoWira was there as well…if he's Manny, then…there's no way the Blue ShadoWira could be at the Digital World that time when he was supposed to be at the church.'_

However, Gayathri didn't feel any slight assurance at all with her reasoning.

Rather, her inner feeling told her to trust her heart.

And somehow, no matter how hard she tried not to believe it…there was no mistaking the signals she had gotten the previous day. When she was at the shrubbery just outside Manny's house, the D-3's scanning range had been set to the most minimum range, and the blue and pink dots had been practically next to each other.

Gayathri yawned; thinking about Manny as the Blue ShadoWira had bothered her greatly that she couldn't get a proper sleep at all yesterday's night. Images of the built boy kept invading her mind throughout the night. Her only console to her inner turmoil was the fact that she was not entirely sure about it yet.

An encounter with Manny several days before played in her mind. She was rollerblading, he was jogging. They had collided into each other. Manny then had complained of having back pain. At first, Gayathri had thought that the pain had been due to the fact that the collision had caused Manny to fall flat on his back, and Gayathri on him. Now, she was not so sure.

She remembered Liu Ying mentioning that she had thrown the Blue ShadoWira with her telekinetic powers, during the battle at the underground maze at the Megalith Coliseum. The Blue ShadoWira had been sent flying, crashing on _his back_ against a massive stone formation. That had incapacitated the Blue ShadoWira for the rest of the battle.

'_It's a match,'_ Gayathri thought with a shiver. _'Then there's that lunch at his house…'_

She recalled Debbie telling her that Manny had been the one who shifted her handbag from the living room of his house to the table placed at the foyer…there nobody would hear should her phone or D-Terminal beeping. At first, she had merely thought that Manny was being really considerate, but now...what if it was done to avoid her from hearing the calls from her fellow DigiWira?

'_Manny claimed that it was Aunty Kim who'd asked me to join in their lunches, but Aunty Kim told me instead that Manny was the one who asked whether I could come…'_ Gayathri remembered, her pretty face fixed on a glum frown. Her heart sank when she realized that there was a high chance that there was a hidden motive underneath the invitation. That day had been the day when the DigiWira first met the ShadoWira's partners, at East Lake City. Liu Ying and Adam had their hands full battling Flarelizamon and Depthmon without her. Gayathri felt a chill crept down her spine. _'Can it really be that Manny asked me for those two lunch dates simply to keep me away from helping out Liu Ying and Adam?'_

Feeling slightly tired, Gayathri then decided to go home. _'I need to sleep this off. Maybe I can think about this more clearly after a nap.'_

xxx

xxx

"Hmm…that's weird," Adam said, as his sister turned the car around the familiar neighborhood close to their apartment.

"What's weird?" Alisha questioned, her eyes fixed forward on the road.

Adam pressed a button on his D-3 Digivice. "I can't get a lock on the Red ShadoWira's Digivice signal, but yesterday when we were here, the signal could be seen…somewhere around that house." The thirteen-year-old pointed towards a semi-detached beige house with dark brown roof and dark tinted windows. Alisha slowed down the car, and saw that once more, no car was parked in the house's driveway. But judging from the garden, where the plants looked like they had just been watered, it looked like somebody was there not too long ago.

"You sure this is the house, Adam?" Alisha asked warily. "Looks like no one's home."

"I'm sure. We've been here yesterday, and the red signal was here," Adam answered. "But now…it's not."

"Well, that could mean that either the Red ShadoWira has destroyed his Digivice, which is pretty much unlikely, or he's now at the Digital World," Alisha pointed out.

"Second option sounds more logical," Patamon quipped from the backseat.

Adam nodded. "Well, if that's so, then there's no use for us being here anymore. I'm gonna call Liu Ying."

He took out his light gray cell phone and used the quick-dial function to reach Liu Ying. Seconds later the girl picked up the phone.

"_Let me guess…the Red ShadoWira's signal isn't anywhere near his house?"_ came Liu Ying's slightly impatient voice; she hadn't bothered to start with a 'Hello' as well.

"Hello to you too," Adam said with a smirk. "Yup. And looks like no one's home. Maybe he's at the Digital World."

"_Maybe. And the Blue ShadoWira's signal seems to be coming from somewhere in the middle of KL. I can't pinpoint exactly where, but it looks impossible for us to track him. We'll just have to wait for him to come back to Subang later," _Liu Ying replied.

"Has Gayathri mentioned anything from her search yesterday?" Adam asked.

"_She has…but her reply baffled me slightly. She didn't answer my question directly last night; I asked her whether she had found the Blue ShadoWira's signal or not. She just said that she'd take care of it. Weird, right?"_

"Yeah. Well, we saw the blue signal yesterday; it was somewhere around her place. Maybe she was doing some investigation on her own…"

"_Adam…"_ Liu Ying's tone was slightly dry.

"Yeah…it could be any of her neighbors, or anyone she knows around the neighborhood."

"_Wait a minute…"_ Liu Ying suddenly sounded interested with what Adam had just said. _"Did you say her neighbor?"_

"I did."

Liu Ying was silent at the other end of the line. Adam waited for another few seconds before resuming, "Hello? You still there?"

"_I am. It's just…well, it's somewhat improbable, and maybe a coincidence…I need to go home now to check on something. I'll get back to you later, ok?"_

"Uh…ok. Kak Lisha and I are about to go to Subang Parade for lunch anyway," Adam replied, somewhat befuddled with his friend's reply.

"_Ok. We'll wait until the blue signal shows up."_

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!_

A dry chuckle was heard from the other end of the line. _"Looks like your trip to Subang Parade and my trip home will need to be rescheduled. I'll contact Gayathri. See you in the Digital World."_

With that, the line was disconnected. Adam kept his phone inside his jeans pocket and looked at his sister.

"We can go to Subang Parade after you do your stuff," Alisha assured, and steered the car back to the lane that directed them back to their apartment complex.

xxx

xxx

The three DigiWira shivered as they walked in silence across the thick forest that housed the Forest Sanctum, noticing that somehow the air grew colder as they walked further away from the sanctum. Nobody mentioned anything, but their eyes widened in surprise as they reached the end of the forest.

"It's…snowing?" Adam said, puzzled, as he saw Green Meadow; no longer really a green meadow.

Instead, the surrounding was absolutely dreary: the sky was gray, with dark clouds that let down snow; the paddock was piled with thick, knee-deep snow; the lake in the middle of the wide meadow was frozen solid. It was so cold that even the protective suits worn by the three DigiWira couldn't completely shield them from the freezing environment, although they did help with keeping out some of the cold; the DigiWira felt as if they were inside a very chilly air-conditioned room.

In the middle of the snow-covered meadow, a hulking figure in white stood. It looked like a devil, with its huge tattered wings, horns and gleaming crimson eyes. The Digimon was a lanky humanoid and there was a symbol of an orange bat on his chest. Its lower half of the face, uncovered by the mask on his head, revealed skin so pale that it could be mistaken as the leathery white clothing that covered the rest of its body. Its claws, falling down to his ankles, looked ready to tear bodies apart.

At the moment, it was having its winged back facing them. The Digimon didn't seem to be aware of the DigiWira's presence.

"Who's that?" Liu Ying wondered.

Labramon growled silently. Her beige fur stood on its ends. She could sense an aura of danger coming from the Digimon in white. "That is an IceDevimon, and he is absolutely dangerous. We best digivolve."

The DigiWira heeded Labramon's advice and Youkomon, Fairymon and Centarumon replaced Labramon, Floramon and Patamon. The champion Digimon immediately worked on paving their ways through the knee-deep snow in front of the forest. Fairymon's wind power proved to be most useful – her Hurricane Wave immediately paved a clear way for the DigiWira to walk forward. The heat generated from Youkomon's flaming tails melted some of the snow, while Centarumon had to rely on his strength alone to further clear the snow away from the path.

The commotion they had created attracted IceDevimon's attention. The icy demon turned around and smirked.

"Finally; I was wondering when you would show up," he said with a sneering voice. However, his eyes were not fixed at the three champion Digimon in front of him.

Rather, they were solely fixed on the DigiWira. His pale lips curled into a wicked smirk, and he unfurled his large wings and took flight. With one blast of cold air, he managed to knock Centarumon and Youkomon away into the thick snows. Fairymon however managed to counter attack with a blast of pink hurricane, which cancelled out the cold airwave directed her way. IceDevimon sneered and released a blast of arrow-shaped projectiles from his wings, which impaled Fairymon and devolved her into Floramon instantly. The rookie plant-reptile plopped into the thick snow and was nowhere to be seen, as IceDevimon had once again released a cold wind that buried the rookie Digimon deep into the snows.

"Floramon!" Gayathri cried.

"Heh. This is too easy," IceDevimon sneered. "One down, two to go."

Suddenly, from the place where Youkomon had fallen, the snow melted as heat began to emanate. IceDevimon scowled in disdain and turned around, only to see a blazing spectral dragon snaked across the sky towards him. Not intimidated the slightest, IceDevimon raised his long arm; his claws glinted, reflecting the light from the flaming dragon.

"_Frost Claw!!"_

When the flaming dragon was near enough, IceDevimon delivered a forceful swipe with his claws against the specter. To the DigiWira's horror, the flaming specter instantly froze into a large, thick mould of ice. Youkomon was stuck in her spectral form within the ice, and was not able to break free. The massive ice structure was plummeted onto the paved ground, landed with a loud crashing explosion as sending splinters of ice flew over the frostbitten-meadow. A pale mote of yellow light escaped the explosion and took form into Labramon, who was shivering with violent ferocity. Her face was slightly blue, and frost lined her eyes and mouth.

IceDevimon had defeated both Fairymon and Youkomon within the course of five minutes, seemingly without much effort. He then eyed the remaining champion Digimon of good with surety of his victory. He however kept his distance, and watched as the DigiWira girls immediately went to retrieve their defeated partners.

After retrieving Labramon, Liu Ying waved her hands and sent some snows flying, intending to help Gayathri retrieve Floramon. With her telekinetic power, she managed to unearth Floramon, whose once green scales were now a sickly shade of blue. The rookie floral Digimon was already unconscious; the cold too severe for her to handle, a miracle that she could still sustain her rookie form.

Adam looked at Centarumon with worry. The centaur Digimon was strong, but there was no way that he could beat IceDevimon. The enemy had the advantage of flying, for once, and he also commanded the power of ice. Youkomon and Fairymon were beaten easily, and Adam had no doubt that Centarumon wouldn't last long against IceDevimon.

He knew what he had to do; what Centarumon needed was a power up. Adam would have to sacrifice his recently recharged teleportation power in order to ascend Centarumon to Sagittarimon, who as an Armored Champion, would stand a better chance against IceDevimon. He quickly raised his D-3 Digivice and felt his power being channeled into the Digivice. As he grew weaker, the Digivice began to emit a bright white aura.

Centarumon suddenly felt his body being fueled with additional power. Looking sideways, he saw what his human partner was doing, and was slightly touched. He knew how much regaining the teleportation power meant to Adam, yet the boy was ready to sacrifice it in order to power _him_ up. His whole body began to glimmer with white light as he was propelled to a new height, as waves of onyx, ivory and crimson began to appear all around him. Blue scales began to replace brown furs and crimson armor with yellow and orange flame designs began to form on his torso. He attained dragon-like qualities as a large crimson bow began to appear within his hands.

Centarumon had become Sagittarimon.

"Thank you, Adam," Sagittarimon whispered, and fixed an arrow onto the bow's string. _"Judgment Arrow!"_

The arrow streaked towards IceDevimon with a speed rivaling a lightning, and pierced IceDevimon's shoulder before the icy demon could react. Clear blue liquid began to flow out from the demon's injured shoulder, but IceDevimon merely let out a sickening smile as he pointed one clawed finger towards the wound…and froze the gash.

Sagittarimon gasped, but what was more surprising was the fact that IceDevimon seemed to back off from him.

"Until later," he bade his farewell as the air behind him rippled. He took a few steps back and was sucked into the opened portal.

When IceDevimon vanished, the clouds began to clear away, revealing the bright sky. Rays of sunlight began to appear, streaking down from the cloudless part of the sky. The snow melted at rapid speed, flooding the meadow with frigid water. A cracking sound was heard as the ice-covered lake began to unfreeze. The air gradually became warm; it was a pleasant change from the chilling air that befitted the north or south poles.

"What was that all about?" Sagittarimon wondered, as he devolved back to Patamon, sensing no more danger.

The rookie mammal Digimon then went towards his partner, noticing the drained look on Adam's face. Adam held his hand towards Patamon, and the rookie heard the dark-haired boy whispering his name. He was attempting to teleport Patamon towards him, but nothing happened. A saddened look washed over his face, but that look vanished immediately when he noticed Patamon staring at him.

As the DigiWira headed back to the Forest Sanctum, a humanoid figure in red armor stepped out from the ruins of the Green Meadow Village. He had been watching the battle, and was satisfied with the outcome. The air beside him rippled and the tall figure of IceDevimon stepped out from the portal.

"The plan is set," Satriamon said with satisfaction. "Nice work, IceDevimon. Adam no longer has his power…again, and the girls' partners are weakened."

"Why, if I may ask, was I not allowed to finish those pesky kids off when I have the chance?" IceDevimon asked.

Satriamon gave his icy companion a lopsided grin. "Orders from the higher-up; Karatenmon said not to destroy them before the solar eclipse, which will happen in a couple of days. He wants to claim that glory for his own, I suppose. But in the meantime that doesn't mean that we can't play around with the DigiWira. I just want to mess with 'em for a while."

xxx

xxx

_He found himself inside a dark area with scarce amount of light, which radiated with a sickly green glow from a floating orb. Judging from the narrowness of the roof and walls, which were all made by stone, he assumed that he was inside a cave. The air was cool, somewhat chilly, and yet stagnant. There was an odor permeating all over the cave, which smelt musky. The surrounding was so quiet that it was frightening; one could even hear the sound of a drop of water onto the ground. _

"_Where am I?" he wondered. One moment he was in his room, then something had caused him to be sucked into the laptop monitor…no matter how odd THAT had sounded, it was true. He had just experienced it. From the looks of it, he was nowhere near his house right now._

_A sound of footsteps suddenly could be heard – they were steady, unrushed, as if the one who was walking had all the time in the world. _

_He turned around; the footsteps seemed to be coming from his back. He saw, within the darkness – as his eyes had begun to adjust to the lack of light – that there was actually an arched entrance amongst the walls. The footsteps sound had stopped, and he saw a figure standing right by the arched entrance._

"_Welcome, Emmanuel," the newcomer greeted with a deep, majestic, yet somewhat dark, voice. "I have been expecting you. There is no need to speak, we have an emergency. Behold…"_

_Manny's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the physical appearances of the one who had greeted him – it looked and sounded like a masculine humanoid. Yet, it didn't look completely human; after all, what human had bird-like wings jutting out from his back? The stranger was lightly armored, and wore a helmet that bore the shape of a bird's head, complete with a beak. It was hard to see the newcomer's profile in detail due to the lack of light, but what attracted Manny's attention the most was the fact that the stranger's eyes were glowing unnaturally red._

_All in all, it was a strange and frightful sight to behold. Manny couldn't find his voice to reply to the avian warrior's greetings, and instead, followed the dark creature's gesture towards the floating orb. The orb blinked with a yellow light before, to Manny's surprise, showing a battle of…creatures? All his life, Manny had never seen such creatures. He witnessed three creatures…one of them a flying butterfly-female human hybrid, the other a blue-furred fox with nine tails, and the third – the largest of the three – was a centaur in red armor, as they ganged up against a wildcat-like creature with flames erupting all over its body._

"_Lately, the Digital World has fallen prey to a trio of hoodlums who terrorize innocent Digimon at their leisure," the avian warrior spoke quietly, with a sad tone. Manny turned to face him, bewildered of the warrior's glinting eyes, which began to adopt a green hue. There was something mesmerizing about the green eyes, yet Manny couldn't put it in place. The warrior merely let out a sigh and kept his eyes on Manny for a moment, before gesturing the boy to resume his attention to the floating orb._

"_They appeared one day, and are partnered with three troublemaking Digimon to spread chaos all around the formerly-peaceful Digital World. I have tried to stop them, and have rallied some brave Digimon to fight them with me…but these thugs are exceptionally strong…"_

_Manny watched as the battle scene shifted into a battle between two feminine-looking creatures…Digimon? That was what the avian warrior had referred these creatures as. Manny recognized one of them as being the fairy-like Digimon from the previous battle, and the other was a lanky female woman with hawk-like wings jutting from her back. They were exchanging flurries of kick, slap and punch…if it weren't for the severity of the battle Manny would have laughed at the catfight he was witnessing. He saw a boyish wizard-like Digimon sprawled on the ground, and presumed that the wizard Digimon was beaten earlier by the 'hoodlums' the avian warrior had mentioned about._

"_Day by day, these hooligans have grown stronger and stronger…there are no longer any Digimon that could stand their way. It has come to my attention that in order to beat these humans, I will have to call on for helps from those humans' home world…I will need to rally humans to fight these humans. Will you help me?"_

_Manny was unsure of what to make of from the offer he was presented with. _

"_Emmanuel, our world's fate lies in your hand. I have sent out calls for help…you are one out of two who have responded. We do not have much time left…"_

_Manny knew that he wanted to help. "I can help you…but I don't know how," he said slowly. "I don't even know you."_

"_My name is Karatenmon, and I am also a Digimon," the avian warrior introduced himself, and gave Manny a bow with his helmeted head. He then raised his head and gave Manny a serious look with his eyes, which glowed with intense neon light. "Emmanuel, we do not have much time. You have responded to my plea of help; I sincerely wish that you are able to stand by my side to eradicate the Digital World from these destructive humans. I trust as a human you know better of how to fight them than I do. They are still young, around your own age, so I believe you will know their strategies. I have no knowledge on how to deal with humans, much more the evil ones such as these three."_

_Manny gulped; this hadn't been what he had been expecting when he followed his family shifting from his hometown Kota Kinabalu of Sabah to the township of Subang Jaya, Selangor. But Karatenmon seemed sincere in wanting his help, and he would be doing a good deed. Manny had never thought himself a heroic type – he'd avoid a fight if he could – but from what he had seen, his help was greatly needed by the Digimon. _

_From what he could see in the orb, these threats Karatenmon had mentioned were teenagers: two girls and one boy. Manny couldn't see their faces, as they were a great distance away from the focused battle between the Digimon; it was impossible to identify the faces. The teens were seen making gestures with their hands, and their Digimon partners fully abiding by their partners. _

_Something inside Manny snapped; he hated violence. He knew what he had to do._

"_I'll do what I can, Karatenmon. I'm not sure about this…but you can count on me."_

_For the first time, Manny saw Karatenmon grinning, and for a brief moment he could've sworn he had sensed something…rotten…about the whole deal. It didn't feel right. But before he realized what was about to happen, his vision was fully obscured by a blinding neon light, which flashed out from Karatenmon's eyes. _

_Then, everything became black._

Manny's eyes snapped open; both sides of his temples were throbbing again. He pressed them gently with his hand, silently hoping for the pain to go away. When the throbbing pain didn't go, Manny groaned and sat up from his lying position, leaning against the pillows that covered the metallic bars of his bed. He looked down on his crumpled white shirt and brown slacks – he had forgotten to change the clothes he'd worn to go to the church – and realized that he'd been having that headache ever since Friday night. Those episodes of pain however had diminished as instant as it had appeared, but after Saturday the pain arose more often.

Throughout the morning, while at church, he had experienced an intense headache. His parents and sister had wondered what could be wrong, but Manny himself didn't have the answer, although he had a suspicion of the _source_ of the pain. He however had assured his family that there was nothing to be worried about – he had merely said that perhaps it was due to the fact that he'd been staying up late to finish up his homework (which was partially true). His family had the intention to go to Midvalley Megamall after church, and had nearly cancelled if it weren't for Manny to convince his parents to go along with their original plan without him – they had promised Debbie that they would take her there. From the shopping mall, Manny had taken the KTM Commuter train service to go back to Subang Jaya, and had then taken the public cab to go home. As soon as he'd reached his house, he went straight to his room to sleep off the pain.

Now, almost three hours later, he had awoken and saw that it was already entering late afternoon. Looking at his cell phone, Manny saw that he had received an SMS from his parents – they'd be coming home late as Debbie had managed to convince (force) them to take her watch a movie at the cinema.

The throbbing suddenly subsided and a brief flicker of green appeared in his eyes before disappearing. Manny's eyes narrowed slightly, giving him a rather ominous look. His somewhat-arched-shaped, thick eyebrows only added to the feature – they made his gaze piercing.

"Better change my clothes…" Manny muttered and went to change into a loose sleeveless blue jersey and a pair of dark blue track-bottoms as he'd go jogging this day. "But first…"

He opened the drawer to his bedside table and took out his black, blue-rimmed D-3 Digivice. Smiling slightly, he pressed one of the red buttons there, and saw two dots flickering on the screen. One dot was blue, signifying his Digivice, and the other was pink.

"Gayathri," Manny whispered. "Wonder what she's doing right now?" Then, he smirked. "Chances are, she might be going to the park nearby to jog or rollerblade…seems like she's obsessed in losing some weight after the stinging remark from one particular ShadoWira…"

xxx

xxx

At that same precise moment, Gayathri was gazing at her own white, pink-rimmed D-3. She had been doing so for the past three hours, while idly watching the television. In front of her was a plate of unfinished chicken sandwiches that Mak Mirah had made for her. Every now and then, the cook-cum-caretaker would pass by the living room and every time she did so she'd shoot a disdainful look over the unfinished meal.

Still, Gayathri didn't have the appetite. Her heart sank when she saw the blue dot and the pink dot practically located next to each other. It only confirmed her earlier suspicion. She had seen the blue dot coming from the direction that pointed to Kuala Lumpur, gradually reaching Subang Jaya before settling at somewhere near Gayathri. To her knowledge, the Abah family had gone for their Sunday church at one church at Kuala Lumpur – her father had been the one who'd pointed that out as a colleague of his went to the same church.

"Manny…" she said softly, playing with her damp curly hair with one hand while holding the Digivice with the other. She had taken another shower after returning from the Digital World – she was so tired, but was not keen on taking an afternoon nap. Tanemon was in her bedroom asleep, recharging after a tiring battle with IceDevimon earlier.

Her vision suddenly blurred for a brief few seconds, before everything became normal. Gayathri blinked, baffled of what had just happened. Her stomach rumbled softly, and suddenly the sandwich looked very inviting. Gayathri snorted and pushed herself up from the soft sofa. It was a couple of hours before dinner, and Gayathri planned to go for a few rounds of rollerblading at the park nearby her house. However, rollerblading was the last thing she wanted to do – her body was feeling oddly weak, and it was _that_ time of the month – but she willed herself to go at least by the door. The last thing she _actually _wanted were unburned calories.

With that in mind, Gayathri collected her rollerblading gears from the shoe closet at the driveway, but decided to forego the helmet today. It was somewhat warm outside and her hair was still wet. Besides, she'd be only around the park. She had been rollerblading for quite some time; this would be the only day she wouldn't be wearing her helmet. Nothing could go wrong.

She took the longer stroll to reach the park, and stepped on the paved walkway after reaching there. Not many people were around – she could see some smaller children playing by the sea-saw, the slide and the swings, supervised by their maids. A couple of teenaged girls she didn't know were playing badminton at the court. And somewhere at the wooden bench under a tree, there sat a very familiar figure in blue jersey shirt and black track-bottoms.

"Should I go there?" Gayathri wondered aloud, halting several meters away from the russet-eyed boy who seemed unaware of her being there. He was hunched down, panting slightly. On his left hand was a bottle of water. She took out her Digivice from her pocket, and saw that the blue dot was still somewhere near her house instead of where she was at now. But, it could only mean that if Manny was the Blue ShadoWira, he had simply left his Digivice at his home. "I have to be sure," Gayathri said. "Here goes nothing…"

It was at that precise time; Manny straightened up and saw her standing at the walkway. He smiled upon noticing her, and waved, but didn't make any indication to stand up. Gayathri, somewhat entranced with Manny's smile, waved back weakly and trod her rollerblade-wearing feet against the uneven surfaces of the grassy fields to go by Manny. She kept her Digivice back inside the pocket of her zip-up pink sweatshirt, and plastered a smile on her face.

"Hey, Manny," she greeted when she was by the bench where the boy was sitting down.

"Hi, Gayathri. I didn't expect to meet you here," Manny said, and scooted slightly towards his left, making room for Gayathri to sit down.

Gayathri however, until she was sure that Manny was _not_ her enemy, smiled weakly and remained standing. Her vision blurred again slightly and she nearly lost her balance, but managed to steady herself by widening her feet apart.

"You don't look too well. You should sit down." Manny commented.

Gayathri pressed her left temple and shook her head. "Manny, I need to ask you something. It might sound weird to you…but promise me you'll answer it truthfully?"

Manny looked baffled at the question, but there was a strange twinkle in his russet eyes that seemed to betray his puzzled look.

"What's the question, Gayathri?"

Gayathri wondered how she was going to ask Manny about him being the Blue ShadoWira. She could just inquire about it, but if it was true, then Manny would be able to notice that she was unsure, and could just flat out deny it. Or, she could choose the bolder option and flat out accuse him of being a ShadoWira, pretending that she had known about it already. Then, she could see the boy's reaction and determine from there whether Manny was being truthful or not.

"I know…" Gayathri began, but her vision blurred again. She pressed on her right temple and took a deep breath. Her vision cleared.

Manny cocked his head sideways. "Know what?"

"I know you're the Blue ShadoWira." She fixed a steely gaze into Manny's reddish-brown irises, waiting for his response.

The spiky-haired boy's response was astonishing. The pleasantness on his face was instantly wiped away, replaced by a hardened look that sent a chill down Gayathri's spine. His mouth was fixed in a cold sneer, which was followed by a greenish glint elicited by his eyes. His eyebrows were knotted together into a frown.

The gentle-mannered Manny suddenly was replaced by an ominous-looking stranger. Gayathri recoiled upon seeing the changes, as Manny stood up and sneered at her.

"Well done, Pink DigiWira," he said softly, yet with a menacing undertone. He didn't look surprised at all at Gayathri's revelation. His tone now had same the emotionless sound Gayathri had heard whenever the Blue ShadoWira spoke during their past encounters.

"It _is_ you…" she gasped, both her quivering hands covering her mouth. A dull ache was felt on her forehead, but she ignored it.

"It's me alright," Manny confirmed. "And you should know…that you and your friends are soon to be destroyed."

"I thought…I thought that you're our friend?" Gayathri said as her brown eyes began to tear up.

"You've thought wrong," Manny said coldly. His eyes were now glowing with green light. It was the same green light that Gayathri had seen several times before, obscuring the eyes of the Red and the Blue ShadoWira.

Suddenly, trusting her instinct, Gayathri grabbed hold on Manny's right arm with both her hands. "Manny, let us help you. You're under Karatenmon's spell. We can break it," she pleaded.

For a moment, the DigiWira could see that the green glow inside Manny's irises flickering away, but the ShadoWira shook his head and whisk off his arm away from Gayathri's hold roughly. It caused the girl to stumble onto the grassy ground with a yelp. Manny didn't look as if he cared.

"You have been warned," was all he said to Gayathri, with his index finger pointed warningly towards the girl. He then turned away from the girl and stalked off.

Heartbroken, Gayathri watched Manny's retreating figure, tears cascading down her cheeks. She ignored the dull aching pain coming from her head, as her heart shattered to a thousand pieces by Manny's betrayal, her vision blurred, this time due to the tears that ready to be spilt out from her eyes. She had fallen for the enemy.

Wiping her tears with the sleeves of her sweatshirt, she stood back up, noticing several younger kids watching her curiously. She gave them a weak smile before sliding away towards the main road. Her left hand slowly massaged her aching temples and forehead. She wanted to just go home, and inform Adam and Liu Ying about her discovery. Flashes of images came by her mind, of the times she had spent together with Manny. The boy had looked as if he was genuinely interested with her, from the way he was looking at her.

'_For all I know, it could just be that spell which is making him feel that way to me…' _Gayathri sobbed silently as she crossed the road.

Too distraught and her mind preoccupied, she didn't hear the screams coming from the little children she had encountered earlier, nor the urgent honks of an approaching vehicle.

xxx

xxx

As Manny walked away, his head throbbed again. This time around, the pain was unlike the ones he had experienced before.

"_It's very nice to meet you, Manny…"_

It was what Gayathri had said to him when she met him and his family for the first time – during the day when they moved into their new house.

He then saw himself walking around the school compound, with Gayathri beside him. She was giving him a brief tour of the school, as well as introducing him to some of her own friends. Throughout the tour, Manny had found himself torn between paying attention to what she was saying, and paying attention to just _her_.

The next thing he saw in his mind was his friendly conversation with Liu Ying about their favorite martial arts. He had noticed Gayathri scowling slightly, and that had amused him. Liu Ying ended up being his classmate for the year.

The conversation he had with Adam soon followed. While Liu Ying and him had a common interest in martial arts, Adam and him also had the same interest – computers. It had felt so good to be able to make friends who had the same interests as he at just his second day on a new place.

It had been even better – he realized now – because he had found someone who had caught his attention too, and that happened right on his first day at Peninsular Malaysia. Nobody had caught his attention back at his homeland. There were one or two mild crushes he had harbored to some girls before, but it was different with Gayathri. It _felt_ different.

All the while, his eyes shifted colors from green to russet, to green again, before changing back to their original russet.

Their date to Kenny Rogers was an enjoyable one, despite being 'chaperoned' by his mom and sister. Manny had to admit; at first his intention was to draw Gayathri away from her teammates during a battle, but that intention soon became only a second priority.

Their little 'accident', where Gayathri had collided into him during her usual rollerblading routine, visited his mind. He had seen Gayathri coming, but had purposely _not_ moving out of her way. The collision that resulted had been awkward, but it was also something that he wouldn't want to forget. As he bade her farewell that day, he realized that his attraction to her grew.

The following lunch date was at his house, and while his intentions remained the same…he had savored every moment of it.

The throbbing of his head gradually vanished, and so was the eerie glow in his eyes.

At the same time, an overwhelming feeling of regret suddenly invaded his heart.

Screams of children suddenly snapped him out of his reverie. He turned around, feeling his head – for the first time in weeks – becoming very clear. What he saw however nearly caused his heart to stop beating. Color drained from his face as his eyes were fixed onto the road, where at the same time a loud screeching sound of a halting vehicle pierced his eardrums.

"GAYATHRI!!!"

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**Author's Notes:**

First and foremost, thanks to _sugarhighnutjob_ for beta-reading this chapter, and hopefully the subsequent chapters to come. :D

Secondly…uh…nothing, really. Enjoy the chapter!

GLOSSARY:

Amma, Appa – Mother and father respectively, in Indian language.

Midvalley Megamall – Cited as the largest shopping mall in Malaysia.

Roti canai, roti telur – A dish that can be found at Malaysia, Singapore and India. In India it's known as _Roti Prata_. More information about roti canai at en. /wiki/ Roti(underscore)canai Just remove the spaces and replace the word (underscore) with the appropriate symbol.


	18. ShadoWira Unveiled Part III: Betrayal

The automatic door of Subang Jaya Medical Hospital spun open automatically as one man, dressed in white shirt and black pants, walked in the emergency department briskly. He was cradling an unconscious girl on his arms. Following closely behind the medical assistant was a nervous-looking teen with spiky dark hair in blue sleeveless jersey and black track bottoms.

A man donning the doctor's white coat over a light blue shirt, dark scarlet tie and black pants approached the medical assistant and the teen. He was followed by a woman in light green nurse uniform. The doctor immediately took out his stethoscope, which he had slung on his shoulders with one hand, while the other was used to assist the nurse pushing the movable hospital bed towards the medical assistant.

"Alright, what've we got?" he asked briskly, his eyes fixed at the medical assistant.

The medical assistant turned towards the movable hospital bed and placed the unconscious girl gently on it. Then, he looked up towards the doctor. "Name's Gayathri Nadarajah, age thirteen. This is her friend, he saw it happened."

Manny gulped, feeling the gazes of the doctor and the nurse beside him. He lowered his eyes and watched Gayathri's unconscious figure. "She was rollerblading…and she was crossing the road when a car came by. She managed to avoid the car barely, but lost her footings and was thrown onto the edge of the road. She hit her head really hard…"

"She's bleeding slightly," the medical assistant quipped as he looked at some traces of blood which smeared his right hand and the sleeves of his shirt. "I better go change…"

"How bad is it?" the nurse asked, as the doctor examined Gayathri's head. The medical assistant was right; the back part of Gayathri's head was bleeding.

"It doesn't look too serious," the doctor said as he helped pushing the bed towards an unoccupied corner at the emergency department. "But I won't be too sure unless I get a radiologist to run a scan of her head. She's still unconscious. Can you get her changed and clean up the wound first, Amy? Then we can take her vital signs and the works."

"Of course, Dr. Abu," the nurse replied, and drew the curtains to shield Gayathri's bed from being seen. The doctor and the medical assistant both walked out from the curtained area as the nurse began to clean up the wound. Her eyes, which looked warm and caring, fell onto Manny's anxious irises. She smiled. "You should step out too, young man. I'm going to change her clothes."

Manny nodded weakly. "Is she going to be ok?" he asked with a quivering tone.

"It's a good thing you managed to get her here as soon as possible. After we get all of the diagnostic tests we'll be sure to inform you, alright?" Nurse Amy assured. "Why don't you wait outside at the waiting area?"

Manny nodded obligingly and stepped out, as the nurse drew close the curtains all around Gayathri's bed. He stood glumly and his eyes saw the doctor who Nurse Amy referred as Dr. Abu over the counter, looking over some files. He approached the doctor, who seemed to be the only doctor on duty at the moment. The emergency department – white, sterile and somewhat empty – had few people bustling about, most of them were nurses. There was another female doctor looking over a child who seemed to have an attack of asthma, and a medical assistant and a nurse helping a young boy who seemed to have fractured his right leg. Not knowing what to do, he approached Dr. Abu.

"Excuse me, but can you tell me something about my friend?" he asked, in a pleading tone.

Dr. Abu looked up from the files and saw a nervous burly teen standing in front of him. He gave the teen a reassuring smile. "She's a very lucky girl as you've gotten her here just in time. We can't be sure until we get the test results, which we will begin to obtain as soon as Nurse Amy finishes changing your friend's clothes and clean up the wound on her head. Now, I understand that you are worried, but I need to ask you a few details about the accident. Will you be able to help me?"

"I'll do whatever I can, doctor," Manny said with determination. His face fell slightly as he added, in a very soft voice, "Actually it was all my fault…"

The doctor – a man who looked to be around his late twenties – caught Manny's guilt-ridden tone. "How so?"

"We…sorta got into an argument before the accident," Manny said, and clammed up soon after. He didn't want to divulge more than he should.

"It doesn't sound like it's your fault," Dr. Abu commented. "Now, did the car hit her?"

Manny shook his head. "She managed to avoid the car. She went to the sides of the road, but lost her footings and hit her head on stones lining the small drains…she wasn't wearing her helmet…the one who was driving the car was kind enough to send us to the hospital. He's outside looking for a place to park his car."

Dr. Abu nodded and jotted down Manny's explanation on a piece of paper. He then saw Nurse Amy stepping out from the curtains. His attention was then turned to Manny once again.

"What's your name?"

"Emmanuel Abah…Manny."

"Alright, Manny. I am Dr. Abu Ubaidah. Manny, I need another favor from you. Can you contact your friend's parents? Do they know about this?"

Manny shook his head. "Her parents are abroad right now, but I can contact her house. The house's caretaker and her son stay with Gayathri at that house."

"Very well. I need you to inform them while I check on your friend's condition, ok? While you're at it you might as well inform your family about you being here as well. As soon as I get the test results I'll inform you. You can sit at the family's waiting area over there; there's a phone that you can use," Dr. Abu said as he gestured towards an area with blue-cushioned chairs and a cabinet with a television. There were several people there as well, presumably waiting for their family members receiving treatments from the hospital's medical personnel.

Manny nodded weakly as the doctor walked over to Gayathri's bed. The emergency department was slightly chilly for him but he ignored the cold. He dragged himself towards the waiting area and took out his cell phone, and began to dial Gayathri's house number.

xxx

xxx

Karatenmon opened his eyes from his meditation. Something felt off, he could sense it. His yellow eyes glinted in slight anger as he realized what was wrong.

Looking around the dark interiors of the Cave of Solitude, he could hear several footsteps approaching the main chamber. Waiting silently, the dark avian warrior observed as Shutumon and Sorcerymon stepped inside the main chamber. From the solemn light generated from the floating orb, he could see that both of them looked absolutely very pale. Well, Shutumon looked pale; Sorcerymon looked much paler than usual.

"That rotten brat!" Shutumon seethed; her voice sounded as if she was shivering greatly.

"Who were you referring to, Shutumon?" Karatenmon inquired with mild amusement.

"I believe she was talking about me!" a cocky male voice announced from out of nowhere. Shutumon and Sorcerymon looked around, but Karatenmon didn't move an inch.

The air in the middle of the dark cavern rippled and three figures stepped out. It was JD, Agumon and IceDevimon. The champion ice Digimon spread his wings wide, and all of a sudden the temperature inside the cavern dropped several degrees. The chilling air didn't faze Karatenmon, JD and Agumon, but rattled Shutumon and Sorcerymon ever so slightly.

Sorcerymon recoiled upon seeing the icy demon, while Shutumon's aquamarine eyes widened in rage as they landed on the demon.

"YOU!" she shrieked, and pointed an accusing finger towards IceDevimon. "You'll pay for that stunt!"

JD smirked upon seeing the bird-woman. "Took you guys long enough to escape," he said, drawing Shutumon's attention towards him. "Almost one whole day…I've to say that I'm surprised. Surely experienced Digimon such as you two could easily escape IceDevimon's icy prison in no time?"

"Brat," Shutumon merely huffed.

"Birdbrain," JD retorted with a smirk.

"ENOUGH!" Karatenmon bellowed. "There will be no argument between all of you. We have a pressing matter in our hands. It concerns Emmanuel."

"Oh?" JD said inquiringly, and crossed his arms against his chest. His hazel eyes glinted with interest. "What about him?"

"He has _strayed_," Karatenmon stated coldly. "He has switched sides. He has betrayed us."

JD looked slightly perplexed. "How?" he demanded.

Karatenmon was silent; he was trying to sense the link he had bestowed between the ShadoWira and himself. The link he had with JD was still strong, but these past couple of days he had detected some weakness in his link with Manny – ever since they battled Lilymon. But that was not the only reason; Karatenmon believed that the attraction Manny had towards the girl with the Pink DigiSphere also played a strong role.

Whatever the reason was, his plan was foiled now. If Manny had switched sides, the DigiWira team would have an absolute advantage over his forces of evil.

"Never mind how; all that matters now that Emmanuel needs to be taught a lesson for his disloyalty," Karatenmon replied. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously towards JD.

"What's with the look? You think I'd stray too?" JD demanded hotly.

"Would you?" Karatenmon asked back with a small smile. He could sense that his power over the Red ShadoWira was still strong, but there was no harm in making sure. He waved his hand towards JD and Agumon, and a dark aura shot out from it towards JD. The aura entered JD and Agumon's eyes. "Would you stray?" Karatenmon reiterated as he propped his chin with one finger.

"Not in a million years," JD said darkly.

"Good. I have several tasks for you. I want them done _before_ the digital solar eclipse comes," Karatenmon ordered.

JD smirked. "What would they be?"

"Emmanuel might have strayed…but his Digimon partner is still here in the Cave of Solitude. I am sure that with Emmanuel betraying us, Penguinmon will soon follow. As we speak, he might be trying to walk out from us. I want you to prevent him in doing so."

"Agumon can handle it," JD said confidently, and pointed his D-3 towards the orange T-rex.

"_**Agumon digivolve to…. Flarelizamon!"**_

The blazing fire from Flarelizamon's body enlightened the whole cavern with bright orange light. The champion Digimon's head nearly reached the narrow ceiling of the cave. With a small grunt and a brief flash of crimson from his eyes, Flarelizamon walked out from the cave.

"What's your other order?" JD asked.

Karatenmon turned his head towards IceDevimon, and saw the icy demon frowning as Flarelizamon walked past him. "I see you have garnered an acquaintance. He could be useful in my next diabolical plan." The dark avian warrior smiled sinisterly. "This task should be easy for you. We shall take someone who is dear to the DigiWira, and use him as bait to demand Emmanuel's return to our side. Should Emmanuel refuse, both his partner and this particular someone shall perish in my hands!"

"I like the sounds of that," JD nodded. "What if Manny agrees to rejoin us? What then?"

"I do not take betrayal kindly," Karatenmon answered. "Even though he agrees to join us…_he_ shall perish as well!"

"That's brutal," JD commented. He shrugged, showing that he didn't care at all of what fate would befall his former teammate. "You mentioned of a 'someone' earlier. Who's this someone that you want us to retrieve?"

Karatenmon smirked. "It's…"

"What about us?" Sorcerymon suddenly interrupted. "We don't want to be pushed to the sidelines anymore."

"Yeah. In case you have forgotten, the master wants us to take part in this as much as you are," Shutumon added.

If Karatenmon was surprised of the duo's sudden boldness, it didn't show. Instead, he smiled menacingly towards the wizard Digimon and the avian woman Digimon. "Oh do not worry. Both of you shall have your moments to shine as well. That will happen very, very soon. Now, as I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted…"

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**- ShadoWira Unveiled, Part III –**_

**_Chapter 18 – Betrayal_**

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"I can't believe it!" Adam said excitedly to Liu Ying that Monday morning. It was ten minutes before the weekly assembly.

Liu Ying took note of Adam's white and black first aid uniform. "You're on first aid duty this week?" she guessed with a smile.

"Um…yeah! I just can't believe that I get to do this now," Adam said. "It's a big responsibility actually; I actually hoped that this week there will be nobody who needs first aid."

"I don't see why you should be so riled up. You still have several seniors to help you out, don't you?" Liu Ying asked.

"I do. There's Gary Wong from Form Five Alpha – he's the leader in this week's first aid duty group, and there's Shamini Palanisamy from Form Three Gamma – they're the more experienced ones and they have done this loads of time before. It's my first time on duty now. I'm excited and nervous as well."

"Which explains that first aid book you're carrying with you right now," Liu Ying said amused, as she pointed towards a thick red and white book in Adam's hand.

"Well, yeah, I need to be prepared!"

"Do you need to wear this uniform everyday?"

"Nope. Only on Monday and Friday. I can wear the normal school uniform on any other days."

"Good luck. I hope you'll do well. Now I know I'm in good hands should I need any first aid this week." Her expression then grew serious suddenly. "Adam, have you heard from Gayathri? I tried contacting her, but she didn't reply to her D-Terminal. I couldn't even reach her cell phone."

"No," Adam said. "I tried calling her home as well but nobody picked up. Nobody seems to be home all night – the last time I tried was at eleven o'clock."

"This is really weird," Liu Ying said. "And I didn't see her around her best friends too. I asked Dina and she's as in the dark as I am, if not more."

Adam's cheeks became slightly pink upon the mention of Dina's name. "Oh…" was all he managed to say. "Well, we can ask Manny. He's Gayathri's neighbor."

Liu Ying thought about it and nodded, but Adam noticed that the senior DigiWira seemed to hesitate slightly. "I suppose so…I can ask him in class. I also haven't seen him around today. Go in your class line now, the bell's about to ring anytime soon."

"What's your duty this week?" Adam inquired.

Liu Ying groaned. "Of all the duties I could get…it just have to be gate duty again!" she snorted.

"Oh…well, good luck to you too, then!" Adam chuckled and went towards the assembly ground after bidding his DigiWira teammate goodbye.

xxx

xxx

Manny had woken up late today. He'd been having nightmares all night and couldn't get a decent night sleep. All of his nightmares resolved around Gayathri and his time of evil. He also sensed something was terribly wrong at the Digital World – he'd been hearing voices in his mind – and hadn't he woke up late he would have gone to the Digital World for a moment to retrieve Penguinmon. His mother had been pounding his door since 6.30, but Manny had locked the door and only woke up when it was 7.00.

Seven in the morning was quite early, but the traffic jam in the township was worse than any other day due to an accident. When he reached the school grounds, the bell had just ringed and the main gate was closed. The small gate was opened, but one female prefect standing by it. The students had just finished singing the national, the state and the school's anthems, and were currently listening to the principal's speech.

"Great," he muttered, and dragged himself towards the school gate. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Liu Ying being the prefect on duty.

"Manny?" Liu Ying inquired when she saw her classmate. "You've never been late before."

Manny lowered his gaze and mumbled, "Traffic jam."

"Unfortunately, I can't help you with that. A couple of students have also stated that as the reason for them being late. You'll have to join them," Liu Ying said simply, and gestured towards a wooden bench near the gate.

Manny saw that there were already several students there, and inhaled sharply when he saw a familiar blonde teen being one of the tardy students. JD Kamaruzaman was fixing him a very piercing glare, which sent a chill down his spine. He quickly turned to face Liu Ying. "Um…Liu Ying, I really need to tell you something…"

"I need to ask you something too, but you will have to sit there for a while," Liu Ying insisted calmly. She then groaned. "There's another late student, I need to take her details," she told Manny. "You can tell me what you want to tell me in class, or later, ok?"

Manny nodded glumly and chose to sit at an artificial toadstool instead of the bench, and ignored JD. Somehow, he knew why the older teen was shooting him with threatening looks.

When he dared to steal a glance towards the mixed-heritage teen, and saw that the older teen was staring at Liu Ying at the moment, he could see that JD seemed somewhat roughed up. It was as if he had been in a scuffle prior to going to school. His hair was messier than usual, there were cut signs on his arms and his skin looked a little bit pale. Now that he thought about it, did JD look _that _menacing before entering Karatenmon's service? Manny shuddered; did _he _himself look menacing when he was still under the spell's effect? How come Gayathri, Liu Ying and Adam didn't notice that, when he could see clearly that JD didn't look…normal?

Manny quickly averted his eyes away when JD turned his head to look at him once again. As the ground suddenly looked a whole lot more interesting, Manny could feel JD's piercing gaze boring against his head.

He wanted to alert Liu Ying and Adam about Gayathri's condition, and wanted to come out to them of him being the Blue ShadoWira. He could see clearly now that he had been under a spell, and had broken that spell. He didn't know how exactly, but he knew that he had been with the wrong side the whole time. He was feeling deep remorse for his past actions, and the fact that Gayathri being in the hospital right now had further fueled the guilt. He wanted to help the DigiWira team now.

The question is; would he be able to do so in time?

xxx

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Adam's class was interrupted by a knock at the door. Everyone turned their attention there and saw a small-framed male prefect standing there.

"Yes?" Mrs. Rohana Jalil, the Geography teacher, asked irritably. The elderly teacher absolutely hated having her class interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but I was sent by Mr. Gurmit Singh to retrieve Adam Ariff to the infirmary. He's on first aid duty, and he's needed right now," the prefect told the teacher nervously.

Mrs. Rohana nodded. "Very well. Adam, you're excused. I want you to get your homework assignment from any of your classmates, am I clear?"

"Yes, teacher," Adam nodded as he stood up promptly. He quickly went to the door and looked at the male prefect inquiringly – recognizing him as a Form One student. "Hazli, what's wrong?"

"There's a fight. Actually it was Chang Liu Ying who sent me to get you," Hazli, the prefect, answered. "Mr. Singh was busy reprimanding the two students who were involved in the fight. Liu Ying told me that you're on duty this week and you might have the key to the infirmary."

"I do." Adam took out a key from his trousers pocket as they made their way towards the school infirmary. "There's a fight? Between who?"

"JD Kamaruzaman and a Form two boy," Hazli replied. "According to Liu Ying, JD was the one who initiated the fight."

Adam frowned; JD had become his friend over the past one week and Adam could only wonder what would get JD to be so mad for him to initiate a fight.

"Are the injuries severe?" Adam inquired.

Hazli thought about Adam's question for a moment. "The Form Two boy's injuries are a nosebleed and a bruised eye…but from the way it looks like, he had fought JD back. I've to say that I'm rather impressed…not many students can stand up against JD. JD has nosebleed too, but no bruises. Both of them need to change to new school shirts, which Mr. Singh says are available inside the infirmary – their own shirts are somewhat dirty…and bloodied." The younger student made a face to emphasize his disgust. z

Adam merely shook his head and Hazli bid his farewell as he said that he needed to go to his own class. The dark-haired DigiWira then increased his pace and practically ran down the stairs to four storeys below, where the infirmary was. When he reached the infirmary, he nearly did a double-take when he saw that the other boy who got into a fight with JD was the somewhat introverted Manny. Liu Ying was standing by the infirmary's locked door, watching the two boys guardedly, while Mr. Gurmit Singh was lecturing them off for fighting at school grounds.

"Joshua, this isn't the first time you've gotten yourself in trouble! You've been given letters of warning _twice_! This time around, the principal might not be so lenient with you! You might face suspension! Do you know what suspension would look like in your school record when you finished school?!" Mr. Singh was heard bellowing at the blonde teen, who didn't look like he cared. JD was holding a balled up tissue paper against his nose. His white shirt had some dark red spots on them, some stains and tar marks. His arms seemed to have several scrape marks – it looked like the brawl between him and Manny had taken place on the tarred ground.

"And you! You are a new student to this school, and you're making trouble already?!" the disciplinary teacher barked towards Manny, who flinched upon hearing the man's booming voice. Hazli had been right – Manny was the unluckier one of the two fighters. Apart from a soiled shirt and a bloody nose, Manny's right eye was bruised.

Before Mr. Gurmit Singh could reprimand Manny any longer, his beady eyes fell onto Adam. "Good, a St. John Ambulance cadet is here. Are you the one on duty this week?"

"I am," Adam said, and unlocked the infirmary's door.

"Alright. Do something about their nosebleeds and the bruises. And give them new school shirts, there's no way I would allow them to continue the rest of the school day with those dirtied shirts they were wearing. Record it in your journal – their parents will be sent a letter to claim the payments for those new shirts. I believe you can handle that, Adam?" Mr. Gurmit Singh said.

Adam nodded. The burly teacher then ushered both Manny and JD inside the infirmary and beckoned them to sit at the beds while Adam went to get the first aid kit at the counter. Liu Ying stepped in the infirmary and sat down at the bench beside the door.

"Good. And you'll report to me if these boys make any trouble with you," Mr. Gurmit Singh continued. "I need to go now, but I shall see you two boys at my office after Adam has finished treating the both of you. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," JD said with a smirk. Manny merely nodded.

"It had better be," Mr. Gurmit Singh boomed, and turned to face Liu Ying. "Make sure that those two boys don't cause any trouble," he told Liu Ying. "And escort them to my office as soon as Adam's done treating them."

"I will, sir."

With a loud huff, Mr. Gurmit Singh stalked away from the infirmary. There was a tensed silence inside the infirmary – the only thing that could be heard was Adam's distinct mumblings from the counter as he tried locating some spare school shirts, getting some icepacks and a healing ointment for the bruise. Manny and JD were shooting each other pointed looks, which baffled Liu Ying. Why would JD pick on Manny, or rather…why on earth would Manny fight JD?

"Umm…guys?" Adam asked, drawing the attentions of the other two male students to him. He gave them an icepack each. "Put those on your noses, that'll stop the bleeding quicker."

"Mine's stopped already," JD said with a smirk. He shot a look towards Manny, whose bleeding had not yet stopped.

"Oh. Ok," Adam nodded and held up a wet cloth. "Let's get your face cleaned up."

"Give me that. I can do that on my own." He snatched the wet cloth from Adam. He wiped the cloth against some dry blood on his face.

Adam frowned slightly as his gaze met JD's. "JD, why would you initiate a fight with Manny?" he asked.

The taller teen gave Adam a look that harbored a spiteful intention. His smirk no longer exuded the devil-may-care-ness that Adam had grown accustomed on seeing since the previous week. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough, Adam…" he murmured and chuckled lightly.

"Adam, Liu Ying…" Manny began. "There's something I…"

"Where's that new shirt?" JD interrupted and began unbuttoning his soiled shirt. "I want to get changed."

"…need to tell you," Manny continued. "Be careful; JD is…"

"I'm what, huh? WHAT?" JD demanded loudly, effectively silencing Manny. A challenging look was affixed on his face.

"Hey, you two, knock it off!!" Liu Ying said shrilly.

Adam turned around from the counter with a pristine white shirt and went over to JD to give him the new shirt, as he saw the blonde boy throwing his soiled shirt onto the floor. However, he was stopped short upon seeing a strange scar on JD's exposed right arm, which made his blood ran cold. His arms quivered as he recognized the mark immediately. It was a clean longitudinal mark along JD's toned triceps, which looked as if a sharp blade had been pierced through it. The mark was slightly reddish against JD's light-tan complexion, but looked fully healed. Something clicked in his mind all of a sudden, which elicited a soft gasp from him.

The gasp caught JD's attention, and he turned sideways towards Adam. A malevolent sneer was fixed on his face.

"JD, how did you get that scar on your right arm?" Adam asked nervously.

"What? This?" JD sneered as he flexed his right arm. A cold look was elicited from his hazel eyes. Adam's eyes widened upon seeing a green glow emanating from the blonde's eyes. "I suppose you should know about it, Adam…since YOU'RE the one who gave it to me!"

Liu Ying immediately stood up, and looked alarmed. "_You?_" she said shrilly. A look at Manny was all she needed to restrain herself from saying out that JD was the Red ShadoWira.

JD laughed loudly. "Yeah, I am! Surprised?"

Adam stood silently, transfixed of the sudden revelation.

"It's you?" he asked softly. "It's you all along…" he whispered disbelievingly.

JD approached the DigiWira leader and snatched the clean shirt roughly before putting it on. Adam merely stood in silence as he observed the older teen buttoning up the shirt all the way until the third button from the top, which exposed his dog-tags chain necklace.

"Why?" Adam demanded softly, trying to keep his voice out of Manny's earshot. "Why did you become my friend…when you're actually the Red ShadoWira? You tried to kill me three times at the Digital World. Why bother being my friend when you're actually an enemy?"

"Why? Well…it makes the whole revelation thing a whole lot sweeter," JD answered. He poked a finger on Adam's cheek and whispered sadistically as he loomed closer to the smaller boy, "You've hurt me with that teleportation stunt of yours back at Shadow Realm. To repay your favor, I've decided to hurt you back…emotionally. A betrayal is never sweeter than when it's done by someone close to you. It's all part of my plan when I got that birthday wish from you. It's a perfect opening I've got to approach you, and I've also done my homework. I know a lot about you than you'd expect _any _of your other friends to know. You can thank your best friend Hakim for that too."

"What does Hakim have to do with this?" Adam demanded, and swatted JD's hand away. Something dawned onto him. "Don't tell me…"

"That he's the Blue ShadoWira?" JD cut in, and cackled. "Oh, hell no! That friend of yours is merely a pawn. _My_ pawn! Oh, this is really sweet! You really have no idea of who the Blue ShadoWira is? Well, you can stop trying to avoid Manny from listening to our digital-related conversation…'cause he's your blue guy!"

Adam tensed instantly, while Liu Ying shot an enraged look at Manny. "YOU?!" she demanded shrilly towards Manny.

"I've been trying to tell you about this earlier…" Manny mumbled guiltily.

Liu Ying immediately marched towards her classmate and slapped Manny hard on his left cheek. The bloodied ball of tissue he was holding was instantly thrown away onto the floor as Manny clutched his face. A burning red mark was seen on where he was slapped. The spiked-hair teen's expression was a mixture of shocked…and sorrow.

"I'm sorry…" he could be heard whispering.

"Gayathri likes you!" she shouted. "And you're actually the Blue ShadoWira! How do you think that will make her feel? Does she even know about this?!"

Manny didn't respond. His russet eyes, locked into Liu Ying's blazing onyx irises, looked unsure.

"Oh, this is just like a drama," JD cackled, and turned his gaze back to Adam, whom he had cornered against the counter. "Don't you think so, _buddy_?"

To JD's surprise, Adam's face no longer looked surprised, or crushed. The blonde frowned; Adam's gray eyes now harbored a steely quality and his face void of all emotion. He'd been expecting Adam to be appallingly astounded of the revelation – the information he'd gotten from Hakim had led him to that expectation – but he'd never anticipated this kind of reaction coming from Adam. The younger boy's eyes no longer reflected the innocent-gray which JD had seen time and time again – those irises now resembled a thunderstorm gray.

Physically, Adam looked harmless. However, there was something that unnerved JD about the younger boy's eyes.

'_If looks could kill…' _the blond teen mused silently.

"Don't call me _buddy_," Adam said coolly; his voice had dropped an octave, and gained an edge into it. Seeing that JD had been a little distracted, Adam used the opportunity to push his way out of the mildly stunned JD. He was holding the other clean shirt and was walking towards Manny. He glanced to the back from his shoulders and met JD's somewhat astonished stare. "I was _never_ your buddy, it seems. It was all part of your plan," he said. There was no obvious anger or sadness in his low voice; it was as if he was merely stating a fact. But listen closely, and one could detect the hurt tone underneath the exterior uncaring one.

JD instantly recovered from his brief surprise. A familiar lopsided grin was elicited from his chiseled face as he shrugged. "Well, I better get going now. Don't bother escorting me, Liu Ying; I know my way to that old coot's office. I'll be seeing you in the Digital World soon. You might want to be prepared…I've some surprise in store for you!"

"What do you mean?" Liu Ying demanded.

"Let's just say that since we've lost something from our part…it's only fair that we get something from _your_ part to compensate our loss," JD said with a smirk. "Of course, Karatenmon's always up for a bargain. Here!" The tallest teen in the room then pocketed his trousers and produced out a folded yellowish parchment. He threw it towards Liu Ying – who caught it with precision – before walking out of the infirmary.

Liu Ying unfolded the parchment and read the cursive handwriting imprinted on it as Adam handed Manny the clean shirt.

"I was under Karatenmon's spell," Manny began as he changed into the new shirt. "I would never harm you guys intentionally, you have to trust me."

"Why should we?" Adam asked; his eyes still harbored the coldness which he had earlier exhibited to JD. Liu Ying even looked up from the parchment momentarily; she had never heard Adam speaking in such a manner, although she understood completely why her friend was acting that way. She would, too, if her friend betrayed her trust.

"Adam," Liu Ying said gently, drawing the DigiWira leader's attention. "I think Manny's speaking the truth. This parchment proves it all."

"What does it say?" Adam asked. The cold tone vanished instantly when it was directed towards the raven-haired girl.

Liu Ying's expression turned grim as she held up the yellow parchment – the imprinted cursive scripts in black ink were clear enough for both Adam and Manny to read. Despite that, Liu Ying decided to summarize out the parchment's content for the two boys anyway.

"It's from Karatenmon. Apparently JD has abducted TobuCatmon earlier this morning. It says that if we don't surrender Manny to them by the end of this day, Penguinmon and TobuCatmon will be destroyed."

Both Adam and Manny looked stunned. Adam shot Manny a suspicious look as the larger boy finished buttoning up his shirt.

"I swear, I don't know anything about this," Manny insisted, holding both of his hands up. Without waiting for Adam's or Liu Ying's reply, he continued urgently, "And there's something else you should know…it's about Gayathri."

Both Liu Ying and Adam tensed; they had been wondering about their teammate. She was absent from school today. There were no news from her at all since the previous evening.

"What about Gayathri?" Liu Ying asked bracingly.

Manny gulped. "Yesterday, Gayathri had an accident. She's been hospitalized…"

xxx

xxx

"The plan is set," Karatenmon whispered. "And the cat is in the bag…literally."

The dark avian warrior glanced towards IceDevimon, who was holding a bag with something moving kept within it.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

The shout, despite muffled, was still loud and clear enough to be heard.

"TobuCatmon, mentor of the DigiWira…" Karatenmon said, knowing that the one inside the bag could hear him. "I did not expect that Joshua manage to capture you at all. Apparently, I have underestimated him. My enhanced spell fueled the boy with such dark dynamism that he becomes so easily twisted around my fingers. I can get him to do _anything_ for me now."

"YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS, KARATENMON! The Blue ShadoWira has returned to the side of light, it will be only a matter of time when the Red ShadoWira realize that he too has been hoodwinked by your dark powers! I'm eagerly waiting for that time to come!" TobuCatmon shouted defiantly.

"Oh, TobuCatmon, you can wait for the next one thousand years for all I care…but that time will never come," Karatenmon said wickedly.

"It doesn't matter if I fall. If the Red ShadoWira joins the DigiWira, they will be an unbreakable team and you will lose the battle forever!"

"Unfortunately, TobuCatmon… the spell I have placed in Joshua is a lot stronger than the one placed in Emmanuel. The one on Emmanuel was rather weak in comparison; this time around you can have that Lilymon shower him and his partner with thousands of her Flower Wreaths and it will not affect Joshua at all. I have taken extra measures to ensure that the spell will remain unbreakable for as long as I live."

TobuCatmon was silent.

"What's the matter? Another TobuCatmon got your tongue?" Karatenmon asked sarcastically. "Well, you see I am feeling rather generous today. Perhaps I shall tell you about what I have in store for you? Yes, yes, I suppose I can tell you… as you will be destroyed come midnight, along with that treacherous Emmanuel Abah and his Digimon partner!"

"You're delusional! Emmanuel has joined the DigiWira's side!" TobuCatmon retorted.

"He has, but Penguinmon is still imprisoned here. The DigiWira have been given an ultimatum; if they do not surrender Emmanuel back to me, I will destroy you and Penguinmon."

"The DigiWira won't agree with your plan!"

"They might not…but bound by his sense of righteousness, Emmanuel _will _want to surrender himself in order to have you returned to the DigiWira. It is rather unfortunate though that should he do so, he will only join you and his partner. Nobody will be rescued today." Karatenmon cackled maniacally. "Then come tomorrow, I shall acquire my fullest power with the appearance of the digital solar eclipse, and I will aid Satriamon in destroying your precious DigiWira and claim their DigiSpheres! When Satriamon has done the deed…I shall destroy him myself and claim his Red DigiSphere as well. The master will be set free and the Digital World will once again bow in the name of SkullSatamon!"

"YOU'LL NEVER SUCCEED!!" TobuCatmon shouted defiantly.

"Why not? I already have the White DigiSphere in my hands. Joshua can be really surprising sometimes. I have no idea that he has stolen Adam's White DigiSphere. It was rather lucky that I have thought to scan his mind earlier to see whether he has any malicious intention to turn against me. One can never be too careful; Emmanuel has betrayed me, I would not want Joshua to do so as well…at least, not until he has done what I have intended for him to do! You know what? Perhaps I shall release him from the spell after he has disposed the traitor and the three DigiWira. That will overwhelm him with guilt so great that the only way to rid of it is by taking his own life!"

"YOU FIEND! YOU'LL NEVER SUCCEED, KARATENMON! EVIL NEVER WINS!"

Karatenmon chose not to reply. Instead, the Mage General's yellow eyes lingered over the corner of the cavern, where a column of dark purple light stood by. Inside the column of light there hovered a silver-pale blue D-Terminal and a sparkling white sphere: the White DigiSphere.

"I will succeed, and evil will win this battle!" Karatenmon declared. He shifted his eyes towards IceDevimon. "And if you are smart, you will know of who you need to answer to."

IceDevimon smirked. "I know who the bigger boss is when I see one."

"Good. I shall need you and Satriamon in my plan to recapture Emmanuel. Failing is not an option."

"I won't disappoint you, general Karatenmon."

"Excellent. Now, go to the lower dungeons and see to it that the White DigiSphere and that D-Terminal are kept secured. Take that felonious feline along with you and imprison him with Penguinmon. And then we shall wait for Joshua to finish school before executing our plan."

xxx

xxx

Later that day, after school, the DigiWira and Manny went to Subang Jaya Medical Hospital with Jackie to visit Gayathri.

Earlier, during recess time, Liu Ying had arranged a short meeting between Manny, herself, Adam and Jackie at the computer classroom. Manny explained briefly to the DigiWira and the mentor of how he'd gotten into the whole ShadoWira mess in the first place, and about Gayathri's accident in more detail. Jackie then, noting the visible tenseness between the DigiWira and the former villainous ShadoWira, advised them to set aside their differences for a moment as they had a much more pressing issue to address upon – TobuCatmon's capture. Nobody could come up with a solution by the time the bell rang.

Once arrived at the hospital, they learned from the doctor on duty that Gayathri had been transferred to the hospital's ward earlier that morning. They got the number of the ward and went to the floor where the ward was. Sat behind the counter typing something over the computer, they saw a young male doctor who had slicked back, short semi-curly black hair, with a pleasant clean-shaven face with the exception of a sparse amount of beard, which was neatly trimmed. Manny recognized the doctor instantly.

"That's the doctor who assessed Gayathri's condition yesterday," he informed, and led the DigiWira and Jackie towards the doctor, who was aware of their arrival.

"Manny," Dr. Abu Ubaidah greeted the teen, recognizing him from the previous day. He smiled as he stood up. "I have good news for you. Gayathri has woken up."

Manny's face lit up. "Will she be alright?"

"There's no permanent damage. She'll be back on her feet in no time. She'll be kept here until tomorrow for observation purposes, and then she can go home," Dr. Abu assured.

"Thank goodness!" Liu Ying said happily.

"That's great!" Adam enthused.

"Can we see her?" Jackie asked.

The doctor nodded. "Sure. Her driver and cook have just left earlier, and it's still visiting hours until five. She could use some company." He paused, but from the way he stood and the way he had left his mouth open ever-so-slightly, there was something more that he needed to address upon. The DigiWira, Manny and Jackie didn't ask anything, and the doctor took that as his cue to continue. "Actually, there's a rule for two people per visit for one patient, and there are four of you. However that rule is usually meant for patients with serious cases. Gayathri's condition however is very good, so I can allow all of you to go at once. But do take care not to make noises."

"We won't, don't worry. Thank you," Liu Ying promised with a smile. Inside her head, she thought, _'Maybe there are times that rules could be relaxed a bit…' _She looked away when she noticed her cheeks becoming slightly warm, only to met Adam's somewhat-knowing gaze. The boy let out a mild simper her way.

"I'll look out for them," Jackie assured the doctor. "I'm their teacher, by the way."

Dr. Abu nodded, and eyed Adam and Liu Ying's rather bulging schoolbags. "Alright then. I hope you're not smuggling any outside foods inside your bags. She just had her lunch."

"You mean these? Uh… these are her homework for the day!" Adam said quickly. "We thought that we'd keep her up to date with her missed subjects, so that she won't actually miss anything when she starts school."

"Very well. Gayathri's in Room 16. It's down that way," the doctor pointed towards a hallway. He watched the three teens go along with the teacher. "Kids sure have lots of homework these days…"

The DigiWira, Manny and Jackie came upon Room 16, and Liu Ying knocked on the door before coming inside the room. "Hi, Gayathri!"

"Liu Ying! Adam! Oh my gosh, you guys came!" Gayathri said in delight, practically jumping from her bed. She was dressed normally – in a pink shirt and a pair of loose-fitting purple sweatpants. Her head was bandaged. "Jackie! You're here too…and…oh…"

She became silent upon noticing a fourth figure entering the room. Her face paled, her doe eyes widened in shock, her mouth hung half-opened and she visibly tensed. Liu Ying immediately sat beside her teammate and gave the curly-haired DigiWira a reassuring smile.

"Hi, Gayathri," Manny greeted softly.

"Manny?" she said, somewhat confused. Memories of the previous afternoon's event came back to her. "Dr. Abu told me that you were the one who brought me here…"

Manny nodded. "Yes…I was," he admitted.

"I'd thank you…but I don't understand," Gayathri said, looking at Liu Ying, Adam and Jackie questioningly. No one looked threatened by Manny's presence, which caused her to wonder. _'Do they know about Manny being the Blue ShadoWira?'_

"Manny is on our side now," Liu Ying supplied, unaware that she had inadvertently answered Gayathri's silent question. "He has something that he wants to say to you."

Gayathri returned her gaze towards Manny, and nodded. The spiky-haired teenage boy took that as his cue to begin.

"Gayathri…I'm sorry for what I've said to you when I was…well, bad. I saw you getting tired so easily since Saturday and knew that you've taken my words to heart. And furthermore, I'm so sorry about my stunts to prevent you from helping out Adam and Liu Ying whenever there are battles at the Digital World," Manny apologized profusely, standing nervously at the center of the single room where Gayathri was staying. He looked down at the floor, seeing from the corners of his eyes as Adam let out Patamon and Shaomon from the DigiWira's schoolbags. "I didn't mean any of those…and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…" Manny became silent and looked at Gayathri hopefully.

Gayathri turned to face Liu Ying, who gave her an encouraging smile. She then turned to look at Adam, who mirrored Liu Ying's smile to her. Gayathri thought that there was something slightly odd from the way Adam's eyes shone – they didn't match his smiling face. There was something more that had happened, and Gayathri wanted to find out. Looking back at Manny, Gayathri felt that there was something more Manny wished to say to her – he looked rather fidgety, and kept casting nervous glances towards the other two DigiWira, the Digimon and Jackie. Tints of red were somewhat evident on his cheeks, and it looked like Manny was trying to suppress the urge to blush.

Nevertheless, after observing him silently for a couple of minutes, no more words were elicited from the reformed ShadoWira. Gayathri wished that he would just say out what was on his mind, but thought that given his shy nature he might be feeling uncomfortable with what he had to say. Perhaps this was something that he'd wanted to address to Gayathri alone.

Whatever it was, she planned to find out soon. Now, however, she was really glad that Manny had joined their side.

"You have no control of that spell placed on you," Gayathri said finally. "Trust me, I've been there. And of course I'll forgive you."

A look of absolute relief washed over Manny's face as he nodded, cracking a timid smile as he said earnestly, "Thank you."

Gayathri nodded, and turned her attention towards her fellow DigiWira. "So…what else did I miss in school today?" she asked, changing the topic quickly.

"Nothing much, really," Adam quickly answered before Liu Ying could open her mouth. His tone was kept exceptionally neutral. "Mrs. Rohana Jalil gave us two pages full of text to read by tomorrow. We started with trigonometry today in math and Mrs. Elena Kwan gave us, as usual, thirty questions for homework. And…oh, I nearly forgot – we found out that JD Kamaruzaman is the Red ShadoWira."

"Huh? JD? As in…your friend JD?" Gayathri asked, perplexed.

"_Ex-_friend," Adam corrected. A glint sparked from his eyes.

"Adam…JD and I were both placed under Karatenmon's spell," Manny said, noticing Adam's dark mood. "Please don't blame him.."

"How come you snapped out of it and he didn't?" Adam inquired.

Manny glanced briefly at Gayathri and Liu Ying before shifting his gaze back to Adam. "I guess I've had help remembering who my friends are." As he said that, his eyes turned to catch Gayathri's brown irises.

The three DigiWira – even Adam – beamed at Manny's statement. However, their smiles faltered upon noticing that Manny's expression remained serious. They looked at him intently.

"Is there something more that you'd like to share with us, Manny?" Jackie asked.

The tan-brown-skinned boy nodded. "I've thought about it throughout the whole school day, and I've made a decision," Manny began. He looked at the DigiWira one by one.

"About what?" Liu Ying asked.

"I've decided that you guys have no other choice," Manny continued. "You have to trade me for your friend TobuCatmon."

Both Adam and Liu Ying flinched, while Gayathri looked like she had no idea of what Manny had just said. Patamon fluttered down from Adam's head and landed by her side. He began filling the girl of the whole story, while at the same time keeping alert of the ensuing conversation between Manny and the other DigiWira.

"Manny…hello?" Liu Ying said, flailing her hands exasperatedly. "I thought you knew Karatenmon? He won't exactly throw you a welcome-home party."

"I realize that," Manny said. "But after everything I've done, I feel like it's my responsibility to set things right. I want you to trade me for your friend."

"We can't do that, Manny. Forget it," Adam quickly said.

"But I don't see any other way," Manny said desperately.

"It is a decision which is impossible to make," Shaomon quipped.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

The familiar new message alert was then heard. Gayathri groaned as Liu Ying took out her D-Terminal and read the message displayed on the device's screen.

_**Come with Manny to the Digital World if you want your precious mentor back! NOW! I'll wait for you at the Megalith Coliseum where we can resume our first battle. This time around I intend to be the winner. See ya! – Signed, JD a.k.a. the Red ShadoWira.**_

"He does sound cocky," Gayathri murmured. She stretched her legs to reach for her slippers. "Come on, let's get going."

"Not so fast, Gayathri; you stay right where you are," Liu Ying implored, kicking Gayathri's slippers towards the chair Adam was sitting on. Adam further pushed the slippers down the chair he was sitting on with his feet. Then, Liu Ying pushed Gayathri gently back onto the bed. "We got this. You need your rest."

"But…but…" Gayathri sputtered. "You'll need me! There'll only be two of you."

"I'll go with them," Manny decided promptly to assure Gayathri.

"Are you kidding?" Liu Ying asked, looking at her classmate pointedly. "That's exactly what JD and Karatenmon want you to do."

"Yeah, it'd be like walking into a dragon's den," Adam pointed out, and then winced of the unintended pun. Satriamon was a dragon-man Digimon.

"But you still need my help. I have my Blue DigiSphere so I still retain my water powers," Manny insisted. "Besides, Adam…you don't have your teleportation power."

Adam's face fell instantly as he was reminded of that hard fact. "Yeah, no thanks to JD," he muttered.

"Huh? JD has your White DigiSphere?" Manny looked visibly stunned; he didn't know that it was JD who had taken Adam's DigiSphere. However, he shrugged that thought off because there was a more urgent matter that needed his attention. "Anyway, I can help you guys fight Satriamon, or help convince him to join you guys. Either way, I'm going."

Adam and Liu Ying considered Manny's logical reasoning as they collected Patamon and Shaomon. There seemed to be no stopping Manny to go along with them – there was a look of determination radiating from his face. Besides, the former villain had his own Digivice; he could easily access the Digital World anytime he wanted, as long as there was a computer around.

"But, JD _wants_ you to come. You're going to head directly towards a trap," Liu Ying reasoned back.

Manny lowered his gaze towards the floor. "I'll…try not to get caught. Besides, my power can neutralize JD's fire. I've got nothing to be afraid of. But JD usually goes for you, Adam, so at least with me around I can make sure that you're not harmed."

Adam couldn't come out with anything to refute Manny's point, and begrudgingly nodded. Liu Ying seconded his motion.

"It's a long way back to the school or any of the houses," Patamon said.

"There's a computer over Dr. Abu's table," Manny suggested. "We can wait until he leaves his computer and open a DigiPort from there. It'll be faster than going back to school or home."

The DigiWira agreed with their new ally's suggestion and looked at Jackie.

"I'll stay here and watch over Gayathri," Jackie quickly assured the teens.

"You guys; be careful," Gayathri said empathically. She hated the fact that she couldn't be of help to her friends.

"Don't worry. We will," Liu Ying replied.

The DigiWira and the reformed ShadoWira then quietly exited Gayathri's bedroom with Patamon and Shaomon. They trudged along the empty hallway quietly and peered at the doctor-on-duty's table from the corner of the hallway's wall. To their relief, Dr. Abu Ubaidah was nowhere around the table. The computer however remained operable, but unoccupied. It looked like the doctor had taken a short break from his duty, which was what the DigiWira need at that moment.

"Come on, hurry," Adam said. The three teens went to the computer quickly and Adam took out his D-3. "DigiPort Open!"

Unbeknownst to the teens, at that precise moment _before_ they were sucked into the digital portal, Dr. Abu Ubaidah appeared from the other side of the hallway. The bright flash of light emitted by the DigiPort blinded his sight momentarily, forcing him to cover his eyes with his arms. When the lights died out, the young doctor didn't see anyone around the table – but he could've sworn that he had seen Manny and his two friends flocking around his computer earlier.

'_Am I seeing things?' _The doctor blinked his coffee-brown eyes several times. _'I'm overworked, that's what I am,'_ he thought silently, and shook his head. _'Better get some more coffee…'_

xxx

xxx

The DigiPort opened from the doctor's computer had taken the DigiWira and Manny to a spot merely a mile away from the Megalith Coliseum. They could even see the magnificent monument from the distance they were at; they just had to go down the hill and across the semi-bare paddock before reaching there.

Manny looked down at his black, blue-accented uniform. He no longer wore the hooded cape and mask. To his delight, the metallic bat insignia on his belt was no longer there. In its place was his D-3 Digivice; the belt now had similar designs to the DigiWira's uniforms. In fact, apart from the main black color, his uniform was exactly identical to Adam's uniform.

"Your uniform changes a bit," Adam noted quietly.

Manny nodded. "I guess…since I'm now with the right team." He tried smiling at Adam, noting his irritability after discovering that JD was the Red ShadoWira. To his relief, Adam returned the friendly gesture, albeit somewhat strained. _'It's a start…'_

"Come on," Liu Ying gestured, noticing the strain between the two boys and decided it was best to make haste.

To cover the remaining distance, they digivolved their partners into their champion forms. Liu Ying mounted on Youkomon while Adam and Manny rode on Centarumon's back. They arrived at the coliseum and saw that everything was quiet at the monument.

"Everyone stay alert," Centarumon cautioned. "We're going in."

"Wait," Youkomon stopped him. "I have a plan. We might be able to get back TobuCatmon _without_ surrendering Manny, but in order for this plan to work we need to make JD think that we _are going_ to surrender Manny."

Manny looked slightly baffled. "Hmm?"

"Trust her," Centarumon supplied, glancing over his shoulder to address the now-good ShadoWira. "She knows what she's doing."

Ten minutes later, Centarumon entered the doorway which led them towards the center arena, with Adam and Manny on board his palomino body. They saw JD and Flarelizamon standing there, both looking smug. JD had his arms crossed against their chest while Flarelizamon was carrying a brown sack with something unmoving inside it. Similar to Manny, JD too no longer bothered with his mask, which had formerly obscured his face. It didn't have any purpose anymore now that his identity was known to the DigiWira. However he still retained his cape and the metallic bat insignia was still pinned on his belt, signifying his allegiance to the dark side.

Manny quickly jumped down Centarumon. "I'm here."

"One powerless DigiWira and a washed-up ShadoWira?" JD asked with a sneer. "This has turned up to be a great day!"

"Afraid we're gonna have to spoil it," Adam retorted, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the older teen whom he had once considered his friend.

JD smirked confidently. "Oh but you won't, kiddo."

Adam glared at JD, annoyed of the nonchalant attitude exhibited by the Red ShadoWira and the fact that the older teen had just called him 'kiddo'. He frowned ever so slightly, but the frown vanished just as soon as it had appeared.

"Let's get this over with," Adam finally said.

The Red ShadoWira nodded. "Good idea, Adam. Now give us Manny."

"First, tell us where TobuCatmon is," Adam demanded. JD pointed towards the sack with his finger. "Put him down!"

"You're not exactly in the position to make orders around here, Adam. But, oh well… whatever makes you happy," JD replied with a shrug, and beckoned for Flarelizamon to drop the sack down. The champion Digimon obeyed his human partner.

"That had to hurt!" Flarelizamon declared gleefully.

"Now back away," Adam motioned, and saw something moving from the corner of his eyes. His heart thumped faster. _'God, I hope this works…'_

"Not until you give us what we came for!" JD shot back.

Adam looked at Manny, and the bigger boy nodded grimly in return. He stepped forward with a defeated look on his face.

"This is too easy," JD sneered and began approaching Manny.

"SACK!!" suddenly Adam bellowed and thrust his hand forward. Glitters of white orbs emanated from the sack containing TobuCatmon and it vanished, and reappeared in Adam's hand. Adam then pointed his hand towards Manny when JD was merely inches away from the said boy. He shouted, "MANNY!"

Manny too was enveloped with white orbs of light and was teleported away from JD as the blonde boy was about to grab him. He reappeared behind Adam, staggering slightly but managed to regain his balance. Adam too was disoriented slightly; he had no problem summoning the sack, but apparently he was not prepared enough to teleport another human. It had failed once when he attempted to teleport himself and his fellow DigiWira. Apparently while his power worked for a single-man teleportation it still drained him when it was done on another human other than him.

"You still have your powers?" JD asked Adam incredulously. "How?"

"Not for you to find out," Adam snapped.

The DigiWira smiled faintly and recalled Liu Ying's plan. Prior to entering the Megalith Coliseum, Liu Ying had decided to recharge Adam's power once again with her Yellow DigiSphere. The recharging process was rather slow without Gayathri, so Manny decided to try filling in for her. The Blue DigiSphere's power worked the same way as the Pink DigiSphere's, so Manny was able to use it to aid the recharging process.

Adam opened the sack. His face fell upon seeing the contents of the sack…which was actually a large, lumpy old pillow. "It's a trick!" he gasped. "TobuCatmon's not in here."

"Heh, heh….you really think that you're gonna outsmart me? Not a chance, kiddo!" JD barked, and cackled. He took out his red and black Digivice, and shouted, "Shadow…"

Yet before he was finished with the power call, his Digivice flew away from his grasp. Cursing, JD glanced sideways and saw Liu Ying standing at the corner of the coliseum. Her arm was thrust forward. She had used her telekinetic powers to push the Digivice away from JD, thus effectively preventing JD from initiating the Shadow Access power.

"Damn it." JD's face turned ugly as he thrust his hand towards Adam. A raging fireball materialized from his outstretched hand and was thrown towards the DigiWira.

"Duck!" Adam felt someone pushing his back down forcefully, bending his body to a ninety-degree posture. He saw Manny stepping by his side and launched a jet of high-pressured water from his hand. The water jet drowned the fireball away easily, thus saving Adam's life. Manny turned to face Adam. "Get to safety, Adam. I can handle JD."

"No way, I can help," Adam insisted. "I…" Before he could continue, a frightening chill suddenly was felt coming from the sky as a dark shadow loomed over them.

"LOOK OUT!!" Liu Ying's scream was heard.

"You mean, look up," JD sneered.

"Heads up, fools!!" a voice taunted.

Both Adam and Manny looked up at the same time and saw IceDevimon plummeting down towards them. His crimson eyes glinted maliciously as his long upper limbs closed in around Manny's body. Manny struggled to break free but IceDevimon's hold on him was secure and tight. The former villain gasped as IceDevimon lifted him off the ground; his legs flailed helplessly as he attempted his hardest to break free, as IceDevimon flew towards JD and Flarelizamon.

"Lose something, Adam?" JD mocked as he picked up his Digivice. IceDevimon landed behind JD with Manny in his hold. "Adios, you Digi-ninnies! We've got what we wanted. Heh, heh!!"

"You won't get away with this, JD!" Adam cried out, as the air behind the villains rippled. A portal was opening. "We'll get Manny and TobuCatmon back, somehow!"

"Ooh, really?" JD taunted. "All the best, then. Good luck trying." He waved his hand smugly and entered the portal, followed closely by IceDevimon, the struggling Manny, and finally Flarelizamon brought up the rear. The portal closed rapidly after that.

"Oh, no…" Adam said dejectedly as Liu Ying approached him. "I should've teleported Manny farther away."

"Don't blame yourself, Adam. There's no way we could see this happening," Liu Ying replied. "Our plan would've worked if TobuCatmon really is in that sack." She kicked away the sack in disgust. "We should've known that the bad guys won't play fair."

"What should we do now?" Adam asked. "Gayathri won't like this one bit."

"Neither of us does," Centarumon said, placing a reassuring hand on his partner's shoulder. "We should regroup and think of a plan. They now have TobuCatmon, Manny and his partner. Maybe they'll attempt to brainwash Manny once more, and if that happens we're going to have our hands full fighting Satriamon, Samudramon and IceDevimon. Not to mention, Karatenmon would probably want to make his appearance as well. He's been staying at the background for too long."

"But what about Manny?" Adam said, not ready to admit defeat. His eyes blazed. "He's...on our side now."

"There is nothing we can do right now," Youkomon pointed out. "If we charge towards Karatenmon's lair we will all end up getting caught, and that will benefit no one. Come on."

The DigiWira nodded weakly, and went back to the spot where they had arrived from their home world.


	19. ShadoWira Unveiled Part IV: Redemption

The thick metal door creaked opened loudly as JD shoved Manny inside the dark, cold chamber behind it. Despite the latter's large stature, JD was evidently stronger and a little taller, thus he had no problems in doing so. Add that to the fact that Manny didn't even attempt to resist at all, the shove seemed to be done nearly effortlessly.

"In you go, loser!"

"OOFF!"

Thrown off balance, Manny fell into a pile of straws which covered the chamber's floor face-on with a loud thud. He'd closed his eyes immediately by instinct, but could still feel the straws poking his eyelids. His right elbow felt slightly scratched against the uncovered surface of the floor, and Manny felt a sting coming from there. He then heard JD laughing mockingly at him as he turned his body around. From his back, Manny felt two pairs of small hands assisting him to a sitting position. Glancing by his shoulders quickly, he saw Penguinmon, and a smaller, unfamiliar lilac feline with sky blue eyes. The feline looked injured, a little – its right eye was bruised, and there was a gash on his back. Hearing the snicker from JD, Manny quickly turned back to look at the blonde teen.

"You shouldn't have betrayed Karatenmon," JD said, his eyes flashing crimson. They then turned to eerie green, before resuming the irises' original green-blue hue. The villainous teen smirked wildly as he revealed Manny's Digivice and D-Terminal. "Just so that you know, I'm taking these as well to add up Karatenmon's collection of DigiSpheres."

Manny's face fell; without his Digivice and Blue DigiSphere, he'd be powerless and unable to digivolve Penguinmon, or initiating the Shadow Access power to become Samudramon.

"Yeah, I took 'em so that you won't get the chance to escape," JD said with a smirk. He eyed Manny with a somewhat-bemused look crossing his handsome features, arms crossed against his chest. "You know, you're much better when you're evil; that cold demeanor that you've gotten suited you even more than the spineless act you're putting on right now. It's downright nauseating, I think I'm gonna lose my lunch!"

"JD, you've gotta snap out of this," Manny pleaded, speaking for the first time since his capture. "You're under a spell. I did too, but I broke it. You can do it too…"

"Bullshit!" JD retorted. "I've never felt better."

"It's all a trick! Come on, JD…you're stronger than this. The real you wouldn't want anyone messing up your mind now."

JD's face turned ugly. "Quit talking like you know me! The _real_ me would love to see what the general has in store for you."

"What…what do you mean?"

"Oh, you'll see. Or rather, maybe you won't. I don't know." JD shrugged, and turned away from the three prisoners. He walked out from the prison cell and closed the door. "Guard them." His voice was heard giving order to someone. A cold chill emanated into the cell from the barred window on the thickset door as another voice murmured out agreement.

"I was sent here to guard the other cell," the new voice added, in a tone that sounded like an argument. Manny instantly recognized the voice belonging to IceDevimon.

JD had muttered something else in reply, but it was done in a low tone that no prisoners managed to catch what was being said.

The spiky-haired teenager sighed, and looked at his fellow captives. He was glad to see that Penguinmon was unhurt; the stout avian rookie had a stoic expression plastered on his face. His eyes had a slight off-put look, which baffled Manny. Wasn't his Digimon partner glad to see him? Penguinmon returned Manny's stare but didn't utter a word at all. Sighing, Manny's russet eyes then fell onto the lilac feline, who looked somewhat battered. The left side eye was bruised, and there were scratches evident on his body. Nevertheless, the Digimon was beaming and Manny suspected that it was directed at him. He didn't recognize this Digimon, who was floating at his eye-level.

The cat Digimon smiled. "Emmanuel. I'm glad to have finally met you face to face, despite the circumstances we're in right now," he greeted eloquently.

"Uh…who are you?" Manny asked, bewildered that this Digimon knew his full name.

"I am TobuCatmon. I'm the mentor of the DigiWira."

"Oh…" Manny nodded, recognizing TobuCatmon's name immediately. He had heard the mentor's name from the ransom note JD had left to Adam and Liu Ying, and mentally berated himself for not making the obvious connection. "It's…nice to meet you too," he replied, and lowered his gaze. "You can call me Manny," he added with a mumble.

"And I'm Penguinmon, rookie Digimon, bird species, data type…all that jazz…" Penguinmon added as he rolled his eyes. His voice was slightly shrill as his eyes shone. "I don't know what's going on or who you two are; one moment I was training with Birdramon on how to fly and all then suddenly an Aquilamon came and attacked us without no good reason, then I tried to fight back, and the next thing I know there was that Flarelizamon who stood in front of me as I got my feathers burnt by his putrid breath!"

Manny looked at Penguinmon oddly. "You don't know me?"

"No," Penguinmon said flatly. "Should I?" he added, with an uncertainty. The blue-furred penguin was now frowning. "You look familiar, and something inside of me said that I should know you, but truth be told, I don't." Upon seeing Manny's face fell, Penguinmon snorted and held his head up high. "Look, all I know that you're human, and your name is Emmanuel, or Manny, or whatever..." Penguinmon made a motion with his head towards where TobuCatmon was at. "PussyCatmon here told me before you came along, that I'm supposed to be your partner Digimon and all, and that you're a DigiWira, blah, blah…I didn't really understand much."

TobuCatmon scowled. "It's TOBUCatmon!"

Manny sweatdropped; he didn't remember Penguinmon being this bold and talkative. But then again, Penguinmon had been under Karatenmon's spell too. As a result he didn't speak that much. And it did look like while Manny retained his memories after breaking the spell, Penguinmon didn't.

It struck him, now that he had seen Penguinmon's true personality, of how different the two of them were. Manny was somewhat introverted, while Penguinmon was his exact opposite. Of course, Manny had his few bold moments during his tenure as a villain, but now that he was brought back to the side of good, his temperament too reverted back to their old one.

"Well…I don't know how and why I'm being partnered with you...but I guess I'll go along with it," Penguinmon said gruffly, snapping Manny out of his reverie.

Manny shook his head; he'd deal with Penguinmon later. Right now, he had a more pressing issue to think about.

"Manny?"

TobuCatmon's gentle call brought the boy's attention to him. Manny looked at the champion feline Digimon questioningly.

"Manny, have you met the DigiWira?"

"I have." Manny then realized that TobuCatmon probably didn't know what had happened to Gayathri, and how exactly their situation was for the time being. He took a deep breath and began telling TobuCatmon and Penguinmon about everything that had taken place within the last twenty-four hours. TobuCatmon listened to the teen intently, his face paling upon hearing that Gayathri had been involved with an accident but relaxed when Manny told him that Gayathri was alright. The reformed ShadoWira then proceeded to tell him about how Adam and Liu Ying had found out the identities of both Red and Blue ShadoWira and the ultimatum they had received from JD.

"…and I decided to turn myself in so that you'll be freed. It's what I deserved after all I've put them through," Manny finished glumly. He sighed and leaned against the nearest wall, and shuddered as the coldness of the wall stones crept through the material of his uniform. "I never thought that JD would back out of their deal."

"No use crying over spilt milk," Penguinmon snorted. He looked around the cold, dark dungeon and shivered. "What's done is done. Right now, we've got to figure out how to get out of here."

"Penguinmon's right," TobuCatmon said. "If I know the DigiWira, and I do, they probably are planning to rescue you now as we speak. We cannot let them enter Black Peak Mountain; Karatenmon would only capture them and if that happens, all hope will be lost. _We_ are the ones who must break free from this dark place."

Manny shook his head sadly. "IceDevimon is guarding the door. If only I have my Digivice and Blue DigiSphere, Samudramon will have no problem defeating IceDevimon."

"Right now, all we have is me, a rookie, and you, a champion Digimon," Penguinmon supplied as he cocked his head towards TobuCatmon. "Think you can beat IceDevimon?"

TobuCatmon sighed and shook his head slowly. "Unfortunately, I am not a fighter, but I do have some tricks up my sleeve. IceDevimon is very powerful for a champion Digimon, but with your help and Manny's, perhaps we _can_ outsmart that ice demon instead."

Manny gazed at the lilac cat as Penguinmon clucked excitedly. "What do you have in mind?" he whispered.

xxx

xxx

Karatenmon smiled coldly as he watched the dark figure in front of him. He stepped down from the small stone podium where he usually stood, and circled around the newcomer. Satisfaction radiated from his yellow eyes as he examined the creature in front of him. The Digimon, shrouded within the darkness of the cave, could only be seen by Karatenmon, whose vision was well-adapted to the scanty amount of light inside the Cave of Solitude. The only thing that was obvious about the Digimon was the fact that it was an avian humanoid with glowing crimson irises. It stood at Karatenmon's equal height, and gave off a cool, menacing aura.

"Like looking in a mirror," Karatenmon whispered.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**- ShadoWira Unveiled, Part IV –**_

**_Chapter 19 – Redemption_**

xxx

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"Are you sure that this would work?" Adam asked with hesitance as he held up his cell phone.

"Not really," Liu Ying answered bluntly. "But what else can we do?"

"Why can't Jackie just go to Manny's house and tell his parents that their son's been kidnapped? That was what he did when _I_ got kidnapped."

Liu Ying snorted. "Listen to what you've just said, Adam. Manny's parents would _freak out_ if we go and tell them straight out that Manny's been kidnapped. Neither of us likes doing this, but I think this is the best thing we can do for now. It would prevent any intervention from his parents for the time being, and we need as much time as we can in order to work out a plan to save Manny."

Adam was about to argue when Jackie immediately interrupted him. "Besides, Adam, we've chosen to tell your sister straight out because mainly I think she could handle the news. She has very sound knowledge in I.T., which made explaining about Digimon and the Digital World a whole lot easier. And back then, we didn't exactly have a choice other than telling your sister the truth. We couldn't possibly come up with this kind of plan as you were the only male DigiWira at that time."

Adam sighed and had to agree with both Liu Ying and Jackie. He then turned his attention to a teary-faced Gayathri. The said girl had been struggling hard not to cry, but to no avail, after Adam and Liu Ying returned from the Digital World with news that Manny had been captured by JD.

"Gayathri, do you have Manny's house number?"

"Look in my handphone, I have it stored under 'Manny'," Gayathri answered as she wiped the tears away with the white blanket she was gripping.

Adam retrieved Gayathri's cell phone from the bedside table and began scrolling the list of names in Gayathri's address book before finding the right number. He began dialing the number on his own cell phone and held his breath in anticipation when he heard the dial tone. Somebody from Manny's house then picked up the phone after the second dial tone.

"_Helloooo…?"_ The voice from the other side sounded childish, belonging to a little girl.

"Um, hello. Can I speak to…uh…Mr. Abah?" Adam inquired.

"_Daddy's not home yet…"_ The little girl from the other side murmured. _"Who is this? Can you tell me your name?"_

"Oh. Sure. I'm Manny's friend Adam. Who's this?"

"_Oh, you're Abang's friend. My name is Deborah, but people call me Debbie. You can call me Debbie. Are you looking for Abang? He's not home too. He said that he's going to visit his girlfriend who's at the hospital. I wanted to go too but Abang didn't want to bring me along. That was really mean of him; I really am worried about Kak Gayathri… "_

Adam face-faulted as he listened to Manny's little sister's complaints, wondering whether there was any way for him to stop Debbie's talking to get to his point. Adam had no experience in dealing with younger children; he'd been the youngest in his family.

"…_I heard that she was involved with an accident yesterday…" _Debbie then stopped when Adam interrupted her with a fake cough. _"Um…Abang Adam? Are you sick?"_

"Um, no, not really," Adam said, confused of the inquiry. Then he realized that he'd just left an opening for Debbie to ask another question, and immediately interjected with an inquiry of his own. "Debbie, can I speak to your mom?"

"_Um…no, you can't."_

Adam sweatdropped. "Uh…why not?"

"_I'm not supposed to say." _

"But this is really important," Adam insisted. "I really need to speak to her."

Silence.

"Um…hello?"

"_I'm still here."_

"Good. Well, Debbie…can you tell me why I can't speak to your mom?"

"_I told you, I'm not supposed to say."_

Adam rolled his eyes, getting somewhat annoyed with the little girl. He sweatdropped upon meeting the questioning looks from the others inside Gayathri's ward. With a sigh he held his cell phone away from his mouth, and closed it with one hand as he gestured for Gayathri to take the phone from him.

"Gayathri, you talk to her. She doesn't want to tell me where her mom is."

"Who? Debbie?" Gayathri asked. A brief smile flickered from her sad face. "Um…if I talk to her then she'd be asking me a lot of questions and I don't think I can hide from her the fact that Manny's been kidnapped…so no. You talk to her. Try guessing what her mom is doing."

Reluctantly, Adam nodded and held his mobile phone back to his right ear. "Hello…Debbie?"

"_Yes…?"_

"Now can I speak to your mom?"

"_Um…no…not yet."_

"Not yet? Is she busy?"

"…_I suppose."_

Adam detected a somewhat hesitant tone coming with the answer, and raked his brain for a possible explanation. Debbie and Manny's mother was indeed at the house, but was somehow unavailable at the moment. Was she cooking? Adam didn't hear any noise in the background, so it was either the kitchen was far from the phone or there was indeed no activity at the kitchen. Debbie had sounded so hesitating, yet at the same time so adamant of keeping what her mother was doing as a secret.

An inspiration suddenly struck him, which caused him to grin slightly. It was something that Alisha had asked Adam to do countless times when there was a phone call for her while she was…

"Debbie, is your mom in the toilet right now?"

A gasp was heard but no answer came from Manny's sister. Adam assumed that he'd guessed it right, as Debbie would only deny if he'd guessed wrongly.

"It's ok, then. I can't wait long as my credit is running low. Can you do me a favor and pass a message to your mother? It's from Manny."

"_Ok…"_

"Ok then. Can you tell your parents that Manny will be spending the night at my house today?"

"_Umm, ok. I can do that. But why didn't Abang call the house himself?"_

"Uh…because he's in the toilet right now?" Adam said the first thing that had crossed his mind. "And because his phone credit is all used up. He's been calling his girlfriend a lot, I think."

Gayathri immediately scowled upon hearing the remark and threw her pillow towards Adam. Seeing that coming, the boy had successfully evaded the pillow, only to collide with Liu Ying, who with an exasperated look on her face, helped the boy straighten back up.

"_Oh…ok. So he won't be home today?"_

"Yes. He'll be at my home. Tell your mom that he's sorry that he doesn't call the house himself. Don't worry; he'll have dinner at my place and he can wear my clothes for the night. Then tomorrow after school he'll go back home."

"_Why is he spending the night? I thought he's gonna come home after seeing Kak Gayathri?"_

"Um…because today's homework is so hard and he couldn't do it himself, so I offered to teach him. And since I have problems with my own homework, your brother decided that he can help me with that too. It's really a last minute plan. Don't worry; I'll make sure that Manny will be home tomorrow." Adam was surprised to hear the lie coming out fluidly from his mouth, and how convincing it had sounded. Well, convincing enough for a little girl.

"_Ok!" _Debbie said, apparently satisfied with the explanation. Adam doubted that she really listened to him, but he'd done his job. Now it was time to take his leave.

"Ok, Debbie. Make sure you tell your mom what I've told you after she comes out from the toilet, ok?"

"_I didn't say that mummy's in the toilet!" _came the indignant reply from the little girl.

"Ok, ok. But make sure you tell her that Manny's with me, ok? We don't want your mummy and daddy to be worried."

"_Ok, I will."_

"Well…goodbye Debbie."

"_Bye-bye, Abang Adam."_

Adam sighed in relief as he heard the click sound coming from the other side of the phone. He was relieved mainly because Debbie didn't ask him for his contact number, so at least while Manny's parents would be in the impression that their son had spent a night at a friend's house, they had no way of contacting him. Adam hoped that he didn't sound so fishy to Debbie, and that the girl would be able to relay his message to her folks.

"Way to go Adam," Liu Ying murmured.

"So what do we do now?" Adam asked. "We managed to hold off telling Manny's parents about him being kidnapped for at least one night."

"That means that we only have one night to come up with a plan to rescue Manny," Liu Ying said. She sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. "Somehow I don't think any of us will be going to school tomorrow…unless somehow Manny escapes tonight."

"The Cave of Solitude is hard to escape from," Adam said, shivering upon recollecting the time when he was captured by the ShadoWira.

Gayathri looked at her fellow teammate thoughtfully. "You know Adam…you never really told us what was it like, being imprisoned there."

"Let's hope that neither one of you have to experience it," Adam answered evasively.

The other DigiWira looked like they wanted to press Adam for more information, but they were forced to keep silence when a knock on the door was heard. The door swung open slowly and Dr. Abu walked in with a nurse.

"Visiting hours is over for non-family members," the doctor informed with a regretful smile. "And we need to check on Gayathri's vital signs."

Jackie nodded as Liu Ying and Adam picked up their 'stuff toys' which they had placed on the bed with Gayathri. That earned them curious looks from the doctor and the nurse, but thankfully nobody said anything. They thanked the medical staffs and bid goodbye to Gayathri, promising explicitly to keep her updated with any news. As it was already 6.00 p.m. they guessed that they had better head home.

xxx

xxx

Less than thirty minutes later, Adam arrived at the apartment complex where he was staying. He nodded at the security guards at the guard booth, recognizing them easily as he'd been staying there for almost a year already. He increased his pace, wanting to reach home quickly. The day was beginning to turn dark, with half an hour more before dusk, and all around the apartment complex was rather quiet that day. Adam thought that it was strange, as usually this time children and teens would be bustling about around the small playground and game courts.

Suddenly, without warning, a tall figure streaked towards Adam from behind a tree. Adam jumped a little, surprised as a familiar person blocked his way.

"I've been waiting for you for quite a while," JD said sinisterly. He was still dressed in his school uniform, but unlike Adam his white shirt was not tucked in and the first two buttons of his shirt were undone. To other people, JD looked pretty much normal if they discarded the fact that JD's eyes were glowing with a slight greenish tint, giving him an aura of evil.

Adam tensed and took a step back. "What do you want, JD?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just curious of seeing how you're handling today's turn of events. Me being your enemy all along, Manny's capture, you guys losing," JD said, shrugging. His voice was laced with mocking tone with each uttered syllable, and he had made it plainly obvious for Adam and Patamon.

Adam wasn't intimidated. "You're a jerk, you know that?" he muttered.

Patamon, who'd been playing the stuffed doll act, blinked twice before glaring at JD. "You sickened me," the rookie Digimon spat. He didn't need to elaborate further, as JD got the hint.

JD guffawed. "You don't scare me, rodent."

"ADAM!" Suddenly, to their surprise, Liu Ying's voice rang out. Adam turned around, seeing the girl running towards him with a worried look on her face. She was clutching her yellow and white Digivice, and she halted instantly upon seeing JD standing merely half a meter away from Adam and Patamon. She resumed her paces instantly, standing right beside her teammate, and glared at JD with a hateful look that resembled the one Patamon was giving the blonde teen.

"Well, well…if it isn't the Miss Perfect Prefect," JD chuckled.

Liu Ying didn't look amused with the comment as she took a step forward, standing between Adam and JD. Instead of ignoring JD's comment like she usually did, this time she gave JD a somewhat fake-looking smile before unexpectedly slapping him hard on the cheek. Her smile vanished, replaced by a hard look etched on her fair features. That one moment, she looked as intimidating as JD was, despite being on different sides. Both Adam and Patamon gasped in surprise, but JD merely rubbed his right cheek, which reddened considerably from the tight slap Liu Ying had given him.

"You stay away from us," she warned. "Any of us."

"Or what?" JD challenged.

"Or I'll call security, for starters," Liu Ying shot back. "There are three of them by the gate; you can't fight them no matter how good your skill is."

JD scowled lightly as his eyes darted back and forth between the DigiWira and Patamon. He could see that Liu Ying meant serious business, and Adam didn't look like he was against her idea. He shrugged easily and backed off from Liu Ying, turning his body towards the direction of the gate.

"Fine. I'll show my way out." With that, he slicked away with a chuckle. However before he was out of the DigiWira's sight, the blonde teen turned back to face them. "While you have it easy now, don't expect the same tonight. There's something huge planned out and I'm sure you won't miss it for the world. Not when we're holding a trump card in this battle."

The DigiWira didn't reply to his comment. JD took this as his cue to continue.

"Pretending not to be curious? Have it your way. But I'll say this much: you should've sent letters to the school this morning saying that you won't be able to attend school anymore starting tomorrow. After all how can you, when you'll be destroyed!"

With that, the Red ShadoWira laughed loudly and walked away, leaving the DigiWira stunned for words.

xxx

xxx

IceDevimon stood against the cold walls of the inner caverns of the Black Peak Mountain, bored out of his wits. Karatenmon had instructed him to feign obedience to the Red ShadoWira for the time being, until tomorrow when the digital solar eclipse arrived. And the Red ShadoWira had ordered him to guard the prisoners.

The ice demon snorted. He had powers beyond normal champion-level Digimon. He had once leveled a whole village of fire Digimon into a dead zone of ice. He had given Grademon a decent challenge before the golden warrior imprisoned him. And now, he had been reduced into a mere prison guard. It didn't bode well with his reputation.

He had been there for three hours now. Although it was hard to tell, IceDevimon could easily guess that it was already night time in the Digital World. And so far, there was no noise coming from inside the prison. However, IceDevimon was not too bothered by it. Perhaps they were just asleep or were simply too tired to talk. He had heard conversations between the prisoners right after the Red ShadoWira stepped out from the prison, and that was three hours ago.

_BAAAAAMMMMM!!_

IceDevimon started slightly. The noise was least unexpected. It sounded like something crashing against the rigid prison walls.

"Manny! Penguinmon! You…tried to kill me?" IceDevimon recognized the defeated voice belonging to the feline Digimon whom he, along with JD and Agumon had captured earlier.

"No offense, TobuCatmon, but you're starting to get on my nerves. If we all gonna rot in this cell, we might as well do it as less-annoyingly as possible, and your incessant questions are a danger to my sanity. Manny might be too polite to point that out, but not me!"

"You tell him, Penguinmon."

IceDevimon became interested to hear more about this new development between the three prisoners. He held his breath; it was too hard to believe, but apparently the pressure and the thought of being imprisoned there forever had started to get to them.

"You two are evil!" TobuCatmon was heard screaming. "I can't believe that I trusted you two!"

"Nobody asked you to believe in us," Penguinmon retorted. "See you later…not! _Endless Slaps!!"_

Furious sounds of slapping were heard, followed by cries of pain. IceDevimon chuckled gleefully as he continued listening in the conversations from where he stood.

"Ha! I thought you're a Champion! But you're too weak – I'm a Rookie and I could give you a good beating. How about that!"

"Don't underestimate me, Penguinmon! I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. _Flying Phoenix!!"_

A flash of gold light was seen coming from the barred square 'window' on the heavy door. Apparently, TobuCatmon had unleashed his special attack against Penguinmon. The light became brighter before a defeated squawk was heard. As the light dimmed down, an audible thud followed. A panicked shout was then heard coming from Manny, laced with rage and sorrow at the same time.

"You…you killed him! You'll pay for that!"

Faint blue lights escaped the barred window as a sound resembling a flowing river was heard, rapidly changing into the pressurized sound of a waterfall. It seemed that Manny was summoning his hydrokinetic ability to use against TobuCatmon. A loud splashing sound ensued and some of the water escaped the prison via the barred window and the space underneath the door. IceDevimon merely smiled; Karatenmon would love to hear about this. The renegades and the feline were practically killing each other inside the prison. This would make everything a lot easier.

A low whimper soon followed after the flow of water stopped. Then, everything became still after a low plopping sound was heard.

IceDevimon waited for five minutes, and nothing else was heard.

"They've killed each other off!" he exclaimed, and laughed. Then he took out a large, bronze key from his belt. "Better make sure before I report this to Karatenmon."

He unlocked the door and left the key at the hole, and pushed the heavy door open. Poking his head through the gap he could see total chaos inside the prison cell. Manny could be seen sprawled on one corner of the prison, head on the floor. On the opposite corner was TobuCatmon, lying on his back, eyes closed. Penguinmon couldn't be seen anywhere; he could either be obscured by the lumps of haystack strewn about the cold prison, or had been deleted by TobuCatmon's attack earlier.

"What a sight," IceDevimon commented. He pushed the door open wider and walked in, attempting to check on Manny and TobuCatmon. The icy demon approached Manny cautiously, and used his right leg to turn Manny over, so that his face was looking up. "My, my…" IceDevimon murmured.

Suddenly, Manny's eyes fluttered open and his body sprang up, grabbing both of IceDevimon's thin legs. IceDevimon gasped, but before he could response a figure jumped out from one of the lumps of haystack and delivered a furious flurry of slaps on his face, followed by a sharp jab on one eye from the attacker's beak. IceDevimon shrieked in pain and felt liquid flowing out from the injured eye, and instantly his vision field seemed to have halved. He could see Penguinmon, looking triumphant, jumping away to a safe distance. IceDevimon would've retaliated, but he was too overwhelmed by the searing pain from his injured left eye – he realized then that he was now half-blind.

"I'm a rookie with attitude!" Penguinmon exclaimed as Manny let go of IceDevimon's legs, rolling away as IceDevimon jumped about as he hollered painfully.

Then a bright golden light emanated from the opposite corner of the cave, and an ear-splitting screech of a bird echoed all over the prison. IceDevimon had barely turned his head sideways when he saw a raging firebird streaking across the prison cell in rapid speed. He attempted to move away from the firebird's path but with he was not used to seeing things with only one eye. His sense of judging direction was altered; he didn't move completely away from the bird of flames' path. The demon then shrieked in pain as the firebird flew through his large wings, resulting in two large holes on both wings, with flames threatening to spread from the corners of the holes.

Manny grabbed hold on Penguinmon and sprinted towards the open door. The firebird streaked behind them before the fires dissipated and it slowly shifted into a lilac feline right after Manny and Penguinmon exited the cell. TobuCatmon plopped onto the stone floor outside the cell as Manny and Penguinmon worked on pulling the heavy door to close the cell. Manny then locked the prison door and pulled the key away from the keyhole.

"You can't do this to me!" IceDevimon shrieked; his voice a mixture of surprise, anger and pain.

"Funny, I thought we just did it! Bye now!" Penguinmon replied. "Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, nyeh!" The blue penguin then blew raspberries towards the imprisoned IceDevimon.

The icy demon glowered at the avian rookie angrily, but there was nothing he could do. The prison cell was laced with a spell from Karatenmon which prevented it from a break-out. It was the main reason why Manny, Penguinmon and TobuCatmon had to trick IceDevimon into opening the prison door with its designated key in the first place, apart from the fact that neither was strong enough to force open the door on their own.

While Penguinmon continued insulting IceDevimon, Manny knelt beside TobuCatmon. "Are you ok?"

"I've used too much power, weak," TobuCatmon whispered feebly. His eyes drew to a close; using his attack technique was too taxing for his body to handle. It was why he'd chosen not to fight unless really necessary; and fighting IceDevimon was necessary.

Manny lifted the mentor of the DigiWira gently and cradled him on his arms. He turned towards Penguinmon, who was enjoying himself taunting IceDevimon. "Uh…Penguinmon? We better go now. We still have to look for my Digivice and Blue DigiSphere before escaping this place." He began to head towards the stairs.

Penguinmon huffed and blew raspberries towards IceDevimon before following Manny. "I'm coming, I'm coming…"

xxx

xxx

"_**It's time, DigiWira. Let's get this show on the road. Karatenmon's waiting and I'm not going to miss all the action as well. Signed; JD."**_

"How convenient; he'd forgotten to mention where exactly he wants to meet us," Liu Ying grumbled furiously.

"Yeah," Adam murmured, looking around the darkened Green Meadow. He shivered as the cold night winds brushed past his hands and face, messing up his hair. His body was however kept warm by the suit Jackie had designed for them. He looked up and observed the full moon, whose pale light was the only source of illumination that night. The sky was strangely cloudy and no stars could be seen.

After JD had left them with the ominous warning that afternoon, both Liu Ying and Adam had been on their guards. For almost three hours they had been on edge. It was only lucky for them that their family members knew what they were up to. Granted, except for Adam's sister nobody else knew how serious the situation had become. From their world, both Alisha and Jackie were also on high alerts, monitoring what they could from their own houses. Their source of communication with the DigiWira however was Liu Ying's D-Terminal.

"It's rather cold tonight," Centarumon commented, floating beside his DigiWira partner. His voice carried a guarding tone as he cautiously eyed his surrounding. He made sure to stand near Adam, knowing that unlike Liu Ying, Adam hadn't his special digital ability for the time being, and it was his responsibility to make sure that his human partner was safe from any impending harm. Not that he could see anything that posed as a threat to the DigiWira, but it was best to be careful. Unexpected things had been known to happen and the last thing Centarumon wanted to happen was to have his human partner whisked away from his sight.

"Strangely cold," Youkomon concurred.

"Cold, huh? Not that I want to help you, but I can fix that!" A familiar voice shot out from nowhere. Rippling sound could be heard nearby, and suddenly the dark meadow was brightly illuminated by a flaming dragon man Digimon as the temperature around them suddenly rose a few degrees. A cocky smile could be seen from the lower half of his face. Beside him was another familiar figure, a dark avian humanoid Digimon.

"Satriamon!" Adam gasped. "And…and Karatenmon!"

"Smart of you to figure out that we'd be meeting here," Satriamon sneered. "Looks like you're ready."

"I shall take care of the fox and her human partner," Karatenmon said coldly and brandished his twin swords from out of nowhere. One of the swords unexpectedly slipped from his hand, but Karatenmon managed to catch it before it hit the ground.

Youkomon's eyes twitched, catching the sight instantly. She paid closer attention to Karatenmon, remembering how powerful the Mage General was from their last encounter. It took a joint effort between her and Fairymon just to provide an opening for escape during their mission to rescue Adam from the Shadow Realm not too long ago. The slip-up didn't really mean anything; Karatenmon was a threat to them and Youkomon needed all her power in order to beat him.

'_Karatenmon does not strike me as a clumsy type,'_ the champion-level kitsune thought silently, her sharp ice blue eyes never leaving Karatenmon.

"Fine. I'll play around with the little boy and his stinky horse," Satriamon smirked, shifting his green eyes towards Adam and Centarumon.

"Adam, run!" Centarumon ordered, and immediately took a defensive stance.

"I don't think so." Satriamon leaped from the ground and immediately turned into a humanoid magma with flames ignited all over his body as he soared higher and higher towards the sky. "There's nowhere to run now, losers. _Flaming Torch!!"_

His teleportation ability lost due to lack of DigiSphere, Adam could only rely on his physical swiftness in order to evade Satriamon's incoming attack. He could feel the burning aura of Satriamon's fireball attack coming his way as he ran, and could hear Centarumon's panicked cry as he attempted to block the attack. A loud crash was heard and Adam halted when he saw Centarumon's body being flung across the paddock, crashing onto the stones nearby the lake. His body was scorched all over and Centarumon no longer looked like he was fit for a fight.

"Centarumon!"

Adam turned towards the left, the intention to run back towards the safety of the magical Forest Sanctum forgotten. He now darted towards the unmoving body of his Digimon partner. His heart was thumping fast, Adam felt as if it would burst out of his chest anytime soon.

Behind the DigiWira, Satriamon slowly descended onto the ground. He had claimed an easy win with Centarumon, who was no match for his ultimate firepower. And now, he would take his own time to finish them off once and for all. With an amused, yet evil-looking grin, he walked easily towards his running pursuit.

There was no point in rushing. The victor had been decided.

"Y'know," Satriamon began, pausing midway. "You've never even said that goodbye to me. So I'll say it." He smirked and pointed his gauntlet-clad arm towards Adam. "Goodbye."

Adam closed his eyes. "Someone help us…"

In the meantime, Youkomon and Liu Ying were both kept busy by Karatenmon. Youkomon had decided not to waste her energy, channeling all of her powers to initiate her new astral projection power. Trusting Liu Ying to keep guard of her physical body, Youkomon's yellow-furred astral body faced off against Karatenmon. Without wasting any time at all she launched herself towards Karatenmon, turning herself into a blazing blue spectral dragon as she attempted to ram Karatenmon.

However, Karatenmon was quick to stop the attack. He flapped his wings swiftly and generated a dark-aura based hurricane which blew the spectral dragon off course before she could even reach his body. Pure with dark energy, the hurricane was enough to incapacitate the spectral Youkomon. Then as the major threat had been taken care of, Karatenmon made a beeline towards Liu Ying, seeing the unmoving physical body of Youkomon.

Liu Ying panicked upon seeing Karatenmon. Reflexively she flicked her hand towards one stone, sending it towards Karatenmon but the avian general merely slapped the stone away effortlessly. Liu Ying tried again and her effort was once again thwarted by Karatenmon. Knowing that her telekinetic power wouldn't work, she decided quickly to take things to a higher level and summoned her telekinetic barrier ability. She held up both arms and instantly a disc-shaped barrier made out of semi-transparent yellow aura was formed.

"Simple trick such as that won't suffice against my great magic, girlie!" Karatenmon guffawed, and struck the barrier with both swords.

A deafening clang was heard and with a shriek Liu Ying was thrown backward. The effect of Karatenmon's attack however rebounded and the Mage General was pushed away himself, albeit so slightly. It stunned him momentarily, as what he had deemed to be a simple trick had managed to push him backward. With the corner of his strangely dark eyes Karatenmon saw Liu Ying struggling to get off her back with a look of pure determination affixed on her face.

"Give it up, DigiWira," Karatenmon sneered. "It's not everyday that good triumphs over evil. I'll prove you just that, by destroying your partner's physical body."

"NO!!" Liu Ying screamed as Karatenmon released a blast of dark energy towards Youkomon. The kitsune's body was flung in midair, and mercilessly Karatenmon unleashed his twin swords towards the blue fox while she was still in midair. The swords slashes through Youkomon's tails over and over again, moving as if having wills of their own, until all of Youkomon's nine tails were severed. The white tips were all gone, and liquids flowed out from the injuries.

Liu Ying panicked when she saw that the astral form of Youkomon, immobilized by the dark hurricane of energy released by Karatenmon earlier, flickered dangerously. Every time her physical body received a blow, the astral form was the one who cried out in pain. It hurt Liu Ying deeply to see that there was nothing she could do to help Youkomon. Liu Ying's efforts to thwart Karatenmon's attacks with her telekinesis failed time and time again; Karatenmon being an ultimate Digimon and a powerful sorcerer was somewhat immune to her digital ability.

In that dire moment, Liu Ying pleaded for a miracle to happen.

xxx

xxx

"I think we're here," Manny panted as he leaned against the stone wall, as he stepped up the topmost stone staircase.

"You _think_?" Penguinmon repeated indignantly. The rookie Digimon was several steps behind from Manny, and was panting even more heavily than his human partner.

Manny shook his head and looked towards the left. There stood a wooden door with no barred window at all, making it obvious that it was not a prison cell behind that door. At the end of the narrow dark corridor, which was lit with several candles hung on brass candleholders affixed on the sides of the corridor, was another set of staircases leading up towards the peak of the Black Peak Mountain.

"Do you think this is where your Digivice and D-Terminal are being kept?" TobuCatmon, cradled by Manny, asked excited.

"We're already here. It's worth checking out." Manny placed TobuCatmon down on the floor and approached the door. He tried the doorknob. "It's locked. And I don't think the key we have here matches this one; the keyhole's too small for it to fit."

"Back away," TobuCatmon said. Slowly, but gradually, the feline's body flared with orange fire and his small quadrupled figure began to shift into an astral-like firebird who then let out a fierce screech as it sailed towards the door. The wooden door staggered as it crackled with yellow magical bolts – clearly the door was enchanted as well. However, phoenix-TobuCatmon pressed on until he began to fade back into his physical feline form. At the same time, the bolts died down and the doorknob melted away. The DigiWira mentor plopped down onto the floor and was knocked out once again. This time, it was more evident that TobuCatmon was severely weakened.

"What are you waiting for? The door's not gonna open for itself, Manny!" Penguinmon crowed impatiently. But at the same time the door moved inwardly, causing the rookie Digimon to sweatdrop as Manny chuckled in amusement. "Of course, I could be wrong!" Penguinmon snapped, and trotted into the well-lit chamber behind the door gingerly.

Manny picked up the unconscious TobuCatmon and followed his Digimon partner. "You know, I feel…strange." He looked around the chamber in confusion, noting that it was better lit than the corridor outside. There were more candles inside this chamber, nearly twice as much as the ones outside. After scanning the chamber his eyes were drawn towards a white stone pedestal located at the end of the chamber. On top of the pedestal was a small treasure chest, with a bronze key affixed on its keyhole. He looked at Penguinmon, and despite the bird's protest he set down TobuCatmon on the rookie's reluctantly-stretched wings before approaching the chest, somehow feeling something drawing him towards it. Deep within the boy's heart, he didn't dare to believe that he was about to find the items he was seeking.

Once reaching the pedestal, his hands quivered as he touched the dark maroon treasure chest. Manny took a deep breath and clasped his hands together, noting in dismay that his palms were somewhat sweaty due to his nervousness. Immediately he brushed them against the leathery-vinyl materials of his ShadoWira suit before placing them on the chest again.

"Here goes nothing," Manny said hopefully, and turned the key towards the right to unlock the chest. The chest lid sprang open and Manny's eyes widened. He gasped.

Inside the chest, laid on a velvety cushion were two prominently glowing spheres and several devices. One sphere was blue, the other was white. Beside the white sphere was a D-Terminal, while the blue sphere was placed in between another D-Terminal and a Digivice. Manny immediately took the Digivice and clipped it on his belt, before touching the Blue DigiSphere. Instantly, he felt the familiar sensation of power coursing through his veins, like a flowing river. He took the blue-and-black D-Terminal and used it to digitize the Blue DigiSphere for safekeeping.

"Adam's White DigiSphere," Manny said in awe and quickly took it as well as the silver-pale blue D-Terminal beside it. He did the same thing with the White DigiSphere as he'd done with the Blue DigiSphere before moving away from the pedestal.

"Now that we've gotten the DigiSpheres and your Digivice, let's get out of here!" Penguinmon said eagerly and headed towards the door.

"Not so fast!" a voice barked, which caused both Digimon and ShadoWira to jump.

A dark shadow loomed against the doorway, which was soon replaced by a chilly figure thereafter, blocking the doorway.

"ICEDEVIMON!!"

"Do you really think that prison cell could hold me?" IceDevimon spat harshly. His left eye was swollen, and closed. Stains of liquid could be seen trailing down his pale left cheek, glistening against the chamber's light. His good eye stared maliciously towards Penguinmon and Manny, who began backing away from him. "I'll make you pay for blinding my left eye!"

"Manny, digivolve me now!" Penguinmon hissed.

Manny nearly smacked his head, nearly forgetting that he'd just recovered his Digivice. Then he remembered that he also had his Blue DigiSphere.

"Let's not take any risk, Penguinmon. We should do this together." Manny took out both his Digivice and Blue DigiSphere.

Penguinmon put down TobuCatmon on the floor and smirked. "You've just read my mind, partner."

"SHADOW ACCESS!"

IceDevimon paled (or became paler than usual) upon setting sight of the magnificent creature born from the fusion of Manny and Penguinmon – a sleek merman Digimon within a water cyclone, brandishing a silver trident on his left hand, looking poised and ready to attack at any moment's notice. IceDevimon could feel power radiating from Samudramon; the merman clearly was on par with Satriamon, and IceDevimon knew with surety that he could only hold his own against Satriamon within a very limited amount of time.

Samudramon pointed his trident towards IceDevimon. "Move aside, IceDevimon," he said coolly.

The icy demon knew that he didn't stand a chance. He was severely weakened by TobuCatmon earlier, and was injured by Penguinmon's pecking on his eyes. But to give way for Samudramon to escape meant that he would just be at the receiving end of Karatenmon's punishment, and IceDevimon knew that Karatenmon didn't like to be double-crossed. Giving way to Samudramon was an act that meant treason.

"Either way, I'll perish tonight," IceDevimon muttered. He glared towards Samudramon with pure hatred and held his long left arm up, pointing his crimson claws towards Samudramon. "If that's the case, I'll go down fighting!"

"Suit yourself," Samudramon said. _"Deep Ocean Submerge!!"_

Waves of water rained onto IceDevimon, who immediately froze the water. He however instantly realized his folly upon seeing a smirk coming from Samudramon, who didn't budge from his original posture. The trident was still pointed towards him, and was now crackling with blue electricity.

"_Thunder Storm!!"_

A powerful blast of electric bolt was released from the trident and sailed towards the semi-distracted IceDevimon. It hit the ice demon evenly on his chest, causing IceDevimon's body to shook violently before exploding into bits of data particles. The demon's screams echoed within the chamber until several seconds passed by.

Samudramon sighed in relief and bent down to take TobuCatmon. "Now what do we do?"

Suddenly, orbs of light materialized all around his body and with a bright flash the merman Digimon vanished from the chamber.

xxx

xxx

"_Dragonforce….HUH?"_

Adam opened his eyes, surprised to hear Satriamon's cry of shock. He was immediately blinded by a shower of white light, which immediately caused his heart to thump faster. The light gave off a strangely familiar vibe; Adam himself had experienced it before. He shielded his face with both arms and dared himself to peek through in between his crisscrossed arms. He could see a tall figure materializing from the light; the figure's back was facing him only about five meters away from him. It was a merman with regal blue fishtail, light torso armor and flowing aquamarine hair.

The DigiWira had seen this Digimon only once, but recognized him instantly. "Samudramon…?"

The lights died away and it was indeed Samudramon, the fused form of Manny and his Digimon partner. Adam couldn't believe his eyes as he lowered his arms down, while Samudramon turned around to face him with a smile on his face.

"Adam, I think we have something that belongs to you," Samudramon said with his echo-like voice. He took out a device from his belt, and Adam nearly gasped upon seeing it.

"My D-Terminal!" He immediately retrieved the silvery device from Samudramon and flipped it open. Displayed on the D-Terminal's screen was the digitized form of his White DigiSphere, ready to be used again. The digitized sphere glowed and instantly a warm feeling radiated within him; Adam recognized it instantly as being a sign that he was now reunited with his teleportation power once again. "But how?" Adam asked, looking up at the twice-as-tall Samudramon.

"Let's just say that I was at the right place at the right time," he replied.

Adam nodded gratefully. "Thank you…"

"Don't mention it, Adam." Samudramon then turned back to face Satriamon, who was watching them with a lopsided smirk. "You help your partner and Liu Ying…I'll handle Satriamon."

"Got it." His eyes immediately were drawn to Liu Ying…who was in danger of being at the receiving end of Karatenmon's vicious assault. He had attempted this before…it was time to see whether he could do it with two persons instead on one. That decided, Adam quickly stretched out both arms towards his friends. "LIU YING! YOUKOMON!"

Karatenmon was about to slash Liu Ying and Youkomon with his swords when suddenly, both of them vanished in magnificent flash of bluish white light. The astral form of Youkomon also vanished from the entrapment he had placed, which enraged the Mage General. His dark eyes were brought to the DigiWira boy, who had a triumphant look on his face as the DigiWira girl rematerialized in front of him, holding a pale looking Labramon.

"Wretched cretins," he cursed angrily.

As Adam kept a careful eye on Karatenmon, Liu Ying bent down to look at the condition of her Digimon partner. Labramon was badly injured and Liu Ying knew that the injuries were not the only thing she needed to worry about. The strain of using the astral projection power had greatly weakened the Labrador rookie as well. As Adam used his newly-regained power to digivolve Centarumon into Sagittarimon, Liu Ying pulled Labramon towards the stones nearby the lake for cover from the great battle that ensued between Sagittarimon and Karatenmon, as well as the titanic combat between Samudramon and Satriamon.

"Liu Ying…I…hurt," Labramon whispered weakly, and regressed into Shaomon. Still, the small body of Shaomon shimmered with pale yellow light.

Hearing the ragged voice of her partner and witnessing her dedigivolution, Liu Ying knew that Shaomon was in danger. It looked like Shaomon was about to dedigivolve once again, and Liu Ying knew that if she did, she'd be in her Baby form. Shaomon had never been in her Baby form during the time when she was partnered with Liu Ying.

"Shaomon…hang in there," Liu Ying croaked as her vision began to blur. A tear escaped her right eye and dropped directly onto the puppy's forehead.

The girl didn't see it, but on Shaomon's forehead – where her tear had dropped – a small Yin and Yang symbol began to emerge. It shone softly with yellow light, and Shaomon's body stopped glowing. The Yin-Yang image began to become clearer and clearer, and to Liu Ying's surprise Shaomon began to hover in midair.

Liu Ying's Digivice shook violently and escaped from the belt where it was placed on. The Yellow DigiSphere too emerged from Liu Ying's D-Terminal and hovered close to the Digivice and around Shaomon.

"What's going on…?" she wondered.

A loud cry was heard and Liu Ying saw Sagittarimon's body crashing onto the ground. Karatenmon flew above the armored centaur with a triumphant look reflected from his evil eyes. On the other part of the meadow, the battle between Samudramon and Satriamon was still in stalemate; neither could beat the other as their powers cancelled each other's out.

Adam was teleported Sagittarimon away from Karatenmon's assault path, but it was Patamon who reappeared back within his grasp. Liu Ying knew instantly that Adam and Patamon couldn't fight the Mage General anymore, but they could avoid from being attacked.

Chiming sounds were heard as a feeling of warmness radiated from within Liu Ying. She looked down on her hands, and was flabbergasted to find them in a kaleidoscope of yellow shades. From pale yellow to gold to light oranges, they were glowing. Her whole body was glimmering with light, her uniform no longer visible yet there was no sign of skin as well. Shaomon too was experiencing the same phenomenon. Before she could comprehend of what was going on, her body dissolved into a mote of yellow light and merged with Shaomon.

The resulting flash of gold light was so bright that it stopped everyone else from fighting. Both Samudramon and Satriamon stood transfixed, while Karatenmon hovered over the night sky with bewilderment as Adam and Patamon fixed their gazes over the lake…where a tall, slim, womanly figure materialized from within the yellow brilliance. She had long hair, and no bodily profile could be made out from her as her whole body was shining with radiant yellow hues. Her eyes however could be seen as the color of the midnight sky, sparkling with intelligence and nobility.

"Who is that?" Patamon wondered.

Adam looked around, unable to find the ones he was looking for. He then stared at the newcomer suspiciously. "Can that be…?"

The glowing woman spun around above the surface of the lake as ribbons of gold light began wrapping themselves around her body. Dark blue bodysuit materialized on her body and extremities, covering every inch of her skin with the exception of her hands and feet, and her face. The ribbons then enveloped her legs from knee downwards, forming two glittering yellow high-heeled boots with dark blue linings. The same ribbons then shifted upwards towards her forearms, forming leather gloves of yellow with blue accents, before spiraling around her shoulders and torso, forming a sleeveless kimono-style beige robe which extended down towards her knees. The robe was fastened close to her body with a dark blue sash, and the seams of the lower half of the robe parted along the sides to allow free movements of her legs. Accents of light blue linings and darker blue flowery embroideries decorated at every lower corners of the robe, while writings in Chinese letterings appeared on the sides of her upper robe. On her face, a yellow fox-shaped mask covered the upper half of her face as her lips were painted with periwinkle-blue shade. Her long hair, now revealed to be pristinely ebony, was tied in two long ponytails, with each ponytail having prominent yellow and dark blue highlights and fastened with white ribbons.

Finally, to complete her transformation, the Yin Yang symbols were emblazoned on the middle of her ribbon-belt, and on every upper corner of her gloves and boots. Then a short golden baton appeared on her right hand, with intricate designs all around the shaft. From the upper end of the baton, thousands of fine ribbons in pale green colorings erupted – the woman's weapon of choice was unconventional as it appeared to actually be a kind of a feather duster. Yet the woman wielded this weapon with grace and fluidity, there was no doubt that she was a deadly opponent with it.

"Protector of earth and magic, I am **_Xianamon_**!" the woman declared with a strong, dual female voices.

Adam recognized the voices instantly – they belonged to Liu Ying and Labramon. Apparently they had also merged in a similar fashion as Samudramon and Satriamon.

"Awesome!" he said delightfully.

"She's quite a looker," Satriamon whistled. "But looks aren't everything. I bet she's just a pretty face."

"Don't count on that," Samudramon muttered.

Xianamon waved her hand calmly and instantly levitated to Karatenmon's level. She appeared very calm and collected as she stared at Karatenmon. There was no sign of fear coming from her; she was radiating with an aura of confidence.

"You don't scare me," Karatenmon spat, and released thousands of feather-shaped projectiles from his black wings.

Xianamon smiled a little and waved her feather duster towards the incoming projectiles swiftly. _"Jade Needles!!" _

From the pale green ribbons on the feather-duster, suddenly thousands of silvery projectiles in forms of sewing needles shot out. They collided with Karatenmon's projectiles and upon collision both of them combusted into data particles. Xianamon then raised a telekinetic barrier to stop the other feather projectiles from injuring her, while her own needle projectiles sailed towards Karatenmon, piercing through his feathery arms, wings and light armor.

The avian Digimon screamed agonizingly and felt his body weakening in an instance. "What is this trickery?"

"There is no trickery," Xianamon answered calmly. "My Jade Needles are all laced with the venoms of the deadliest bees. That is all. You can not survive after an hour, but I have no intention to wait that long. You have caused enough grief; it is time to put an end to all of this."

"Wait!" Karatenmon cried, but his plea fell on deaf ears as Xianamon raised her feather duster while chanting an incantation. "Can't we talk about this?"

Xianamon didn't reply. A platform of disc-shaped Yin and Yang symbol materialized from beneath her as Xianamon landed directly on the middle of it. She made a wave to the right with her weapon, then a wave to the left. At first those movements were made slowly but gradually increased in rapidity. Chiming sounds were heard coming from out of nowhere as the Yin-Yang symbol began to shine with yellow lights.

"_Diamond World Mandala!!" _

Multiple waves of yellow and dark blue energy beams shot out from the Yin-Yang symbol, forming furious whirlwind of pure energy. Xianamon gestured with her feather duster towards Karatenmon, and the energy waves were all lambasted towards the Mage General. Xianamon didn't hold back her power; she summoned the power of her Diamond World Mandala attack wholly, intend on defeating Karatenmon off once and for all. The agonizing screams from Karatenmon were drowned by the musical chimes that were emitted with the attack, giving a soothing feeling towards Xianamon and her allies while causing fear and anxiety towards her enemies, as evident by the way Satriamon trying to guise his slight tremor upon witnessing the attack. Samudramon, TobuCatmon, Patamon and Adam however felt invigorated as the energy waves passed over them; similar to Lilymon's Flower Wreath attack the Diamond World Mandala also had small healing properties, but lacked the dark spell eradication power.

After a long minute passed by, the energy waves dissipated and to the good guys' delight Karatenmon slumped onto the ground, unmoving.

"We have done it!" Xianamon declared. "We have beaten Karatenmon. The evil is defeated."

To their surprise, they heard Satriamon snorted from the distance. "Heh, you'd think so, but not quite."

"What do you mean?" Samudramon demanded.

"See for yourself. I'm outta here!" With a flick of his arm, a portal opened behind the fire knight and sucked him in before disappearing.

The DigiWira all watched as Karatenmon's body writhed and stretched in a rather haphazard way before dark smokes escaped from his eyes, beaks and from the tips of his wings. His body shimmered with purple aura before they...separated into two very familiar figures. One was a lanky bird-woman, and the other was a wizard in white.

"You two!" Adam gasped. "But…how can this be?"

Both Sorcerymon and Shutumon looked around bewilderedly. Judging from their expressions they seemed to have no idea of what had happened to them; their eyes reflected confusion and anxiety of having two Ultimates staring towards them. Shutumon got back up on her feet first, and flung an arm around Sorcerymon before taking off towards the sky in panic.

"We've got to stop them!" Samudramon began, and dedigivolved back into Manny and Penguinmon. They were about to give chase when Xianamon's slender arm blocked their path.

"Never mind. Leave them for now. They are not the major threat that we need to worry about." Xianamon then regressed back into Liu Ying and Labramon.

"Man, I thought we've finally defeated Karatenmon once and for all!" Adam complained. He then turned his attention towards Liu Ying. "Wow, Liu Ying, Labramon! You two were amazing out there! I didn't know that we too can use that fusion thingy. Xianamon is awesome!" He averted his eyes towards Manny. "Manny, thanks again…for recovering my DigiSphere. How did you manage to teleport back here?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's your White DigiSphere's doing," Manny answered. "You're actually the one with the power to teleport, Adam. You tell me."

"Perhaps, you _had_ summoned for something, Adam," TobuCatmon pointed out. He had been unconscious earlier, but the healing waves from Xianamon had nurtured him enough to awaken him. He was now being held by Penguinmon.

"I remembered calling for help," Adam admitted. He shrugged a little. "It worked before, back at the Megalith Coliseum."

TobuCatmon nodded, smiling. "And so it worked again, because the White DigiSphere was in the hands of good once again. The sphere was able to hear your call, and recognized Samudramon and myself as being good, so it teleported not only itself back to you, but us along the ride. Had it been JD or Karatenmon, the White DigiSphere might not able to respond to your summon."

"Wow, you were right, Manny," Adam said. "You were at the right place at the right time! I don't know how I can repay you for this favor."

"You don't have to," Manny assured. "I've done a few things that I'm not proud of while under Karatenmon's influence. Now that I'm back being good, I think this is the right way to start showing you guys that I'm on your side now."

"You've already showed that when you rescued Gayathri," Liu Ying said, smiling. Her smile faltered when she remembered their current situation. "Why do you suppose we were given a fake Karatenmon to battle with?" Her obsidian irises were locked into Manny's russet orbs, knowing that the former villain would probably have an insight of her question.

And he sure did. "Knowing Karatenmon, perhaps he wanted to test you first, before battling you for real," Manny answered thoughtfully.

"When do you suppose we're gonna battle the real Karatenmon?" Adam asked.

Manny's face turned grim upon hearing the inquiry. "Tomorrow, during the digital solar eclipse. It's when his power is at its peak. We really have to be extra-careful." The spiky-haired teenager sighed with worry. "It'll be good if we manage to get JD to our side. With Satriamon's power combined with Samudramon and Xianamon, maybe we can stand a chance against Karatenmon."

Adam's face darkened while Liu Ying frowned. Both however were quick to disguise their disgust, especially upon seeing Manny's somewhat despondent look on his face.

"Look, I know JD isn't really your favorite person in the world right now, but…please remember that he's also under a spell, and with my betrayal the spell on him probably has been strengthened ten-fold, to a near unbreakable point. He has no control of his action, despite how natural it might seem to be," Manny reasoned.

"Why he's been specifically targeting Adam and not us in general?" Liu Ying asked.

"Actually, it could be either you or Adam, since…I was targeting Gayathri back then," Manny answered, lowering his eyes on the ground in shame as he recollected his time as the evil ShadoWira. "He would go after both of you, but as far as I know, he had decided that Adam would be an easier pawn than you, so he went with that."

"What did you mean by that?" Adam demanded.

Manny shook his head. "I don't know myself. JD had been awfully confident that he was able to get to you. He did say something about him already did his homework. I suppose he managed to get a background check on you, but not on Liu Ying, so he used that information against you."

Liu Ying looked somewhat puzzled, but Adam seemed to understand what Manny had just said, and didn't respond. Instead, he grew quieter and a forlorn look was affixed on his face briefly, before that look was wiped away with a somewhat calm exterior. The dark brown-haired DigiWira then shrugged quietly and looked away, not offering any respond to Manny's explanation.

"Satriamon is very powerful, I noticed," Liu Ying noted, trying to change the subject. "We will have our hands full fighting him and the real Karatenmon tomorrow."

"Adam, Liu Ying…JD might be evil and powerful now, but one day you'll be glad that he has all that power," Manny said.

"We will…when he stops using his power against us," Adam muttered dejectedly.

An uncomfortable silence passed for a brief few seconds before Liu Ying looked at the time displayed on her D-Terminal. "It's getting really late…we better go home now. It's almost midnight!"

"Oh no," Manny gasped. "I should be home by six. How am I going to explain this to my parents? They're sure to yell at me when I got back home." He immediately made a beeline towards the jungle that protected the Forest Sanctum, but Adam was quick to clutch his forearm, stopping him from walking any further.

"Actually, I've taken care of that earlier. But it would be better if you spend the night at my place tonight."

"Huh? Why's that?" Manny asked.

Adam grinned. "Um…because I've told your sister, and asked her to tell your parents, that the reason you weren't able to come home today was because you're going to spend the night at my place for me to help you with your homework, and you with mine. So unless you'd rather go back home and explain why you changed your mind…"

"No, I suppose not." Manny smiled back, looking absolutely relieved. "Thanks, Adam. You saved me there."

"Eh…let's just say that we're even," Adam replied. "After all, you brought back my D-Terminal and White DigiSphere. And I bet right now you must be famished. Believe me, I'd know; after all I've spent some time as a prisoner in that Cave of Solitude as well…"

As if on cue, Manny's stomach growled loudly, earning a round of laughter from the others. Manny's cheeks colored, but then he joined the others laughing. It felt good, having finally broken free from Karatenmon's spell, did some things for the DigiWira as acts of redemption, and being accepted as one of them. The guilt he had been feeling after breaking free of the abhorrence spell placed on him was finally beginning to fade.

"I am a little bit hungry," he admitted finally.

"In that case, let's go home," Liu Ying beckoned.

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**Author's Notes:**

It's been quite a while since I've updated. Sorry about that, but things have gotten a lot busier in real life, with school works and assignments and some other stuffs. That and the fact that I have been on a Digimon Savers marathon didn't really help much with this story's progress. I found myself downloading one episode after another via YouTube until the most recent subbed episode (Episode 26).

Anyway, this chapter has been written during the course of my absence. I've written a lot more stuffs in this chapter but after completing it I found them to be unnecessary and had to cut them off, or put them on hold for future updates. The battle scenes were shortened too as not to make them redundant, as this chapter features two major subplots – one being Manny's redemption and the second was Liu Ying and Labramon's merging into Xianamon.

And speaking of Xianamon…

Name pronunciation: Tsia-Na-Mon

Name derivation: _Xia_ – from _Wuxia_, which means martial arts hero/heroine in Chinese. _Na_ – from _China_. Xianamon literally means a heroine from China monster?

Appearance: A cross between Taomon and Sakuyamon, with Sakuyamon Kabuki Mode's weapon.

And, last but not least, WIRA DIGITAL is now one year old! Yippee!


	20. ShadoWira Unveiled Part V: Spell Broken

Flapping his wings against the cold, harsh winds, Karatenmon soared effortlessly towards the blackened heavens. Shrouded with clouds, that didn't bother the Mage General one bit. With speed and magical attributes favoring him, the avian Digimon increased his speed and flew up towards the upper sky. Watching the layers of cumulus clouds underneath him, Karatenmon noticed the lack of air from being this far above the digital grounds below. Yet, with a simple incantation muttered within a minute that problem was solved.

"It is almost time…" he said with satisfaction; his gleaming yellow eyes were observing the higher cosmos above, which were spattered with twinkling stars, but what attracted his attentions was the three large floating spheres in three different colors – soft fuchsia, calm blue and tranquil green.

These were the three moons of the Digital World. The blue moon was currently flanked by its green and fuchsia counterparts. At the angle Karatenmon was at the moment, the three moons of the Digital World seemed to be positioned nearly at each other's sides.

"It is said that while the individual digital solar eclipse is already a rarity…a threesome eclipse is an even rarity. I however have been waiting for this moment for a long time."

Karatenmon was old, but that was never evident from his Ultimate-level form. Physically, he was five hundred years old. Age-wise, he was eight centuries old; the other three centuries had been robbed from him due to his imprisonment by his former master Wizardmon. Karatenmon had been bitter about it, but that feeling vanished slightly when he was able to delete Wizardmon in a matter of days after the two buffoons who acted as SkullSatamon's pages released him.

The mere mention of Wizardmon's name however, could make Karatenmon's blood boil. It would force him to relive the moments when he was a mere apprentice to the wizard Digimon. He remembered every event like it was yesterday. Five centuries of events began to unfold in his mind.

He had started just as a rookie level Shamanmon, who despite his name, had no magical talent at all. The Shamanmon community he had lived in with shunned him, marking him as a disgrace to their species. Apparently he had been the first of his kind who had no mystical power, while other Shamanmon in the village wielded _at least_ one type of magical power, be it the commonest spell-casting, premonition or levitation to the much more complex healing, image projection and mind reading, to name a few.

Bitter, Shamanmon lived on his own for decades, deciding to use his kind as a tool to con unsuspecting Digimon into paying him to read their fortunes. He would tell them some vague fibs, which sounded so believable and with some strokes of pure dumb luck, would come true. However, one day his act was exposed when he attempted to fool a somewhat common-looking Digimon, who unbeknownst to him, was magical. It was a Digimon called Renamon, and he was determined to expose Shamanmon's defraud. It was then that Shamanmon, out of pure desperation to keep his secret safe, delivered a fatal blow on Renamon's head, successfully deleting him. And it was that moment; Shamanmon discovered the art of data absorption…a forbidden and barely-known art…yet something that would enable him to grow stronger. With Renamon's data, he inadvertently gained the magical fox's ability to shift in and out between dimensions.

Decades turned into a century and the formerly-weak Shamanmon had used the ability well in his conquest to become stronger. With the art of phasing in and out between dimensions, Shamanmon mastered stealth rivaling ninja and digivolved into the dark shinobi Kougamon. Stronger and much more skillful than his rookie form, Kougamon terrorized the peacefulness of many villages in the Digital World. He even destroyed his former home and deleted all the Shamanmon, while absorbing each of their data and added their magical abilities into his own, thus mastering many magical arts within a short period time.

Hearing about Kougamon's threat to the serenity of the Digital World, one Digimon then stepped up to stop him. It was Wizardmon, who was then at his prime and was renowned with his mystical talents, specializing particularly in spell-casting, healing and for manipulation of various elemental powers. Kougamon got hold of the news and decided to absorb Wizardmon, but with the wizard's power it was an impossible task at the time. Thus he concocted a devious plan, and devolved back into his rookie stage, pretending to be the sole survivor of the Shamanmon community. Taking pity of the homeless, powerless Shamanmon, Wizardmon decided to make the goblin Digimon his apprentice and together they would look for Kougamon.

Knowing that Wizardmon would not stop until he had found and deleted Kougamon, Shamanmon possessed an innocent rookie Digimon and tempered with its digital code so that it would digivolve into a Kougamon. Then, Shamanmon staged an encounter between the Kougamon and Wizardmon, and brainwashed the Kougamon into attacking Wizardmon and into declaring that it was _the_ Kougamon Wizardmon was looking for. In order to quicken the whole ordeal, Shamanmon also manipulated Kougamon into kidnapping him, thus leading Wizardmon into killing the innocent Digimon in order to save him.

With 'Kougamon' apparently finished off for good, Wizardmon brought Shamanmon into his home, where to the green goblin's delight, was stocked with many books and scrolls pertaining to magical training. He soon discovered that Wizardmon apparently had already able to access his Ultimate level, but refrained from using it as he had trouble controlling it. The rookie then set a goal in his mind to achieve Ultimate form. Wizardmon allowed Shamanmon free reign for the preliminary spell books but kept the goblin away from the advanced books.

However, Shamanmon would attempt from time to time to get some glimpses of the advanced books, and it was then he encountered a dark spell to increase his power even more. The spell was so complex that it would take Shamanmon a couple of centuries in order to master it. But as Wizardmon's training didn't seem to do him any good as he already had skills akin to an above-average champion Digimon, Shamanmon decided to learn from the dark spells, while tricking his teacher into thinking that he was training with the basic spells.

Slowly but gradually, his power began to increase as the result of both the spell, the accumulated absorbed data within him and Wizardmon's training. Without Wizardmon knowing, Shamanmon then successfully achieved his Ultimate level. Yet, it was during his first digivolution into Karatenmon that he was discovered by Wizardmon, who by then realized that he had deleted the _wrong_ Kougamon. Quickly he digivolved into his unstable Ultimate level – Wisemon – and delivered a near fatal blow towards Karatenmon before devolving back into his champion self. He then severed all ties with his pupil, and was about to destroy him as well, but Karatenmon was able to escape.

After escaping Wizardmon, Karatenmon soon discovered that a war was brewing between the forces of good and evil. A demonic Ultimate Digimon called SkullSatamon had risen to power, and was rallying Digimon who would serve his cause. Having no interest in being good, Karatenmon decided that serving SkullSatamon would be a good way for him to gain protection against Wizardmon. At first, Karatenmon had some thoughts of overthrowing SkullSatamon, but after seeing the power exhibited by the ferocious demon, Karatenmon knew that even Wizardmon would be powerless against SkullSatamon, and opted to serve SkullSatamon willingly. Being an Ultimate Digimon, it was not difficult for Karatenmon to gain SkullSatamon's attention, and he was made a general for SkullSatamon's lower-level army fairly quickly.

And noting his affinity with magical power, SkullSatamon had bestowed him the title Mage General, which Karatenmon was proud to carry.

Throughout the next century, Karatenmon gained respect from his fellow generals and lower peers mostly from his previous reputation. Words had got out that Karatenmon had been the notorious Kougamon who had terrorized the villages of the Digital World two centuries ago, and somehow even the times when he had been the powerless, fortune-telling Shamanmon also got out. But what made Karatenmon feared by many was the fact that he had been Wizardmon's apprentice. Even SkullSatamon had taken that very fact into consideration, as a rumor had circulated that throughout the century of darkness, Wizardmon had begun training an ultimate champion to defeat him.

Despite the fact that he was favored by SkullSatamon and respected by many, deep down Karatenmon harbored a secret. It was a secret that he had determined that would never get out.

His dark magic mastery was incomplete. Powerful, yes, but if Karatenmon wanted to become as dominant as SkullSatamon, he would need to wait for another three hundred years. The dark spell he had dabbled with from Wizardmon's book could only be completed during the day when the three moons of the Digital World would align together in one straight line, in front of the digital sun, to generate a threesome digital solar eclipse. The power that came with the threesome solar eclipse would be the catalyst Karatenmon needed to achieve perfection, as stated in the book….and it was probably what Wizardmon needed as well; Karatenmon had always suspected that somehow Wizardmon had used the dark spell as well to become Wisemon. There was something very fishy about the way how Wizardmon was not able to control his Ultimate form completely.

"Well, I certainly do not have to worry about _that_ anymore!"

Karatenmon chortled darkly and settled to watch the moons, which were moving slowly to begin forming a straight line.

"It is now only a matter of time. I shall wait here; Joshua will make everything easier for me, but I have every intention to see to it that Wizardmon's plan would never be fruitful. The heirs of Grademon's DigiSpheres will not survive the day – _all of them,_ shall not see the light of tomorrow's sun. The dark age of the Digital World shall be restored once again, under the rule of SkullSatamon, and the Digital World shall know that it is Karatenmon who has made that possible."

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**- ShadoWira Unveiled, Part V –**_

**_Chapter 20 – Spell Broken_**

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"_Move it!" _

"Hey!" One male student was shoved, nearly thrown off balance, by a taller boy with blonde hair. He glared at his offender's back, but knew better than to mess with the school's renowned troublemaker. Sighing, the unfortunate student walked away.

"_Outta' my way!" _

Another student, a smaller boy with dark skin and a short-cropped hair, was pushed away by the blonde boy, who had his attention solely fixed on a trio who were sitting at a rather secluded spot at the school's assembly foyer. The commotion he was causing began to draw attentions, but nobody dared to protest towards his actions. Whispers were heard, coming from two girls who wisely moved away from the blonde boy's path. They however weren't quick enough, with the short-haired girl's shoulder knocked against the blonde. The blonde teen huffed and moved away, he didn't bother to stop and apologize.

"Of all the nerve," Dina Fadlullah muttered indignantly as she looked at her friend. "Bel, are you…?"

"We've brushed shoulders," Belinda Foo said dreamily. "I'm not washing this shirt…"

Dina shook her head. "You're impossible. If Gaya were here, she'd tell you the same thing."

As the two girls walked towards the canteen, a plump, songkok-wearing boy approached the blonde. The blonde didn't seem to notice him at first, but when the latter blocked his path he narrowed his hazel eyes in annoyance. His mouth contorted to a sneer, which gave him a malevolency so unbefitting his age.

"Hakim, move your ass out of my way."

Hakim looked flabbergasted at the teen's harshness. "I just…I just want to ask you, whatever did I tell you about Adam…"

JD Kamaruzaman snorted. "Not now. Step aside; you don't want to make _me_ step you aside now, do you?"

As JD didn't sound like he was kidding, Hakim had no choice but to move aside. He watched as JD made his away towards a familiar trio, one of the three being his best friend. The three students however didn't seem to notice that somebody was approaching them; they were too engrossed in their conversation. However, the shadow cast by JD's impressive frame halted their conversation, and the trio – two boys and one girl – turned their attention towards the unwelcome intruder.

"Wow. A private party? Mind if I join you?" JD snickered as he crossed his arms against his chest.

Adam Ariff's formerly pleasant face darkened a little as his eyes narrowed, while both Chang Liu Ying and Emmanuel Abah, who'd had their backs facing JD formerly, turned around quickly. Their reactions attracted the attentions of the passer-bys, but one quick glare from both JD and Liu Ying caused them to walk away. It was hard to discern whether they did that because of the fact that JD was a famous troublemaker, or that Liu Ying was one of the influential prefects in school.

"What do you want?" Liu Ying demanded, staring with a profound loath towards the teenaged villain.

"What are your games now?" Adam said with a flat tone, at the same time Liu Ying spoke.

"My, my, impatient, aren't we?" JD gave his lopsided grin, and tapped his black and red watch. "I'm making my move now."

"During _school time_? You can't be serious!" Liu Ying hissed, but JD merely laughed off her reaction and walked away leisurely. He went towards the farthest end of the corridor, and made a left turn – towards a very secluded area of the school at this time of the day. It was at the school's science labs, where nobody was supposed to be there as it was recess time.

"Come on," Liu Ying gestured. The three of them sprinted towards the science labs, but JD was nowhere in sight.

"There's no way he could disappear like that!" Adam said with disbelief, looking around him.

"Actually," Manny said, drawing immediately the attention of his new comrades. "It's possible. JD's cellphone model is very advanced; it is one of those newer smart phones with an operative system. It can act similar to a computer, and a computer is needed to open a DigiPort. I've seen him done that a couple of times."

"Unbelievable," Liu Ying muttered irritably.

"We can still catch up with him if we go to the computer lab now. Jackie and our partners are already there." Manny beckoned towards the stairs. "But, the flexibility that JD has with his cell phone means that the DigiPort he opened could lead him practically anywhere in the Digital World, while the computers in the lab all pointed towards the Forest Sanctum, right Adam?"

Adam nodded, having filled Manny in with some details the previous night, when the latter spent the night over at his house.

"So let's get to it then," Manny continued.

"Wait a minute! It's school time now," Liu Ying pointed out, shifting her gaze alternately between Adam and Manny.

"I can't believe you're worried about _that_ now," Adam said exasperatedly.

"No. But how are we going to explain our disappearances to the teachers?" Liu Ying asked her fellow DigiWira.

"Umm…good point," the dark-haired boy muttered. His eyes then brightened as an idea sparked in his mind. "How about we ask Jackie to cover for us? In the meantime, let's get moving too. The more time we spend standing around here will give JD more time to destroy the Digital World." And without waiting for Liu Ying's answer, Adam dashed towards the stairs.

Manny looked at Liu Ying wordlessly, his expression clearly said that he agreed with Adam. He then made his way towards the stairs.

Liu Ying huffed. "I can't believe I'm skipping half-day of school because of this." With that, she too, headed towards the stairs which would lead them towards the second floor, where the computer lab was situated.

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The first thing the teens and their partners noticed when they arrived at the Forest Sanctum was the fact that it was a rather dark day. Although it was still morning, the darkness was reminiscent of dusk. The Forest Sanctum had no roof and its main source of light was the sun, but now, they noticed that candles had been lit to illuminate their hideout.

"Don't look upwards," TobuCatmon instructed quickly. "The fabled threesome eclipse is about to happen. You can't watch it directly as it would severely damage your eyesight, but you can observe it through Wizardmon's sun staff. This is a grave moment, DigiWira," TobuCatmon paused as his eyes watched Manny, who looked surprised to be addressed as a DigiWira as well, before resuming, "Karatenmon has been waiting for this moment for a long time. His power will be almost unstoppable – and with one member down the three of you should work together as one."

All of them observed the staff, which was displaying the three moons of the Digital World. The blue moon was at the center, with the fuchsia moon in front of it and the green moon at its back. They were almost in one straight line.

"Not to mention Satriamon will also be fighting us," Adam added with a low tone.

"Adam is right. He will force you to split up so that you will not be at your best against Karatenmon," TobuCatmon said. "Have you any news about Gayathri?"

"Gayathri is supposed to be released from the hospital today, right?" Manny shifted his gazes between Adam and Liu Ying, waiting for conformation.

"I think so," Liu Ying answered. "The doctor confirmed that yesterday, he didn't say exactly what time she'll be released."

"Fairymon will be an invaluable help to us, especially in times like this, but the six of you will have to make do with whatever we have to battle Satriamon and Karatenmon." TobuCatmon sighed. "I will attempt to contact Gayathri and Tanemon to see when exactly they will be able to help us."

"Hey. From the way you said that it's as if you won't be joining us in the fight," Penguinmon suddenly spoke with an annoyed look on its face. His statement immediately drew the attentions the others, save for Manny. "What gives? You fought well enough against that ice freak with us yesterday; we'll need all the help we can get to beat that evil birdbrain and that pyromaniac!"

Patamon and Labramon snickered. "Evil birdbrain? That's really ironic, coming from you," Patamon said.

"Watch it, hamster," Penguinmon warned, and shot a look towards Labramon. "And don't make me spew a nickname on you too; I have one in mind and it certainly is not pleasant to these youngsters' ears."

"I certainly love to see you try…" Labramon said with venom and a sideways smirk towards Patamon.

"Penguinmon…" Manny muttered with exasperation while Adam shook his head.

"These two have been ganging up on me all morning!" Penguinmon protested. "And this morning hamster here suggested to dogface that I should be called fat birdbrain."

"_Dogface_?" Labramon muttered.

"You started it; I seem to remember you calling Patamon 'bat-pig' last night," Manny interjected.

Penguinmon huffed and turned his body sideways irritably. "Whose side are you at anyway? You're my partner; you should be on my side!"

Manny shook his head while Adam offered him a sympathetic smile.

Liu Ying looked at the boys, puzzled. "What was that all about?"

Adam sighed. "They've been at it since last night. While Manny and I got along fine…we can't say the same for our partners."

The female DigiWira looked amused with the fact, and looked down towards her partner. "Labramon?"

"The chubby penguin is quite a mild irritancy at his best," Labramon said nonchalantly.

"HEY!!" Penguinmon cried indignantly and averted his eyes towards TobuCatmon. "I bet you're enjoying the distraction, huh, PussyCatmon? You haven't answered my question; aren't you joining us for the upcoming battle with Karatenmon and Satriamon?"

"You could fight? I have known you for more than half a year now and I am not aware of that fact. You have always said that you are not a fighting type," Labramon stated.

"Hey, no more interruptions until the cat answers my question," Penguinmon said.

TobuCatmon looked as if he had been expecting this question. "I'm not a fighter, yes, but I do know how to defend myself." He turned his gaze towards Manny and Penguinmon. "The attack you two have seen me performed yesterday is actually a recent development, attributed to… a lot of practice. And to answer Penguinmon's question, no, I'm not going to be able to help you. Now that I'm out of the Cave of Solitude I'm bound to protect the Forest Sanctum."

"So you're out from a prison and back in another prison?" Penguinmon reiterated. "Why would the sanctum needs protecting anyway? From what I know it's protected already by some kind of ancient magic or whatever. No evil can waltz in here, welcomed or not. Heck, Karatenmon had quite a hard time figuring out how to capture you without entering here, but it was JD who came up with quite a brilliant solution."

"Hmm?" Both Adam and Liu Ying looked at Penguinmon with interest. They then looked at TobuCatmon inquiringly.

The DigiWira mentor shifted uncomfortably and waved his wings towards the sun staff, which began to show a series of events. "Early yesterday morning, I saw a fight via the staff between Joshua, Flarelizamon and IceDevimon at the Green Meadow. They looked like they were losing and needed dire help. I couldn't contact you as it was way too early in the morning, neither of you would've woken up yet. And since Green Meadow was just outside the sanctum's jungle I decided that I'd help them. In my mind, if IceDevimon was attacking them, perhaps it was because Joshua and Flarelizamon have also broken the spell, and that Karatenmon would have ordered IceDevimon to bring them back to him. So I went out and attacked IceDevimon, only to suddenly find Satriamon behind me. Then the next thing I knew I was in a rather foul-smelling sack." The feline's explanation was sufficiently illustrated by the staff up till the point when Satriamon attacked him from the back with what seemed to be his _Dragonforce Striker_ technique.

"So it was a staged fight to draw you out in the open." Adam made a face as he crossed his arms against his chest. "How very JD." There was a slight sarcasm in the tone, but was downplayed by the evenness of the boy's voice. His face however looked unconcerned. "Anyway, speaking of JD, any idea what he's up too now? He seemed eager to start a fight back at school."

"Not that it's unusual," Liu Ying added. "But Adam's right. JD said that he was going to make his move."

The sun staff shimmered, drawing everyone's attentions towards it.

"Looks like the staff is going to answer your questions in my behalf," TobuCatmon said. Upon meeting Penguinmon's narrowing eyes, the feline Champion sighed. "And pertaining to your earlier question, Penguinmon…there's more to the Forest Sanctum than what you already know. I'm not a prisoner of the sanctum, but rather, I'm at my best while inside the sanctum's protection, both power-wise and defense-wise. I can step out from the sanctum's protection anytime I want, but outside I'm just a somewhat average Champion-level Digimon. And the sanctum's not hundred percent impenetrable; the magic invoked around the sanctum is only strong enough to prevent those who aren't as strong as the ones who cast the spell. Those such as SkullSatamon or a powered-up Karatenmon probably would be able to penetrate the barriers around the sanctum if sufficient efforts are taken by them. Someone needs to stay inside to ensure that the sanctum remains safe, should that happen. Luckily that never happens, but it's always wise to be alert."

"Who invoked the spells around the sanctum?" Adam asked.

"Grademon and Wizardmon, backed up by the White, Pink and Yellow DigiSpheres." TobuCatmon then beckoned towards the staff. "But enough about that; we have a dire situation right now that needs your attention." They however halted when the others who had been observing the staff turned around with serious looks on their faces.

Adam looked at them curiously. His curiosity was further piqued when the sanctum darkened up to the point where it almost resembled nightfall.

"The threesome solar eclipse…it's happening now," Liu Ying stated grimly.

xxx

xxx

"It is happening!" Karatenmon closed his eyes as he basked in the power that came from the much-anticipated eclipse.

His chest tightened, the muscles on his arms and legs became tauter and his wings became momentarily rigid as the foretold solar eclipse took place. Glowing with purple aura, Karatenmon felt stronger as seconds passed. Floating above the cumulus, he opened his eyes and watched the sun, completely blocked by the three moons of the Digital World. The kaleidoscope of color coming from the ring that formed as the effect of the moons blocking the sun fascinated him; he could feel the power coming from it.

Physically, Karatenmon didn't look different, but there was a certain edge now displayed by his very being. He had improved in many ways, but it was difficult to point out exactly how he'd changed, but indeed he felt like he was no longer the same Karatenmon. After several centuries, his dream was fulfilled. He had reached the pinnacle of his power.

With little more training, perhaps he could unlock his Mega level as well today. But even with the sheer amount of power he had now, Karatenmon had no doubt that he could give any Mega Digimon a great challenge, if not beat them.

"It is just too bad that Wizardmon is not here to experience this as well," he thought with a smirk. "His Wisemon form needed a lot of fine-tuning, as I recall. But certainly I am not complaining now of his absence; it is I who had killed him anyway." His smugness was only mirrored by his confidence. "Nothing could stop me now….nothing."

Something crossed his mind. "Ah yes. The meddlesome DigiWira and the traitorous ShadoWira. It is time to pit dear Joshua against his fellow humans. It shall be a beautiful sight indeed when he slays the DigiWira and that renegade Emmanuel, and it will be a prettier sight when I lift my spell over him. The guilt will consume him and take away his sanity, he shall wish for nothing more than death itself. Perhaps I should force him to commit suicide? If he refuses, I suppose it will not be a problem either, because I can just kill him and be done with it."

He snickered gleefully at his thought. His eyes suddenly narrowed as one possibility came up. It could spoil his plan. "But that girl with the Yellow DigiSphere has unlocked her fused form as well. Satriamon might not fare well against _both_ Samudramon and Xianamon. There is also Adam and Sagittarimon to consider. Joined forces, they might beat him…

"But no matter, they can _never_ break the spell. To do that they will have to delete me, and that is a joke so funny I could die laughing and the spell over Joshua would be lifted without effort.

"And I suppose if they do beat Joshua, they will never have the heart to finish him off. They could never kill a fellow human. Probably weaken from battle by then, I will then single-handedly slay all of them myself.

"All possibilities are in favor of mine. There is nothing to worry about. All I have to do now is to sit back, and enjoy the show."

Karatenmon let his power slip and allowed gravity to pull his body down to the earth. When he passed down the clouds, he retracted his wings which halted the gravity pull, and walked over the air lazily until he reached the highest peak of a cluster of stone hills. Standing there, he looked down below and saw a figure in bright red armor looking up at him. He nodded towards the red figure, no words needed to be spoken as Satriamon understood what he needed to do.

He then watched Satriamon go, and followed him quietly from the air. From where he was floating, he could see amidst the darkness elicited by the eclipse, the lush greenery of a wide paddock located not so far from the stone ridges. Thick forests lined the farthest end of the meadow, and Karatenmon knew that deep within those forests was the hideout of the DigiWira, formerly the hideout of Grademon and Wizardmon from SkullSatamon. The forest was enchanted with a spell so strong that no evil could walk through it, invited or uninvited.

The forest is of no concern for now. If the DigiWira were destroyed, there was no need to infiltrate the forest.

"Let the battle begin…and here is to hope that it will not be a corny ending where good triumphs over evil."

xxx

xxx

"Isn't this the place where we fought Lynxmon?" Adam wondered, from atop Sagittarimon's body. He looked sideways at the elegant feminine Digimon who was hovering beside his centaur partner.

"Yes." They were in the same valley where they had fought Lynxmon, who had been Liu Ying and Labramon's first challenge as a DigiWira. The Stone Valley still looked the same; walled by stone hills, narrow passage, and deathly quiet. No signs of vegetation were seen, only sands, dry lands and rocks. Xianamon then glanced behind, towards a man with his lower body, waist-down, enveloped by swirls of water. "Why here, I wonder?"

The man waved the silver trident he was holding, and the water vanished, revealing a sleek blue fish-tail. The fishtail shimmered and was transformed into a pair of legs as the merman, now human, descended on the coarse ground. Samudramon shrugged as he noted his surrounding. "You tell me. I wasn't even a ShadoWira yet, I think, when you guys fought this…Lynxmon."

Adam wrinkled his nose. "I don't like this. It looks fishy." The dark passage was giving him the creeps. Not to mention, the sound of the wind billowing through the passage created a whispery sound which unnerved all four of them.

"Everyone stays alert, we're going in," Sagittarimon said, and trod into the narrow passage carefully. An arrow was already fixated on the bow, ready to be shot should anything come towards them. And he had no qualms of Adam riding on him; the boy had excelled in his teleportation skill. He could get himself to safety, if not for both of them, and Sagittarimon knew that with their bond usually, unless Adam thought specifically not too, whenever the boy teleported he would join along the ride as well.

Suddenly something that looked like a meteorite streaked down from above and crashed onto the ground, causing a loud fiery explosion. The ground reverberated and Sagittarimon and Samudramon struggled to maintain their balance. The earthquake continued as thick smokes blocked the passage the DigiWira were going.

Xianamon held her right arm up in a meditative position and her left hand lowered; the feather duster was pointed towards the ground. She was floating in midair, thanks to Liu Ying's telekinetic ability, thus immune to the earthquake. Deploying the earth power within the Yellow DigiSphere, her body glowed with yellowish-tan aura and a beam was shot from the feather duster towards the ground. Instantly, the rumbling earth calmed.

Claps were heard, coming from the smokes. Satriamon emerged, snickering as the claps he'd done echoed all over the rocky valley.

"That was just for starters." The red-armored knight grinned towards the DigiWira with a similar lopsided grin that could only be pulled off by JD. "Still no sign of that girlfriend of yours, Manny. Where is she anyway? It's really unlike her to not show up in two consecutive battles." Besides, it wasn't as if Satriamon really cared that Gayathri was not there; it was merely an annoyance to him right now as he wouldn't be able to finish up all the DigiWira at once.

"Not for you to find out," Samudramon answered evenly, and pointed his trident towards the villain. JD hadn't been made aware of the fact that Gayathri was hospitalized, and the DigiWira wanted to keep it that way.

Adam looked around nervously. "Umm…I think I better go behind those rocks." Sagittarimon nodded, and Adam vanished from his back in sparkling white orbs. He reappeared around the corner from where they had came from earlier, just enough distance to remain safe from the melee that was about to occur. Sagittarimon, Samudramon and Xianamon then applied their battle stances in order to combat Satriamon; they were now waiting for Satriamon to initiate the battle.

Satriamon chuckled. "I'll deal with you later, kiddo, after I trash your friends and partner."

The three Digimon tensed; Satriamon sounded so full of himself that they couldn't help but to feel unnerved.

"JD, stop it." Samudramon wanted to at least try appeal to the human within Satriamon; he knew from experience that Karatenmon's spell was extremely powerful. The spell on him wavered due to his affection for Gayathri and the potent dark spell eliminating attack from Lilymon, which was twice delivered onto him.

"Oh, save it," Satriamon snorted. "Not even that flower girl Lilymon could make me weak as you are now. Karatenmon's giving me more power; I'm stronger than any of you!"

"He is so full of himself," Xianamon commented.

Satriamon snickered. "Don't believe me? How about a demo then?" The fused fire-based Digimon then leaped forward, withdrawing his gauntlet-clad arm back as he made way towards Xianamon, who hovered over Samudramon and Sagittarimon. Flames erupted from the gauntlet and an image of a blazing dragon erupted from Satriamon's back, coupled with an earsplitting roar as the image came to life. The dragon coiled around Satriamon's gauntlet as the knight attempted to attack Xianamon.

"_Dragonforce Striker!!"_

Xianamon quickly attempted to defend herself, but she was shocked when suddenly the villain turned sideways and slashed Sagittarimon instead. The draconic centaur howled in pain, and Satriamon delivered a swift kick over the centaur's front legs, causing the massive creature to topple onto the ground. Without mercy, and with a murderous glint reflected from his eyes, Satriamon used his Chrome Digizoid gauntlet to break through Sagittarimon's protective armor, exposing the leathery torso underneath. He then sent a torrent of flames onto Sagittarimon's chest and burned the hide, gravely injuring Sagittarimon.

Samudramon couldn't believe his eyes; Satriamon had gotten so swift that everything seemed to be happening within a blink of the eye. He then saw Satriamon was about to assault Sagittarimon once again with his Dragonforce Striker technique, and quickly decided to intercept the attack.

"_Thunder Storm!!"_

"Pathetic!" Satriamon didn't move; instead he did a somersault and kicked the electric-blue thunderbolt sideways. The thunderbolt sailed malevolently towards Xianamon.

Once again, the move was unpredicted, but Xianamon was careful enough to eye Satriamon's every movement, and when she saw the deflected thunderbolt, quickly she employed Liu Ying's shielding ability to create an invisible ward in front of her. Now as Xianamon her proficiency and power had increased, and Samudramon's thunderbolt was countered with yellow energy bolts that reverberated from her own ward. The ward shook for a moment but then the thunderbolt exploded in a flash of golden light. Xianamon then emerged from the lights and waved her feather-duster, sending thousands of needle projectiles towards the armored knight.

"_Diamond World Mandala!!"_

Waves of indigo and yellow lights were showered onto Satriamon and Xianamon made sure that the waves would shower Sagittarimon as well. The Diamond World Mandala could heal her allies and injure her enemies; it was a perfect attack in times like this.

However, Satriamon knew what was coming and whilst evading the attack he delivered a powerful roundhouse kick towards the hulking figure of Sagittarimon, throwing the centaur out of Xianamon's attack range. Turning around, his body began to emit a black aura with a sickly green hue. This made him look even deadlier than before as dark power radiated from the aura. It was the same aura that Reichmon had back during their first encounter at Megalith Coliseum. The black aura consumed Xianamon's Diamond World Mandala attack and Satriamon laughed heartily.

"It cannot be!" Xianamon gasped. She however knew better than to just stand still in shock, and waved her feather duster towards the ground. Yellow energy wave was blasted onto the earth, and suddenly the earth began to rumble. _"Gaia Retaliation!!" _

The ground where the wave hit cracked as an earthquake happened all of a sudden. The crack grew larger and formed a crevice right underneath Satriamon, causing the fire knight Digimon to yelp in surprise before he jumped away from the opening. His path to safety was further blocked as several massive stones fell from the top of the rocky hills, all making Satriamon their targets. The sands from the ground were magically lifted and were sprayed by an unseen force towards Satriamon's face, blinding his sight and hampering his escape. Satriamon howled as he attempted to block the sands from entering his eyes even more, which successfully halted his attempt to escape Xianamon's earth-based attack. The rocks that fell from the top of the hills around the barren valley buried Satriamon underneath them, not allowing the villain a chance to escape.

Xianamon heaved her breath slowly as she lowered herself to the ground. Even she was shaken by the effect of her attack; she had thought that the Diamond World Mandala, her primary magical attack, was the strongest attack she could muster. However, the Gaia Retaliation technique, her primary earth technique, had proven to be more useful against a threat such as Satriamon.

"Didn't you just go overbroad a little?" Samudramon croaked, out of sheer surprise and awe of Xianamon's display of power.

Xianamon sighed as she tried to breathe easily; the attack had taxed her. "He will live."

The stones suddenly shook violently and a figure exploded out, sending debris all over the valley. A figure fully coated with dark aura emerged, and he didn't look at all happy. Several parts of his armors were chipped and scratched, but his gauntlet was still intact and he looked relatively uninjured. Cuts could be seen on his cheeks, and blood leaked out from his nose and the lower right corner of his mouth.

"He's still in one piece!" Samudramon exclaimed. "And not to mention, extremely, downright pissed!" he added in a tone that could only belong to Penguinmon.

"DAMN YOU!" Satriamon shouted; his voice sounded maniacal. The black aura which surrounded him pulsed crazily as he walked down the pile of stones, kicking away any that stood his way. His eyes blazed with crimson intensity as he held his arms up. _"Shadow Flame Helix!!"_

From one arm, a dragon made of orange fire emerged while from another arm, a hissing serpent blazing with greenish black flames coiled out. The two fiery creatures both went for Xianamon and Samudramon, roaring and hissing as they bared their deadly fangs, burning with red hot and black flames.

"Look out!" Xianamon shouted as she raised her telekinetic barrier to stop the black serpent from reaching her. To her surprise, the serpentine image crushed its fangs onto the barrier, and the barrier broke. Xianamon found herself coiled by the snake tight, and summoned the lasts of her energy to coat her entire body with defensive aura. She felt the serpent's body burning onto her own, and gasped for breath.

"Xianamon!" Samudramon raised his trident towards the sky and propelled himself upwards with the water that appeared around him from out of nowhere. The orange dragon coiled around the water spire but roared as its flames came upon contact with the cool water. His legs morphed back into his merman tail and Samudramon maintained his stance; he was safe for a brief few seconds as Satriamon tried to figure out how to get to him. But he had to save Xianamon. An inspiration struck him.

"_Divine Rain!!" _

The sky thundered and clouds began to form above the battlefield. A heavy downpour suddenly rained from the heavens, causing both the dragon and the serpent to recoil in pain as their fiery bodies came into contact with the rains. They had no way to escape and their bodies slowly dissipated into wisps of smokes. The dragon that was after him was the first to vanish, while the black serpent seemed to need a little more persuasion. Thus Samudramon swung his trident down and raised his left arm towards the sky.

"_Deep Ocean Submerge!!" _

'_Hope you can swim, Xianamon,'_ Samudramon prayed, and unleashed a tsunami of water from both his trident and his hand. The attack was focused primarily to eliminate the black serpent, while at the same time thwarting Satriamon as well. Seeing that the serpent was able to withstand his Divine Rain technique Samudramon had no choice but to drown everybody in the nearby vicinity with his Deep Ocean Submerge. He couldn't see Adam or Sagittarimon, but hoped that Adam was able to teleport himself and his partner away to safety. Looking down, Samudramon decided that it was time to call back the attack and waved his trident up. The water flowed away from the valley and the serpent was nowhere in sight. Xianamon, glowing faintly in yellow aura, was lying on the ground but conscious; apparently she had used her barrier-projecting capability to not only protect herself from the serpent but from being drowned by Samudramon's Deep Ocean Submerge.

Something however looked wrong.

Satriamon was nowhere in sight. Samudramon looked around anxiously, when suddenly he heard the distinct sound like an erupting volcano. He turned his body around, only to find himself colliding with a raging fireball, which knocked him off the water pillar he had created earlier. The fireball zoomed down and magma-Satriamon emerged before shifting back into the regular Satriamon. Samudramon however felt himself plummeting towards the wet ground, but his fall was slowed by…something.

'_I have to stop him from falling.''_ Xianamon concentrated her telekinetic power to safely bring Samudramon down. A tall shadow fell on her lying form right after she managed to place Samudramon onto the ground.

"You take out all the fun!" Satriamon seethed, and held one arm towards the helpless Xianamon. "For that, feel my _Dark Rage!!"_

An obsidian wave emerged from his gauntlet-less arm and hit Xianamon squarely on her bosom. Her body convulsed in pain before it glimmered in yellow light, separating back into a battered-up Liu Ying and an equally beaten up Shaomon.

"Heh. Piece of cake." Satriamon turned around and saw the horrified look on Samudramon's face. "Don't worry old friend, I haven't forgotten about you! _Dark Rage!!"_

Samudramon was blasted with the same attack, and dedigivolved unwillingly back into Manny and Penguinmon. Their conditions however were much better than their female friends; Samudramon was not injured in any way prior to the sudden dedigivolution, which made Manny wonder why did they dedigivolve?

"Now, who should I destroy first?" Satriamon said cockily. He pointed his finger towards Manny. "Eenie…" He then shifted the same finger towards the beaten up Liu Ying. "Meenie…" The finger was then taken back towards Manny… "Mynie…" …before finally pointed back towards Liu Ying. "Mo. Ladies first!"

"Ladies first? Why thank you…at least you have manners!" exclaimed a familiar perky voice from above. "I thought that you're just a brainless brute."

"What the hell?" Satriamon looked up in annoyance, recognizing the newcomer's voice immediately.

"It can't be…" Manny looked up as well, and couldn't conceal his grin upon seeing the floating feminine Digimon that had come to their rescue.

Liu Ying and Shaomon breathed out in relief. "Thank goodness."

Floating several meters above them was a skimpy-outfitted sprite with glittering transparent wings. She had her hands on her hips.

Fairymon.

xxx

xxx

"Sagittarimon…" Adam looked upon his injured partner with worry. "You're hurt. Badly."

The centaur's breathed out raggedly, and it worried Adam even more to hear the apparent difficulty Sagittarimon was having in doing so. He was lying on the ground, too weak to move due to the wounds he had sustained from Satriamon. He was not battle-weary, thus he remained in his Armored Champion form instead of devolving into Rookie. But regressing into Patamon was the only way for him to heal, and it didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Sagittarimon could only attribute it to the fact that somehow, he was still needed in his current form.

Prior in seeing Samudramon was about to launch his attack, Adam had wisely teleported both of them away to a further, higher location so that they wouldn't be drowned by the merman's submerging technique. Both of them however were wet due to the rains, which didn't seem to help Sagittarimon with his injury.

"I don't know what to do," Adam said, slightly panicky. He eyed his gray jacket, which was already compressed on Sagittarimon's bleeding chest. The jacket was already soaked wet, apparently with liquefied data that was akin to blood. The boy considered using the white long-sleeved skintight shirt he was wearing to compress the wound, but Sagittarimon had declined.

"Perhaps," a chilling voice said from the shadows. "You should just give up."

Before Adam could even turn around, a hand snatched up his shirt from behind, pulling him along. He saw black feathers covering the captor's arm and knew instantly who had seized him. His blood ran cold; he may have escaped Satriamon but he'd been captured by…

"Karatenmon."

"You really have missed a battle down there," Karatenmon said with a light, uncaring tone. "Satriamon has been trashing both Xianamon and Samudramon, thanks to my power-ups over him. I was watching from afar, and when I saw you escaping I knew that I would have to take care of you myself. Your teleportation power is really a nuisance to me; Satriamon could have destroyed all of you in one go but then you went and teleported him away."

"As far as I remember Satriamon was the one who kicked Sagittarimon in my direction," Adam grunted.

Karatenmon snickered. "Smart boy…it is just too bad that smart boys do not really bode well with me. I like them…destroyed, so that they will not foil my plan." He raised Adam up with one arm, clutching his claws securely around Adam's throat, causing the boy to gag.

"Let…Adam…go!" Sagittarimon demanded harshly, and struggled to stand up. His body shook with fury when he fell back on his knees once more.

Adam's gray eyes widened; it was as if he was experiencing deja-vu all over again. "Sagittarimon…don't…"

"Oooh, what is that? The boy does not want to be saved, does he not?" Karatenmon said, and swung Adam over the cliff. "Oh no, I cannot just let him go off the cliff, the boy would just deploy his teleportation ability and go off somewhere safe. No, no…almost fooled me now have you not?" Karatenmon walked towards the hard walls of the hills. "Now, this is more like it. How about I crush his head over and over again onto the wall? That way, his death is a guarantee."

"Don't…don't…you…DARE!!" Sagittarimon howled, and black aura erupted from his body. Suddenly, Sagittarimon slowly, clumsily, stood up on all fours. The wounds were still there, but their presence didn't seem to bother or limit Sagittarimon anymore.

"No…Sagittarimon, don't!" Adam pleaded. _'Please, not again. Not Black Knightmon…'_ Adam's Digivice shook violently.

"Hmm…dark-digivolving into Black Knightmon again?" Karatenmon snickered.

Adam's D-Terminal shook as well; he immediately hoped that with the White DigiSphere in his possession now, the power of light that resided within it would be able to stop Sagittarimon's attempt to dark-digivolve. His heart pained when he thought that Sagittarimon was risking, once again, his sanity and life, in order to rescue Adam.

This time around, Adam wouldn't let his partner down. With determination and noticing that Karatenmon was distracted with Sagittarimon, Adam kicked Sagittarimon on the torso. This took the Mage General by surprise; Karatenmon squawked loudly and inadvertently loosened his hold over Adam's neck. Seeing this, Sagittarimon sprang towards Karatenmon and delivered a punch onto the avian Digimon's face, which nearly crushed his beak. The centaur then grabbed Adam and withdrew from the evil general.

"Sagittarimon, don't do this," Adam said softly. "Don't dark-digivolve. It's not worth it."

"You're worth the risk," the centaur said gruffly, staring at his human partner who was safely held within his grasp. "And Black Knightmon is a surefire way to beat this evil fiend."

In a way, Adam was glad to hear the centaur's reply; it showed him that Sagittarimon was still in a right state of mind. But the black aura that was glowing all over the centaur still bothered him, and gave Adam a creepy sensation. And Adam felt…strange, weaker somehow, when he was in close presence with the darkened Sagittarimon.

"There's another way, I'm sure of it," Adam urged Sagittarimon; his eyes trailed back to Karatenmon who was beginning to regain his stature.

"I don't see us using the Digital Access ability like the others," Sagittarimon growled. "Dark-digivolving is the only way."

"No, it's not. I don't want to lose you. I'll teleport us out to the others, and we…we'll think of something. Just don't dark-digivolve."

"…"

"Promise me, Sagittarimon."

"I…"

"Please?" Adam's voice sounded broken. Heartbroken.

How could the centaur deny his partner's request, despite how important he thought his impending action would be doing to their situation? "I…alright…"

With Sagittarimon's confirmation suddenly Adam's D-Terminal sprang out from its compartment. At first, Adam thought that he was about to gain a fused warrior form similar to Samudramon and Xianamon, but his eyes widened when it wasn't the White DigiSphere that came out from the device.

Instead, it was the Ivory Gem. Adam had almost forgotten about it, having been separated from it for a long time.

The arrowhead-shaped gemstone released a brilliant flash of white light as Sagittarimon placed Adam onto the ground. The flash soon vanished, and the creepy sensation that he was getting from Sagittarimon had instantly vanished, replaced by warmth. He turned around slowly; aware of the lights glittering from Sagittarimon thus he had to raise his arms to protect his eyes as he turned to look at his partner, wondering what could have changed. He gasped upon setting eyes on the shining figure behind him.

Karatenmon saw what was happening as well, and was surprised with the sudden turn of event.

"Curse it!!"

xxx

xxx

"Hah! What a joke!" Satriamon sneered, upon seeing Fairymon's entry. "You think _you_ could stop me? I've beaten your friends severely, and they were at their highest forms then! You're just a mere Champion; I could beat you without lifting my arm."

"Words, just words," Fairymon shrugged. "Attack me if you can, I dare you."

She flew away towards the opposite direction, but Satriamon wasn't fooled. If Fairymon was around, Gayathri would be close by. He remained close by for a moment, waiting just in case Gayathri would appear.

"What's the matter, pretty-boy? You're not scared of little ol' me now are you?"

Satriamon started to feel annoyed, but tried to ignore the sprite.

"Ooh…what's this? Flame boy's afraid to chase after me? Oho! Why, I never would have thought!"

Manny and Penguinmon couldn't believe what they were hearing. They've had a major hard time trying to beat Satriamon, and here Fairymon was taunting Satriamon to attack her. Didn't she know that she was only egging Satriamon? Satriamon could delete her instantly with his sheer power; Manny had seen that with his own eyes.

"Don't make me say the C-word now, Human Torch wannabe!"

Satriamon swore foully which made Fairymon's cheeks adopt a redder shade than before. The sprite growled in anger and huffed.

"Well, you're CHICKEN! You know that? Cluck, cluck, cluck…"

"That's it."

Satriamon chased after Fairymon, and both Manny and Penguinmon sweatdropped. A gust of wind was suddenly heard, and Manny saw a flash of pink coming from the way they'd used to enter the Stone Valley. Despite the situation they were in, Manny couldn't help but grin when he saw a familiar petite figure with lovely curly brown hairs. The girl had a bandage around her head, but otherwise looked perfectly fine.

"Hey," Gayathri smiled. The smile soon vanished. "C'mon, we need to go. You're strong enough to walk so I'm gonna help Liu Ying, ok?"

"Oh…umm…sure," Manny said, not believing that he could get tongue-tied at a dire moment like this. He watched Gayathri zipped away towards Liu Ying and beckoned for Penguinmon to go first. He watched as Gayathri flung Liu Ying's arm across her shoulder and helped the willowy girl stand. Seeing that Shaomon would need someone to carry her, Manny quickly went to pick the little puppy Digimon so that Gayathri would be able to escape with Liu Ying without much distraction. With Liu Ying in tow, Gayathri zipped off, while Manny immediately made a run for it with Shaomon in his arms.

"Why, oh why, didn't I dedigivolve to Tsunomon? That way I don't have to run, you'd be carrying me!" Penguinmon whined as he trotted behind Manny.

Manny and Penguinmon however halted when they saw Gayathri stopped in front of them, screaming. The reason was immediately apparent, causing them to gasp in horror.

Karatenmon stood there, blocking their escape. A malevolent sneer was fixated on his face. Despite the fact that there was a clean hole on his right chest, which was bleeding out liquefied data, he stood there calmly and staring towards the girls.

"Going somewhere?" he leered. His voice wavered a little, but still had that edge which sent chills down the DigiWira's spines.

Another piercing scream echoed the narrow valley, followed by a contemptuous laugh that belonged to Satriamon. They immediately knew that Fairymon had fallen as well. Everyone dreaded upon the sprite's fate; what if Satriamon didn't hold back his power when he attacked Fairymon?

Feeling compelled to check on Fairymon's condition, as she was the one who'd made it possible for them to attempt escape although that failed as well, Manny went back towards the rocky valley. He immediately saw Satriamon advancing towards a writhing Tanemon.

"JD, stop! She's defenseless!" Manny shouted.

Satriamon turned sideways and snickered. "Oh, it's you. How about if I attack you?!"

"How about you pick on someone your own size, Satriamon?"

All three of them turned around as a bright flash of white light ensued. Sagittarimon emerged from the lights with Adam riding on top of him…but there was something different about the Digimon. He looked like Sagittarimon, but was wearing a completely different set of armor. Whereas the former Sagittarimon wore crimson armor with yellow designs, the Sagittarimon they were witnessing now was wearing pristine white armor, with golden accents. His armor had adapted a slightly sharper edge on it; no longer had the white armor had the smooth curves of the crimson armor.

"Introducing, Sagittarimon – Radiant Mode," Adam said as he peered from his partner's back. He held out one arm out and summoned, "TANEMON!"

Tanemon was immediately teleported out of harm's way and into his grasp. Adam saw that the injury the little vegetation Digimon had sustained was extensive and felt sorry for his friend. He jumped down from Sagittarimon to allow his partner to battle Satriamon, and approached Manny.

"Take her, and run," Adam instructed, handing out Tanemon to him.

"We can't; Karatenmon's there!" Manny exclaimed.

"He's there?" Adam repeated, somewhat surprised. "Sagittarimon's injured him just now; we thought he had run away."

Adam saw a flash of pink light coming his way. Gayathri, holding Liu Ying, appeared within the pink streaks of light when they approached Adam. Sagittarimon had his gleaming white bow ready with one golden arrow already fixated on the string, ready to be released at any moment notice.

"We'll hold them off; you guys escape the other way." Adam beckoned towards the other side of the valley.

"We can't just leave you here," Gayathri protested.

"You can. I'm the one with the power to teleport away anytime I like, right?" Adam assured his teammates. "Don't worry. I don't plan to pit Sagittarimon against Satriamon AND Karatenmon despite his new power-up; I've nearly lost him again just now no thanks to Karatenmon. Gayathri, you and Liu Ying go first. Quickly, we don't have much time."

"Take care, Adam," Gayathri said, and zipped off with Liu Ying towards the other side of the valley's entrance.

Satriamon saw the girls escaping and was about to stop them, when…

"_Celestial Judgment Arrow!!"_

…a golden arrow streaked just past his face, hitting the stone walls instead. The arrow proved to be so sharp and deadly, it caused the valley's wall to rumble as the arrow streaked through it, leaving a clean hole that marked its trail. The hole however was beginning to destroy the stone wall's solid foundation. Cracks began to spread out from the hole at a slow rate.

"Don't even think about it," Sagittarimon warned. He was glad to see that the girls were already out of sight.

"Manny, Penguinmon, ride on Sagittarimon, now."

"What about you?"

"Why do people always forget that I can teleport myself away? I can't teleport everyone away but Sagittarimon can get all of you out quickly."

There was a certain edge on Adam's voice that Manny found intimidating, and he couldn't argue with Adam's logic. He did as he was told, and Penguinmon was relieved that he wouldn't have to run. Manny held both Shaomon and Tanemon securely against his body and Sagittarimon began to make way to escape. Satriamon was about to go chase after Sagittarimon, but when he saw Adam remaining at the battlefield his interest was piqued and he sneered towards the DigiWira.

"How noble of you," he jeered. "I suppose your friends seem to forget that your teleportation is severely limited?"

Adam remained quiet, hoping that what he had in mind would work. It was a daredevil, kamikaze plan, but to ensure his friends' safeties Adam had to risk it. After forcing Karatenmon to retreat earlier, Adam had discussed the plan with Sagittarimon. The centaur had adamantly refused to agree with his plan as it would put his partner's life in great peril. But Adam knew that his friends wouldn't fare well against Satriamon and Karatenmon all at once, they would have to retreat and regroup.

Adam however had neglected to mention the fact that his teleportation power worked in short distance. In that dire moment, no one noticed it and Adam was glad. It was ironic that it was Satriamon who realized about it first, but then again, hadn't JD done a complete research about him? Nevertheless, the plan could still work; with the White DigiSphere in his possession Adam's power was no longer limited – he'd just have to perform multiple teleportation to get out of the valley and hope that it wouldn't tire him out before he'd reach the safety of the Forest Sanctum.

But first, he needed to make sure that all of his friends had escaped the valley. As long as he could hear the sounds of Sagittarimon galloping, he must never attempt to escape towards the same direction. That left him in the battlefield, with the other way blocked by an injured Karatenmon.

The DigiWira leader backed away slowly towards the direction where Karatenmon was at. '_Time to see if my foolhardy plan can actually work. God-willing, hopefully it will. Or else, it's bye-bye Adam…'_

Satriamon smirked. '_Now what the hell the kid is up to?' _He observed Adam's movement with interest, noting that Adam was moving towards the first entrance of the valley instead of the one the other DigiWira had used to escape. _'Ah, I get it. He's trying to escape the other way so that we'd chase him instead of his friends. Kid's got a hero-complex in him.'_

Karatenmon appeared thirty meters away from Adam, causing the boy to pause. The Mage General was clutching his bleeding chest, a souvenir of Sagittarimon's Celestial Judgment Arrow, and was staring towards Adam with fury. He was shaking with anger.

"I shall deal with him," he said tonelessly and extended both of his wings. Adam's eyes widened.

Satriamon didn't exactly appreciate the sudden change of plan. "HEY! Back off, Karatenmon! You told me that I'm the one who's going to finish off all the DigiWira, and that traitor!"

"So go after the others, I have a personal score to settle with this brat!"

"No. He's here, in front of me. You have a score to settle with his partner, not him. Sagittarimon hurt you, so go after that blasted centaur. Adam hurt me once, so I'll be the one to destroy him. _You_ can go after the rest!"

Adam held his breath. _'It's working.'_ He widened his eyes, feigning being transfixed.

"If you do not move, then you shall be at the receiving ends of my attack as well!"

"I could say the same thing about YOU, birdbrain!"

"Insolent fool! _Ballistic Feathers!!"_

"_Dark Rage!!"_

Adam closed his eyes. _'NOW!'_

Just as the two attacks were about to collide upon him, Adam vanished in swirls of bright orbs. He could hear screaming from both villains as he vanished completely, with a couple of cuts from the front-most feather projectiles from Karatenmon, and luckily Satriamon's Dark Rage attack didn't hit him yet as it was released seconds after Karatenmon had unleashed his attack. He reappeared merely meters away from the crossfire path between Satriamon and Karatenmon, at the place where Sagittarimon had fired his warning arrow towards Satriamon earlier. Adam was just in time to witness Satriamon being at the receiving end of Karatenmon's merciless projectiles, and he soon dedigivolved back into JD and a pink puff ball Digimon Adam didn't recognize. They appeared to be unconscious. JD had multiple cuts all over his body; his uniform was slashed in various sites. The pink puffball didn't fare better as well.

Everything became quiet. One minute passed and nothing happened. Adam could see JD and the Digimon, which Adam presumed to be the In-Training form of Agumon. He didn't hear anything coming from Karatenmon as well.

Adam could've teleported out from Stone Valley right there and then, but somehow, he felt bad for leaving JD there. The blonde teen was obviously gravely injured. Adam couldn't just leave him there. Good or bad, JD was human. Despite the bitterness Adam had against the older boy, deep down Adam knew he couldn't put the blame entirely on JD. Manny had told him the previous night that Karatenmon's spell was extremely strong.

'_Strangely, it didn't really take much effort to defeat Karatenmon…' _Adam mused. _'Sagittarimon in Radiant Mode is able to injure him easily. I suppose with all that powers Karatenmon has gotten from the solar eclipse, it didn't make him immune to physical attacks. It didn't make him invincible from Sagittarimon's Celestial Judgment Arrow. From what I could see…Satriamon had more power, being able to trash each of us and still maintain his fused form. He's truly a powerful Digimon. It'll be great if he's on our side like Samudramon.'_

Adam approached the unmoving figure of JD and his partner cautiously, remaining in the shadows as not to attract Karatenmon's attention. For all he knew, Karatenmon could be there waiting for him to step up towards JD. Adam however doubted that; if Karatenmon was conscious he'd destroy JD and the In-Training. Praying that nothing would go wrong, Adam stepped towards JD's body, and gasped when he glanced sideways.

Karatenmon was missing.

'_Is he deleted? For good?' _Adam thought. _'It's unbelievable! JD's still alive and Karatenmon's gone! That means, Satriamon is more powerful than Karatenmon!'_

Suddenly, Adam felt something grabbing his right ankle. He lost his balance when his right leg was yanked, causing him to fall on his back. To his utmost shock, JD leaped up and pinned him on the ground firmly. He had a glazed expression and his eyes shone blood-red. An ugly sneer contorted his facial feature. Both of his hands were tightly grasped around Adam's neck.

"Your curiosity is really going to be the end of you, Adam," JD said. "You should've just escape when you had the chance!"

Adam choked and felt his windpipe slowly being constricted by the unyielding grasps of the blonde's hands. _'Oh, God, how can this be? The spell on JD is still intact?' _

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"Damned that accursed brat!"

Karatenmon reappeared from the shadows just outside the entrance of the Stone Valley, with extensive injuries on his previously wounded site. The Dark Rage attack from Satriamon was a power-stripping attack; it would severely deplete the energy of a Digimon. Karatenmon had seen it performed onto Samudramon and Xianamon; both being inexperienced Digimon they had reverted back into their composite selves. One with power and experience such as he, however, would require much more than just a blast of Dark Rage.

"That boy with the White DigiSphere…he orchestrated all of this! He wanted Satriamon and I to fight each other while he flees to safety. I should have known!! Arghh!"

However, the injury he had obtained from the ivory-armored Sagittarimon had left him vulnerable to attack. Thus, the Dark Rage had actually done him much severer damage than he thought it would be able to. Now, he had to retreat back to his lair where he would be able to heal.

"I thought the threesome solar eclipse would be able to propel my power to its peak? How come I was still at my old self's power? I could have sworn I have felt power radiating through my body whilst watching the eclipse taking place."

Muttering all the way, Karatenmon was forced to crawl as the after-effects of the Dark Rage was still taking place. He was growing weaker and weaker. Karatenmon had the remedy back at the Cave of Solitude. He needed to get back before the DigiWira realize that he was not actually dead.

With him still alive, the spell over Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman would remain. He would still be a thorn at their side, although now, Karatenmon would not want to have any tie with the Red ShadoWira. That arrogant ShadoWira was the one who had caused him to end up like this.

Karatenmon froze upon seeing two shadows sailed past him, fearing that it would be the DigiWira. However, he soon relaxed upon seeing that it was only SkullSatamon's two bumbling henchmen – Sorcerymon and Shutumon. The two of them were standing side by side several meters away from him, watching him with…pity?

"Do not look at me with such pitiful gazes, the two of you!" he spat. "I am still your superior."

Shutumon merely smirked while Sorcerymon was keeping a firm grasp on his staff. Something did not seem right about the two of them.

"How does it feel to be beaten by the DigiWira, hmmm?" Shutumon asked with a smile.

"Not very nice, isn't it?" Sorcerymon added.

Their sarcastic tones caused Karatenmon's blood to boil. "I will not have that tone spoken to me, especially by the likes of the two of you!"

Shutumon chuckled and looked at her companion. "Badly injured, and he's still in his I'm-a-great-general-don't-mess-with-me mode."

"He could be nice to us if he needs us to help him return to Cave of Solitude," Sorcerymon chimed.

Shutumon snorted. "Not that we'd want to help him."

Karatenmon's eyes bulged. "WHAT did you say?"

"See, we don't appreciate your stunt yesterday, for making us go against the DigiWira in your stead," Sorcerymon said airily. "So we did what we thought we ought to do."

"We went to see the Master," Shutumon continued. "And guess what? We told him everything about your intention to gain power during the threesome solar eclipse."

Sorcerymon laughed hard. "You should've been there to hear what the Master said about that! It's really a killer, I could die laughing."

Karatenmon narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What exactly did the Master say?" He was careful to keep his tone even.

"He told us that that thing about the threesome solar eclipse…is just a mythical folklore amongst the magical Digimon of the past. Complete fabrication. Believable lies concocted by one wizard Digimon with a weird sense of humor to see whether there's an actual fool who'd think that the eclipse would give it a power up." Shutumon joined in with the laughter.

"Actually Shutumon, you're forgetting another explanation," Sorcerymon pointed out amidst his laughter.

"I know!" Shutumon wheezed. "I know! You tell him! Wizard to wizard."

Sorcerymon took a minute to stop laughing. "Alrighty! Actually, the story about the threesome eclipse isn't entirely a complete fabrication or lies. There's some rings to truths…it's just that, well…things actually would happen the opposite way. For those who dabble on the dark magic, the threesome solar eclipse is a sore spot. Dark magic practitioners won't come out of their hiding during this one particular day, as the eclipse would only weaken their power. Not making them stronger, but WEAKER."

"So it's actually not a power up!!" Shutumon screeched like a happy drunkard. "But more like a power _down_!"

Karatenmon couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was stunned. Surely this was not true? But it was SkullSatamon who had informed them about this fact, and SkullSatamon was known to be extremely knowledgeable. Karatenmon didn't know whether he should trust Sorcerymon and Shutumon on this one, however, as they might just want to goad him for his humiliating defeat even more. Perhaps that was it.

"Don't you DARE speak to me in that tone," Karatenmon hissed. "Just you wait until I regain my health."

Shutumon's and Sorcerymon's expressions suddenly turned ugly. Malicious glints escaped their eyes. Against the dark day, they looked menacing even to the vulnerable Karatenmon.

"Oh, but we're here to make sure that doesn't happen," Shutumon began.

"Nope. No way!" Sorcerymon reiterated. "See, we were watching the whole battle between you and the DigiWira, and we have to admit that what you did to cover your track was superb! The White DigiWira actually thought that you've been deleted by the Red ShadoWira's fused form, while actually you escaped."

"Everyone in the Digital World will know from the DigiWira that you're destroyed by your own precious ShadoWira." Shutumon mimicked a baby's voice as she stated the last four words to mock Karatenmon. "We're just here to make sure that the story goes that way." Shutumon grinned and glanced towards her cohort. "Shall we?"

"Wait…"

Sorcerymon smirked. "We shall." He pointed his staff towards Karatenmon, who gaped in shock.

The last thing the famed Mage General saw was two streams of greenish-white and pink energy beams coming from Sorcerymon's staff and Shutumon's extended palms, before he felt a writhing pain radiating from all parts of his body. It was as if his soul was being ripped out from his body. Slowly, his body felt lighter and his vision blurred. Then everything became black.

xxx

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JD watched in grim satisfaction as slowly the younger boy in front of him closed his eyes, when suddenly he felt as if a lightning bolt had struck him. No harm came to him, no physical injury, but severe pulsations were felt on his temples, seemingly coming from out of nowhere. The pain was so overwhelming that he'd instantly let go of Adam's neck. Flashes of images began to appear in his mind in rapid succession, JD at first couldn't comprehend of the meaning of the images.

Then, several things caught his attention. He recognized the faces of the female DigiWira, the one with the Yellow DigiSphere in particular. He had enjoyed teasing the girl ever since he had laid his eyes on her. Something about her attracted him. That was about a year ago. He didn't really know the girl with the Pink DigiSphere, but was rather aware of the fact that one of her two best friends was interested on him. Then Manny appeared. He knew this teen when they met at the Cave of Solitude. He couldn't see why Karatenmon had chosen Manny to wield the Blue DigiSphere, but then was reminded that it was the DigiSphere that chose its wielder. They got along well enough to cooperate in their conquest against the DigiWira.

Watching the still figure in front of him, flashes of recollections related to the boy invaded his mind. Why had he attempted to kill this boy? Why, wasn't the boy his friend?

Friend?

Was Adam his friend? How did they know each other anyway?

His sixteenth birthday. Computer club. Basketball training. Just plain hanging out. And Adam was there in each memory. Recent memories, but a few of the best memories he had lately.

Looking down at the still body of the younger teen, JD suddenly panicked. _'Oh God, no. Did I actually kill him…?'_

Adam's body was still. Lifeless. _'What have I done?'_

Quickly he knelt beside the boy, feeling his mind clearing. Everything was now vivid. He remembered everything.

"Adam…?" he croaked, and raised up the boy's hand before letting it go. The hand fell back onto the ground lifelessly.

Then, to his surprise, the DigiWira's body twitched. Once. Twice. Then, the boy opened his eyes. JD was relieved at first, and happy, but his jubilance faltered upon seeing the horrified expression Adam had upon seeing him. The look on his eyes was that of fear.

"Adam, wait…"

The DigiWira however didn't waste any more time. He shut his eyes tight and vanished in swirls of bright white orbs. He had teleported away. Where?

Angry at himself, and at Karatenmon, and at the fact that he'd ended up where he was right then, JD punched the ground repeatedly until his knuckles bled. He didn't care. Adam had lived, but that was not the point. He'd almost committed a murder! Had he held on the boy's neck any longer…

"I'm so sorry."

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**Author's Notes:**

Finally the ShadoWira Unveiled arc is completed, and I'm so relieved! I don't really have much to say, other than the fact that Sagittarimon Radiant Mode is my creation…but I do look forward for your comments for this arc's finale.


	21. Seeing Red

It was yet another clear night, just after the digital solar eclipse. Above the sky, the three moons of the Digital World were no longer aligned; now they were orbiting the digital realm with a little distance apart from each of them. No clouds were seen, and stars twinkled, illuminating the near-midnight environment where quietness and calmness prevailed, the evidence of the titanic battle that occurred not too long before unseen.

Soft zephyrs, comfortable and whispery, could be felt all around the exposed interior of the Megalith Coliseum. The monument was usually abandoned nowadays, having been the place where the duel between the DigiWira – chosen humans of that part of the Digital World – had their first battle with the ShadoWira, their exact opposites. Digimon dared not enter the coliseum anymore, scared of being trapped in the middle of the crossfire between the two opposing teams. The news about the battle had spread out like wildfire, with the subsequent occurrences between the two teams adding to the story. The Green Meadow Village had been the victim of the fight between good and evil – having been destroyed by a flock of Harpymon who were working under Karatenmon, the Mage General of SkullSatamon.

Speaking of Karatenmon, the occupants of that part of the Digital World was shaken to hear that the Mage General had fallen under his own minion. One Digimon, the result of a fusion between a human called Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman, codenamed the Red ShadoWira, and his Digimon partner Agumon, had successfully destroyed Karatenmon. The news was unbelievable; as a minion, Satriamon was supposed to _not_ possess powers higher than Karatenmon. Many brushed off the news as mere rumors, but the more curious of Digimon had ventured close enough to the borders of the Shadow Realm, where the Black Peak Mountain stood, and had seen the cavernous mountain to be empty.

By the end of the day itself, it was official. Satriamon had deleted Karatenmon from existence.

The news was received with mixed reactions. Some applauded Satriamon for eradicating a profound evil from the Digital World. Some feared that, being at the side of evil himself, Satriamon would rise to be a greater evil than Karatenmon had ever been. Many hoped that Satriamon would follow his fellow ShadoWira's step in allying himself with the DigiWira. An equal number of Digimon however scoffed at that, pointing out that unlike Samudramon who had proven himself to be at the side of good, there was not a single grain of reason to believe that Satriamon was also converted. For all they knew, Satriamon could have finished Karatenmon in order to step up the ranks of SkullSatamon's army.

Nobody however knew the truth yet.

Nobody; except for four beings at present. Three Digimon and one human.

Two of them were currently seeking refuge inside the Megalith Coliseum, near a small bonfire. One human and one Digimon.

"Damn these winds," JD muttered, shivering despite the heat coming from the flames. _'Not even the fire could keep out the cold,'_ JD mused as he generated a miniscule flicker of flame from his right palm. He sighed, and the flame died out. _'After that battle with the Digis and Karatenmon, I'm too worn out to create a decent amount of fire.'_ His hazel eyes darted right, towards a pile of dry leaves where a pink puffball creature was sleeping peacefully. _'Obviously, the same goes for Koromon.'_

The fire crackled merrily, emitting bright, reddish orange glow against the dark night. From it, the teen's profile was illuminated, and he definitely looked like he had seen better days. His uniform was tattered in multiple places – the lower halves of his sleeves were both gone and JD had thrown away his gloves as they too were too damaged for wear. Right now, he regretted that decision; tattered as they were, the gloves could still keep his hands warm in times like this. It was a hasty decision made out of frustration.

Looking at his bare hands; the knuckles were caked with dry blood and they were in overall, filthy, but JD didn't care. _'These pairs of hands nearly took a life away…'_

Instantly he was reminded of that time, when he had attempted to strangle the DigiWira boy. And he'd nearly succeeded, for a brief moment. Adam hadn't been moving at all for several long, excruciating seconds. It was then that the spell on him had been lifted. Then he checked out for Adam's reaction, but the boy was as still as a corpse. But, right before he could panic even further he saw the boy's body twitch, followed by a soft cough and a long gasp for air. Relieved, JD could see that the boy was alive when something stopped him.

Those gray eyes were staring at him with fear. And everything thereafter happened so quickly; JD didn't even know that Adam's teleportation sequence worked that fast. But the DigiWira hadn't given him time to apologize. To the boy, he was still the villain. Adam hadn't allowed him to explain that he was no longer under Karatenmon's spell.

'_What difference would it make?'_ JD picked up a pebble and threw it miserably into the fire. A crackle was heard as the flames bit into the stone, then nothing. The fire remained flickering bright reddish-yellow-orange, undisturbed. _'It doesn't change the fact that I nearly killed him, and the others.' _He wiped his soiled hands over his trousers, wanting to clean them, but he winced immediately as his wounded knuckles came into contact with his black leather jackets. Muttering a curse, his eyes fell on his boots.

'_At least I still have my boots.'_ His footwear were both extremely dusty and slashed, but otherwise were in good condition. The ends of his trousers had suffered the same fate as the sleeves of his outer jacket. Luckily for him, the inner crimson shirt he was wearing was intact, with only some minor cuts here and there- it'd been protected mostly by his outer black jacket. _'Never thought that Shadow Accessing could be this damaging. It's a good thing that I managed to get that uniform blueprint from that computer guy at school. Or else I'd have to invest a lot for my clothes.'_

JD sighed again morosely at the thought; it only brought back memories of how he'd gotten himself in this mess in the first place. He shook his head to rid himself of that thought, but when he was not thinking about that, his mind would drift back to how much damage he had caused. There was no way he could clear his mind after what he'd done – he'd never be able to forgive himself for almost _killing_ Adam, as well as how close he'd come to destroying the DigiWira in general – but he wanted to at least have a night of peaceful thinking to sort out his thoughts. It was why he'd chosen to remain at the Digital World, and knowing that the Megalith Coliseum was abandoned, he'd chosen to stay there for the night. He could have gone back to his house…but for JD, that was the _last_ place he wanted to be at, at times like this. He'd know no peace should he return there. Especially at this hour, where he knew the house would _not_ be empty.

'_That hell-hole? Chances are I'd jump down the balcony if I go back,' _JD snorted, cursing himself for even thinking of going back. _'If it's not quiet as a graveyard, it'll be like the domain of the banshees with all the screaming matches Mom and Dad would have, if both of them are home at the same time. As for Jade and Jas…hah, as if they can even _remember_ to return after going off to colleges! Can't blame them though; I'd jump at any opportunity to escape that hell-hole myself. Lucky devils they are. Me? I was stuck…until…damn it.'_

Sighing, JD crashed his back on the cold floor of the coliseum. Crossing his arms behind his head, he lied down on his back and watched the sky. That caused memories he was trying to suppress to resurface, and they swam all over the river that was his mind. His previous thought had unwittingly be the start of everything.

He had wished to get out of the 'hell-hole', a term he had coined to depict his home. There was no other term JD could think of to describe it. Every day, for years, he'd wished to be someplace else, somewhere different, away from everything.

One day, about one month ago, his wish was granted.

And that was how he'd gotten himself in this mess.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 21 – Seeing Red**_

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"Have you heard?"

Adam looked up, and saw a familiar willowy girl standing by the bench he was sitting on. It was morning and he was waiting for the bell to ring. And today, he didn't feel comfortable being around people; it was a kind of reaction that resulted from yet another attempt on his life the day before. He had come to terms with it, but the after-effect was still there. He hadn't talked much to the others after the battle, only of what had happened and nothing more.

But Liu Ying was not someone that he wanted to avoid, as the girl knew perfectly what caused his moodiness. With that, Adam lowered his hands from his neck; he'd been placing them on his neck – an act he'd done subconsciously – while plopping his elbows over his thigh, assuming a somewhat-modified 'thinker' position like the famous statue he'd seen in books.

"Heard what?"

Liu Ying saw this as a sign that Adam was up for a conversation, and took a seat beside the boy.

_After the battle, right outside the Stone Valley, Liu Ying was barely conscious due to the power she and her partner had so much exerted as Xianamon. She was sitting against the wall of the valley, supported by the side by Gayathri who'd somehow joined them at the very last minute. She was too weak to speak, and she could see Manny pacing about nervously. Sagittarimon, who looked different in his new white armor, was agitated. Above the centaur was Penguinmon, who was for once, not making any wisecracks as he held Tanemon and Shaomon at his sides securely. _

_Explosions could be heard and everybody tensed. Dark lights flashed from the center of the valley, where Adam had remained, right at the mercy of Satriamon and Karatenmon, and they knew first-hand that both villains were merciless. Something had happened! The explosion was ensued by a deathly silence, which was unnerving. Nobody knew what was happening, and after five minutes Sagittarimon began to move, which forced Penguinmon to jump down with the two lesser Digimon barely supported by his stout wings. _

_But before the white armored centaur could re-venture into the valley, a flash of white lights appeared right by him, and in front of Liu Ying and Gayathri, Adam materialized, lying on his back with both eyes shut tight. Seeing him, Gayathri quickly abandoned Liu Ying and darted towards him, followed closely by Manny. Sagittarimon remained there, wide-eyed, but relieved upon seeing his human partner. The curly-haired DigiWira knelt beside the boy, who seemed completely oblivious of his surrounding as he still had his eyes closed tight, as if determined to keep everything out of his sight. Gently the girl placed a hand on the boy's left shoulder, and everyone then saw how horribly Adam blanched. His eyes shot open and there was a look of pure fear reflected by his usually bright gray eyes. He however visibly relaxed upon seeing the familiar faces in front of him, but was unable to speak. _

_Liu Ying, and the others could see that something had severely shaken their leader, but whenever they asked him about it as they made their way back to the Forest Sanctum, Adam remained quiet. After several attempts all of them had given up, and decided to see for themselves via the sun staff. _

_Strangely, however, the sun staff wasn't able to produce any images at all about the battle inside Stone Valley from the moment where all of them (sans Adam) left the valley. The images buzzed into nothingness and all the DigiWira could see were grains of noises, like the ones on a switched-on television with no programs being aired. Adam finally was able to speak again, and recollected the events that had taken place until the moment he teleported away from JD. _

_The other DigiWira were horrified to hear that Adam had almost been strangled to death by JD, and was even more disturbed by the fact that Satriamon had been able to defeat Karatenmon. Even TobuCatmon was confounded; that would mean that Satriamon was deadlier than the famed Mage General. They tracked the signal of JD's Digivice, but none dared to go look for him at their present state. _

"JD has been suspended," Liu Ying informed Adam. "For skipping classes, and apparently for leaving the school ground without informing the school's authority."

Adam looked indifferent. "Oh."

Liu Ying studied her friend's expression with concern. "It's only for three days though; he got it because he already had it coming. That fight he instigated with Manny on Monday was let off with a final warning by the principal, and yesterday's stunt earned him his second suspension."

_As they were just about to recover from their injuries, Jackie contacted them, informing that the school's disciplinary teacher had just gotten hold of the fact that not only JD was missing, but also three other students – Adam, Liu Ying and Manny! Immediately the three of them returned to the computer classroom, right before Mr. Gurmit Singh appeared there. Jackie had told the disciplinarian that the three kids were pulled out from their classes because they were needed to complete a website-making contest that was approaching fast. Mr. Singh, unaware that it was only a cover-story, ended up giving the computer instructor a severe tell-off for making the kids missing their classes for three hours, and Jackie would have to explain it to the principal. Then, the disciplinarian saw the three DigiWira having sustained some small injuries but was immediately distracted by the bell._

_The principal (who luckily was in a good mood) had let Jackie off with a warning, and the three DigiWira would need to get their homework assignments from their classmates. _

The school prefect looked like she was holding some information off, but Adam didn't ask. There was a faraway look on her face which Adam couldn't figure out. Was she upset about the news? The news about JD's suspension didn't exactly thrill him, but he didn't feel sorry either. He didn't know what to feel. Part of him wanted to feel sorry for JD as the blonde was a victim of a spell. Another part of him was infuriated for the older teen's elaborate, planned-out betrayal.

Adam then saw a glimpse of a familiar built boy with spiked dark maroon hair, and saw an opportunity to change the subject. "Look, there's Manny."

The aforementioned boy saw them and waved, but he wasn't able to join them as a couple of boys approached him – Liu Ying recognized them as her and Manny's classmates. She then remembered to pass Adam a message from another fellow DigiWira. "Oh, Gayathri asked me to tell you that she won't be able to come to school for at least until next week. The doctor told her to rest until the wound on her head is fully healed. She wanted you to inform your class teacher about it. And also, you'll be the one to keep her up to date with the week's homework's assignments. By SMS or e-mails or D-Terminals, any way is fine to her, she said." Liu Ying shrugged, but her expression turned into a small frown as a small smile crossed her friend's face. "Adam?"

"Oh, got it, Liu Ying." Adam's smile became wider. "Actually, I have a better idea about how to inform her of our homework assignments." He cocked his head towards the assembly foyer and grinned impishly. "You get what I mean?"

Liu Ying grinned back at Adam. "I like how you think. Sneaky, you. But it'll give them a chance to mend their relationship. Or start over." She sighed. "I think they need just that."

"Yup," the male DigiWira nodded. "They weren't talking much yesterday, back at the sanctum."

"I noticed too." Liu Ying then looked directly at Adam's face. "You know; if Gayathri doesn't like your idea, prepare to get blasted with that supersonic scream of hers. If that happens can you please tell her that I'm in no way involved in your plan?"

Adam shrugged. "I'll teleport away before she does that. And what are you afraid of? You can do that barrier thingy."

Liu Ying smiled. "I don't think that's the perks of having these powers. Anyway…" She took a glance towards Manny, who despite was chatting with his classmates, his eyes were searching the assembly foyer area. He appeared to be looking for somebody, and Liu Ying had no doubt that she knew who. His eyes caught Dina and Belinda's, and the two girls shook their heads. Liu Ying then returned her gazes towards her present company. "I didn't think you notice all that awkwardness between Gayathri and Manny, with your sullenness yesterday."

"I wasn't in the mood to talk, my ears and eyes worked just fine." Adam pointed out, as his mind reeled back to yesterday's event, after the battle.

_As he was recovering from his posttraumatic situation the day before, during the moment when the other DigiWira wisely left him alone, Adam had noticed that there was a kind of awkwardness between Gayathri and Manny. He took some time to observe his teammate and the reformed villain, knowing too well what was causing the stiff. Sure, they talked, but Gayathri would usually tend to Liu Ying, Shaomon or Tanemon if she wasn't fussing at Adam. _

"_Liu Ying, you need anything?" On her hands, Gayathri had everything from a Kit Kat bar to a pack of Ferrero-Roche. She had gotten them at the hospital's pharmacy, while waiting for Anding to pick her at the hospital. Liu Ying merely shook her head with a grateful smile; she wasn't in the mood to eat anything._

"_Shaomon, maybe you'd like to eat something?" Shaomon then asked Gayathri whether she had some banana-fritters, to which the dark-skinned girl shook her head apologetically._

"_Oh, I wish these clouds will just go away and that eclipse's over already so that Tanemon can start recharging!" Gayathri didn't let Tanemon go, as she cradled the little vegetation Digimon around the sanctum and fussed around the Forest Sanctum, all the while averting her eyes from Manny's. She seemed to be well aware that she was being watched by the Blue ShadoWira, who by now was pretty much accepted as a 'Blue DigiWira', although the DigiWira had no specific codenames for themselves._

"_TobuCatmon, you really need to get that sun staff repaired." She clicked her tongue, annoyed of the noises displayed by the staff. TobuCatmon merely shrugged off the comment; he could see that Gayathri was restless and that was her way to deal with it. _

"_Adam, don't just keep everything inside. We need you to tell us what happened." Gayathri sat beside Adam on the large beige stone, not caring whether she was invited by the boy or not. or that she had invaded the boy's personal space. _

_Adam didn't look like he minded the company. He looked at Gayathri wordlessly, before a ghost of a smile cracked from his tightly-closed mouth. "Can I have that Ferrero-Roche?" _

_Only after eating those chocolates did Adam feel better, good enough to inform the other DigiWira about the battle that had taken place after the others had evacuated the Stone Valley._

"She didn't even offer Manny those chocolates," Adam mused, his mind back to present day.

Liu Ying looked amused. "Actually, she _was_ going to offer that Kit-Kat to Manny, but _someone_ had to hog all the chocolates to make himself feel better." She smiled, showing that she didn't mean anything by the comment.

Adam's cheeks colored. "Really?" He was dismayed when Liu Ying nodded. "Oops." Then, the boy adapted a defensive look. "But she did offer it to me!" he insisted.

"You were supposed to say _no_." Her tone was serious, but it was betrayed by the mirth sparkled from her black eyes.

"How was I supposed to know?"

The willowy, raven-haired DigiWira cocked her head sideways towards the direction where Gayathri's two best friends were standing, more specifically, at her own classmate Dina. The said girl saw her and smiled, and Liu Ying returned the gesture before returning her gaze towards her fellow DigiWira. Seeing Adam's somewhat gullible look caused her to shake her head. "You're hopeless."

The two friends chuckled at the memory; with Adam thinking that Liu Ying's comment was solely made due to yesterday's event. Then, the prefect's face regained that faraway expression look which Adam had noticed earlier.

Adam studied her expression and decided to ask her what was bugging her. "You're not telling me everything."

"You noticed, huh?" Liu Ying smiled wryly. "Actually, I just heard about this while passing by the teacher's room. Mr. Singh was informing Mrs. Khatijah – JD's class teacher – that JD was currently suspended. He then added with a slow tone that the school office had gotten a call from JD's parents. Apparently, JD didn't even return home yesterday."

"He ran away?" Adam asked.

"Not really, I think." Liu Ying shook her head. "I think he's still at the Digital World. But the school and his family obviously don't know that. The principal's calling in Kenny, Megat and Samy for inquiries." The prefect snorted derisively. "I doubt however, that JD told them about him being the Red ShadoWira, and about Digimon and all."

"God, what's he up to this time?" Adam moaned. "Hadn't he had enough?"

"Who knows?" Liu Ying got up from her seat. "Anyway, I need to get going. Duty calls. I'll see you later, ok?"

Adam got up too. "Ok. I need to go as well. There's…someone…I want to see, and he's just arrived."

The two DigiWira looked at the school gate and saw Adam's plump, songkok-wearing best friend coming.

'_Somehow, JD finds out about me from Hakim. I want to know exactly how.' _Adam thought as he and Liu Ying parted ways._ 'And what.'_

xxx

xxx

"Josh…?"

"What, Koromon?"

"What are we doing back here…?"

JD, with Koromon cradled with one arm, stared hatefully towards the purplish mountain in front of him. The mountain's tip was black, and covered with gray clouds and purple fogs. It stood out against the brownish sky that was the landmark of the feared Shadow Realm. Thunders rumbled every now and then but there was no sign of lightning. The setting was eerie; not many dared to venture within the vicinity of Black Peak Mountain, knowing too well that inside the mountain was the Cave of Solitude, where Karatenmon dwelled. Avian Digimon especially, avoided the place like a plague, while other species wisely chose not to be there as well.

Looking at the mountain, memories flooded JD's mind.

"_Where the hell am I?" JD stared around his surrounding, wide-eyed. He was just clicking on some random message on a chat box, when suddenly lights flared out of his computer screen, and then he was there…over an arid region with many dead trees, foggy air and dry earth. A tall rocky mountain could be seen, and JD blinked when he saw something came out of an opening, high above the mountain. It looked like a black bird from where he stood, but as the figure got closer and closer, JD could see that he was wrong, but not totally far off. _

_It was birdlike, and it had wings, but it resembled a human more than an animal. A humanoid avian creature, to be precise, as it was also wearing light armor over its torso and a pair of white, baggy pants. Its eyes were yellow and penetrating. There was a dignified aura emanating from the creature, intimidating those around him._

_Nevertheless, the figure didn't impress JD one bit. The teen merely crossed his arms against his chest, and raised his eyebrows inquiringly._

_The avian creature caught his unspoken question. "You are at my domain." It spoke with a deep, masculine voice, indicating that it was a 'he'. "I am Karatenmon. Welcome, chosen human." There was no friendliness or warmness in his tone, but neither were there any threat or malice that JD could detect. The being known as Karatenmon simply sounded aloof and indifferent, like nothing really mattered, or as if he was uninterested._

_JD took Karatenmon's apparent appearance at his stride, not feeling threatened at all. "Chosen?" he snorted derisively. "Forced, more like. What do you want?"_

_Karatenmon flicked his right hand airily, producing a glowing red sphere from out of nowhere. _

"_You are chosen, Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman, long ago, to wield the powerful Red DigiSphere. With it, you command the power of fire and darkness."_

_JD laughed; this sounded so absurd! "Hey, who'd you think you are? Zordon of the Power Rangers? Dragging me into all this, and saying stuffs like 'you're chosen' and all it…the next thing I know you'd say something like…say, may the power protect you?"_

_Karatenmon didn't look pleased. Nevertheless, he continued. "Like it or not, human, this mystical sphere has chosen you. No one else can harness its remarkable power, only you. And of course, your Digimon partner as well." He snapped his fingers, and a ripple of air formed from his side. With a puff of smoke, an orange lizard-like creature emerged. Steel chains that were emanating with yellowish aura bound it, and its green eyes had the look of utmost fear. "And this is your partner, Agumon."_

_If JD was surprised to see the miniature T-Rex that appeared suddenly before him, he didn't mention it, nor did it appear on his face. He smirked wryly and approached Agumon._

"_Why's the baby dino in chains?"_

_Karatenmon waved his right hand and the chains instantly vanished into thin air. "Not anymore." Karatenmon chuckled darkly, and held out the Red DigiSphere for JD. "I understand that you are tired of your life in your world, correct?" With that said, he stared deeply into JD's eyes. "Busy parents, uncaring siblings, total lack of friends…"_

"_Like I care," JD huffed in annoyance. His face darkened and JD flicked off some stray blonde strands that were long enough to block his eyes. "How the hell do you know about those?"_

"_I have my ways." Karatenmon smiled mysteriously. "Now, I am offering you a chance to place yourself above all those cumbersome, earthling matters. You are destined for greatness, Joshua. Here in the Digital World, you can shine. I can see that the Red DigiSphere have chosen its wielders well." The Red DigiSphere glowed as Karatenmon dropped it on JD's palm. Flows of red energy radiated from the sphere and all over JD's arms. "Become my Red ShadoWira, and you will have all the powers you need to be respected, and feared!"_

"_What's happening?" JD demanded, and flicked his hands to get rid of the energy flow – they were causing tingling effects on his arm, something akin to the feeling of being tickled by bird feathers. What happened next was not what he'd expected – he had generated sparks of flames from in-betweens of his fingers. His eyes shot wide, and he gaped, speechless. He did it again and this time around he managed to form a perfect ball of flames on his palms. He swished his hands, and two fireballs sailed towards the nearest dead tree. The tree caught fire and was set ablaze, as JD watched in astonishment. _

_Karatenmon smiled maliciously. "So, do we have a deal?"_

JD shook his head; the previous night he'd gotten a splitting headache as memories of himself as the Red ShadoWira invaded his mind. Now however, the memories returned with only a mild throbbing over the temples, but that didn't make it any less annoying.

_He didn't want to be evil, but he'd wanted an escape. It would be good enough for him to be able to come to this Digital World without having to do anything. Perhaps this place would not be so bad after all for him. The prospect of a strange new land did appeal him. However, when he was about to ask Karatenmon about that…somehow his eyes were drawn to Karatenmon's eyes, which from their original yellow had assumed a scarlet glow which somehow, to JD, looked…menacing! Something in his heart told him to look away quickly, but against his will his head was affixed in his position. He wanted to struggle, but somehow found his body immobilized. His confidence wavering and he could hear Karatenmon snickering, before everything became…black._

"Damned memories," he muttered.

_Karatenmon pushed both of them hard. The Mage General was a strict instructor. After Manny was recruited as the Blue ShadoWira just a day after he was given the Red DigiSphere, they were both put into rigorous training against a flock of birds, known as the Black Biyomon. _

"_HAAA!!" JD fired a stream of flames, which was easily countered by a Black Biyomon's Spiral Twister attack – a spiraling green flames which cancelled out JD's flames. It was a good thing that the Black Biyomon was also under a spell – JD was already annoyed enough. He blasted the Rookie Digimon again with a stronger torrent of flames, which this time around, evaporated the Black Biyomon's attack and consumed the unfortunate rookie with flames. To his surprise, the Black Biyomon combusted right before his eyes, causing him to shiver and dropped on his knees._

"_Get up!" Karatenmon's cold voice rang. JD looked up, and saw those scarlet eyes once again… "We have a business to attend to. Look at your clothes; it will not do for that to happen with every battle training."_

_JD's blue jeans were dirty, but pretty much in good shape. His shirt however was singed in many parts – the sleeves were already burned by the rookie's flames. So were the lower halves of the red shirt, which was burnt, torn, and soiled with soot. The only thing that kept the shirt hanging on his torso was the upper half, which with a growl, JD tore away. _

"_What do you want me to do?"_

"_It is to my understanding that the DigiWira have acquired…uniforms. Somewhat queer, in my opinion…" Karatenmon clucked his tongue. "…but nevertheless, a wise choice of gear for they are durable. Perhaps they have acquired it from their home world…your home world. For your best interests, Joshua, attain them."_

_The spell beginning to seep in him, JD snickered and crossed his arms against his chest. "Why, sounds to me that you care."_

"_I do not," Karatenmon replied coolly. "My intention was for you and Emmanuel to have as little questions as possible from your families. What are you going to answer to them should they inquire about missing clothing articles?"_

_JD snorted. "HA! If that day comes when my folks actually _noticed_ things like that, I'll go check whether horns have sprouted from my cat's head."_

"_Interesting proverb. Elaborate."_

"_Means IMPOSSIBLE," JD said bitterly. "The house maid would fuss, but her alone. Nobody else cares enough."_

_Karatenmon smiled; JD's resentment of his family was what fueling the mage's spell. As long as he felt that way, his spell would remain intact. It was a much more potent hold. Every spell needed something to hold on to, as JD now realized. He was stupid, he thought, for succumbing to the Mage General's evil power so easily, but then again, how could have he fight it? And Karatenmon would always find time to listen to him venting his anger, which was unknown to him, was what causing the spell to grow. _

Koromon noticed his partner's silence as JD's hazel eyes were transfixed on the Black Peak Mountain. From the way those eyes shone, Koromon knew that JD was relieving the memories, and chose to keep quiet. When JD was ready to speak, he would listen, but now, the In-Training knew that his human friend needed to come into terms with himself, in order for him to move on.

With that, he snuggled close to JD for comfort. The teen subconsciously drew him close to his body as the chilly wind of the mountain breezed the area, but remained silent.

_As he crossed the computer room one area, JD overheard conversations inside. He recognized those voices belonging to the three kids whom Karatenmon had pinpointed to be the DigiWira – Adam Ariff, Chang Liu Ying, and Gayathri Nadarajah. Curious, he stood by an open window, careful not to let himself be inconspicuous. The corridor was deserted. It was break time and the DigiWira seemed to be having a meeting with Mr. Jackie Chan, the computer instructor. _

'_So Chan knows about them being DigiWira, eh?' he thought. 'Interesting…'_

_His mouth split into a grin when he heard Liu Ying complaining about the uniforms, while both Adam and Gayathri defended them. Looks like he's found what he's looking for, JD thought once again. He peeked through the windowsills and saw that the three DigiWira were debating amongst themselves, but something seemed odd with the computer instructor. He was fiddling with his computer, and JD's grin grew wider when he saw what program the teacher was closing. 'Gotcha!'_

_He lowered his body underneath the windows and moved quietly towards the stairs, careful not to let his presence known. It was break time and not many people would come there anyway. He stood there quietly, waiting for the perfect moment to come in the computer classroom to get that specific file he'd seen. His moment came about an hour later; the DigiWira were already off to class for a long time, when break time ended, and he saw Jackie being called away to a meeting at the office. He saw the door being locked, and waited for Jackie to be out of sight before slinking off towards the computer classroom._

_He took out his cell phone – Karatenmon had modified the phone for JD to be able to call upon a DigiPort anywhere, anytime he wished. This time around he would need the gateway to be opened for Karatenmon's spell to work. A blast of light, and the door was open. JD walked in and quickly approached the computer, which was left on. He scanned the recently-opened file, and sniggered upon seeing the aptly-titled Adobe Photoshop file named 'DigiWira-Uniforms'. Quickly he copied the file and had it transferred to his phone via Bluetooth. _

"_Tomorrow, DigiWira…prepare for the ShadoWira's grand entrance!"_

JD rubbed his dully-throbbing temples; the memories he had thereafter were even worse. The ShadoWira had trashed the DigiWira with their powers and Reichmon, but now he was thankful that the DigiWira's powers were activated as well in their time of need. Or else all three of them would've perished that day under their hands.

Realizing that he had been very quiet, he looked down into the eyes of his In-Training partner, which were affixed on him. It looked like the little Digimon had been like that for quite a while already. Smiling wryly, he pushed his thoughts away and focused at his intention for coming there.

"Koromon, you strong enough for a Shadow Access Digivolution?"

"No. I'm sorry. I'm still too weak to even reach my Agumon form."

JD huffed slowly, not out of anger, but the frustration was evident. "Didn't the fruits you had for breakfast earlier helped?"

He was only answered by a growl coming from Koromon's stomach…wherever it was; it was hard to tell where exactly the stomach of a pink puffball Digimon was. The blonde teen groaned inwardly, but couldn't blame his partner. Especially, when his own stomach roared, demanding to be fed. JD chose however to ignore it.

"Why can't we just go back?" Koromon pleaded. "I'm sure the others will forgive you."

JD shook his head. "Not just yet. I can't. I wronged them a lot."

"Manny and Penguinmon were accepted. Why should it be any different for us?"

"For starters, Manny and Penguinmon didn't almost kill anybody. Secondly, they offered themselves in exchange for TobuCatmon, when we kidnapped that cat. That for sure had placed them in the DigiWira's good book. And finally, not only did they manage to rescue TobuCatmon, but they also managed to retrieve the White DigiSphere which I took from Adam."

Koromon looked up at his human partner with pity reflected from his large crimson eyes. "You were under a spell, Josh," he pointed out. "It's not your fault."

"And speaking of Adam, that sham I pulled on him was really the icing of the cake for everything," JD concluded bitterly. "Now he and the other DigiWira would never see me as anything…but a two-tongued jerk."

Koromon looked up at his human partner. "Was it really a sham, Josh?" he asked softly.

JD blinked, and thought about it. Was it really a sham? That was what he had intended. _At first._ And every now and then when he was still under the spell, he would remind himself of his deceptive mission, and would justify all his actions in favor of his plan. But amidst all that, he did enjoy being a friend with the younger boy.

_Friend._ It was a somewhat alien word in his vocabulary. Sure, he had other friends; Megat, Samy and Kenny hung out with him often while at school, but he didn't really enjoy their companies. Not that much, but he tolerated them. Kenny would volunteer to finish up his homework, whenever JD didn't feel like doing it. JD knew Kenny when he saved the boy from a couple of bullies, when they were in Form One. Since then, the boy would latch on him when they were at school, much to his amusement. Megat and Samy…what were they to him, exactly? He didn't remember how he'd gotten to know them, but could pinpoint one of the reasons for spending a lot of time together in after-school detention. As for his classmates – he rarely, if at all, talked to them. He'd rather slink of at the corner of the classroom and brood. That was his second-best known modes; people would say that if JD Kamaruzaman wasn't in his troublemaker mode, he'd be in his dark, brooding mode. Nobody understood why, but JD was fine that way.

Manny – he was a comrade. A fellow ShadoWira, both with a same deluded mission. But friends? JD hadn't had the opportunity to get to know the Sabahan boy more. JD knew the two DigiWira girls even less. The only thing he knew about Gayathri was the fact that she was one of the prettiest girls in school. Liu Ying – something about that fiery, yet cool, prefect, attracted him. JD smirked when he remembered their first encounter, which was something he doubted that she would tell others. And Adam – JD hadn't intended to target him at first, but when the boy's best friend unwittingly let slip about the boy's history, JD chose to shift his target from Liu Ying to Adam. He hadn't encountered someone, who despite being so different from himself, could also be so similar, in more than one ways.

JD sighed. "The truth is…I'm too ashamed to face them." He thought of how close he'd come to become a murderer. "Especially Adam."

"I'm sure he'll understand," Koromon consoled. "Adam doesn't look like one who could hold a grudge for a long time. Neither do Liu Ying and Gayathri."

"You think?" He remembered Liu Ying's enraged reaction upon his revelation, but what struck him as strange was how Adam responded. He didn't yell at him like Liu Ying had, but the way he just _looked_ at him with that pair of thunderstorm-gray eyes, it just chilled him to the spine, now that he thought of it. And what made him felt worse now was the fact that he knew _what_ had brought that kind of reaction from Adam. "You didn't see Adam and Liu Ying when I told them that I was the Red ShadoWira, back at school, couple of days back. The looks they had in their eyes…it's just lucky me that looks can't kill. At least, not in our home world it can't, here I bet Liu Ying could send me to high heavens with her telekinetic power."

"Can you blame them?" Koromon asked softly.

JD's face fell. "No, I suppose not. Man, I feel like crap!"

"I know how you feel. We're in the same boat. But if you need time to sort things out yourself…then I'm willing to stay by your side, all the time."

Koromon, as Agumon before meeting JD, was TobuCatmon's informant whenever an attack occurred. He was captured by Karatenmon's henchman while being out from the safety of the Forest Sanctum, and soon found himself partnered to JD, forming a deadly duo. After the spell was broken, Koromon regained all his past memories, and remembered how the DigiWira were like. It was why he was confident that the DigiWira would eventually accept them. But for now, he understood his partner's grief, and didn't want to push him anymore.

JD didn't respond to Koromon's words, but they penetrated deep into his heart and mind, and he was taken aback by his Digimon partner's loyalty. Then he thought of the DigiWira's partners and how loyal they were to their humans. Even the noisy, somewhat annoying Penguinmon, remained at Manny's side – JD had thought that the human and the Digimon powered by the Blue DigiSphere to be incompatible. Then his mind reflected the time when he'd seen the evidence of a Digimon's true loyalty to his human partner – when Centarumon dark-digivolved into the raging Black Knightmon to defend not only Adam, but the other DigiWira and his fellow Digimon as well.

"Can I ask you something, Josh?" Koromon's slightly high-pitched, childlike voice broke in the silence once again.

"Shoot." The blonde teen however didn't look like he was in the mood to answer questions, but he was willing to accommodate his partner.

"Why Adam?"

To Koromon's surprise, JD merely chuckled. A dark, somewhat dry chuckle, which didn't sound as if he was thrilled. It was a chuckle void of happiness. "I was wondering when that question will pop up." He considered it for a moment, and then decided that he had nothing to lose. Besides, Koromon was loyal to him; he could trust him.

"This goes no further between us?" he implored.

Koromon nodded. "Don't you trust me by now?"

"Heh. Sorry."

JD took a deep breath as he recalled what Hakim had mentioned to him…by accident, from the looks of it, during an online chatting conversation between them.

'_Hey, I can recall that you have one best friend. Adam, right? Always saw you two around.' JD decided to start asking about Adam, since he couldn't get any lead for Liu Ying. It was pure luck that he had found Hakim's MySpace personal page a few days back, and had added him. That boy had a lot of friends, he noted, from all walks of life. Did he add everyone on the face of the Earth, JD had to wonder. No one has 300 friends! From there, he'd gotten Hakim's Yahoo Messenger ID and sneakily decided to add him; maybe he could find some real leads for Adam instead. After all, best friends tell each other everything, right?_

'_Yeah. Adam. He's really a great friend once you get to know him,' Hakim replied, with a smiley. JD took note of that. _

'_Once you get to know him? What if we don't know him?' _

'_Ummm….he's still ok.'_

_JD saw that Hakim sounded somewhat unsure. He decided to press on this matter. 'You don't sound so sure.'_

'_I don't mean to give that kind of impression. Really, he's cool.'_

_JD thought for a while; he had seen Adam around the school only somewhat recently, not more than a year ago. All that time he spent brooding around the school, he took notice of a lot of things. For instance, he knew that Hakim had been around since the first day of his Form One year. Adam however, appeared only later, somewhere around the middle of the year, after the new term. And, now that JD thought of it, he remembered Adam being somewhat withdrawn, always with a stoic expression, and very, very quiet. He almost looked antisocial, from how JD perceived him. Almost like…himself._

'_I saw him around since late last year. He didn't look so cool. I mean, he was somewhat withdrawn, with sad eyes.' JD did notice; there was one time when they had almost brooded at the same place – right by the school's artificial fountain. However Adam apparently had been made known of JD's reputation, as the younger boy had moved away from that spot. JD had caught that look in Adam's eyes, but that time he'd brushed it off, deeming it as unimportant. Now, it came up…and JD soon found a pave which would lead him to the information he seek._

'_Ummm…Adam was like that for a while.'_

'_Any idea why? He just looked so sad.' JD didn't know it, but had a feeling that this was important. _

_For a while, Hakim didn't reply. Hakim gave him the impression as someone who would slip up while under pressure, so JD decided to do just that._

'_He's just a kid; no kid should look that sad.'_

'_Umm…'_

'_He got abused or something?'_

'_NO. Nothing like that…'_

'_His parents don't care about him?'_

'_No…from what I know they were great, Adam adored them a lot.'_

'_WERE?' Past tense? Were, adored, they were all in past tenses. Hakim couldn't make the same mistake twice. JD realized that Hakim had slipped up. 'His parents have passed away?' He began to put two and two together, and smiled. He'd found something, especially from the lack of response from Hakim's part. _

_After more seconds passed, Hakim's reply came up. "No..." _

'_Don't lie, that's a sin.' JD decided to tease the boy; with the songkok he was wearing at school JD assumed that Hakim had a strong religious background. 'It makes sense, now. The only reason a kid could be that sad is because of a tragedy…so he probably moved here for a fresh start.' _

'_I…I'm not supposed to mention anything.'_

'_Come now, it's not that I don't know already. I know I'm right. If I were wrong you'd just say it straight that I'm wrong, and now you're hesitating, so I know I'm right. Come on, spill it already. It's not like I'm going to broadcast it to the school or anything. That's so not me – I'm antisocial. It's not like I know him either. If he wants it to be a secret, so fine, I'll keep my mouth shut. So the way I see it, it's harmless.'_

'_It'll be like betraying a trust.'_

_JD groaned, and thought that maybe it wasn't easy to crack Hakim after all. But Hakim didn't deny anything either. And it looked like all he needed was some convincing. 'You're not. It's called betrayal if you go to the school media and blab to them. Then the whole school knows.'_

'_But still…'_

_Okay, obviously it was not going to be easy. It'd be easier in real life, of course, but online, Hakim could easily log off, and ignored him. JD had to deal with this delicately. He'd have to go with what he had. So Adam had lost both parents, but Liu Ying too, had lost her father. By now, both looked as if they had coped and moved on. _

'_Ok, ok. You don't have to tell the details. Fine, I can respect that. I just wanna clarify one thing though…are his parents dead? That way, I won't make stupid comments about that should I come across him in future. Sensitivity's sake, and whatnot.'_

'_Yes. His parents and older brother have passed away. Adam was in Standard six then. I can only say that much, that's all I know.'_

'_Must be brutal.' JD suddenly saw something new. Wait a minute….older brother?_

'_I need to go now. Just…promise me you won't tell a soul about this?'_

_JD smiled, and typed back. 'I won't. That's a promise. See ya.' _

_So Adam lost not only his parents, but an older brother as well? JD frowned for a while as the fact that the DigiWira was an orphan struck a chord in his heart. Was he really going to use this information against the DigiWira? While JD himself had an older brother and an older sister, but they were never there for him. At least, when they'd gotten older, into colleges, and had moved out of the house. They were close when they were younger. Sometimes, JD would still feel a sense of longing, but whenever that feeling came he'd brush them off away. If they didn't miss him, why would he bother missing them? He had better things to do anyway. Parents never home? Fine. Siblings never home? Fine with him as well. _

_He saw his reflection on the mirror – his eyes were glowing crimson. Cloudiness enveloped his mind. He could only think of one thing._

'_If I'm feeling this way when I think about Jade and Jas, perhaps Adam's also thinking the same way about his late brother. Hmmm…' JD twiddled with the thin-chained necklace he wore on his neck. 'I wonder how old Adam's brother had been before he died? Maybe I should ask Hakim that. But anyway…' he grinned. '…I can see how it's gonna be now…heh, heh.'_

"You didn't…" Koromon frowned. "That…that's…"

"Cruel? Manipulative? Just downright plain evil?" JD asked softly, and nodded. "I know. And he's mad as hell with me now."

Koromon was speechless. He might be a Digimon, he might not have a brother, but the concept wasn't strange to him. He had been vague of JD's plan before, but now that he knew of it…

"It makes you sick just thinking about it, huh?" JD asked. "Don't lie. It's making me sick either. I can't believe I did that. I of all people should know."

Koromon chose to remain silent – JD obviously was regretting his actions, and voicing out his opinion would be like rubbing a salt on a wound. It would aggravate JD's remorse.

Several tensed minutes drifted by like the breezes from the mountain, before JD walked closer to the mountain before taking out his cell phone from his trousers pocket. He pressed some buttons on the phone, and lights erupted from the screen of the phone. The light sucked both of them in, before the phone itself vanished within the light. A distance away, the lights reappeared and JD stood right in front of the entrance of the Cave of Solitude.

"What are we doing here, Josh?" Koromon asked again with a wavering voice. "I don't like this place…it gives me nightmare."

"Really?" A ghost of a smirk appeared on the blonde's face. A hint of the usual cockiness was resurfacing, although still pretty much inhibited by his grief. "Well, worry no more, Koromon; I'm gonna put a stop on _that_, at least." The smirk vanished; JD's mouth had formed a thin line. "You know, they say a way to get rid of a nightmare is to get rid of its source, first. I think I can do just that."

He placed Koromon down, and waved both hands towards the entrance. Flames erupted from his palms, swirling around his arms, radiating with burning hunger. JD waited for his power of pyrokinesis to reach its peak – it was somewhat difficult and he was still fairly weak, but he was confident that he could at least do this right. He'd been saving up energy from the previous night, and while the breakfast they had was scanty, JD hoped it would be enough for him to see this through. There was no need to rush; he had all the time he needed.

"HAA!!" he yelled, and let the flames shot into the dark cavern.

Not too long after, the Digital World once again rejoiced – for the Cave of Solitude was somehow set ablaze. Thick, black smokes could be seen coming out from the borders of the Shadow Realm, and those who dared enough to approach the dark area was astounded, yet amazed, upon seeing the cave drowned in flames.

xxx

xxx

"Hakim?"

The plump, fair-skinned boy saw his best friend, and mustered up a smile. "Hi, Adam."

Lately, these past few weeks, Hakim's usual jovial demeanor had drastically shifted to a somewhat sullen mood. It was so great a change that Adam for once, had thought of him as being one of the ShadoWira. He was glad to have been wrong, but then, what could be causing Hakim's mood change? However, Adam noticed that Hakim was beginning to lose his shoddier temperament, gradually shifting back to his usual state, although he was still far enough from his usual happy-go-lucky self.

Every now and then, Adam managed to catch Hakim looking at him with an odd expression – a somewhat guilty expression, now that Adam thought about it. He had shrugged it off at first, thinking that Hakim would tell him when he was ready. But when JD had let slip that it was Hakim who had aided him in his 'Adam's background research', Adam couldn't ignore those guilty looks anymore. Something was definitely up, and Adam wanted to know what.

"Can I ask you something?" Adam asked bracingly.

The smile on Hakim's face faltered. "Umm…I guess. What about?"

Adam didn't miss the slight change of expression, but only kept that in mind as he thought of the best way to coerce Hakim into telling him of what he should've told him. Adam didn't want to bully Hakim into answering him, and he still had time. After thinking about it for a brief few seconds, Adam decided that he'd do it in a light-hearted way, so that Hakim would not feel intimidated. '_And maybe I should take a stab on adding some little white-lies, just to see how Hakim would react to it,'_ Adam thought silently.

"Hakim, have you seen JD?" Adam asked casually. To his pleasure, he saw the slightly stricken expression on Hakim's face, and added with a carefully even tone. "He said that he'd meet us here this morning, but…I don't see him around."

"Uh…us?" Hakim squeaked.

"Yes, us," Adam said, rolling his eyes for effect and smiled. "He told me that it was you who'd mention that I'm interested to learn basketball, but didn't know who to ask to teach me." Inward, Adam cringed at the thought – it was a nice memory, only tarnished due to the sole fact that JD had been plotting against him all the while. "So he offered to teach me a few days back. Weird, huh? The school troublemaker suddenly being _so_ civil and nice all of a sudden."

"He did?" Hakim asked, bewildered. Adam took note of it; apparently Hakim had never told JD that, but oh well…he could just assume that it was _JD _who made up stories, not Adam.

"Don't look so surprised," Adam grinned. "How did you know JD anyway? I never knew that you two were friends." _'Whoa…careful Adam, take one step at a time.'_ He however didn't fail to make the questions sounded enthusiastic instead of demanding.

"Uh…thru MySpace, actually," Hakim admitted. Adam knew that this was the truth; he'd seen the link to Hakim's MySpace page from JD's profile page. "He was the one who added me, but how did he manage to find my profile amidst thousands there is still beyond me," he continued, gradually warming up to Adam's questions.

"Weird." Adam crunched his brows together. _'One more questionnaire…' _He smiled again before adapting a somewhat-wondering expression. "You know, I never thought of it until recently, but…JD somehow reminded me of my late brother. I've told you about Abang Zad, haven't I?"

At this, Hakim instantly paled. His mouth hung open, and there was a panic-stricken look reflected from his round eyes. He was already so fair; Adam wondered how his friend managed to become paler upon hearing about Aizad, his deceased older brother. But judging by Hakim's reaction, Adam knew that he was on the right track. He decided to continue.

"And I know that you won't tell anybody, because I told you not to…but it's kinda weird how JD was so similar in many ways to Abang Zad. I think even Kak Lisha would say the same thing if she gets to know JD," Adam said with a thoughtful note. _'This isn't a lie…somehow JD did behave like arwah Abang Zad.'_ Adam then fixed a deep look into his friend's nervous orbs.

"Adam…about that," Hakim began nervously. He lowered his eyes and continued with a glum tone. "I'm sorry. I should've told you, but I just got a lot of things in my mind lately that I forgot to tell you about it."

'_Bingo.'_ Adam gave an assuring smile to his best friend, showing that he wasn't mad at Hakim. How could he be? There was no way for Hakim to know that JD would use this fragile piece of information against Adam. "Don't worry about it. But how did you manage to talk about _that_, of all other things?"

"Well…" Hakim was sweating, and took off his songkok, revealing short, curly black hair underneath which looked damp. He then fidgeted with the soft velvety material of the songkok as Adam waited for an answer patiently. "We were chatting online and the topic about you came up. He mentioned that you had sad eyes…you know, during that moment when you were still grieving? He kept on making wild guesses, and eventually he touched the subject about your parents in a way that you wouldn't want people to think about them. And…I slipped up. I told them that your parents were great, and you adored them. JD caught the past tenses I used, and used it against me. He asked me later whether it was only your parents, as he didn't want to come by you and accidentally make any insensitive comments…so I told them it was your parents and your big brother."

'_Not make insensitive comments? That's a laugh,' _Adam thought bitterly. _'He didn't comment on anything alright, but…' _Outside, however, his expression remained neutral. "Oh…"

"You're not mad at me, are you?" There was a pleading tone in Hakim's voice.

"Of course not," Adam quickly answered. He was not angry at Hakim, but he was infuriated with JD, more than ever. He'd gotten his answer, and the next time he saw the Red ShadoWira, he would be sure to give him a piece of his mind.

"You sure? I swear, that's the only blunder I've made. I'm…I'm not even sure from where that thing about basketball comes from. Basketball isn't even your favorite sport." Hakim was right about that; Adam didn't even think that he'd want to finish up his basketball lesson with JD anymore. "JD did ask some questions later… something about how old your brother had been before he died and how was he to you. I thought that there was something fishy of how he wanted to know about that, but I didn't see any harm in telling them about those stuffs," Hakim confided. "I don't know…maybe he just wants to be friendly, or maybe he knows things about losing someone…I don't know. I never really keep in touch that much with him and he wasn't online for most of the time nowadays."

"Hakim, you said that there were a lot of things on your mind recently," Adam reminded Hakim, wanting more than ever to change the subject of conversation. Besides, Hakim looked forlorn; Adam hoped that by confiding at him about his problems, it would relieve Hakim of the burden of whatever problems he was having. "C'mon, you can tell me."

"I suppose I can. It's now or never. I've been meaning to tell you this for a long time now, but I was coming to terms with the implications of what this could do to me. I wasn't prepared to do it, and I didn't really want to, and I'm mad at my folks for doing this to me. I mean, I like it a lot here. I have lots of friends, and I have a great best friend! I'm just not prepared to leave all of that…"

Hakim was babbling now; Adam noticed that his best friend was upset, but he still couldn't find the reason behind it. He however sensed that Hakim would need to vent, and that he'd been keeping this to himself for a long time. Adam could even see that Hakim was beginning to blink so rapidly, and his eyes shining oddly.

"…but it's a great opportunity for the whole family. I mean, the pay is awesome there's no way _Ayah_ would decline such an offer. _Ibu_ also was happy with it. Not just happy…she was _ecstatic! _My siblings and I weren't that thrilled, but it was I who was the most unwilling, the others eventually said that they could cope."

Hakim took a deep breath and Adam saw that he was slightly shivering.

"Adam, we're moving away…."

Adam gasped softly; he didn't see that coming at all. It left him speechless.

"And not to just any place. Overseas. Ayah got a job offer…at Saudi Arabia!"

xxx

xxx

Eerie moans were heard coming from all around him. Hordes of floating white sheets, with dark eyes and rows of yellow sharp teeth approached him. Ghosts, or rather, ghost Digimon. But he wasn't scared, or impressed, or amused. What was this; kindergarten horror story for scaring kids? Or low budget ghost movie for terrifying people with low tolerance to adrenaline rushes?

"Oh, shut your traps, you worthless pieces of shit!" he growled in annoyance.

Extending his hands forward, a torrent of flames erupted and jetted towards the ghost-like beings. Their sheets caught the flames and all the ghosts shrieked in dismay when the white sheets that constituted their bodies were burning at a rapid speed. The human teen in front of them was ruthless; his hazel eyes flashed dangerously as he continued releasing flames from the in-betweens of his fingers, with no intention to stop or to slow down at all.

"Josh…" whimpered a figure wrapped in leathery black cloth in front of the human's body. "You don't have to do this. Let's get out of here while we still can…"

The human snickered. "Shush, Koromon. I'm gonna teach that SkullSatamon a lesson for messing with our minds. That cowardly old bag of bones is hiding away in that castle of his, unable to come out, so we'll exterminate these Bakemon here first. You just sit there, and let me do the dirty work. No complaining."

One of the burning Bakemon howled and all of a sudden, a cyanotic blue arm emerged out from his body-sheet, and delivered a forceful punch onto JD's body. The blue, sickly-looking arm of the Bakemon was surprisingly muscular, and it somehow resisted the flames JD had released. The attack was unexpected, and JD sailed backwards with a howl and landed on his back with a crash.

"TEE HEE HEE….HEE HEE HEE…" the Bakemon laughed as the flames on their sheets suddenly vanished mysteriously, as their bodies glowed in dark red aura. There were six of them. They suddenly huddled to each other, forming two groups, with one group consisted of three Bakemon. They joined with each other, forming two hulking monstrosities wearing red hood and cape, and wielding scythes. They had only spinal bones as their bodies, made out of gleaming dark metal which joined at the inferior to floating gray orbs. Underneath the hoods, they could see purple, gleaming metallic skulls, with the eye sockets glowing orange.

JD quickly got up and grabbed his chest, breathing in and out painfully. His breath was ragged. Blood trickled out from his mouth. His eyes narrowed upon seeing the two caped demons, who were both approaching them slowly, as if knowing that there was nowhere for JD and Koromon to run.

"Oh, crap!" the blonde swore loudly. "Koromon, what are they?"

"Oh, no…" Koromon moaned, still latched to JD's body by JD's black uniform jacket. "Those are MetalPhantomon, they are Ultimates. We're done for."

"Ultimates? Damn!" JD backed away and took out his cell phone. "We better split."

The MetalPhantomon glided towards JD as he keyed in the necessary numbers to generate a DigiPort. Just as one of the MetalPhantomon swung its scythe towards JD, the ShadoWira was enveloped by a bright dark purple light and began to be absorbed by the portal.

However, the scythe managed to slice away the cell phone before it too was consumed by the DigiPort. The cell phone was split into half, and burst into data particles. The burst of light that erupted from JD's cell phone however remain, and echoes of cries from JD and Koromon could be heard. The MetalPhantomon curiously approached the energy burst, only to find themselves being sucked into the DigiPort as well. The DigiPort light then dimmed, before completely vanishing out of sight.

Everything was quiet again at the Shadow Realm, before the silence was broken a few seconds later by a roaring thunder. That however, was a usual occurrence at the realm of darkness.

From the Horror Hall, SkullSatamon emerged from the shadows cast by the jaw-shaped doorway of his bastion. He had been standing there all this while, watching the events that unfolded before him with his very own eyes. The demonic Digimon chuckled darkly, seeing how his ghastly followers had tailed JD and Koromon to wherever the DigiPort was taking them. His bony fingers caressed the orb within his ribcage – there was a yellow glow that was emitted by the orb. Formerly, there was only a mere tint, but now the glow had manifested, covering one-sixth of the orb.

"I wonder…" SkullSatamon muttered darkly. "Should I wait for the outcome of dear Joshua's exploits with those MetalPhantomon, or proceed with the next general? The Mage General has fallen; perhaps it's time for the exquisite Dryad General to make her move against the meddlesome heirs of Grademon."

xxx

xxx

"What in the names of the three moons of the Digital World…"

TobuCatmon blinked open his eyes, hearing strange buzzes coming from within the sanctum. He was having a catnap, and was somewhat irritated that he was disturbed, especially when he was certain that nothing was wrong in the Digital World. Sure, the Red ShadoWira might still be at large, but wasn't he supposed to be at school today? As human, Joshua Kamaruzaman was not much of a threat to the now-four DigiWira. As Satriamon however…TobuCatmon had assumed that he still had about three more hours before he'd worry about that.

His attention was caught by the sun staff, which was displaying the most peculiar thing. It was showing a panned-out scenery, of a dark atmosphere and a tall, black-peaked mountain. Thick smokes rose from somewhere near the middle of the mountain, where raging flames were seen. Technically, it was quite impossible to burn a mountain, but it looked like someone had attempted to do just that. TobuCatmon's weary eyes widened when he recognized the mountain.

"Black Peak Mountain!"

The buzzing sound he was hearing however didn't come from the staff. Instead, it was coming from the _floor._ Underneath the rattan mat that was covering the marbled floor of the Forest Sanctum, TobuCatmon could see a part of the five-pointed star that was etched on it glowing.

More specifically, the part with the red-colored circle was blinking. The other four circles however did not bear any strange occurring.

"Joshua? Agumon?" TobuCatmon wondered. His attention shifted back to the sun staff. _'Did they do that? Were they the ones who burned the Cave of Solitude?'_ A brief smile flashed across the feline's face. _'There is no other reason for them to burn down that cave…unless Karatenmon is really out of the picture…and the duo of the Red DigiSphere are now at the side of good!'_

TobuCatmon beamed happily, feeling more and more convinced that he was correct. He flew towards the sun staff and hovered in front of it.

"Show me Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman and Agumon."

The scene shown by the sun staff diminished into nothingness showing only the wooden material of the late Wizardmon's staff. Then it glowed again…and to TobuCatmon's disappointment it only showed noises similar to the ones it was displaying the previous day, when he attempted to watch the aftermath of the battle. Nothing could be seen except grains of noises.

Shrugging, he decided that if for the time being both JD and Agumon decided that they did not want to be found, then so be it. Perhaps they needed time to sort things out. But TobuCatmon strongly believed that they would fare better if they'd let the other DigiWira help them. Nevertheless, everyone had his way of dealing with troubling things; perhaps this was their way. TobuCatmon began to look forward to meet them – he held no grudge against them despite they had kidnapped him once. In fact, he couldn't wait to meet JD, and he missed Agumon dearly – the dinosaur rookie was a great help to him once, before he'd gotten Wizardmon's sun staff to observe the Digital World.

'_But then again…'_ his eyes averted back to the glowing red circle on the floor. _'Why did the red circle glowed?'_ He waited anxiously, but the circle only remained glowing in its red hue; it didn't turn into dark violet as it had before, prior to the DigiWira's first encounter with the ShadoWira. _'At least now I know that whatever is going on, at least Joshua and Agumon are no longer evil. I should inform the DigiWira about this.'_ The light on the red circle began to die down, until it was no longer visible. Everything resumed back to normal. TobuCatmon checked the time and smiled to himself. _'Three more hours before school is over…perhaps I will continue with my catnap now…'_

xxx

xxx

"OOFF!"

"Ummmph…ummm…."

JD winced painfully; the DigiPort had caused him to fall on his belly. His knees and palms were both scraped; they had landed on a hard, stony surface. He then heard a whine coming from underneath his chest and immediately rolled over his back; Koromon had been strapped in front of his body, and he still was, resulting in him being squeezed miserably between JD and the hard stone surface.

"Thank God we manage to escape those bone-brained maniacs," JD muttered, and eyed the new injuries he'd gotten in disdain. "More wounds. That's just great." Disgusted, he wiped his bleeding palm over his somewhat tattered crimson shirt, and watched as the blood blended with his shirt. Then he frowned, something seemed odd with his shirt's coloring.

He looked up, and his frown deepened. "Where the hell are we now? Even Shadow Realm doesn't look so…black-and-whitish." He observed his surrounding, taking note of the lack of color of his surrounding. The ground, the trees, the sky…everything was very dull and in shades of gray. He could feel a harsh breeze blowing against his back, and the sound of waves gently splattering the beach. Turning around, he saw the sea, but the waters were also a murky shade of gray towards the beach, becoming darker and murkier as it stretched towards the horizon where the sea looked black as ink. JD realized that they were currently on top of a stone clearing, just inches away from the end of the line, which led to a very deep ravine. JD had no doubt that should they fell just a mere meter away from where they were at right now, they wouldn't have to worry about where they were at right now. They would instead, fall to their doom.

JD felt a chill. The fine hairs on his neck and arms stood up; something was really uncanny. He'd gotten a foreboding feeling all of a sudden, and his heart thumped faster.

"Koromon, where are we?"

The In-Training looked around, and gasped softly as realization hit him. "I…this place…I don't believe it…"

"Koromon?" JD was growing concerned when he saw the little In-Training began to shiver uncontrollably. A look of fear was evident on his face.

"I…I've only heard of this place in myth and legend. I've…never thought…that I'd someday end up here. _Nobody _wants to come here. Even the Cave of Solitude is better than here...I'd even give anything to be at the Shadow Realm right now…at least from there we know how to get away from."

JD clicked his tongue impatiently; he knew his partner was well-versed in all things Digital World, but he was getting impatient. "Koromon, get to the point."

Koromon inched closer to his partner's body. "Josh…we're at the _Dark Ocean_!"

xxx

xxx

**Author's Note:**

A quick update before my winter exams. Thought that I'd have fun with the Dark Ocean plot, somewhat similar to Digimon 02. This is one of the intermission chapters, with some drama, mostly JD-centric. SkullSatamon mentions a general there, anyone care to guess who the general might be?


	22. Dryad Day Afternoon

Sorcerymon grunted as they flew towards the direction of a thick, verdant jungle. He squinted, trying to block out the sunlight and the winds that were blowing against him. It was a breezy, sunny day. Every now and then, his emerald eyes were fixed towards his staff, which was currently eliciting a soft glow.

"Out of all the generals, I wonder why the Master would want to release the Dryad General. She's _nowhere_ as strong as Karatenmon was. She was the first of all Generals to be imprisoned by Grademon."

The sorcerer in white took a glance towards the lithe feminine figure that was flying by his side, and was momentarily awed by the way she flew; Shutumon's aquamarine hair was flapping gently against her face, and Sorcerymon particularly admired just how the sunlight was reflected from her shiny hair. He however blinked twice and tried to look neutral when the bird-woman cocked her head towards him.

"Don't talk in that chauvinistic manner about _her_!" Shutumon snapped, oblivious to the fact that she was just being stared upon. Her eyes sparkled with admiration. "The Dryad General was awesome! Did you know that she'd brought down many masculine Digimon just by slapping them? I once saw her deleting a massive Okuwamon, and she, as you know, was only slightly taller than me. Many Digimon had been defeated by her just because they had underestimated her, due to her stature and prettiness. She might look fragile, but her attacks aren't. So shut your big mouth when you're in her presence."

"Sounds to me like you _adore_ her," Sorcerymon pointed out.

"So what if I do?" Shutumon huffed. "There's not many feminine Digimon around. We girls have to stick together. I'd be content if I could digivolve into her one day."

Sorcerymon made a face. "Really, Shutumon, you could do better."

Shutumon was about to snap towards her companion, when she saw the underlying meaning of what Sorcerymon had just said. Underneath the mask that covered the lower half of her face, she was smiling. "Why Sorcerymon, was that a compliment I heard?"

Sorcerymon didn't answer; his attention was distracted when his staff vibrated wildly. The Champion had to hold the staff with both hands as the staff suddenly seemed to develop a mind of its own. The snowflake-shaped upper end of the staff was pulled down by an invisible force, pointing towards a thick light-purple canopied jungle underneath.

Shutumon clicked her tongue. "The Whispering Woods. Of course. So that's where the Dryad General, her two trusted henchmen and her foot soldiers were imprisoned." She then eagerly shifted her body so that her head and torso would point down towards the purple forest below.

"Shutumon, wait…"

The bird-woman halted, and looked at Sorcerymon with an annoyed gaze, but that gaze softened immediately. "Hey, what's with the long face?"

"What if she attempts the same thing that Karatenmon did to us before?" Sorcerymon asked steadily. "After that stunt, I don't trust generals that much."

"Will you relax? This time around, we're just gonna free her and her troops, and that's it. We're not gonna hang around much." Shutumon placed her hands on her hips. "Besides, Sorcerymon, you're my best friend, and best friends stick to each other. If she's the same like Karatenmon, then we'll kill her. Simple as that. No one used us like that and get away with it." Shutumon said that lightly, as if she was commenting on the weather, but there was no mistaking the underlying iciness in her tone.

Sorcerymon still looked skeptical. "Not even the Dryad General?"

"Not even _her_."

Sorcerymon visibly relaxed. "You think the Master knows that _we're_ the one who wiped out Karatenmon, instead of Satriamon?"

"Not unless you've failed to cast that cloaking spell which Karatenmon taught the ShadoWira." Shutumon gazed at her friend steely. "I don't want to hear that you failed."

Sorcerymon shook his head. "I mastered the spell alright."

"So there's nothing to worry about. With Karatenmon gone, the crystal ball he left for the Master vanished as well. The Master now has to rely back on us for any news. Now let's go."

xxx

xxx

"Josh…we're at the Dark Ocean!" Koromon exclaimed waveringly.

JD looked around him with distaste. Everything was void of color, save for himself and Koromon. Despite that, their colors were considerably dulled as well. Koromon looked almost light gray instead of faint pink; his eyes looked brown instead of crimson. JD's dark red shirt too looked brownish. His dishwater-blonde hair appeared almost gray.

The tall teen gave an inquiring look at his partner before asking, "Ok, so we're at a colorless part of the Digital World. It's dark, it's dingy, but I don't see any reason that we're supposed to be so scared unless you're afraid of the dark. "

The ribbon-like ears of Koromon twitched madly, indicating that he was very nervous. "The Dark Ocean isn't part of the Digital World. It's an alternate digital dimension altogether, a place where the data of deleted evil Digimon are sent to be reconfigured…if they're lucky." The little In-Training gulped, and shuddered. "Sometimes, however, the evil Digimon's data become so corrupted that it's almost impossible for them to be reborn. Should that happen, their digital spirit will linger in the Dark Ocean, and fall prey under the control of the Master of the Dark Ocean."

There was a foreboding tone in his partner's voice which sent a chill down JD's spine. He could see that Koromon was dead serious. What Koromon had said however was practically news to him; Karatenmon had neglected to mention that when he appointed JD and Manny as ShadoWira. He however took the information by stride, deciding to ask about it later. But something pertaining about this Dark Ocean intrigued him. He decided to ask his partner.

"You mentioned the Master of the Dark Ocean just now. Who is he, or she, or it? Whatever."

"I don't know," Koromon replied. "No one knows. He remains in the shadows and darkness. Nobody knows his agenda."

"You think he could give SkullSatamon a severe beating?" JD snickered, imagining the eluded Master of the Dark Ocean fighting 'the Master'. His voice had adapted a joking manner, for Koromon's sake – the Digimon looked too tensed to his liking.

"Perhaps," Koromon said, but he didn't sound too sure. He was also oblivious to his partner's attempt to lighten up the mood of their otherwise dreary situation. "But it's better if we don't think about that. We should get out of here while we still can."

JD grinned. "Why didn't you say so? One DigiPort, coming right up!" The teen reached in his trousers pocket, looking for his cell phone, when suddenly his face paled. He tried searching the other side's pocket. "Oh, crap! Where the hell is my phone? It's supposed to be right here, in my pocket!"

"You LOST it?" Koromon's eyes widened with panic. "Josh…!"

"Hey, relax! Lemme' think for a while where exactly I've placed it…we were escaping those caped demons…usually the phone would end up right in my pocket but now it's _not_ here, so…"

"The only explanation I could think of is that the phone is destroyed _before_ the DigiPort closed," Koromon said breathlessly. The little In-Training began to blink rapidly as his ears twitched with anxiety. "And…and…out of all places, we're at the Dark Ocean…and, and…we're trapped…and, with no way out…" His voice broke into sobs. "And…and…"

"Uh, oh, Koromon, now…" JD sweatdropped upon seeing tears beginning to form from the corners of Koromon's wide eyes. _'He's not gonna cry now, is he? After being Flarelizamon and Satriamon, surely he's not gonna cry? It's just not…not macho!'_

Of course, Koromon was not Agumon, Flarelizamon or Satriamon. He was now just a helpless In-Training Digimon. Crying was not beneath him. So…

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!! We're doomed!!"

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 22 – Dryad Day Afternoon_**

xxx

xxx

Manny pressed the doorbell at the front gate of the Nadarajah household nervously. Hearing the sound of the bell, he took a deep breath and a step back. Sweat trickled down the sides of his faces, and his dark maroon hair was wet…due to the fact that he'd just taken a shower. On his hand, clasped against the side of his navy blue jersey-clad body, were a couple of textbooks, three exercise books, and a pencil case.

Right after school was over; both Adam and Liu Ying had cornered him before he managed to reach the stairs. Before he could ask, Adam immediately briefed him of his class's homework assignments and Liu Ying nudged him to take note, saying that the homework assignment was for Gayathri. Seeing as Manny and Gayathri were neighbors, it would be up to Manny to ensure that Gayathri wouldn't be left behind with her school work, never mind the fact that they were not classmates. Their homework assignments shouldn't differ that much.

The metal grill door opened, the slight creaking sound it made snapped Manny back to reality. He saw Gayathri stepping out, and gripped the books he brought tighter. She looked at Manny inquiringly, but pressed something at the interior side of the entrance. Instantly the gate was opened partially to let Manny in.

Gayathri smiled, but there was anxiety in her smile. "Hi, Manny. What brings you here?"

"Hey." Manny nodded shyly, and indicated the books he brought along. "Your homework assignments for today, actually. Adam told me that you wanted to be kept up to date… so here I am."

"Oh. You could've just called me, you know. You don't have to trouble yourself coming all the way here. Besides…" Gayathri looked at her watch, and inside the house, where her driver Anding was reading the newspaper. "We're just about to go to KLIA…my parents will be arriving from London in two hours."

Now that Gayathri have mentioned it, Manny noticed that Gayathri was dressed nicely. She was wearing a long-sleeved light purple top and a denim skirt. Her brown hair was tied into a ponytail, the bandage that Manny saw her wear the previous day was no more. All in all, Manny thought that she looked stunning, but his face fell; he was looking forward for their homework session.

"Oh. I didn't know."

"Would you like to come in anyway? Thanks for taking the trouble to come. How about a glass of orange juice while you brief me of what had happened at school today? We're not in a rush."

"Oh, thanks." Manny removed his sandals and followed Gayathri in, glad of the sudden change of atmosphere. It was cool inside Gayathri's house, compared to the late afternoon heat outside.

Gayathri's house maid Mak Mah arrived with two glasses of mango juices a couple of minutes later as they sat at the household's mahogany dinner table. Manny was explaining about what homework Gayathri needed to do, based on what Adam had told him earlier. Then he relayed the regards sent by Dina and Belinda; the former was also a classmate of his.

"So…how's your head?" Manny asked with a voice that could barely pass as a whisper. He still felt guilty of the accident which had befallen Gayathri, feeling that it was somehow his fault.

"It's healing just…fine." Gayathri grew stiff. She seemed to be debating something to herself, before finally relenting. Sighing, she continued, "The doctor had to shave some hair out in order to let the wound heal, so I need to wear my hair like this. I don't like it, though; it'll be like showing off a bald wounded patch of my head to the world. Hopefully by next Monday I can wear my hair down, at least the bald patch will be covered by hair…"

"I'm sorry," Manny squeaked out, effectively cutting out Gayathri's trails of words. "The accident, I mean."

"I told you, it's not your fault." Gayathri shifted uncomfortably.

"I just feel that I need to say it…again."

Gayathri looked at the boy in front of her, puzzled. "What do you mean? One time back at the hospital was enough an apology. Besides, you have no control of it."

"I noticed some…awkwardness, yesterday…" Manny's voice trailed away, unsure of what to say any more. He wasn't sure if he should say it at all; after all Gayathri merely acted naturally, given their circumstances. Uneasiness was a natural reaction.

"Oh…that." Gayathri remembered; she'd been paying everybody else extra attentions in order to avoid talking to Manny. It was somewhat unintentional on her part, and Gayathri had to agree about the awkwardness. "I just…need some time to think about…things. How we were, and how we're gonna be."

Moments of silence passed by; the only sound that could be heard was the oven at the kitchen – Mak Mah must be baking something to celebrate the Nadarajah couple's return from overseas. The ticking sound of the grandfather clock placed at the far corner of the living room could also be heard, as well as the sounds of the air-conditioner. But no conversation was heard.

"Oh yeah, Adam mentioned that a classmate of yours, Hakim, is moving to Saudi Arabia soon," Manny added, after taking a sip of his mango juice. The awkwardness was still there when the topic about their budding friendship was mentioned, so Manny decided it was best to change the topic to break the uncomfortable silence. Compared between him and Gayathri, the girl was the more vibrant while he was the quiet one, but Manny knew that in order for him to fix his friendship with Gayathri, to quell out all the awkwardness, _he_ needed to be the one to take the initiative.

Gayathri's eyes widened. "Hakim moving?" She sighed and put down her glass. "That must be tough for Adam. They've been best friends since last year."

"I know how Hakim must be feeling right now," Manny murmured, secretly glad of the change of Gayathri's demeanor. "I felt the same way when Dad told me that we're moving here."

Silence. Gayathri nodded and started to look at the list of homework assignment, while not actually having interest on it. Manny awkwardly looked around the house before something else crossed his mind.

'_Think, Manny.. what else do you need to tell her. Aha, almost forgot…'_

"Oh, Adam also mentioned that there'll be a small get-together at Hakim's house this Friday, for your class. A small dinner and '_doa selamat'_, from what I gather," Manny informed.

"Oh…right. Tell Adam I'll be there. Oh wait, scratch that. I'll SMS Hakim myself tonight saying that I'll be there. When exactly Hakim is moving?" Gayathri inquired.

Manny shrugged. "Adam didn't mention that."

Gayathri nodded. "So I'll ask Hakim that tonight too."

Minutes of silence passed by idly, with no conversations passed between the two of them. They could sense that Anding and Mak Mah were watching them, but paid no attention to them. Manny however grew uncomfortable and quickly finished his drink before standing up and gathered his books.

"Umm…I guess I better get going, since you're going out too," Manny said slowly.

"Oh…ok." Gayathri followed Manny to the door, and pressed the gate button. This time around, the whole gate opened as they were about to leave as well. Before Manny could walk out from the gate however, Gayathri called him back. _'He's trying to fix our friendship. I should give him a chance….' _"Manny! Will you come tomorrow as well, for homework?"

Manny was visibly stunned by the inquiry, but a smile then crossed his balanced facial feature as he nodded. "Ok. I'll be here tomorrow. Three o'clock?"

"Three is fine." Gayathri returned the smile as she observed Manny exiting the gate. Then, she sighed and closed the door. _'I don't know, however, whether it's going to be easy on me…'_

xxx

xxx

"So the DigiWira have beaten the Mage General yesterday?" a sweet feminine voice inquired. The owner of the voice didn't seem to sound any older than fifteen.

"Yes, General," Shutumon said. "More specifically, the Mage General's plan backfired. He attempted to become stronger by harnessing the power of the digital solar eclipse, which actually made him weaker as he practiced black magic. He was left vulnerable, and was severely injured by Sagittarimon – the partner of the DigiWira with the White DigiSphere – before finally being deleted wholly by Satriamon, the fused form of the kid with the Red DigiSphere and his partner Digimon."

Sorcerymon shifted nervously as he held his staff up high. The snowflake part was displaying the battle that took place the previous day, as well as illuminating the dark clearing where they were standing at right now. The light gave off silhouettes of various creatures, which were circling the clearing. The three of them – Sorcerymon, Shutumon, and the Dryad General – stood in the middle of the clearing.

The Dryad General's profile was barely highlighted from the scanty amount of light. From what could be seen from the light, she was a humanoid Digimon who stood at no more than seven feet and half inches high. She had an enviable curve, but that was all that could be seen as she stood within the shadows cast by the thick canopies of the jungle.

She adjusted the dark fuchsia tulip flower which was fastened at the center of her chest as a smile appeared on her face. "My, what a handsome Digimon he is," she commented lightly as she observed Samudramon with interest. "I could use a minion like him. He shall fall prey of my Beauty Slap, no doubt. I want to keep him. The one in red armor is hot as well. He's the one who deleted Karatenmon, you say? He'll be useful too. Strong men are hard to find, especially one as good-looking as he is. Hmmm….that child with that white horse however…hasn't he merged yet with his Digimon? Judging from the other two fine-looking fused guys there, I can expect that he'll turn out to be quite an Adonis as well."

She licked her lips in excitation. Her voice was light; it was difficult to ascertain her true character just by hearing her voice. Unsuspecting Digimon could be lulled to a false security by the sweetness exuded from every syllable she had spoken, which disguised the venom that was truly her nature.

"General, let _us_ challenge the DigiWira!" a muffled womanly voice called out. It came from a large shadow which hovered in midair, with the shape of a flower.

"Yeah, let us! We won't disappoint you!" a gruff manly growl followed by. This was a Digimon, shrouded by the shadows and appeared to be quadrupled, and even more massive than the first.

"Us, too!" several scratchy voices chorused, from all around the clearing. They came from Digimon of various shapes and sizes, all hidden within the darkness of the Whispering Woods as well.

The Dryad General chuckled. "We shall ALL attack at once. It will be an all out strike! The DigiWira are still weak from their previous fight. Now is our chance to have revenge on what Grademon had inflicted on us three hundred years ago. Grademon might be gone, but his heirs remain. If we wipe them out today, the Master will be pleased, and we shall be in his good books."

A glint was produced from her eyes, and it was a menacing one. Sorcerymon and Shutumon had no doubt that the Dryad General meant serious business.

Their work, for now, was done.

xxx

xxx

In the meantime, JD – with a sniffing Koromon – was walking along a barren path, lined with trees. He hadn't known what to do with Koromon when the little In-Training started crying, so he'd let the 'mon cry while he figured out a way to escape. From Koromon's story, JD assumed that it was best if they went as far from the seaside as possible, but something kept nagging him that it was hopeless. No matter where he attempted to go, they would never find a way out. It was why Koromon was crying; there was no method known to escape the Dark Ocean.

But JD wasn't one who would give up willingly. The idea to use his D-Terminal to relay the message to the DigiWira had crossed his mind, but he'd brushed it off as quickly as it came. He had harmed the DigiWira the previous day – he had neither the face nor the audacity to ask for their help now. So, he decided to follow the path in front of him, hoping that it would at least lead them somewhere. The ocean – the Dark Ocean – gave out an eerie aura, and every now and then JD would get a forbidding vibe coming from the distance. The ocean looked empty, but JD felt danger.

They had been walking for two hours, with no luck. Everything appeared to be the same around them. A straight path, which was sloping slightly – JD assumed that they were now walking down the tall clearing. But for the last couple of hours they didn't see anything other than the dry path and the trees that lined the pathway.

Faint sounds suddenly attracted their attentions. They came from the sky, somewhere in a distance. JD looked up, gazing at the black sky intently, studying the clouds, anticipating that something would suddenly come out from there. The stillness of the Dark Ocean dimension unnerved him.

"Koromon, shhh. Listen. Do you hear what I hear?" JD asked, placing his index finger in front of his lips.

Koromon abided his partner, and this time around his ribbon-like ears twitched madly. "I hear. The presence was…familiar, too."

"Oh, shit! Look!" JD pointed towards something on the sky. "It's _them_!"

From the distance, two floating figures could be seen. They wore capes that were black on the outside, but scarlet on the insides. The ghastly duo had metallic spine and ribcage as their bodies, affixed on a glowing purple orb. Streams of electricity formed their arms, joining their spines to a pair of metallic hands, which were holding scythes. The scythes were as their wielders – their sticks were solid but the blades were made out of purple energy. Their eyes were menacing red, illuminating the hideous metal skulls that were their heads.

"Crap, crap, crap," JD muttered, as he watched the MetalPhantomon's shadows drifted past them. He had jumped behind a tree to avoid detection when he first saw them. And luckily, just in time too; the MetalPhantomon didn't appear to have noticed him.

But judging from the way those demonic Digimon were looking at their left and right, there was no doubt that they were looking for someone.

That someone was obviously, JD and Koromon.

"How the hell did they get here as well?" JD wondered out loud, when the MetalPhantomon were no longer in sight. "Koromon, can't you digivolve?"

"No…I'm still weak…sorry JD." The little Digimon began to sniff again.

JD was annoyed to see that his Digimon was about to cry once again, and resisted the urge to snap at Koromon, knowing that the Digimon couldn't help himself. He took a deep breath, trying to analyze his situation. But without his cell phone JD couldn't generate a DigiPort. And without a DigiPort there was no way for them to get out of the dark world. JD had his Digivice still, but doubted that it would be much use without a computer.

"We're doomed," he whispered; the possibility of them being trapped there for eternity began to sink in his mind.

Unbeknownst to him, an uncanny dark shadow was slowly creeping behind him. The shadow had no definite form, and came from within the dark forest. It began to surround JD's body before slithering down to his arms and feet before finally moving up to his head. JD's hazel eyes turned lifeless and he dropped Koromon on the ground.

"OWW! Josh!!" the little In-Training cried indignantly. "Josh…?" Koromon looked up, wondering why his partner would drop him so suddenly. His eyes widened in shock when he saw that JD was coated with a black aura. "Josh!"

"We're doomed…" JD whispered; this time around his voice lacked the luster that Koromon had grown to be familiar with. There was no hint of the usual calm confidence, or the cockiness. The blonde teen plopped on the ground, and drew his legs close to his body before burying his head into them. "We're not going to get out of here. We're doomed."

xxx

xxx

"This is odd," Manny commented, as he looked down at his D3 Digivice. He was frowning.

"What's odd?" Adam asked, peering at the other boy's hands.

Manny sighed. "I've been trying to locate JD's Digivice signal just now. Nothing came up."

"Have you tried the wide-range scanning?" Liu Ying recommended, not missing Adam's darkened look, but chose to ignore it.

"Yes. No such luck, either," Manny said. "Yesterday we could still locate him; he'd been somewhere near the Megalith Coliseum I think, but today he doesn't seem to be at the Digital World."

"Well, maybe he's back in our world," Adam pointed out, his face reassumed its usual look already.

Manny shook his head. Worry was evident on his face. "Unless he'd taken a plane to Siberia, no…he wasn't back in our world as well. I've used the widest range of scan possible."

The DigiWira had been called to the Digital World earlier, but TobuCatmon had stated that there was no need to rush as there were no immediate dangers. When they arrived – Gayathri excluded – TobuCatmon had shown them odd sighting of the Cave of Solitude set ablaze. He also had told them the rumors that were circulating all around the Digital World now.

"But if Satriamon has deleted Karatenmon, shouldn't the spell Karatenmon place on him be gone as well?" Patamon asked.

"So he _should_ be good again," Manny said. "Yes. I think Karatenmon's spell worked like that."

"Manny is correct," TobuCatmon agreed. "Joshua's sudden disappearance is very odd indeed. According to Manny, he was not at your home world, but he's not in the Digital World as well. At least, not until late this morning. If he is the one responsible for the Cave of Solitude burning, then his disappearance from both worlds occurred merely several hours before. The cave was set ablaze around the time you would have your school break."

"So how do you propose we find him?" Manny asked.

"We don't," Adam replied coolly. There was neither malice nor hatred in his voice, just indifference. Manny and Liu Ying looked at him oddly. "Well, think about it. If he's already good, then he should be coming to us. Wasn't that what _you_ did when you broke the spell?" Adam directed his question to Manny.

Manny nodded. Then he gazed at Adam meaningfully. "Maybe he's just too…ashamed to meet us."

Adam shifted uneasily upon the other boy's gaze. "Maybe, but then why disappear? His parents are looking for him – they thought that he's been kidnapped. We thought we knew better, but now even we don't know where JD is right now." He sighed as he stood up from the chair; the three DigiWira had been sitting around the wooden table. "What's he thinking?"

"Well, _I_ think JD and Agumon have become good," Penguinmon quipped. Instantly everyone's gazes fell upon him. "Well, if I'm placed on their shoes, I'd have done a lot worse than just burn the whole Cave of Solitude…I'd demolish the whole mountain myself! Me and Manny of course, we'd bring down that stinking mountain before drowning all the remains."

"That's…an interesting way to put it, actually," TobuCatmon commented.

Penguinmon mock-bowed. "Thank you, PussyCatmon."

TobuCatmon ignored the nickname. "Penguinmon's suggestion makes sense. The burning of the cave might be an act of retaliation on Joshua's behalf. I myself believe that Joshua and Agumon have returned to the side of good."

"How about we take a vote for it?" Liu Ying suggested. "All those who think that JD's now good, raise their hands…" Her dark eyes fell on the Digimon, who looked at her expectantly. "…or, do whatever to indicate that you're in favor of the vote."

One by one, everyone showed their support of the vote, except for two.

"Adam? Patamon? Do you have any reason of not agreeing?" TobuCatmon inquired.

"I only seconded Adam's vote," Patamon said.

"Thanks, Patamon." Adam looked disgruntled as his gray irises met the other eyes inside the sanctum. "After Karatenmon disappeared, I was there. And JD leapt up on me and tried to…to…"

"Kill you?" Penguinmon suggested helpfully.

"Penguinmon!" Manny admonished.

"What? The boy was stuttering; obviously he was still so shaken by the kill attempt that he was unable to say it. I was merely helping him spit it out." The Rookie avian shrugged, as if he'd done nothing that would merit the repulsed reactions from the others.

"You could do it a little bit more discreetly," Labramon pointed out, shooting dagger-looks towards the blue-feathered Penguinmon.

"I _was_ being discreet; I could've said in a lot worse way."

Patamon huffed indignantly. "You call _that _discreet? That was downright insensitive!"

"But I was correct, wasn't I, Adam?" Penguinmon looked up at Adam inquiringly, and beamed when Adam nodded weakly. "HA! See! I _told_ you!"

"Ok, so what's your reason to vote for JD being good now?" Liu Ying asked Penguinmon coolly.

"Well, if Patamon seconded Adam's vote, I seconded Manny's. What's _your _reason?"

"Actually, I've been thinking…" Liu Ying paused, making sure that everyone was paying attention to her before continuing, "Satriamon was only a minion, while Karatenmon was a General. It doesn't sound fitting that a minion could be stronger that his master. Satriamon might be strong, I can attest to that myself, having fought him yesterday as Xianamon. But Karatenmon was supposed to be fearsomely powerful. TobuCatmon, remember how you first reacted when you learned that Karatenmon had been set free. You were _scared_, right? You said that a great evil had been released." Her dark eyes glinted as she drew her conclusion to an end. "So, I think there's some foul play in here."

"What's on your mind?" Adam asked.

"Maybe Karatenmon was not deleted yet when you_ last_ saw JD. But sometime last night, he had been."

Patamon nodded. "Well, I, as Sagittarimon, did injure him quite easily; somehow Karatenmon didn't appear to be as strong as we thought he would be. He was still a formidable villain; that I can confirm. But he wasn't super-powerful either. He could be as strong as you guys when you fuse with your partners…"

"Adam," Liu Ying gazed at her fellow DigiWira. "What do you remember _before_ you teleported away from JD yesterday? You said that you were unconscious. We were outside the Stone Valley for a good twenty minutes after you told us to escape. The explosion, which was the result of Karatenmon and Satriamon's attacks collided with each other, happened not too long after we made our escape. I'd give it to happen less than ten minutes after we escaped. So, there was still a ten-minute gap. JD attacked you after the first ten minutes. Then you were unconscious, and woke up several minutes after that. I'd say you were unconscious for around five minutes. Within that five minutes, Karatenmon's deletion must have happened. Adam, did you get a good look at JD before you teleported away?"

The dark-haired boy shook his head. "What do you expect?" Adam said softly. "What was on my mind that time was to get away as quickly as possible – this would be the third, or fourth times that JD attempted to kill me. See…I even lost count of how many attempts he'd tried."

"Did JD say anything, then…anything that could indicate his allegiance?" Liu Ying pressed on.

"He was definitely evil when he became my friend," Adam pointed out. "What he said, how he looked… I won't trust him anymore."

Liu Ying saw how adamant Adam was and decided that there was no changing their leader's mindset. "I don't like JD that much either…and that started way before I became a DigiWira. But still I'm willing to give him a benefit of a doubt," she said gently. "If he's still evil, then we'll have to fight or convince him. If he's good….then he'll better stay in hiding, because when I find him, I'll _murder_ him for all the stunts he'd pulled on all of us." Liu Ying however didn't sound as serious as her statement was, judging by the way she had her face set.

That earned a flicker of smile from Adam, but the boy didn't mention anything.

He didn't need to, as suddenly the sun-staff flickered to life. Adam was relieved of the distraction and was the first to dart towards the staff, as he'd been the only one standing. The other two DigiWira followed him soon after. They saw a band of Digimon herding towards the Green Meadow. A troop of weird, bulbous plant-type Digimon with arms – four of them were hopping and yellow in color, led by a similar vegetation figure in red. Flanked on their sides were wood trunk-shaped Digimon, there were four of them in total. Behind them, the weirdest two Digimon formed the rear – them being the biggest amongst all the Digimon there.

Both had the similarities of being a weird mutation between a reptile and a sunflower. The floating mutant had a docile look; with its long green body, tail, leaves-shaped wings, and a seemingly kind face on the head that resembled a sunflower. The one crawling on all four had a rougher edge, and was twice the size of its gentler counterpart. It looked like a successful mix between a dying flower and an alligator. It had dark green gator body, and the sunflower head on it was a withered one, dark brown with ugly red petals, unlike the first creature's healthy-looking one.

"Woah. Nature Digimon freak show!" Penguinmon exclaimed.

"You can say that again," Patamon muttered.

Penguinmon brightened. "OK! Nature Digimon freak show!"

"Penguinmon, it's just an expression!!" Labramon snapped.

"Who are they, TobuCatmon?" Liu Ying asked, frowning.

"Veggiemon. RedVeggiemon. Woodmon. Sunflowmon. Petaldramon." TobuCatmon indicated the names of the nature Digimon. "And they're heading…to the Forest Sanctum."

The sun-staff displayed the band of nature Digimon assembling at the Green Meadow, right in front of the forests that protected the Forest Sanctum. They seemed to be awaiting an order, seemingly from a leader. But the said leader was nowhere to be found.

All of a sudden, the sky darkened. Clouds materialized, obscuring the sun instantly. The temperature dropped several degrees. Winds appeared. The suddenness of the changes was completely unnatural, given the fact that it had been a warm, clear day. It had also been breezy, but now the winds were forceful, swaying the trees all around the marbled, roofless sanctum.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Manny muttered.

"It looks like we're under attack," Adam noted, observing as one of the Veggiemon attempted to enter the Forest Sanctum's jungle. A barrier flickered into life and the Veggiemon was thrown away, its body sailed all the way towards the lake which was in the middle of the wide paddock. "And they're definitely evil; the barrier only reacted like that with evil Digimon."

"We better go out there and see what the problem is," Liu Ying decided. "If they want a battle…"

"Adam and Manny will deal with them for the time being," TobuCatmon quickly said. "I've just thought of something, but I need Xianamon to check it out for me. Liu Ying, Labramon, remain here for a while. Samudramon and Sagittarimon can handle a band of Champion Digimon. The Digital Access Digivolution gives you the power similar to an Ultimate Digimon, and the same is true for Sagittarimon's new mode."

"That's good to hear," Adam said. He looked at his present companies, noticing that they were one member short. "What about Gayathri, Manny? You saw her today; is she ok?"

"Yeah, she seems to be ok now," Manny answered and looked at the clock. "She should be on her way back from the airport by now."

TobuCatmon nodded. "I shall contact Gayathri to provide assistance. Go now, DigiWira. Stay safe."

"C'mon. Let's do it. Patamon, digivolve!"

Adam held out his Digivice. At the same time, his D-Terminal flickered into life and the Ivory Gem de-digitized from the device. It spun around Patamon slowly as it grew twice its original size. The arrowhead-shaped contraption then let out a bright gold and white light as it initiated the special form of Armor Digivolution.

"**_Patamon…Golden Armor Digivolve to… Sagittarimon, Radiant Mode!!"_**

Patamon metamorphosed into the regular Sagittarimon, before the Ivory Gem melted into data particles and coated the armor with white and gold. The armor gained sharper edges and radiated with pure light amidst the darkening sky. Adam vanished in swirls of white light, and reappeared on top of Sagittarimon before both partners teleported out of the Forest Sanctum.

"Fancy light show," Penguinmon muttered. "But we can do better. Manny, c'mon!"

"Right," Manny grinned. He took out his Blue DigiSphere and Digivice.

Liu Ying followed suit. Together, they called out: **"DIGITAL ACCESS DIGIVOLUTION, HAA!!"**

Bright flashes of golden and sapphire light ensued before Samudramon and Xianamon materialized on the spot where Manny, Penguinmon, Liu Ying and Labramon were at. Samudramon then quickly bid Xianamon and TobuCatmon goodbye before moving out of the sanctum to join Adam and Sagittarimon.

Xianamon looked at TobuCatmon with puzzlement etched on her ethereally beautiful features. "TobuCatmon? Why do you want me to remain here?"

"Simple." TobuCatmon however looked grim. "If Joshua and Agumon are not here in the Digital World, and they are also not in your home world, I have a theory of where they would be. And I need you to check it out for me. I hope however, that I would be proved _wrong_."

xxx

xxx

"What are you all doing here?" Sagittarimon demanded, unsheathing an arrow from its holster. He wanted to be ready for any attack, as well as intimidating his potential enemies. Given the fact that his stature alone was intimidating enough, the Golden Armored Champion wanted to further deter the bad intentions that the band of nature Digimon that were assembled in front of him would have in mind.

The Veggiemon whispered amongst each other, while the Woodmon looked at the pair stoically. Their hollow eyes, carved out from the trunks, observed the duo of Light with seeming interest. Behind them, the sole Sunflowmon hovered lazily in midair, its face expressionless. Underneath the Sunflowmon, the single Petaldramon emitted guttural groans as it adjusted its massive body around. Amongst all the assembled Digimon, Petaldramon and Sunflowmon looked to be the strongest. But it was not either of them who led the whole band of vegetations.

"We're here under the order of our General!" RedVeggiemon, seemingly the leader of the troops, spoke up with a deep, groveled voice.

"Another General?" Adam inquired. He was on his customary position aboard his partner. "We've just got rid of one yesterday and now there's another one?"

"Shut your trap, you measly human!" RedVeggiemon roared. "The Dryad General, _our_ General, is the one who commanded us here."

Adam huffed indignantly, but ignored the comment made by the cantankerous RedVeggiemon. He looked around, but didn't notice anybody who'd remotely be a possibility to be a General.

"I don't see any General."

"Do you think we can handle them by ourselves?" Samudramon inquired breathlessly; he'd just appeared out from the Forest Sanctum.

"Neither any of them are higher than Champion level, but I won't count out Petaldramon. He looks too big to be just a Champion," Sagittarimon noted. "It looks like the odds are in our favor."

Samudramon grasped his metallic trident. "That's comforting to hear."

Adam teleported to a safe distance in order to allow Sagittarimon to fight more freely – without Adam to look out for, Sagittarimon wouldn't be distracted. He crept towards the lake, where he saw a stray Veggiemon coming out from the lake. It was the Veggiemon who had attempted to infiltrate the barrier set around the sanctum's forests. Adam watched it warily, but the Veggiemon was more fixated to join its mates. In fact, it seemed to be oblivious to Adam's presence.

Suddenly, the boy noticed a shadow passing him from above. It wasn't a large shadow, and looked humanoid. Intrigued, he looked up, and gasped at the sight.

The one who'd just flown past him was definitely a female Digimon. She was beautiful as a fairy. Her overall features were a delicate mix between a regular human and a flower. She was dressed in tight yellow-colored bodice that left her arms and legs bare. Her outfit was lined with green, with leaves-like decorations over the shoulders and along the bikini lines. Her extremities appeared to have the characteristics of flowers – they started out as long appendages in light lavender shades and ended as flowers, which were elegantly patterned to serve as hands and feet.

The Digimon seemed to realize that she had just flown past a human, and gracefully halted. She turned around to face Adam, allowing the DigiWira to study her features more attentively. This Digimon had deep green eyes that sparkled with mirth, and an expression which reflected the innocence to that of a young girl. She was wearing a hat patterned to look like an upside-down pink lilac, with vine-like hair framing her soft facial features. On her back a large pink four-petal flower jutted out in four directions, serving as wings.

All in all, Adam thought that she seemed to be in the same league as Lilymon. _'Could this be the Dryad General?'_

The feminine Digimon smirked. "Like what you see, boy?" Her voice exuded sweetness and youth.

Adam sweatdropped; this Digimon had the flirtatious attitude which reminded him of Fairymon. He didn't know how to reply.

"Not the one to talk, eh? Fine with me. I'll deal with you later; right now I have my eyes on a bigger fish." The female Digimon turned round, facing the vegetation army and their much more impressive-looking opponents. She eyed Sagittarimon before her gaze stalled at Samudramon. She smirked again before tearing her gaze away, looking for somebody from the vegetation crowd. Her eyes spotted RedVeggiemon. "Well, what are you waiting for? _Introduce me_."

It was an order which RedVeggiemon gladly complied. "Behold; the Dryad General LILAMON!"

The Digimon that was now known as Lilamon smiled. Her green eyes returned to gaze towards Samudramon. "So this is the famed DigiWira that have defeated the Mage General?" She giggled like a schoolgirl, seemingly unimpressed. "Not very threatening, I must say. I thought there are more of you?"

Sagittarimon snorted. "The two of us are all that's needed to counter the likes of you."

"Confident, aren't we? It won't do you any good, judging me by the way I look. I'm not that weak." Lilamon pointed both her arms towards Samudramon and Sagittarimon. Her movement was executed gracefully, as if she was merely stretching her arms out. Neither Samudramon nor Sagittarimon saw what she was up to. She smirked. "Taste this. _Marvel Shot!!"_

Several energy balls were instantly launched from her extended arms at rapid rate. It was totally unexpected. Those orbs of green energy sailed with the speed of lightning and reached their targets within a couple of blinks. Both Samudramon and Sagittarimon were hit squarely on their chests, and were thrown off their feet before landing on their backs.

Lilamon giggled. "Well, maybe I'm not weak at all. Appearance can be deceiving."

Both Sagittarimon and Samudramon quickly got back on their feet. "Wow, she got us good," Samudramon commented, coughing once as he rubbed his chest where a blackened spot was evident against his pale torso. The attack had affected him more than Sagittarimon, as the centaur was heavily armored while his torso was bare, only protected by an X-shaped armor.

"She just took us by surprise," Sagittarimon grunted. He pointed an arrow towards Lilamon. "At least we now know what we're up against. _Celestial Judgment Arrow!!_"

Lilamon smirked again, not the least bothered by the electrical-charged arrow that soared towards her. She didn't even make any attempt to move as the arrow approached her with lightning speed. Instead she calmly waved her right arm, and it morphed into a pink blade. _"Lilac Dagger!!"_ Then she slashed towards the arrow, interrupting its course. The arrow, having lost its momentum, fell onto the ground harmlessly before dissolving into data particles.

"She's actually quite good," Samudramon realized. He decided not to wait any more and pointed his trident towards the floating dryad. _"Cosmic Thunderstrike!!"_

A bolt of azure lightning blasted out from the three tips of the trident with a thunderous roar and streaked towards Lilamon malevolently. This had elicited the result Samudramon had hoped his thunder attack would produce to the confident fairy Digimon; Lilamon yelped as she fleeted out of the thunderbolts' way. Her face looked startled, before turning to harbor what seemed to be fury kept in check. She was frowning, and Samudramon had to smile.

"You didn't have to do that," Lilamon muttered. She cocked her head sideways towards the crowd of vegetations that were anticipating her call. "What are you all waiting for? Attack them!"

With the order given, Lilamon flew up towards the sky and watched gleefully as her underlings charged towards Samudramon and Sagittarimon, all the way only fixing her eyes towards the merman Digimon with apparent interest. Petaldramon trampled the ground ferociously, and roared with a cry of a beast as it stood on its hind legs. It then generated a column of wind and leaves towards Sagittarimon.

"_Leaf Cyclone!!"_

Sagittarimon was unfazed; his higher evolved form was able to withstand Petaldramon's attack. He mimicked Petaldramon's move by standing on his hind legs, before trampling the ground. Three massive energy orbs materialized from out of nowhere and streaked past the horde of Veggiemon and Woodmon, deleting two that came across the orbs' path. The supercharged forms of his Meteor Gallop technique was powerful, and its prowess was proven when all three meteorites nailed Petaldramon squarely, causing the mutant Digimon to howl with rage. Sagittarimon noted with satisfaction that Petaldramon was injured, but not down from the count.

Petaldramon then resumed its four-legged position and buried its thorny tail underground. Its attention was set towards Sagittarimon hatefully.

"_Thousand Spikes!!"_

Instantly, from underneath Sagittarimon, the thorny tail of Petaldramon burst out, impaling Sagittarimon from bottom. It was a totally unexpected move from Petaldramon's behalf, and Sagittarimon was lucky that his upgraded armor was able to protect his body from being harmed by Petaldramon's tale. Nevertheless, the force that was delivered with the attack was enough to send Sagittarimon flying, and tumbling down against the waiting Woodmon, RedVeggiemon and Veggiemon.

"Altogether now!" RedVeggiemon commanded. He inhaled sharply; and his actions were mimicked by the other Veggiemon. _"Stinky Jet!!"_

"UGH!! Oh YUCK!!" Sagittarimon yelled in disgust, consumed by dark vapors of nauseatingly bad smell. He crashed onto the ground, which opened the way for the Veggiemon and RedVeggiemon to proceed with another attack which was even more disgusting than the previous one – now they were throwing sludge onto Sagittarimon. The attack was generally harmless for the Golden Armor Digimon, but it irritated him to no end and soiled his pristine white armor.

Before he could think of anything, he felt a familiar warm sensation emanating from within. Smirking, he saw swirls of white orbs coming from out of nowhere, engulfing him. The lights soon vanished and Sagittarimon was standing once again; all the soils on his armor were wiped clean. There was no trace of the armor being dirty at all. Then above the astounded Veggiemon, clouds of white orbs appeared and the bits of excrements that once soiled Sagittarimon's armor now rained upon the vegetation Digimon, ironically causing _them_ to scamper around.

"Thanks, Adam." Sagittarimon eyed his partner, who was safely hidden behind the large rock near the lake. Adam flashed a thumbs-up back. Sagittarimon nodded and returned his gaze towards the Veggiemon and RedVeggiemon, who were now retreating now that Sagittarimon was back on his feet. Their expressions turned into fear as Sagittarimon smoothly unsheathed an arrow from the holster. He smirked confidently, and flashed a dangerous look towards his enemies. "Now, where were we?"

In the meantime, Samudramon was fighting against Sunflowmon and the Woodmon. Granted, the Woodmon merely stood at the sidelines while Sunflowmon glided over the air, firing blasts of solar energy from her flower-shaped head, one after another. The beams were powerful, but not enough to injure Samudramon, who blocked all beams with his Cosmic Thunderstrike technique. It just made Samudramon wonder of Sunflowmon's relentlessness in attacking him; surely it wouldn't take long for her to realize that she was severely outmatched?

Samudramon had about enough, however, and attempted to release a wave of his Deep Ocean Submerge, before his knees wobbled. It surprised him; he didn't exert _that_ much of energy. The Cosmic Thunderstrike was one of his basic techniques – they shouldn't weaken him that quickly.

"Samudramon, those wood creatures! Look!" The merman heard the urgent cry of Adam. The boy was pointing towards the Woodmon frantically.

Samudramon saw the Woodmon; all four were glowing with green aura as they extended their arms towards Samudramon. They were _sucking out_ his powers, Samudramon realized. His knees wobbled again, and suddenly Samudramon felt a strong energy beam blasted against his unguarded body. He was thrown off his feet, and with a blue glow his feet transformed back into his long, elegant aquamarine fishtail. A shadow loomed on him; Sunflowmon had positioned herself perfectly over him, readying her attack.

The merman however was not weakened enough to attack back. He waved his arm and summoned a pillar of water, and wielded the water to take him to the skies. It placed him out of the Woodmon's range, and he took the briefest time he had to recover.

Sunflowmon on the other hand, had no such intention to let Samudramon recover. She flew quickly towards Samudramon, and bore her teeth as her flowery head shone with yellow aura. She was in perfect position to strike. _"Sunshine Beam!!"_

"_Cosmic Thunderstrike!!" _Samudramon quickly countered. The two attacks collided with each other; Samudramon was pushed off his pillar of water, while Sunflowmon was electrocuted.

As he fell towards the ground, where the Woodmon were waiting at him gleefully with arms raised, preparing to leech out his energy, an idea crossed Samudramon's head. "So, you wanna play that way…two can play the same game! _Divine Rain!!"_

A heavy downpour was elicited right after the attack was summoned. Samudramon was precise in pinpointing his target and focused the rains towards them only. He instantly felt invigorated; the Divine Rain technique had done its purpose. While it had no effect should it was sent towards his allies, the Divine Rain was able to weaken his enemies by leeching out their powers, channeling them to Samudramon instead. So in a way, Samudramon had given the Woodmon a taste of their own medicine.

Now, with the powers returning to him, Samudramon decided it was best to end the battle with the Woodmon so that he could focus his attention towards Sunflowmon. His trident crackled fiercely with blue electricity while he was still falling, and Samudramon spun it quickly. The forked upper end of the trident crackled with thunderbolts, while a blue energy blade appeared from the dull-pointed lower end of the trident below. It gave the trident the appearance of a double-edged blade, or more precisely…

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!"_

Instantly, in one go, all four Woodmon were severely impaled by the sharp energy blades, and combusted into data particles. Samudramon heaved his breath slowly as his spinning trident halted; the Double-Edged Thunderblades technique was energy-consuming and his last remaining energy was then used to retransform his tail into legs. He watched as Sunflowmon descended on the ground, and successfully grounded the electricity to the earth. He saw Sunflowmon fixing him a death glare and was about to attack, before a sweet voice stopped her.

"Sunflowmon, that's enough." It was more of a statement than an order, but Sunflowmon obeyed immediately. Lilamon descended slowly, an amused smile was played on her face. She shot a fleeting look towards the lake. "Get the boy. I'll deal with handsome over there _my_ way."

As Sunflowmon slinked away towards Adam, Samudramon watched warily as Lilamon walked towards him. She was walking slowly, taking her own time, walking in catwalks. At times like this he'd hoped that Gayathri and Fairymon would show up. Certainly they would have a quip to throw towards the Dryad General.

"Excellent. Simply marvelous. I expect nothing less from you, of course," Lilamon purred seductively. Her eyes narrowed all of a sudden as she raised an arm. _"Lila Shower!!"_

Five pink energy ribbons shot out from her leaf-like fingers, but were semi-effectively blocked by Samudramon's trident. Only two stray energy ribbons managed to slash Samudramon over both sides of his body, on the unprotected skin. Lilamon didn't seem to be bothered much by this. Instead, she flicked her arm and sent a strong gale which sent Samudramon flying, with a sound similar to a severely-conducted slapping sound. Lilamon used the same attack again and struck Samudramon twice before the merman crashed on his back onto the ground.

"That ought to do it," Lilamon deduced, and approached the fallen Samudramon. She knelt down beside Samudramon and ran her flowery hand on Samudramon's body before placing it right underneath the fused Digimon's chin. She lifted it up, and smiled. "Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty…or should I say, sleeping handsome? The Beauty Slaps shouldn't knock you out just yet, but rather…" she chuckled. "Or maybe you just want to get a free kiss, hmm? Naughty, naughty." She nudged Samudramon's right cheek, and that elicited a groan from the merman. She withdrew her arm and allowed Samudramon to sit up.

Samudramon looked at Lilamon with wonder. Something felt strange. Then…

"Mistress Lilamon," he said with a dazed tone. "How may I be of service?"

xxx

xxx

Xianamon focused inwardly, and within seconds she felt the sensation of weightlessness, of being irresistibly pulled up by an invisible force. She soared up towards the sky, marveling inwardly of the power of astral projection which came from her Digimon half. It was fantastic, she thought, as she flew past the layers of clouds, from the thinnest to the thickest before a magnificent sight of the digital cosmos greeted her. For the first time, she saw the three moons of the Digital World up close, as well as stars and constellations which were spattered all around the multicolored universe. Then, everything went dark as she slowly descended down. Xianamon had to resist the urge to flinch as she entered a world of darkness, void of colors and radiating despair and hopelessness. It looked like the Digital World, but something told her that it wasn't.

Sailing past the dark sea, Xianamon aimed for the rocky hill that lined the coastline. She touched down safely, and waited for the feeling of disorientation that came with the astral projection power to wear off. For Liu Ying, it was her first time astral projecting, but even Labramon hadn't attempted projecting her digital spirit out of her body further than an eye's distance. TobuCatmon had assured them that with the added power from Xianamon, they, or _she_, could do it now.

"So this is the Dark Ocean," Xianamon said to herself, before setting forth towards the straight path in front of her.

TobuCatmon had thought that JD and Agumon might somehow end up at the Dark Ocean dimension, following his mysterious disappearance from both the human and the Digital World. He was not sure, though, so he'd asked Xianamon to check it out. Labramon had shuddered upon the mention of the Dark Ocean, and had been reluctant to see the plan through. Liu Ying however, couldn't understand the apprehension, and TobuCatmon had insisted that they should at least check it out. Xianamon would be safe as she could return to the digital physical plane easily should she encounter dangers that she could not handle.

Utilizing Liu Ying's telekinetic, Xianamon was able to fly. It was useful for her to scout the area quickly. But then, she halted upon noticing two identical figures floating towards her. Quickly, she descended towards the ground and made towards the woods. She had no doubt of her powers, but didn't want to get involved in a fight unnecessarily. The faster she could find JD and Agumon, the better. Adam and Manny would need her help with the current threat, and TobuCatmon had contacted Gayathri.

'_What are those?'_ Xianamon wondered quietly, using the shadows cast by the trees to her advantage. The caped demons wielding energy scythes didn't seem to notice her, but it was apparent that they were looking for someone. _'Maybe they are looking for JD and Agumon. I better be quick and look for them first. That is, if they are here in the first place.'_

Xianamon however, didn't need to look far as her sharp hearing then caught a whimpering sound. It didn't sound too far from where she was at. She streaked past the trees, careful not to make any sound as she pushed bushes aside and watched out for dead branches that could alert her arrival.

"Josh…snap out of it, please…" The whimpering was familiar. The name too, was somewhat familiar.

'_Josh? Joshua…JD!' _Xianamon was now sure of it; JD and Agumon were there. The whimpering sounded like Agumon's, but with a difference.

True enough, Xianamon soon found a bouncing pink puffball, recognizing it as Koromon, Agumon's diminutive form. The In-Training Digimon was looking at his partner despairingly. JD was sitting with his legs pulled close to his body, face buried in his thighs.

"Koromon? JD?" Xianamon called out tentatively. Her grip on her feather duster tightened; although she had been sure that JD and Agumon were no any longer spellbound, Adam's words rang in her eyes. It was best to be cautious. Her wariness however instantly melted upon meeting the sorrowful gaze of Koromon.

The In-Training looked surprised, eyes widened with shock, as if he hadn't expected her arrival. But then those eyes looked profoundly relieved as they registered her presence. Those eyes didn't reflect evil, nor were they seem to be under an influence. They were just normal-looking, and forlorn.

"Xianamon! Liu Ying, Labramon…thank goodness you're here!"

"What is going on here?" Xianamon looked at JD, noticing the black aura emanating from his whole body. "What is happening to JD?"

"I…I don't know." Koromon hopped towards Xianamon. "He's been like this for hours. I don't know what to do. How…how did you know we're here?"

"TobuCatmon had a theory, and it looks like he is right. How did you get here anyway?"

Koromon explained quickly about their misadventures earlier this morning. All the while Xianamon kept her gaze onto JD. The dark aura was bothering her. Her sharp hearing could catch some words being mumbled by the blonde teen, but they were muffled because JD had his face buried in his thighs. Looking at the teen's condition, Xianamon couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Sure, her human half didn't like JD that much, but as Xianamon, her compassion was elevated to a certain degree. She could _sense_ JD's emotions…and frowned upon realizing that those emotions were like a wild turbulent inside his mind. JD and Liu Ying were not friends, but Xianamon pushed the thought aside. Now was not the time to think about that. She focused on thinking about JD, as a victim of Karatenmon's dark spell. His situation had been the same as Manny's, and if she could forgive Manny, then why not JD?

"JD?" She called, walking slowly past Koromon and stood beside the teen. She knelt beside him, and attempted to touch his shoulder before her hand went _through_ JD's body. She flinched, but it wasn't due to the fact that she couldn't touch JD – that was merely something that she was not yet accustomed with her astral projection power. No, the flinch was generated due to an entirely different cause. _'Such darkness…'_ "JD, can you hear me?"

JD stirred, and looked up at Xianamon. The sorceress cringed upon seeing the haggard, pale look on JD's face, but what attracted her attention the most was JD's eyes. Her human half remembered how those eyes would twinkle with mirth and mischief every time their paths crossed. They were not there any more, replaced by a lifeless look of despair and hopelessness.

"All my fault…all my fault…" JD whispered out eerily. Even his voice sounded lackluster; the brashness and cockiness which Xianamon's human half was familiar with were not there as well. "Not gonna…get out of here…all my fault…"

'_What has gotten into him? Koromon seems fine, but why is JD enveloped by this dark aura?'_ Xianamon pointed her palm towards JD, and whispered softly, _"Diamond World Mandala!"_

Small, reduced form of the spectacular magical attack was sent towards JD in forms of yellow and navy brilliances. The Diamond World Mandala was a potent healing attack to her allies, and with JD no longer under the spell, it would make him her ally. It however lacked the evil spell eradication power that Lilymon's Flower Wreath had, but Xianamon hoped that in JD's case, it would qualify for healing as well as exorcism.

JD yelped, and fell on his back onto the ground as his body shook horribly. He writhed, his body jerked upwards and his groan became a loud pained yell as the Diamond World Mandala worked its magic on him. The yellow and blue energy waves became vapors, but so were the dark aura around her body. JD's eyes snapped open – the void was now gone, replaced by the familiar glint that usually sparked from the blue-green irises. He heaved his breath slowly; his chest rose and fell in regular rhythms.

"Woah…" JD clasped his head with both hands, his voice hoarse. Nevertheless, he sounded fine.

Xianamon stood up. "Are you alright?" she asked stiffly.

"If alright means I feel like a truck had just run over me…I'm fine," JD muttered, shaking his head to get rid of the pain. "I feel awful!"

Xianamon barely could contain her smile; the snappish reply indicated that JD was himself once again. Koromon yelped happily and hopped towards JD – directly plunging onto his chest, pushing JD who was attempting to get up, back onto the ground.

"Koromon!" JD coughed.

"Sorry, Josh…" Koromon hopped down his partner's body. "I'm just so happy that you're alright!"

"Why wouldn't I be?" JD inquired. He then looked up, and his mouth hung open momentarily before he spoke up. He looked stunned, which was strange considering he already was well-aware of the elegant sorceress's presence. He wasn't blinking, and it was only after half a minute later before he croaked out, "Hey…you came for me."

"You wish," Xianamon said tartly – that was obviously her human half talking. She stiffened as JD stared at her. A sudden tingling sensation crept up her cheeks, which she brushed off with a huff. "What are you staring at?" she snapped.

JD blinked. "Nothing. Who says I'm staring?" The teen attempted to smile, but looked too weak to attempt to do so. "So…you're here to save us?"

"Unfortunately, no," Xianamon said gently, hating to crush their hopes; JD had sounded hopeful and Koromon was plain ecstatic. "I astral projected here; what you are seeing now is only my digital spirit. Technically, I was still at the Forest Sanctum."

The hope that was shown on JD's face was gone. "Oh…I knew it was too good to be true," he muttered.

"Not really," Xianamon said steadily. "I am going back now, but help will be on the way soon. TobuCatmon sent me here to check whether you two are really here. Now that I know you are here, I can go back and tell him so that he will be able to arrange a _real _rescue mission to get you out from this place."

"Rescue mission?" JD inquired.

Xianamon looked at JD steadily. "Out of all of us, only one of us has the ability to teleport. TobuCatmon wanted to be sure first, as a great amount of energy would be required to teleport here." A worried look shot past JD's face, but Xianamon chose to ignore it. The sorceress's body glowed and she staggered a little. She knew immediately that her time was almost up. "I must go now. Do not worry. Just try to stay inconspicuous for the time being until Adam and Patamon are here."

With that said, Xianamon blinked out, not missing JD's apprehensive look before her surroundings shifted quickly. She soared towards the sky again, but her heart nearly stopped upon noticing a massive dark shadow lurking from the depth of the ocean. Two red eyes flashed at her menacingly, but Xianamon was at a safe distance at the dark heavens. The universe fazed a little, and the darkness was replaced by the familiar universe – the three moons were instantly recognizable. Within a fraction of a minute later, her whole body staggered and she saw that she was back in the Forest Sanctum. She saw TobuCatmon looking at her expectantly, and Gayathri and Floramon kneeling beside her.

She attempted to say something, but her whole body glimmered as she separated back into her composite selves. Labramon looked fine, but Liu Ying appeared to be strained.

"They're there," Liu Ying confirmed. "We need to get them out of there, fast."

"That we will," TobuCatmon assured. "Call Adam and Patamon back in, and have your partners DNA digivolve into Lilymon, girls."

xxx

xxx

Adam saw Sunflowmon coming to him, and quickly teleported a distance away from the lake. He reappeared in the middle of the meadow, watching nervously as Lilamon somehow had gotten Samudramon to obey her command. She was telling Samudramon to fight Sagittarimon, who had been winning against the Veggiemon and Petaldramon.

"Don't worry about your friends!" Sunflowmon boomed as she glided towards Adam. "Worry about this. _Sunshine Beam!!"_

Adam snorted. He was tired of running. "Go Sunshine-Beam yourself," he muttered, and pointed his arm towards the incoming attack. The yellow energy beam vanished in swirls of light, rematerializing above Sunflowmon, and blasted towards the vegetation Digimon. It was an unexpected move from the unassuming DigiWira, and Sunflowmon shrieked in pain as her own attack injured her. The Champion Digimon fell onto the ground with a crash, and Adam teleported away from her.

Lilamon saw what Adam had done towards Sunflowmon, and frowned. "So, the little boy can outsmart a Champion Digimon, huh?" A smirk flashed on Lilamon's beautiful face as she approached the boy. "Maybe I should take care of you myself…"

"Not so fast! _Flower Cannon!!"_

Lilamon yelped as a green orb of energy streaked towards her. She could have countered it, but in her moment of panic she acted on instinct and evaded the attack instead. She huffed in a dignified annoyance and narrowed her eyes towards her attacker…and her face reddened with fury as she took in the appearance of the elegant flower woman who hovered in front of her. They appeared to be similar in many ways, but the differences were also notable.

Lilymon however, paid no attention to Lilamon. She looked down at Adam. "The girls and I will handle this from here. Adam, you and Sagittarimon go back to the sanctum. TobuCatmon wants to see you two. It is very important."

Adam wanted to ask more, but his eyes then darted back at forth between the two flower women. A fleeting image of the catfight he had witnessed between Fairymon and Shutumon suddenly came back in mind. He sweatdropped, nodded and teleported himself towards Sagittarimon, before both of them vanished just as Sagittarimon released a Celestial Judgment Arrow towards the Veggiemon and Petaldramon.

They rematerialized inside the sanctum, with Sagittarimon devolved back into Patamon. TobuCatmon looked at them urgently; he was pulling away the rattan mat which was covering the sanctum's marbled floor. Adam's eyes widened upon seeing the drawing etched onto the floor. But he was just about to open his mouth, when TobuCatmon cut him off.

"No time to explain, Adam. JD and Agumon are in danger, and you're the only one who can get them back here with your teleportation power."

Adam tried to hide his displeasure. "Me?" He asked, as TobuCatmon pulled his arm towards the center of the depiction, having him stand on the white-colored circle. Then, the boy watched as TobuCatmon placed a small pile of glistening ruby powder on the red-colored circle. "What are you doing?"

"This magical diagram will enhance your teleportation power momentarily," TobuCatmon explained. "It will enable you to teleport all the way to the Dark Ocean dimension to rescue Joshua and Agumon; they are good again – Xianamon confirmed that just now. And they are in grave peril. Only you can help him."

Adam inhaled his breath deeply. He knew next to nothing about the Dark Ocean, but from TobuCatmon's panicky demeanor he could guess that it wasn't a place that he'd want himself to be. Looking up at Patamon, he noticed that Patamon was looking apprehensive.

"Dark Ocean? Are you sure?" he asked Patamon.

"Yes. Xianamon had just astral-projected there and she met them," TobuCatmon said. "Please, ask no question. I can't sit still knowing that Joshua and Agumon are trapped in that horrible place. Their very fates now depend solely on you now, Adam. Can you put aside your difference towards him – Liu Ying had done just that – and get them out of there?"

Adam scowled, before nodding wordlessly. TobuCatmon chanted something, and Adam felt warmness radiating from the white circle on which he was standing. Patamon quickly landed on his head, grabbing it tight, as if worried that he would fall. The red circle glimmered as well. Then, Adam's Digivice flickered as swirls of white light drowned both of them.

TobuCatmon watched Adam and Patamon teleporting away, and heaved a relieved breath. Then, all of a sudden, something crossed his mind and he let out a panicked gasp.

"I've got them there…but _how_ am I going to get them back?"

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

The inclusion of the Dark Ocean seems to have garnered positive responses from reviewers. With that in mind, I have tweaked in the plot a little, somewhat merging two subplots in one. It works in favor of the story, even better than the previous plot. That way I can move on to the next, _darker_, arc quickly. Hence, you can see a slight hint given somewhere in the chapter, of a familiar character…whether he will play a role or not, you will have to stay tuned.

I'm taking my own stab in the whole Lilymon VS Lilamon battle. I adore Lilamon a lot, actually, after watching her in Savers. I thought; she'd make a perfect General. Thus, she becomes the Dryad General. Tell me what you think about this. And Sunflowmon's here as well. I didn't like her at first, but she sorts of grew in me.

Petaldramon would be the third Frontier's Digimon appearing in Wira Digital – first being Fairymon, then Shutumon. Similar to the latter two, Petaldramon stands as a Champion Digimon.

Sagittarimon Radiant Mode is the result of a Golden Armor Digivolution… I _know_ that technically Golden Armor Digivolution can only be achieved with the Golden Digi-Eggs of Miracles and Destiny, but work with me here. I'm having the Ivory Gem to act as a Golden Digi-Egg.

With the ShadoWira joining the DigiWira, they will simply be referred as DigiWira from here onward, now that they're good. The fusion Digivolution will be called the Digital Access Digivolution.

Also, while watching Savers I noticed that Thunderbirdmon, or Bio-Thunderbirdmon, has the attack called Thunder Storm. One reviewer has pointed that out to me as well. I of course, have no idea about that while introducing Samudramon in chapter 16. I decided to change his _Thunder Storm _attack name into the_ Cosmic Thunderstrike._ Sounds more menacing, eh? Also, Satriamon has four attacks, so in this chapter Samudramon receives his fourth attack as well, called the _Double-Edged Thunderblades._

**Glossary:**

**Doa Selamat**: an event conducted for Muslim special occasions. The special occasions can be a lot of things, from engagement, marriage, having passed major exams or done before the examinations, when a baby is safely born, a new job, moving away, and lots more. It usually includes prayers and making supplements for the intended occasion to be blessed by Allah, and traditionally it is followed by a dinner for the guests. _(N.B: I'm explaining this based on my own experience…but I'm not sure of its proper definition, so anyone, feel free to correct me on this one if I'm way off the true definition)_


	23. Burning at Both Ends

_Once again, they have come._

_Wait. Something is different._

_THEY are different. A different pair. Nevertheless, the Light is strong within them._

_The human, especially. The Digimon is but only a partner Digimon. The human however, wills the power._

_This shall be interesting._

_I shall keep watch; they shall not escape ME. _

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When the familiar sensations of teleporting gradually faded away, Adam blinked as he took in his new surroundings. He had teleported near the tip of a stone bluff; the view of the sea greeted him. The view would have been breathtaking, hadn't the fact that they were murky black. In fact, Adam noticed immediately that _everything_ around him was nothing but shades of gray. The dreariness of the place caused him to shiver; it was a vast contrast to the Digital World, what with the lack of color and warmth. It was cold, the sky gray, the seawater murky, the smell salty. And it didn't help much that this world seemed somewhat still, stale, and deathly quiet.

"Welcome to the Dark Ocean, Adam," Patamon whispered slowly, releasing his clutch from his partner's head as he flew down to Adam's shoulder level.

Adam grimaced. "You kidding? This place looks even _worse_ than the Shadow Realm, and that's really saying something."

"I don't like it here. Let's just go look for JD and Agumon and get out of here."

"I guess we better."

The two turned around, and saw a straight path lined with thick trees. Strangely, those trees were also gray…although upon closer inspection Adam could see some hint of green. Then he realized how foggy the Dark Ocean was; the fog was the reason everything looked so gray, he supposed. They were just about to set forth, when Patamon suddenly tensed. It didn't take Adam long to learn why.

Coming from the distance, up from the sky, were two identical floating figures. They let out spine-tingling moans as they approached the gulf. Adam noticed that the newcomers stood out starkly against the bleak environment; with their scarlet capes, shining energy-based arms and weaponry, but what caused his heart to nearly stop beating was how these demons resembled SkullSatamon. He'd had one unpleasant meeting with SkullSatamon before, and was not looking forward to another. He quickly grabbed Patamon and teleported away. In his mind, he thought of a location where they would be safe against those demonic creatures they'd just seen.

They reappeared inside the forest; Adam recognized the trees as the ones he'd seen from the clearing. They were near the path, and Adam gasped softly when he saw the two demons sailing along the path, and took a step back. Patamon quickly moved behind a tree trunk and Adam bent down behind a shrub. He took a peek out, and saw the demons floating farther away, oblivious to their whereabouts.

Adam sighed, relieved. "That was close."

However, his heart nearly stopped beating when something…someone suddenly cupped his mouth from behind. Whoever that had seized him from behind was also quick to grab his hands, and dragged him farther deep into the forest. Adam attempted to struggle, and was quite surprised when the grab on his wrists were both loosened. He saw Patamon, but the Rookie was merely staring back at him…or _them_, with a frown. The Digimon seemed unsure of what action to take, but it could be said that the Digimon didn't think that Adam was in any dire form of danger.

"Shh…I'll let go but don't shout. They'll hear you." The slight-edgy, somewhat rough voice was instantly recognizable. That person let go of Adam slowly.

Adam turned around and stared irately at the taller profile of JD Kamaruzaman. "_YOU_!" He then took a few steps back, wary of the older teen instantly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," JD cautioned, seeing that Adam was backing away towards the path. "Those MetalPhantomon have been lurking around here for hours now."

The younger teen didn't reply. Flashes of bad memories invaded his mind; this was the teen who'd pretended to be his friend, while at the same making attempts on his life under a different guise. Adam didn't know whether he could trust JD, despite positive remarks from Liu Ying, Manny and TobuCatmon earlier. In fact, he didn't even feel safe. He was reminded of how JD looked like when the blonde attempted to strangle him the previous day.

JD's face softened a little, seemingly recognizing Adam's silence and uneasiness. He raised both arms, a sign of surrendering. "Hey, relax. Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm me again."

"Meaning what?" Adam snapped. His voice was kept neutral, but it was his narrowed glare that caused JD to flinch slightly. It was a look of utmost distrust.

"Meaning I'm not under a spell," JD replied, braced. "Not anymore. I broke it. I'm my own person now. You can trust me."

"_Trust_," Adam echoed. There was well-masked venom dripping with every syllable. It didn't stay amiss, though, from the way his eyes shone. "That's a tough one."

JD's eyes narrowed. He had an urge to snap back at the somewhat sarcastic comment, but resisted it. It would be easier for the other DigiWira to trust him, but not Adam. JD was reminded immediately of what could have caused such a hostile reaction from the DigiWira, and sighed. He had been thinking about it nearly the whole previous night, while observing Koromon sleeping and not being able to sleep himself. He didn't know what he would do should his path crossed Adam's again, but he knew that an apology was due. Now was his chance.

"I'm really sorry, Adam." It was a heartfelt apology, but elicited no response from the other boy. JD grimaced. "I don't know what else to say."

He stared into Adam's eyes, searching for any sign that his apology was accepted. It proved to be difficult; JD had never seen emotions kept so well-hidden. One would look at Adam's face right now and only thought that the boy was listening with mild interest. There was no sign of acceptance or rejection at all. It unnerved the blonde teen, but he took Adam's silence as his cue to further elaborate with his apology. He took a deep breath and continued.

"Look, I totally get it if you're mad at me. I suppose I deserve it, given what I've done to you…"

"Let's just go," Adam cut in, still in his neutral-mode. He turned around and looked at the path, all the while kept his back on JD as he continued speaking, "I don't know how we're going to get back to Forest Sanctum, but I'm thinking that TobuCatmon has a plan somehow. Maybe we should head back to the clearing; that's the spot where Patamon and I had arrived just now."

JD blinked. He didn't know what to make off of the boy's sudden change of demeanor. He supposed Adam wouldn't be able to forgive him yet.

"Adam? Don't you trust me?"

Adam turned around, his eyes sizing up JD warily. It was as if he wasn't sure what to reply, or what would JD do. JD supposed that his reputation at school might make the boy extend the forgiveness unwillingly, so he kept his distance and tried to show that he wasn't going to harm Adam in any sort of way. If the boy needed his personal space for the time being, JD was willing to give him just that.

"Like I've said, trusting you is a tough one," the dark-haired boy finally replied with a low tone. He caught the disappointed look on JD's face, before adding, "But I'm working on it."

JD blinked, before letting out a small smile of gratitude. _'Well, I suppose it's as good a reply as any, for now.' _"Thanks, Adam."

Adam nodded and turned his gaze away, towards the empty path. "Come on."

"We better walk through the forest, though," JD said, and scooped up Koromon who had been beside him. He wanted to make a conversation with the boy, to see how the boy _really _felt.

Adam nodded again, and started walking wordlessly. Patamon gazed at JD and Koromon momentarily before joining his partner. He however didn't fly fast enough to be out of their earshot, and thus managed to grasp an exchanged whispered conversation between the duo of fire and darkness.

"Do you think he really has forgiven me, Koromon?"

"Don't worry, Josh…I'm sure Adam will forgive you soon. Maybe he's still angry with you, and all he need is some time to vent some steam."

"I hope so, Koromon. I hope so."

Patamon was struck with the sincerity that came out from JD's reply. It was very different to how he'd heard JD speak during their few previous encounters. Patamon knew, and he knew that Adam was well aware of it as well, that JD and Koromon were already freed of Karatenmon's spell. Shouldn't Adam forgive JD for what he'd done, since JD couldn't be held fully responsible for the actions he had conducted? Manny was forgiven somewhat quickly, despite a brief moment of uneasiness. Patamon wanted to voice out his opinion to Adam, but then decided not to. He knew however, that something else was troubling his partner's mind. But what could that be? Patamon could only wonder; despite them being partners, Patamon had came to know that Adam was somewhat very secretive, while giving the impression to others that he had nothing much to hide.

Ten minutes later, the silence was broken again. It was Adam, who stopped and turned around, rubbing the back of the neck while doing so. He nearly causing Patamon to collide against his head hadn't the flying Rookie kept his eyes on him. The Rookie floated an arm's length away from Adam, while the boy looked at the other teen uneasily. "I'm curious about one thing, though, JD."

JD raised an eyebrow. "Ask away then."

"How did you end up getting here in the first place?"

The question didn't faze JD; he knew it was bound to come up. _'Better that than that other thing….' _"Oh…well, after breaking the spell yesterday, I was so mad of the fact that Karatenmon had brainwashed me, and all I could think about last night was revenge. But I couldn't find him…"

"Couldn't find him?" Adam asked skeptically. "Weren't _you_ the one who destroyed him?"

"_Me?" _JD looked somewhat surprised of the inquiry, but then a look of understanding crossed his facial features. It did appear to be like that, after the battle, but he was not so sure. However Karatenmon hadn't been appearing at all and the abhorrence spell was broken, and the Cave of Solitude was practically deserted. Only Karatenmon's demise could break the amplified dark spell over JD; after Manny's betrayal JD knew that Karatenmon had increased the potency of the dark spell over him. It didn't give Karatenmon total control over JD, but it had clouded JD's mind even more, feeding upon his anger and resentment.

"As Satriamon, we _are_ strong…but I don't think it's anywhere as strong as Karatenmon. Your little teleportation trick yesterday caused me to severely injure Karatenmon, but it wasn't supposed to be fatal for that birdbrain." JD grinned, trying hard not to look smug. "But apparently that's what had happened. Weird, eh?"

Upon the mention of Adam's trick which ended up in Satriamon and Karatenmon attacking each other, the said boy shifted uncomfortably. His eyes trailed to some gashes and wounds on JD's body, at the parts where his red shirt were torn. He paused upon looking at JD's right arm; the sleeve was torn partially, but nothing he was seeing there that caused the momentarily pause. But rather, what he _knew_ to be there was what fixing his gaze there. He had seen the clear-defined slash mark there, which he had inflicted on JD during their scuffle at the Shadow Realm. It wasn't a pleasant thought for Adam now, but he'd justified his action as JD had been the one who kidnapped him, and for mercilessly taunting him after seizing away his Digivice and D-Terminal, leaving him defenseless and vulnerable.

JD saw that Adam was looking at his arm, and gave him an assuring smile. "Don't worry about it. It's healed. The scar's still there, though. Pretty cool, actually. Wanna see it?"

Adam shook his head, looking somewhat ill all of a sudden. "Umm…no thanks. Continue though; what made you end up here?"

"I thought that if I couldn't get to Karatenmon, then I'd destroy his home. But I wasn't satisfied with just that; it wasn't just Karatenmon – SkullSatamon was also responsible for me and Manny becoming the ShadoWira. So I went there…my plan was to delete as many of his minions as possible to teach him a lesson, for messing with my head…but those ghosts became MetalPhantomon and I was forced to step back. I opened a DigiPort with my phone, but something went wrong, I think. Instead of heading to any place else in the Digital World or in our world…"

"You end up here," Adam concluded stoically. "Teach SkullSatamon a lesson, huh? See what you've done?"

Normally, JD wouldn't respond well to people who chided him or giving him sarcastic remarks. If they came from a teacher or any other adult, he'd just turn a deaf ear to them. If it came from his peers – if it were from the guys, he'd usually bash them up, if it were from the girls, he'd retort with a tell-off so severe it would be enough to make some of them cry. That didn't happen too often, though. Many knew not to mess with him.

However, this time around, given the person, and their situation, JD was glad to hear it. At least Adam wasn't given him the cold shoulder, as JD had expected him to do so. And it was particularly amusing as well for the taller boy, as Adam was about two years younger than him, smaller in size and looked nowhere on par to him if physical strength was concerned. Normally, no one of those characteristics would dare to cross him. It baffled JD sometimes; he wouldn't pick on people for no reason – he might be a troublemaker, but he was not a bully. He'd tease sometimes, but he'd never lay a hand on smaller, weaker people than him. But words…_rumors_, more like it, had circulated at school and JD couldn't be bothered to set them straight. As far as he was concerned, it made people leave him alone, and he was fine with that.

Yet, recent news of him punching a student – Manny – over the face had caused the rumor to aggravate even more. It didn't matter that the seemingly shy boy had fought back – a number of people had seen him being the one who initiated the fight. JD supposed that 'caught under a dark spell' wouldn't fit the criteria of the reason for him to initiate the fight.

He smirked. "What would you do if you're in my situation?"

"Nothing that would get me here; I'm not that stupid," Adam replied with an even tone.

JD blinked. '_Did he just call me stupid?'_ The smirk turned into a lopsided grin. "So…since you're here now, I guess that makes _you_ as stupid as I am."

Adam blinked twice. _'Huh?'_ He scoffed at the remark and retorted with another. "At least, I'm not stupid enough to get myself _suspended_!" He turned around and was about to resume the walk again. JD could hear that the younger boy mumbling, "And it's not like I have a choice." The boy then walked away.

JD looked visibly stunned. _'Huh? Suspended? Again?' _He shrugged. _'Oh well, more holidays for me.'_ Something however stopped him short. It was what Adam had muttered before walking away. Quickly he jogged to catch up with Adam. "Hey, wait up. That thing you just said…"

Adam stopped without missing a beat. He however, assumed that JD was going to ask about the suspension. "For cutting out school for no good reason, and apparently for that punch you laid on Manny on Monday. Liu Ying told me; she heard it when the disciplinary teacher told your class teacher about it." He said all that without even glancing back to address JD.

"Oh…not that, but thanks anyway," JD said. "No, I was going to ask you about another thing."

Adam waited for JD to continue. JD took the silence as his cue to ask away.

"If you _did_ have a choice, would you have come to rescue me?"

Adam was surprised; apparently JD _had_ heard his mumble. He'd muttered that simply for his own hearing. Straining to keep his face straight, he thought about it, and imagined what he would have wanted people would do should he be in JD's shoes. JD wasn't at fault; that much he already knew. He and Manny were both victims. If he wanted to be bitter or angry, he should be doing that to Karatenmon or SkullSatamon. Channeling his frustration to JD might make the blonde teen's attempt to return to the side of good a whole lot more difficult than it already was. He trusted the fact that JD was now good, but other than that, he'd reserve his judgment still.

With that, he glanced through his shoulder, meeting the grinning JD's gaze with a steady look.

"Good or bad, you're still a person. I would've come anyhow."

It was a reply that shut JD up instantly, and the rest of their walk back to the clearing by the gulf was in complete, yet no longer uncomfortable, silence.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 23 – Burning at Both Ends_**

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Meanwhile, back in the Digital World the battle between two femme fatales of the nature was about to commence. Everything became still all of a sudden as Lilymon and Lilamon stared upon each other. On Lilymon's side, Liu Ying and Gayathri both stood side by side, carefully and warily watching their surroundings. On the other side, there were the remaining three Veggiemon, RedVeggiemon, Sunflowmon, Petaldramon…and Samudramon.

"Why's Samudramon standing on her side?" Liu Ying asked, confused.

"I don't know; I just got here," Gayathri whispered back. She was even more baffled by the fact that Samudramon seemed to be indifferent of their presences. She had just met Manny about four hours ago; and Manny was perfectly himself. Now, it was like _deja-vu_ all over again; his indifference was similar to the time when he was under Karatenmon's spell.

Lilamon laughed lightly and floated near Samudramon, enjoying the repulsed looks on the girls and Lilymon's faces when she stroked Samudramon's chin with one hand. The merman, now on his two legs, stood a good inch higher than Lilamon and was sturdier and stronger in looks. He could have just swatted Lilamon away easily, with the close proximity the Dryad General appeared to be from him. It would be the most logical thing to do.

But Samudramon didn't act all. He merely turned his head slowly towards Lilamon, and stated, "I hear and I obey, mistress."

"I know you will, handsome," Lilamon purred. She shot a look at Lilymon. "Now, attack that second-rate flower girl. The Digital World is too small for two nature maidens." She leaned closer towards Samudramon, placing both hands on his chest. "If you're successful…you'll be _greatly_ rewarded, if you get what I mean…" Lilamon winked seductively and her voice dropped to a few octaves, sounding like a hoarse whisper.

Samudramon nodded and advanced towards Lilymon with his metallic trident stretched out, while Lilamon gleefully retreated back to enjoy the battle that was about to commence.

However, Lilymon had no intention to fight a fellow comrade. She knew what was happening, and she knew the perfect remedy for it. Lilymon spread his four leaf-wings and took to the sky, knowing too well that Samudramon had not the ability to fly. She had a better advantage if she came from the sky rather than on the ground. The flower woman saw Samudramon summoning a pillar of rising water from beneath him, and took chase to her. Lilymon waited; Samudramon acted exactly as how she had wanted him to be.

When the merman was on her flight level, she extended both arms forward and summoned, _"Flower Wreaths!!"_

Lilamon's eyes bulged. "NO!"

Wreaths of pleasant-smelled flowers materialized and wrapped around Samudramon's muscular, pale body. The merman attempted a struggle, but with each struggle the wreaths drew themselves around his body even tighter. As they began to take effect, Samudramon's head hung limp and he no longer resisted the healing effect the Flower Wreaths were exuding. Wisps of green vapor slowly evaporated from Samudramon, until the flowers – formerly fresh – that wrapped around his body wilted horribly and evaporated into data particles. This surprised even Lilymon; apparently Lilamon's influence on Samudramon had taken every ounce of the healing properties that her Flower Wreaths contain. Lilymon wondered whether it was enough to bring back Samudramon to their side.

"What…what's going on?" Samudramon suddenly spoke up, looking at his body, then at Lilymon, confused.

Lilymon wanted to test Samudramon first to ascertain whether Samudramon had been healed or not. "Are you going to fight against me, Samudramon?"

"Huh? Why would I?" Samudramon asked, confused yet again of Lilymon's inquiry. "We're supposed to be on the same side, right?"

Lilymon smiled. "Welcome back. You have fallen under Lilamon's influence just now. Luckily, no damage was done; I managed to put a stop into that before you could. Now, steer clear from Lilamon's path lest you fall under her love charm once again."

"_Love charm?_" Samudramon sounded ill all of a sudden. "First hate spell, now love charm? I don't believe it."

"Do not worry; no harm was done. I think you stand a better chance helping the girls against the other Digimon. Let me take care of Lilamon, her charm has no effect on me."

"Alright, Lilymon. And thanks." Samudramon looked down towards the direction where Liu Ying and Gayathri were standing at.

"I do what I must. And do not worry," Lilymon asserted with a smile. "You have not been under the love charm long enough to create an unimpressionable impression to Gayathri or Liu Ying."

Lilamon watched the turn of event with narrowed eyes and fury. She had thought something like this would've happened upon seeing Lilymon coming. She hadn't anticipated this; Sorcerymon and Shutumon failed to mention that the DigiWira possessed Lilymon as a partner as well! It could destroy her plan. A Lilymon and a Lilamon could never really fight each other; their attacks would only cancel out the other. Neither had the advantage against the other; the only thing that would make a difference now was their power.

And with that thought, Lilamon smiled, regaining her confidence. Of course, what could a measly Digimon partnered to a human actually do to her – a strong general in her own right? Centuries ago, she had to compete with many other for the coveted general role, and had it bestowed to her after proving her worth time and time again.

Lilymon descended steadily, and fixed a steely gaze towards Lilamon with her green eyes. Lilamon returned her gaze adamantly.

"So this is how it's going to be," Lilamon smirked.

"I believe so," Lilymon said nobly. She raised both arms forward, and joined them together with palms opened towards the front. Instantly her hands morphed into a blooming flower, with a metallic cannon hidden inside. _"Flower Cannon!!"_

"_Marvel Shot!!"_ Lilamon countered the powerful green energy orb from Lilymon's cannon with several plasma orbs of her own. The attack collided in midair and caused an explosion. Smokes erupted from the collision, and the other DigiWira could hear a scuffle occurring from within the smokes. When the smokes cleared, they saw Lilamon attacking Lilymon with flurries of kicks, slaps and punches. The Dryad General was mercilessly fast and adept in fighting on a hand-on-hand battle, and was more than willing to demonstrate it for others to see.

Lilymon however, didn't strike back. She merely defended herself, and wasn't having trouble in doing so. It appeared as if Lilymon, due to her Youkomon half, thought that it was beneath her to partake with a catfight. There was however no mistaking the irritability that was displayed on her beautiful face as she blocked her opponent's assaults.

"Why won't you fight back?" Lilamon demanded angrily. She delivered a roundhouse kick towards the dress-wearing flower woman, but it was evaded by Lilymon by flying away.

"Very well, I will," Lilymon said calmly and charged towards Lilymon. The flower headdress she was wearing glimmered with bright yellow aura, and from the cloudy sky, a portion of the thick cumulus separated which allowed a beam of sunlight to pass through. The sunshine beam shone upon Lilymon, causing her whole body to glow. She spun with force, and her legs shimmered gold. Then, she thrust one kick upon Lilamon's head, forming a trail of yellow energy and flower petals as her kick moved upon Lilamon's head to her chest and thighs. _"Sun-Crescent Kicks!!"_

Lilamon shrieked as one of Lilymon's kick came into contact with her face. Her delicate cheek bruised instantly. Angrily she raised one arm and shouted, _"Beauty Slaps!!"_ She executed a flurry of slaps onto Lilymon, who upon being hit with two of her slaps, retreated away.

"Such attack is beneath me," Lilymon huffed. "Take this. _Flower Cutter!!" _The flower woman delivered a high kick which nearly came into contact with Lilamon's chin should the latter woman was not quick enough to move away.

The two nature maiden then jumped away on opposite directions, realizing that the battle had ended with a tie. Nobody had the advantage against the other.

All the while, their battle was not witnessed by the DigiWira. They had their hands full dealing with RedVeggiemon and the three Veggiemon, as well as Petaldramon and Sunflowmon. Samudramon had taken it upon himself to battle the two bigger Champion Digimon, leaving the smaller Veggiemon for the DigiWira girls to deal with.

Liu Ying was earlier weakened when she (as Xianamon) astral-projected to the Dark Ocean to look for JD. Seeing that the Veggiemon's primary attack was only throwing excrements and sludge towards their enemy, she decided to erect a telekinetic barrier to block the attack away. Besides, she didn't fancy herself being hit by their attacks; they were too… gross.

Gayathri found herself being tailed by the sole RedVeggiemon. RedVeggiemon had attempted to hit her with his thorny, thick arm but was blasted away with the girl's supersonic scream. The scream however didn't do him much harm, and soon he got back to his feet and set chase for the girl's life. Fortunately, Gayathri had her super speed at her disposal, and easily escaped RedVeggiemon. Not satisfied, RedVeggiemon then resorted to firing long-distanced sludge, which Gayathri had no trouble evading.

Samudramon had gotten his hands full dealing with Sunflowmon and Petaldramon. He hadn't gotten the chance to use his more high-powered techniques, and had to resort in using his Divine Rain technique to leech out the energies from the two nature Digimon after failing to stop them with his water power and thunderbolts. Sunflowmon was quick to evade his attacks, while Petaldramon simply channeled his thunder power to the earth. They however, to Samudramon's credit, couldn't attack back as well.

The fused water dragon-man Digimon saw the two girls having no problem handling the Veggiemon, but figured out that the sooner they were done with, the better. With that in mind, he aimed his trident towards the Veggiemon that was attacking Liu Ying. _"Deep Ocean Submerge!!"_

A blast of pressurized water jet erupted from the trident, and smashed the Veggiemon away, sending them rolling down the steeper part of the Green Meadow. The Veggiemon were all soaking wet, and piled up against each other. Then he took aim towards RedVeggiemon, and blasted him with the water jet as well. RedVeggiemon was forced towards its fellow comrades. With the four Veggiemon grouped together, it would make Samudramon's attempt to finish them off easier. He summoned rising water from his feet, using it to propel him upwards. Upon reaching the higher heavens, the sky rumbled and a streak of blue lightning struck Samudramon's trident.

It was time to attack. Samudramon leaped off the water pillar and headed towards the pile of helpless Veggiemon. He spun his trident, and as before the three tips of the trident was energized with blue energy, and the lower end of the weapon glimmered in the shape of an azure energy blade. He slashed the spinning weapon towards the four Veggiemon with a mighty roar of…

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!"_

The attack deleted the four Veggiemon instantly. Samudramon landed on the ground, and his feet morphed back into the merman tail and he collapsed onto the ground. The disorientation that came with using one's most powerful technique was getting to him again. The strain from previous day's battle was still eminent, but he still managed to retain his fused form. His power might be severely depleted for the time being, but if he was lucky, he might be able to rectify that. For now, he would just have to wait. He saw Liu Ying and Gayathri approaching him.

"Manny…Samudramon, are you ok?" Gayathri asked, concerned. From behind her, Liu Ying looked at him inquiringly. Her eyes basically were asking the same question.

He mustered a strained smile. "I'm alright. I just need some time."

Lilamon fumed. Her minions, save for Sunflowmon and Petaldramon, were all deleted by a _single_ fused DigiWira. It didn't bode well with her ego; she knew that as an Ultimate, Samudramon wielded enough power to trash up till ten Champion Digimon with average power level and needless to say, the Veggiemon and the Woodmon were not exactly her strongest bunch of followers. She just hadn't expected it all to happen so soon. Suddenly there was nothing about Samudramon that interested Lilamon any more – he was, to her, now an enemy.

"Now it is only you," Lilymon said smoothly. "So what is it going to be now, Lilamon?"

Lilamon sneered. "Don't count me out yet. You might think that you're so tough now that you've beaten the Mage General. But I have one more trick up my pretty little sleeves that I haven't displayed yet." She cocked her head towards Sunflowmon and Petaldramon, and upon returning her gaze towards Lilymon, her eyes were glowing with a menacing dark green hue. Her whole body erupted with dark pink aura.

"I'll teach you for playing me for a fool…" she muttered, and raised one arm up.

Pink energy ribbons spiraled out from her raised arm, and went towards her remaining minions. Petaldramon and Sunflowmon were engulfed by the ribbons, and they glowed with the same dark pink hue, similar to their mistress. At first, the DigiWira thought that Lilamon, out of frustration, was attacking her minions. But soon they saw that that was not the case, when Sunflowmon and Petaldramon both turned into two motes of dark pink motes of light.

"Champions might not be your match; but with your current situation, another Ultimate Digimon would suffice to end your miserable existences," Lilamon said with an ugly sneer. She narrowed her eyes towards Samudramon and the girls. "Especially with handsome over there having not much left. He's a buffoon; using so much power against mere Champions. His foolishness will be your end. Sunflowmon, Petaldramon…DNA DIGIVOLVE! NOW!!"

The DigiWira team gasped in astonishment, and Lilymon too was unnerved. They could only watch as the two motes coalesced behind Lilamon, and with a flick of the Dryad General's arm, they slammed against each other, commencing a powerful burst of dark pink light. A bigger shadow lurked within the light – a successful amalgamation of the two Digimon's power.

**Sunflowmon, Petaldramon, DNA Digivolve to….**

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TobuCatmon sweated profusely as he flipped through the yellowy pages of a leather-bound thick book.

"Come on. There must be something else I've missed! Gah…NOTHING!!"

Angrily he snapped the book shut. He had attempted to look up for some information on that book, but nothing was said about bringing somebody who had traveled to the Dark Ocean. It did mention how to go; a teleportation power would work with some power amplification. But TobuCatmon suspected that the power charge the runes had given Adam worked only one-way. If that was to be true, and TobuCatmon hoped that it wasn't, then there would be no way for Adam, Patamon, Joshua and Agumon to come back.

He flew back and forth all around the Forest Sanctum, trying to calm himself down and work out his nervous energy.

"There has to be another way!" TobuCatmon convinced himself.

He flew back to the table, sighing. The sun staff was displaying the battle occurring over at the Green Meadow, but TobuCatmon had lost interest watching it. He couldn't conjure any image which would show Adam or Joshua's well beings at the Dark Ocean. He regretted his decision of not making detailed research about going to the Dark Ocean, but he'd been so panicked when Xianamon confirmed to him that Joshua and Agumon were stuck there.

"There is a lot of evils unspoken lurking within the shadows of the Dark Ocean," TobuCatmon whispered, merely reciting a quote from the ancient book. "But _no one_ stands higher than the Master of the Dark Ocean himself. His power is extremely high. He is feared and revered by his followers, called the Digital Deep Ones…"

The flying cat snorted. "Reciting the book won't help. I need to focus! What can I do?"

His eyes fell on the floor, where Grademon's rune was inscribed. He had forgotten to cover the runes with the rattan floor mat after sending Adam to the Dark Ocean. The five spheres on the rune were not glowing at present, but TobuCatmon knew that it had some mystical power which was still left undiscovered. Right now, the rune wasn't glowing, like it had a number of times before.

TobuCatmon sighed. "Oh, please, please…you've brought Adam and Patamon to that horrendous place. Somehow, you must bring them back…all FOUR of them, back here, safe and sound."

xxx

xxx

After making sure that the MetalPhantomon were nowhere in sight, Adam and JD stepped out from the forest, towards the clearing. Warily they looked around, afraid of a sudden ambush. Koromon was in no state to digivolve, and Adam wasn't sure whether Sagittarimon Radiant Mode could handle two Ultimates on his own.

Adam rubbed the sides of his sleeves, looking around with anxiety affixed on his face. Something was bothering him. The very fine hairs on the back of his neck were standing, and the atmosphere seemed to be _unnaturally_ cold.

"Something bothering you, Adam?" JD inquired. The older teen was walking behind the younger one, and he saw all the boy's actions. Adam had been acting that way every now and then for the past one hour they trekked the dark jungle. At first, JD thought that Adam might still be uncomfortable around him, but he hoped that was not the case.

"Nothing," Adam quickly replied. He paused, and turned around. Something came up from his mind. The sensation he was feeling now was familiar, but several degrees more elevated. He had felt like this before…back at school, and while with Liu Ying. The sensation of something dark and foreboding tailing his every movement; it was nerve-wrecking. He had a rising suspicion of the cause of the creepiness he was experiencing. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. "JD, can I ask you something?"

Adam's tone was polite, but JD could tell that the boy was super-annoyed. "You just did," he pointed out, smirking, trying to break the tenseness.

"I'm serious." Adam looked downright uncomfortable now, from the way he kept shooting looks at the empty ocean.

"Ok. Shoot."

Adam heaved slowly, narrowing his eyes towards the looming darkness that was the Dark Ocean, and asked, "I felt something creepy right now…and I've felt like this before, back at school. Even Liu Ying too felt it once, when we were on our way to her house."

JD raised an eyebrow. "What are you trying to say, Adam?"

Adam decided to utter his suspicion out loud. "Were you the one who was following me? I felt it back then, and I feel it now, when with you." He narrowed his gray eyes suspiciously.

JD thought about the inquiry. "Ok…I admit I was the one who followed you around… but I have no idea that I generated that kind of aura to you. I know I freaked people out sometimes, but definitely _not_ to this kind of degree."

Adam inhaled sharply, and took a step back from JD. Did JD just admit for being responsible to what Adam was sensing right now?

The older boy rolled his eyes. "Really, Adam, this is getting old real quick. I've said it too many times already, and I'm gonna say it again. I. AM. NOT. EVIL. ANYMORE!!" JD was getting exasperated of not being trusted. "And I'm not gonna hurt you anymore like I did last time. I know the promise sounds empty, but what can I do now to earn your trust?"

Silence. The two boys stared towards each other; JD with an annoyed look, Adam with a steel-gazed expression.

"So how do you explain the creepiness that I'm feeling right now?" the dark-haired DigiWira finally asked.

JD sighed; all his frustration melted away upon hearing the inquiry. "I don't know. Really. I wish I do. If I'm the one who cause it, I'll stay away then."

"Wait," Patamon stopped him. "I might have an explanation." The two boys looked up at the flying Rookie. "Ok, Adam said that he was feeling some creepy sensation. He felt it before, and JD, you admitted that you were tailing him while you were under Karatenmon's spell. So, my opinion was that since you were evil then, Adam might have picked up some bad energy vibes from you."

"How's that possible?" JD asked.

"And I didn't feel the same when JD started hanging out with me, although I should've been suspicious," Adam added.

Patamon thought about it. "Remember, this is only solely my opinion. I think this is because of your DigiSpheres. Adam's DigiSphere of Light could detect the power of darkness, and JD's DigiSphere is of Fire and Darkness. With light and darkness being two opposing elements, it might just be a reaction elicited from the White DigiSphere upon the darker half of the Red DigiSphere. Being a DigiWira, Adam is bonded with his DigiSphere, so he too, picked up the vibe. And Adam couldn't feel the vibe after JD befriended him…because by that time JD had already seized the White DigiSphere from him. The bond was there, but severely weakened from the separation."

JD scowled slightly upon the memory. He didn't look satisfied. "What about Manny? Adam didn't seem to notice any difference with him."

"The Blue DigiSphere has the power of Water and Thunder," Koromon answered for him. "Neither are the opposing factors to the Light. And Karatenmon's spell was well-executed, it would be impossible under natural circumstances for the spell to be detected."

"But he can detect me being evil?" JD asked.

"I think it's because the Darkness element in your DigiSphere elicited a vibe intermixed with the dark spell's aura, which would be strong enough for the White DigiSphere to detect," the little In-Training answered. He knew about the DigiSpheres from his time spent as TobuCatmon's messenger, but hadn't been made aware of the existence of the Blue and Red DigiSpheres. Right now, he was just beginning to put two and two together.

JD still didn't look like he would be able to accept the explanation. "Ok, say that you two are right. But I'm not evil now. So why's Adam still sensing something from me, or my DigiSphere?"

Patamon and Koromon looked at each other, seeming to have reached a certain understanding. The two Digimon became slightly pale.

"Ok, whatever silent messages you two have relayed to each other, mind sharing it with us non-telepathic ones?" JD snapped.

Patamon looked at Adam first, then at JD. "I think," he began, and cast an all-round look towards the gloomy world. "Adam is not detecting the darkness from you anymore – the Darkness element in your DigiSphere should already be purified, _if_ you are already good." He cast a long look at JD.

"I told you guys many times that I'm no longer under that birdbrain's spell," JD grumbled. "So many times, that I'm beginning to sound like my grandpa's ancient broken record."

"Frankly speaking, for now I'll take your word out of it," Patamon replied. Then he drew a long breath. "Because if you are, then Adam's feeling another kind of darkness. Something greater, and much more evil. He's sensing the darkness of this world – the darkness of the Dark Ocean."

Both Adam and JD looked at one another. JD could see that Adam had accepted Patamon's explanation wholly; he too, believed it, and it was unnerving him. If Patamon was right, then Adam was in a greater danger than he was in this world of darkness. And the boy was here to rescue him.

"We better get moving then," the blonde said bracingly. "What do we have to do?"

"That's the problem," Adam muttered, looking around him. "I don't know."

"WHAT?!" JD's eyes nearly bulged out from their sockets in surprise. "I thought you're our ticket way out of here!"

Adam shook his head gloomily. "You know as well as I do, that my teleportation power is limited to only a short distance…and one person at a time. I can bring up to two Digimon with me, but not human. I've tried it; it didn't work."

"So how did you get here in the first place?"

"TobuCatmon sent me with some ancient runes inscribed on the Forest Sanctum's floor. He said that the runes would increase my teleportation power."

JD thought about that, and remembered that Xianamon had mentioned that it would take great power to transport Adam to the Dark Ocean. They seemed to have taken into account that Adam's teleportation would enable Adam to be teleported there; the other DigiWira wouldn't be able to do so. But then, what Adam had just said gave him an idea.

"Ok, so maybe your power is still in its supercharged mode. Maybe all we have to do is to hold to each other, and you bring us back to the Digital World."

Adam considered JD's opinion, and nodded in agreement. "Maybe. It's worth a shot."

With that stated, he darted towards the smaller boy and grabbed the boy's wrist. Adam's first reaction was a flinch; JD realized that he'd grabbed hold too tightly. JD loosened his grip, smiling apologetically to the boy. His other hand secured Koromon close to his body, and he saw Patamon descending on Adam's head. He found it amusing, but brushed it off. They had a bigger situation to think about. JD then saw Adam closing his eyes. Sparkles of white orbs began to emanate from his body, slowly enveloping himself and Patamon. The orbs then spiraled around JD's arm, but before they could reach his body and head the orbs died down.

"Let me guess. It's not working?" JD inquired.

"Afraid so," Adam said slowly. He looked up to the taller teen. "Sorry. I told you it's not work."

"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault," JD said glumly. He released his grip and stepped back. "But, it's going to work for you, right? You should get going then."

"What?" Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I didn't come all the way here to return empty-handed."

JD looked like he was going to retort back, but Adam stopped him first by raising his palm, effectively silencing him.

"Besides, it's not gonna work; I can only teleport a short distance away," he added. "I thought you knew that."

"I do. So why the hell did TobuCatmon send you here if he knows that you're not gonna be able to come back?" JD asked back.

Adam shook his head. He had no answer to that. Everything had happened so quickly back at the sanctum; he hadn't had the chance to ask the mentor about it. "I…I don't know. Everything happened so quickly, and he was so bothered by the fact that you're here. I guess he forgot to tell me the details of how to get back."

"Just freaking great," JD muttered.

"So what are we going to do?" Koromon asked. The In-Training shivered as a cold gust of wind blew towards them.

"Looks like we're stuck here," JD said. "We should start a fire; it's getting cold."

"Don't be like that," Adam hissed. JD looked at him, interested of what he was going to say. "Maybe…maybe TobuCatmon's working on a way to get us back. He has to."

The blonde teen nodded. "Maybe. But, I'm not gonna get my hopes up. Besides, aren't _you_ cold?"

Adam was about to say 'no', when his nose decided to betray him instead. He felt a tingling sensation in his nostril and quickly turned away before letting out a sneeze. He muttered something distinctive, before looking back at JD.

"A fire it is," JD decided. He was about to walk away, when suddenly two identical beings emerged from the sides of the cliff. "Oh, crap!!"

Adam whirled around and gasped. "It's them! The MetalPhantomon!"

The two caped, hooded demons leered at their preys menacingly. They let out a low moan, which was nerve-wrecking. The lights crackling from their orbs flashed excitedly, and the orange glow in their empty eye sockets reverberated upon setting sights of the humans and Digimon.

"Patamon…digivolve now." Adam took out his Digivice and pointed it towards his partner.

However, the MetalPhantomon had no intention to allow the digivolution to take place. One of them glided swiftly towards Adam, making a slicing motion towards the boy. Adam's first reaction was to teleport, but before he could do that a hand grabbed hold on his wrist and pulled him away from the scythe's slash. A stream of fire then erupted from another arm which suddenly was stretched out above Adam's right shoulder.

"Back off," JD said warningly towards the MetalPhantomon. He watched with grim satisfaction as the fire he had released caught the MetalPhantomon's cape. The said MetalPhantomon let out a howl in anger. He looked down to Adam. "You ok there?"

Adam nodded, said his thanks, and decided not to waste any more time. "Patamon, digivolve!"

**Patamon…Golden Armor Digivolve to….Sagittarimon, Radiant Mode!**

The diminutive Rookie Digimon was instantly transformed into a blue-scaled, white armored centaur, which stood impressively at eight-foot tall. He saw the two MetalPhantomon backing off, seemingly repelled by the light exuded by Sagittarimon's pristine, gold-accented armor. They however recovered quickly and charged towards Sagittarimon.

"_Celestial Judgment Arrow!!" _

Sagittarimon released a powerful arrow of light, but to his shock the MetalPhantomon crisscrossed their energy scythes…and destroyed the arrow upon contact.

"How…how did they do that?" Adam asked.

"I don't know, but they just did," JD replied quickly, and pulled Adam away. "C'mon, we need to get away to safety."

The MetalPhantomon however wouldn't allow them to escape, now that they've found what they were looking for.

Sagittarimon galloped in front of them. He withdrew another arrow from his holster, and took aim to the MetalPhantomon. "Run! I'll distract them!"

"But…" Adam said, but JD grabbed hold on him and began pulling him towards the wood.

"Adam, we need to go, NOW!" JD said urgently.

Adam tried to shake JD's hand off him. "You go! I can teleport."

The MetalPhantomon soared towards the sky, and loomed towards all four of them. They saw the clearing on which their four preys were currently at. The clearing was conveniently located towards the end of the stone hill; the DigiWira were all cornered around the bluff. The demons instantly saw a way to finish them off with one clean strike.

"_Soul Predator!!"_ they both summoned simultaneously with their eerily scratchy voices. With one clean slash of their scythes, they sent barrages of energy waves towards the bluff.

Sagittarimon quickly loomed his large body towards the humans and Koromon, hoping that his armor and power were strong enough to withstand the onslaught from the MetalPhantomon. Strangely however, he only felt a few tinges over the back – some of the energy waves had hit him, but not ALL of them. Sagittarimon saw from the corners of his eyes that the energy waves had hit the precipice all around them as well. He wondered why the MetalPhantomon purposely missed out the attack; a focused offensive would have dedigivolved Sagittarimon immediately.

Then he saw the MetalPhantomon's true intention.

The promontory began to rumble wildly. Sagittarimon's eyes widened in shock when he saw zigzagged cracks on the stony clearing – he now knew that the MetalPhantomon had intended to do that all along. The energy barrages had precipitated the quake, and given the fact that they were currently on a very unstable place, they were in danger of falling down below the shore below. They began to loose their footing as the quake intensified. The cracks widened into crevices and the rumbles became wilder.

"What's going on?!" Adam yelled.

"We're going to fall!" Sagittarimon exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" JD roared. "Oh, SHIT!!"

No sooner than that, the bluff gave way completely. It bent down at a dangerously narrow angle, causing them to loose their footings. Sagittarimon fell sideways with a loud crash due to his massive stature, further aggravating the unstable, bent bluff. Adam and JD – still with Koromon clutched close – both fell on their sides as well. They began to slide down the bent, towards the tip, and Sagittarimon was the first who fell across the tip due to his weight. Adam and JD followed, both shouting at the top of their lungs.

xxx

xxx

The dark pink glow behind Lilamon slowly dissipated, revealing a hulking humanoid figure. It stood at an impressive 13'5" height, nearly double to Lilamon's seven-foot tall. Barely little traces of Petaldramon OR Sunflowmon were evident in this new Digimon; it was a radical transformation from two floral reptilians.

The Digimon's head was patterned in a shape of a flower with eight light yellow petals. The whole face was colored pale green, with pink markings decorating the forehead and cheeks. Sharp pair of white eyes, lined with black, flashed over the center of the flower. A low growl was elicited from the mouth that housed two rows of jagged saw-like teeth. Long, light-green mane of hair cascaded down its back and front torso, which was garbed in a loose dark, earth-green garment and trousers, (similar to the color of Petaldramon's gator body) over a yellow-green robe underneath (which had Sunflowmon's reptile-like body color). The robes were fastened with a white sash. Its legs and hands were all pale green in color, and the hands were also patterned to look like flowers, similar to the head but with less-defined characteristics. The arms however, as revealed with the sleeves of the robe pulled down, were green and bore plant-like characteristics – they were almost similar to how Sunflowmon's body had been like.

"I present to you…**_Kabukimon_**!" Lilamon smirked in delight, gesturing towards the massive creature behind her.

"Kabukimon?" Lilymon looked at the DNA digivolved Digimon with a look of mild confusion. "I thought the Kabukimon species are supposed to be Armored Champion Digimon?"

Lilamon snorted scornfully. "Shows what _you _know, second-rate. Usually, Kabukimon _are_ Armor Digimon, but I've taken pride in doing some modifications in this one, three hundred years ago! He's an Ultimate Digimon now and way over your leagues!"

The dress-wearing flower woman tensed; Kabukimon looked to be a formidable opponent. Lilymon immediately braced herself.

Lilamon smirked. "What's the matter, afraid?" She laughed loudly. "Well, you should be! Kabukimon, attack her!"

Kabukimon nodded obediently and raised both hands up. Whirlwind began to form around the flower-man, and cherry blossom petals took form from within the whirlwind. Kabukimon's eyes flashed with green aura and he willed the floral hurricane towards Lilymon.

"_Cherry Blossom Storm!"_

Lilymon countered by forming her Flower Cannon. She released the green energy-based cannonball, but the sphere's course was set off upon colliding with the hurricane. It was thrown haphazardly, and nearly crashed towards the DigiWira hadn't it been for Samudramon's timely intervention. The Flower Cannonball was countered with a well-executed Cosmic Thunderstrike, which nullified it completely.

"Thanks, Samudramon," Liu Ying breathed with relieved. She had erected her telekinetic barrier on-reflex, but was fortunate not to have to use it. Lilymon's cannonball would shatter her energy barrier without much effort, and would gravely hurt the girl as she was no match for an Ultimate Digimon's power.

"That was so close," Gayathri said.

"Don't mention it," Samudramon grinned. He however flinched when some of the petals generated from Kabukimon's attack came into contact with his body. "Liu Ying, don't let down the barrier. These petals are razor-sharp…OUCH!"

The girls saw several more cherry blossom petals slicing through the bare part of Samudramon's torso. Samudramon grunted as he generated cool water to wipe through the wounded part, hissing in pain. The merman looked up, and saw that Lilymon too had suffered the same fate as he had. The flower woman was fully enveloped by the hurricane which was generated by Kabukimon. He quickly summoned the pillar of water to propel him towards the sky.

Lilamon laughed with glee upon seeing that Lilymon was overpowered by Kabukimon's relentless tornado attack. "Now this is more like it! Don't hold back, Kabukimon!" But her gleeful expression turned into a frown upon noticing that it was raining…again. She turned around and saw Samudramon being responsible for the rain. She didn't know for what reason Samudramon had summoned the rain, but immediately suspected that something was wrong when Kabukimon's hurricane suddenly ceased. And somehow, Samudramon looked reenergized.

"It's really rude to interfere!" the Dryad General hissed, and lashed her arm out towards Samudramon. _"Beauty Slap!!"_

Samudramon was hit by a forceful gale that came from Lilamon, and was thrown away from his water pillar. But no matter; he'd done what he had intended to do. His Divine Rain had momentarily distracted Kabukimon, giving Lilymon time to regain her stance. More importantly, Samudramon managed to steal some of Kabukimon's power to add to his own. And luckily, Lilamon's Beauty Slap didn't hurt too much either.

With the additional power he had gained, Samudramon managed to retain his human figure again. His tail changed into legs and he stood defensively in front of the DigiWira. Several forceful gales were suddenly sent his way again, sending him flying and crashing against the telekinetic barrier Liu Ying had erected. The barrier stung his back a little, but did no harm as Liu Ying was quick to let down of the barrier. Samudramon quickly stood up and saw Lilamon walking casually towards the three of them. One of her arm was transformed into a pink energy blade.

"While my Kabukimon plays around with that second-rate flower girl, how about I play with you three?" Lilamon asked sweetly.

"Not. A. Chance." Samudramon pointed his metallic trident towards Lilamon.

"Oh. So you want a duel?" A simper graced Lilamon's delicate features. "Fine. I haven't tested my dueling skill for a _long_ time! On guard!"

The fairy Digimon leaped with a cry and slashed her dagger-arm towards Samudramon. Samudramon quickly countered by thrusting his trident…but to his surprise Lilamon was surprisingly strong despite her smaller stature. A loud clang echoed all over the battlefield meadow as Lilamon forced Samudramon to back away, with flurries of kicks and punches. Samudramon didn't…or couldn't attack back; the dryad was extremely fast.

"Don't refrain to attack her just because she's a woman!" Liu Ying cried exasperatedly, seeing Samudramon's lack of attack. The merman was only defending himself.

"She's evil! Just attack her!" Gayathri shouted.

"You think I'll let him do that?!" Lilamon snarled and delivered a roundhouse kick towards Samudramon. To her surprise, Samudramon bent down and grabbed her right ankle. He twisted it slightly, eliciting a yelp from the dryad before brushing her off aside. She fell on her back on the ground with a loud thud. Growling, she attempted to get up but was stopped short when Samudramon pointed his trident towards her chest, effectively immobilizing her. Should she move her body up one bit, the sharp pointed tips of the trident would pierce her chest.

"I was merely waiting for the right moment to strike," Samudramon said with a small smile. "Observe your opponent, analyze their skill," he added slowly. "Lesson number one, Ninjutsu class."

Lilamon didn't look fazed. She merely stared towards Samudramon's protective helmet. "Look deep into my eyes, handsome…" she lured with a sweet smile. Her body glowed with soft pink aura, and a sweet aroma began to exude from her body. _"Un Deux Pollen,"_ she said softly, and pollens began to erupt from every part of her body. The pollens spiraled around the trident and all around Samudramon's body. Lilamon raised her right leg, and placed it at the center of Samudramon's torso, and gently pushed him away with a charming smile affixed on her face. Samudramon abided and moved aside without protest. Then, Lilamon smiled dangerously and raised her dagger-arm once again.

"Foolish, foolish boy," she said, and pointed the tip of the energy dagger towards the center of Samudramon's throat.

"What's he doing?" Gayathri cried exasperatedly, seeing that Samudramon didn't even protest the dagger being placed in front of his throat.

"It looks like Lilamon has him under a spell…again," Liu Ying said.

"That dirty woman! Why can't she fight fair for a change!" Gayathri tapped the energy barrier with one finger. "Lower the barrier, Liu Ying. I'm gonna go help Samudramon."

"What are you crazy?" Liu Ying hissed. "You're no match for her."

"That's why I need you to back me up, Liu Ying. I want to go there and scream my lungs off. Maybe that'll break the control spell or whatever that Lilamon is using against Samudramon."

Liu Ying thought about it, but quenched all doubt that welled within her upon seeing the sparkle from Gayathri's eyes. She could see that her friend was really worried. Nodding, she lowered her arm and the barrier dissolved. They quietly crept towards Lilamon, who had her back facing them.

"Hmm…before I delete you, maybe I want to take a closer look at your face. Remove your helmet, Samudramon," Lilamon ordered. "And throw away your trident. You don't need it."

Samudramon did what he was told in a heartbeat. The metallic blue helmet was dropped onto the ground. His face was then revealed, and Lilamon whistled in pleasure as she took in Samudramon's facial profile. Cascades of aquamarine hair framed the finely-balanced facial feature of the pale-skinned Samudramon. The cheekbones were prominent and the eyes were narrow and pointed. They however, were glowing unnaturally – this was the result of Lilamon's control over him.

Lilamon licked her lips. "Nice. Very nice. You know, if only you're weren't an enemy… I'd keep you around."

"Hey! Stay away from him!" a ringing voice shouted, which nearly caused Lilamon to jump in surprise. She turned around and saw the DigiWira girls.

"YOU two?" the dryad snorted derisively. "What do you think you want to do?"

"This." Gayathri inhaled deeply with her mouth, and shrieked loudly. Gales of supersonic sound waves were blasted towards Lilamon and Samudramon. However, Lilamon was unfazed.

"What was that?" she wondered mockingly. "A cry? A pathetic attempt of a scream? What are you – a Harpymon wannabe?"

Gayathri was about to retort when saw something else which cut her short. She saw Samudramon…blinking. The glow was still in his eyes, but his face harbored a look of confusion. Gayathri's scream must have somehow slowly snapping him out of the dazzling trance Lilamon had placed him. She screamed again, louder than ever.

"I've had enough of your incessant screaming, lass!" Lilamon floated and waved her arm, sending a gale towards both girls, throwing both off their feet. She then seized Samudramon from the back, placing her dagger in front of the merman's throat. "I'm going to finish him off now, although I _was_ thinking of sparing him, but thanks to you and your incessant screaming made me change my mind. Congratulations, you've just delivered your friend to his doom!"

Samudramon blinked again, and the glow in his eyes disappeared. Everything became clear again and his eyes widened upon seeing the girls both lying on their backs, struggling to get up. Then he was instantly aware of Lilamon seizing him with one arm circled around his waist while the other – the daggered one – was placed right before his throat. Quickly, he grabbed the daggered arm over the wrist hard with both arm, and _clunked _the back of his head hard against Lilamon's forehead.

**THUDDDD!!!**

"YEEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!"

Lilamon shrieked and instantly let go of Samudramon, grabbing her throbbing forehead. Then she realized her folly, but it was too late; Samudramon had escaped her. She cursed loudly, clutching her head, and saw the merman heading towards the girls. Viciously she raised both arms, pointing towards Samudramon's retreating back, and shouted, _"Marvel Shot!!"_

Barrages of energy pods were released from her flower hands, and they all hit Samudramon on the back. A loud explosion ensued, followed by Lilamon's vicious victorious laugh.

She had won. Samudramon was trounced. Now all she needed to do was to wait for the outcome of the battle between Lilymon and Kabukimon.

Oh, what the heck. She had secured one victory. She didn't want to wait for another for so long. The battle had been dragging on far too long to her liking.

"It's time to get down and dirty, you second-rate," Lilamon hissed and took off towards the sky, where a heated battle between Lilymon and Kabukimon was still raging.

xxx

xxx

_Those MetalPhantomon…they are starting to become thorns over my side._

_They are endangering the life of the chalice of light. I desire his Light! Therefore, the MetalPhantomon shall have to be stopped!_

_I shall have to make my move now, lest the MetalPhantomon will spell the end for the chalice of light. I simply CANNOT allow that! Not after centuries of waiting._

_I have missed my chance once. I shall not waste this opportunity. _

_It is time to interfere._

The calm ocean surface stirred, and from behind the clouds, a massive figure slowly emerged from the depth of the sea, unseen and unnoticed.

xxx

xxx

Adam saw that they would be heading to their doom when they crashed. This was not a cartoon or a movie, where the protagonists would survive a long fall like this. He had to think of something. Sagittarimon was in the lead – he'd crash on the shore first. JD was a good distance down from him – it was impossible for Adam to reach him. JD was still clutching Koromon, yelling and spitting out curses at the same time.

The boy closed his eyes desperately. In times like this, he'd always hoped for something to come up. But this time around, he knew he was the one who needed to take action. There was only one thing to do. He willed all the power he could muster, and teleported himself to JD. It was the easy part of his desperate plan.

He appeared on JD, and managed to grab hold on JD's free, flailing arm. This caused the blonde to yelp, and JD's greater weight was pulling down both of them. Sweat drops formed on Adam's forehead, despite the winds that flapped against his face.

"Adam, what're you doing? LET GO!! You can't teleport both of us!" JD screamed.

Adam's grip on JD nearly slipped, causing the blonde to reconsider.

"Ok! I was kidding! Please DON'T let go!"

Adam nodded and his body glowed white, and the familiar orbs of light erupted. This time around, Adam exerted more strength, more and more…until the orbs multiplied and extended all around JD's arm, body, legs and head. He closed his eyes tight and clenched both rows of teeth together, trying to teleport them altogether. They vanished, and JD's surprised yell echoed their fall. They reappeared on top of Sagittarimon, and Adam once again attempted the same thing he had done, while not letting go of JD. Transporting Sagittarimon along was easier as they were linked with a bond. All four of them vanished, and reappeared again a foot away over the damp shores.

The four fell in a pile, with Sagittarimon on the bottom of the pile. JD was next, followed by Koromon and Adam. A deafening crash ensued; the bluff had crashed onto the shoreline just several hundred meters away, sending debris and smokes of gray dust towards their direction. All of them closed their eyes to block the smokes out.

Five minutes passed with an eerie stillness before the smokes vanished completely. JD was the one who recovered first. The shock of near-death was still evident on his face, and his back was very sore as he had crash-landed onto Sagittarimon's steel armor. He attempted to slide down the centaur, when the weight of two figures above him caught his attention. Koromon was shivering in fright, and Adam looked almost down for the count. His face appeared absolutely strained and very sweaty, dark hairs plastered on his forehead as he opened one bleary eye to meet JD.

"I…I did it." Adam said wearily. He mustered a weak grin. "I…can teleport more people."

JD slowly raised his body up and helped Adam getting down from Sagittarimon. "Sure you did, Adam! That was amazing!" He clasped both of Adam's shoulders, seeing that the boy's knees beginning to give way. "Thanks, Adam. We'd been goners if it weren't for you. I…I owe you one."

"Don't…be happy yet," Adam wheezed sharply. One hand was drawn towards the back of his neck, while the other was pointed upwards weakly. "Heads up."

"DAMN those MetalPhantomon!" JD cursed loudly, upon seeing the two demons gliding down the cliff. "They've just almost sent us to our doom! What more do they want?"

"I think…they want to get the job done," Adam said slowly.

"What are we going to do?" JD whispered, watching the looming demons with dread. "We gonna need one hell of a miracle to get out of this!"

Thunder suddenly rumbled from the eerily quiet world of darkness. Once. Twice. Thrice. Sounds of streaking lightning echoed from the clouds. Then, a guttural, ungodly roar ensued.

"_Forbidden Trident!!"_

The roar was thunderously earsplitting, coming from the thick clouds that hovered above the murky ocean. It echoed all over the dark world with such ferocity that was spine-chilling. The roar was rapidly followed with two ferocious purple thunderbolts streaking from the thick clouds with malevolence. Both struck the MetalPhantomon, causing them to freeze midway. Their bodies shook wildly as another pair of purple thunderbolts was struck directly onto the orbs that constituted their bodies. The orbs shattered, and the MetalPhantomon let out a pained howl before they too, combusted loudly into data particles.

"What's going on?" JD wondered in amazement.

He looked down at Adam, and was reminded of how Adam was able to escape from deadly predicaments with a last-minute help that seemed to appear out of nowhere. JD was involved in _all _those occurrences, so he should know. A wide grin was split on his face. "You have something to do with it, miracle-boy?" To his surprise, Adam looked visibly tensed. He was looking all around him with panic. His attention soon was fixated towards the ocean, where a _massive_ shadow began to take form from behind the clouds. "Oh, great God, what the hell is _that_?"

A sinister chuckle came from the shadow. They saw two flashes of red coming from a bulbous shadow all the way at the top of the shadow. The clouds began to clear and the shadow became more well-defined. The DigiWira both gasped as the profile of the newcomer became more and more prominent.

"After years of more waiting, another chalice of light has stepped into my domain."

The voice was as malicious as the laugh. The clouds and fogs cleared away completely, revealing the creature that had spoken to them in all its grotesquery.

The teens and the Digimon gasped upon the sight that greeted them. "Oh, God, what the hell is _that_?!" JD exclaimed in horror.

Towering in front of them was a hunched, purple monstrous figure so tall that its head reached the blackened stratus. One glance upon it and one would think that it was a winged creature of the sea, with it having some semblance to an octopus, and the pair of orange and purple leathery wings jutted out from his back. Its skin was leathery, slimy in composition and purplish gray in color. The arms and legs were all tentacles, bound by black or gold ringlets to form the four major extremities. The tentacles that formed the right arm joined towards the end, forming a flipper-shaped appendage. The creature had a bulbous well-pronounced forehead which was decorated with peculiar curved blood-red markings on it. His face could only be described as extremely grotesque; slimy, jaw wide-opened with a set of sharp yellow fangs. Three yellow curved horns jutted out from each of his shoulder. Large, dark blue, beaded necklace adorned the creature's greasy body. Its chest was protruded while the abdomen sunken. The bound tentacles that formed the legs were sturdy, fully capable of supporting the great weight of the creature's upper body.

"As unexpected as it was, you are welcomed, child of light. Do not worry; I have no intention to harm you."

The creature moved forward, sending waves of dark water towards the shore. He extended one free arm forward, with the other wielding a slime-encrusted metallic trident, almost similar to Samudramon's. He was now close enough to trample the DigiWira…except he had specifically said that he had no intention to harm them.

Adam twitched; the foreboding sense of dread he was feeling before intensified upon setting sights with the hideous creature in front of him. What was it, anyway? Adam could only wonder. A Digimon? Or an entirely different being altogether? He eyed it warily.

The winged creature shook his head, seemingly taking specific note of Adam and Sagittarimon. "It was a female pair last time; now it is male. No matter – gender is nothing but just a label of classification. It is of no importance to me. Your _power_, however, is something that I desire. Your radiance is amazing, equally matching with the lovely pair that has graced my domain with their presence three years before."

Adam balked – the monstrosity was referring to him. _'Oh, no. Not again!' _SkullSatamon had wanted his power before. And now this gross creature? Adam felt ill instantly, as the creature bent down his head to take a closer look. He had to lean one hand on Sagittarimon, who was visibly strained as well.

"Not a chance!" JD and Sagittarimon both spoke up simultaneously. They looked at each other in surprise, before defiantly glaring up at the monster.

"Just who the hell are you?" JD said fiercely.

The creature stared down at JD with malice. "How dare you speak to me in such manner, child? But no matter, I shall entertain you. I am Dragomon, master of the Dark Ocean! I may be an Ultimate Digimon, but my powers have been known to eclipse even Mega Digimon. And now… no more talking. I have let the chalice of light escape years back, due to the incompetence of my minions and my own lack of prudence. That shall _not_ happen again!"

Without warning, one _extremely long,_ thick tentacle shot out from his outstretched free arm, snaking across the dark surface of the sea before coiling securely around Adam's body. With a light tug, Adam was pulled off his feet.

"ACK! Help!!" Adam closed his eyes, attempting to teleport, but the grip of the tentacle was very firm. Besides, he had just over-exerted himself.

"ADAM!!" JD, Koromon and Sagittarimon screamed at once.

The orbs of light that were elicited from Adam's body however, caused Dragomon to hiss in pain. The dark creature seemed to be revolted, yet also entranced, by the light as well.

"The light is strong in you," he noted. "Excellent. The stronger you are, the stronger _I _will become!"

Both JD and Sagittarimon were about to give chase, when Dragomon's sinister chuckle stopped them short.

"Be careful, you do not want yourselves to be immersed by the darkness of my ocean. It has been known to corrupt one's mind easily." Dragomon focused his attention at JD, and simpered lightly. "Or should I say…_re_-corrupt, given both of your history?" he said knowingly. "Am I wrong, Black Knightmon, Red ShadoWira?"

"Damn you, octopus-head!" JD snarled, halting instantly. His face felt hot suddenly.

Sagittarimon however wasn't quick enough to halt, as he had galloped towards the water. When he was at the knee-level of the water, his white armor glowed and changed back to its original crimson color. He had reverted to his regular mode and he could feel the loss of power. Quickly he jumped away before the water could do more damage to him. He took aim with one arrow, and shot it towards Dragomon.

The arrow was swatted away by Dragomon lazily, as if he was merely swatting an offending fly. He laughed contemptuously as he withdrew Adam closer.

"Finally, the chalice of light is _mine_!" he sneered, drawing Adam close to his face. "Your power shall be joined with mine, and I shall reign supreme!"

"ACK! Stay away from me!" Adam shouted. His shout however sounded strained and helpless. He was bound tight and completely at Dragomon's mercy.

JD swore loudly, but had no choice but to remain by the shorelines. He had just broken a dark spell; the last thing he'd want was to be corrupted again. Who knew what he'd do again if he were brought back to the side of evil? He hesitated, but stared at Dragomon defiantly. He turned his palm upward and generated a flicker of flame.

"Let him go, sucker-face!" JD warned, as the flames blazed into a fireball. "Or I…"

"Do not fight me, human, for I can give you what _you_ want!"

There was a dark, inviting tone in Dragomon's voice which faltered JD. However, he shook it off quickly. "I doubt that. What I want right now is for you to let go of my friend, NOW!!"

"Really? How about I make you another offer?" Dragomon flicked a tentacle, and to JD's surprise the air space near him rippled.

The ripple expanded and morphed into a portal, and JD inhaled sharply as he saw a familiar sight inside the portal. He recognized the elliptical building instantly. It was the Megalith Coliseum.

Dragomon had opened a DigiPort back to the Digital World.

"Leave the Child of Light to me, and I shall allow you three to return to the Digital World safely. Walk away and forget about your friend. He is mine."


	24. Double Act

Lilamon's laughter echoed all over the smoke-obscured meadow. She sounded elated, victorious, and venomous. Gayathri remembered seeing the Dryad General raising her arms right after Samudramon had his back facing her. She saw barrages of energy pods being launched from Lilamon's flower-shaped hands. All of them hit Samudramon point-blanc and an explosion immediately ensued. It was an explosion of light, soon followed by soot, dirt and smoke.

A faint chiming sound was heard, and Gayathri started slightly when someone grabbed her arm. She turned sideways, and was relieved to see Liu Ying. The other girl had one hand thrust forward, and Gayathri could see faint yellow energy aura emanating from her hand – Liu Ying had raised her telekinetic barrier, and was making her way out of the smoke. Gayathri was tugged closer, and soon she needn't cover her eyes with her hands to avoid smoke entering her eyes, as the telekinetic barrier had shielded them both effectively.

The smokes soon cleared, and they girls saw Manny and Penguinmon sprawled haphazardly. Manny was laying face-down, while Penguinmon was on his back. Dirt and soot covered them, almost making Penguinmon's blue feathers unrecognizable as they appeared somewhat grayish. They were not moving.

"Oh, no! MANNY!!" Gayathri pulled her arm away from Liu Ying and sprinted towards the unmoving boy, her heart pounding wildly. _'Please, please…be ok.'_ From her back, she could hear Liu Ying tailing her. She knelt beside Manny, and nervously tapped his shoulder. "Manny?"

No response. Gayathri choked a sob and turned to face Liu Ying, who was inspecting Penguinmon. Gayathri caught her eyes, and Liu Ying shook her head. Gayathri turned back to face Manny, and gently turned the boy around so that he would lie on his back. It was no easy job for her, as Manny had a big stature and Gayathri didn't have that much strength to turn him on his back with only one try. It took her three attempts, in fact, before Manny was laid on his back. To her surprise, a low grunt then came out from the boy. That soon followed by a weak cough, and Manny's eyes slowly opened. Gayathri saw the russet pair of eyes began moving about, until they locked on to her own brown irises. His eyes widened, and Manny started.

"Shh…it's alright," Gayathri assured quickly, her hands firm on Manny's shoulders. The boy visibly relaxed, and let out a relieved sigh as Gayathri slowly let go and moved towards the back of his head. She sat on her knees, Japanese-style, and gently placed Manny's head on her thighs while beginning to wipe away soot that was on Manny's forehead, face and hair. She smiled upon meeting the boy's eyes. "You're alright."

"I…took quite a beating," Manny finally said. It was something that both of them knew, but Gayathri had a feeling that the boy was merely adjusting himself back.

"You did," she replied. Her brows burrowed with concern. "How do you feel?"

"Horrible." Manny paused, seemingly hesitating over something before continuing, "But not that much…at the moment."

Gayathri saw the boy smiling, and had to stifle one of her own. Her face adopted a business-like look. "Alright…You sound perfectly fine to me. C'mon, let me help you up." She thought that she saw a flash of protest coming from Manny's eyes, but nothing came out from his mouth and he cooperated when Gayathri helped him raise his body into a sitting position. "Do you think you can sit on your own? Because…umm…I'm gonna let go of my hands now. Try not to fall back."

The smile on Manny's face turned into a wry grin. "I'll try. Thanks, Gayathri."

"Not a problem. Look, Liu Ying's bringing you Penguinmon."

The two of them watched as Liu Ying approached them with a tensed look on her face. One hand was raised up, palms down, and it was slightly shaking. In front of her, Penguinmon – still unconscious – was floating just an inch away from the ground, and it looked like Liu Ying was willing Penguinmon to move. When they were close enough to the other DigiWira, Liu Ying sighed and dropped down her arm. Penguinmon dropped onto the ground with a soft thud – waking the Rookie Digimon and causing him to yell indignantly.

"Hey! What's the big idea?"

Liu Ying looked at Manny, shrugging. "He's too _heavy_ for me to lift up on my own; I had to use my telekinesis to take him to you." She then looked down. "And you…you're welcome, I suppose."

"I didn't thank you," Penguinmon snapped as he attempted to sit down. He struggled, wriggling his wings and legs furiously before squawking with a defeated tone. He was on his back, and his legs and wings were just too short for him to rouse himself from his current position. "Ok…Uhh…thanks…now can you help me up?"

Liu Ying looked amused as she helped the Rookie to sit down. She was about to say something to Penguinmon, when a loud roar came from the battlefield nearby. She whipped her head back, and saw a glowing aura of a lion being launched by Kabukimon. The evil DNA Digivolved Digimon then eyed the two floral maidens that were fighting in front of her, seemingly waiting for a perfect opportunity to strike. Lilymon and Lilamon were once again exchanging flurries of kicks, punches and slaps, and this time around Lilymon didn't seem to be holding back like she had done before. The battle was increasingly becoming in favor of the villains, and Lilymon (or the Youkomon half in her) had pushed aside her pride for a moment in order to fight more effectively.

The DigiWira could see that Lilymon was well aware of Kabukimon waiting for a chance to attack, but there was nothing that the flower woman could do. Lilamon was keeping her preoccupied with her vicious Beauty Slaps and Lilac Dagger, both launched simultaneously towards her. Lilymon managed to block it with her own skills; they were evenly matched. Whenever she attempted to break free of the scuffle, Lilamon would simply tail her and engage her in a fight once again.

The battle went on with the same manner for minutes, and the DigiWira grew increasingly wary. They knew what was going to happen if Lilymon dropped her guard. The DigiWira nevertheless had complete faith in Lilymon, but amongst the three of them Liu Ying was the one who was thinking the most rationally – and she knew that things were not going in their favor. Lilymon would not be able to last long fighting _both _Lilamon and Kabukimon.

'_We could really use some help right now…'_ Liu Ying thought, and her mind reeled back to the Dark Ocean. _'I wonder if Adam's found JD already. We really need Adam here. With Sagittarimon's new Radiant Mode we might just be able to even up the score with Lilamon.'_

"I really wish JD's here." Manny's voice broke Liu Ying's thoughts, and she stiffened. She didn't turn around, but listened on as Manny continued. "I know he's good already. With Satriamon, we can win this battle. There's no way Lilamon and Kabukimon could stand a chance against Satriamon's fire power…Satriamon even defeated Karatenmon."

"Before we came out from the Forest Sanctum, TobuCatmon sent Adam to look for him." She heard Gayathri replied, wanting to assure Manny.

Although she wasn't inclined to agree with Manny about wishing that JD was there with them, Liu Ying knew that Manny was right. Satriamon would be a _big_ help to them in times like this. She had seen JD at the Dark Ocean not too long ago; she knew that JD had broken free of the evil spell. She wondered how things were at the Dark Ocean right now. '_What's keeping them? Is everything all right there? Can Adam save JD? We could really use **their** help…'_

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 24 – Double Act_**

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"Leave the child of light to me, and I shall allow you three to return to the Digital World safely. Walk away and forget about your friend. He is mine."

JD looked at the opened portal which would lead him to the Digital World. He could even see the minute details inscribed on the walls of the Megalith Coliseum; that was how _close_ he was to going back to the Digital World. He had spent nearly an entire day being trapped in this bleak world. He had succumbed into a mysterious dark influence which robbed him off his self-confidence, instilling him with nothing but cowardice, sorrow and hopelessness. He had been pursued by the MetalPhantomon. He hadn't had a good meal for almost two days, and a faint odor from his body hinted that a good long shower was due.

As he thought back, his eyes locked upon Adam, and a memory he wish he didn't have came back to him. How he'd wronged the younger boy countless times.

JD gave a sharp look towards Dragomon's awaiting gaze. "Know what I think, fugly? I'm _insulted_ that you've made that offer to me. Can it." He smirked. "Go to hell. You can kiss your offer goodbye. I'm not leaving. Not without Adam."

Adam blinked. _'What…?'_

Dragomon flicked a tentacle and the portal closed. "A foolish decision. There is nothing you can do here, but if you wish to remain here until I have done with your friend, then so be it. Once I am through draining his power of light, there might be _nothing left_ to salvage upon this boy. He might be dead, for having his power forced out from him." Dragomon paused, watching with satisfaction over the disgusted look that crossed JD's face.

"Bastard_,"_ JD swore.

Dragomon chuckled darkly. "What's the matter? Regretting your decision now? It is too late. If you were showing your loyalty to your friend here, it would eventually be in vain. Young Adam might not be around for long to fully appreciate your willingness to remain here with him. You will not be around here for long as well; I consider you of no use to me."

JD jerked his eyebrows up twice. Suddenly Dragomon didn't scare him that much – not that the sea creature did anyway. "At least I'll have a clear conscience when I _go_."

Dragomon snorted. "Then you are as brave as you are foolish."

JD crossed his arms against his chest; all his actions so far seemed to be hinting signs of defiance towards Dragomon. "Y'know, I'm beginning to see that not only you talk much, but you're one damned lousy liar as well! You said before that you've no intention of hurting him, but then you said that Adam won't be around for long…" JD let his words hang, but voiced out his defiance in a much more direct manner – by flicking his palm up once more, igniting a fireball which hovered a couple of inches up from his palm.

Seeing the blonde teen's action, a warm feeling surged within Sagittarimon. He didn't think much of JD before, but the boy's courageousness was admirable. He took out an arrow from the holster; he might have lost his Radiant Mode power, but not his guts. With that in mind he placed the arrow over his crimson bow and waited for a chance to strike. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the little Koromon too was puffing…despite being of no major threat to Dragomon, the In-Training's will alone was enough to assure Sagittarimon that he was not alone in wanting to rescue Adam. The former two villains he was with right now were now his allies.

All the while, ever since JD rejected Dragomon's offer to walk away from the Dark Ocean, Adam was frozen with shock that he'd stopped struggling. Despite his misgivings towards the older boy earlier, all of them now were wiped away clean. Hearing how JD had declared that he would not leave unless it was with him caused the grudges he was holding against JD to crumble. Suddenly Adam wondered why was it so hard for him to forgive JD for what he'd done during his tenure as the Red ShadoWira. The thing he had used against Adam was something that was from the past. Sure, it did reopen some old wound, and further aggravated like rubbing a salt to a wound…but it was in the past.

Suddenly Adam realized that he was blinking rapidly. He couldn't control it. He was blinking back tears, he realized. Quickly he shut his eyes tight, and when he opened them again the quick-blinking was gone, but there was no mistaking the slight dampness around his eyes. His attention however was soon pulled back to reality as he felt Dragomon's monstrous body moving.

"A sickening bravado you might have..." Dragomon said threateningly. Adam noticed that the winged marine Digimon was still talking towards JD. "But, alas, what good would that be to you now? Let's see whether the fire within you can challenge my _Thousand Tides!!"_

Adam witnessed as Dragomon summoned a wall of water with a mere flick of his ancient trident. The wall of water was half as tall as Dragomon, but Adam realized that it was enough to drown JD, Sagittarimon and Koromon. They would not be able to survive that kind of attack. And something Dragomon had mentioned earlier rang as clear as a bell in Adam's mind – the Dark Ocean's water had corruptive properties – and all three of them had the history of corruption.

The boy shivered, despite his body being clasped tight by Dragomon's slimy tentacle; if an evil Satriamon and the violent Black Knightmon were to appear once again… Adam knew that he couldn't let that happen. Then his ears caught a peculiar sound, and his eyes caught on the source. The sound of rushing water…and now he was witnessing the _largest_ tidal wave he had ever seen in his life rushing towards the shore. JD, Sagittarimon and Koromon wouldn't stand a chance!

'_I have to **TRY**!'_

Adam concentrated towards the tidal wave, trying to call out his teleportation power. He was weakened, but suddenly _something_ from within him jumpstarted. It was something that he could not explain and hadn't experienced, but Adam soon felt that something beginning to rise out from him. It was comforting, but Adam could detect a hidden menace kept at bay. He trusted his instinct, and soon felt warm, despite the damp tentacle that was wrapped around him and the cool air of the Dark Ocean.

He couldn't see it, but his eyes began to glimmer with white light; the gray irises were wholly layered by the white light.

Then, it happened. Swirls of white light burst around JD, Koromon and Sagittarimon, spiraling around them with such sheer speed that Adam had never seen before. The three of them vanished with a blink of an eye and reappeared on top of the tallest bluff nearby just as the tidal wave drowned the shore. The water level rose up, but soon was drawn back towards the ocean before it could reach the sea cliff where they were standing.

"Woah!!" JD blinked, seeing how they had just escaped another perilous situation with Adam's teleportation power. Then something unnatural caught his eyes. He cocked his head towards Sagittarimon. "Hey, are my eyes playing tricks on me or is Adam _glowing_?"

"I see it too…" Sagittarimon stood transfixed, wondering why all of a sudden his partner was enveloped with a white aura.

Dragomon hissed, feeling the light that radiated from Adam's body burned against his skin. It was excruciating, yet Dragomon was delighted. A dark purple aura emanated from his whole body, trying to overpower the white light before absorbing it and amalgamating it with its own. He felt Adam struggling to break free from his grasp, and quickly bound his tentacle tighter around the boy's body. Adam cried out in pain, but the light from his body flared brighter in response. Dragomon was taken aback by how the light was trying to _repel_ his darkness.

It was unnerving for the dark master, watching as the light grew brighter and harsher. He watched as the light soon reached the trio that was watching over the sea cliff.

Something didn't seem to bode well here. Dragomon was about to summon more of his dark power, when suddenly he noticed the light dimming. Adam began to stop glowing, and Dragomon was not in pain anymore. He saw Adam heaving deeply for breath and loosened his tie on the boy, knowing that there would be no resistance from the boy for the time being.

Dragomon felt the light within Adam weakening, but the same could not be said for the trio that had escaped his Thousand Tides. He watched as they were consumed by the light…

"I feel a kind of energy," Koromon whispered as his body was enveloped by the light.

"Something's giving me back my power!" Sagittarimon said as the light consumed him.

JD raised his arms to protect his eyes from the blinding light, but he couldn't feel any form of threat coming from the light. Instead there was a warm sensation he was experiencing, and if JD thought that he was tired before, that feeling was gone. He now felt invigorated. With that, he lowered his arms and gasped upon the sight that greeted him. Something was _still_ radiating with white light, which caused him to turn sideways…only to see that it was Sagittarimon.

But it wasn't the normal Sagittarimon. It was the white-armored Sagittarimon Radiant Mode. The centaur didn't say anything; his eyes were transfixed onto his captured partner. JD understood Sagittarimon's concern. He then turned to look for Koromon, only to find that his partner was no longer Koromon. Instead, he was now Agumon. JD watched with a small smile as Agumon looked down his digivolved state in awe.

The Rookie Digimon looked up at his human partner excitedly. "JD, I've digivolved! And I feel great!"

'_Adam…you're really something.' _JD thought and instinctively took out his D-3 Digivice. He saw with the corner of his eyes that the light wave that Adam had emitted soared towards the dark heavens, tearing the clouds before reaching towards the cosmos. The light then vanished, and the clouds from the surrounding region began to creep towards the part where the sky was exposed, concealing the exposed sky. He shrugged; that wasn't important to him for now. He turned back towards Agumon. "Looks like you're up for another digivolution."

Agumon nodded. "I am now. Let's do it!"

"SHADOW ACCESS!!"

Nothing happened. JD blinked in confusion and lowered his Digivice, looking at it confusedly. "Hey, what gives? Why isn't it working?"

Agumon shrugged and looked at Sagittarimon questioningly. The centaur thought for a brief moment before an answer came to him.

"Try saying Digital Access Digivolution instead; I heard Manny and Liu Ying using that call earlier today."

JD hesitated merely for a fraction of a second before nodding. He hoisted his Digivice up mightily and summoned: **"Digital Access Digivolution!! HAA!!" **

With the command called out, both JD and Agumon transformed into motes of red lights before coalescing with one another. The motes collided and an explosion of bright red light ensued. Seconds later, a warrior of flames and darkness walked out from the burst of red lights that resulted when the motes collided. The red-armored Digimon stared towards Dragomon from the distance hatefully. A wild smirk crossed his exposed lower half facial feature.

"Satriamon's back," Satriamon announced smoothly. He looked at his armor; the bat symbol that marked him as a servant to SkullSatamon was gone. His confidence grew and he balled his free hand into a fist, which then ignited in flames. "And Dragomon…you're dead meat!"

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"Just how long do you intend to prolong this fight, second-rate?" Lilamon said sweetly, slamming her shining dagger-arm towards Lilymon.

Lilymon resisted it with her Sun-Crescent Kick, which knocked Lilamon's dagger-arm away. "As long as it takes."

"This could go on forever." Lilamon retaliated with a well-aimed kick onto Lilymon's stomach right before Lilymon could lower her leg. "Or maybe not."

Lilymon was sent plummeting towards the Green Meadow below. Lilamon grinned with satisfaction and aimed two arms down. "So great to see you, wouldn't wanna be you! _Marvel Shot!!"_

Barrages of green energy pods were sent towards Lilymon, who didn't have the chance to defend herself while falling. The energy pods rained on her, blasting her all over. Her head, body, back, wings, arms, legs – they all were not missed by Lilamon's vicious attack. And if that was not the worst, Lilymon could hear a loud primordial roar and could sense a heat coming towards her. Her wings were seared by Lilamon's attack and were no longer functioning; Lilymon had no way to move away. Bright orange aura came from her back, shadowing everywhere else in darkness as it loomed upon her. Lilymon's dress began to burn as the source of the roar consumed her with its flames. She lost her sight; everything soon became dark.

"NO!! Lilymon!!" Liu Ying shouted. She was horrified by the sheer viciousness that Lilamon and Kabukimon had demonstrated while fighting Lilymon.

The battle had been one-sided from the start. Lilymon had no chance to win against Lilamon and Kabukimon. While the battle they had was primarily between Lilymon and Lilamon, Lilymon had needed to keep an eye out for Kabukimon as well. The third floral maiden had generated an attack which had a form of a flaming lion, but she didn't attack. But when Lilamon had managed to deliver a kick upon Lilymon and sent her plummeting down, Kabukimon had seized the opportunity to attack as well. The evil DNA Digivolved Digimon spun around, summoned what sounded like a _Lion Dance_ to Liu Ying, and sent the flaring lion down towards Lilymon.

"Manny, stay put," Gayathri said as she stood up. She saw two small figures dropping from the sky after the flames had died, and wanted to retrieve them.

"Where are you going?" Manny looked at her with worry. He'd instinctively grabbed the girl's wrist. "It's dangerous out there."

"I know, but I have my speed and my scream," Gayathri said, winking as she gently removed Manny's hand upon hers. "Floramon and Labramon need rescuing and I'm the only one fast enough to get to them in time. See ya in a flash." Before Manny could protest, Gayathri quickly zipped away, sending trails of pink light.

Gayathri managed to reach both Rookie Digimon before they crashed onto the ground, but their weights dampened her speed greatly. Gayathri immediately lost her balance and tumbled onto the ground but she managed to avoid falling on her head. She saw that both Floramon and Labramon were still conscious, but very weak. She frowned and glared up towards Lilamon and Kabukimon, but knew too well that she wasn't able to fight the two Ultimate Digimon. In fact, they were way out her league.

Her brown eyes widened when she saw Kabukimon looming down towards her. The Digimon with a flower-head looked at her sinisterly as she pointed one arm towards her.

"_Cherry Blossom…"_

Gayathri was quick to open her mouth…and she let out her supersonic scream. Waves of gales with faint pink energy spiraling around them, coupled with a deafening shriek, hampered Kabukimon's effort to attack her and managed to send her backward. Gayathri didn't stop; she continued yelling her lungs out until her chest pained. Her voice started to become hoarse and Gayathri was forced to stop her screaming. She looked up, and was disappointed to see that all her scream had done was hampering Kabukimon from her intention to send Gayathri to oblivion.

Kabukimon descended down again and was about to attack, when her arms flailed uncontrollably. With a huff, the flower witch glanced sideways and saw the culprit.

It was Liu Ying; she was running to Gayathri's aid and was flicking her arms continuously. That disrupted Kabukimon's intention to attack Gayathri and the Rookies. Liu Ying soon reached Gayathri and stood by the girl's side. She saw Gayathri rubbing her throat, and heard her croaking out a hoarse 'thank you' and realized that Gayathri wasn't able to help out with attack. Manny too was weakened – from the corner of her eyes she saw the strapping boy getting up to his feet, wanting to help out but unfortunately didn't have the power to do so.

Liu Ying too had her energy wiped out due to her long distance, multi-dimensional astral projection. She suspected that perhaps it was the reason why Lilymon was not at her fullest prowess today, but it was merely her suspicion. She couldn't rule out the fact that Lilamon was exceptionally strong as well.

With that, it dawned to the willowy girl that right now, she was the team's only defense. Seeing Kabukimon coming with an attack, she quickly raised both arms to summon a telekinetic barrier that would be strong enough to protect her, Gayathri and their partners. She hoped that Manny was smart enough to remain at his safe distance, and prayed that Lilamon would not use the chance to attack them.

"_Cherry Blossom Storm!!"_

Kabukimon sent down furious gales of cherry blossom towards the barrier Liu Ying had erected. Liu Ying immediately felt a burning sensation on her hands, and was reminded of her fight with the Harpymon not too long ago. However Kabukimon was a stronger opponent and Liu Ying was instantly knocked off her feet, but at the same time her energy barrier had managed to absorb the energy from the Cherry Blossom Storm and deflected it back towards Kabukimon.

The flower witch didn't expect such attack and became the receiving end of her own attack. The Ultimate howled with rage, but was mostly unaffected while Liu Ying landed on her back. Without Liu Ying's barrier, the other three and she herself would now fall prey of Kabukimon's attack.

The two Rookie Digimon then weakly rose on their feet to defend their fallen DigiWira partners. Floramon appeared to be slightly better condition compared to Labramon.

"You two…go! You're no match for Kabukimon!" Gayathri implored.

"No! You go, Gayathri!" Floramon replied without looking at her. "We can still fight, right, Labramon?" She cocked her head sideways and her face fell upon seeing that Labramon fell back softly upon the soft grounds of the Green Meadow. "Guess not…oh, no."

Lilamon descended down and grinned towards her fallen enemies as she eyed them one by one. Her gaze stopped at the still-standing Floramon with disdain. "A Floramon? Well…that simply won't do. I myself was a Floramon once; I can't kill a fellow sister. Kabukimon, spare her but wipe out the rest of them. I'll see whether we can salvage the Floramon; make her my minion or something. Perhaps I can weave her data with you, and give myself a Rosemon minion. With that, I'll be unstoppable!" Lilamon said airily before letting out a menacing girlish cackle.

"_Your_ minion? ME?" Floramon said disbelievingly. "Two words. No. Freaking. Way!"

Lilamon, who seemed to be in a mood to mock her enemies, pretended to count with her petal-fingers. "That's three words. Learn to count, why don't you? Maybe I'll teach you once I take you under my wings. Tell me, to what form do you digivolve into?"

Gayathri couldn't believe Lilamon's audacity. First she'd trashed all of them – now she'd wanted to take Floramon away from her? She slowly pushed herself up to her feet.

Lilamon flicked her head sideways. "Ah…the human and the Digimon that formed the handsome Samudramon. Maybe I'll keep you two as well as my boy trophies. Y'know, I tried seducing Grademon once – such a good-looking knight in golden armor would've been a fine partner for one with such beauty as mine. But apparently Grademon had no taste and he decided to freeze me instead." She shook her head. "At least one good thing came out of the whole imprisonment thing – that Samudramon…mmm…he's simply _delectable_!"

'_Oh, yuck,'_ Gayathri thought with disgust. Her dark complexion made it hard to tell, but she was blushing upon hearing Lilamon's inappropriate comment. _'Now she sounds like a sick pervert. I never thought that I'd use the word pervert for a girl.'_

Manny, to his credit, didn't even pay attention to Lilamon as he made his way – slow and arduous – towards the girls. Penguinmon was tailing him, muttering grumpily about Lilamon and a fact that she was a one sick witch…or something that rhymed with witch…it was hard to tell as Manny was concentrating more on getting towards the girls.

"Kabukimon, do it…NOW!" Lilamon ordered, and retreated. "Like I said, spare the Floramon and the boys…but get rid of the others."

Kabukimon nodded and pointed her arm forward, towards Gayathri. "You'll be first, human. _Cherry…**AHHH**!!"_

Kabukimon's attempt to annihilate the DigiWira was thwarted when from the dark heavens, a pillar of white light washed down towards the meadow, specifically towards the three DigiWira and their Digimon. It happened unexpectedly and Kabukimon, unsure of what to do, looked at Lilamon inquiringly.

Lilamon too was transfixed with the strange phenomenon that was happening before her. She forced her eyes to see _through_ the light, and gasped when she saw flashes of gold and blue lights. Suspecting the worse, Lilamon sent down energy pods blindly, hoping to strike the DigiWira at this moment of confusion.

When the lights died, Lilamon's face paled slightly upon witnessing Samudramon – back and appeared to be in full strength. Beside Samudramon was an unfamiliar feminine Digimon wearing a light yellow garb over a dark indigo skin-tight suit. But what was unnerving her most was not the two humanoid Digimon – but the furious pink whirlwind that erupted several meters away from Samudramon and the newcomer. It had been the place where Floramon and her human partner once stood…and Lilamon couldn't see them anywhere.

"This is Numemon-crap!" Lilamon swore vehemently and watched as a figure began to emerge from the pink whirlwind.

A female figure's face and upper body emerged from the whirlwind, and her nimble arms soon followed. Her whole being was glowing with a dark pink aura; it was hard to discern the clothes she was wearing. Then, her feet and long legs were revealed as the whirlwind dissipated from down to up. The whirlwind disappeared completely as the female jumped in midair, expanding her glittering, semi-transparent pink butterfly wings in midair. The aura which coated her whole being burst out of her body, revealing a lightly tanned female with very light green hair pulled back into a very chic half-ponytail. The rest of her wavy hair extended down to just below her shoulders, with bangs framing her face at the front.

Around her forehead was a wreath of pink, red, white and yellow hibiscuses. The upper half of her face was covered with a dark pink visor sculpted to fit her face nicely. The contours of the obscured half of her face were evident. Her lips were full and painted light pink. She wore a dark violet choker around her neck. Her outfit was a light pink bodice that covered her breasts and abdomen, but left her arms and upper chest bare. The upper side of the bodice was lined with green, patterned to resembled leaves. Over the cleavage, a simple plum red tulip was placed, seemingly for decorative purpose. The bodice continued downward into a skirt which extended until the middle-half of her thighs. Around her waist was a metallic belt, similar in color to the choker she wore around her neck. Her high-heeled boots were light lavender with violet linings, and extended up till an inch above her knees. Similar colored gloves then materialized on her arms up till the middle half of her upper arms. Golden bracelets were fastened around both her wrists.

Then finally, to complete her transformation, the pink data particles that had burst from her whole body coalesced around her right arm, forming a wooden-looking staff of shiny dark brown. The upper part of the staff spiraled to form a rose-like shape, and pink oval jewels adorned all around the rose-shaped tip. The new fairy Digimon then spun her staff impressively as pink aura radiated from her very being. Pleasant flowery fragrance emanated from her whole body.

The newcomer looked extraordinary; Lilamon had to admit somewhat begrudgingly. And there was no denying that she was gorgeous as well.

"Who are you?" Lilamon demanded. "I've never seen the likes of you before."

The Digimon let out an alluring smile. "I'm called **_Puspamon_**." The smile turned to a smirk. "And I'm not really in the mood to talk with you. But I know I'd like to scream at you…so here's goes. _Sprite Scream!!" _With that, the newcomer that was now known as Puspamon let out an ear-splitting shriek which was even louder than what Gayathri could muster. Spirals of pink energy followed the fierce gale that erupted from the fairy Digimon's mouth…and it sent Lilamon tumbling heads-over-heals in midair.

Puspamon flapped her glittering wings and flew close towards Lilamon. "And also, I was really sick upon hearing your perverted remarks about Samudramon. Your mouth really needs washing. I really don't have a detergent with me, but I suppose this would do!" She extended both arms forward and yelled out, _"Hibiscus Hurricane!!"_

The hibiscus wreaths on her head glimmered. From the hands, a mighty tornado of pink, maroon, yellow and white energy auras spiraled out, along with rains of hibiscus flowers which were all lambasted against Lilamon's body. Lilamon shrieked in pain and quickly mustered enough energy to escape the raging tornado that Puspamon had summoned. She was successful and seethed towards the other flower woman. She saw Kabukimon staring at Puspamon, mouth wide-opened, and groaned. "Don't just stand there like a useless weed! Attack that loathsome wannabe! She's becoming a thorn on my side for far too long now!"

Kabukimon nodded obligingly but she'd forgotten one…or two obstacles. Just before she could move, a blue thunderbolt followed by rains of needles blocked her path. She looked around and saw the other feminine Digimon that she knew not about advancing towards her, waving her fly whisk. Rains of silver needles shot out from the unconventional weapon, but Kabukimon soon found out that the needles were poisonous when several of the needles pricked her body. A searing pain coursed through the inner vines that formed her veins. From the corner of her eyes, the flower witch saw Samudramon summoning a pillar of water to propel him towards the sky. She could guess what Samudramon was planning to do, but had no way of avoiding it from happening with the other Digimon's interference. Soon enough, rain fell upon her and drained her power. Kabukimon flew away quickly, with the masked feminine Digimon in hot pursuit.

"_Diamond World Mandala!!"_

Xianamon, fueled by the anger the Digimon half of her was feeling towards the flower witch, lambasted Kabukimon with furious waves of magical energy from her strongest attack. She saw Kabukimon turning around and let out the same fiery lion, but the lion was immediately drowned by the combined powers of her Diamond World Mandala and Samudramon's Divine Rain. She glanced sideways for a second, curious of the battle between Puspamon and Lilamon. The battle between the two floral dryads was much more impressive and high-powered compared to their own. She still couldn't get over her surprise of Gayathri and Floramon's transformation, or the mysterious power source that had come out of nowhere; but she supposed that if it worked in their favor, then there was no need for questions. She quickly focused her attention back towards Kabukimon, who was aghast upon witnessing her Lion Dance technique being weakened and consumed by the combined efforts of Xianamon and Samudramon.

The sorceress Digimon looked up and saw that Samudramon was having a slight difficulty in launching his finisher technique, as it would require Kabukimon to be still. Samudramon lacked the ability to fly and Kabukimon was too fast and nimble for him.

A smirk crossed Xianamon's elegant face. She took a deep breath and fastened her fly whisk at her belt. She had seen how far her Digimon-half's astral projection power had expanded earlier today; now to test out whether her human-half's telekinesis power had improved as well. Besides, she was in a good range and Kabukimon was fleeing instead of attacking. It was the perfect opportunity for her to use her fourth, never-used-before technique.

Xianamon flicked both hands towards where Kabukimon was hovering, and whispered out, _"Magical Stasis!"_

The effect was immediate. With both hands flicked, golden stardust seemed to appear around Kabukimon. To the flower witch's horror, she was instantly immobilized. She retained her consciousness, but no part of her body was now movable. She was as stiff as a statue, frozen in midair.

Samudramon saw what Xianamon had done and smiled. "Neat. Wish I can do that." He then raised his trident towards the sky and summoned the powers of thunder and lightning to energize his metallic trident. Soon the trident became the deadly Double-Edged Thunderblades, and Samudramon jumped down towards the frozen Kabukimon with his trident spinning ferociously. The Double-Edged Thunderblades pierced Kabukimon mercilessly and the flower witch exploded into data on the spot. Samudramon then thrust one arm down and let out a blast of water to break the force of his fall, enabling him to descend towards the ground without harm.

"Now what do we do?" he asked Xianamon, who descended down beside him.

Xianamon looked up towards where Puspamon and Lilamon were at. The two were now exchanging attacks, but Lilamon's Marvel Shots and Beauty Slaps were easily drowned by either of Puspamon's Sprite Scream or the Hibiscus Hurricane. Puspamon seemed to want to make sure that Lilamon would not be able to get close to her, so Lilamon's Lilac Dagger technique could not be used as well. And to make things worse for Lilamon, her alluring effect did not work against Puspamon…not that it ever worked over a female Digimon anyway.

"Although I think Puspamon seems capable of handling this," Xianamon said. "Our help will certainly guarantee our victory."

Samudramon nodded. "I hope so. Lilamon really creeps me out with all her…advances."

Lilamon looked greatly annoyed, while Puspamon merely was at her peak of performance. The rush of the first-time digivolution had given Puspamon an edge in the battle. Despite the fact that Lilamon was a general, and supposedly very powerful, the battle she had with Lilymon had drained a part of them. The Dryad General was still raring to go, but Puspamon's very being seemed to be created to act as something against her.

"What's the matter?" Puspamon challenged. "Tired? Had enough? Ready to give up?"

"Not a chance!" Lilamon retorted.

"You won't stand a chance against all of us, Lilamon. My friends deleted that Kabukimon of yours. The three of us, we'll be able to beat you once and for all."

"Dream on!" Lilamon spat.

Puspamon smirked. "Heh. If it's dream you want, how about having a taste of my…" She raised her wooden staff towards the sky. The staff glimmered with pink aura. _"Dream Rose Mirage!!"_

As Samudramon and Xianamon approached Puspamon to offer their assistances, they saw a rather peculiar event. Puspamon was raising her staff, which glowed pink, but was doing nothing else. Yet Lilamon was shrieking in what sounded like pain and fear. She was trashing about in midair for seemingly no reason at all.

However, that wasn't the case with Lilamon. When she saw Puspamon raising her staff, she was shocked to see that the harmless-looking wooden staff sprang to life, forming a massive dark red rose. Vines with deadly thorns crept out from underneath the blooming rose, snaking their way towards her. She attempted to escape but the vines were quicker. One of them snatched her by the leg, wrapping itself around her ankle tight while dripping its thorn into her ankle, piercing through her boots and pricked her delicate skin underneath. The other vines soon wrapped around her other ankle, moving progressively upwards by wrapping her knees, thighs, waist, body, arm and neck.

The pain was unimaginably excruciating – Lilamon felt tortured by this technique, yet she was still too defiant and proud to surrender. She was a General! No way was she surrendering. Gathering her remaining power within, she called out her Lilac Daggers, this time on _both_ arms, and worked upon getting herself free from the vines' wrath. To her relief, the vines retreated away and the giant rose vanished. Lilamon blinked in mild confusion; had it all been a mirage? But the pains were real.

"Dream enough?" Puspamon taunted.

"You…you…WEED!" Lilamon screeched angrily, realizing what had just happened. Frustrated, she balled up her fists and her whole body shivered with fury. "Wildflower _slut_!"

Puspamon frowned; she could excuse the weed and wildflower comments (which had no meaning for her, but she supposed that being a flower creature it would be insulting to Lilamon if she was called a weed or wildflower). However she could never tolerate of being called a slut. In fact, it was downright downgrading to her.

It was time to finish this off.

Lilamon let out a maniacal roar and soared towards Puspamon, lashing out with her twin dagger-arms. Puspamon attempted to move away but consumed by rage, Lilamon was too fast and had managed to deliver a clean slash towards her belly. Puspamon was only quick enough to move backwards, so the dagger had injured her belly superficially, but that didn't make it any less painful. Puspamon seethed and lurched forward…and SLAPPED Lilamon on the face hard!

Lilamon's face turned ugly and she retaliated by slapping Puspamon back. Twice as hard.

"Uh oh…" Xianamon muttered from a distance, stopping Samudramon from advancing as well. "This could turn ugly."

Puspamon growled and knocked her wooden staff forcefully onto Lilamon's head. A loud yelp was heard from Lilamon as she clasped her bruised head. The Dryad General however was tough; she returned the blow by delivering a roundhouse kick which was so strong that it sent Puspamon plummeting towards the ground.

"HAH! Now you know who the better floral maiden around here is, and who's nothing but a useless weed!" Lilamon sneered.

Instinctively, Samudramon jumped to catch Puspamon before she could crash. Puspamon groaned and Samudramon saw clear liquid flowing out from her belly. The slash wound from Lilamon was aggravated due to the powerful kick, which worsened the formerly superficial wound. Despite having an array of fancy techniques, Puspamon still lacked the battle experience that Lilamon had.

It was time for a team work.

"At times like this I wish Adam's really here," Puspamon groaned. "He'll know what to do with this wound." She looked down her injured belly. "Ugh…"

"I know of a perfect alternative," Xianamon assured. She raised her fly whisk towards Lilamon and held one palm an inch above Puspamon's injured belly. _"Diamond World Mandala!"_

Puspamon felt slightly invigorated – the magical attack had returned some of her energy but it was not a perfect physical healing technique. Nevertheless, the wound was closed up.

"Thanks, Xianamon," Puspamon said thankfully. "Did you manage to get her?"

"No. She evaded my attack, and I was only focusing on healing you." Xianamon clicked her tongue, somewhat dissatisfied of her work. "It is not the neatest job in the world, I'm afraid, but I think TobuCatmon has a remedy for the scar which I could not remove with my Diamond World Mandala."

"It's alright. Umm…how about we all combine our powers to beat her?" Puspamon suggested.

Samudramon nodded smilingly, which was mirrored by Xianamon. "I shall launch one attack first, and then we can attack her together," the sorceress said, and flew towards Lilamon.

"What's this? A second match? Don't you know that you're no match against me?" Lilamon demanded.

Xianamon didn't bother to reply. Instead, she flicked both hands and Lilamon was immediately immobilized. A panicked look crossed the Dryad General's face as she saw Puspamon soaring back to the sky, floating side by side with Xianamon. They were soon joined by Samudramon, who used a pillar of water to propel him to Puspamon's other side. All three DigiWira pointed their weapons towards Lilamon.

"_Hibiscus Hurricane!!"_

"_Jade Needles!!"_

"_Cosmic Thunderstrike!!"_

Xianamon's poisonous needles and Samudramon's thunderbolt merged with Puspamon's hurricane, supercharging the Hibiscus Hurricane technique greatly. The pink tornado raged wilder, now with spinning needles and lightning bolts in addition of the hibiscus flowers that usually accompanied the wind attack. Lilamon paled upon seeing the attack and shrieked loudly as the combined powers of Puspamon, Xianamon and Samudramon blasted upon her. The tornado engulfed her, and with her body rendered unmovable she had no way of escaping the raging tornado. She howled as she felt her very being electrocuted, poisoned and the tornado was nearly ripping her body apart.

It was too much for her to handle. With a loud parting scream the Dryad General exploded into showers of pink and purple stardust, and Puspamon's hurricane carried it away from the Green Meadow, scattering them all over the lush greenery. The clouds soon parted, giving ways to sunshine to once again grace the Digital World. Soft wind blew down from the heavens, fluttering the grasses as it wiped out traces of the preceding battle.

In a matter of one day, the Digital World was saved from another of SkullSatamon's general.

"We did it!" Puspamon cheered happily. "Good riddance!" She descended towards the grassy ground, followed closely by her teammates. Right after her touchdown, her body glimmered in pink aura as she spoke, "You know, compared to Karatenmon, Lilamon was a lot easier to deal with." Puspamon then devolved back into Gayathri and Tanemon.

"Perhaps it is because she had chosen to attack us straight away rather than hiding behind her minions' back," Xianamon said, regressing into Liu Ying and Shaomon.

"Or maybe we've just gotten stronger," Samudramon suggested as he returned to his composite selves of Manny and Tsunomon.

"Aren't we amazing?" Tanemon said gleefully, trying to change the subject and brought the DigiWira's attentions to where it truly mattered….to her anyway. And that was about Puspamon.

"You certainly are," Shaomon agreed. "Tsunomon?"

"Yeah, well…ok, ok, Puspamon's really great, and I'm too tired to argue," Tsunomon said with a snort. "Besides, if it wasn't for that strange light thingy, _you_ wouldn't be around to gloat about you being Puspamon." He shot a look at Tanemon, whom didn't look frazzled at all with the other In-Training's response.

"That light," Gayathri reiterated thoughtfully. "It came just in time. But I wonder why it came to us? Or who sent it?"

The other DigiWira were quiet; they had no answer for their friend's inquiry.

Manny soon broke the silence. "Well…it saved our lives, so I think…maybe we should just accept it as it is? You know, take it to our strides?"

Gayathri blinked, and looked at Liu Ying. It wasn't the answer she'd expected to hear. To her surprise, the fairer girl nodded.

"Stranger things have happened in the Digital World. Maybe that light was just another of them." She crossed her left arm against her torso, and rested her right elbow on it while placing her right index finger down her chin. "I agree with Manny. It worked in our favor…and I've learned not to question the logic of the Digital World too much."

"But…an explanation would be nice," Gayathri said.

"I don't care much for an explanation. Can we just go home now?" Tsunomon implored.

"Not just yet…" Liu Ying said, her face dropping. "We still have no news from Adam…or JD."

Gayathri clasped one hand over her mouth (the other was holding Tanemon). "Oh gosh, you're right!"

"Maybe we should go back to Forest Sanctum now, see whether we can find out anything from TobuCatmon," Manny suggested.

The others murmured their agreement and they set back towards the jungle that surrounded the Forest Sanctum. Their minds were occupied, wondering about the fates of their friends.

xxx

xxx

The battle in the Dark Ocean, in the meantime, was still going on. Sagittarimon and Satriamon teamed up to fight Dragomon, but neither could beat the Master of the Dark Ocean while he had Adam within his grasp. Sagittarimon had fired his Celestial Judgment Arrows one after another, but each was flicked away by Dragomon with ease with his ancient-looking trident. The trident looked sturdy and sharp, with relics inscribed on it. With it Dragomon was able to summon unholy thunderbolts towards them – he'd once nearly caused the sea cliff they were standing at to separate from the stony promontory that was holding it. Neither was hit with the thunderbolts just yet – they had seen how easily those thunderbolts deleted the powerful MetalPhantomon earlier. No one dared to risk getting hit by the attack.

They were at a serious disadvantage. Neither Sagittarimon nor Satriamon had the ability to fly. Thus they were unable to close in to Dragomon, who was over by the ocean.

In all actuality, Satriamon was able to propel himself to the air with his fire power, and could remain airborne for a limited time, but eventually he had to come down. That was made possible only when he used his Flaming Torch technique, which would envelop his body with flames, transforming him into a magma-like being. He'd soar towards the sky, and zoomed towards his enemy like an unstoppable meteorite. But Dragomon was over at the ocean, and Satriamon – brave as he was – couldn't risk using the attack for fear of falling into the depths of the dark ocean.

"Satriamon, wait," Sagittarimon instructed, just as the fused Digimon was about to launch another ranged attack towards Dragomon. "Attacking him again from here would be useless; Dragomon would only use the Dark Ocean waters to quench your techniques."

"What's on your mind?" Satriamon asked impatiently. "Better be quick; your partner's there with Dragomon as well."

"I'm well aware of that!" the centaur snapped. "I've a plan for you to get close enough to Dragomon. I need you to severe the tentacles that he has wrapped all over Adam. Your gauntlet looks sharp enough to do the job."

"You kidding? This is Chrome Digizoid!" Satriamon said proudly. "So…this plan of yours…I'm all ears."

Dragomon watched his opponents with wry interest. He chuckled darkly, seeing that they had no way of defeating him.

"Let me go!" Adam shouted. He was still attempting to break free, no matter how useless his attempts were. Dragomon however had to admire the boy's persistence.

"In due time, Adam. When I tire of your friends' meddling, and when I have disposed of them, AND when I have drained your light, you shall walk free…if you are alive."

"Why do you want the power of light so much?" Adam demanded weakly. "SkullSatamon wants it, you want it…"

Dragomon chuckled. "Ah, SkullSatamon…the SkullSatamon that rose to power a few millennia ago over the south-eastern part of the Digital World. Defeated by one who was called Grademon before the knight himself vanished without a trace – leaving behind his five mystical DigiSpheres for his future heirs to wield. The wielders shall be known as the Heirs of Grademon, commanding elemental powers far beyond the normal Digimon could muster. While the Red, Blue, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres are powerful by their own right…your White DigiSphere holds the power of light from one of the strongest angelic Digimon ever existed."

Adam was stunned. "How…how'd you know that?" He himself was pretty vague with the history of the DigiSpheres. He had heard that the power of light from his White DigiSphere was from one called Ophanimon – a mysterious 'sacred lady' Digimon whom Grademon had seek help from when the Red and Blue DigiSpheres were taken by Karatenmon. He had no idea that Ophanimon was an _angelic_ Digimon – he hadn't even _heard_ of one, nor could he comprehend with their existence. But he supposed that if demonic Digimon such as SkullSatamon existed, then it shouldn't be a surprise that angelic Digimon existed as well – to counter the demonic ones.

Still, it was just too strange.

"Nothing in the Digital World escapes me, Adam," Dragomon boomed, snapping Adam from his inner monologue. He eyed Adam intently. "_Nothing_. I just choose what is worthy for my attention, and leave out all other mundane matters."

Adam was about to ask more, when something else caught his eyes. From where his friends were at, Adam could see meteorites being launched relentlessly by Sagittarimon. Then his eyes widened when he saw Satriamon jumping on one meteorite, letting the meteorite taking him closer to Dragomon.

"Your friends' pathetic attempts to rescue you amuse me, Adam," Dragomon said, unimpressed.

'_What's he thinking?'_ Adam thought, but he already knew the answer. Of course, his friends wouldn't leave him with Dragomon. Not without a fight.

"Hey, fugly!" Satriamon shouted, when Sagittarimon's meteorites were close enough with the ocean creature. Satriamon enveloped his whole body with flames before leaping onto another meteorite, using it as a stepping stone to propel himself upwards. Magma coated him as he soared towards the sky, streaking like a comet towards Dragomon. Launching his gauntlet upwards, he roared loudly as a fiery dragon was projected from the flames.

"_Dragonforce Striker!!"_

Dragomon hissed and attempted to ram his trident towards Satriamon. The Chrome Digizoid gauntlet collided with the trident with a loud clang, and for a while the two pit strength against each other. It was apparent a few seconds later that Dragomon was much superior, but Satriamon was powerful in his own right. He withdrew his gauntlet and retreated, landing on another meteorite. Apparently Sagittarimon kept on firing the meteorites in order to provide something for Satriamon to step upon, thus enabling the dragon-man to keep close to Dragomon. It was rather reckless – but it worked. Satriamon lurched forward, roaring as Dragomon sent tendrils towards him. His Dragonforce Striker technique sheared the tendrils away.

Dragomon grunted as Satriamon leaped towards the arm where he was holding Adam. "Not so fast!" The sea creature whipped a larger tentacle towards Satriamon, slamming against his body, knocking the winds out of Satriamon. The dragon-man was sent towards the depth below…

"Satriamon!" Adam cried out; it was an instinctive cry, but it'd worked in more than one ways. It activated his summoning power once again, and Satriamon was enveloped in orbs of light. He reappeared directly over Dragomon's arm…right where he was holding Adam.

"Heh…thanks. I was hoping you'd do that," Satriamon smirked towards Adam. He raised his gauntlet, and roared, _"DRAGONFORCE…."_

"Don't burn me up in the process…" Adam closed his eyes.

'_I won't.' "….STRIKER!!" _Satriamon slashed onto Dragomon's thick tentacle-arm viciously, successfully cutting off his tentacle. He quickly seized Adam with his free arm, and worked quickly on removing the remaining tentacles that still clasped around the younger boy's body. Adam reopened his eyes as Satriamon cradled him with his free arm. "Don't be happy just yet. Grab hold tight!"

"I can teleport us…" Adam said, but Satriamon had already jumped onto the incoming meteorites. He leaped on one meteorite after another back towards the sea cliff where Sagittarimon was anxiously launching off the meteorites, giving Adam time to gather some power to teleport them off to safety. The boy grunted – the blazing heat from the meteorites was searing – Adam felt as if he was standing right in front of a baking oven. He lacked the ability to withstand the heat as Satriamon was. He sweated profusely and his complexion reddened.

'_Oh, no…I forgot one crucial thing! Adam's not made to withstand the heat like I do!'_ Satriamon hastened his paces, but they were still further away from the sea cliff.

Dragomon growled angrily; the dragon-man had taken away his child of light! He wouldn't let them escape!

"_FORBIDDEN TRIDENT!!"_

Satriamon felt something slamming against his back, which burned through his armor. He gasped loudly and lost his momentum. His body glowed and he was forced into a dedigivolution…back into JD and Agumon. The sudden attack from Dragomon had nearly knocked both of them out too…and JD's grasp upon Adam immediately loosened.

"If you refuse to join me, then you shall perish in the depths of the Dark Ocean along with your insolent comrades," Dragomon sneered. "DIE!" He however didn't want to kill Adam; he merely wanted to scare the boy into submission to capture his light easier.

Adam gasped; and felt something from within him coming back to life. His eyes shone once more, and orbs of white light began to envelop all three of them. They disappeared with a blink, and reappeared over the safety of the promontory – Adam onto Sagittarimon, while JD and Agumon sprawled haphazardly beside the centaur. The glow in his eyes vanished, and he leaned against Sagittarimon's back for support. His chest heaved up and down rapidly – he was catching up with his breath.

"Adam, are you ok?" Sagittarimon asked tentatively after several seconds passed. He could sense his partner being very tired.

Adam merely murmured his agreement. He felt so tired that he was ready to lie down and take a nap. But he knew that was not what he should be doing. They were not out of danger yet.

Dragomon seethed in a barely-contained rage now. How come his every attempt upon the chalices of light had met with failures? Every time one was drawn in his Dark Ocean, there would always be some other meddlers somehow able to infiltrate the Dark Ocean to rescue the chalices. It had been that way with the girl three years ago – her friends and Digimon partner were drawn into the Dark Ocean merely by her light. His minions had given up so easily when that radiant Angewomon had threatened to obliterate them should they attempt on her partner's life. They were no match for the Ultimate level angel Digimon, Dragomon knew, but their quick submission didn't bode well with him. He had ensured that his minions paid dearly for their failures. And now; now that he'd taken one step further and reveal himself to get the job done…once again he was thwarted by a friend of the chalice! No matter how hard he'd tried the meddlers' persistence to save their friends were a nuisance to him.

If the light couldn't be taken for his own gain, then he would have to destroy it. The light had always been a bane to the darkness.

Inwardly, he grinned. He hadn't failed completely; the meddlers had been taken care of. Their attempts to rescue the chalice were a success, but they had paid dearly for it. He was surprised that the dragon-man was able to withstand his Forbidden Trident attack, but was reminded that the dragon-man had been armored.

'_Not anymore, though. The mighty dragon-man was no more; he is but only a human and a Digimon now. They can never stand in the way now, bold as they are. The chalice has refused me, time and time again. He has wormed his way out, by a combination of sheer luck and stronger allies. If I capture him, there is no telling what else they could come up with to rescue him. Satriamon…the meddler, has successfully severed my arm. He alone is powerful, and there are three more of them. I can destroy them, but apparently not with ease…'_

'_I must not wait anymore. Now is my chance.'_

"Adam, I am offering you an eternity of life. I know you fear SkullSatamon; join me and our powers shall crush his – your Digital World shall be safe from his," Dragomon offered.

"Yeah, and not safe from _you_," Adam muttered. He frowned when he saw Dragomon wading through the ocean, closer to the shore. The winged sea demon leered towards them menacingly.

"I have been very polite, it seems, and you refuse me. Now, whether you want it or not…your power shall be MINE!" Dragomon boomed as he got closer to the sea cliff.

Adam looked sideways, hearing a soft groan. JD had awakened. His body stirred as he looked up weakly towards Adam. Agumon was still unconscious. They didn't look like they could fight anymore. Adam was reminded of what JD had said and done this day; he had rejected Dragomon's offer to go back to the Digital World, and look what had become of him now.

'_It's up to me now…'_

Something ignited within him. His eyes narrowed, his brows knitted together. "Back…back off!!" Adam warned.

The demonic Dragomon sneered in return. "I think not."

"I mean it! Back off!" Adam's dark gray irises flashed with white light as he let loose the power inside of him. "JUST! **STAY!** **_AWAY!!!_"**

Brilliant white light exploded from Adam's body when he screamed. Sagittarimon quivered as the light fueled him with pure raw power to a magnitude that he hadn't felt before. He flexed his head and let out a roar as the muscles of his body tensed tight. The power of light coursed through every vein in his body, energizing him all over. Adam too, hadn't stopped shouting, as something from within him had been set loose – but unlike Sagittarimon's his shouts sounded uncontrollable…as if possessed. Their roars echoed all over the Dark Ocean.

JD's eyes fluttered open wide upon hearing the roars. His first instinct was that Adam was in danger again, but he soon realized that that was not the case this time around. Lights invaded his eyes and he quickly raised his arms to block the excessive light from blinding his sight. From the gap between his arms, he saw the most peculiar, yet incredible, thing.

A third, ghostly figure materialized within the light. It was a silvery silhouette, hovering at seven-feet-tall roughly, humanoid…and with large wings. JD blinked, thinking that he was seeing things, but the mysterious silhouette was still there; silent, unmoving. Then the blonde thought that Adam and Sagittarimon had fused, resulting in the mysterious newcomer, but the two of them were still there. They had stopped roaring, and their bodies were in a trance. The silent winged shadow flexed its wings forward and unleashed a stream of light from them, with feathers spiraling around it. The distinctive sound of something metallic grazing against each other was audible, seemingly coming from the beam of light.

JD turned sideways to see the where the light was sent to, and saw it blasting against Dragomon. Dragomon had resisted, but the light beam was pushing him backwards, merciless and unrelenting. The calm ocean raged, affected by Dragomon's predicament. Tidal waves took form, but they couldn't quench the harsh light.

The light soon grew increasingly bright and JD felt dizzy. Everything then became black.

xxx

xxx

First there was darkness, and when he opened his eyes…it was still somewhat dark.

Then he noted a difference. The darkness he was seeing now was not as bad as when he'd closed his eyes. He was staring towards the dusky sky, which was cloudless and a mixture of dark blue, purple, red and orange. The three moons of the Digital World were slightly visible and the sun seemingly was just setting by the western horizon. As his eyes began to adapt with his surrounding, Adam turned sideways and saw a small fire. On the other side of the fire was JD.

"Hey, you're awake!" The blonde teen shot up to his feet and circled around the fire to be by Adam's side. He remained standing, looking down at Adam tentatively.

Adam blinked. "Where…where are we?"

"Back in the Digital World," JD replied with a grin. "More specifically, the Megalith Coliseum." He watched as Adam got up into a sitting position.

Adam took in his surroundings and saw that they were sitting on the arena at the center of the elliptical building. This was where they'd battled each other before, but that was history now. Adam shook his head to get rid of that bad memory, and looked up at JD inquiringly. "How did we get here?"

JD shrugged. "I don't know."

Adam blinked. "And Dragomon…?"

"Dead, hopefully, but that I don't know for sure."

Adam scrunched his face; he was confused now. "What happened?"

JD crossed his arms over his chest. "You tell me. That was some freaky light show back there."

"Huh? I don't understand."

"You don't remember?"

"I remember seeing Dragomon coming, and I…was thinking of something," Adam said evasively and averted his gaze away from JD. He looked into the fire instead, trying to remember what had happened. "Then, I don't know…there's this powerful sense of…something…I felt like it was trying to break free. It…had given me power before, to save you, to restore your powers…so I decided that I didn't have anything to lose…so I let it out. Then…I don't remember."

"Someone else appeared from the light you released back then," JD supplied.

"Someone?" Adam turned back to face JD.

"Yup. I don't know who it was. It attacked Dragomon. I wasn't long enough to see whether it managed to finish that squid-face off."

"Oh?" Adam tilted his head slightly; an inquiring look. "Why's that?"

JD looked somewhat sheepish. "I blacked out; the light you released was too much for me to bear. I got a splitting headache trying to see what was happening…so I passed out. Uhh…what?"

Adam was straining not to smile. "Nothing. It just that…I can't imagine _you_ passing out."

JD grunted. "Not that you haven't done that before. Anyway, here's the best part. When I woke up, I'm here. Inside this coliseum, right here over the arena. You, Agumon and Patamon were also with me, but we were all scattered almost everywhere. You…" The blonde paused, his eyes darting towards the stone bridge that connected the entrance and the arena. "You were dangerously close to falling down to the underground maze."

"Really?" Adam shivered.

"Yeah. I managed to bring you back here. Both Agumon and Patamon are awake for quite a while now…it's been about a couple of hours after I woke up. Agumon got up next, then Patamon…then we waited for you. They went out just now, looking for water and some fire woods."

Adam nodded. "Did you contact the others?"

Another sheepish look came from the teen. "Uh…I was hoping that you'd do that."

Adam blinked. "Chances are, they already know about that and on their way here," he said slowly. "TobuCatmon has a magic staff which allows him to see what's going on outside the sanctum."

"Oh. Cool."

A moment of silence passed by. Adam was staring at the fire. JD saw a troubled look etched on Adam's face, and wondered whether the boy was still feeling uncomfortable with him around. He decided that now was probably the best time to address that matter, to get it resolved once and for all. He sat down near the boy tentatively.

Hearing him sitting down, Adam turned to face him. "Thanks for sticking up with me back there, JD."

The older teen blinked. Maybe he'd thought wrong. He adopted an easygoing grin. "Nah, think nothing of it. Besides…I have some, well, _a lot_, actually, redeeming to do with you." His face grew serious; the grin was gone. He cleared his throat and continued with a careful yet sincere tone. "I've done a lot of bad things to you, when I was the Red ShadoWira. I wanted to do something good for a change." He looked at the fire for a moment, as if gathering inspiration from it, before facing the younger boy back. "I figured that sticking up with you; no matter how bad things were going…that would be the right way to start."

Adam looked at JD silently; he wanted to say something but the older teen raised a hand up, indicating that he wasn't finished. So Adam waited.

"I don't mind if you don't want to be my friend. I mean, I've never really had friends, beyond superficial ones…that's fine with me. I just hope that… one day, you'll be able to forgive me."

Silence. The blonde seemed like he'd finished getting out whatever that we wanted to say off his chest, judging by the way he slowly exhaled and returned his gaze towards the flickering fire. There was a forlorn look etched on his face.

"Not just one day…" Adam began to draw back JD's attention. The effect was immediate; JD whipped his head sideways and looked at him with inquiring eyes. "But right now."

JD blinked. "You mean…"

Adam nodded. "Actually, there's nothing to forgive…you were under a spell, you had no control over your actions. I couldn't hold you responsible."

"Adam…that's no excuse for me being a complete ass. I wronged you, it's that simple. And I'm real sorry."

"JD…"

"Say it only if you mean it."

The older boy locked gaze with Adam, and Adam realized that JD needed to hear it coming out from it. He sighed, and nodded. "Forgiven…" He saw the hazel eyes lit, and JD looked relieved. Profoundly relieved. "I forgive you," Adam reiterated clearly, for JD's sake if not for his own. And Adam was glad to find out that he really meant that.

JD let out a long exhale. "Thanks, Adam."

Adam began to hear indistinct sounds coming from the entrance of the coliseum. Familiar voices were calling out their names. He turned his head to look at the entrance, and saw three teenagers entering, with their own partners, and Agumon and Patamon in tow. Upon seeing them, the three teens immediately sprinted towards them.

Adam smiled and looked back at JD. "And if you ask me, you now have _four_ friends. Not superficial ones, I hope, if you let us."

JD was speechless, but he searched Adam's face and saw the sincerity of the words the boy had spoken. His offer of forgiveness and friendship was genuine. The blonde felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He followed the boy's gaze – Adam was looking at the approaching Gayathri, Manny and Liu Ying.

"Adam! You're back!" Gayathri gushed, immediately reaching out for the boy. There was great relief from her voice. Then, she strained herself and smiled awkwardly; she was thinking of giving Adam a relieved hug, but knew that the boy would be uncomfortable with it. Thus she merely clasped the boy's hands and shook it vigorously. Her eyes darted to JD and she faltered for a moment. She looked at Adam. Adam nodded with a reassuring smile. "And JD," she continued with a tentative smile. "Are you…one of us now?"

Liu Ying and Manny both looked at JD upon hearing Gayathri's inquiry. JD looked at Adam, who raised both eyebrows and was nodding vigorously.

JD nodded. "I'm with you guys," he said firmly. He looked at the others, and saw Manny looking relieved and happy with his announcement, while Liu Ying…looked relatively indifferent. Or at least, JD thought that she _tried_ to look indifferent.

"Oh! Welcome to the _right_ side!" Gayathri announced and shook JD hands amiably. "You could be a big help to us."

JD was taken aback with Gayathri's warmness to him; but then again he'd seen her like this with Adam, and he knew that she was attracted to Manny. He looked at Adam for a moment inquiringly, as if asking _'Is she like this to everyone?'_

And Adam, as if he'd understood the silent query, nodded with a smile. For all he knew, the boy could only be giving him an encouraging nod, but he shrugged and nodded.

"Uh…just like that?" JD asked. Gayathri blinked back quizzically. "I mean, I was the villain…"

"Oh, shush. The _Red ShadoWira_ was the villain. We've yet to see who's JD Kamaruzaman other than what we've seen at school…but like I've said, you could be a big help to us," Gayathri cut in. "Besides, Manny's in the team…I think it's about time you join us too."

JD hid his surprise upon Gayathri's simple directness, and nodded. "I'll…uh…I'll do everything I can."

Gayathri nodded, satisfied with the answer. Her nose twitched slightly, and she ran a hand in front of her head. "Good. Pheww…take a bath." She retreated back and went back to Adam. "You could use one too," she pointed out bluntly towards Adam. "And you know, you really had missed out my first time Digital Accessing into Puspamon…and you know that Lilamon, well we've beaten her…" And she went on to tell Adam the whole story of their battle with Lilamon earlier.

JD blinked and looked at Adam again, and this time around he knew that Adam had caught on to his earlier query, when he nodded again, as if reiterating, _'Yeah, she's like this.'_

"JD, it's good to see you," Manny spoke up amidst Gayathri's rambling. The two former comrades in evil, now teammates in good, shook hands. They smiled.

"Yeah, same to you." JD had formerly regarded Manny as nothing more than just a comrade, but he knew now that they were more than that. They were now teammates, and friends, bonded with the same experience of having seduced to the dark side by Karatenmon. That was all in the past now, but JD knew that he needed to talk about their ShadoWira days with Manny. He'd figure out a day to meet the Sabahan boy later. "And uh…sorry about the nose," he added, indicating the fact that he'd punched Manny during the revelation of them being ShadoWira.

"Oh. Sure. It's ok…I mean, it's _not_ really ok, but you weren't yourself." Manny tapped his own nose. "And I hit you back, as far as I recall…so maybe we're even?"

JD smirked. "Sounds good to me." His eyes then traveled to the only DigiWira who had kept her silence. And from out of nowhere, he'd given her a challenging single-jerked eyebrow, and a lopsided grin. He was rather interested to hear what Liu Ying had to say about all this.

Liu Ying returned with one of her own, unfazed, cool and with a wry smile. She flicked her head sideways albeit so slightly, seemingly emphasizing her returned challenge.

"Who'd guess that we'd end up being in one team?" JD told her, with a hint of cockiness.

"Hmm," Liu Ying replied coolly. The air grew slightly tense.

"Umm, guys?" Adam said tentatively, growing wary of the stillness of the air when Liu Ying and JD exchanged glances.

Liu Ying sighed. "We're in one team now…we might as well try getting along."

JD jerked his eyebrows up twice and smirked back, causing the willowy girl to turn sideways and walked towards Gayathri.

"What's your story anyway?" Gayathri asked curiously.

"It's nothing," Liu Ying replied evasively.

"You don't know?" JD asked, at the same time as Liu Ying's reply came out. He looked surprised, but the look was gone as soon as it had appeared. "Of course; you're not around the school yet when we…" he indicated himself and Liu Ying. "…first met." He placed a finger on his chin, over the slight depression at the middle of it. "It's quite an interesting story." He grinned upon meeting Liu Ying's exasperated steely gaze; her eyes were flashing dangerously. JD didn't look the least abashed. "Wanna know about it?" he asked the three younger DigiWira. Adam looked immediately interested, while Manny simply nodded, but it was Gayathri who looked exuberantly excited upon hearing his offer.

"Sure!" Gayathri chirped. "Tell you what. Tomorrow after school, we'll go by that Mamak café at Taipan and swap stories. It'll be like an ice-breaking session. We can get to know each other better now that we're a team. I think that'll be good for all of us. What do you say? Manny?"

Manny smiled and nodded; Gayathri was being chirpier than her usual happy mood – he suspected that being able to become Puspamon was the main reason, and the assurance that JD was now in the team being the deal-sealer. "Sure. Why not? It'll be nice."

"JD?"

"Hey, I'm the one with an interesting story to tell. I'll turn up."

"Liu Ying?"

Liu Ying shot a look at JD. She looked exasperated and annoyed; the furrows between her eyebrows were obvious. "Fine. I'll be there. I'll have to make sure that the story doesn't deviate from the truth. Who knows what he'll tell you when I'm not around."

JD snickered. "Don't worry; the truth alone is interesting enough."

"Adam?"

Adam was more than happy to oblige, and his curiosity pertaining the relationship between JD and Liu Ying was piqued. "Of course I'll come, if nothing unexpected comes up."

"Make sure you turn up anyhow," JD said.

"Now that we've got _that_ settled," Liu Ying said quickly with a small huff. "It's getting really late and we all should go back home." She narrowed her eyes towards JD. "Especially you! Your parents are looking for you; they thought that you ran away. How are you going to explain yourself to them?"

"Nah, don't worry about that," JD waved his hand once. "I'll just turn up back home; that ought to satisfy them enough."

"Really," Liu Ying said, unconvinced.

"Yeah, really. Why do you care all of a sudden?" JD challenged.

"I don't. As a matter of fact...just don't bother turning up at school tomorrow. You're…"

"Suspended. I know. Adam told me. I'll turn up early at the café tomorrow and wait for you guys there."

"You…ugh, fine. I'm going home." Liu Ying stalked off, much to Manny, Gayathri and Adam's bewilderment.

"That went well," Manny noted slowly, looking at Adam and Gayathri, thinking that since he was the new student at school he might have missed the finer details of the whole exchanges between their two older teammates. He saw both of them shrugging; they were completely in the dark as he was. He caught JD's eyes and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

"Heh. Don't worry. I'll tell you guys all about it tomorrow," JD said.

"Ok. Don't forget. See you tomorrow," Gayathri said, and turned her head to see Liu Ying's retreating figure. "Hey, Liu Ying, wait up!"

Manny and Gayathri both gathered their Digimon partners and took off, leaving Adam and JD with their partners.

JD then turned to Adam, who now had Patamon perched on top of his head. He felt that after their whole adventure at the Dark Ocean, the boy began to grow in him. He wondered how Adam managed to appear unfazed after all that happened to him. This was a mystery to him; one that JD would like to find out. But for now, he decided not to invade on Adam's personal life more than he'd done, and just focus on their renewed friendship as well the friendship he'd gained from the other DigiWira as well.

Manny and Gayathri were both very welcoming – JD decided that he quite liked Gayathri's enthusiasm, and was glad to have Manny as a friend once again. Liu Ying however looked like a challenge. JD smirked inwardly. He loved a challenge. He wondered what would happen after he'd told the other DigiWira about how the two of them first met. JD guessed that Liu Ying would probably murder him.

It would be interesting days ahead indeed.

"Hey, JD?" Adam's inquiry broke his inner monologue. "Yea…?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you want to get back to the sanctum the fast way, or the fast way?" Adam asked with a straight face.

JD blinked. "Huh? Say what?"

"Hold Agumon. Patamon, hold on tight." JD did as what Adam told him and held Agumon's paw. The Rookie looked at him questioningly, but JD ignored the T-rex, curious of Adam.

Adam turned around towards the sandy part of the arena, and with a flick of his hand he teleported some sands right above the flames, quenching the fire immediately. Everything went dark, with only the scent of dying smoke invading their nostrils. Then he grabbed hold on JD's wrist, and called out, "Forest Sanctum!"

xxx

xxx

"I can't believe it! No…no…not the Dryad General! NO….." Shutumon said, flailing her hands in desperation.

"Shutumon, you've been like this for the last one hour," Sorcerymon pointed out patiently as he glided in midair beside his companion. "I've told you she's not even as strong as Karatenmon had been; it took only _three_ of those DigiWira brats to finish her off."

Shutumon growled and balled her fists. "I just can't believe it! Lilamon's lost…due to that runts with the Pink DigiSphere!" She was reminded of her grudge against Fairymon, and her face fumed. Despite the scanty light of the setting sun, it wasn't hard to see that the bird-woman was simply seething with rage. "They've reached Ultimate level; now _I'll _have to find a way to digivolve as well if a rematch is to take place between the two of us."

They had been watching the battle from afar, as they usually would, in order to report back to SkullSatamon of the progress. Shutumon had been anticipating that Lilamon would finish off the three DigiWira, especially Gayathri and Floramon, but was left speechless when they saw the pair merged into Puspamon. Sorcerymon hadn't been much help as well, when he used his magical staff to magnify the view; watching Puspamon's transformation repeatedly and barely controlling his drooling in the process. Faint red marks were still evident on his pale cheeks; Shutumon had slapped him twice upon discovering what he'd been doing.

"My money wasn't on her anyway," Sorcerymon replied.

"So you're hoping that the _DigiWira _would win? Oh, no…you're hoping that object of that stupid affection of yours to win, am I wrong? That…that…loathsome Puspamon!" Shutumon accused, narrowing her blue eyes suspiciously.

Sorcerymon didn't nod or shake his head. "Well…in a way, I _was_ hoping for the DigiWira to win this particular battle, because it would let us carry on our next task." Sorcerymon cleared his throat. "And no…I don't like Puspamon much." He looked at Shutumon, thinking that she was still prettier than the gorgeous fused Digimon, but didn't say it out loud.

Shutumon groaned. "Which general we'd have to free now?"

Sorcerymon shrugged. "I don't know. That's why we're heading back to the Shadow Realm."

Suddenly, an apparition of a skull sprang from out of nowhere, stopping both Sorcerymon and Shutumon from their flight. Sorcerymon yelped as he was about to collide with the skull apparition, but was stopped by Shutumon whom with quick reflex, grabbed hold on his cape and pulled him back.

"MASTER!!" both of them chorused breathlessly.

"Don't return back," the apparition rasped throatily. "As I've expected the Dryad General couldn't match the DigiWira's prowess. I did not expect however for the pair with the Pink DigiSphere to gain the power to become Ultimate-level Digimon as well. Nevertheless, Lilamon had done what she was supposed to do…it's time to carry forward."

"You can count on us, Master!" Shutumon quickly asserted. "We'll free the next general; just…give us the name and location."

"Not general," SkullSatamon smirked, baring a set of decaying teeth. "_Generals._ It's time for the Darkshadow Brethren to make their move. However, there's no need to be hasty. Go up north-west, in the midst of the Desert of Despair's stones and sands…an underneath cavern rests the devious Puaka Generals and their minions, imprisoned in stasis by Grademon and Wizardmon long ago. They shall be next." With that said, SkullSatamon vanished, leaving his stunned minions to complete the order he had set upon them.

xxx

xxx

Adam DigiPorted back to his apartment way past his curfew, fully prepared with his explanation for his sister. He thought of how surprised TobuCatmon had been when suddenly he, JD and their Digimon partners teleported into the Forest Sanctum – the feline had been resting on one of the tree branches there and nearly fall in shock upon witnessing them appearing out of the blue. TobuCatmon then had proceeded with telling them how glad he was of them to be safe.

Thinking of his power manifestation back at the Dark Ocean, Adam was now confident of teleporting more numbers of people. He'd used the magical viewing sun staff to get a hold on the other DigiWira, who at the moment were beginning to walk back towards the Forest Sanctum. Adam called them back, one by one, and they reappeared inside the sanctum, surprised of the sudden change of their surrounding. Adam told them that it would take nearly an hour or more for them to reach the sanctum – he'd decided to make their journey back a lot simpler.

The other DigiWira realized then that Adam's teleportation power had finally evolved, and were happy for him. They soon parted ways, which brought Adam back at where he was at now.

"Kak Lisha hasn't come back home yet, it seems," Patamon noted, and flew towards the power switch to turn on the lights and fan. The dark apartment was instantly illuminated.

"Strange," Adam said, noting the time. "Kak Lisha didn't mention anything of being late. It's past eight; she should be back by now."

The phone suddenly rang, nearly caused Adam to start. "That's probably her right now," Patamon beckoned.

Adam picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"**Is this Adam Ariff?"**

The seriousness of the male voice on the other end unnerved Adam slightly. "I'm Adam."

"**Are you related to Alisha Ariff?"**

"I'm her brother. May I know who's speaking?"

"**Adam…I'm calling from Subang Jaya Medical Hospital. I'm afraid I have bad news."**

"What…what is it?"

"**It's your sister. She's been involved in a car accident."**

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

Some of you might catch a couple of Digimon Savers references in this chapter (other than Lilamon, although she's the first Savers reference). Savers has become my favorite season so far, so references will be here and there in future chapters. I won't mention which one though, lest I'd spoil the story unwittingly to those who haven't started watching it yet.

Finally the DigiWira team is whole, with five members as it was intended to be. I had aimed for Chapter 25 to be the chapter that unites all five DigiWira, but with some editing done after the ShadoWira Unveiled arc I managed to finish it by Chapter 24. This enables me to start with the next saga quickly.

Another Digital Accessed Digimon makes her debut in this chapter. It's about time Gayathri is able to do so; she's after all the second DigiWira to be incorporated into the story, which makes her a senior member as well compared to the three boys.

_**Puspamon**_

Name derivation: A misspelling of _Pushpa_, which means 'flower' in Tamil language. When I first encountered the word, it was misspelled as 'Puspa' and it kind of grew on me. So she became Puspamon instead of Pushpamon.

Comparison to other Digimon: Pretty much someone in between of Fairymon and Rosemon.

Special note: Puspamon's technique – the Hibiscus Hurricane – is a tribute to Malaysia's national flower, which is…you guessed it, the hibiscus.

**_Puaka Generals_**

The word 'puaka' is a Malaysian word, meaning demon. As for their identities…we'll see. :D


	25. Nightmares Come Alive

It was almost nine o'clock when JD arrived at the driveway of his house. He cocked his eyebrow in mild interest upon seeing two familiar cars being parked right across the road in front of his house. The street light gave enough illumination for JD to easily identify those cars – one a sporty metallic silver three-door hatchback Proton Satria GTI and the other a black two-door coupe Proton Putra. They belonged to his older siblings. Inside the driveway were a dark blue BMW and a black Honda Accord – his parents' cars.

"All of them are home at the same time?" JD mused. "This doesn't happen too often." He pulled his schoolbag close, and pressed the house bell by the gate while trying to think of a reason of his two-day absence. Noticing that the gate was unlocked, he opened it and sauntered inside steadily.

The house's handsome wooden door opened, and out stepped an elderly woman wearing a plain baju kurung over a batik sarong, and a headscarf covering her hair. She was the house maid. And upon noticing JD, she gasped loudly.

"Hi, _bibik_," JD addressed the elderly woman by the Javanese term which meant 'aunt'. The maid was from Indonesia, and had been with JD's family for as long as JD could remember.

"Josh! Oh, oh…you're back!" the house maid said, looking around frantically. Quickly she went to JD and made a gesture to take JD's bag, a gesture which JD resisted with a slight smile.

"Oh, no, no…it's ok. I'll hold it." He eyed Bibik knowingly. Catching his eyes, Bibik instantly nodded.

"Josh, where have you been? Your parents thought that you're kidnapped!" Bibik said in a loud whisper as she whisked JD's right hand and pulled him towards the doorway. "Look at you…have you eaten? You look famished." She then paused and eyed JD more critically. "Have you even showered?" she asked.

JD grinned weakly. "I am a little bit hungry…and no," he admitted, allowing the elderly woman to pull him into the house.

"You poor boy." Bibik shook her head. "Come along; I'll cook your favorite meal soon."

Two figures suddenly appeared at the doorway. JD looked up, and saw the profiles of his older brother and sister. His brother was tall, and had well-groomed blonde hair a lighter shade than JD's own dishwater blonde hair. The front bangs were long, sweeping down his face by the sides but barely concealing his green-brown eyes. He wore an un-tucked white work shirt with a loosened blue tie, and a pair of brown khakis. Over his white shirt was an unbuttoned green vest. This was Jaden Daniel Kamarulhafiz, JD's 22-year old brother.

Beside his older brother was his 19-year-old sister, Jasmine Danielle Kamillah, who looked considerably dwarfed as she stood no higher than her brother's shoulder. She had a bob-cut strawberry-blonde hair styled nicely around her pretty face, and complimented her green eyes well. She wore a dark pink top underneath an unbuttoned denim jacket which extended a couple of inches above her waist. The denim jacket seemed to come along with the short denim skirt that she was currently wearing – they were the same color and pattern, and JD had no doubt that it was the same expensive brand as well.

JD smirked. "Hey Jade, Jas… nice to see that you remembered to come home every now and then."

His sister, Jas, scowled. "Same goes to you, I suppose. If it weren't for your disappearing act, Mom and Dad wouldn't drag our butts home!" she said crossly.

"An explanation now would be nice, Josh," Jade said, sounding equally annoyed as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Jade, Jas, dears, please, not right now," Bibik said soothingly, and pulled JD inside. JD's older siblings merely harrumphed and step aside to allow them to enter.

"Don't you know that I have assignments due tomorrow?" she demanded as she followed her younger brother and the house maid towards the dinner table.

JD looked over his shoulder. "If you didn't spend all your free nights club-hopping, you'd complete them quicker," he replied smartly.

Jas groaned and slinked away towards the living room. Jade stopped her midway.

"Why don't you go up and inform Mom and Dad that our renegade little brother's home?" he said, the acid in his voice clear despite the polite way he was addressing his younger sister.

"Fine. Then I'm going back to UM right after." She stomped towards the stairs, as JD took a seat at the dinner table.

Jade turned to look at his younger brother, eyeing him for a moment before taking a seat right opposite JD. For a moment he watched as JD began gobbling down the foods Bibik served him. Then he cleared his throat, and JD looked up from his plate.

"What?" the sixteen-year-old demanded, food still full in his mouth.

Jade clicked his tongue in displeasure. "Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Humph. Excuse me for not having your refined table etiquette, Jade." JD then ignored his older brother and proceeded by eating his meal.

Several minutes passed by in silence before several chattering could be heard coming from the stairs. Three people appeared, one being Jas and the other was a couple who looked around their mid-forties. The man was of tall and broad stature – a trait his sons seemed to both inherit. He had dark brown hair, with some gray hair evident by the temples. He wore a white Hard Rock Café London T-shirt and a pair of dark brown khakis. Beside him was a slim woman, who looked almost out of place with her flashy orange _kebaya_. Her long brown-blonde hair was cut in layers, which reminded JD of the actress Jennifer Aniston from the sitcom Friends. Kenny, Megat and Samy had all mentioned the semblances his mother had with the famous actress, to which JD always replied with an unimpressed snort.

At the sight of his parents, JD paused and looked up, holding his breath. He eyed his mother first – apparently she would be going out for another supper with her friends, probably over one of the posh restaurants or hotels around Subang Jaya. He then moved his attention to his father – he was dressed casually, but judging by the way he was holding his car keys, he too was stepping out. Both of his parents' facial expressions were kept neutral – JD immediately guessed that they had one of their fights again. _'Probably to be continued,'_ JD thought snidely.

"Josh!" Mrs. Leeanna Abdullah exclaimed; her blue eyes sparkled upon the sight her youngest son. She hurried from the stairs and towards the dinner table and sat down beside him. She looked as if she was about to hug him, but suddenly thought against it as she looked down at her elaborate outfit. "Where _were_ you? We were so worried! I hope you do have a good explanation for your absence!" Her voice was kept calm and collected, which almost caused JD to roll his eyes. Sometimes, he thought that his mother cared more about her image than her children.

"Answer your mother, Josh," Mr. Johan Awaludin said as he sat down at the chair adjacent to JD's – the place where the head of the family usually sat down.

'_Here goes. Hope Adam and Manny's ideas worked.'_ JD took a deep breath. "I got bored when I was at school, so I skipped out and took a cab to KL to a friend's house. I got down somewhere close to his house, by the playground…and suddenly I got mugged. That bast…uh…blasted muggers got my wallet and cell phone, and beat me up a bit. But, but, I put up a fight…but there were three of them, cowards if you ask me, ganging up on me. They got what they wanted and left me by. I waited for my friend to come back, and stayed over the night. I was planning to call but I guess I overslept and when I woke up it was already morning. I waited for him to come back, and then he sent me back here."

He held his breath in anticipation, and cursed himself for not rehearsing the story earlier. It sounded almost ridiculous. He wondered whether his parents and siblings would buy it.

Jas snickered. "I guess all those Capoiera trainings you had weren't good enough," she commented.

JD blinked. His sister might have just insulted him, but that meant she bought his story completely. He resisted the urge to snap back, and observed his brother. If Jade believed his story, then his parents would, too.

Jade sighed. "You shouldn't have skipped school. Look at all the trouble you've got. Hope you'll learn your lesson." His brother's tone was cool; it was as if he was more concerned about the fact that JD had skipped school rather than the 'mugged' and 'got-beaten-up' part.

'_Bingo. Now to see whether Mom and Dad would follow Jade's lead…as they usually would.'_

"Your brother's right. What are we going to do with you? I thought you were kidnapped!" his mother finally said, shaking her head. "And the school has informed us that you're currently suspended, for beating up a boy and skipping school…amongst other things. So there's no need for you to go anywhere. You're grounded, young man. And your allowance will be halved."

JD's eyes widened and he was about to protest, but thought the better of it.

"Grounded is enough, there's no need to cut his allowance," his father interrupted.

"But…"

"End of discussion." Mr. Johan got up and looked at his wife. "I'm going out now."

Mrs. Leeanna looked clearly abashed, but that look was immediately wiped clean with a strained smile. "Alright…grounded it is." She got up as well. "I'm late for my dinner appointment with my friends. Bibik…" she called the house maid. "Would you be so kind and make sure that Josh remains at home always. He will not be going to school until next week, so make sure that he doesn't step out from the house compound, except for Friday, for Friday prayer only."

Jas snorted. "That's if he's going."

"Shut up," JD snapped. _'Sheesh, what a tattle-tale,' _he thought. _'I bet mom and dad don't know about your club-hopping being the reason of your slipping grades, eh Jas? Hard assignments, not enough time, stupid teachers, my ass!'_ But he knew better than to aggravate the conversation. His family had bought his explanation – his mission was accomplished.

As the tire screeches of his parents' cars gradually diminished, JD looked at Jade and Jas and cocked his eyebrows. "What's keeping you two?"

"There's no need for that tone, Josh," Jade replied shrewdly. He looked at his watch. "But I suppose you've got a point. I better get going now; it's an hour drive from here to Seremban hospital." His brother was a medical student at the International Medical University. He was now in his clinical years, which meant that he had classes at the university's teaching hospital located at the state of Negeri Sembilan, which was adjacent to the state of Selangor where they lived. His sister however, was an economics student of the University of Malaya, which was closer to home. How she had managed to enter the prestigious local university was a mystery to JD, but he knew that his sister was naturally as smart as his brother was hardworking.

"Well…see you guys later, then." JD waved both of them goodbye and continued eating his meal. His siblings looked at each other for a moment before they too left.

Bibik appeared from the kitchen later with a plate of her homemade banana cake before going to lock the gates and door. JD eyed the plate with a grin; they were a bit too much for JD alone. He reached down to his schoolbag and took out the cramped-looking Koromon. The elderly woman took a sit where his mother had sat before, and touched his arm gently.

"Your parents and siblings might have accepted your story, but I know that you weren't telling the truth," Bibik said, wise to JD's ways. After all, she was with the family several months before JD was born, and had practically raised him, along with Jade and Jas. But, it was with JD that she was the closest with.

"You can always tell, can't you?" JD said, and pushed the plate of banana cake to Koromon. He then began telling the whole story to Bibik.

xxx

xxx

As the other DigiWira settled down for the night, that was not the case with Adam. As soon as he'd arrived at the hospital, he quickly tore through the corridors to go to the emergency department and nearly collided with one of the attending doctors.

"Sorry," Adam said with a panicky tone, and tried to go past the doctor.

"Wait," the doctor said. "You're Gayathri Nadarajah's friend, right?"

Adam looked up, and saw a familiar face. A somewhat tired-looking doctor with short, somewhat wavy black hair, dark brown eyes and a small trimmed stub of beard was staring at him. It was the doctor who had attended to Gayathri's accident – Dr. Abu Ubaidah.

He nodded. "I am."

"I didn't get your name, actually," Dr. Abu said.

"I'm Adam Ariff."

"Oh! So _you're_ Adam! Alisha's brother?" Dr. Abu said knowingly. Seeing Adam nodding and the panicked look on the boy's face, he turned around, placed a hand on Adam's shoulder and beckoned for the boy to walk along with him. "I was the one who called your house."

"How's my sister, doctor?" Adam asked breathlessly.

Dr. Abu's face looked slightly grim. "According to the police, it was an honest-to-goodness accident. The other driver was trying to evade a young child who was crossing the road unaided. He managed to evade the child, but suddenly lost control of his car and went against the passenger side of your sister's car. It was lucky that he didn't veer at the driver side, but still…" Dr. Abu looked at Adam's face seriously. "I'm not going to lie to you, Alisha's condition is quite bad." There was a faraway look on the young doctor's face.

"How bad was it?" Adam choked.

"We're waiting for a family member to come by to approve for a surgery to be done," Dr. Abu said, and looked around. "You're here alone? It's listed in Alisha's contact details that you're the only direct family member…but surely your parents…?"

Adam shook his head. "We're orphans. Kak Lisha's the only one I got." His vision blurred a little and Adam quickly ran his shirt sleeve over his eyes. He then looked up at the doctor with a heartbroken expression – and was momentarily surprised to see that the doctor too looked somewhat sad. Instantly he thought of the worse.

"Oh…I didn't know that..." the doctor looked visibly shocked upon hearing that, but composed himself quickly. "I'm sorry to hear that, Adam." The doctor then increased his pace, pulling Adam along. "But if that's the case, then come. You need to sign some papers. I'll explain what we will be doing and what surgical procedures your sister has to undergo, as well as her injuries, but trust me – surgery is the only way now, and we need your approval right away. After getting your approval we'll immediately operate, and God-willing, she will be alright."

Adam nodded weakly and allowed the doctor to take him to his office, where another doctor presented him a document which he could barely understand. Trusting the doctor, and praying for the best, Adam signed his approval.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 25 – Nightmares Come Alive_**

xxx

xxx

"Have you brought what we've asked you to bring?" a silky voice inquired, amidst the darkness.

"Yes, General," Shutumon said, placing a television set in front of the shrouded figure. She then scooted back to where Sorcerymon was standing.

"And what of the Tapirmon we've requested for you to free?" another voice, somewhat crotchety, asked.

"All done," Sorcerymon said, and a small tapir-like Digimon with smokes as its rear legs entered the wide, dome-shaped darkened hall.

"Excellent," the silky voice said. "Now…to business! It's quite surprising to hear that both the Mage and the Dryad Generals have fallen, but no matter. Apparently these…DigiWira children…are exceptionally strong." Silky-voice laughed lightly, and beckoned for Sorcerymon to step forward. "Show me the DigiWira in action; I believe that magical staff of yours has the ability to do so as well? Place the lower end of the staff on that hole at that small podium…yes, yes, that's it. Alright, now explain to us of what…_threats_…are we about to encounter as we watch along."

Sorcerymon did as he was told, and stepped back as his staff began to glow brightly as he watched Silky-voice, still shrouded in darkness, tinkered around with it for a moment. He wondered why the said Puaka General was hiding within the darkness, but refrained from asking.

The staff let out a pillar of faint crystalline blue light, and an image of Satriamon was projected. It showed Satriamon's first battle with the DigiWira, and proceeded with the final battle he had with the DigiWira and Karatenmon.

"Satriamon, Ultimate level, virus-type dragon man Digimon. The fused form of a human known as Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman and an Agumon. Satriamon has the power of fire and darkness bestowed by the Red DigiSphere. His attacks are: Dragonforce Striker, Flaming Torch, Dark Rage, and Shadow Flame Helix."

As Sorcerymon explained the basic facts, the staff corresponded by displaying the attacks for the Puaka Generals to see. Sorcerymon panicked a little, afraid that the staff would show them being the one who'd deleted Karatenmon, but thankfully the staff only displayed the battle up to the point where Satriamon and Karatenmon exchanged blows, followed by an explosion, before it changed into an image of Samudramon.

"Samudramon, Ultimate level, vaccine-type dragon man Digimon. The fused form of a human known as Emmanuel Abah and a Penguinmon. Samudramon controls the power of water and thunder, given to him by the Blue DigiSphere. His attacks are: Divine Rain, Deep Ocean Submerge, Cosmic Thunderstrike and Double-Edged Thunderblades."

"These two Digimon are dangerous," the gruffer of the Puaka Generals said. "You say that they are the ones who first served Karatenmon, only to betray on him by joining the DigiWira?"

"Yes." Sorcerymon nodded, and saw the image of Samudramon changing into Xianamon.

"Xianamon, Ultimate level, data-type sorceress Digimon. The fused form of a human known as Chang Liu Ying and a Labramon. Xianamon has the power of magic and earth at her disposal and is the wielder of the Yellow DigiSphere. Her attacks are: Diamond World Mandala, Magical Stasis, Jade Needles and Gaia Retaliation."

"Puspamon, Ultimate level, data-type fairy Digimon. The fused form of a human known as Gayathri Nadarajah and a Floramon. Puspamon, keeper of the Pink DigiSphere, wields the power of wind and nature. Her attacks are: Dream Rose Mirage, Hibiscus Hurricane and Sprite Scream. If she has a fourth attack, it has not been revealed yet." A hiss was heard coming from Shutumon, but it was barely conspicuous. That or the Puaka Generals merely chose to ignore her.

"They certainly are not just mere pretty faces," the Puaka General with the silky voice noted. "Now…the moment the both of us are waiting for. The four Digimon with Grademon's Red, Blue, Yellow and Pink DigiSpheres are strong, but we're not _that_ concerned with their powers. What we want to know is of the wielder of the White DigiSphere, said to hold the purest power of all – the power of that disgusting diva Ophanimon's light! Show me him, or her!"

Puspamon's image disappeared and is replaced by a projection of Adam on Sagittarimon Radiant Mode's back. "The White DigiSphere belongs to Adam Ariff and his partner Patamon. They haven't been able to fuse into an Ultimate-level Digimon as of yet, but Patamon, originally able to digivolve into Centarumon only, is given the ability to shift into a stronger Champion form – Sagittarimon. During the battle with Karatenmon, Sagittarimon had unlocked a much more powerful Radiant Mode. But, Patamon also has a corrupted Ultimate form – Black Knightmon. This Dark Digivolution is believed to come into being due to Patamon's rage upon seeing his human partner in grave danger."

The Puaka Generals whistled. "Interesting," the gruff-voiced general said. "And this will make our task a lot easier."

"Now, now…perhaps the boy's just a late bloomer. I have no doubt that should he be able to unlock the power to fuse, his Ultimate form will be a bane to us creatures of darkness," the silky-voiced general said. "But no worries. We'll just have to stop them so that they'll not be late bloomers, but un-bloomed instead!"

"Agreed," gruff-voice said with a deep chortle. "Wiping them out would be a menial job for someone our rank."

"Yes, yes…" silky-voice agreed. "Where's the fun to that? It's been three hundred years of long imprisonment – boring, cold, and emotionless. Too bad Grademon's not around for us to get revenge, but his heirs are here. They'll do. We'll mess around with them for a while before delivering our coup-de-grace, what do you say?"

"I like the sound of that. Since we can't control the DigiSpheres – that blasted Grademon had made sure of that – we'll just have to mess around with the DigiWira instead, before we kill them."

"Right. To business. Tapirmon, step forward," silky-voice ordered.

"I hear and I obey, Generals," Tapirmon, clearly female from her voice, said reverently.

Silky-voice chuckled darkly. "Go to the Human World via this television's DigiPort – and seek out the DigiWira's greatest fears. Induce their worst nightmares while they are sleeping, and take those nightmares back to us! It's always best to know our enemies' weakest spots. Then…it's show time!"

xxx

xxx

Tapirmon wondered around the darkened town of Subang Jaya, looking around the housing area with rapt interest. It wasn't often that a Digimon able to enter the fabled Human World, but Tapirmon was here on business. And so, she began to fine tune to her senses, and searched for a Digimon sense. It would be easier if she were at her Champion or Ultimate level…but she supposed that she'd have to make do with her Rookie form for the time being. Should she be successful the Puaka Generals had promised to replenish her power.

"Aha, two signals! Coming from…those two big houses located nearby. This job is so easy!" Tapirmon glided to a street of bungalow houses. She veered towards a closed window of the house nearest to her, peering inside it. Gleefully she turned her whole body into smokes, and went through the glass, reappearing back in her original form inside the dark room. She then eyed the bed – recognizing the snoring Tsunomon, which made her sweatdrop. Then she stared at the burly boy sleeping beside Tsunomon, and underneath a cover. He was sleeping silently.

"Nice dream, huh?" Tapirmon said as her eyes glazed with purple aura. "Well…not for long! Let's increase the show's rating for a while…"

Tapirmon watched as the boy began to toss and turn, and soon a wisp of smoke erupted from the boy's head. The Rookie Digimon inhaled the smokes, and decided to go to the house with the other Digimon signal via the short way – by passing through the walls. She looked at the time, deciding that it was safe to do so – everyone should already be sleeping by now.

She glided through one house to another, enjoying her moment. She soon realized that her deduction was clearly a mistake – some humans were still up and about after midnight. She encountered one room where a baby inside a cradle was wide awake, crying his lungs out, and quickly went away before she could be seen by the baby's parents…only to stumble into a room where a rather aggressive activity seemed to be taking place under the covers of the bed. Tapirmon resisted the urge to vomit upon hearing the sounds induced – the room's occupants were not being exactly discreet. She further ignored a yelp coming from one of them when they got hold on her passing through the wall to another house. She then entered a room where a boy was sitting over the computer, transfixed over the computer screen while his hands were moving about the keyboard at a speed Tapirmon couldn't comprehend. She shook her head and went past to another house, where an old man with a large belly was sitting alone, watching the television. Another room showed a sleeping pair of sisters; Tapirmon decided not to interrupt their dreams when she discovered that the Digimon signal she was sensing was getting stronger. She slipped past the room, sailed towards the house next to it, went through a closed window with pink curtains, and instantly arrived on a lavishly-decorated bedroom with four-poster bed in the middle. On the bed were a girl and a Tanemon.

"There you are!" Tapirmon peeked through the girl's mind and turned her dream into a nightmare. Swallowing the wisp of smoke coming from the girl's head, Tapirmon burped silently and soared through the roof and the sky. She looked around, and detected three signals immediately. The nightmares she had fed on gave her strength, and her senses were heightened.

"Three signals! Which to pick? Oh well…" Tapirmon glided randomly towards the direction where two signals seemed to originate. She entered one house, and saw another boy, sleeping. She clicked her tongue disapprovingly over the boy's choice of clothes – he was barely clothed to her opinion, but she decided to let it past. Doing the same thing she'd been doing to the other two DigiWira, she fed off the boy's nightmare and slinked away. The other Digimon signal was close by.

Tapirmon saw a complex of buildings, somewhat different from the houses she'd encountered. She fine-tuned her sense and managed to seek out the right place. Entering the house, she nearly balked upon seeing a Patamon flying about the living room, mumbling with apparent worry. The Patamon didn't seem to notice her, but Tapirmon was surprised to see another Rookie Digimon – the other Digimon she'd seen were all In-Trainings. She listened for a moment, and realized that the Patamon's human partner was not at home – the Patamon was saying something about a hospital, older sister and several other things. Sighing, Tapirmon realized that she would have to come back to this particular house later.

The Rookie Digimon then decided to go after the last signal. From the rooftop of the house behind the one she detected the Digimon signal, she could see a room, while dark, was somewhat lit minimally by a smaller light source. She went closer to the windows and saw a Shaomon sleeping on the bed…but a girl with long black hair was at her study table – writing something on a book while referring to a bigger book.

"Still awake?" Tapirmon groaned to herself. "Why can't you be a slacker like any other kids?"

Tapirmon had to wait for one hour before the girl finally retreated to bed, and for another hour to make sure that she was asleep. Then she went into the room, did her business and got what she'd wanted. Now there was only the partner of that Patamon left.

xxx

xxx

"Adam? Adam…" a voice invaded Adam's sleeping mind. Someone was squeezing his shoulder gently.

Slowly, the boy opened his eyes. He saw Dr. Abu Ubaidah looking at him with concern. "Doctor?" he asked, trying to orientate himself. Then, everything came back crashing to him and he was instantly alert. "How did the operation go? How's Kak Lisha?"

The doctor gave him a brief tired smile. "Thank God the operation was successful. Your sister's condition is stable, but she hasn't waked up yet, and it's not because of the anesthetic drugs we gave her. She suffered several broken bones, on her ribs and legs mainly. The injuries on her arms were the most minimal. The X-Rays show that she's suffered a concussion on her head; I suspect that's part of the reason why she's unconscious, aside from the loss of blood."

Adam couldn't stop a tear trickling down his face, nor did he bother to wipe it up. "When…when's she going to wake up?"

"I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that, Adam. I'm sorry," Dr. Abu said. "But she is alive. It's a good thing she was wearing her seat belt – the police told me so – should she neglected to do that her injuries might be fatal. But since she did...it's the main reason why she's still alive."

"But there's a chance that she won't wake up?" Adam asked with a small voice.

The doctor hesitated, but knew that there was no way he could avoid the question or hide in long, winded explanations. "Yes," he said. The truth was brutal, but Adam needed to know his facts. "There is. We've done all we could. All we can do now is pray and hope for the best." The doctor's calm façade wavered as he watched Adam buried his face in his palms, his ears pained upon hearing the escaped sobs – he'd always hated the time when he had to break the news to the victim's family members.

Not having anything else to be done at three in the morning, the young doctor accompanied the anguished teen until the lasts of his sobs were subdued.

"It's getting real late," he started saying; the time was already reaching four in the morning. Adam looked at the clock silently, his eyes were red but he was no longer crying.

"Can I see her?" Adam asked. "Now?"

Dr. Abu nodded. "I'll take you there. But you really need to go home as well, Adam, and get some rest. It's still too early to call a cab home, but tell you what. My shift's over at five, so if you're willing to wait an hour…I'll drive you home." He eyed Adam, and saw the boy nodding wordlessly. Not knowing what else to say, he guided the boy to his sister's ward and left him there while he made his final rounds before his shift ended.

After the crack of dawn the doctor took Adam back to his apartment complex, offering some advices and insights of Alisha's condition in order to lift up the boy's hope. Adam then asked the doctor to inform him of whatever changes his sister might show, on which the doctor promised that he would.

Adam dragged his feet along the staircases to reach his apartment, and opened the door quietly. Instantly, Patamon – who'd been sleeping on the couch – sprang awake and rushed to ask him about Alisha's condition. Adam briefed the Rookie Digimon about Alisha before excusing himself to get some sleep. He had no desire to go to school; he just wanted to get some sleep and go visit his sister when he woke up.

Patamon sensed that Adam needed some support, and slept close to him, allowing the boy to pull him closer and felt the fine furs on his back dampened considerably.

Several minutes passed, and then nobody noticed a wisp of smoke that appeared in the room.

xxx

xxx

"Please, Bibik?" JD asked the house maid pleadingly. "I've promised my friends I'd be there."

"I can't, Josh. Your parents will scold me if I allow you to go out. You're grounded, remember?" Bibik reasoned.

"But, I promised them. They're my new friends," JD said again. "Remember? I told you about them last night. Adam, Manny, Liu Ying and Gayathri?"

Bibik sighed, and snorted slightly upon seeing JD looking at him with wide, puppy-dog eyes. "Don't look at me like that!" she snapped, but there was no anger in it. JD was the youngest in the family she had cared for almost eighteen years – and the boy knew too well that she'd thought of him and his siblings as her own children. "Really, Josh, I can't allow you…"

"Who says you have to allow me? How about…" JD grinned devilishly. "You go to the toilet, do your business there…and when you come out, voila! I'm not here anymore. No way Mom and Dad could blame you, after all nature calls you."

"You silly boy," Bibik admonished. "Well, I suppose I could…but make sure you come back home before your parents do. They'll cut my head off."

"You? No way. If they do that, the house will be one hell of a mess and become a roach infestation. Blech…" JD made a face.

"Language, boy…watch your language." Bibik however, was smiling, obviously flattered at the hidden compliment that came with JD's snide remark.

"Sorry, bibik. Now…how about it?"

"Fine. I suppose I'm having stomachache right now…"

"You're the best, bibik." He leaned down to give the elderly house maid a quick peck on the cheek before sauntering off with his backpack (with Koromon stowed in it) and made way with his bike to Taipan, where he'd meet the other DigiWira at the modernized Mamak Café there. It was already twelve thirty; school would let out in forty minutes.

Upon arriving, JD – not really hungry as Bibik had forced him to have a hefty breakfast, obviously relieved from his 'disappearing act' – ordered only a glass of iced Milo and a plate of sliced chocolate cakes – remembering that he and Adam had been here a couple of days after his birthday. The boy clearly liked the cakes, so JD figured that he'd order them first.

An hour went by and JD was glad that he'd stopped by the comics shop first. Then he saw a familiar girl coming, and frowned to see that she was alone.

"Hey, Gayathri!" he waved. Gayathri caught his sight and came to him. "Alone? Where are the others?"

Gayathri looked slightly troubled as she took a seat. "Liu Ying and Manny have an extra make-up test for the Science class they have missed earlier – they got Mrs. Heng, and she's adamant that everyone should sit for her topic-by-topic tests, so they told me to go ahead first. And Adam…he didn't show up at school at all, and Hakim and I have been trying his cell and house numbers…no one picked up the phones. No replies either from his D-Terminal." She eyed the cakes with interest, no longer bothering with her crazed crash diet scheme after a helpful advice from Dr. Abu when she was warded.

"Go ahead," JD said. "Adam didn't show up at school? It's not like him to skip school unnecessarily, right?"

"Yes; our class teacher commented that Adam seems to be sick quite often this year. It's only mid March, and Adam has already set a record in our class for being the one with most absences. Granted, they were all because of DigiWira business…after the whole Shadow Realm fiasco," she finished, pausing to eat a slice of cake. She caught JD's troubled look upon the mention of Shadow Realm and clasped her mouth. "Oops. Sorry! I didn't mean to bring that up."

"Nah, it's fine," JD muttered. He looked at Gayathri. "Think he could be sick or something?"

"He looked fine yesterday," the girl said, finishing her cake. "He seems not to be at home at all, but that doesn't explain why he's not picking up his cell or replying to the D-Terminal messages. And I can't think of a reason why he wants to avoid us."

"Maybe we should go and pay him a visit. I know where he lives," JD suggested. "We'll wait for Liu Ying and Manny, and…"

**_BEEP, BEEP, BEEP-BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!_**

"Great, perfect timing," Gayathri muttered. She sighed and picked up the plate of cake. "I'll get these packed for take-away, and then we can go to the Digital World. I think Adam told me that you have a nifty phone that could open a DigiPort?"

"Not anymore. I lost it." JD clicked his table impatiently. "Wish I have it now; it'll be easier."

"It'll be time consuming if we were to go back to our own houses," Gayathri said.

JD gestured towards somewhere behind Gayathri's back. "We can go to Adam's. Turn around. See that apartment complex over there…yeah, that one. His apartment is the closest from Taipan. Let's just hope he's home. If not, we'll have to swing by my house instead to use my computer."

"My house's not that far off either, but the apartments do look a lot closer," Gayathri agreed. "Just…one problem. How do you suppose we're going there? I see you have a bike…but that leaves me at a disadvantage and I don't exactly have my super speed now."

JD looked at his bike, chained to the rails close to the table where they were seating. His hazel eyes then darted at Gayathri, as if sizing her up. Gayathri looked at him questioningly, and JD grinned as an idea popped up in his mind.

Several minutes later, screams could be heard as JD cycled his bike as quick as lightning, with Gayathri sitting sideways in front of him, screaming her lungs off as JD laughed at her reaction, while being thankful that he was strong enough to support their combined weights. He however struggled every now and then to maintain balance. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the Arcadia Apartments – Adam's apartment complex – closing in.

"Shhh!" he hissed.

"Shhh back at you!" Gayathri wailed. "You and your crazy ideas! No wonder people at school avoid you! What if we were hit by cars? I've just recovered…no…AM RECOVERING from a previous accident, and I don't like the idea of spending my days at hospitals again. And my butt hurts! Let me down!"

"Alright, princess. Sheesh." JD slowed down and went to the grassy sides of the road. However he lost his balance control and the bike fell sideways…bringing them along with it. JD howled with laughter, finding all of these amusing, while Gayathri screamed in terror. They were not hurt, so JD quickly got up and pulled Gayathri up with him. He shook his head towards the curly-haired girl. "No wonder you get that super scream thingy. You're worse than a Harpymon! What's your fused form called, huh? Bansheemon, I bet."

Gayathri grunted and slapped JD's arm in annoyance. JD chuckled again and they marched towards the guardhouse. The guard eyed JD, and apparently recognizing him – JD had visited the apartment before, saying that he was Adam's friend, and Adam at the time had approved of it – so he didn't bother to ask JD where he was going, merely eyeing the pair with rapt interest before resuming with his work.

The two of them marched towards Adam's apartment and knocked the door while calling out his name.

The door creaked open, and instead of Adam, it was Patamon, peaking carefully. He'd recognized their voices and had seen them via the peek hole.

"Patamon, open up! There's an emergency at the Digital World. We need to use Adam's computer!" Gayathri said.

Patamon let the two teenagers in before closing the door. "Adam's not here," he supplied, watching as the teens looked around the apartment. It was the first time they had been here.

"Huh?" both DigiWira asked. "Where is he then?"

"At the hospital," Patamon said sadly, as he went to the couch and plopped on the seat. His bat wings drooped down and his blue eyes shimmered. "Kak Lisha's involved in an accident, and it was rather serious. She hasn't waked up yet, but Adam told me the doctor said that her condition's stable. He's at the hospital right now; he said he wants to be by her side."

"Oh God," JD said, horrified.

"Poor Adam," Gayathri said, her eyes beginning to glisten. "No wonder he didn't pick up my calls. He must be terribly sad. Poor Kak Lisha."

"When did it happen?" JD asked, looking around Adam's apartment. His eyes fell on a picture hung on a wall – a picture of Adam and a beautiful young woman. His face paled slightly – he recognized the woman's face, remembering that he'd once winked at that woman when she appeared at the school. He'd thought that she looked stunning, hence the wink. He didn't know that that woman was Adam's sister.

"Last night," Patamon said. He shook his head. "You should get going. I can't go with you, Adam's not here. I'll explain everything once you deal with the current threat."

"Right," JD said. "Gayathri, send a message to Liu Ying and Manny. Tell them we're going to the Digital World, and they'd better be there too once they've finished with their make-up tests." He bent down and took out Koromon from his back, and watched Gayathri doing the same with Tanemon. She then typed a message to the other DigiWira as JD switched on Adam's computer. They then DigiPorted to the Digital World.

xxx

xxx

TobuCatmon briefed them of their current threat – a village of Digimon was in bizarre danger. Something had caused the villagers to begin attacking each other, and TobuCatmon noticed from the sun staff that they all seemed to be in a trance, or sleepwalking. Nevertheless, the younger Digimon villagers there were in danger of their stronger fellow villagers, who were more than able to delete them with an attack.

"The Perdana Village is not far from here," TobuCatmon noted. "It's along the way towards south, about three kilometers from here."

"On foot it's probably going to take up some time," JD said. "But if we digivolve into our Ultimate forms, we'll have that distance covered in no time."

"I have my super speed here," Gayathri said. "I can reach there in no time. But now, the problem's you…"

"Hey, watch it. As Satriamon I can cover great distances if I launch myself as a meteorite with my Flaming Torch technique," JD said smugly.

An explosion could be seen from inside the staff. TobuCatmon looked at the two arguing DigiWira exasperatedly. "You need to hurry."

"Ok, ok," JD said and took out his Digivice. Gayathri did the same. Together, they called:

"**Digital Access Digivolution! HAAA!!"**

Satriamon and Puspamon went out of the sanctum, and searched for their bearings first. Satriamon pointed towards a direction. "South's that way. Come on!" He leaped to the air and turned himself into a magma-human with flames blazing wildly from his body. Then he propelled himself towards south in lightning speed. Puspamon shook her head and employed the power of wind and her super speed, eventually catching up with the comet-like Satriamon. They reached Perdana Village in less than five minutes, and were greeted with an explosion from one of the thatched rooftops. The chimney had combusted, and a maniacally giggling Goblimon emerged. His eyes glazed unnaturally.

"Hmm…" Puspamon wondered. She inhaled and looked at the Goblimon. _"Sprite Scream! AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!"_

The blast of supersonic sound wave had been toned down a little, and was blasted towards the red-skinned Goblimon. Goblimon didn't make an effort to evade the shriek at all, and was slammed with the supersonic wave full force. He staggered and his eyes blinked twice. Then, he looked around in confusion.

"What…what's going on?" Goblimon then looked down, and shrieked in fear upon seeing that he was on top of the roof. "How did I get up here? HELP!!"

"Don't worry…help's here," Puspamon said soothingly and picked up Goblimon, cradling him. She flew past Satriamon, who smirked at her.

"Crude, but effective."

Puspamon didn't reply; she'd left to place the frightened Goblimon on the ground. Goblimon thanked her, and was about to saunter away when they saw a horde of Rookie and Champion Digimon marching towards her, emerging from the entrance. They all demonstrated the same symptom as Goblimon did. They however didn't look threatening enough for the Ultimate-level Puspamon and Satriamon, but it was evident that they were doing this unwillingly.

"What happened to them?" Satriamon wondered.

"It all started this morning. Our Dinohumon elder went on a rampage all of a sudden – he was always a kind Digimon, but after today I wasn't so sure. He'd been attacking everyone senseless. He had that weird look on his eyes. I think he got infected with something, probably a mean virus. Witchmon, our healer, tried to stop him when he invaded the nursery, but she too somehow got infected. The babies…they all…" Goblimon cried in sorrow, his voice became incoherent, "reverted back to DigiEggs after being destroyed by Dinohumon. The village's fisherman – Hookmon – tried to stop Dinohumon and Witchmon, but he too got infected. Then all became chaotic."

"Damn…" Satriamon whispered. "Who could've done such a thing?"

"Satriamon, Goblimon, close your ears right now. I'm gonna scream again, much louder than before," Puspamon cautioned. She inhaled, and let out a supercharged Sprite Scream which sent the infected villagers trampling about. Puspamon's scream soon died out, and whispers were heard. The villagers looked confused, as Goblimon had been, but they were no longer attempting to attack Puspamon and Satriamon.

"DIGIWIRA! You're here!" a female voice boomed from the sky gleefully. Puspamon and Satriamon looked up, and sweatdropped upon seeing a small brown tapir-like Digimon. The small Digimon looked at them, and was visibly surprised. "What? Only TWO of you? I've prepared for FIVE!"

"Who the hell are you?" Satriamon demanded.

"Me? I'm Tapirmon," the Digimon said. Her eyes glinted. "Your worst nightmare."

"_Tapir_mon?" Satriamon said, and laughed. "You've got to be kidding me!" He laughed, and looked at Puspamon. "Get it? A tapir? Ha ha ha…."

Puspamon looked at him blankly, missing out whatever joke or funny fact that Satriamon was trying to prove.

And Tapirmon didn't exactly appreciate being laughed at. She fumed, and swept down from the sky. "I'll teach you for laughing at me, DigiWira, although I don't understand WHY! Have a taste of your own nightmares, and then we'll see who'll be having the last laugh! _Nightmare Syndrome!!"_

Satriamon was still laughing, but Puspamon saw a purplish-black ball of concentrated smoke being fired towards Satriamon at rapid speed. "Look out!" She pushed Satriamon aside, and was hit by the black ball of smoke on the back. Puspamon went into a spasm and dropped to her knees.

Satriamon realized his folly; his carelessness had caused Puspamon to be hit by an attack that was meant for _him_. He knelt down towards Puspamon. "Hey, Puspamon…you alright?"

Puspamon looked at him, shivered in fear and screamed. "Get away, you ugly bug! _Sprite Scream!!"_

Satriamon was hit by Puspamon's scream attack full-force, and was sent flying towards the gathering villagers. He was about to get up, furious, when he saw that Puspamon was acting peculiarly. She was swatting away something that was not visible, shivering in the process. The beautiful fairy looked down, yelping towards something that wasn't there, and took flight while firing a wind-based attack towards the ground. "Gross, gross, gross….bugs spiders, worms…."

Satriamon got it, and his face paled slightly. He looked up at the laughing Tapirmon. "What did you do to her?"

"Apparently, she was reliving _your_ nightmare, Satriamon!" Tapirmon replied. "It didn't work as I hoped it would be, but it still worked up just fine. You're deathly afraid of bugs, aren't you Satriamon? A warrior of your stature…afraid of measly bugs? How _pathetic._"

"Damned tapir," Satriamon muttered. He launched himself towards the sky, launching his gauntlet forward. _"Dragonforce…"_

"Ahh…have a taste of your friend's nightmare, Satriamon. _Nightmare Syndrome!!"_

Satriamon was hit with Tapirmon's attack, and suddenly found himself back as JD. He was standing in the middle of the school hall. Students were walking about, occasionally passing by him giving him a strange look. JD noticed those looks as being disgusted looks, and wanted to strangle them for daring to insult him, despite silently. He attempted to move forward, but found his body too heavy to do so. Confused, he looked down, and saw a rotund belly…_his_ belly. He went towards the canteen, albeit slowly, and saw his reflection at the mirror. He gasped in shock.

Staring back at him was a grossly obese teen with JD's face...JD didn't even _remember_ when he got like this. The hands and legs were fatty, and somewhat yellowish. His cheeks and neck were swollen with fat. His stomach was round, like a beer-belly. His chest…well, it could be mistaken to something else located on that same region; it caused JD to quiver at the mere thought of it. The last time he checked, he had a lean, muscular body. His arms and legs were toned. He worked out every alternate day. He played basketball, and almost any other sport. Soccer, badminton, name it and he'd probably played it at least once. He practiced his Capoiera skills whenever he didn't feel like working out – the results were the same anyway. He cycled around the neighborhood almost every evening.

'_Is this Gayathri's nightmare? Becoming obese?'_ JD wondered, and the scene around him dissolved instantly. He was back as Satriamon, at the courtyard of Perdana Village.

"How…how did you?" Tapirmon was flabbergasted. _"Nightmare Syndrome!!"_

Feeling his cockiness rising, Satriamon didn't budge. Now would be the good time for him to get to know his teammates. He allowed the ball of smoke to hit him on the chest, and felt his surroundings changing.

He was back being JD, and…he couldn't breathe. He was underwater, flailing his arms and legs about. Was he drowning?

"Oh come on! I've learned how to swim since I was five!" he shouted, and the scene shifted back to normal. _'Manny's nightmare? I thought he's a champion swimmer?'_

Tapirmon blinked, shocked, and fired again. Satriamon merely smirked as he received the blow.

The scene shifted to a classroom, and he was JD, sitting in a single table. In fact, everyone was sitting on a single table. "Exam time?" he muttered. He looked down at his test paper, realizing that he hadn't written anything on it. He looked sideways, noticing that the other students had written a lot. He sweatdropped. _'Looks like Liu Ying's nightmare to me…not being able to answer in exams?'_ He then laughed lightly and leaned towards the table beside him and began copying the answers…

…And the scene shifted back to normal. He stared at Tapirmon fiercely. "Is that the best you can do?"

"I still have one more nightmare left!" Tapirmon shouted, but her voice was laced with worry. She fired her last nightmare towards Satriamon, who defiantly received it heads-on.

Satriamon found himself, as JD, staring at faces he didn't recognize. A man, a woman and a male teen that resembled Adam. They were inside a wooden kampong house. JD found himself staring at the couple and the male teen went inside the car. JD didn't know how to react, so he merely watched on. He saw his hands closing the door. Then the scene blinked; JD was still staring at the door, but there was a knock. He saw his hands opening the door…and realized that it was raining heavily outside. A man in a raincoat stood in front of him.

"Adam…your parents and brother…there was an accident. I'm so sorry Adam; all of them didn't survive…"

JD gasped, and the scene shifted to a hospital room. An unconscious woman – Alisha – was lying on the bed, heavily bandaged and wired to a device – JD remembered Jade mentioning it being something that monitored the patient's heart rate and blood pressure, amongst other things, but he'd forgotten its name. But JD got a bad feeling when he saw the digitalized green line, straight and horizontal, and letting out that dreaded sound JD had so often heard in some of the TV shows he'd watched. It wouldn't take a medical student or a doctor to figure out that that dreaded sound indicated that the patient was no longer alive.

'_Adam's nightmare…'_ JD realized. He was back being Satriamon, staring at Tapirmon's appalled expression.

"How did you? How…"

Satriamon gritted his teeth. "You have one sick hobby, you know?" He flexed his gauntlet, but was distracted by Puspamon's incessant screaming. He looked over his shoulder; Puspamon was still warding off invisible insects, flying about in circles as if she was chased by something. Groaning, Satriamon looked back at Tapirmon. "I'll get back to you once I clean up your mess, you miserable little tapir."

Satriamon approached Puspamon carefully. "Hey! Puspamon! Get a grip of yourself, it's not real. Stop attacking, you're endangering the villagers!"

Puspamon halted, and stared down at Satriamon incredulously. "What villagers? All I see around here are you, you gross Roachmon. You and the other Roachmon friends of yours over there!" she shrieked. "I hate cockroaches…" she said, preparing to blast a Sprite Scream once again towards Satriamon.

Satriamon sweatdropped; JD hated bugs in general, but had a slight phobia over cockroaches. He didn't know exactly why, but it was a secret he kept closely guarded to himself. "Roachmon? Me? Hey…I'm crushed you've mistaken someone as good-looking as me for a disgusting Roachmon. I'm Satriamon, Puspamon. Your friend, remember? Now come on, snap out of it. We've got one tapir to finish off."

Puspamon blinked. She was seeing Roachmon everywhere, but why in the world did this Roachmon sounded like Satriamon? She stared at the talking Roachmon closer, and slowly the Roachmon shifted into a familiar red-armored Digimon. "Satriamon?"

"That's me. How you're feeling?"

"Odd, I think. Confused. I was seeing Roachmon everywhere…then suddenly one of them became you, and the others became…the villagers," Puspamon said.

"You got hit by Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome attack. It brings out your deepest phobia, and manifests it to life," Satriamon explained.

"But I wasn't afraid of cockroaches, or bugs," Puspamon said, confused.

Satriamon hesitated. "I know. That's my fear," he admitted slowly.

"Huh? You?"

"Hey, everyone's got their own fears. I got hit with yours, and guess what I saw? Myself, fat as a sumo wrestler."

Puspamon brought her hands over her mouth, horrified of learning that Satriamon had discovered her inner secret. "You didn't! Oh no! Please don't think of me as vain or anything…I just…I don't think of obese people lowly, I'm just deathly afraid of becoming one myself."

Satriamon waved his hand airily. "Don't worry. I understand. You keep my secret and I keep yours?"

"It's a deal. Now come on…we've got a tapir to take care…uh…"

The two DigiWira saw Tapirmon's body shining with dark purple lights. She was enveloped in a cocoon of lights and data particles, and the cocoon grew bigger. Then, it exploded and a massive quadrupled black creature with three canine heads leaped out from it, landing on the ground with an earthquake. The three-headed dog was fearsome, standing at eight feet high. Snarls escaped its three snouts, with acid drools dripping onto the ground. The dog flexed its three heads back and let out a howl.

"Great. From a tapir she evolves into a full-fledged, three-headed bitch," Satriamon muttered.

"Satriamon!" Puspamon exclaimed.

"What? It's a female dog! Technically, she _is_ a bitch."

Puspamon merely groaned in return, and cast her sight upon the newly-digivolved Digimon. "Well, at least she's a Champion. This won't take long."

"A Champion?" the three-headed Digimon barked, spraying drools all over. Satriamon and Puspamon managed to evade from coming into contact with drools, out of disgust more than the actual danger the drools possessed. "I'm Cerberumon, an Ultimate Digimon! I'll send you to the deepest depth of digital hell with my flames! _Emerald Blaze!!"_

"_Flaming Torch!!"_ Satriamon transformed into his magma form and let Cerberumon's attack hit him. Cerberumon's hot green flames engulfed him, but as Satriamon was a Digimon of fire himself, the fire barely harmed him. The heat was slightly irritable though, so Satriamon was forced to jump up and rammed against Cerberumon's body, sending the canine Digimon tumbling on her back.

Puspamon flew up and held her wooden staff towards Cerberumon. "So you like to use other people's nightmares against them, huh? How about a taste of your own medicine in return? _Dream Rose Mirage!!"_

Cerberumon howled loudly upon seeing a gigantic red rose suddenly erupted from Puspamon. Thorny vines snaked from the roses' leaves and snaked towards her, coiling around her body and crushing her with sheer force that rendered her breathless. The thorns pricked through her shell-hard body and the pain she was feeling right now was excruciating.

Satriamon whistled. "Freaky. Whatever Puspamon's doing to that bitch, it must've been brutal." He smiled. "Lucky she's on my side. I think I'll join in the fun." He flexed both his arms forward. One arm erupted with orange flames, the other with black fire. _"Shadow Flame Helix!!"_

A roaring flaming dragon and a hissing fiery black serpent coiled out from Satriamon's outstretched arms, engulfing Cerberumon in flames even hotter than her own. The combined efforts of Puspamon and Satriamon's attacks were deadly; Cerberumon knew right there and then that she had messed with the wrong people. With a loud howl she combusted into thousand bits of black data particles.

"Heh, that wasn't so hard," Satriamon said. "We totally owned that bit…uhh…she-dog, whatever," he amended, upon meeting Puspamon's glare. He waved his gauntlet arm and shifted back to his composite selves.

Puspamon smiled and regressed back to her original dual forms. "We sure did. That was nice teamwork, JD," Gayathri said. "I was right; you _are_ a big help to us. And…thanks for helping me snap out from my nightmare…or rather, _your_ nightmare." Gayathri then noticed JD's thoughtful expression. "JD? What's on your mind?"

"Huh? No…I was just…thinking," JD said, thinking about Adam's nightmare. "We should get back. Liu Ying and Manny probably are on their way here; we'd save them the journey here if we're quick enough to go back to Adam's apartment before they come here."

"Quick enough?" Gayathri said. She picked up Tanemon and handed her to JD. JD took the little vegetation Digimon as Gayathri bent down and took Koromon, placing him on the hand where JD was holding Tanemon. She had a weird smile fixed on her face. "Hold them as tight as you can. Or rather…" she eyed JD's jacket critically. "Unbutton your jacket, please."

"Uh…_what_?" JD asked incredulously, looking at Gayathri as if she were nuts. Then, he smirked. "Didn't think that you have the hots for me too, princess."

"Just do it. And stop calling me princess, it's annoying," Gayathri snapped, tugging at one of the top buttons of JD's black uniform jacket. JD hesitantly complied, and as soon as the buttons were let loose up till the belt, Gayathri took Koromon and stuffed him inside JD's jacket. Before Koromon could protest, she smiled apologetically at Tanemon and stuffed her inside JD's jacket as well before buttoning the jacket back up till JD's chest level. She stood back and eyed her effort.

"What the hell are you doing?" JD demanded. He looked down his body, and sweatdropped upon noting that the right side of his torso was swelling unnaturally.

"I'm thinking payback." Before JD could react, Gayathri zipped towards him and took him along her run. Her super-speed, high-powered run.

JD's protesting howl could be heard echoing their whole journey back to the Forest Sanctum.

xxx

xxx

"Look at that," the gruff-voiced Puaka General beckoned towards the image projected from the column of light inside the domed hallway. "It didn't take much out of the DigiWira to defeat Cerberumon. She was an Ultimate Digimon. Ultimate Digimon are always difficult to beat, yet that Satriamon and that Puspamon deleted Cerberumon with seemingly not much effort."

"But still...we have to admit that Cerberumon had done her purposes," the silky-voiced Puaka General pointed out. "We now know the DigiWira's weakness. Cerberumon's plan failed because she'd been overconfident, and used up the other DigiWira's nightmares on that Satriamon after hitting Puspamon with the wrong nightmare. _Of course_ that didn't work; you don't get frightened of something that doesn't scare you in the first place."

"So what do you propose we do?" gruff-voice asked.

Silky-voice laughed with glee. "The DigiWira team has a weak spot. And we shall manipulate that weakness."

xxx

xxx

One hour later, the four DigiWira found themselves gathering inside Adam's apartment anxiously. They were waiting in anticipation for Adam to return; the boy hadn't picked up his cell phone at all, nor did he reply to any of their messages. They grew increasingly worried when the clock's shorter pointer went past the number four and still there was no sign of Adam. For several minutes they sat around in silence, with JD and Gayathri having run out of stories to tell of their latest battle with Cerberumon. They kept off the part where they'd experienced each other's nightmares from Liu Ying and Manny.

"You think he could be staying at the hospital till nightfall?" JD asked restlessly.

"Maybe…" Liu Ying said. "I don't know for sure. Maybe his and Kak Lisha's parents are at the hospital as well right now."

JD looked at Liu Ying oddly. "Huh? His parents?"

"I think so too; come to think of it, that's probably what Adam would've done in times like this," Gayathri agreed.

JD whipped his head towards the darker-skinned girl, looking at her incredulously. _'These two…they don't even have any idea that Adam's parents…' _

"Yeah," Manny nodded. He noticed JD looking troubled. "JD?"

He looked at the other DigiWira carefully. "Umm, you three don't have the slightest clue, do you?"

"What about?" Gayathri asked back.

"Uhh…." he looked at Patamon, who shrugged. "Adam's parents…well, they've passed away. Two years ago."

Liu Ying, Gayathri and Manny looked positively stunned upon the revelation.

"What?" Gayathri whispered hoarsely. "Adam never told us that."

Liu Ying frowned. "And we didn't even ask him. I thought the reason why Adam lives with Kak Lisha was because his parents are unwilling to move into town, but want him to have the chance to do so…I mean, a classmate of mine last year; she's living with her brother's family here because her parents are staying all the way up north at Kelantan. I thought it was the same case…"

"We should've asked him," Gayathri murmured sadly. "Oh…I couldn't imagine losing one parent…" Her eyes widened when she realized what she'd said, and looked sideways towards Liu Ying.

"I can…" Liu Ying said softly. "But both? It must be really tough for Adam now if Kak Lisha's his only living family right now..." Her shoulders slumped as she leaned her back against the sofa. "At least I still have my mama, grandpa and Liu Ming," she murmured, her voice melancholic.

"How did _you_ know about this?" Gayathri asked JD. "Surely Adam didn't tell you first hand if he didn't tell us."

"He didn't. I pried the info from his best friend, Hakim…who's probably the only one whom Adam had told this about," JD explained. "I was…uh…doing some background research about you guys, seeing any weak points that I could…uh…manipulate." Upon meeting the girls' dangerous glares, he raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I was under influence that time. I already told him I was sorry. He forgave me." JD didn't look happy too; he was reminded of Adam's nightmare, which made him understand the boy's current situation even more. It made him feel even worse despite the forgiveness Adam had extended the previous day.

Gayathri too was reminded of something Dina had mentioned several weeks ago, during one of their morning get-together times. Her two best friends had been teasing her about Anding, her driver, but the conversation gradually steered towards Adam, whom Dina had been watching during their conversation. When asked, Dina had revealed a little of Adam's demeanor when he was still new in the school.

"_I don't know whether you two remember, but Adam was my classmate last year," Dina began. "He came in around July."_

"_I remember," Gayathri said, recalling Adam mentioning once that he was from Form One Gamma, the same class Dina was in._

"_Back then he was…well, rather withdrawn. Aloof too. I sometimes saw him having faraway looks while in class."_

"_Maybe he just missed his old friends back then," Gayathri said. "Transferring can do that to you."_

"_Yes, but…Adam was different. I mean, he was perfectly civil and all but unless talked to, he usually would stay silent and preferred to watch everybody in class. Everyone thought he was…well, a little weird. He didn't laugh at any jokes anybody made in class. It was hard actually to know what he was thinking back then, his face was always neutral. Nobody really knew whether he was happy or sad, he was always…well…unnaturally calm."_

"_Unnaturally calm?" Gayathri repeated. _

"_Back then, we didn't even know he was capable of laughing…at least until Hakim from Form One Delta approached him during one of our shared Islamic Studies class. It had been more than a month after Adam first came in, and somehow the two became fast friends. Since then however, Adam became friendlier to others…almost like how he is now. I think almost everyone had forgotten about the old him…it was like two different persons sharing the same body."_

"Dina did mention something about Adam a while back," Gayathri admitted, and shared some bits of it with the other DigiWira. If they were brainstorming about Adam, it would help if they have all the facts. And they weren't badmouthing him; they all felt sorry for their leader and wanted to help in any way they could. Having all the facts would be a great way to start.

"Who's Dina?" JD asked.

Under different circumstances, Gayathri would say jokingly that Dina was a girl whom Adam seemed to like, and vice-versa, but she felt that this wasn't the best time for it. "She's one of my two best friends since primary school."

"And our classmate," Liu Ying added, beckoning to Manny. Manny nodded.

"Oh. I think I know her. You three hang out with each other often right?" JD asked Gayathri. The girl affirmed it with a nod.

The door creaked open, nearly causing everyone to jump in surprise. In walked a tired-looking Adam, who started upon seeing his friends there.

"Adam!" the other DigiWira chorused. "You're back."

"Uhh…hi," Adam said, giving them a strained smile. It looked like it had taken a great deal out of him to do so. The DigiWira saw how pale and haggard Adam was and the prominent bags around his eyes hinted that Adam hadn't been sleeping enough, if at all. His face was evidently sad.

"Adam…we've heard about Kak Lisha," Gayathri said, standing up quickly. She was followed quickly by Liu Ying, Manny and JD.

Adam nodded wordlessly. He looked down at the floor for a while, avoiding their gazes. When he looked up, the sadness was gone…or rather, cleverly masked. "The doctor…it's the same doctor you had before, Gayathri…he told me that Kak Lisha's condition is stable, but no one knows when she's going to wake up." The sentence was uttered almost like a calm whisper. "I was with her all day…there was no sign of any improvement."

The DigiWira saw how Adam was attempting to conceal his sadness, and his attempt was remarkably good – totally void of any emotion.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Liu Ying asked.

"Just name it…anything," JD said.

"I appreciate that, guys…thanks." Adam thought about something, and looked at Gayathri. "Gayathri…I…I don't think I'm up for school anytime soon. Can you…?"

"Of course. Of course, Adam. I'll tell our teachers, and I'll keep you up to date with your homework," Gayathri said quickly. "Count on it." She then remembered something else. "Adam…tomorrow's Friday. Hakim's farewell kenduriwill take place after dusk. Will you be coming?"

Adam considered it. "I promised him I would. I'll come."

Gayathri looked absolutely relieved for being able to help Adam in some way. However, the other DigiWira were still relentless.

"And…" Adam began. "I…I really would like to be by Kak Lisha's side…in times like this…please excuse me if I don't turn up if there's something going on at the Digital World. I noticed the messages, and the missed calls, but…I didn't know how to respond."

"It's alright," Liu Ying said quickly. "You're having a tough time now…we'll call you only if it's really necessary, alright?"

"Alright." Adam looked grateful, and yawned. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," JD dismissed it. He looked at the younger boy with concern. "You look like you need some sleep."

"Actually, that's why I came back home…" Adam admitted.

The DigiWira looked at each other. Adam had indicated that he'd like to get some sleep – which meant that the DigiWira would have to leave.

"We'll take our leave for now…but if you ever need our help…" Manny began.

"I'll call," Adam promised with a not-so-reassuring smile. "And if you need my help at the Digital World…"

"We'll know who to ask help from," JD said.

With that, the four DigiWira hesitantly left Adam's apartment, not utterly convinced that Adam would ask them for help. Adam didn't show any emotion at all; the vitality that was accustomed to the boy had gone completely. The DigiWira had concluded that, from Gayathri's recollections, that Adam was able to hide his emotion with a happy mood that was perfectly executed…but now, even that was gone. It was worrying.

Nevertheless, they wouldn't leave Adam alone with his trouble. They'd find a way to help, one way or another. None talked about this as they parted ways, but they were all basically thinking about the same thing as they made way back to their homes.

xxx

xxx

Back at the apartment, Adam sighed as he leaned against the door.

"They really want to help you, you know…and not just by passing homework assignments and covering you for any battle at the Digital World," Patamon said gently. "Why won't you let them? They were here for quite a while, waiting for you to come back. I heard them as they tried to figure out a way to help you…but they couldn't do that if you won't let them. Don't cut them off."

"I don't want to be a burden," Adam said softly. "Everyone I care about…they always leave. My parents, Abang Zad…and now Kak Lisha's still not waking up. And at the same time, Hakim's moving to a country so far away…" He looked at Patamon meaningfully.

"I'm not going to leave you," Patamon promised. "We're partners. By becoming DigiWira, we're bonded for life. I don't know how I can help, but I'll do what I can."

"Thanks, Patamon."

"And…the others – Liu Ying, Gayathri, JD and Manny – they'll be there when you need them. You and the girls have been teammates, the three of you pulled through the whole time when JD and Manny were ShadoWira, and you brought them back to the right side. Didn't you remember how each of them had contributed in some ways to rescue you? Liu Ying and Gayathri came to your aid when you were captured by the ShadoWira, despite knowing the grave danger of being at the Shadow Realm. Manny retrieved back your White DigiSphere which was under Karatenmon's possession. And JD…in order to prove himself to you he risked his life to rescue you from Dragomon's clutch. I'll have to be frank here, there's no way I could rescue you alone should he accepted Dragomon's offer and went back to the Digital World without you. And I won't sugarcoat this: He nearly got himself killed by Dragomon yesterday, and I suspect that he did all that because you didn't seem to believe him yesterday." Patamon gazed intently towards Adam. "Do you get what I'm trying to say?"

"I do," Adam said. "I owed each of them already. That's why I don't want to burden them anymore."

Patamon wanted to protest, but Adam already walked past him towards his bedroom to get some sleep. The Rookie Digimon sighed, and wondered whether he should follow Adam or not. He got his answer when he heard the bedroom door being closed.

'_Adam,'_ Patamon thought sadly. _'Don't push me away too.'_

xxx

xxx

Several hours later, Adam woke up from a particularly horrible nightmare. It was the same nightmare he had earlier that day, after he returned from the hospital. His whole face and body was sweaty, and his breath was ragged. He heaved his breath slowly, and looked around the darkened room. Frowning, he looked at the time – and saw that it was already midnight.

'_Midnight? Great…no way can I go to the hospital now…'_

Looking around the dark bedroom, Adam realized that Patamon was not there. He opened the door slowly and walked out towards the hallway, before reaching the living room and kitchen. There, he immediately saw Patamon snoozing peacefully on the sofa. He glanced sideways and saw a plate of somewhat-burnt toast, and a few chicken nuggets and some broccolis and carrot waiting on the dinner table. It looked like Patamon had managed to scour all the instant foods they had and heat them with the microwave. Feeling a soft rumble in his stomach, Adam quickly sat down and ate his meal.

He then wondered around the apartment, not knowing what else to do. Dr. Abu hadn't called him yet; but several messages were there on his D-Terminal and cell phone, from the other DigiWira, all offering words of encouragements for him. That elicited a small smile from him.

Adam's attention paused on his computer. _'Maybe some Digital World fresh air would be good for me…'_

Deciding not to wake Patamon up, Adam retrieved his Digivice and DigiPorted to the Digital World. He was led to a quiet, dark Forest Sanctum. TobuCatmon could be seen sleeping on the table, undisturbed. Quietly Adam headed out from the sanctum, intending to head towards the lake just outside at the Green Meadow to enjoy the night air. The air of the Digital World was always cleaner than Earth's.

He sat down on the stone, and idly spent his time looking at the moons of the Digital World. The Green Meadow was beautiful, but empty. Digimon all around had wisely chosen to avoid the paddock, knowing that it was a favorite place for villains to launch their attack on the DigiWira. The Green Meadow Village had been demolished by a pack of Harpymon completely, which made the area around there a danger zone for Digimon.

He then thought of his life so far. One by one, fate seemed to have determined for him to be alone. Deep in his heart, Adam resented all that was happening to him, but he calmed down instantly, thinking immediately about Alisha – who was still alive, although in coma. Frustrated, he picked up a pebble and threw it towards the lake, disrupting its tranquil surface when the pebble plopped into the depth of the lake. The ripple that was generated from the drop radiated to all sides, before gradually vanishing, and the lake was calm again.

"A human boy, alone?" A simpering voice said, followed by a wheezing, asthmatic-like laugh.

Adam sweatdropped upon hearing the comical laugh and turned around. His eyes widened upon seeing a scarlet winged demon standing a hundred meter away behind him.

The demon looked like a caricature version of Satan, and with its round beer-belly and a comic expression, Adam could have laughed off the demon as being something from the Looney Tunes, coupled with that comical asthmatic laugh. However, the glinting red eyes of the demon, and its black pitchfork, made it looked dangerous as well - especially when the pitchfork was aimed towards Adam. "Good. Peek-a-boo, little boy! Peek-a-boo! Boogeymon's coming to get you! _Death Clash!!_"

A blast of black lightning bolt erupted from the demon's pitchfork, but Adam quickly teleported away before the bolt could hit him. However the teleportation was done in haste and Adam didn't manage to even think about a place to teleport to – it was done purely on reflex to save his life. Thus, he reappeared back at exactly the same spot – but the stone that lined the edge of the lake had been reduced to rubbles. He stared at the demon, who was laughing, as if finding all of these amusing.

'_Great…as if I don't have enough problems in my hand already. Now a crazed Digimon with a Muttley-laugh is after me.'_ Adam thought. _'And it has to be when Patamon's not with me…'_

"Heh, heh, the boy can run. The boy can run! Good, good. Boogeymon loves a challenge! Especially little boys who know how to run. Go on, go ahead, run…"

Adam sweatdropped. _'Boogeymon? As in…the boogeyman that loves to terrorize children?' _He frowned in annoyance. "I'm not little!" he shot back indignantly. "I'm almost fourteen!"

The Digimon known as Boogeymon simpered again. "Nah, nah…no difference." He eyed Adam intently. "You know…you're right! You're not little. So maybe I won't delete you…maybe I'll just _eat_ you instead! Hi hi hi hi hi!" He cackled that asthmatic wheezing laugh again and rubbed his round belly for dramatic effect, before approaching Adam albeit so slowly. He didn't seem to be in a rush. In fact, he didn't just walk towards Adam…Boogeymon was even skipping, jumping and tap-dancing in the process.

Adam didn't know what to make of Boogeymon. Should he feel threatened, or was Boogeymon merely playing around with him? His attack had been real, though. Perhaps the demonic Digimon wanted to play around first before deleting him, or eating him. Adam shuddered to think of any consequence that would befall him if he hung around any longer.

However, before he could teleport to safety a shadow passed over him. Fearing the worst, Adam looked up, and gaped upon the regal sight that greeted him. It was totally the exact opposite of Boogeymon – an antithesis to demonic Digimon.

Floating above him was someone who looked clearly human, except for the fact that he had a pair of pristine white wings which were glowing with red aura. The aura illuminated his whole figure in the midst of the moonlit night, enabling Adam to study him in detail. The winged human was lightly armored in white, beginning from the sides of his face, extending down to his neck, his whole muscular torso and upper extremities before finally his pair of legs, right until his soles where the light armor ended up shaping his boots. A deep crimson tunic extended from the crescent-plated metallic belt around his waist to a couple of inches down his knees. Crimson sash draped around his left arm, and spiraled around his right leg. His torso was studded with four metallic orbs, two over his chest and the other two over the left side of his abdomen. Metallic shoulder plate protected his left shoulder, but left the right side bare. A golden bracelet clasped around his right wrist tight, while his left knuckle was protected by a black knuckle-armor. Several dark gray belts clasped around his left foreleg, serving an unknown purpose other than for purely decorative purpose. The winged human's face was obscured by a metallic helmet, covering the upper side of his face. Sleek, orange hair went down to the small of his back. On his right hand was a staff, with the upper end finished with a golden crescent. He spun the staff impressively and stared down towards Boogeymon.

Boogeymon looked upwards, the color on his scarlet face seemingly drained, although it was hard to tell. "Rassin' frassin'! An angel Digimon! What a nuisance! Can't a Boogeymon have some fun around here?" He pointed his black pitchfork towards the said angel Digimon, who didn't look the least ruffled.

"Wow…" Adam said, his eyes widening. "Angel Digimon?" He remembered Dragomon mentioning about Ophanimon – the one who gave his DigiSphere the power of light, according to TobuCatmon – being an angelic Digimon. But still, the knowledge didn't stop him from being so surprised of coming face to face with one. He backed away to a safe distance, and with him doing so the angel Digimon moved closer to Boogeymon.

"_Piddo Speed,"_ the angel spoke up with a clear voice. The angel then streaked forward with a speed that only could be rivaled by Gayathri's super speed ability, in Adam's opinion. Boogeymon's anguished yell could be heard as the unidentified angel Digimon sped all around him, kicking and punching him, or whacking the demon with his staff while easily avoiding Boogeymon's poorly-aimed attack with great dexterity and nimbleness. He then spun around and delivered a forceful kick on Boogeymon's face, sending him flying. The angel Digimon then soared to the sky and his white wings blazed with orange flames. _"Fire Feathers!"_ He summoned, and flapped his wings furiously.

Fiery feather projectiles zoomed towards the fallen Boogeymon, blistering his body and wings. Boogeymon yelped and tried to quench the flaming feathers by rolling over the ground, but the feathers kept on coming at him mercilessly. Anguished cries were heard coming from the comical devilish Digimon as the feathers engulfed him completely, sending him falling on his back.

The angel Digimon kept on attacking relentlessly, ignoring the pleading cry of Boogeymon. Then, when he saw Boogeymon being completely helpless, he finally stopped flapping his wings. The flames on his wings died down, but the crimson aura remained. For a while, the angel Digimon stared at Boogeymon with a serious expression, before speeding down with his staff thrust forward. A solemn, serious cry from the angel was heard as the sharp, crescent-tipped staff was pushed directly into Boogeymon's chest, at the side where his heart would be located.

There was a standstill, before Boogeymon's head limped down and his whole body burst into data particles. The angel Digimon retreated, staring as the scarlet data particles were whisked away by the gentle winds of the night.

"Good work, Piddomon!" a loud male voice exclaimed, coming somewhere from Adam's back, and to the right.

Adam turned sideways, intending to get a look at the owner of the voice. He saw a tall figure wearing a black V-necked sleeveless T-shirt and a pair of army-patterned cargo pants. The newcomer had dark hair, slightly wavy, which ended right over his broad shoulders. He didn't look at Adam just yet, so Adam couldn't get a close look at his face. But Adam thought that the newcomer's voice sounded strangely, _impossibly,_ familiar…

The Digimon who was identified as Piddomon nodded and was enveloped with a purple glow, before to Adam's surprise, regressing into a Digimon whom he knew only too well. The Digimon whom Piddomon turned back into was Patamon…or rather, a purple-furred Patamon. The purple Patamon flew towards the stranger and landed on his right shoulder, as the stranger turned towards Adam. His face slightly obscured by the darkness, the stranger walked steadily towards Adam.

"Adam, you alright?" he asked, and his face became visible under the moonlight. Adam's eyes widened and he let out an involuntary gasp. His body began to shake uncontrollably.

The stranger bore a remarkable likeness to Adam – except being older and more matured. His skin was tanned, and his eyes dark brown, but the facial textures were nearly identical to Adam's. In a few years to come, it could be said that Adam would grow to become the young man who was now gazing at him attentively.

"Who...who are you?" Adam backed away as the stranger approached him. _'It can't be him…it's just not possible…what's going on here? He looks just like…'_

The stranger chuckled. "Why, two years and you've forgotten all about me?"

"It can't be...I thought...no, I _know_...the accident...it's _impossible_!" Adam blinked rapidly, his breaths became slightly ragged as he looked at the stranger's face again more intently. There was no mistaking it – the resemblances were uncannily striking. "Who _are _you?"

The stranger shook his head. "Well Adam...the last time I checked, I'm your brother."

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

A new arc has begun. I don't have a proper name for the arc yet, but this chapter marks the beginning of it. Other than the heavy revelation of Adam's history in this chapter, there's also the interaction between JD and Gayathri which I find amusing and hilarious as I write about it, compared to the emotional parts where Adam is concerned. JD's family members are also introduced in this chapter; they will be recurring characters from time to time, like the other DigiWira's family members. JD is also being focused quite amply here; we get to see a different side of his personality when he interacts with Bibik; the same characterizations are evident when he's with Adam, and Gayathri as shown in this chapter. The other DigiWira will get their moments in due time.

As for Satriamon's reaction for Tapirmon – it's something from my school days, when tapirs were often made fun of. The word tapir was abused, giving it another meaning such as silly or stupid. I don't know whether it's the same right now…but I was feeling nostalgic as I was writing the battle scene between the DigiWira and Tapirmon. :D

The Puaka Generals' identities will be revealed in later chapters.

Gayathri's flashback came from Chapter 3: Fairymon's Vice Versa.

Proton Satria GTI and Proton Putra are two of Malaysian cars from the Proton line. Baju kebaya is another traditional garment for Malaysian women – a form-fitting version as compared to the loose baju kurung. I've got e-mails requesting more references of Malaysia, and an inquiry whether an 'Invasion' arc will take place as all Digimon seasons have them. There will be an Invasion saga, which I will use to showcase more of Malaysia. Until then, stay tuned.

And the cliffhanger at the end shall remain a cliffhanger until next chapter.


	26. Brothers at Arms

Adam couldn't believe his ears upon hearing what the stranger had just said.

"That's impossible!" he said, trembling. "You can't be him! You can't be…he…he's dead, along with our parents."

The dark-haired man gazed at Adam understandingly, as if knowing that Adam's reaction was coming. He stepped forward as Adam backed away. The purple Patamon that was perched on top of his shoulder appeared somewhat confused.

"Is this the younger brother you've talked about?" he chirped, in a voice that was almost akin to Patamon's.

"Yes, Tsukaimon, now be quiet," the stranger replied without looking at the Rookie Digimon. His dark brown eyes were affixed to Adam. His expression was warm. "Look closer, Adam," he urged softly. "Look at my eyes. They say eyes never really change, even if everything else does." He stopped approaching Adam.

Adam was torn between horror and hope. Horror, because the stranger claimed to be his older brother, who had passed away; and hope, because it meant that he wasn't alone in times like this. The DigiWira did what the stranger had instructed and walked tentatively towards him. Peering at his eyes, Adam saw something and his expression changed.

The dark-haired young man, who looked around eighteen, bore a remarkable resemblance to Adam, with the exception of his eye color being dark brown instead of gray. Adam gulped; his late brother's eye color had been dark brown as well, as opposed to Adam and Alisha's gray irises. Adam and Alisha inherited their mother's eyes, while Aizad, their brother, inherited their father's. All of them had the same dark hair. _'Who is this guy? Why does he look so similar to **him**?'_ Adam thought breathlessly. He studied the man even more.

Broad-shouldered, sturdy and stood at five-foot-ten tall, the man could be considered good looking but with a hardened expression. Dark bangs lined the sides of his slightly gaunt face, with the rest of his slightly wavy hair fell to his shoulders. The hair structure was almost similar to Adam's, with Adam's being straighter - his brother and sister had slightly wavy hair from their father, while he had the straight-hair gene from his mother. Adam then observed the man's clothes and his heart pounded when he noticed that even the _clothes_ were familiar. Dressed simply in a plain black, V-necked, sleeveless T-shirt which was slightly loose, a pair of army-patterned cargo pants and a pair of well-worn snickers, as well as two black wristbands, Adam remembered immediately where he'd seen the same set of clothes before. _'Didn't Abang Zad wear the same set of clothes…before stepping out of the house…the last time I saw him?'_

"You knew it, don't you? From the moment you saw me, you _knew_. You just don't want to admit it yet," the man said softly.

But still…no power could bring the dead back from the grave. Sense snapped Adam back to reality.

"You just CAN'T be my brother. Even if you are, you're not! You're an impostor…a look-alike, that's all. My brother is dead. My parents are dead. Their death certificates are back at our house." The DigiWira backed away again; his gray eyes glinted with a renewed edge. With a shaky arm he pointed his index finger towards the stranger. "I don't know who put you up to this, or what you think you can achieve by this…but my brother's dead, we buried him two years ago and that's the way I want him to stay! And you…you're just a lying impostor!"

The young man looked stunned before gazing at Adam forlornly. "Well, if that's what you want, then fine…" He turned away, and glanced towards Adam over his unoccupied shoulder. "I know we had a fight before that accident. I'm sorry for picking on you that night…you said that you hated me then…I just had no idea that you wanted me dead."

Adam gasped loudly. "What did you say?" he choked. _'Nobody's supposed to know THAT!'_ "I _never_ wanted you dead. Never. Don't you say that. I've never wished for you to die!" he said with a shaky voice, and his vision blurred. It took a moment before he realized that tears had formed on the brims of his eyes. His emotions, always kept in check, surged wildly within him, causing his breaths to become more ragged, his heartbeat became rapid, and he was experiencing difficulty to breathe.

"Do you believe me now?" the stranger asked, turning back to face Adam. He looked tensed, but hopeful at the same time.

"Abang Zad?" Adam finally acknowledged. Confused tears fell on his cheeks, unrestrained no more. "Is it really you?"

Upon hearing the affectionate name, the stranger smiled warmly. "In a flesh."

Overwhelmed by emotions piled one after another these past few days finally took a toll on the young DigiWira. Adam's body shivered violently. Alisha's accident had nearly caused him to lose his will, but now, the startling revelation that his older brother was still alive…it was too much for Adam to handle. Furthermore, he was tired, physically and emotionally. A lot of things had happened, and all this while he'd been putting up a brave front with his friends…all this crumbled upon staring face to face with his brother. His legs began to give way.

Everything blacked out thereafter.

xxx

xxx

"I can't believe it," Adam murmured before drinking through the brown mug that was given to him. Pleasant warmness radiated within him as the hot chocolate flowed down his alimentary tract. He set the mug down, stretched his legs as he had a look around. He was inside a small, square wooden hut. The interior was bare – Adam could only see a basic table, chair, a kitchen, and the wooden bed he was sitting on. He gazed at the man who was sitting at the end of the bed. "I must be dreaming. Is it really you?"

Aizad Ariff grinned and clasped Adam's right ankle firmly. "It's me alright. You're not dreaming."

"But…_how?_" Adam asked. "How? We buried you. I saw the villagers as they cleaned up your body. I saw when they covered you. I prayed along with them before following them towards the cemetery, and I saw them set you and our parents down, before burying you. I sat there until night, until it rained…until Pak Long had to drag me back home…"

"I don't know how to explain," Aizad began steadily, "but I remember the accident too. That night, it was raining cats and dogs. Loud thunders. Lightning all over. The road was slippery, and Ayah had trouble seeing the traffic. We were at a winding road, near that dreaded cliff where accidents always happened. Then a loud honk and a bright flash of light… I remember Ibu screaming loudly and Ayah trying to evade an incoming truck."

Adam felt ill as Aizad shook his head with a grim expression. "The next thing I know, I ended up here. In the Digital World, but not really around here. Somewhere a lot farther…along the central region." Then he became silent as he gazed at Adam. "Unfortunately…the same couldn't be said about Ibu and Ayah. They weren't with me then…"

Adam nodded sadly. His eyes were blinking rapidly again, but with a soft shook of the head Adam regained his composure before sadness seized him once again. "Please continue…I want to hear more. Everything."

Aizad realized that he'd have to lighten up the mood. "Another bedtime story? Why can't you just go to sleep with one story?" he teased, eliciting a tint of blush from Adam.

"That seemed to happen a long time ago," Adam murmured as he leaned against the bed's wooden railing. He shifted slightly; the wooden bed wasn't as comfortable as his bed back at his apartment. But he wasn't complaining. Not when he had his brother back.

"Well, alright…" Aizad shifted closer, seeing that Adam no longer unconvinced. "I was wounded real badly. I didn't know where I was. For what seemed like hours, I was there, unable to move, unable to get up. Then, when I almost thought that I'd die from the heat and dehydration…" he glanced towards Tsukaimon with a small smile. "I found him. Or rather, _he_ found me. Tsukaimon. He couldn't do anything to help me, so he went to call for help. I was shocked to see that Tsukaimon could speak, but then again I had no idea where I was at and what Tsukaimon was. Then Oryxmon came, and she was big enough to lift me up. She took me back to a village with big colorful eggs – the Primary Village – and there, I healed. Slowly, but gradually.

"Oryxmon asked me how I ended up in the Digital World. I said I don't know, but after some careful thinking of what had happened I remembered the accident." He smiled wistfully. "A Datamon scoured some information from me, said that he hacked the info from the Real World…home…and he'd found a database containing the death certificates of me and our parents. I was devastated – I wondered how you and Kak Lisha would take the news. Back then, there was no DigiPort leading to Malaysia, so I was forced to remain behind. I didn't know what else to do, so Oryxmon offered me to help her and Tsukaimon around the Primary Village. It wasn't really a job I had in mind – caring baby Digimon – but I was grateful for their help, so I said ok. I took care of the fishing, and finding woods, and Tsukaimon and I became friends.

"A year and a half passed and I began to let go of my past, and accepted what I am then. It was then, words got around that a girl from Malaysia had appeared in the south-eastern part of the Digital World. I began to have hope, as that meant that a DigiPort had been opened to lead me to Malaysia. I'd just have to find this girl, ask her to take me to the Real World…heh, see, I'm referring my home world as the _real world_, like all Digimon…anyway, if I could find this girl, I could go home, and I could look for you and Kak Lisha. I wanted to do that so bad…but I was needed around the village still. I owed Oryxmon a lot, so I agreed to stay back. Then I heard another girl came to the south-eastern side three months later, but I wasn't concerned much still because I thought…what are the odds that these girls would know you? Then, sometime early this year, something came up.

"A Digimon called SkullMeramon arrived one day and started wrecking havoc all over the Primary Village. The DigiEggs were destroyed, the babies slain without mercy, and Oryxmon was deleted while trying to give me and Tsukaimon a chance to run away. I was horrified, and there and then, something happened…Tsukaimon digivolved into Piddomon and managed to force SkullMeramon away, but he couldn't finish off that killer; SkullMeramon's an Ultimate Digimon. However the damage was done. With the Primary Village destroyed and Oryxmon deleted, I had no reason to remain behind. I wanted to avenge Oryxmon but SkullMeramon was too strong. We looked for him anyway…and it was then I heard that a third DigiWira had arrived at the south-eastern side…"

Adam held his breath as Aizad gazed at him intensely. "The third DigiWira was a male teenaged boy. Dark hair, fair skin, gray eyes… I heard those descriptions and abandoned my desire to look for SkullMeramon momentarily. I asked around for this boy's name, and soon I found out that it was you. You can't imagine how _happy_ I was then to hear that.

"It was a long, hard journey to go to south-eastern side, but I was determined to look for you. I missed you so much. Tsukaimon didn't agree to go at first, he wanted to find Oryxmon's killer, but then we managed to see reason…we'd look for you first, and ask for your help. Words have it that you wield a mystical ancient artifact which holds great power…so I was convinced that finding you first would be the right choice.

"Along the journey, we heard the news that the ShadoWira had made their appearances, and the DigiWira were in danger. I hastened my way, and learned more and more about your exploits along the way. Thank God the Digimon love to gossip. When I finally arrived at a demolished city called East Lake City three days ago, the Exveemon leader told me that you and your friends were there before to drive away two evil Digimon. I heard you'd gotten kidnapped by the ShadoWira, escaped, battled them and finally managed to convince them to become good. Then I set forth to look for you, after hearing that everything had calmed down."

The young man smiled again and grasped Adam's palm, entwining their fingers together firmly. "And here we are, reunited." His eyes went up and down his brother. "Look at you," he said. "How you've grown… you're almost as handsome as me when I was your age!"

Adam breathed out slowly as he gazed at his brother. He shook his head. "It's unbelievable…seeing you back here." Tears welled up again on his eyes, against his will. He didn't bother to mask his emotions anymore – this was his brother. Thought to be dead, but was in fact miraculously alive. Adam thought that there was still a loop hole in the explanation – how did his brother get to be here with him, and buried at the same time – but Adam brushed that thought aside quickly. It made his head spin thinking about that too deeply, so Adam chose not to. His brother was here right now, with him. Explanation didn't seem to matter anymore. "It's a miracle. It's like you're back from the dead. You don't know how much this would mean to Kak Lisha…what it means to me." He wiped his tears quickly with his sleeve. "I really missed you. I don't know what to do right now…" he laughed lightly.

Aizad grinned back. "There _is_ something you can do right now."

"What's that?"

"How about giving your brother a big hug?"

Adam laughed. The two brothers embraced, and once again emotions took over Adam. He was overwhelmed with happiness. But then something triggered his mind and he jerked backward, his face aghast. Aizad looked at him, confused.

"Oh no, Abang Zad…Kak Lisha…"

"What about Kak Lisha?" Aizad asked patiently. A smile tugged at his lips. "I can't wait to meet her too. She probably would react worse than you did –"

"No, no…" Adam shook his head rapidly, interrupting his brother. "She's gotten into an accident! Yesterday. It…it was terrible."

Aizad's gaze sharpened. His dark brown eyes glinted slightly, his face mildly confused. But then a look of great concern washed over him. "Accident?" He placed a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. "How is she right now?"

"Kak Lisha…she's alive, but she's in coma," Adam said with a subdued tone. He pressed the temples of his head. His head felt heavy all of a sudden. "She's at the hospital right now. The doctors don't know when she's waking up." Adam looked up at his brother and grasped both of his hands. "Abang Zad, you've got to come see her. Maybe…if she hears you, if she _can_ hear you…she'll get up quicker…she'll be so happy to see you!"

"Of course," Aizad said. "Of course I'll come. It's a good thing I found that, and take it back here with me." He gestured towards under the table.

Adam followed his gaze and was delighted to see a television set. He hadn't noticed it before but the TV was obscured by the shadows and the hut they were in right now was only illuminated by the moonlight which flowed through the windows and the gaps between the woods that constituted the walls. He quickly took out his Digivice, but dropped it on the floor by accident. Then he let out a wide yawn, barely managing to cover his mouth. Upon Aizad's puzzled look, Adam smiled sheepishly.

"I don't know what's gotten into me…I feel so tired, so sleepy…I've never been this clumsy." He yawned again and his vision blurred.

Aizad nodded understandingly. "You've had a rough day. It's ok. After all that has happened to you these few days, I figured you'd be exhausted, both physically and mentally. So sleep. You really look like you could use it. I'll wait up for you."

"But, Kak Lisha…"

Aizad held up his hand. "I think Kak Lisha's not going to go anywhere for the time being. Sleep. I can wait…I've been waiting to meet you for a couple of years. A few hours won't be any different for me, but _you_ need your rest. So…" Seeing that Adam still somewhat adamant to remain sitting, despite a third yawn and what seemed to be a throbbing over the temples, judging by the way he was rubbing them, Aizad shook his head and pushed Adam gently back on the bed. "You're overtired. Lie down a bit."

Adam was about to protest again when the throbbing vanished as his head touched the pillow. It felt so good. Adam supposed a few hours of sleep wouldn't harm anybody, so he closed his eyes, smiling contently as he began to doze away.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 26 – Brothers at Arms_**

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On Friday afternoon, after school had ended, Manny was on his way to the school library in a hasty pace. During recess time Gayathri had informed him of an advert about the school holding interviews for those who were interested in becoming library prefects. She'd told him jokingly that she'd only apply for the post if they had pink uniform, but since it was blue, she'd thought that Manny would be suitable for it. And Manny had agreed with her; for the guys, the uniform consisted of the usual white shirt, but with cerulean pants. Manny liked the uniform, and the librarian prefect post was a good opportunity for him to still become a prefect while not really having to be as aggressive and assertive as the main school prefects. He'd even asked Liu Ying's opinion about it, and his classmate and fellow DigiWira had nothing but encourage him to apply.

Steering right from the corridor and towards a shady corner, Manny paused when he heard a beep from his pocket. Looking around, he made sure that no one was passing by before taking out his D-Terminal. It wasn't the usual emergency alert beep, but the single beep which indicated that another DigiWira had contacted him. He flipped open the device and stared at the screen.

'**_Manny, if you don't have anything to do today, mind joining me at the Digital World? –JD'_**

Manny wondered why JD wanted to meet him. JD's message was brief, and had been directed to only him. There however was no indication at all of the reason for JD to want to meet him. Looking at his watch, it was fifteen minutes to one. The interview would be held at one for non-Muslims candidates and female Muslims, while male Muslims got to go for the interview earlier to enable them to go for their Friday prayers, which would usually start around fifteen minutes past one. Manny had some time, so he replied to JD's message.

'**I suppose I can, but not right now. There's an interview for school library prefects, I'm thinking of trying. – Manny'**

JD's reply came almost immediately. **_'Sure. No prob. I'm stepping out right now anyway. 3 o'clock sounds fine to you?'_**

'**3's fine. Why do you want to meet me?'**

'**_Just wanna talk about stuffs. See ya later. Come on over my place when you're done; I've found a great spot where we can talk.'_**

Manny was about to store his D-Terminal back into his pocket when another beep came. It was another message from JD, and it was short.

'**_Break a leg.'_**

'**Thanks.'**

Manny smiled inwardly upon receiving the unconventional good luck message. Receiving JD's messages got him into thinking about the recent gossip he'd heard – pertaining JD, and Manny himself. News about JD punching him on Monday was a hot topic that week apparently, but the fact that Manny had fought back caused the news to spread like wildfire throughout the school. He had only known about this via Liu Ying the previous day – everything had been hectic at the Digital World as of late and Manny hadn't been paying enough attention to his surroundings. Only then he'd realized the weird, somewhat adoring glances he'd been receiving from his friends, which earlier he had dismissed as simply because of the fact that he was a new student, or his noticeable accent. Several guys from his class had asked him; what did it feel like, punching JD Kamaruzaman on the face? Manny could only sweatdrop upon hearing the query – he knew about JD's reputation, but didn't know that JD had that _much_ of reputation in school. Having done that earned him a reputation himself, to his annoyance.

'_That's the new kid who's knocked JD Kamaruzaman on the face.' _

It didn't bode well with him, earning a reputation by fighting. He had always been known as the shy one, preferring to stay away from the limelight of any sort, unless if it involved academics like quizzes or essay competition, or sports tournament. He'd been a champion swimmer in his previous school, and had been an instrumental part of the school website design team there as well – they had won second prize in a competition held all over the state of Sabah the previous year. Those kinds of achievements were the one Manny didn't mind having. Fighting? No way.

'_Maybe I should show these messages to all of them,' _Manny mused to himself, as he watched the line of students growing longer. _'Or maybe not…I'd fuel another kind of gossip such as 'the-new-kid-is-FRIENDS-with-JD-Kamaruzaman' or something like that.' _

The echoing call from the muezzin from the mosque beside school indicated Manny that it was time for Friday prayer, and that was further proved by a couple of candidates who immediately rushed off from the library to get to the mosque in time. He noticed that aside from him, there were nine other students going to the interview. He recognized no one from the line, but apparently some of them knew about him, judging from the whispers. They were giving him curious glances, as if wondering what kind of person he was for getting a fight just a few weeks after transferring to the school. He pretended not to hear what they were talking about, and focused of what he'd have to say in the interview. He didn't even want to think about the fight; his parents had given him enough grief for having a part in a fight – they had received a call from the school and had been appalled that their shy son had punched a guy's nose until it bled. Manny had asserted that it was an act of self defense but didn't elaborate any further – his family didn't know about him being a DigiWira. His sister had been curious of his time-to-time disappearance, but Manny had to give Debbie credit for not blabbing about it to their parents. He made a mental note to buy her some sweets at the school canteen before going back home.

He was the last one to be called in, and when he walked to the table where a small-framed girl in glasses was sitting at, the girl nearly jumped when she noticed him. Then she sheepishly indicated for Manny to sit down.

"Sorry. I was just surprised," the girl confessed, looking somewhat intimidated. Manny sweatdropped; that didn't surprise him – his large stature had intimidated many who didn't know him beforehand. Thickset in nature but definitely _not_ portly, Manny had begun his growth spurt recently which added to his height. His balanced facial features, made more evident by a pair of prominent cheekbones, and a pair of thick eyebrows, made him appeared stern-faced to many…until he smiled and the sternness morphed into warmness.

"Uh…it's alright. Sorry to surprise you," Manny said – and the girl relaxed immediately. That was the usual effect of those who were intimidated by him had after they heard him speak. He had a gentle soft-spoken voice, which contradicted his size. It would immediately set people to ease.

"So…I'm Emily Chua, I'm a Form Three and the assistant head librarian here." The girl paused and flipped through a stack of paper that was piled in front of her.

"Emmanuel Abah, from Two Beta."

Emily Chua blinked back. "Yeah, I know," she said and grinned. "You've made a name of yourself these past couple of days."

'_Not that again…'_ Manny thought.

"JD Kamaruzaman is my classmate this year," Emily supplied. She didn't look too happy about it, though. The girl adjusted her frameless glasses and observed Manny intently. "So you're the one who punched him on the face."

"Uhh…"

"Sorry, I'm supposed to interview you about being the school library prefect, not about that fight. So, what makes you want to be a library prefect?"

Manny sat up straight. "I want-"

"Oh, never mind," Emily interrupted with a big smile. "You're in. Definitely. We could use a guy like you. People would think twice of not returning books they borrowed if you're around. They won't dare make noises if you're on duty, and no one would do those darned dog-ears on our precious books if you tell them not to!" Emily giggled slightly, and Manny was speechless. "So, see you on Monday. Everything's not certain yet, but I'm pretty sure that _you'll_ be in. I'll put on some good words for you, and I'm sure the library's head prefect and teacher advisor will agree with me. So just come back here on Monday during recess time for me to confirm it, and if you're in, which I think you most probably will, then you'll have to stay back for a while after school as we'll be having the tailor here to take your measurements, for your new blue library-prefect pants!" She smiled, pulled her chair back, stood up and held her hand out. "It was nice doing interview with you, Emmanuel."

"Uh… my pleasure. Thanks," Manny said awkwardly, and shook Emily's hand. _'That's the oddest interview session I've ever had,'_ Manny sighed inwardly as he walked out from the library. _'Wait till JD hears about this.'_

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"Get out!" JD sputtered with laughter. "You mean you aced your interview just because you've _punched_ me?"

"I suppose so, if you can call that an interview," Manny murmured, casting his sight towards the breathtaking sea instead. "The interviewer said she's your classmate. Emily Chua… She told me to come on Monday for the results, but she was also pretty confident that I'd get the post. I don't know…she just asked me my name and that was it. No interview at all. It was really odd."

"Ah…Emily Chua," JD said knowingly. He stopped laughing instantly. "No wonder." He lied down on the sandy beach, crossing his arms behind his head for pillow.

Manny and JD had met at the Digital World as promised. The place of their rendezvous was Azure Cove, somewhere north-east from the Forest Sanctum. The Azure Cove was found by JD, whom earlier out of boredom of being grounded and suspended at the same time, used his free time to reformat his computer. When he opened a DigiPort via his computer, it led him to Azure Cove instead of the destroyed Cave of Solitude. Pleased of his recent find, he decided to use that spot to have some chat with Manny later that day.

The cove was a beautiful place; a perfect spot for spending a quiet afternoon at. Golden sandy beaches lined the narrow shores of the cove, and towering rocky spires lined the edges of the cove. The spires were so high that the sunlight was partially blocked at the place where the two reformed villains were now sitting. It gave them a nice shade against the bright sunny afternoon. Aside from them and their partners, the cove was almost deserted hadn't it been for a trio of Gomamon – small seal-like Rookie Digimon with red Mohawks – who were splattering water gleefully towards Penguinmon and Agumon by the shores.

"What do you mean?" Manny asked as he pulled his legs closer to his body.

"Ah, it's nothing really. Just a girl I used to date…and dumped," JD said, not looking at Manny. He was observing the sky instead. "Emily didn't take it too well."

"Oh." _'No wonder,'_ Manny added silently.

"Don't worry about it," JD said lazily, noticing Manny's troubled face from the corner of his eyes. "Just take the post, and do what you have to do."

"I don't know…if words got out that I got the post simply because your ex-girlfriend has a grudge against you…" Manny trailed off, loss of words.

JD snorted. "Let them speak. Words can't hurt you."

A few minutes passed in silence as JD stared at the sky and Manny the horizon. Then, Manny decided to break the silence.

"So…what do you want to talk to me about?"

JD stretched, and got up. "Just wanted to do the whole…bonding thing, y'know. I settled things off with Adam and we've started over as friends again. Yesterday, I teamed up with Gayathri against that Cerberumon. So that just leaves you and Liu Ying. I figured that although we're both used to be ShadoWira, we never really got the chance to talk. That's why I asked to meet you." He grinned. "How about we start with names, age, where we come from…things like that."

Manny nodded. "Emmanuel Abah. I'll turn fourteen in two months. I come from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. We transferred here because of my dad's job."

"Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman bin Johan Awaludin. I'm already sixteen since 19th February." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "My dad's a mix of Malay and Australian, my mom's a New Zealander Caucasian, if you're wondering about this…" he pointed at his dishwater blonde hair, "and this…" He jerked his eyebrows up, drawing attention to his greenish-blue eyes.

"It did cross my mind," Manny agreed, although he had figured it out before. "You're sixteen…but you're in Form Three?"

JD shrugged. "We moved to Malaysia from Australia when I was twelve. I didn't know much of Malay language then so I entered _Peralihan_ year for an intensive course in Malay language. That and my knack for languages, and also some private tutor my Dad hired for Mom, me and my siblings, we got the hang of it in a few months. It doesn't really bother me that I was a year behind; there are others who're just like me. Take Liu Ying for instance; she's gonna be fifteen and she's in Form Two."

"Oh…" Manny said, nodding. His thoughts reeled as he observed the blonde. JD was perfectly affable to him, which didn't fit the rumors he had heard of the older boy. He decided that since JD was in the mood to talk, why not just ask him about it. "From what I've heard, you're not usually one who loves to talk. My classmates mentioned that either you're a….uh…a…"

"Dark, brooding troublemaker?" JD supplied.

Manny ran a hand along his spiked dark maroon hair nervously. "Something like that…"

JD snorted. "I don't brood. I just like to sit around to think, and watch people around me."

Manny thought about JD's explanation, and decided to ask JD to elaborate. "What do you usually think about?"

The older teen shrugged. "Nothing much. Home. Fighting parents. Cold siblings." Then JD paused, as if regretting mentioning it. When he saw Manny looking at him silently, he shrugged and continued, "Those stuffs are enough to make you feel like crap." He eyed Manny sharply. "I bet you don't have to put up with that kind of experience, right? You don't strike me as someone who'd have to deal with shitty stuffs everyday."

"I suppose not…" Manny said hesitantly. "And…uh…what you did, that's actually called brooding."

JD glared at the younger DigiWira, but the glare softened as a smirk began to form. "Yeah…I suppose so. Heh." He tried to think of other things to talk about. Manny didn't seem to have a specific question for him; JD supposed that in a way he still intimidate the boy. Manny wasn't as vibrant as Gayathri, who was the DigiWira who warmed up to him instantly – she'd totally cast aside the fact that he was once evil. Adam, while appearing to be mild-mannered and laid-back, had a certain edge that made him stood out. JD had a hard time figuring out the DigiWira leader, up till the previous day. He still remained somewhat an enigma, to JD. Liu Ying…well, Liu Ying was Liu Ying. Tough as nails.

"Can I ask something?" Manny started again. "It's something I've been wondering about. That is, if you don't mind me asking…"

JD shrugged. "That's the whole purpose of our meeting. So shoot."

Manny trailed one finger on the sands aimlessly as he thought of how to voice out his question. He cleared out his unobstructed throat, and asked, "Back during our ShadoWira days… what drew you to Adam instead of Liu Ying…?" Upon seeing JD's eyes suddenly sharpened, Manny gulped, but decided to make his question clearer. "I mean, umm… I suppose you know why I targeted Gayathri… I was thinking, uh… I thought you'd do the same thing."

To Manny's surprise, JD snickered at his reaction. "I guess I should've _seen_ that question coming. Agumon asked me that, too," he said. "I thought you're Liu Ying's classmate? Don't you know her better by now?" Manny didn't look like he quite understood what JD had meant, causing the older teen to groan. "She _hates_ me, period. No way could I approach her. She'd get suspicious instantly. Besides…I've done some heartbreaking before, the idea had gotten so old… your future colleague Emily Chua is a proof of that."

Manny was about to ask, but JD had cut him in. Manny immediately shut his mouth, seeing that JD's expression had darkened considerably. "And that's why I picked Adam instead. That time, I thought he was gullible enough. The computer club gave me an opening to both Adam and Liu Ying, although that time we weren't under Karatenmon's spell yet. Liu Ying was super-annoyed when I joined their table, but Adam was civil enough. Last year, I saw him every now and then, sitting alone at somewhere secluded, seemingly lost in thoughts… he looked real sad. That changed when he started befriending that songkok-kid Hakim.

"It was through Hakim that I'd gotten all the info I needed. It dawned to me that how alike both of us are in some respect. He is the youngest of three, like me. He lost his parents and big bro in an accident… I lost them to real-life stuffs. Different situations, but with near-same results. Aside from the money, I never really got anything else from my folks and siblings – they're always too busy. My brother and I used to be close when we were little…hell, all three of us were close once…"

JD had a faraway look as he mentioned that, Manny observed, but the blonde seemed to be oblivious of it as he continued, "But when academic achievements became so important to Jade, we became distanced. And when Jas got so popular and gained lots of friends, same thing happened. In a way, I understood how he'd be feeling about the loss of his brother...

"Then I thought; Adam and his brother must've been close too. It was that damned curse which convinced me to get closer to Adam. It was just a fleeting thought but somehow it worked better than I expected. When Adam sent me a birthday message after finding out about it by accident, I set my plan into action. Ironically it was after we fought to a near-death point at Shadow Realm. I chatted with him, gave him a treat, joked around him, and taught him basketball… In short we hung out like we've been close friends, almost like brothers…" JD shook his head, looking remorse.

Manny said nothing, waiting for JD to continue. He suspected that JD wanted to get this out.

"Somehow, I think my plan went too well… the stuffs I did with Adam were those that I wanted to do with my brother for a long time, but Jade was always so busy impressing other people. I used that feeling to get to Adam, and somehow, it worked. I got a hunch that I've projected the same kind of image his brother had been, because…I dunno, Adam was instantly at ease after the first day we hung out. I did see him looking slightly awkward for a few seconds, every now and then, as if something crossed his minds whenever we hung out. He'd stare at me when he thought I wasn't looking, and the look on his face was like when we saw someone familiar, but never gotten around to actually remember who it was. You know, that annoyed, somewhat bothered look? Adam seemed to dismiss those thoughts every time they came. I on the other hand, knew that my plan was working.

"Everything went downhill after the revelation last Monday. I saw the look from his eyes. Betrayed, hurt, anger, all jumbled into one… but somehow Adam didn't let them out like I expected him to. He just…kept everything in. It was Liu Ying who did all the angry bits, as I'm sure you remember."

"I do," Manny nodded. He took a while to digest everything JD had just told him.

JD let out a long breath and stared at the horizon. "In a way, although it was scary as hell, I'm kind-of thankful that the whole Dark Ocean thing happened. It gave me a chance to make up for what I've done to Adam. It did look hard for him to forgive me at first, but eventually he did, after we got back here. I suspected that what I used against him had been a bigger blow to him than how I'd imagined, but he let it go…just like that." He stared at Manny pointedly, and chuckled as he looked at his watch. "Whoa…I've spent half an hour telling you about my stuff! Your turn."

Manny smiled back in return. "What do you want to know about?"

JD was reminded of Manny's nightmare, which Tapirmon had blasted onto him. He'd made a promise with Gayathri not to mention about the nightmares. Although the promise was only about hers and his nightmares – if JD asked Manny straight out about his fear of drowning, it would draw suspicion from Manny of how JD managed to acquire such knowledge. The other boy was sure to ask JD about it. No, he couldn't ask Manny flat-out about this.

So he decided to improvise. "How did you get into swimming?"

Manny gulped. JD somehow had managed to ask a sore question. It wasn't a secret, but something that he didn't usually discuss. But since JD had already spoken a lot about himself, Manny supposed that he could tell JD about this.

"I learned how to swim after a rather close call when I was seven…" Manny closed his eyes as he recollected the event. Everything was still as clear as day, despite nearly seven years had passed. His face became grim. "I went too far into the sea, and I…nearly drowned. Luckily my uncle managed to save me; my parents decided that I should learn how to swim after that. I was scared at first…but I got over it, and swimming became a hobby. But sometimes…the water still scares me," Manny admitted, shuddering a little.

"And you have the power of water," JD pointed out. "At least there's a connection. I don't have a clue of where my firepower is based upon." With that, he took out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. He cocked an eyebrow towards Manny. "Do you mind?"

"Umm…" Manny looked at the lighter nervously. "Uh…you're smoking?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" JD lit a cigarette and puffed it. He didn't look awkward doing it, which suggested that he'd been doing that for a while.

"When did you start?" Manny asked softly.

JD blew the smoke away, and turned to Manny. His expression darkened ever so slightly. His handsome face looked somewhat menacing from the ways his eyes narrowed. "When my folks decided that their new hobby is screaming at the top of their lungs everyday. When my siblings got out of the house, escaping to the world outside, and me? I was left behind. I had to endure the fighting every single damned day. Sometimes I couldn't even sleep hearing them fighting." All of a sudden, flames ignited from JD's hands and burnt the cigarette totally to ash, surprising even JD. He tossed the ashes away disgustedly and looked up to Manny's severely-intimidated face, stiff body and widened russet eyes. "Get a grip; I wasn't mad at you," he grunted, looking somewhat miffed. Then a wry smirk escaped his lips. "But I gave you that kind of impression, huh?"

Manny relaxed a little. "I'm sorry to hear that. Your family, I mean."

"Don't be. I'm quite used to it by now. Doesn't mean I like it, though. It's been two years, if you're wondering," JD said, using the lighter to light another cigarette. Then, he snorted derisively. "What the hell? Why am I using the lighter to light up my cigarette when I have my firepower?" As if what he'd said was funny, he began to chuckle. It wasn't a lighthearted chuckle, but rather, a hollow one…sounding like a feigned one too.

Manny realized then that his teammate needed to talk about his trouble, although Manny was sure that JD would not admit to it. Manny figured that JD would be more comfortable around Adam after their adventure at the Dark Ocean, but Adam had his own major problem. Manny wondered how his other teammate was holding up; he hadn't heard of Adam that day. Then, while looking at JD, who was smoking silently, Manny studied the blonde's expression. It wasn't hard to see that JD was frustrated over something. JD didn't look this harassed the previous day. Perhaps something had happened today?

"JD…" Manny began, and waited until JD was finished with his cigarette. The blonde tossed the butt of the cigarette away, and cocked an eyebrow towards him.

"What?"

"What happened today…earlier?" Manny asked carefully.

JD stared at Manny suspiciously. "What makes you think something happened?"

"You look upset," Manny pointed out. "And you sound upset too."

JD was quiet. He looked at the playing Digimon wordlessly as he finished up his current cigarette. Then he threw the remains away and faced Manny with a dark glint in his eyes. "My folks found about me smoking. They weren't exactly thrilled. At first they yelled at me, and then somehow they ended up yelling at each other in my room. Of all the places, it _had _to be in my room. Where else could I go now for escape? Where else…other than the Digital World?" With every sentence, his tone became higher and higher.

"Umm… what were you doing smoking in your room if you didn't want your parents to find out about it?"

JD blinked. "They weren't supposed to come in," he said defensively. "But my Dad just _had_ to barge in, wanting me to hurry up getting ready for Friday prayers. At first he got mad when he saw that I still hadn't showered. Then he detected the reek… I wasn't smoking at the time but I guess the smell remained. And you know what happened next."

Manny was silent. "_Why_ do you smoke?" He asked, after a couple of minutes passed in silence.

The blonde teen contemplated his answer by examining the pack of Marlboro Light he was holding. Then he shrugged. "I dunno… for some peace, I guess. It gave me a peace of mind. A senior recommended it to me…I could do without the smell though, but it works nonetheless…so I continue on."

Manny eyed the pack of cigarettes tentatively. JD was reaching for his third cigarette.

"My grandfather was a heavy smoker…" Manny said slowly. He held his breath, anticipating JD's reaction.

JD cocked his head sideways. "Was?" He asked, interested.

"He's passed away…" Manny exhaled quietly. "Lung cancer."

Comprehension dawned on the blonde's face. He shrugged and eyed the cigarette he was holding. "I could get hit by a truck tomorrow and end up dead…Karatenmon could've killed me when we battled each other…" A flicker of flame was ignited on his right index finger. JD placed the cigarette closer to the lit finger.

'_I must be crazy for doing this…' _Manny pointed a quivering hand at the cigarette pack's direction, and released a perfectly-targeted jet of water towards it. The cigarettes were instantly soaked. Manny held his breath as he waited for JD's reaction. _'He is definitely NOT liking this."_

JD looked appalled. Turning towards Manny, the other boy could see his eyes blazing dangerously. The blonde threw the cigarette pack and instantly leaped towards Manny, pinning him down with his left arm. The right hand was brought up to the side of his head, clenched into a fist, readied for a punch. His teeth gritted in anger.

"What the HELL was that for?!"

"Smoking is not the answer, JD," Manny said with a wavering tone. His nostril was invaded by the stench of tobacco that emanated from JD, resulting in him trying so hard not to choke in repugnance. It wouldn't help him in his current fix. He looked up at JD; eyes transfixed on the blonde's flashing irises, and saw immediately why people had been saying that JD was not a person to mess with. The pleasantness that the blonde had displayed to him earlier had evaporated with a blink of the eye.

"Answer to WHAT?!" JD growled. "I'm not looking for answers. I'm looking for a brief peace of mind, and _you_ have the nerve to…"

"It's still not the way…" Manny said, trying to reach out for the blonde's hardened heart. He couldn't move; JD's grasp on his shoulder was too strong. Despite them being in near-equal size, JD was still evidently the superior in terms of physical strength.

The excited chattering from their partners and the Gomamon instantly stopped; their attentions now fixated towards the two humans.

"HEY! Get off my partner!" Penguinmon yelled.

"Josh! What's going on?" Agumon pleaded. "Why are you fighting?"

JD glared towards Manny, his reddening face contorted. His chest heaved in and out slowly as he steadied his emotions. Manny's words echoed in his mind. The fury in his hazel eyes diminished slowly. Then he got off the younger boy, and offered a tentative hand to help Manny up. Manny took it and allowed the blonde to pull him back up.

"God, what's gotten into me?" JD murmured. He placed a hand on his forehead, massaging it slowly in frustration.

"JD, it's alright…umm…not really, but I understand why you did it." Manny dusted off some sands from his uniform jacket before looking at JD. JD was letting his emotions show; Manny understood that. He'd never seen his parents fighting, except for some occasional banter which turned into loud arguments, but usually ended up with laughter and joking. The way JD had described his parents…Manny now understood why people described JD as the dark and brooding one.

Looking at JD, Manny saw the JD that had never been displayed in front of Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri. Manny had seen the somewhat-sarcastic-cum-flirting side of JD when the blonde was with Liu Ying. He'd caught a glimpse of the warmer side of JD when he was with Adam. While he didn't see how he was like with Gayathri, the girl had mentioned that JD was kind of funny and wild, but in a good way. And now with Manny, JD had shown a deeper, darker side of his personality…and Manny saw it fully – a frustrated, sad JD – an upset JD Kamaruzaman who currently could use a friend to lighten his burden, whether the blonde would admit it or not.

The blonde's multitude of personalities fazed him slightly. But he also knew that JD needed a friend.

"I don't know whether I can help you or how can I do that, but if you need someone to talk about your problems…I'll listen to you," Manny began as he moved in front of the dejected JD. "And I won't tell anyone else, if that's what you want." He gulped, and continued again with a tone lower than before. "You know…I've read that it's not good that we keep things bottled up inside of us. If you want to talk about it…"

JD considered Manny's offer. He seemed somewhat hesitant at first, before sighing. "That would be great, Manny. I appreciate that. Thanks."

"Anytime, for a friend," Manny returned with an assuring smile.

JD held out his right hand, which was balled up into a fist. He let his hand hung in midair and looked at Manny inquiringly.

At first, Manny was confused of the gesture. He wondered what JD wanted him to do. Then, something clicked in his mind – he remembered seeing this gesture from TV series he'd watched. A gesture between two buddies. Manny quickly balled up his right hand into a fist, and knocked it lightly against JD's. JD moved his fist, placing it several inches up from Manny's, and knocked Manny's fist downward. Manny retracted his fist and returned the gesture. The two teens smiled and knocked their fists together face on.

Unbeknownst to them, their fight and quick reconciliation surprised the Digimon.

"What the heck was that? Can someone explain to me what has just happened?" Penguinmon demanded, as the Gomamon trio oohs-and-aahs admiringly.

"I think our partners have made up, whatever their dispute was," Agumon explained. s

"First they talk, then they fight like enemies, and then somehow they're friends again? That's so weird." Penguinmon shook his head. "Humans are stupid."

The Gomamon trio giggled and looked towards the sea, where a white furred walrus-like Digimon was approaching. "Ooh, Mama's coming, Mama's coming!" the smallest of the three Gomamon gushed happily, beckoning towards the approaching. The other two looked at the Ikkakumon and showed their delight as well. The biggest of the trio tapped Agumon on the shoulder.

"It's been nice meeting you two…but we better get going," the Gomamon said, indicating Ikkakumon with his flipper.

"Maybe we should meet again sometime," the middle-sized Gomamon suggested. "Azure Cove is our favorite play site, but it does get a bit boring when all we have is each other to play with."

"Ooh, ooh…say you'll come again," the smallest Gomamon enthused.

"We're pretty busy mons, so no promises," Penguinmon said, puffing out his chest.

"Don't be that way, Penguinmon," Agumon said, and looked at the Gomamon. "We'll try."

"YAAY!!" The Gomamon cheered, and turned to go to the Ikkakumon. "See you again! Bye!"

Agumon and Penguinmon waved their friends goodbye and watched as the Gomamon boarded their large mother on her back. Ikkakumon regarded them with caution eyes, which darted from them towards the two DigiWira, who were now on their feet and looking at her as well. To the partners' surprise, Ikkakumon's eyes narrowed, and she glared at them suspiciously.

"You are the ShadoWira!!" she exclaimed shrilly. Her body tensed; the Champion Digimon looked furious all of a sudden. "You…you…stay away from my boys!!"

Agumon and Penguinmon froze; they didn't expect Ikkakumon to react that way. The Gomamon brothers peered over their mother's shoulder in wonder. They looked at each other, wondering why their mother was angry towards their new friends.

"Did they harm you, boys?" she asked the Gomamon.

"Harm us? Agumon and Penguinmon? Of course not, mom," the middle Gomamon answered. "They're our friends."

"_Friends?_" Ikkakumon snorted. Her eyes didn't leave the DigiWira partners. "_Them?_ Your father's _murderers?_"

"Murderers?" JD looked at their partners, confused. "Them? Agumon and Penguinmon?"

"That can't be right," Manny murmured.

"And why NOT?!" Ikkakumon demanded hotly. She raised one paw and pointed it towards Agumon and Penguinmon accusingly. "They're the ones who killed my dear Archelomon, back at the East Lake City! Exveemon told me it was Flarelizamon and Depthmon who were the murderers! BUTCHERS!!" she shouted.

The Gomamon looked at Agumon and Penguinmon, and at their mother. "They killed papa?" the smallest Gomamon asked sadly.

Realization dawned to Agumon and Penguinmon. After being recruited by Karatenmon as the partners for JD and Manny, they were sent to the East Lake City to draw the attention of the DigiWira. While awaiting their arrivals, Flarelizamon and Depthmon had wrecked havoc, nearly demolishing the entire city if it weren't for the DigiWira's interference. There were still some dark spots in Agumon and Penguinmon's minds pertaining to that day, but they had done a lot of damage and had attacked many Digimon. Perhaps the Archelomon was one of them.

It had been an intense day. Agumon and Penguinmon both remembered it well enough, although it had been shrouded upon their conversion to the side of good. Now that Ikkakumon had mentioned it, a large green-shelled turtle Digimon began to take form in the Rookies' minds. The Digimon had blades for fin. He had attempted to stop Depthmon from attacking the citizens of the city, when Flarelizamon attacked him from behind. Being an Armored Champion Digimon, Archelomon was tough enough to withstand Flarelizamon's fire power, so he'd retaliated with his fins. Depthmon stopped him with a jet of pressurized water, which sent the turtle tumbling. They then combined their powers and deleted Archelomon.

"We're sorry…" Agumon said wholeheartedly. He looked at Penguinmon, who appeared horrified upon remembering their evil deeds. "We were under Karatenmon's evil influence at that time…"

"Sorry?" Ikkakumon said incredulously. "SORRY?! Sorry won't bring back my dear Archelomon! What use your sorry is to me? My children are fatherless, and I am without my other half!" Ikkakumon stared at them dangerously, her body hunched; she was pointing her horn towards the beach, where the DigiWira were currently at. The pointed black horn suddenly burst out, zooming towards the DigiWira with rapid speed. _"Harpoon Torpedo!!"_

"Look out!" JD pushed Manny away, seeing the incoming missile. The harpoon missile exploded onto the ground; the shockwave resulted sent all four of them flying, and tumbling against the piles of sands of the cove. Luckily the sands had prevented them from getting hurt. They coughed as smokes erupted. For a moment they waited for the smoke to clear to regain a clear view of their surroundings. What they were about to see however was something none of them expected.

The calm waters around the cove were now stirring wildly. Waves washed down the narrow with a force that could crush the hardest of stones. The sky darkened, clouds formed and thunders rumbled as Ikkakumon and the Gomamon trio shone with menacing dark purple light. The three Gomamon were enveloped by a water tornado which erupted from the ocean just as Ikkakumon's whole body was propelled to new heights. She became bigger and transformed into a bipedal giant gray and orange walrus wearing a spiked turtle shell on her back. Tufts of orange hair erupted from her upper torso as a belt clasped the turtle shell she wore on her back. Lightning tore from sky and formed a large metal hammer. The zigzagged tusk on her snout blitzed with lightning.

"What you've done to my spouse was unforgivable! I, now **Zudomon**, shall avenge my dear Archelomon!!" the walrus Digimon shrieked in a voice that was forebodingly menacing. She no longer sounded like Ikkakumon; this was a voice akin to a crazed woman.

The water tornado exploded and a giant dark figure emerged from it. It was a frightening devil-like Digimon who stood almost as tall as the towering Zudomon. Its face was diamond-shaped with bat wings around the tip. Where Zudomon was a hulking creature this Digimon was slight and lanky. Draped in leathery blue armor, the Digimon looked human-like except for the elongated white tentacles that erupted from its back. Two of them went up vertically and bent over its shoulders frontward, and the ends were shaped like flippers with black claws while the other tentacles snaked from its back to other directions. The arms were long and ended with clawed flippers as well. Red eyes stared down towards the DigiWira.

"We're now **MarineDevimon**, and we'll help our mama avenge our papa, killers!" the aquatic beast hissed with the combined voices of the Gomamon trio.

"Shit…" JD muttered. "From the looks of it both of them are now Ultimate Digimon!" He took out his Digivice and Red DigiSphere, and glanced towards Manny. "You know what this means…"

Manny nodded and followed suit as the Digimon stood in front of them.

"We can't delete them…we can't fight them…" Agumon whimpered. "They…they're just consumed by anger and we're the ones to blame. We're the ones who killed Archelomon…it's not their fault for getting angry…I can't bear to fight them…"

"…" Penguinmon, usually one with witty remarks, was speechless. He was backing away towards Manny, his eyes transfixed fearfully towards Zudomon and MarineDevimon who were both looming towards them. The shadows of the two infuriated Digimon loomed over the four of them menacingly.

"We'll decide that _after_ we merge," JD snapped, looking up towards the two Ultimates. "In these forms those two are gonna crush us for sure!"

"JD's right," Manny concurred. "In our Ultimate forms perhaps we can reason with them."

The two Digimon realized that their partners were right, and readied themselves to merge with them.

"**Digital Access…"**The two DigiWira thrust their Digivices forward, and pointed their DigiSpheres towards the Digivices. **"…Digivolution!!"**Red and blue beams entered their Digivices and an explosion of light in shades of red and blue took place, as JD's and Manny's transformation cries echoed all over Azure Cove. **"HAAAA!!!"**

The lights died down, revealing Satriamon and Samudramon standing side by side. The two dragon-men Digimon watched as Zudomon and MarineDevimon began approaching the shores, hammer and tentacles ready to attack.

"We have to try to knock them out," Samudramon said, as Penguinmon's memory and knowledge of Archelomon's deletion became his own.

"Sure, if they don't trample us first," Satriamon grunted. "I'll take on the mom, you handle the kid."

"Fine by me. Remember…no deleting."

"Yeah, yeah…fine. If they don't delete us first, that is."

Satriamon summoned his Flaming Torch technique and sailed towards Zudomon. Seeing him coming, Zudomon shrieked wildly and swung her hammer to knock out Satriamon. Satriamon made a back-flip whilst midair, demonstrating great agility, before using the hammer as a stepping stone to launch himself once again. Zudomon shrieked and once again attempted to crush Satriamon, but the fusion Digimon streaked away before slamming his magma-self onto Zudomon's right shoulder blade, scorching her tufts of torso hair with flames. However to Satriamon's annoyance, the walrus Digimon furiously scooped some water and washed away the flames. The waters nearly drowned his flaming body if he wasn't quick enough to torch away. But then, a swishing sound of something heavy was heard from his back, followed by a gust of wind and the sounds of crackling electricity.

"_Vulcan Hammer!!"_

Satriamon whirled around and quickly counter-attacked. He raised his clawed golden gauntlet and summoned the might of his flames to take form of a roaring dragon as he launched it towards Zudomon's hammer. _"Dragonforce Striker!!"_

The two weapons collided with a deafening clang, and to Satriamon's surprise he was pushed back forcefully. Zudomon's strength was fearsomely high; Satriamon was sent crashing onto the beach. He got up quickly and felt a searing pain coming from his right arm, which was shivering uncontrollably due to the force from the collision of weapons. It almost felt as if his arm was fractured, but Satriamon knew that wasn't the case. His human half had experienced fractured arm before, which assured him that his arm was still intact. But should Zudomon struck any harder…

"What the hell? My gauntlet's made of Chrome Digizoid alloy! It should've broken the hammer," Satriamon muttered.

Zudomon loomed down triumphantly as she flexed her arm, bringing her hammer close to her body. "You're not the only one with a Chrome Digizoid weapon!" she boomed. "My Thor Hammer is _fully_ made out of Chrome Digizoid!!" She swung the heavy hammer with ease, showing off her prowess to her smaller foe.

"What? Oh, damn…" The red-armored warrior cast his eyes aside and momentarily observed the heated battle between Samudramon and MarineDevimon.

Due to the fact that MarineDevimon was the digivolved form of three inexperienced Rookie Digimon, Samudramon had the advantage during the first few minutes of their battle. True to his words to Satriamon earlier, he'd made sure _not_ to deliver a fatal blow towards the aquatic beast. That made him refraining from using the deadly Double-Edged Thunderblades technique, but he'd made full use of his other techniques. The Deep Ocean Submerge was somewhat useless against a marine Digimon, so Samudramon only had the Cosmic Thunderstrike and the Divine Rain at his disposal. Two scorch marks on MarineDevimon's chest were the evidence of him being struck by Samudramon's thunderbolts.

Soon however, MarineDevimon had gotten used of their…_his_ new body, and prepared for a counter attack. He launched his tentacles towards Samudramon, who was currently propelled to his eye level by a pillar of water. Samudramon knocked away the tentacles easily with his trident, and seemingly decided that pricking the other Digimon with the sharp points of his trident wouldn't send MarineDevimon to oblivion. MarineDevimon seethed angrily and opened his mouth, spraying Samudramon point-blanc with…

"_Guilty Black!!"_ …deadly poisonous ink, which coated Samudramon's whole merman body. Samudramon cried in pain and fell from his pillar.

Satriamon gaped when he saw Samudramon, coated with ink all over his body, crashed onto the shore. MarineDevimon approached the writhing Samudramon and chuckled menacingly – there was no trace of the kind Gomamon inside him; MarineDevimon was a complete corruption. Without thinking, Satriamon thrust an arm towards MarineDevimon, while the other was fixed towards Zudomon. _"Shadow Flame Helix!!"_

A black fiery serpent sped towards Zudomon and coiled around her wrist, blistering through her skin which elicited a pained shriek from the female. In the meantime, an orange roaring dragon snaked towards MarineDevimon and spiraled around his thin body, burning through his leathery armor. For a moment, Satriamon struggled to keep his balance as the two marine Digimon attempted to resist him. There was a brief standstill but Satriamon knew that he couldn't keep this up for long.

Zudomon stopped screaming and summoned, _"Ice Lord Bump!"_ She breathed out a wave of ice from her mouth, which promptly froze the black serpent. The ice radiated further until it froze Satriamon's left arm, to the dragon man's dismay. With her arm freed, she wasted no time and approached the shore. Then she thumped her hammer mightily onto the sandy beach with a cry of _"Vulcan Hammer!!"_, and a bolt of electricity streaked towards Satriamon, shocking him to his knees. With him down, the orange dragon that was fixed on MarineDevimon also dissipated.

Samudramon and Satriamon had both fallen.

"Justice is served," Zudomon said, pleased as she raised her arm high. Her shadow loomed over Satriamon. _"Vulcan…"_

However Zudomon wasn't able to fully summon her attack, when torrents of meteorites with flaming feather projectiles spiraling around them slammed against her. The force of the sudden attack sent her falling on her shelled back. Her submerged body instantly caused a meter-high wave to wash over the cove's narrow shore. Seeing the sudden turn of events, Satriamon whipped his head back and saw Sagittarimon Radiant Mode and a winged humanoid Digimon in white and crimson approaching them. On board Sagittarimon were Adam and a young man, whom Satriamon thought to be strangely familiar.

'_Wait…isn't that…?' _He saw Adam and the man vanished from Sagittarimon and reappeared near Samudramon.

Samudramon, coated from head to caudal tail with ink, turned sideways as he noticed the familiar glimmer of light. "Adam…?"

"Hang on, Samudramon." Adam knelt beside the merman, his expression set as he positioned both palms several inches above Samudramon's chest and closed his eyes. The ink slowly vanished in orbs of white light, reappearing over a pile of sand harmlessly. "It's not the cleanest job ever…" he commented as Samudramon got up. He eyed the patches of ink that were still evident on Samudramon's body. "But at least you're not fully covered by that thick gooey stuff anymore."

Samudramon was more than grateful for Adam's help – the ink was poisonous and had weakened him. "Thank you, Adam."

Then he took a moment to observe Adam, surprised to see that the boy looked somewhat elated. He no longer appeared subdued as it had been yesterday. Samudramon's attention shifted to the young man that was standing behind Adam, and was stricken with how _similar_ he and Adam looked. But while Adam was pleasant, the stranger was cold when his eyes caught Samudramon's. He made no attempt to acknowledge Samudramon, focusing his attention instead towards an unfamiliar winged Digimon which made Samudramon gape with amazement.

'_An angel Digimon?'_ Samudramon's hidden eyes went back towards the stranger. _'Could it be that this angel is partnered to this guy? Who is he?'_

"You're welcome," Adam said smilingly. "Are you okay on your own now?"

Samudramon returned the smile. "I think so." He watched as Adam jogged towards Satriamon, with the stranger following him close by. Odd as it was, Samudramon decided that now was not the time to think about that. He observed MarineDevimon, who was about to attack again. Gritting his teeth as a bout of pain radiated from his abdomen, Samudramon grasped his trident tight.

He heard galloping sounds, and saw Sagittarimon coming towards him, bow and arrow ready. "Adam said that you could use some help," the white-armored centaur said.

"Sure," Samudramon nodded. "Thanks. But we can't kill MarineDevimon; he's just not himself for now. He's not to blame for what he's doing. We need to knock him unconscious, that's all."

Sagittarimon cocked his head curiously, but didn't ask for a reason. "Alright. I know what to do."

"_Guilty Black!!"_

Sagittarimon and Samudramon quickly prepared to counter the attack. Respectively they released an arrow of electrifying light and a cerulean thunderbolt towards the incoming spray of poisonous obsidian ink. The two attacks pierced through the ink and sailed towards MarineDevimon. The arrow barely grazed the left side of the beast's abdomen, enough to cause liquid to drain out from the wound. The thunderbolt went straight towards MarineDevimon's chest, forcing him to stumble backward.

Samudramon then raised his trident and called forth, _"Divine Rain!"_

From the heavens, heavy rains poured over MarineDevimon and Samudramon. The rains leeched out the demon's energy and transferred it towards Samudramon. Feeling some energy returning to him, Samudramon spun his staff and released another bolt of lightning, slamming MarineDevimon over the chest again. It was followed by another thunderbolt, which finally sent the weakened aquatic beast falling into the sea, creating a huge wave which washed over to the shore in the process. Beams of light erupted from MarineDevimon as he glowed with dark purple aura. Data particles dissipated from him, and what remained soon after was three unconscious Gomamon.

Samudramon heaved a relieved breath and regressed into Manny and Penguinmon. Both of them looked somewhat roughed up, but apart from that they were fine.

The battle with Zudomon was considerably fiercer. Satriamon and the angelic Digimon launched their flame attacks together, but they were easily countered by Zudomon. However, it didn't look like Zudomon was having an easier time as well. Satriamon alone was a tough opponent, and with the angel Digimon's arrival, things didn't seem to look up her way.

"_Dark Rage!!"_ Satriamon sent several waves of dark energy which slammed over Zudomon.

The beast shrieked; the Dark Rage was a power-depleting technique which could reduce an opponent's energy. Satriamon had found an opening to launch his attack when the angel Digimon launched a fiery tornado, which effectively distracted the water beast's attention from Satriamon. Seeing the effectiveness of this technique, Satriamon sent it again.

Zudomon nonetheless wouldn't go down easily. She raised her hammer and slammed it forth towards Satriamon. _"Vulcan Hammer!!"_

This time, Samudramon was prepared to face the attack. He channeled more power into his clawed gauntlet and thrust it towards the incoming hammer. _"Dragonforce Striker!!"_

Two Chrome Digizoid weapons collided once again with a deafening clang, but this time around Satriamon was the stronger assailant. Zudomon gasped in surprise as her powerful hammer was forced out from her grasp. The angel Digimon further carried the hammer away from Zudomon with his tornado.

"Without your weapon, you're not so tough now are you?" Satriamon smirked, seeing Zudomon's horror-struck expression. "This is getting boring. The game ends now for you. _Shadow Flame Helix!!"_ Seizing the water beast by her arms with flaming dragon and serpent, Satriamon waited until the pain of the attack began to set in Zudomon before relinquishing control of his attack to form another power depleting attack. The Dark Rage attack sent Zudomon crashing against the stone walls of the cove. Satriamon then aimed another Dark Rage, and fired it just as Zudomon was about to fall into the sea. With the attack hitting its target, Zudomon was knocked out unconscious and reverted into Ikkakumon.

Satriamon smirked, pleased. "Finally. I thought she's never going down!" Looking at Adam, he reverted back to JD and Agumon. JD flashed a thumbs-up. "Thanks for the help!"

Adam smiled back as Sagittarimon approached him, devolving into Patamon in the process. The mammal Digimon landed over Adam's head; JD saw them tailing their attention towards the angel Digimon, who descended towards the young man before devolving into a purple version of Patamon. The other Patamon flew directly towards the stranger's right shoulder, landing on it. It struck JD there and then that not only Adam and the young man were similar, but their Digimon too were nearly identical save for their coloring.

'_Who is this guy? I think I've seen him before…'_ JD observed the young man, careful not to really look at him, but instead watching him from the corner of his eyes. _'He looks like Adam.'_ He also noticed that Adam was looking remarkably happier than he had been the day before.

"JD…Manny…" he said in a barely-concealed glee as he beckoned towards the stranger. "Meet my brother…Abang Zad."

JD and Manny froze. _I thought Adam's brother has passed away?_ They both thought at the same time. Manny glanced at JD curiously; it was JD who had told him about Adam's brother's death. JD looked visibly shocked upon the revelation.

Adam turned towards his brother. "This is JD… and this is Manny."

Aizad narrowed his eyes. "Yeah. I've heard of them," he said with a low growl. Then, speedily he darted past Adam and launched a punch which knocked the wind out of JD, sending the blonde teen staggering backward before landing, dazed, onto the sandy beach.

Adam gasped. "Stop!" He quickly moved to grab his brother by his black shirt, successfully restraining him from hitting Manny as well. The russet-eyed boy had backed away from Aizad's reach, but the young man could easily pursue him if it weren't for Adam pulling the back of his shirt.

Aizad glanced over his shoulder. "Weren't they the ones who kidnapped you?" There was a murky look reflected from his eyes, which caused Adam to flinch inwardly. Adam knew this look. He had seen it several times before… Aizad would have that look whenever someone had wronged Adam or Alisha, back when they were younger. It would only take an insult to set Aizad off. Adam gulped; had his brother heard of the misdeeds JD and Manny had done to him when they were evil? Adam shuddered. He needed to explain their situation, pronto.

"Well….uh….yes, but that was when they were evil. It wasn't even their fault for being evil, and now, they're good. Why did you hit them?" Adam quickly went to inspect JD. JD swore silently and allowed Adam to help him up. Adam looked back at his brother, confused of his attitude.

"Just a lesson for messing with you. No one messes with my family and gets away with it." Aizad cracked his knuckles and stared at JD and Manny coldly. "Stories go around. Some of the villagers from Green Meadow Village had sought refuge over at East Lake City when their village was destroyed. No prize for guessing how I came to learn the rest of the story." His tone was dark. "Heard that it was the _Red ShadoWira_ who'd always targeted you…a punch on the gut is _nothing_ compared to what I have in mind right now…"

"But it's all in the past," Adam cut in softly. "JD and Manny are my friends now. Please don't attack them anymore." He gave a pleading look towards his brother and let go of his brother's shirt. "Please?"

Aizad considered it. "If you say so, little brother," he said finally. The dangerous glint in his eyes evaporated, and Adam sighed with relief.

JD walked past Adam, glaring towards Aizad angrily. He knew why exactly Aizad was violent towards him, and he accepted it. But that still didn't quench his fury of being punched without warning. As much as he wanted to give Aizad a taste of his own knuckle, JD restrained himself. There was something else that was bothering him, even more than the fact that he'd been punched over the gut. "Hey! Aren't you supposed to be _dead_?" he demanded.

"Apparently, I'm not."

"Care to explain _why_?"

Aizad snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I see no need to explain myself to you."

JD scowled. "What's with the attitude?"

"You've got a problem, blondie?"

JD seethed at the nickname. Manny wisely placed a placating, yet firm grasp on the blonde's right shoulder.

"Um…guys…?" Adam looked from Aizad to JD, unsure of what to do. Why was Aizad _still_ picking a fight with his friends, for something that Adam had put to rest?

Aizad tore his gaze away from the former ShadoWira, and regarded his younger brother. "Adam, come on. Let's go. As I remember, you have your best friend's kenduri to attend to later on. We can visit Kak Lisha tomorrow. Do you have school tomorrow?"

"Umm…do we?" Adam looked at JD and Manny questioningly.

"Tomorrow's a club and society meeting day," Manny supplied. "Are you coming?"

Adam regarded his brother, who merely shrugged in return. He returned to face Manny and shook his head. "I don't think I'll be coming." He met Manny's and JD's gazes, and knew that they had some questions to ask him. He let out an assuring smile and a nod, indicating that he would tell them what they wanted, just not right at that moment. He retreated a few steps back before turning, as Aizad flung one arm across the back of Adam's neck, placing it on the boy's shoulders as the young man guided him to walk away from the other DigiWira. Adam glanced across his shoulder briefly, mouthing out _'See you guys later'_ with the briefest of a nod, before turning back to face where he was going. The two Patamon, orange and purple, flew behind their respective partners as they made their way away from Azure Cove.

JD and Manny watched them leave, before the older of the DigiWira let out a groan.

"I don't trust that guy. Adam's brother. Something seems to be off with him."

"He's supposed to be dead. Him walking around means that _a lot_ of things are way off about him," Penguinmon quipped.

Manny sighed, nodding. "I saw how he looked at us. He _hates_ us." He looked down at their partners. "First, someone _you_ two wronged came back to seek revenge. Then it was someone _we_ wronged…" The spike-haired teen looked troubled, and glanced towards his friend.

"Karma sure bites back hard… but it's not _that_ that was troubling me," JD grunted, and rubbed his abdomen where he'd been punched. "I'm telling you, something's not right about that brother of Adam's. I just can't figure out why."

"But Adam seems happy though." Manny rubbed his chin. "It's what he needs in times like this. I thought I'd never see him smile so genuinely again after yesterday." He then blinked, as if an inspiration struck him. "You know, JD… you mentioned that you thought that you'd projected something like Adam's brother when you two hung out…" He saw JD whipping his head up, looking at Manny curiously. "Now that we've met the said big brother… I think you're right. You two seemed to come from one same mould…"

JD appeared stunned. "I didn't realize that."

"It's true; I've never thought that I'd see two people who are so much alike," Manny pointed out.

"Still, that guy's supposed to be _dead_," JD muttered, still unsatisfied. "Hakim had been sure of it, heck even _Adam_ was sure of it." His thought reeled back to Adam's nightmare which he'd seen the previous day. It had clearly shown him that Adam's parents and brother didn't survive the accident. It had been Adam's nightmare to lose his sister the same way he'd lost his parents and brother. And now somehow Adam's brother was back from the dead?

"I'm sure there's a good explanation for this," Manny reasoned. "Adam will tell us about it soon, I think." He eyed JD's hand, placed at the site where he was punched by Aizad. "Are you ok?"

JD grimaced as he rubbed his abs again. "Man, that guy packs quite a punch!" he admitted to Manny. "You're lucky Adam managed to grab him before he punched you too…"

"Could it be worse than _your_ punch?" Manny asked. His tone was kept to sound as an inquiry, but there was a teasing there, well-placed, yet well-hidden. Manny's expression was innocent, it was hard to see whether he was really asking, or he was teasing JD.

"Of course NOT!" JD clasped his right fist tight into his left palm. "No freaking way. Mine's still stronger."

Manny nodded. "Of course." He smiled slightly upon seeing JD's disgruntled face. "But you're mad that he punched you. Your reputation's ruined." Now that they were friends, Manny decided that it was safer now to make quips such as that to the renowned school troublemaker. It was now obvious that he was teasing JD, but he still kept his tone sounding as if he was merely pointing out facts.

JD huffed and crossed his arms across his chest. Now that they were friends, _real friends, _JD just didn't have the heart to lay a punch on Manny like he would to anyone who dared to make fun of him. He scowled, irritated, feeling that there was one point that he had to straighten out.

"I'm telling you, I could take him down, anytime! He's just a little taller than me. Just an inch, tops." Seeing Manny chuckling, JD grunted in annoyance and gave up. "Let's just go back."

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

No scene with the girls or with the Puaka Generals in this chapter. They were here in previous draft…but their appearances were redundant so I had to cut them out. Besides, this newer draft fits more with the title. This chapter is JD and Manny's chapter mainly, focusing on their friendship, as well as the introduction of Aizad Ariff, Adam's 18 year old brother, thought to be deceased. Why did I bring him in the story? We'll see.

I've modified Zudomon's appearance in this chapter, seeing that this Zudomon is a she.

Next chapter: JD and Liu Ying's chapter – "Opposites Attract"

**Words Glossary:**

_Ayah – _Father

_Ibu - _Mother

_Abang_ – Literarily means big brother. Adam calls Aizad '_Abang Zad'_ because it's considered rude to call an elder sibling just by their name unless mutually agreed upon or the age gap is close. In Adam's case, the age gap between him and Aizad is four years, which is prominent enough for Aizad to get the title 'Abang' from him. It works the same way as well between Adam and Alisha, who are eight years separated. But between male friends it's generally acceptable to refer to each other by names, regardless of age, although sometimes it's done as well. Hence, Adam and Manny don't have to call JD big brother despite the two-year differences between them.

Also has a second meaning; it's also a loving call from a woman to her spouse (boyfriend and husband alike). Yup, it can be confusing…

_Pak Long_ – It means 'first uncle' if literarily translated. Usually the first male sibling of a Malay person's father or mother is referred as _Pak Long_.

_Peralihan – _An extra one year of secondary school before entering Form One. This is usually for students who came from vernacular primary schools where Malay language is not used while teaching the subjects, as opposed to national schools.


	27. Opposite Attracts

Black irises stared at hazel eyes irritably.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Liu Ying questioned, upon meeting JD's smirking face right after arriving at the Forest Sanctum. JD had his arms folded and was leaning against the wall near the fountain. He was observing her with a rather amused expression, which unnerved her.

"Umm…let's see." JD raised one finger, the smirk turning into a lopsided grin. "I'm a DigiWira too, now." He pulled up a second finger. "And I got the warning signal just as you did."

Liu Ying looked around the somewhat empty sanctum, expecting a larger crowd that that she was currently seeing. There was TobuCatmon, perched on top of the table. Agumon was standing near the table; apparently they were conversing prior to Liu Ying's arrival. And there was Labramon who stood by her. And of course, JD was there too, standing quite a distance away from the Digimon. But there were _no_ sign of the others.

"Where are the others?"

"Today's Sunday, so Manny's got church to attend to," JD answered. "Gayathri's gonna buy the whole Midvalley Megamall with her two friends, and Adam's somewhere with that brother of his."

"How do you know all that?"

"Simple. I chatted with them online last night. Well, except for Adam, and you. You haven't even approved my 'add contact' request on YM. Anyway, they told me their plans, and since they're not here…" JD jerked his eyebrows up, letting his sentence unfinished. "And I assume since Adam's sister is still at the hospital and his brother apparently returned from the dead…" he said that with a slight distaste in his voice, "…that Adam might be spending time with him at the hospital, or somewhere else."

"Oh." Liu Ying turned towards TobuCatmon and eyed him critically. "TobuCatmon, what seems to be the problem?"

TobuCatmon beckoned towards the sun staff, which was displaying an unfamiliar blue insect Digimon, before meeting Liu Ying's gaze. "I'll let KoKabuterimon explain his situation to you."

xxx

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A domed obsidian structure with four dark spires erected at four sides was seen amidst a barren region. The building was tall; easily reaching 30-feet in height, and the spires were even higher. The sky above and behind the building was dark purple, with light gray clouds. Lightning crackled at the four tips of the spires, transferring thunderbolt from one spire to another continuously. No traces of vegetations could be seen at all.

Sorcerymon and Shutumon walked slowly towards the entrance of the building. Said entrance was a stone door about four times their heights. When they arrived by the door, rumblings could be heard and the heavy stone door moved sideways by an unknown mechanism. Gulping, the two servants of SkullSatamon walked inside. Behind the door was a straight passage, completely dark if it weren't for the candles hung on the walls every few meters apart. The flames let out eerie greenish-yellow light and a faint stinging smell.

They soon reached a hall nearly void of light, where amidst the shadows stood two tall figures. Menacing scarlet eyes could be seen glowing from within the shadows, but the rest of their figures were hidden by the darkness. Seeing the two coming, the Puaka Generals, lurking within the shadows, stepped out from it, giving the servants a good look at their forbidding figures.

One was clearly feminine, judging by her curves, long legs and cascading pale gray hair. She was dressed in tattered black leathers, and her face was masked on the upper half. Her wings blended nicely with her choice of attire – tattered and leathery as well.

The other was male, and stood in a hunched posture. His arms were long and thick, and his face obscured by a glinting metallic facemask. What was prominent on him was instead of a pair of glowing red eyes like his companion, he had three pairs. A horn jutted out from each side of his head, and large wings let out a squashy sound as he moved. Similar to the first figure, he was also clothed in leathers, more amply so than the female.

"You've returned," the male stated in his gruff voice. "What plans do you have today?"

"We've met the Queen of Insects last night," Shutumon explained. "She is more than willing to do the job for us today."

"Ah, excellent," the female simpered. "The DigiWira have proven to be strong opponents. It took two of them only to finish off Cerberumon. To counter Zudomon and MarineDevimon, it took three DigiWira and one human with a Digimon. It will be interesting to see how they fare today against the Queen of Insects and her insectoid minions."

"The power we've placed inside your staff works perfectly, haven't it?" the male noted, looking pointedly at Sorcerymon.

"Oh, yes, general…Tapirmon was able to digivolve into Ultimate, and so were that Ikkakumon and those Gomamon when we shot them with that Blast Digivolution beam," Sorcerymon supplied.

"Good." The Puaka Generals then turned to look at Shutumon. "And you? What news do you have about the boy…?

"We've detected him wandering around the Digital World with a young man he'd met recently. He's in a perfect position to be attacked," the bird-woman said primly.

"No, leave the boy and his companion be for the time being," the gruff male said. "The Master has been specific. We have particular plans for him, but for now, let him be. Besides, do you NOT know that his light is a bane against us Puaka Generals?"

"Of course, generals," Shutumon said. "But you don't have to lift a finger to get rid of that White DigiSphere-wielding boy. Why, _we_ would be happy to do that for you! Him and the rest of the DigiWira pests…"

"Do _not_ abuse the power we've bestowed upon you, Shutumon, Sorcerymon," the female warned with a foreboding tone. "The Blast Digivolution works only once. Should you waste it on impertinent matters…" She swished her clawed hands over the air, slicing the air with a clear slashing sound. "There will be _hell_ to pay."

Both Shutumon and Sorcerymon gulped. "Of course. Of course, generals."

"Now leave us," the male instructed. "Report back to us of today's progress… or failure. It doesn't matter which way it works. We're just curious of the results."

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 27 – Opposites Attract_**

xxx

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"Hey, KoKabuterimon, how much further?" JD called out, checking out his watch. "We've been walking for an hour now."

"Not that far anymore. We just need to go to Evergreen Jungle, which I think is only another mile away," KoKabuterimon answered, which elicited a loud groan from the blond.

Liu Ying merely snorted at JD's exaggerated response. "What's the matter? Tired?"

"No; I'm going to miss my favorite show!"

"And what would _that_ be?"

"Charmed reruns."

"On Sunday mornings?"

JD shrugged. "No way better to start a Sunday morning than a dose of some hot chicks."

Liu Ying rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"Of course, I don't mind present company as well," JD snickered. "In fact, all the better."

Liu Ying's cheeks colored; it was lucky that she was walking in front of JD – she'd avoided walking beside JD ever since they got out from the Forest Sanctum. Then she realized how she'd responded and let out an irritated 'humph', and walked further towards KoKabuterimon. Somehow, JD had kept his distance from the Rookie insect Digimon. Liu Ying wondered why, but if that was what it took for her to steer clear from JD, then she'd even _hold_ _hands_ with the blue scarab insect.

Labramon and Agumon exchanged glances, confused at their partners exchanged. However, both weren't alluded to the hidden intone of JD's last comment.

True to what JD had said to KoKabuterimon, the five of them had been walking for nearly an hour ever since their departure from Forest Sanctum. KoKabuterimon had come with grave news from the Insecta Kingdom. According to KoKabuterimon, their current queen was an oppressive, tyrannical Digimon who'd imprisoned the rightful ruler of their kingdom. She was a powerful Ultimate Digimon and none was able to defeat her. Hearing of the DigiWira's exploits, KoKabuterimon thought that they would be able to help.

They had agreed. JD seemed to have his reservations, but after Liu Ying had confirmed that she'd going he'd reluctantly agreed to go along.

JD looked at Liu Ying, noting the fact that otherwise necessary or to give retorts, Liu Ying would generally avoid him. It was amusing at first, but after a while it did get to JD, although he didn't show it. He knew exactly why Liu Ying behaved the way she was, although to the other DigiWira it was weird.

The previous day's computer club meeting came in mind. Adam had been absent, which left the two of them sharing the computer that was normally occupied by the three of them. Adam had been seated at the middle, and without him they'd have to sit with each other. JD didn't mind it, but Liu Ying had been obviously chagrined during the whole club meeting. Especially, when there was no Adam to help simplify the instructions given by Jackie, or that he was absent to play mediator like he had been before. All their attempts had been unsuccessful in creating a half-decent webpage. Although it had been the same case for most of the students, it didn't bode well with Liu Ying, as during their previous meetings Adam had always managed to create something that was on-par or better compared to other students. Hadn't it been for Manny, who decided to help them at the last minute, it would've been a blow-up between the two elder DigiWira. In the DigiWira team, Adam and Manny had the most sound computer knowledge; Manny due to his interest and Adam due to his sister's profession.

The DigiWira meeting thereafter was called by Jackie, who'd been most surprised when he found out that JD was the ominous Red ShadoWira. He hadn't the chance to meet JD after his turnover to the side of good, because JD had been suspended from attending school. Then, the meeting steered to the fact that Adam's brother had returned from apparent death. The girls had simply dismissed that JD had been mistaken; that Adam's brother probably survived the accident. That had led to an argument between JD and Liu Ying, while Manny chose to keep silence and Gayathri attempted to play peacemaker. Gayathri's attempt had worked primarily because JD had actually _met_ Aizad, as Liu Ying had pointed out. The argument ended with a truce, but the animosity between the two eldest DigiWira had remained. At least, on Liu Ying's part and it _wasn't_ solely because of the argument.

Shaking his head, he jogged to catch up with Liu Ying. "Hey, wait up!"

"Not my fault you're slow," Liu Ying snapped without looking back at him.

"Hey, what's with the attitude?" JD asked. "I thought _you_ said that since we're a team, we might as well be friends."

"No, I didn't say that," Liu Ying said, whipping her head back, eyeing JD across her shoulder. "I said we might as well _get along._ I didn't say that we should be friends."

"We don't even get along from where I'm standing." JD paused from his walk and folded his arms over his chest. "And why _can't_ we be friends?"

Liu Ying stopped and turned around, placing her hands on her hips. She raised an eyebrow. "Do you even have to _ask_?"

"I won't know if you don't tell me!" JD responded hotly.

Labramon and Agumon slowly walked past the arguing DigiWira, towards KoKabuterimon who looked like he was regretting his decision to ask for the DigiWira's help.

"Maybe a short ten minutes break is due," the Rookie insect muttered, and sat down on the patchy grassy field they were currently at.

"I think that's a good idea," Agumon said slowly.

"Agreed." Labramon joined the other Rookies, and watched as the argument between Liu Ying and JD grew more heated.

"If you're irked because of the comment I made just now…I was merely teasing you, y'know. You don't have to be mad at me because of that," JD said.

"I wasn't mad at _that_," Liu Ying retorted.

JD flashed his trademark lopsided grin. "No? So you actually _liked_ that comment, huh?"

Liu Ying's mouth twitched slightly, as if she was about to retort again but restrained from doing it. She let out a breath and looked at JD coolly. "Whatever." Then, a triumphant look crossed her face and she stared at JD's questioning face, and said with a cool voice, "Just drop that flirting attitude; you're not that hot." Then she turned away quickly and walked towards the Digimon.

'_WHAAA----?' _ JD's eyes widened in surprise. _'Where did THAT come from?'_

xxx

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"There's an alert from TobuCatmon," Adam noted as he read his D-Terminal.

"What does it say?" Aizad asked, from Adam's back. They were currently riding on Sagittarimon (normal mode), with Piddomon flying over them.

"I'm needed," Adam murmured, summarizing the whole content.

Aizad reached out for Adam's D-Terminal, which Adam let go willingly. He snapped it shut, and kept it back on its compartment on Adam's belt. He was grinning at Adam's questioning face.

"Hey, come on now. Your friends can handle it. We missed out _two_ years; I want to spend this whole Sunday with my little brother. Besides, didn't you say that you want to show me a beautiful lake side region with forests and mountains and all that we've seen from TV commercials? I haven't had the chance to go to such place these past two years. And besides…" the man shook a small basket he was holding on his right hand, and grinned at Adam tauntingly, "If you go, I'll eat all the nasi lemak myself; I've been craving for these for two years now…"

"Not a chance!" Adam laughed.

"Then come on," Aizad urged. "Sagittarimon, how much further until we're there?"

"About half an hour I think," the armored centaur deduced. "I still can't understand why you don't just let Adam teleport all of us there? It'll be easier."

"It's a beautiful morning," Aizad pointed towards the sky. He looked up towards the flying angel Digimon at the sky. "Ain't that so, Piddomon?" he called. His voice was amplified with his left hand, placed over his thumb beside the left-side corner of his mouth.

Piddomon swooped down towards Aizad, flapping his wings once for balance when he was near the humans and the centaur. "No sign that it's going to rain," the angel Digimon reported.

"Just what I wanted to hear," Aizad said. "It's a beautiful Sunday morning and I'd like to enjoy the scenery. Teleportation will just ruin all the fun."

Adam nodded. He had no complaints of all Aizad's suggestion. Besides, hadn't he told the DigiWira that he wouldn't be able to join in the DigiWira duties for a while? There was a slight voice nagging in his heart, saying that he ought to at least ask whether the DigiWira would need their help, but that was soon quenched upon meeting his brother's grinning face. Instantly he'd forgotten about his doubt. It had been surreal, meeting his brother again after two years of thinking that he was dead. Now, Adam wanted to spend all his time with Aizad, and justified it as a way to make up for those lost years. It was Aizad's point, actually, which Adam agreed wholeheartedly.

They had spent the early morning at the hospital, visiting Alisha. There was no progress of her current condition. No improvement. Normally, it would break Adam's heart. But now, while still sad, at least he had his brother to turn to for comfort. Looking at his brother, Adam knew that Aizad was disconcerted as well; he just hid it better than Adam. It was he who had insisted that they spent the whole Sunday at the Digital World, and he'd asked Adam for any interesting places that he knew for picnic and hanging out. Adam was instantly reminded of the lake beyond the mountains, home to the late Wizardmon.

"It's half past ten already," Aizad said, seizing Adam's left arm to look at the time. He let it go and patted Sagittarimon. "So giddy-up!"

"Don't talk to me like I'm some kind of mere horse or a mule from your home world!" Sagittarimon snapped irritably. As much as he liked Adam's brother, Aizad could be quite a pain to be with sometimes, as he had come to realize after knowing him these past few days.

"Sorry, oh-great-armored-centaur." Aizad and Piddomon exchanged knowing glance and the man grabbed hold on Adam's shoulder as Sagittarimon picked up speed.

Adam laughed heartily upon his brother's antics. This would definitely be a great day.

xxx

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They had been walking in brusque pace for the past hour in silence. The silence had given JD ample time to think, and he'd come out with several reasons that the willowy raven-haired girl to be mad at him. With that figured out, the blonde felt that he should break the silence. KoKabuterimon had indicated that they'd be arriving in ten minutes, tops.

"Hey, Liu Ying?"

"…What?"

"I think I've figured out why you're mad at me."

Liu Ying turned to face JD. "Took you long enough."

JD scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable upon meeting the blazing gaze Liu Ying was giving him. _'Does she have to be so cold at me?'_ he pondered as he cleared his throat. "Was it because of that time we first met?"

Liu Ying's gaze faltered, and it was _she_ who now appeared uncomfortable…more than before.

"You're mad that I want to tell about it to the others?"

The girl's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You've _told_ them?"

JD raised both hands defensively. "I haven't. There was no time…with Adam's sister caught in an accident, Adam's grieving, and all. It wasn't appropriate."

"Since when does _that_ bother you?"

'_Ouch…sheesh, what's with her today? Is it that time of the month or something? She's rather PMS-sy…' _But then JD realized that Liu Ying did have a valid point. JD wasn't one that would let rules dictate his life. He was grounded now, and still he found a way to disobey the punishment that was enforced on him. Of course, that was done when he was sure that his folks wouldn't be at the house until nightfall…as they usually would.

"Look, I do know my boundaries, and I respect Adam," JD said. "If it bothers you so much, then I won't tell anybody. Or at least, I'll leave out some things…"

"Is it so hard for you _not_ to tell anyone about that?"

"I've never told anyone."

"But you were planning to."

"You should've said don't."

"_You_ should've known better!" Liu Ying said shrilly.

"You're still bothered about that?" JD said exasperatedly. "It was different then. _You_ were different then than you are now. If I did _that_ to you now, you'd have slapped me hard like you did once at Adam's apartment complex last week."

Liu Ying whipped her head up, her cheeks reddened slightly. Then suddenly something unexpected happened. She frowned, and twitched her eyebrows, narrowing her eyes piercingly. She was frustrated; that would happen when she was tensed. What she didn't expect that suddenly _something_ lashed out from her eyes…her _mind_…and it threw JD off his feet. The boy yelped and was sent flying towards the ground on his back with a loud thud, sliding a couple of meters back before losing momentum. Liu Ying gasped.

"Damn…" JD groaned while attempting to sit up. He glared at Liu Ying angrily.

"JD…I…" she rushed forward to help the boy up. She held out her hand.

JD slapped her hand away and stood up on his own. His reddening face had an infuriated look, which was barely kept in check.

"That was _low_, using your power on me like that, during a petty argument!" he hissed. Before Liu Ying could respond, JD brushed past her and indicated for the Digimon to get a move on.

Once again, KoKabuterimon looked like he was regretting calling for these particular two DigiWira to help him out of a crisis involving his whole kingdom.

xxx

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**(Flashback)**

Thirteen-year-old Liu Ying smiled proudly as she donned her prefect badge for the first time. She stared at the mirror, and saw a fresh-faced girl with black hair tied down in a neat ponytail. The crisp light green shirt fitted her body just nice. The same was true for her dark green skirt and tie. She was now a prefect, and today was her first day of duty.

Walking out of the school canteen, she saw a group of people huddling underneath a tree near the school field. She stared at the group, noticing something that looked like smokes amidst the scanty morning light. _'Well, here goes…'_ she thought, inhaling deeply as she marched towards the group, full of determination.

There were seven boys there. Three were bigger, four were smaller. Liu Ying only recognized them by reputation; she'd heard Form One Ho Tin Kong mentioning to her earlier that his older brother, the current assistant head prefect, had been having a hard time preventing this particular group from disobeying the school rules. The seven would do anything ranging from cutting school, smoking, harassing other students, amongst other things.

At present, their choice of spot for smoking that early morning had been secluded. Nobody would notice them from the school building. But Liu Ying had been inside the canteen, which gave her a clear view of the vast school field. She wondered whether she was up for this now. _'Relax, Ying…what would Papa do in times like this?' _Thinking about her late father made her heart sting, but it had been a year and Liu Ying had moved on. She shook her head, and cleared her throat.

"Oh look, it's a prefect," one of the bigger guys sneered.

"A newbie, no doubt," the second of the bigger guys added. He winked at her. "Hey, cutie."

Liu Ying held her head up high, ignoring the comment. "You shouldn't smoke here. It's against the school rules!" There, she had said it with the sternest voice she could muster.

The group of boys laughed heartily. "What would you do if we smoke, little girl? Huh? Write our names?" the third bigger guy taunted.

Liu Ying frowned and took out her new, small notebook. She'd seen the other prefects carrying similar notebooks in their pockets, along with a pen.

"Heh, heh, look, she's gonna write our names! Quick guys, hide our nametags…oops, we're not even wearing our nametags!" the first bigger guy mocked, followed by a round of laughter by the other boys. "How are you going to write our names, huh? Bet you don't know our names, right? Tough cookie. Heh, heh."

"Actually, I _do_ know your names," Liu Ying said coolly. Her eyes fell on a boy who stood out immediately from the others. He was a blonde boy with greenish-blue eyes, and he was one of the smaller four boys. He hadn't been speaking; he just sat there, observing her while holding a half-smoked cigarette. Liu Ying knew this boy immediately; this was JD Kamaruzaman, Form One. She proceeded to write their names, starting with JD.

"Oh, look, she's gonna write our names – she's gonna report us to Singh!" the third bigger boy said. "Looks like she's starting with you, JD!"

JD snorted, and stood up, placing a placating hand on the third bigger boy's shoulder. "Relax. I'll handle her." With the cigarette still in his hand, JD slinked towards Liu Ying with a grin.

"Woot!! Go JD!"

Liu Ying looked at JD suspiciously, undaunted. He was no bigger than her; they stood near-equal in height. But to her surprise, the blonde snatched away her notebook and pen. With a sneer, he tore _all_ the pages away and snapped her pen in half. Then he puffed his cigarette, and blew the smokes towards Liu Ying, who coughed violently upon catching the foul tobacco smell. Her eyes began to blink rapidly; she hadn't expected this to happen on her first day of duty. The laughter from the other guys stung in her eyes.

JD however, wasn't laughing. His expression was unreadable. "Just go away," he said, and patted her right cheek twice with a sneer. "You're not up to this. Just go."

Liu Ying realized that JD was insulting her. She froze. A tear fell from her right eye. Another cascaded down her left eye. Choking a sob, she turned around and fled.

From that day on, she _loathed_ JD Kamaruzaman.

**(End Flashback)**

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They reached Evergreen Jungle in awkward silence. Liu Ying had wanted to apologize for accidentally lashing out at JD telekinetically, but upon seeing JD ignoring her, she gave up. As the memory of their first encounter invaded her mind over and over again, Liu Ying began to feel that her action was justifying what JD had put her through. That first encounter hadn't been their only encounter, but it had taken Liu Ying another year before she managed to convince herself to face JD – and that time around they had been an equal match. JD hadn't bothered her again, but occasionally he'd make remarks that would annoy Liu Ying, but nowhere near insulting as it had been the first time around. Sometimes, however, when she'd caught him alone, he'd even smile at her but she'd just scowl in return and saunter away far from the annoying blonde teenager.

'_Fine,'_ she thought. _ 'If he's not talking to me, then all the better. It's not like I want to talk to him either.'_

"We're here," KoKabuterimon announced when they were almost at the center of the jungle, it seemed. They were standing in front of an old-looking cave entrance which was leading them underground. The insectoid Rookie kept looking at the two feuding teenagers from one to another. Then he looked at their partners helplessly.

Labramon looked up at Liu Ying. "It is important that you two set aside your differences for now and work together as a team."

Agumon approached JD. "Labramon's right, Josh…"

JD caught Liu Ying's eyes, and his hazel irises darkened. "Fine." He took out his Digivice and Red DigiSphere. Together with Agumon, they fused to become Satriamon.

Liu Ying followed suit and with Labramon, they became Xianamon. "Lead the way, KoKabuterimon."

They went inside the cave, which was damp, stale and appeared to be deserted. The entrance was big enough, but as they walked the pathway became wider and wider, until they reached a clearing that could easily be as big as the Green Meadow. The walls were dark blue in color, and the inside of the cave was illuminated by the lights that seemed to be radiating from the stone ceilings. It wasn't bright, but it was better than nothing. Many parts of the walls were obscured still, but the center was illuminated.

"It seems deserted," Satriamon commented.

"Maybe a closer look…" Xianamon murmured, when footsteps suddenly came from multiple directions, all around them.

Swarms of large spiders flowed out suddenly from out of nowhere. They came from right, left, up, front, even down. Hisses could be heard and in a matter of five seconds the DigiWira found themselves surrounded by no less than twenty spiders.

"Spiders!" Satriamon gasped. "I _hate_ spiders…" he muttered.

The Wira Digital braced themselves, but simultaneously the spiders let out silky webs from their mouths, with one unified shout of _"Poison Thread!!"_

KoKabuterimon quickly rolled out of the way, while Satriamon and Xianamon attempted to cut the spider webs with their clawed gauntlet and staff. Their efforts were in vain as the poison threads kept on coming at them, poisoning them at first before coiling their legs, arms, and finally body with cocoons of webs. Then finally the two bounded Digimon were further tied against each other's bodies tight in a bigger cocoon, which left only their heads visible. They looked like a giant oval ball of white yarn with two heads sticking out from it when the spiders were finished with them.

"Excellent…KoKabuterimoooon," a female voice hissed amidst the darkness. The two Wira Digital whipped their heads towards the source, and saw a bigger spider like being lurking amidst the darkness. "You've done wellllll. _Just_ like we've always plannnnnned…" The other spiders seemed to be bowing in reverence to the female. She began to step up towards the light.

"Shit…" Satriamon muttered when the female spider came into view. His face paled evidently and his body shook.

Xianamon, whose head was nestled on the taller Satriamon's crook between the shoulder and the neck, only managed to get a little view of the female spider. She could see thick legs with pointed gray lower tips. Those legs were red, with decaying white bandages wrapped around it. The rest she saw was Satriamon's head, but she noticed that he had gotten pale. The fact that they were now bound together made her feel the shakiness that Satriamon was giving out.

'_Why is he scared all of a sudden?' _Xianamon wondered. _'It is just spiders…Unless…'_

Satriamon in the meantime, got a clear view of the spider woman. She was large, nearly fifteen feet tall in both height and width. Her body was like a woman; red dress clasped tight on her body. The abdomen however was bound to a spider's legs and body, which had the same color as her dress. Her round face was grotesquely ugly; two round eyes that looked somewhat crazed stared at them with a look of triumph and pleasure. Long scraggly dirty white-gray hair fell down her back and the sides of her face. Two horns grew out from the sides of her head, vertically and then bent upwards, like a bull's.

"Queen Arachnemon!!" KoKabuterimon said reverently. He bowed towards the spider woman. "I've brought you the DigiWira and their Digimon, as you've asked!"

"Only twooooo?" Arachnemon asked in her drawling, slightly wheezing kind of voice. "I thought they are fffiiiiiiivve?"

"It's all a trick?!" Satriamon shouted angrily. "I can't believe we fell for it!"

KoKabuterimon turned around. "You were so busy fighting each other…I think it's kind of a poetic justice that you're going to spend the rest of your lives together, bound tight!!"

"You lying bast…"

"Enough talkinnnnnggg," Arachnemon snapped. "Put them on my weeeebbbb. Then go and lure the othersssss heerrrreee. The Puaka Generals will be so pleeeeasseeed."

'_Puaka Generals?'_ Both Wira Digital thought at the same time. The word general set off their danger alarms. _'A new general…generals….'_

KoKabuterimon scooped the cocooned Wira Digital with his long horn, and threw them up towards the ceiling. They soared until both Wira Digital thought that they'd collide with the hard ceiling, but then gravity took effect and they began to fall. However it was a short fall; they found themselves bouncing on a thick white web. Soon the web on their bodies stuck onto the spider web and they remained there unmoving. Both Wira Digital flushed momentarily as they were in a very awkward position; Satriamon was lying on his back and Xianamon was on top of his body.

"Could this get any more awkward?" Xianamon muttered. The human half within her was causing her to blush as red as Satriamon's armor.

"Let us prepare for another ambuuuussshhhh while KoKabuterimon lure the otthhhheeeeerrrrrsss here," Arachnemon ordered. She and the other spiders then tottered away back from where they'd been hiding from, leaving the two Wira Digital alone. The cave became deathly quiet.

"Apparently it can," Satriamon replied dryly.

xxx

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**(Flashback)**

He hadn't meant to scare her off like that.

He didn't mean to make her cry.

It was the only thing he could've think of doing to drive her away.

It was for her own good.

Fourteen-year-old JD Kamaruzaman sighed resolutely before putting back his poker face, and turned around to join his laughing friends.

**(/Flashback)**

xxx

xxx

An hour passed in silence; neither wanted to talk to each other. The Digimon halves of Satriamon and Xianamon were forced to keep silent as well, sensing the turmoil in their human halves. The DigiWira's problems became their own. Sensing that this was something JD and Liu Ying needed to resolve on their own, the Digimon within the Wira Digital waited.

Satriamon was deep in thought. Or rather, _JD_ was deep in thought; Agumon was accompanying him in silence. He knew exactly why Liu Ying was angry at him. What he'd done to her that day they first met…it would've left a lasting impression on the girl. He just didn't think that she'd retaliate that badly…up to the point of using her special ability. He wondered whether he should just apologize…no, he'd been thinking for her own good that day. Why should he apologize? He knew his method hadn't been the best, but it had worked. He didn't have to explain to her. He didn't care what she thought of him.

'_Do you really, Josh?'_

'_Agumon! Don't sneak up on me like that!'_

'_Sorry, Josh. I'm just wondering…why don't you explain your real reason to her? Maybe all these arguments are caused from a misunderstanding?'_

Xianamon too, was lost in her own thought. Liu Ying was the one who was thinking, Labramon kept her human partner in accompanied in silence. Her mind reeled back to that time when she first met JD. She had been scarred, emotionally. For days, she struggled to let it go before she could perform her prefect duties properly again. Then she thought about how she'd lashed out with her telekinetic power. It was uncalled for, Liu Ying knew. But somehow, her tongue seemed to be sewn tight in her mouth when she attempted to apologize. Besides, JD had been so mad at her. His mood had changed drastically – he was teasing her, tolerating her moods, even _flirting_ at some point…but when she used her power, she'd caused him to become so angry that he'd refused to talk to her. Since _when_ did JD refuse to talk to her, even when _she_ was the one who was ignoring him?

'_It is really bothering you, is it not?'_

'_I don't know, Labramon. I simply don't know.' _

'_It's always never too late to admit that you are wrong, regardless of the situation. He might have wronged you before, but what you did to him today…despite it being an accident, was something uncalled for. You might want to clear that up with him first.'_

A moment of silence passed. Then…

"Sorry."

Both of them muttered it at the same time. They blinked, and eyed each other. It wasn't the easiest job, since they were bound to each other so close that all Xianamon could see was Satriamon's neck and chiseled jaw, drawing her head higher would make her mouth dangerously close to his. That was something she didn't want to risk.

Satriamon in the meantime, could only see the golden yellow fox face mask Xianamon was wearing, and her silky jet black hair. The eye parts of the mask were black – they were actually visors and eyeing them closely, Satriamon thought that he could see Xianamon's eyes…but he wasn't sure.

"Uh…ladies first," he said.

"Gallantry won't get you…uh…sorry," Xianamon said, resisting the automatic snappish reply quickly. She took a deep breath and said to his neck, "I'm sorry for using my power against you earlier. It was an accident…I lashed out suddenly…"

Satriamon nodded; him doing so made his jaw brushed against the facemask. "It's ok. And…I'm sorry for being a jerk."

Somehow, hearing the apologies made them feel warm. Another moment of silence passed, before Xianamon broke it.

"I cannot _believe_ I didn't think of this before!" she said, to nobody in particular.

"Uh…think what?" Satriamon asked, puzzled.

"This. _Diamond World Mandala!!" _

Waves of indigo and golden lights burst out from Xianamon's body, tearing against the cocoon that was binding them together. The waves further tore through the spider web, and both of them then fall onto the ground. Xianamon, capable of flight, immediately regained her stance, and quickly she used her telekinetic power to slow down the flight-challenged Satriamon's fall.

"You could've done that a long time ago and you waited _after_ we said sorry to each other?" Satriamon called out in surprise.

Xianamon looked down at the dragon-man with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Uh…oops?"

"Heh," Satriamon said with a triumphant grin. "Maybe you just want to feel how it's like…"

"You have just apologized; don't act like a jerk again," Xianamon quickly cut him in.

"Touchy…" Satriamon muttered, but there was no sullenness in his tone. In fact, he was grinning.

Hisses suddenly echoed the dim cave. Hordes of spiders flushed out from the many small tunnels that led to the cavern. They were then followed by Arachnemon.

"What issss thhhiiisssss? How have you….?"

"Sorry, no mood to explain!" Satriamon said, jumping backward awkwardly when he saw Arachnemon. He looked up at Xianamon. "How about we finish this off once and for all?"

Xianamon nodded and descended towards Satriamon so that they were standing side by side. She eyed her fellow Wira Digital, noticing that he was somewhat…fidgety? _'Is he **afraid** of spiders?'_

Arachnemon hissed angrily, seeing that her two opponents had escaped. She heaved back, before spitting out _"Acid Mist!!"_

Xianamon pointed her palm forward and called forth, _"Diamond World Mandala!"_

And Satriamon wouldn't let Xianamon hog all the fun. Shuddering slightly upon witnessing Arachnemon's face contorting as she resisted Xianamon's attack, Satriamon decided to weaken the spider queen. He pointed his arms forward and summoned, _"Dark Rage!"_

Arachnemon shrieked as the two attacks pushed her backward. Xianamon retracted her arm but beckoned for Satriamon to continue firing his Dark Rage. She spun in midair gracefully and swung her fly whisk towards Arachnemon, releasing hundreds of poisonous needles at close range. The spider queen screamed even louder as the poisons from Xianamon's Jade Needles counteracted with her own poison. Seeing that the attack took effect, Xianamon flicked her hands simultaneously, and Arachnemon was instantly immobilized. The sorceress then pointed her left palm towards the unmoving spider queen and one arm was lifted towards the cave ceiling.

"_Gaia Retaliation!!"_

A beam of yellow light was blasted towards the ceiling and instantly the whole cavern rumbled ferociously. Cracks began to form on the ceiling, and the walls. Explosion soon ensued as stones burst out from the ceiling, the ground and the walls. Arachnemon and her spider minions were stunned, as the stones hit all the spiders one by one, two or three at one time.

"Satriamon, come on. We have to get out of here!" Xianamon shouted.

Satriamon retracted his hands and leaped towards the entrance. "You don't have to tell me twice! Let's go!"

Satriamon however didn't realize that one massive stone was falling his way. Xianamon saw it, and quickly deflected it with her telekinesis, causing the stone to slam against Arachnemon who was attempting to escape.

"Woah! That was too close!" Satriamon said, realizing what had just happened. "Thanks, Xianamon."

"Are you alright?"

"Why…I believe you're worried about me!"

"Humph! Surely you jest!" The two Wira Digital stepped into the hallway that would lead them out of the cave. Before leaving however, Xianamon wanted to make sure that she'd done what she was supposed to do. The spider queen had mentioned 'Puaka Generals' and that couldn't mean anything good. So she focused her power on her right palm and released,

"_Diamond World Mandala!!"_

Her focused magical powers were blasted against the shrieking Arachnemon, whom upon contact with the waves of golden and indigo, burst into data particles. She then followed Satriamon, feeling her vision blurring slightly. Then she felt her body being lifted by Satriamon as the dragon man made a jump for it towards the exit – just before the whole structure of the cave collapsed behind them. They rolled onto the ground and devolved back into their composite selves, and Liu Ying saw someone shielding her from the smokes and stone chips that burst from the cave entrance. The ground shook, and they saw the entrance crumbled, closed in by stones.

The cave full of spiders was sealed.

The smokes cleared gradually and JD began to move. "Are you alright?" he asked Liu Ying.

Liu Ying was silent, and then decided to lighten the mood by asking the question that JD had asked her back at the cave, "Why…I believe you're worried about me?" Strangely, she received no reply from the blond teenager. He merely gazed at her momentarily, before looking around for Agumon and Labramon. Liu Ying felt blush creeping on her cheeks once again. _'What's with me today? I'm blushing so often this day alone than the rest of my whole lives.'_

After making sure that both Digimon partners were alright (they were in fact, in perfect health) JD stood up. "Just wait till I get my hands on that KoKabuterimon…"

"He's probably on his way to Forest Sanctum, hoping to fool the others," Liu Ying said. "We better go back to stop him."

"How about…" Labramon stepped in front of Liu Ying, preventing her from moving. "You let us hunt that _cretin_? Digivolve us into Champion forms and we shall go."

"What she says," Agumon nodded.

JD looked at Liu Ying, seeking her agreement. "I don't see why not," the girl said.

They then watched Flarelizamon and Youkomon left the Evergreen Jungle in pursuit of the mendacious KoKabuterimon. Liu Ying found a stone and sat on it, feeling absolutely tired. JD was standing a safe distance away from her, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. He had a dazed look on his face.

They were like that for the next ten minutes, unsure of what to say. There was no need of rushing back anymore; Youkomon and Flarelizamon had been adamant enough to pursue KoKabuterimon, and they doubted that the Rookie Digimon could make it at Forest Sanctum without being intercepted by their Champion-level partners.

JD finally sighed, and looked at Liu Ying. "What a day, huh?"

"What a day," Liu Ying agreed. Then they were silent again.

"I have one question," JD stated.

"I won't know about it unless you ask," Liu Ying said.

"Do you hate me?" JD asked her, directly looking at Liu Ying into her eyes. "Be honest."

Liu Ying was stunned. She took a deep breath and thought about it carefully, biting her tongue lest she'd retort with something she didn't actually want to say. _'Do I hate him? I thought I do…but now…after today, I'm not so sure…I don't think so…'_ She shook her head. "I used to."

"Used to." It was a statement, not an inquiry.

Nevertheless, Liu Ying felt she'd take Labramon's advice and elaborate. "Used to. You can't blame me for hating you…after that day…" The memory came back at her and pain stung her heart once again. "It was my first day as a prefect, and you…literally crushed my confidence. I felt…humiliated. It took me a while to recover from that day…but from that day onwards, I hated you."

JD nodded. "I see." He then sighed desolately and slid down against the tree bark and onto the ground. "I have a confession to make."

Liu Ying nodded once wordlessly; a sign for JD to continue.

"What I did that day…I was only thinking to drive you away…before the other guys did. You know how our school was back then. You know those guys, don't you?" JD sighed, and looked deep into Liu Ying's eyes. "They'd have done a lot _worse_ if I didn't stop them…if I weren't the one who stepped in to push you away instead…" He saw Liu Ying looking absolutely stunned, and raised his hand, stopping her from speaking. "In order to make them _not_ going after you, I had to put up a believable act. I tore your notebook so that they'd see that you had nothing to write on. I…humiliated you so that they'd see…that I had crushed you, broken your spirit…and I know my plan worked."

Liu Ying stared at the blonde teen unblinkingly. She didn't even think about it that way. Indeed, JD's friends didn't go after her at all for witnessing them smoking at the school compound. They'd made fun of her, but they'd never lay a finger on her. Liu Ying knew those guys; the three bigger guys weren't the most gentlemanly of all. Her being a girl wouldn't deter them.

'_Is it true…?'_

"And…I'm glad, in a way, seeing that they didn't go after you. Despite the cost…" JD grinned at her weakly.

Hearing those last three words erased all the doubts that Liu Ying had. _'It's true.'_

Liu Ying then saw the renowned school troublemaker in a new light. This was a completely different person. Just hours ago, she wouldn't even _feel_ comfortable being alone with him inside a secluded jungle. Now, she felt as if she could actually _trust_ JD not to do anything to her. After all, they'd been bound together for more than an hour, (despite being in their fused Wira Digital form) and he did nothing to her, other than occasional jokingly made remarks, which were harmless.

"I…don't know what to say…" she said, shuddering slightly, and it was not because of the fact that the jungle was cold. Their suits were made to withstand such minor coolness.

"Don't say anything, then. I'm just glad that I've got it out of my chest."

"No…I guess I owe you an apology…and thank you."

"No apologies needed…" He stared again at Liu Ying, before flashing her a slight smile. "And you're welcome."

"What you did that day…actually…it kind of helped me a lot," Liu Ying admitted. "It toughened me up considerably. You made me _not_ to think of being a prefect as easy. You made me work hard to become what I am." She smiled. "I never thought of it like this…but I guess I owe you a lot too."

JD waved his hand and grinned. "Heh…hence, now you're the second assistant to the head prefect."

There was that silence again. But it now lacked the awkwardness that it had before.

"And you know what?" JD broke it after a couple of minutes. "If you want me not to tell our back story to the others, I won't."

"I don't know…" Liu Ying said, "I don't think I'd mind anymore, if it's only to Gayathri, Adam and Manny…after all you've promised them. Besides, now that I know the truth, it doesn't seem so bad at all." She paused, smiling slightly at JD's somewhat surprised look. "It's…like something from the storybook." _'Romantic, but definitely NOT mushy…'_ Of course, she wouldn't say _that_ out loud.

JD smiled. "How about we tell them together, to make sure I _don't_ mess up the facts?"

"I _know_ you won't."

"And…" JD approached her. She tensed slightly; an automated reaction. "I'd like to start over. We're in one team, so we might as well be friends." He held out his right hand. "Friends?"

Liu Ying didn't hesitate, and shook JD's hand with a warm smile. "Friends."

xxx

xxx

Adam rubbed his left temple, frowning, as he took another sip of the iced lemon tea from the flask.

"Something wrong, Adam?" Aizad asked, looking at his brother curiously.

"I don't know…I've been getting these headaches lately," Adam complained, feeling his vision blurring. "It makes me want to sleep…"

"Me too," Patamon said. He plopped down on the long white tablecloth that they had brought along from the apartment to serve as a picnic mat.

Aizad took Adam's arm to look at his watch. "Then lie down for a while. We've got plenty of time, we've eaten, and it's a nice breezy afternoon, perfect for afternoon napping." He cleared out a space for his brother and Patamon. "In fact, I think I'll do that too. You two lie down over here. I'll clean these up and join you guys later."

"Ok…"

Adam lied down on his back, feeling his eyelids becoming heavy instantly as his head reached the tablecloth. He felt a soft pressure on his shoulder; Patamon had drawn himself close to him. The soft breezes from the mountain blew gently past his face, sending his bangs fluttering. Adam thought that it felt nice. Within a couple of minutes, he was fast asleep.

Aizad and Tsukaimon looked at each other with knowing expressions. A glint sparked from Tsukaimon's eyes, and Aizad grinned.

"How long do you think they'll get knocked out this time around?" the Rookie Digimon asked.

"Probably two, three hours," Aizad replied. "More than enough time for us to do what we have to."

"Let's get to it, then."

xxx

xxx

"We've got to stop meeting each other like this," JD smirked. It had been two hours after their return from the Digital World, and JD had gotten restless for not having anything else to do. So he sneaked out of the house and went to Taipan, a nearby center of shops and business centers of the town. He then unexpectedly bumped into a very familiar face.

Liu Ying eyed JD, who was standing in front of her with his arms folded, curiously. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much. Just having a look around. You?"

The girl held up two storybooks which she was holding with her left hand. "I'm going to return these at that bookshop, and borrow another couple of storybooks."

The blond teen made a face, and took one book from Liu Ying. "R.L. Stine, Fear Street…" He flipped the pages with a bored expression. "How can you read this? There's no picture."

Liu Ying snatched the book back. "Well, some people use their imaginations."

"Never thought you're the imaginative type."

"You'll be surprised." Liu Ying raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to let me pass?"

"Hmm? Oh, sure." JD then brightened. "Or better, I can tag along. Do you mind?"

"If you don't have anything better to do…sure."

Ten minutes later, the two teenagers exited the bookshop with Liu Ying holding two storybooks and JD a couple of comics.

"So where are you going right now?" JD asked.

Liu Ying looked around the moderately busy area of Taipan USJ. It was Sunday afternoon and the business area was less busy than usual. The weather was moderately sunny; Liu Ying was thankful that she was wearing a light cotton T-shirt and a pair of denim shorts. She eyed JD and saw that apparently the boy had thought that the day was warm as well – he'd chosen a loose dark red sleeveless T-shirt and a black Bermudas. Her eyes fell on the straight vertical scar on JD's right arm.

"I don't know. I only planned to get these books and head home."

"You're in a hurry?" JD asked, running his hand subconsciously over his scar, noticing that Liu Ying was observing it.

"Not really. That scar…" She knew exactly where JD had gotten it, and she had seen it on Monday when JD revealed that he was the Red ShadoWira.

"Souvenir of a dark past," JD said quickly. "You know why."

Liu Ying nodded. "I do. You seem comfortable flaunting it around."

"Hey, it does look cool. Besides, it'll make people think twice before they want to mess with me."

"Why would people want to mess with you?"

"Uh…good question. Ok, how about, it'll make people think that I'm tough, having this kind of scar…"

Liu Ying smiled amusedly. "I don't know…maybe you ought to _not_ show it to Adam though." It was Adam who had inflicted the scar on JD, in self defense.

JD shrugged. "He's seen it a couple of times…but good point. He did look uncomfortable whenever he saw it."

"I think TobuCatmon has some scar-removing ointment back at Forest Sanctum…"

"Nah…I think I'll keep it. But thanks anyway."

The two teens were silent. JD decided to speak up before Liu Ying decided to go back home. His eyes fell on the joke shop across the road.

"Hey, a joke shop. Let's go check it out."

Liu Ying was stunned of the sudden turnover of their conversation, but decided to follow JD. After all, they were friends now…there was no harm in doing so. They went into the shops and as JD began pondering around the crude masks depicting grotesque creatures and prominently the masked-murderer from the Scream movies, Liu Ying's eyes fell on the nearest display from her. There were a lot of fake insects which looked so real. Gingerly, she took one fake black tarantula, and was reminded of JD/Satriamon's reaction during the battle with Arachnemon.

She had her suspicion, and grinning deviously, she balanced the big fake spider on her free hand, grimacing upon feeling its squishy, slightly sticky texture.

"JD, look at this…doesn't it look real?"

JD turned around, and jumped upon seeing the fake spider which Liu Ying was holding at him. His eyes widened. "Hey…put it away," he said, pushing Liu Ying's hand away.

"What's the matter? Scared? It's just a fake spider…"

JD grumbled. "I _hate_ bugs."

"Hate?" Liu Ying asked back. "By hate…do you mean…_scared_?"

"Whatever, just put it away."

Chuckling, Liu Ying obliged, and picked up a fake black cockroach instead. JD recoiled upon seeing it, and scowled upon meeting Liu Ying's gleeful eyes.

"Very funny. Put that away too… I hate cockroaches…the most disgusting, vilest, loathsome, damned little bastards…"

"Hey, alright…you don't have to cuss."

"Roaches freak me out, that's all." He glared at Liu Ying.

"I kind of figured it out…although I thought it was spiders at first because I saw your reaction when we were at the spider cave this morning."

'_Great…first Gayathri…now Liu Ying knows about it…'_

"I hate insects in general, period. Cockroaches however freak me out more than the rest…don't ask why."

"Roach-phobia?" Liu Ying propped her chin on two fingers. "I'll have to look that up on the internet."

"Whatever, let's get out of here."

Liu Ying trailed the blond teen from behind. "Maybe I'll get one of these…now I know _how_ exactly to keep you in line at school."

JD whipped his head back, glaring at the amused girl. "Never knew that you're quite a comedian."

"Alright… Sorry. Come on, let's get out of here."

They went next door and both froze in front of the shop. Liu Ying then giggled, beckoning at the large superhero poster pasted in front of the shop's glass door. "Do you like _Spiderman_?" she asked, and JD scowled back at her.

"I like Spiderman fine," he snapped, and they walked away from the shop.

After several minutes passed in companionable silence, Liu Ying looked at JD thoughtfully. "You know, you really _could_ use a haircut."

JD ran a hand on his stick-straight, hard-gelled, messy-styled dishwater blond hair. "Huh? What's wrong with my hair? I like it just fine as it is."

"It's too long! If you're going to come back to school tomorrow, it'll help a lot if you give the teachers a good impression," Liu Ying pointed out.

JD grumbled. "It's not that long," he said stubbornly. He winced as Liu Ying pulled the front bang down, reaching past his eyebrows.

"According to the school rule, it's _too_ long," she replied. She eyed the sideburns, and the back of JD's head, and clicked her tongue distastefully. "You know what, just follow me."

JD perked up. "Where to?"

"Just come." Liu Ying led JD to a busy street, turned right at a junction to a row of even more shops. They walked past a few cafes, bakery, stationary shop, a 7-Eleven, before reaching a tinted glass door. Pictures of men and women of various hairstyles and hair colors adorned the glass door and walls.

"Oh, no…no, no, NO!" JD started backing away.

Liu Ying grabbed JD's wrist as she pushed the door open. "You're not going anywhere but inside! This is my mama's salon. She'll know what to do with you!"

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

Wow, probably the shortest chapter I've written as of late (less than 10 000 words) and also…the warmest, fuzziest one. It just made me smile as I write about this. I've had only basic idea of what to write when I got to this chapter – Liu Ying and JD's history was hard to write; that was the reason why instead on Chapter 25, it appears in this chapter instead. Their back story deserves a whole chapter dedicated to it alone. Their history just flowed to my head as I type this story. So were the fight and banters, and finally the fuzzy friendship end part. This is indeed a JD-Liu Ying chapter.

The battle with Arachnemon (Arukenimon/Archnemon – I just like the supposedly-real spelling better) is only added to make this chapter has a Digimon battle, but it doesn't dominate the chapter as it actually serves more as a JD's bonding with his teammates chapter. The Dark Ocean part bonds him with Adam, Chapter 25 with Gayathri, Chapter 26 with Manny, and finally Chapter 27 with Liu Ying. Now that that's all settled, I'll be able to get to the main plot.

The Puaka Generals have been revealed…slightly.


	28. Same Old Brand New Enemies

TobuCatmon flipped through the pages of a thick, leather-bound book anxiously. "Where is it?"

He paused on a page where a large, red X-mark was prominently featured over a sketch of a dark humanoid Digimon wielding two swords and with raven-like qualities. He flipped through the pages, pausing momentarily to look at another page with the same X-mark over a beautiful flower-woman Digimon. Clicking his tongue, he passed over several pages at a much slower pace, carefully eyeing each sketch before shaking his heads.

"Where are the Puaka Generals?"

After their battle with Arachnemon, Liu Ying and JD had returned to the Forest Sanctum without their partners. They had informed him about Arachnemon mentioning the Puaka Generals; Liu Ying had thought that it would be best for TobuCatmon to look up for that information. Their Digimon partners had returned thereafter, announcing with glee that KoKabuterimon had been taken care off – nobody had to worry about the unassuming insect's treachery anymore. TobuCatmon had been surprised to learn that KoKabuterimon was sent to lure the DigiWira into a trap, but then again, the insectoid Rookie had declined his offer to enter the Forest Sanctum…perhaps he had known that the sanctum was protected with evil-repellent charm.

His eyes fell over a big, blue question-mark, over a page aptly titled 'Puaka General I', and following that page was a same page as before, but with the title 'Puaka General II'. Both pages had the question marks emblazoned over a dark shadowy being with no apparent shapes. Beside the pages, a rather lengthy description in neat, cursive handwriting was placed.

"_While the Puaka Generals' existence and treacheries were known to many during the Great War, their identities remained elusive from many. They were once a part of the clan called the Darkshadow Brethren, but had renounced against the clan after achieving means to attain their fully-digivolved form – the powerful Mega level. Another known fact was that the Puaka Generals were extremely vulnerable to the power of light – an advantage used by Grademon to sentence them into statue imprisonment.'_

TobuCatmon closed the book with a sigh, and looked up. His azure eyes fell on a human in pale beige garb that was standing nearby. He didn't appear to be surprised with the figure's presence.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head for emphasis.

The human nodded. "The DigiWira have best be careful."

xxx

xxx

"Sorcerymon, Shutumon," the female Puaka General acknowledged, observing them with her glinting scarlet eyes as the duo entered the hall of the Puaka Generals' Blackmoore Bastion. The servants for SkullSatamon were not alone, apparently. Behind them, two tall figures lurked within the shadows. "I see you have freed the Blood Brothers. Excellent."

"Step forward, Blood Brothers," the male Puaka General indicated with his gruff voice.

The shadowy figures behind Sorcerymon and Shutumon walked past them and revealed themselves underneath the illuminated center of the hall – where the moonlight showered down past a transparent glass part which was placed at the uppermost part of the domed ceiling. The taller of the two stood at roughly seven-feet-tall, and was clearly masculine judging by his frame. He wore a black cloak over an indigo double-breasted suit and pants with golden trimmings and button. A golden bat insignia fastened his high-collared cape to his suit over the front. The insides of his cloak were bright red, matching the bat-shaped eye-mask he wore over his pale cyanotic skin. He had bleached blonde hair offsetting a pair of cold, calculating, ice-blue eyes.

The second figure was slightly hunched, and with a very thin frame. He wore a pair of silken crimson flowing pants, which blended perfectly with his long, pink silken sleeves which fell to the floor. Golden pair of bat wing folded around his waist, and a red pair of bat wing folded around his shoulders. This mysterious being wore a blade-like mask, its tip pointing towards the front and with an opening at the middle, revealing a shrunken bluish face with a pair of green eyes.

"We, the Blood Brothers, are at your service, generals, as it had been three hundred years ago," the caped being said in a deep, pompous-like voice.

Both Puaka Generals nodded. "Your time of service shall come soon, once we've gotten hold of the Bane Brothers," the female general said silkily.

"The four of you shall take part in a bigger plan." The male general's six eyes flickered towards Sorcerymon and Shutumon. "But for now…"

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 28 – Same Old Brand New Enemies_**

xxx

xxx

"Do I _really_ have to go?" Adam said, that Monday morning.

"Yes, you do," Aizad said, handing his younger brother his rather bulging schoolbag. "I've already got Patamon packed inside."

"But my head still hurts," Adam said, pressing his temples for effect.

"Your teachers will be wondering if you miss school more than three days," Aizad pointed out.

"…You've got a point." Adam forced out a smile, allowing his brother to push him towards the door. "But…" he paused abruptly, and winced upon feeling his brother's hand pushed somewhat forcefully against his back. "…how am I going to go to school today? Kak Lisha usually drives me to school." He turned around and narrowed his eyes towards Aizad. "And I'm sure _you_ can't drive; I don't think the Digital World offers driving lessons…and even if you can, there's no car to drive…"

"Ah-ah-ah, don't get smart with me," Aizad smirked. "I've called the taxi five minutes ago. It should be arriving at…"

As if on cue, the phone rang. Tsukaimon picked up the phone. "Hello?" he asked, with a poorly-done imitation of a woman's voice. "Uh huh…alright…he'll be on his way…thanks!" Tsukaimon placed the receiver back and turned towards the two brothers. "It was the guard from the gate. He said the taxi's here."

"Go on, get out of here!" Aizad opened the door and pushed Adam, who was struggling to wear his shoes.

"Hey, don't push me…" The DigiWira blinked, seeing that his shoes were pristine clean white. "Wait a minute…I didn't wash my shoes this weekend, how did it…"

"With all your sleeping how on Earth do you think you were going to wash them? _I_ had to do that for you! Now go…you're going to be late!"

"Oh, and one more thing…" Adam said, turning around as soon as he finished tying the shoelaces. He grabbed his brother's hands, shook them while bending his body down slightly, before letting them go and straightened his body back up. He slung his bag on his shoulders and let out a wide grin upon seeing the young man's slightly stunned expression. "See you later, Abang Zad!"

"Yeah, yeah…see you," Aizad returned with a mock-bored tone, the stunned expression washed away with a blink of the eyes. He eyed his brother's retreating figure with a smirk before closing the door. Turning around, the smirk vanished as his brown eyes trailed towards the clock. "He'll be back around one…we've got six hours." He walked towards the computer and switched it on. Tsukaimon flew over his head, descending just over the keyboard while the Windows program was being loaded. Aizad then made a waving gesture with his hands, and a purple light erupted from the screen. The light enveloped them both, and pulled them into the screen before it vanished along with the pair…leaving the computer unoccupied.

xxx

xxx

'_Damn it, stop watching me already!'_

JD groaned inwardly as he made his way through the school's entrance, letting out a small growl to intimidate a few students and prefects who were there. They were looking at him with a somewhat astonished expression, and were whispering amongst themselves. He trudged his bicycle towards the bike shack where all the bicycles were kept during the school session, and chained the glistening crimson and black bike towards a white-painted pillar. Then he slung his red Timberland bag, ignoring a soft whimper coming from it as the bag came into contact with his back. Narrowing his green-blue eyes menacingly towards a couple of students who were about to enter the bike shack, JD smirked upon seeing them moving out of his way to let him walk out of the shack with apparent ease.

The cemented center of the school – the place where the assembly was held – in front of the small podium was slightly crowded, and so were the parking lot which was kept empty that morning. It was Monday and there would be an assembly being held that morning, so the cars were all parked at the school field adjacent to the canteen instead. The blonde teenager looked around, searching for three faces that he'd like to meet that morning for normal chit chat, and a particular prefect who he felt like strangling.

'_There she is…'_

JD made several long, brisk paces towards a willowy girl in green prefect attire, who was in the company of a familiar built boy with spiky dark maroon short hair and several other students, presumably their classmate. Not far from them, closer to where JD was at, was a trio of girls – the darkest-skinned girl with curly brown hair looked up and grinned widely when she saw him.

"Hi, JD!!" she said with her ringing voice, waving at him excitedly. She gestured for JD to come over to her. Instantly, her two friends whipped their heads back, and their eyes widened upon setting sight on him. One of them, a fair girl with shoulder-length straight dark hair, merely turned her head back, looking at the girl who had called him suspiciously. The other girl, with a boyish hair cut, eyed him even longer and a dazed look passed over her face.

Groaning, JD made his way towards the group of girls, simply to greet the one who'd called him just recently. "Hey, Gayathri."

Gayathri smiled brightly and pointed at his head. "Nice hair, really. It does look good on you." She wasn't aware at all that her two friends were looking somewhat shocked.

"I still think it's a bad idea…" JD grumbled, and was about to made his way towards the prefect girl when Gayathri caught his arm.

"Hang on; I'd like you to meet my best friends first. This is Dina…" JD nodded at the aforementioned girl, who nodded back, looking at him with an unreadable expression, before a hand was thrust in front of him, coming from Gayathri's other friend who was staring at him with an anticipating look.

"Hi, I'm Belinda, but you can call me Bel!" the girl said breathlessly.

"Hey," JD nodded, sounding somewhat uninterested but he shook the girl's hand nevertheless. He then returned his gaze towards Gayathri. "I'm gonna go…meet Liu Ying and Manny over there for a while, before the bell rang." He promptly left the trio of girls, ignoring the excited chattering and a gleeful squeal that were exchanged between the girls. Liu Ying and Manny then saw him, and excused themselves from their friends. JD caught the looks on Liu Ying and Manny's friends…they were looking at his hair, and whispering something, before pointing towards him and Manny.

"Wow…short hair, shirt tucked in, _and _a tie…although not fixed properly," Liu Ying said with a smirk. "I have to say that I'm impressed."

"Nice haircut, JD," Manny said with his slow, bashful-sounding voice.

JD groaned. "D'you know everyone was _staring_ at my hair today?!" he hissed towards the prefect.

Liu Ying eyed JD's hair – which still retained the messy-trendy look, but the bangs no longer went past his light eyebrows. The sideburns were gone as well, and the back part weren't grazing his shirt collars any longer. "So? At least it's no longer a sore to the eyes to stare at anymore. My mama did a good job with your hair yesterday, I have to say," Liu Ying commented. "Well worth the twelve ringgit, don't you think?" she added with a smile.

JD grumbled, annoyed. "It's too short to my liking."

"My hair's still shorter, though, if that makes you feel better," Manny consoled. "It'll be a horrible mess if I keep it as long as yours – my hair's even curlier than Gayathri's. So I rather keep it short like this." He ran a head over the spiked tips of his hair with a grimace. "Sometimes I wish I have straighter hair like you or Adam…"

"Well, whatever," JD grumbled, seeing that he was getting no support from his fellow former-ShadoWira. He was about to complain again when an unexpected sight from the gate caught all three of their attentions. "Hey, Adam's here. I thought he's going to stay home again."

Adam saw his fellow DigiWira and hastened his pace towards them. His eyes widened upon seeing JD's new hairdo, followed by an opened mouth – to JD's displeasure – but that was soon replaced with an acknowledging nod.

"Wow JD, you've got yourself a neat haircut," he said cheerfully. "Hi guys," he said at three of them.

The others returned his greeting. Adam waved at Gayathri before looking back at the three DigiWira.

"Someone looks happy," JD noted with a smirk.

"How are you feeling, Adam?" Liu Ying asked, concerned. It had only been three days since Alisha's accident, and the last thing she knew Adam's older sister hadn't wake up yet from coma.

"I'm okay," Adam said, the cheerfulness remained but dropped considerably. He easily interpreted the concerned looks his friends were giving him. "Having Abang Zad back really helps getting over the fact that Kak Lisha's still not waking up yet."

Liu Ying nodded. "You know, you and JD better go to the computer room now and leave Patamon and Koromon there. It's fifteen minutes before the bell, but it's always best to go early and…" She sweatdropped when JD was already dragging a complying Adam towards the stairs of the second block of the school. "Humph." Then, she and Manny both noticed the curious looks shot by several of the students that had gathered at the assembly compound, and decided quickly to get into their line to avoid questions.

As Adam and JD climbed the stairs to reach the second floor – where the computer classroom was located, Adam cleared his throat.

"Umm…I guess I still owe you an apology, for my brother's behavior that day," he said slowly.

JD grunted; his hand went to his stomach subconsciously. "What did you tell your brother to set him off like that?" he asked, wincing slightly at the somewhat demanding tone that escaped along with the inquiry. He hadn't meant to sound harsh – it just escaped his mouth due to the annoyance he felt when the memory of being punched by Adam's brother came back to him.

Adam looked like he was suppressing the urge to wince. He shook his head. "That's the weirdest thing…I didn't tell him _anything_. Abang Zad said that he heard about your…wrongdoings…while he was traveling to look for me. He said that Digimon were good gossipers, so news got around fairly quick." He sighed. "My brother…he can be a bit protective of me and Kak Lisha…I remembered once he bashed one guy for making a pass at my sister when both of them were still at school…"

JD blinked. What Adam had said rang a bell in his mind. "Oh…"

"…and I really pitied that bully who tried extorting my money that time when I was ten…"

"Uh…what happened to him?"

"Hmm…from what I've heard – I didn't get to see because Abang Zad told me to go back home when he found me and that bully – people were saying that his nose was broken."

'_All that for extortion? I wonder what he'd intended to do to me then…'_ "Sounds like he really looks out for you and your sister…" _'VERY **over**protective…but Jade never did stuffs like that when I got in trouble…Adam's got one heck of a brother…'_

Adam chuckled. "Don't look so worried…I explained that you and Manny weren't yourselves when you kidnapped me and all that happened after that…and I told him how you stood up for me when we were at the Dark Ocean. He won't lay a hand on you. I made him promise that."

"I'm not worried!" JD snorted. Adam's chuckle turned into a laugh. "Really, I'm not! He just caught me off-guard that other day. If I was prepared that time…"

"I'd hate to see you two fight it off, then," Adam concluded amidst his laughter. Then he sobered up, coughed and repeated what he had just said with an even tone. "But really, I'd hate to see you two fight. It'll be great if you and Abang Zad can get along…besides maybe he can be a great help to our team, even though he's not a DigiWira."

JD grumbled, annoyed but didn't reply. He instead looked around and saw people looking at him weirdly. "Sheesh, what's with them? It's like I have a disease or something, the way they are staring at me…"

Adam looked up at the passer-bys, who immediately looked away upon meeting his gaze (or JD's blazing eyes). "Hmm…I think maybe it's because it's _you_ I'm walking with, and I was laughing at you for some reason and miraculously you decided not to punch the lights out of me…" Adam then winced at the bad pun he'd said unintentionally.

"I'm not that bad!" JD replied indignantly. "Really, while you weren't around, I've helped out with Gayathri, Manny and Liu Ying on Digimon battles separately. We're all cool now, friends and all."

"That's very nice to hear," Adam nodded. He looked further up past JD's head. His brows furrowed albeit so slightly. "Or maybe it's your hair…"

"God, I wished you didn't have to say that…"

"Really, it's not bad at all, JD. Honest. But it could get a little bit of getting used to, that's all. You've been around the school with longer hair for years, I think." Seeing the older boy looking miffed, Adam smiled and added, "Just think of it as the best thing you've done to your hair."

"Are you kidding? It's the WORST thing I've done to my hair!!"

Adam tilted his head slightly, looking somewhat amused. He shrugged. "One way or the other."

JD grumbled. He decided to switch their topic, intending to ask about something that had been playing in his mind. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"About your brother…well, I thought he's dead in an accident? How did he manage to come back?" JD studied Adam's expression, and was surprised to see that the younger DigiWira didn't look the least taken aback with the very straightforward question.

"It does seem weird and I couldn't figure it out thoroughly yet…" Adam said, and winced visibly all of a sudden. His hand shot up immediately towards his temples. His forehead creased.

JD stopped walking and eyed Adam's sudden reaction. "Hey, you ok?"

Adam massaged his temples slowly and closed his eyes. He then nodded as the creases on his forehead faded away. "Yeah, I'm ok…it's just this stupid headaches I've been getting lately. Abang Zad said that I'm probably overtired with all the adventures I've been into recently, coupled with Kak Lisha's accident and all…"

JD furrowed his eyebrows, and decided to let the subject drop as they approached the computer classroom. He watched Adam pushing the tinted glass door, trying to make a connection of what had just happened. _'Something's off…'_ he thought, as he held the door open, allowing himself to enter the classroom.

xxx

xxx

With a sigh, Adam sat down at his place inside the classroom. He glanced sideways, noting the empty seat which used to be Hakim's. His best friend wouldn't be attending school anymore; they'd be moving to Saudi Arabia in two months, and it was necessary for Hakim to start with intensive English Language classes to improve his communication, comprehension and writing skills in said language, as the school he'd be attending there would be an American international school. Their last meet was during Hakim's family's kenduri, which their whole class had attended in order to give him a proper sendoff. Hakim had said that he'd be coming to the school for a visit from time to time whenever he would have the time.

"What's with the long face, Adam?" A familiar feminine voice snapped Adam back to reality. It was Gayathri, who was standing by Hakim's table with a tentative look.

"Oh…just thinking about Hakim, that's all," Adam admitted, gesturing at the empty seat.

"About that…" Gayathri smiled nervously. "If it makes you feel better, how about _I_ sit here from this day onwards? Kevin…" Gayathri looked at the wire-haired boy sitting behind Hakim's table, who was seated beside _her_ current table. "…you don't mind if I switch, do you?"

"I'd say that I envy Adam…" Kevin Shan grinned, but shook his head. He stood up and waved at a tall boy with straight black hair and a crimson tie. This was their class monitor, David Liew. "Hey, David, come sit with me! Gayathri's leaving me for Adam!" he announced theatrically. His antique earned roundhouse laughter from the whole class, Adam and Gayathri included.

"I guess that's settled," Gayathri said, rolling her eyes good-naturedly at Kevin while placing her bag on the table beside Adam's. "Unless, if you don't want me to?" she asked Adam.

"What? No, no…I'd be happy to have you sit here," Adam said, smiling.

Gayathri got settled on her new seat quickly. She then looked at Adam, who was twiddling with his exercise book, trying to read the boy's expression. She concluded that Adam looked fairly happy, although anxious and worried at the same time judging from his distant look. Gayathri understood completely, and thought that Adam was holding himself up well for one who'd lost both parents and brother, and nearly lost a sister when the thought-to-be-dead brother suddenly came back to him, apparently alive all along. When she heard the story from JD about Adam's big brother returning from the dead, she had merely brushed it off as JD being misinformed. She hadn't had the chance to ask Adam about it. And now, since the teacher wouldn't be coming in for at least another ten minutes, this was her chance to ask Adam about this.

"Adam?" She got no response. Frowning, she poked the boy's right shoulder with her index finger. "Hello? Adam…"

"Huh?" The boy turned to her, and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I just got a lot of things in my mind."

"It's ok. I just want to ask you of how you're holding up."

"Oh… I'm ok, mostly. Abang Zad being here helps me cope with Kak Lisha being comatose tremendously," Adam said, and smiled. He then made a face. "Although he wasn't any help at all with all the homework assignments I've missed…I still haven't finished the Science report, but luckily Science is tomorrow…"

Gayathri leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a whisper. "The teachers know about you, so I don't think they'll give you a hard time about homework. However, our classmates don't know about Kak Lisha…I wasn't sure whether you want me to tell them or not so I just told them that you had this horrible flu with cough."

Adam nodded. "That was thoughtful of you…thanks, Gayathri."

"No problem. I'm happy to help. That's what friends are for, right?"

"Yeah..." Adam nodded.

Gayathri's kind face looked thoughtful all of a sudden. "There's still one thing that baffles me though. About your brother…what's the story actually? JD's told us that your brother's supposed to be dead, but he couldn't be dead if you're now with him, right?"

Adam thought about it, and his temples throbbed once again, like it had been when he was with JD. He let out a soft groan and pressed his temples.

"Adam, are you ok?"

"Yeah," Adam groaned. The pain began to recede, leaving him somewhat short of breath. "I'm alright. Just a headache, that's all. I've been getting headaches quite a lot these few days, Abang Zad reckons it might be because I'm overtired or something. Don't worry, it's nothing serious. It's gone already."

Gayathri nodded, and let the matter drop entirely. She then dug into her school bag, and took out a long notebook – a lab report notebook.

"I might have a remedy to a part of your headache…you said you haven't finished the Science report, right? Well, the experiment you've missed was a fairly difficult one; even I who did the experiment had trouble completing it, let alone you. But I finished it anyway last night. So here, take it and do what you must…either to refer or to copy…" she grinned and pushed the notebook towards Adam's table. "Just make sure you alter a thing or two so Mrs. Heng won't see two identical reports when she checks them."

Adam took the notebook with a grateful expression. "You're _really_ a lifesaver, Gayathri. Thanks."

xxx

xxx

It had been forty minutes after school had let out. The DigiWira team, sans Adam, was now gathered at the computer classroom. Manny had needed to go to the library to know whether he managed to become a library prefect or not, while the others chose to wait at the computer room for him to know the results. Adam hadn't been able to join them – he and his brother had planned to go to the hospital after school was over. In fact, all of them had managed to get a glimpse of Aizad Ariff, who'd been waiting by the school gate for Adam. He'd come by the school with a cab to fetch Adam before heading to the hospital.

Liu Ying was doing her homework, while Gayathri and Floramon were chitchatting. JD was idly playing with the Pinball game on one of the computers, in which Jackie had tolerated as long as JD kept the sounds down and refrained from using profanity whenever he lost the game or failed to set a new high score. The other Digimon were enjoying the snacks their partners had brought with them. Jackie in the meantime was conversing with someone via instant-messaging.

The door was pushed open, and Manny walked in. His entrance attracted everyone's attention, prominently by JD who swore loudly as the computer speaker blared with the 'Game Over' music.

"Son of a…OOWW!!" Liu Ying had smacked him on the back with her thick textbook, which effectively stopped JD from finishing the vulgar sentence.

Manny sweatdropped. "I hope that's not meant for me…"

"No! It's this _stupid_ game…" JD muttered, rubbing his back while glaring at Liu Ying. "Did you have to smack me so hard?"

"If I have to endure another of your swearing…you'll wish that I smack you instead of what I'm having in mind right now," Liu Ying warned.

"Ooh…kinky…OWWW!!"

"Umm…" Manny said, trying to get the attentions of his fellow DigiWira as he closed the door. He saw Gayathri still had her eyes on him. He smiled. "Guess what?"

Gayathri squealed excitedly and rose from her seat. "Oh, you got in, that's great!!" Her ringing voice promptly stopped Liu Ying and JD from bickering.

"You did?" the two elder DigiWira asked at the same time. "Well, congratulations!" Liu Ying said, beaming.

"What did Emily Chua say?" JD inquired with a knowing smirk, which elicited a blush from Manny.

"Who's Emily Chua?" Gayathri asked JD curiously.

"My ex," JD replied simply. He chanced a passing glance towards Liu Ying, and scowled when the girl didn't even look like she was concerned.

"Umm…actually she didn't say much, but she did talk to the teachers and all, and apparently since I already had experience as a librarian back at my old school, the teachers said that it's an indication that I'm fit for the job already," Manny explained as he took a sit in between Gayathri and JD.

"What about that thing about you having punching the daylights out of me?" JD pressed on with a sly grin.

Manny's dark tanned cheeks colored noticeably. "Apparently it's quite a universal gossip already…" he muttered.

"Uh…totally confused here?" Gayathri said, raising an arm slightly to emphasis her point.

JD snickered. "My ex, who's a library prefect, told Manny last Friday that she'd recommend Manny for the post because Manny had _punched_ me. She said that it would make people think twice from damaging the books, etcetera…if Manny's around the library." As he explained it, Manny kept his face down, growing noticeably redder by the seconds. When Gayathri and Liu Ying giggled upon hearing the story, Manny looked like he wanted to hide.

"Hey, relax, man…" JD said, and clapped the other boy's back. "You're red as a tomato!"

"What matters is that you got in," Liu Ying said consolingly.

"When do we get to see you in your uniform?" Gayathri asked.

Manny thought about it. "Umm…probably by next Monday. The tailor was there as well; he'll have my new pants ready by Friday, he said."

"This calls for a celebration," Gayathri prompted with a grin.

Manny nodded. "I've thought about that too when I was on my way here…but we're short of one member. I'd love to give you guys a treat…" The DigiWira looked at each other, somewhat thoughtfully as they were reminded of Adam. "And by the way…I ran into Adam when I was waiting for the results at the library earlier. He was there to borrow a book, and we managed to have a chat outside the library." The burly boy appeared worried. "He didn't look so good…somewhere in the middle of our conversation he had a headache."

"Again? He had headache too when I met him during recess," Liu Ying pondered.

"And during class…" Gayathri supplied.

JD looked at his three younger teammates; what they were saying had set off alarm-bells in his mind. "He had headache too when we were on our way here this morning." He gazed at Manny, Liu Ying and Gayathri one by one cautiously. "What _exactly _were you guys talking about before Adam had this headache?"

Manny rubbed the back of his neck. "I think I was asking him about his brother…"

Liu Ying's eyes widened. "That was what I asked him too before he got that headache!"

"Same here," Gayathri murmured as she idly played around with her plaits.

JD nodded. "So he got a headache whenever we ask him _how exactly_ his brother managed to come back, right?"

"Seems like it," Liu Ying said.

A fissure of worry appeared in between of JD's eyebrows. "I don't like the sound of this at all. Something's fishy is going on, and it involves that brother of Adam."

"I don't know…maybe it's just a coincidence?" Manny said.

"Hmm…headaches each time _after_ being asked about his brother?" JD said with a mock-pondering tone. "And the kid was just fine if we didn't ask him anything about the brother."

"But you're forgetting one thing," Liu Ying said. "From what I gather, Adam adores his brother. I can understand your reasoning should they don't get along, or if Adam dislikes his brother. I saw them earlier when the school let out. They're very close…as close as brothers can be." She saw a dark look passing JD's face.

"But…" JD tried to reason, but was cut off by Gayathri.

"Or maybe we're thinking too much about this. For all we know, Adam might be having migraines," Gayathri said. "My mother has migraines – it gives her quite a headache."

"What about the timing…"

_BEEP, BEEP, BEEP-BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!_

JD groaned. "Talk about perfect timing…"

The girls got up and strode towards Jackie's table. Manny stood up as well, but paused when he saw that JD was still looking unsatisfied.

"Umm…maybe you're thinking too much about this because you still have a grudge against Adam's brother?" Manny asked tentatively.

JD glared at the other boy. "What did you mean by that?"

"He did punch you last time…"

"Drop it." JD said, and stood up promptly. The boys joined the girls by their mentor's table.

The message from TobuCatmon was brief. A pair of evil Digimon was attacking a city about several kilometers northbound from the Forest Sanctum. Jackie had received coordinates from TobuCatmon, and had adjusted the DigiPort on his computer so that the DigiWira would be led straightaway towards the closest DigiPort to the village, instead of the Forest Sanctum. It was something that Jackie, Alisha and TobuCatmon had been working on together prior to Alisha's accident.

Without Adam, the former leader of the team, Liu Ying, opened the DigiPort instead.

xxx

xxx

A city was a somewhat misnomer to describe Zephyrus City. It was, in all actuality, a massive _fortress_ city. Huge brick gates were built around a small mountain with peak that stretched all the way up towards the lowest clouds of the sky. When the four Wira Digital arrived at the gate, they saw two injured humanoid dragon Digimon with blue scales and flame-patterned armors. Scorch marks could be seen on their armors, and their scaled skins were bruised. Chaos could be heard from inside of the fortress. Smokes soared towards the blue sky, and explosions were heard.

"What happened here?" Xianamon asked, stepping forward along with Puspamon to help the injured Flamedramon, the gate guards of Zephyrus City.

"The DigiWira!" the Flamedramon both exclaimed with great relief. "Thank the Guardian Beasts that you're finally here. We…we've been invaded."

"By whom?" Satriamon asked.

"There are two of them," one of the Flamedramon supplied. "A female, with great power of the winds. Accompanying her was a wizard in red armor and a blazing sword. They brought along a horde of Vilemon. We…we're no match for them."

"Please, don't mind us, we're quite alright," the other Flamedramon said quickly. "It's our leader who needs your help."

The four Wira Digital entered the massive gate and saw a magnificent city. The roads and buildings were all seemingly made out of bricks. Each building boasted great architecture of medieval Europe. The buildings lined the path they were now at, which was sloped, heading straight towards a light-violet stone mountain. True to its name, soft breezes could be felt coming from the violet mountain up ahead, which cooled the whole city. The shade provided by the mountain blocked out the warm sunshine, giving Zephyrus City a cool, windy, valley-like atmosphere.

However the city's beauty was disrupted by the fact that from up ahead, small and medium-sized Digimon were seen scampering about in panic as they were chased by several grotesque creatures with gray-black fur. Those dark creatures had seemingly permanently-opened jaws which covered their body. Small arms and legs with orange claws were visible. Small bat wings jutted from their backs, and tufts of orange hairs grew out from their heads.

Satriamon and Xianamon immediately recognized the Digimon, thanks to their experienced Digimon halves. "Those are the Vilemon the Flamedramon guards were talking about!" Satriamon supplied. "Nasty little twerps, but only Champion level. They shouldn't be so hard to beat."

"Everyone, get to safety, we'll handle them!" Xianamon exclaimed, beckoning for the Digimon of Zephyrus City to move out of the way.

The Digimon – ranging from In-Training to Champions mostly, were led by an Ultimate-level Piximon, whose size belied its true form. However, this Piximon had obviously seen better days.

"You heard them!" Piximon shouted in a high-pitched voice that still indicated him to be male. "Head for the infirmary everyone!"

"I'll cover them," Samudramon offered, and followed the city occupants, looking back cautiously should the Vilemon decided to pursue them. They had no need to worry, as the other three Wira Digital were sufficient enough to ward off the horde of no less than twenty Vilemon. He followed the crowd as they were heading towards a big brick building painted white. However, just as they were about to cross a T-junction, three Vilemon appeared from the right. Piximon was caught unaware and was struck down, and the other Digimon scampered in panic.

Samudramon pointed his trident towards the trio of Vilemon, shaking his head. _"Cosmic Thunderstrike!!"_ One lightning bolt was struck towards a Vilemon, who was electrocuted severely before it dissolved in data bytes. The other two Vilemon snarled angrily and attempted to attack Samudramon, but they soon suffered the same fate as their deleted comrade.

"YAAYY!!" the crowd cheered at Samudramon. A large bear cub wearing a cap quickly gathered the fallen Piximon and sprinted towards the infirmary…when it then let out a scream.

Samudramon quickly turned his attention towards the infirmary, and saw another group of Vilemon swarming out from it. Two Vilemon made their way towards the bear cub, attempting to rip the Rookie Digimon's body with their sharp claws, but Samudramon summoned torrents of water and blasted it towards the Vilemon, throwing both Vilemon away from the bear cub. The cub quickly sprinted away, heading towards Samudramon, seeing that the merman was their only protection now.

Sounds of broken glass were heard from above the two-storey infirmary, followed by a terrified shriek. Looking up, Samudramon saw an Ogremon donning a doctor's white medical coat and a stethoscope flying out helplessly from the broken window. Quickly Samudramon generated a pillar of water, which caught the Ogremon doctor, saving him from a fall that would have caused serious injury upon him. Six Vilemon flew out from the broken window, cackling with glee as Samudramon lowered the water pillar carefully.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, and thank you!" Ogremon said gratefully as soon as the water pillar vanished and he stepped onto the brick floor on his feet again.

"It's ok…but we're not done yet!" Samudramon quickly raised his trident and zapped the incoming Vilemon, electrocuting all six of them with three focused shots of his Cosmic Thunderstrike. They fell limp onto the road, unmoving but not deleted.

"There's too many of them!" the bear cub, Bearmon, cried helplessly.

A brownish-yellow lion cub growled angrily towards the Vilemon, attempting to roar but managed to let out only a meowish-roar instead of the fearsome adult lion's. He squeaked and scattered back towards the crowd of Rookie-dominated Digimon. A shinobi-like humanoid wielding a fencing stick held a battle pose, ready for battle. Its action was mirrored by a black owl-like Digimon wearing a purple vest, which was holding a shuriken. A green monkey holding a wooden sling stood behind the black owl. A dark purple goblin Digimon with a red bandanna lit up a fireball and bounced it on its hand, ready to throw it at any Vilemon that was close enough to their group.

Samudramon saw a bigger Digimon amidst the crowd of Rookie – identifying it to be a Champion Digimon easily. It was an ostrich Digimon, with purple feathers mostly but its wings were beige and the tufts of feathers that formed its tails and 'hair' were dark orange. The Digimon, Peckmon, was eyeing Samudramon with apprehension. Beside the Peckmon was a white swan – easily recognized as the gentle Swanmon.

"What do we do?" Swanmon inquired, as another group of Vilemon appeared from the back of the infirmary. "The infirmary is infested with Vilemon!"

Samudramon counted no less than thirty Vilemon apart from the fallen five which he had zapped earlier. He glanced back towards the Digimon crowd he was protecting. "You all better find another place to hide…I'll fend off the Vilemon."

"No!" Peckmon said. "We'll fight alongside you. These vermin have made us run before, but no more."

"YEAAHH!!" the others cheered.

Samudramon grinned at their exuberance. It looked like the Digimon wanted him to lead the battle against the pest-like Vilemon. "Alright…let's do it then."

Following Samudramon's word, the Rookies and Champions all charged towards the infirmary. The Vilemon looked taken aback momentarily, but they then snarled and jumped towards the incoming city dwellers. One Vilemon yelped as it was struck by a shuriken, followed by a flaming stick from the shinobi-like Rookie, several volleys of stones from the monkey and the fireball from the imp. With a shriek, the Vilemon combusted into data, fueling the Rookies with more spirit. They then teamed up again to fight another incoming Vilemon.

Swanmon and Peckmon, the Champions of the group, easily dispatched several Vilemon, while keeping a close watch on Bearmon and Leormon who were guarding the unconscious Piximon. Samudramon focused his attacks towards multiple Vilemon at one time, knowing that they weren't his match so he refrained from using his most powerful technique, using only the weaker-but-effective-nonetheless Cosmic Thunderstrike.

It didn't look like it was going to be difficult fight for Samudramon after all, with him and the citizens teaming up against the Vilemon.

In the meantime, the other Wira Digital had easily disposed the twenty Vilemon that came their way and began searching for the city leader. Satriamon ran along the path, while Xianamon and Puspamon took to the skies. They soon approached a violet mountain, and saw three shapes zipping across the air. One was red, the other white, and they were teaming up to fight a blue blur that was moving as fast as lightning.

The path Satriamon took to head towards the mountain was suddenly blocked by swarms of Vilemon that appeared from the small alleys in between the buildings. There were about twenty of them altogether. Satriamon smirked; they were no match for his Ultimate-level power, and he would show them exactly why.

"Hey!!" he shouted, drawing the female Wira Digital's attentions. "You two go ahead, I'll handle these rats!"

The females nodded and continued flying towards the mountain. Satriamon observed the Vilemon with his green eyes, thinking of the best way to finish them off. Then, grinning lopsidedly he summoned the Shadow Flame Helix and deleted several Vilemon at one go by drowning them with the flames of the orange dragon and the black serpent. Eight Vilemon fell victim to the dark-fire attack, and Satriamon was satisfied. Eyeing the dozen Vilemon that remained, he let out a confident smirk and flexed his fingers.

"I haven't done my Capoiera trainings for a while now…" he murmured. Raising his clawed gauntlet, he charged it with flames and smirked cockily. "Who's up for some dance…?"

One by one, the dozen Vilemon that survived the Shadow Flame Helix became preys to the might of Satriamon's Dragonforce Striker.

Xianamon and Puspamon halted in midair when they were only about a mile away from the three combatants. The combatants stopped fighting momentarily as well, standing at a wary distance between each other, realizing that they had company.

One of the combatants – the one being attacked by the other two – was a humanoid canine Digimon with blue fur. Clearly masculine, he was the tallest of the three. He wore a black pants and a red championship belt was slung at his torso. His eyes were obscured by a pair of dark shades. This Digimon was MachGaogamon, and he was the leader of the citizens of Zephyrus City. He was eyeing Xianamon and Puspamon warily, seemingly worried that they were foes.

One of the Digimon who was attacking MachGaogamon was clearly feminine judging from her figure. Armored in white with violet linings, she had blue hair that framed her half-obscured face. A white airplane-shaped hat was donned on her head. Her armor continued to the back, forming two wing-shaped projections. She was wielding a giant pinwheel as a weapon. The other Digimon – male – was wizardly in appearance, clothed in red garment, metallic chest armor which protected his chest and shoulders, purple cape and an equivalent purple wizard hat. He was wielding a fiery sword on one hand, and a shimmering crystal ball on the other.

"Hey, hey, they're here!" the wizard exclaimed with glee.

The female stared at Xianamon and Puspamon with mirth sparkling from her violet eyes. "Finally, you've come. We've been waiting for you."

"Um…do we _know_ you two?" Puspamon asked, wondering who the two Digimon were.

"Enough!! Puspamon, I challenge you to a battle!" the female snapped, and pointed her weapon towards the fairy Wira Digital. _"Ultra Turbulence!!"_

"What in the world…?" Puspamon quickly pointed both arms forward to counter a raging whirlwind that erupted from the other female's pinwheel. _"Hibiscus Hurricane!!"_ The two hurricanes, one violet and the other pink, slammed against each other and were cancelled out. This proved that Puspamon and the unknown Digimon were at equal standing.

"Heh, heh…I love this new power up…" the female stranger muttered. Although it wasn't visible, she was clearly smirking underneath her facemask.

"Power-up?" Puspamon pondered, and stared at the stranger more carefully. Something was _very_ familiar about this Digimon. Another Digimon with blue hair and a masked face came to mind, and Puspamon smirked. "Ah…I thought I've smelled bad perfume," she said sarcastically, recognizing the stranger.

"Hello, I'm not even wearing any perfume!" the female stranger said hotly.

"No wonder I can detect something fishy about you, _grandma_," Puspamon countered, using the nickname that she knew the other Digimon would hate.

"Don't call me grandma! I'm now Jetsilphymon, and I've got more than enough power to dispose you for good!"

Puspamon snorted. "Really? We shall see."

Upon hearing the revelation, Xianamon placed a placating hand on her forehead – which was covered by the golden fox facemask she was wearing. She'd been afraid that this would happen again. The last time those two encountered each other – as Fairymon and Shutumon – they were involved in a violent catfight that she deemed was a disgrace to all females. She turned her head warily towards the wizardly Digimon.

"If Jetsilphymon is actually Shutumon, then you must be…Sorcerymon."

"Right, but not quite there," the wizard laughed – his voice was still similar to his pre-digivolved form. However his new form had given him an imposing aura. "Mystimon's the name now!" He held out his blazing sword. "And while Jetsilphymon's battling that gorgeous friend of yours…I'll fight you, wizard-to-wizard!" He sailed towards Xianamon, raising his sword which then erupted with wild fire, attempting to slash at Xianamon.

Xianamon cocked her head sideways. "I don't think so," she said wryly, and flicked her arms towards the incoming wizard. A flash of faint golden light erupted, followed by a disbelieving gasp from Mystimon. When the light faded, the sorceress smiled with satisfaction upon seeing that Mystimon had frozen in midair. Her Magical Stasis had worked perfectly.

"You have caused enough damage to this city, so go back to wherever you came from," Xianamon said smoothly and pointed her fly whisk towards the immobilized Mystimon.

"Wait…can't we talk about this?"

"Sure. Three words… _Diamond World Mandala!!"_

Waves of golden and indigo lights slammed against Mystimon, sending him plummeting towards the ground below. Xianamon sighed in satisfaction upon her victory, but before she could turn around her back was slammed with several energy projectiles, which sent _her_ towards the ground below. A freezing sensation crept all over her back. The force that came with the attack nearly took her breath away, and she gasped loudly to regain her breath. The freezing sensation had irradiated to her shoulders and arms, and was heading for her front torso. She saw that her body was being coated by thin ice. Her chest became painful and she lost control of her telekinetic and magical powers altogether. She'd suffer the same fate as Mystimon if it weren't for the timely rescue from a very familiar red knight.

"Gotcha!!" Satriamon smirked as he caught Xianamon on his strong arms. He then made a skillful frontward somersault over the air before landing onto the ground with his two feet. His green eyes flickered back to Xianamon, who was grasping her chest, which was now coated in ice. However, the ice was melting instantly due to the warm air Satriamon was radiating.

"I…I'm alright," Xianamon let out a gasp when her breath returned. Satriamon nodded and lowered her onto the ground cautiously. "Thank you, Satriamon."

"No sweat." Satriamon saw that Xianamon was drenched due to the melted ice. Her outer yellow garb was clasped tight against her body, somewhat revealing her feminine figure despite they were modestly covered by the midnight-blue bodysuit she wore underneath her outer garb. The dragon-man smirked mischievously as he sneaked an appreciative glance over the seemingly unaware sorceress before his sharp eyes caught another incoming Digimon.

Mystimon had gotten back up on his feet, and was heading their way. "I'm not finished yet! You think your magical power is strong, sorceress? Take this! _Blast Fire!!"_

Satriamon snorted upon seeing the torrents of dark red fire coming from Mystimon's sword. He walked several steps away from Xianamon and snickered haughtily. "You call _that_ fire? Let me show you how a real fire attack is done!" Spinning his arm in circular motion before thrusting it forward, Satriamon then released a jet of fire in a shape of a roaring dragon towards Mystimon's fire. Compared to Satriamon's dragon-fire, Mystimon's attack looked somewhat feeble. The magical fire was instantly consumed by the pure firepower from Satriamon.

"AAH!!" Mystimon screamed when Satriamon's fire grazed his sleeves. He was forced to withdraw his arms away. He let go of his sword and took out something from his back. Leaping forward, the Ultimate-level wizard threw a volley of fiery projectiles towards Satriamon. _"Core Darts!!" _

The projectiles sailed at rapid speed, but Satriamon was pushed away by Xianamon who then waved her fly whisk, releasing her Jade Needles which contained poisons. Mystimon's Core Darts were large and a dozen in number, while Xianamon's silver needles were small and thin, but hundreds in amount. The two projectiles techniques collided in midair and combusted into data particles.

Mystimon laughed, and raised his crystal ball. "Nice try, sorceress, but I still have another trick up my sleeve! Behold my special technique: _Flaming Windstorm!!"_ From the crystal ball, a hurricane of flames was unleashed and was heading towards the two Wira Digital. The temperature around them raised several degrees immediately – the whole area became scorching hot.

Xianamon pointed both her left unoccupied hand and her fly whisk. _"Diamond World Mandala!!"_ Powerful magical waves of midnight blue and glittering yellow were released again, and they slammed against the fiery whirlwind. Xianamon summoned more power on her attack, which began to draw the windstorm back. There was a brief standstill – Mystimon's attack was remarkably strong as Xianamon now found out. They were at near equal standing, but she had another advantage. She glanced towards Satriamon and gave him the briefest of a nod.

Satriamon seized this chance to deliver a finishing blow to end the battle. He coated his whole body with flames and sailed towards the windstorm. Aided by Xianamon's magical waves he entered the hurricane and absorbed all the fires, channeling them into his Chrome Digizoid claw-gauntlet. The hurricane soon dissipated and with a triumphant roar, Satriamon streaked towards the flabbergasted Mystimon and slashed him with his powerful finisher: _"Dragonforce Striker!!"_

To his credit, Mystimon was strong enough _not_ to get deleted. However, Satriamon's finisher was too much for him to handle and he was thrown back. His torso shield and the red garb underneath were both slashed by the severity of Satriamon's claws, which also left three long gashes on his body. Howling painfully, Mystimon glimmered with white light and reverted into Sorcerymon just seconds before he crashed onto the ground.

Satriamon smirked and turned to look at Xianamon. "Great teamwork, huh?"

Xianamon returned the smile with a nod. "Indeed."

Shrieks and sounds of slapping were then heard from the sky. Looking up, Satriamon sweatdropped upon seeing a brutal catfight that was taking place between Puspamon and a female Digimon he didn't recognize. "Hey, who's the other chick?"

"That's Jetsilphymon…Shutumon's digivolved form," Xianamon groaned, seeing the dragon-man watching the battle with rapt interest – his green eyes weren't even blinking and his mouth hung slightly opened, left in a lopsided grin that was akin to JD's. Suddenly, something crossed her mind which caused her fair cheeks to tint with faint pink blush.

Satriamon wolf-whistled. "Battle of the chicks, heh, heh, OWW!!" He rubbed the part where his forearm was not armored. "HEY!! Why'd you _pinch_ me?"

"Did you _really_ think I did not notice you sneaked a perverted glance on me just now?!!"

"Uh…heh, heh, OWWW!!"

The battle between Puspamon and Jetsilphymon had taken to a more severe degree after they exchanged several kicks and slaps. Puspamon had tried using her Dream Rose Mirage against Jetsilphymon, but apparently her opponent had known of the effect of the attack and had retaliated by sending a powerful and concentrated gust of wind from her pinwheel which forced Puspamon's Black Rose Staff out of her hand. Without the staff Puspamon wasn't able to summon her illusionary tactic. Enraged, Puspamon had retaliated with her Sprite Scream, which Jetsilphymon had gleefully countered with another gust of whirlwind which had reduced the effect of her supersonic scream greatly.

"Take this!! _Whirlwind of Pain!!"_ Jetsilphymon unleashed barrages of violet energy crescent-shaped projectiles towards Puspamon. The technique was similar to her lesser form's Wind of Pain attack, but several degrees more powerful. The crescents sailed towards Puspamon with the speed of lightning, tearing through Puspamon's Hibiscus Hurricane which was launched in an attempt to block out the crescent barrages.

Puspamon shrieked as the crescents tore against her body, dress and wings. Seeing this, Jetsilphymon became more confident and released more of her barrages mercilessly. She was fully intent to have her revenge for her humiliating defeat as Shutumon several weeks ago. The evil mistress of the wind cackled with laughter seeing that Puspamon was forced to be at the receiving end of her powerful Whirlwind of Pain.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Satriamon and Xianamon attempting to help Puspamon, and unleashed her crescent projectiles towards them as well. She was speedy enough to alternate her attacks between the three Digimon; the power of her Ultimate form was surprisingly fast and furious. She grinned, seeing the other two Wira Digital were forced to draw back from attacking her, and focused her attention back to her real opponent.

"_Jet Winter!!" _ This attack was the one sent at Xianamon earlier, which had evidently weakened the sorceress. Jetsilphymon wanted to see what this attack would do towards her sworn enemy.

"_Sprite Scream!!"_ Surprisingly, Puspamon was still resilient enough to come up with a counter attack.

"Oh yeah? How about this: _Ultra Turbulence!!"_ With a wave of her pinwheel, Jetsilphymon trapped Puspamon in a chaotic violet hurricane which battered and flung Puspamon around. Laughing maniacally at Puspamon's lost of control over her balance, Jetsilphymon grew overconfident…she'd forgotten that there was one other audience waiting for the right chance to strike.

"_Winning Knuckle!!"_ A sharp blow on her back forced her to stop attacking. Her whole body shook violently from the blow. She turned around angrily and saw the culprit: MachGaogamon.

"Why you…!" Seething, Jetsilphymon lashed her arms out. _"Whirlwind of Pain!!"_

"_Gaoga Tornado!!"_

MachGaogamon zipped around the crescents and surrounded Jetsilphymon, going into a fast bunch of melee attacks consisting of kicks and punches. He was hurt as well from the crescents, but nowhere injured enough to stop him from attacking the intruder of his city. With a forceful kick over Jetsilphymon's exposed stomach, MachGaogamon allowed a grim chuckle escaping his snout as he saw Jetsilphymon sailed away towards the fairy Wira Digital. "Now, child!!" MachGaogamon shouted towards Puspamon.

Puspamon nodded as she saw an opening for her to release her fourth technique. She crossed her arms in front of her body, forming an X-shape, as her whole body glimmered with a bright pink aura. The simple plum-red tulip which was attached at the center of her bodice detached itself, and became translucent as it passed through Puspamon's crossed arms.

"_Jelita Shocker!!"_

After passing through Puspamon's arm, the tulip expanded twice its original size, multiplied into half a dozen, and all were sent towards the flailing Jetsilphymon with the speed generated by a powerful gust of wind as Puspamon uncrossed her arms. They cornered Jetsilphymon at six sides and released six hot magenta beams that _shot through_ Jetsilphymon's body in six different directions. Jetsilphymon screamed in agonized pain as her whole body shone bright magenta as the result of the attack, sensing her Ultimate level power slowly evaporating away form her body. She then felt severely weak and devolved back to Shutumon before plummeting towards the ground.

"You're lucky, grandma…the Jelita Shocker would've deleted you if you're not strong enough…or if I'm at my top form," Puspamon said softly.

"WOO-HOO!! Puspamon, you totally _owned_ her!" Satriamon yelled gleefully as Puspamon and MachGaogamon descended towards the other Wira Digital.

The three Wira Digital and MachGaogamon saw Sorcerymon crawling weakly towards Shutumon's unconscious form. They watched with grim amusement of how Sorcerymon trying to wake Shutumon.

"What do you suppose we do with them?" Puspamon asked MachGaogamon.

"They have done a great crime against Zephyrus City, and for that, I wish for you to allow us to deal with them," MachGaogamon requested.

Puspamon smiled and shrugged uncaringly. "By all means."

"I can never thank you enough, DigiWira. Do know that you're always welcome to this city, anytime." MachGaogamon bowed his head slightly. "I'd offer you to tour as you please around this city, but I fear that the city is still infested with those nasty Vilemon…"

"Not anymore," said a calm, echoic male voice that sounded like it was spoken whilst underwater.

Everyone turned around and saw Samudramon approaching them with a horde of Digimon of various shapes and sizes.

"They've been taken care of," Samudramon supplied. He smiled as he approached the other Wira Digital. "It seems like I've missed a great fight…" He glanced at Puspamon.

"Eh…it's not a bad fight," Puspamon said, her tanned cheeks pinked ever so slightly.

The four Wira Digital observed as MachGaogamon approached the fallen Sorcerymon and Shutumon. Sorcerymon quivered in fear as MachGaogamon snatched his staff away and picked up the unconscious Shutumon by her neck; his large stature made Shutumon and Sorcerymon appear like rag dolls compared to him. Sorcerymon tried to crawl away and yelped like a mouse when MachGaogamon grabbed his white cape, pulling him up as well. Sorcerymon whimpered, pleading for MachGaogamon to set him and Shutumon free, but MachGaogamon wouldn't hear any of it.

Their victory however didn't last long…

Two dark shadows suddenly plummeted from the sky. A crimson lightning streaked from one and struck MachGaogamon from behind, eliciting a pained howl from the canine humanoid. Another lash of the crimson lightning sent the Ultimate Digimon tumbling over the brick ground, releasing Sorcerymon and Shutumon from his hold.

Before the Wira Digital could do anything, the second shadow zipped all around the four of them with a speed so fast that it set Gayathri's super-speed to shame. The Wira Digital felt their bodies being grazed by multiple swords which were able to penetrate through their armors. The attacks were delivered so rapidly they had no chance to even defend themselves, let alone attack back. A vicious lash from the shadow sent all four of them flying, devolving in midair into four pairs of wounded humans and Rookie Digimon. As they tumbled onto the ground the two shadows zipped towards Sorcerymon and Shutumon, picked them up, and sped away towards the sky before disappearing into nothingness.

Everything had happened with such an unbelievable quickness that the DigiWira and Digimon thought that it might all had been a dream if it weren't for the pain they were feeling. Their visions blurred and all eight of them lost consciousness…faintly hearing the sounds of the Rookie Digimon calling out for help.

xxx

xxx

"Why don't you get the movie started while I take these to the kitchen?" Aizad suggested, beckoning at the McDonalds take-away bags he was holding.

"Okay!" Adam said with a smile and sprinted towards the living room as soon as he closed the door to their apartment. He unlatched his schoolbag and released Patamon, and went towards a schoolbag Aizad had been carrying with him to release Tsukaimon. The two Rookie Digimon fluttered around the apartment, flexing their tired muscles after being cramped inside the bags for quite a while during their whole journey to the hospital, at the hospital, their journey towards the McDonalds fast food restaurant for a take away and the rest of their journey home. It didn't help that instead of taking a taxi, the brothers had opted to use the bus instead. The bus had been so crowded that their schoolbags were often squeezed against the other bus passengers, much to their dismay. Hadn't it been for the Rookies' eagerness to try out the Human World's foods (Tsukaimon more than Patamon) they wouldn't have tolerated the rather _excruciating_ experience.

"What movie do you like to watch, Abang Zad?" Adam called from the living room.

Aizad poked his head from the kitchen. "I've missed two years worth of movies. You pick one for me." He went back to the kitchen, but his head appeared again with an affixed frown, "But if I see romance or chick-flicks…someone's going to get seriously hurt around here," he mock-threatened before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Adam laughed and scanned their DVD and VCD selections. He ruled out all the Disney cartoon movies – while he and his sister were fans, he knew that Aizad didn't like cartoons. He left out the Hollywood blockbuster movies and TV series as well and also movies from outside the country, which left him with some Malay movies. Those, Adam knew, Aizad liked to watch. From the limited selections, Adam screened out the romance-themed movies that his sister were fans of and the choices were now down to one comedy and one horror-supernatural movie. Adam had watched both, but he knew that his brother was a fan of comedy more than horror, and took the comedy movie out.

Patamon sailed towards the kitchen, still trying to work out the tenseness he was feeling. Tsukaimon was already inside the kitchen, perched over the dinner table. Suddenly he paused, his eyes widened in alarm when he saw Aizad taking out a small vial from his pants pocket. Patamon saw the young man pouring the content of the vial inside Adam's vanilla milkshake before stirring the milkshake well with the straw. He then placed the cover of the tall paper cups provided by McDonalds on top of Adam's drink, and then proceeded towards the cup that meant for Patamon.

'_What are they doing…?'_

Quickly he flew back to the living room and got himself settled at the single sofa. He watched warily as Tsukaimon took over the double sofa opposite Patamon's sofa. Aizad placed the tray containing their drinks and burgers on the living room's table and sat on the three-sitter sofa opposite the television, balancing his Coca-cola and Big-Mac on his left thigh as Adam sat down at his right, his Quarter-Pounder burger and milkshake cradled in his folded right arm and the remote controller in his left. The brothers then ate their meals as they watched the comedy, and Patamon observed anxiously as Adam began to drink his milkshake, not missing the anticipating look shared between Aizad and Tsukaimon. Then, sensing that he was being watched, Patamon pretended to sip his drink as well.

Not long after, right after Adam had finished with his burger and drink, Patamon heard his partner groaning softly. From the corner of his eyes he saw Tsukaimon was observing him, and he pretended to look drowsy as well and plopped down on the cushion. He risked opening one eye, and saw his partner's eyes completely closed and Aizad slowly pushing Adam's body onto the cushions, positioning the boy so that he was on his back as Aizad himself got up from his seat.

'_What is going on here…?'_ Patamon thought, daring not to move anymore, as it would give away the fact that he was not knocked out. He began to have a foreboding feeling about what was happening. Closing his eyes, Patamon strained his ears, and heard Aizad and Tsukaimon heading towards the computer. He heard the computer being switched on, and after a while, he sensed lights – dark lights – washing out from the monitor screen. Everything was quiet again soon after.

Patamon opened his eyes and quickly fluttered towards Adam. He landed on Adam's chest and tried waking his partner. "Adam? Adam, wake up."

Adam didn't reply. He didn't even move. The only guarantee Patamon had that Adam was still _alive_ was the fact that his chest was heaving steadily up and down. His heartbeat could be felt, soft, steady and in normal rhythm. Adam looked peaceful even, sleeping like a baby, completely undisturbed by Patamon's weight on his body.

Patamon flew towards the computer, knowing that somehow Aizad and Tsukaimon were at the Digital World. _'How did they open a DigiPort? Aizad doesn't even have a Digivice…'_

"AHA!! I thought there was something fishy from the way you were acting!"

Patamon turned around and saw himself face to face with Tsukaimon. Before he could act, Tsukaimon breathed out dark purple fogs from his mouth, which enveloped Patamon wholly. Patamon felt weak instantly and limped onto the marble floor. He heard Tsukaimon chuckling in satisfaction before his eyes gave out into blackness.

xxx

xxx

**Word Glossary:**

Jelita – A Malay word which means 'ravishing'. So Jelita Shocker Ravishing Shocker


	29. Of Bane and Blood

Jackie fidgeted nervously as he waited at the empty school compound. It was eight o'clock Monday night, and save for the guard on duty by the gate the secondary school was completely abandoned. He had been afraid it would come to this, but he thought that he no longer had a choice. He had done this before, he could do this again.

But that didn't mean that he liked resorting to _this_.

In fact, he loathed having to do this. But what else could be done?

Earlier, TobuCatmon had contacted him. The mentor of the DigiWira was terribly upset as the four DigiWira he'd sent to Zephyrus City were caught in a fix. Delegates from Zephyrus City had arrived at the Forest Sanctum around five in the afternoon, mentioning that their leader and all four Wira Digital had been attacked severely by unknown forces right after their victory against the invasion on the city. At the time of their arrival, the DigiWira and their partners were still unconscious and were held at the city's infirmary.

TobuCatmon and Jackie had decided to wait until dusk. Seven o'clock evening passed with no improvement of the DigiWira's conditions. Jackie had decided there and then to alert the DigiWira's families about their children, as they must have been worried by now with their children missing. He was forced to take this action once when Adam was kidnapped by the ShadoWira. Manny's kidnapping was fortunately covered by Adam later on. But this time around, that particular tactic couldn't be used again.

Jackie looked around the darkened school, trying to calm his nerves. The compound was fairly lit by the lights from the corridor, and a lamp pole nearby was emitting orange-yellow light. He stared towards the distance, seeing the twinkling lights of the city of Kuala Lumpur fairly visible despite the distance between the metropolis and the town of Subang Jaya. It was a clear twilight night, and the Petronas Twin Towers and the Kuala Lumpur Tower, as well as the other skyscrapers of the metropolis, could be seen clearly against the cobalt sky. It was also a quiet night; so quiet in fact that the soft hums of people from the adjacent mosque could be heard.

A car drove through the opened gates and parked near the podium. From the driver seat a woman in her late forties stepped out. She wore a pink headscarf that extended all the way under her bosom and was dressed in dark red baju kurung. Her face revealed her age, but it was evident that she had been pretty during her younger years.

"Mrs. Khadijah!" Jackie approached the lady in baju kurung. The lady returned his greeting with a confused look.

"Mr. Chan, what is the meaning of this? What is the emergency you mentioned in the telephone?" Mrs. Khadijah Basri, the school's principal, demanded.

"I'd like to explain as well, but I'm still waiting for others to come," Jackie said regretfully. "But please, have a seat." Jackie indicated a bench he had pulled from the canteen, now placed at the center of the assembly compound. There were three benches, placed in a triangular form, surrounding a small table and a chair. On top of the table was a state-of-the-art laptop, already switched on.

"Others?"

"Look, here they come now," Jackie beckoned towards the gate, where three cars drove in. On the walkway, three people were seen walking past the school's artificial fountain, heading towards the assembly hall.

"Who are they, Mr. Chan?" Mrs. Khadijah asked, watching as a young man exited the driver seat of a dark Mercedez Benz. Before he could open the door to the back seat, it swung open by itself and out stepped a couple the principal knew so well. "Mr. and Mrs. Nadarajah?" She eyed another car – a blue BMW, where a tall man and a beautiful woman stepped out. "Mr. Johan Awaludin and Mrs. Leeanna Abdullah?" Her dark eyes then fell on the third car, a black Honda Accord, where a couple she had met quite recently stepped out from. They were accompanied by a little girl with pigtails, looking about five to six years of age. "Mr. Abah Jintoni and Mrs. Kimberly Bhatt?" And finally, she observed as the three people that had walked in the gate approached the assembly compound, recognizing them as the family of the school's second assistant head prefect. "Mr. Chang… Mrs. Evelyn Chang…" She saw the woman with red hair holding the hand of a little boy of about five to six years of age.

All of them had anxious looks on their faces, but before they could demand an explanation Jackie quickly greeted them.

"Good evening, everyone. I'm sorry to have called you at this time of night, but this is very important. And like I've said in our telephone conversations earlier, it involves your children, whom I believe still have not returned… but please, have a seat on those benches. I apologize for the crudeness, but everything happened so quick, and…"

"Mr. Chan! I demand to know where my daughter is!" Mr. Nadarajah boomed when he took his seat. His wife looked equally anxious but didn't say anything. The young man who had drove them to the school stood silently behind the couple – the parents of Gayathri Nadarajah.

Jackie nodded, fully understanding their anxiousness.

"Ying has returned later from this time from the Digital World several times before, but from the way you sounded in the telephone, you made it sound like there is a problem," the man known as Mr. Chang addressed Jackie calmly as he beckoned for his daughter in law and grandson to take their seats beside him. This was Liu Ying's grandfather, and he was aware of his granddaughter's endeavor as a DigiWira. So was his daughter-in-law – Liu Ying's mother – and to certain extent so was the little boy, Liu Ying's younger brother.

"Digital World?" Mrs. Nadarajah asked, looking more confused. She exchanged a glance with her husband, then to the young man behind her. Her wide eyes narrowed when she saw the man fidgeting nervously upon the mention of the Digital World. "Anding! You know something about this?"

"Sir, ma'am…" Anding Zaidi looked at his employers nervously – he too had been made known about Gayathri being a DigiWira, but he and his mother alone. Gayathri's parents were oblivious about it for the past four months.

"I will explain everything, but please, calm down…" Jackie said. His blue eyes eyed the parents of JD and Manny, but they were in more control of themselves. JD's parents looked somewhat disgruntled, in fact – almost annoyed at each other's presence. They weren't looking at each other's faces, which suggested a fight…but Jackie supposed that it was not his business. His eyes fell on Manny's parents, which was a stark contrast to JD's. Mr. Abah had one arm slung around his wife's shoulder, and Mrs. Kimberly had their daughter on her lap. Manny's parents were affectionate towards each other as JD's parents were cold.

Jackie then stood in the middle of the assembled families of the DigiWira nervously, and decided that it was best to get on with it.

"Before I begin, I would like to ask you: How many of you have heard of the worldwide Digimon invasion taking place on Christmas year 2002?"

Aside from Liu Ying's family members, the others looked confounded.

"I thought they are just rumors!" Mr. Johan Awaludin spoke up. "And what's that got to do about Josh's disappearance? For all we know he could be playing truant…"

"I assure you, Mr. Johan, that your son is _not_ playing truant," Jackie said coolly. "And I have a valid reason to alert all of you about the Digimon invasion."

"I have heard of it," Mrs. Kimberly Bhatt – Manny's mother – offered. Everyone turned their attentions towards the petite maroon-haired woman. "My cousin was on vacation at Tokyo when it happened – she mentioned seeing a lot of…monsters…battling each other out. And words had it that some of these monsters were friends of a group of local kids there…" She shook her head. "I wasn't sure whether she was telling the truth or not at the moment…she did have a lot of drink that time…"

Jackie nodded. Mrs. Kimberly's explanation would make it easier for him to proceed.

"Mrs. Kimberly, what your cousin has seen during her vacation was indeed real. Those monsters are Digital Monsters…or Digimon, in short. Similar to humans, there are good Digimon and evil Digimon. The invasion took place due to the works of several evil Digimon, and good Digimon, partners to a group of chosen children called DigiDestined, had taken it in their hands to put a stop to the invading Digimon. They succeeded, but that invasion marked the beginning of a new era for this world.

"Ever since that year, more and more people around the world, young and old but mostly preteens and adolescents, are being partnered with Digimon. There haven't been many threats – not to the level of MaloMyostismon whom the Japanese DigiDestined had fought in 2002. Some of the more serious threats were taken cared off by the DigiDestined selected to protect that region of the Digital World which fell under the threat.

"Half a year ago, the south-eastern part of the Digital World fell under threat of an evil who at the time, was beginning to resurface. Recognizing the threat, and the evil Digimon that was responsible to initiate such threat, the Digital World itself reacted by opening portals leading to the most accessible points in the Real World. However, fate has it that this time around, due to an ancient prophecy by a lost hero called Grademon, all five DigiDestined selected to combat this threat are pre-chosen by five mystical artifacts known as the DigiSpheres. All five of them are Malaysians, and they all are teenagers – the youngest being thirteen and eldest sixteen. They all live in this town at present, and they all attend this school."

"Are you saying…?" Mrs. Khadijah said, as realization dawned to her. The parents were all now bustling uneasily.

Jackie pressed several buttons on the laptop's keyboard, and instantly a ray of faint light emerged from the screen. He then pushed down the laptop screen so that it would lie on the table, adjacent to the keyboard attached to it. The ray of light then was pointed upwards, and several images began to take form.

"Chang Liu Ying, Gayathri d/o Nadarajah, Mohammed Adam bin Ahmad Ariff, Emmanuel Abah and Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman bin Johan Awaludin are the five chosen to wield the powers of the mystical five DigiSpheres created by Grademon three hundred digital years ago to combat the evil known as SkullSatamon…"

Images of the five DigiWira were shown in a rotating motion for all to see. They were all seen in their uniforms, and hovered in front of each of them were their respective DigiSpheres. The images shifted into an image of Grademon who was seen combating SkullSatamon.

"Chosen to be DigiDestined or DigiWira as they are codenamed, the DigiWira are partnered to five Digimon. Liu Ying, the first one chosen to become DigiWira, is partnered to a Labramon…"

The images shifted to show Liu Ying and Labramon. Liu Ying's family members watched calmly, having known of her being DigiWira for some time.

"The second chosen is Gayathri, who is partnered to a Floramon…"

The images changed to reveal Gayathri and Floramon. This elicited surprised gasps from the Nadarajah couple.

"The third, Adam, partnered to a Patamon…"

The images revealed Adam and Patamon. The parents all looked around, wondering amongst each other who could be the family members of the dark-haired boy.

"Then finally, the forth and fifth members are chosen simultaneously. Joshua and Manny, partnered to an Agumon and a Penguinmon respectively…"

Some whispers were heard when images of JD and Manny were shown. The first three DigiWira had gray uniforms, but the two latter ones wore black uniforms. And there was the fact that they had been chosen together, instead of gradually like the previous three members. However, they all didn't voice out their concerns, waiting for Jackie to tell the story instead.

Jackie had no intention to reveal that JD and Manny had been evil once; it'd require a lot of explanation and would make things more complicated. Furthermore, both teens were not at fault for that; it was best to keep the past in the past. He would just stick to the basic information, and that alone was as tough a job as it could be.

"Being DigiDestined, all of them are equipped with devices called Digivices, which enabled them to travel back and forth from this world to the world where Digimon live, known as the Digital World. With the Digivices, the DigiWira also are able to evolve…or Digivolve…their Digimon partners into higher and more powerful level."

The DigiWira were all shown pointing their Digivices towards their partners. The five Digimon were bathed in yellow, pink, white, blue and red lights, and emerged as bigger, stronger-looking Digimon in the forms of a midnight-blue nine-tailed fox, a skimpily-outfitted fairy, a white-armored centaur, an armored merman and a blazing bipedal lizard. This caused another round of surprised exclamations from the parents and the principal.

"This is usually as far as normal DigiDestined and their partners could go…but with the DigiSpheres, the DigiWira have access to more powers. They themselves receive special abilities, which only function while they are at the Digital World. Liu Ying is bestowed with telekinesis…the ability to move objects with her mind or a mere gesture of her hands. She also receives a complimentary ability in form of projecting force-fields to ward off attacks. Both of her abilities come from the Magical attribute that comes from her Yellow DigiSphere.

"Gayathri is given the ability to run at high-speed and the ability to emit a supersonic scream. These abilities stemmed from the power of the Wind that comes from her Pink DigiSphere.

"Adam is granted the power of teleportation in orbs of light. This power manifests into the ability to summon objects, and later, people. His abilities are derived from the power of Light from his White DigiSphere.

"Manny is blessed with the power to manipulate, and also generate, water. His hydrokinetic power is the direct result of the Water attribute of his Blue DigiSphere.

"And just as Manny controls the water, Joshua has power over fire. His pyrokinetic power stemmed from the Fire attribute of his Red DigiSphere."

With Jackie's explanation, the accompanying images of the said DigiWira were shown, demonstrating his or her powers. Some of the parents stared at the simulations, mouth-opened, dumbfounded. Looks of disbelieving crossed their faces, and Jackie didn't blame them. It was indeed hard to digest at one go.

"These are unbelievable," Mr. Abah breathed out, rubbing his temple.

"They have…powers?" Mrs. Nadarajah gasped.

"But that's not all…with the threats growing more dire and dangerous, the Digimon's current-achieved Digivolution level are insufficient to combat these threats. Most Digimon around the world have easily attained Champion levels, which usually would be enough to combat the threats that invaded the areas they have been chosen to protect. Some who gained Ultimate levels…the level above Champion…with aids of special artifacts and methods. The need for Mega level Digimon so far has only been true for the Japanese DigiDestined group, whom had faced threats from various evil Mega Digimon which necessitated their partners' Digivolution to Mega as well.

"For the DigiWira, the enemies they have faced, and are currently facing, are usually in Ultimate levels. To unlock the Ultimate-level powers for their Digimon, instead of the usual Digivolution for the Digimon, the DigiSpheres have a completely different method to empower the Digimon. The DigiWira and their respective partners are _merged_ together, forming Ultimate Digimon with powers of above-average Ultimates…which in the Digital World, are considered as sufficiently powerful.

"Liu Ying and Labramon merge to form the elegant sorceress Xianamon, an Ultimate Digimon with magical powers and also the power of earth.

"Gayathri and Floramon merge to form the beautiful fairy Puspamon, an Ultimate Digimon with powers over wind and nature.

"Manny and Penguinmon merge to form the silent and strong merman Samudramon, an Ultimate Digimon who controls both water and thunder.

"And Joshua and Agumon merge to form the powerful warrior Satriamon, an Ultimate Digimon with the power of fire and darkness at his disposal."

With every explanation, the Digivolution sequences of the respective DigiWira and Digimon were shown. Looks of utmost shock were evident now in ALL the parents and the school principal. The initial shock of being made aware of their children's exploits in the Digimon matter still hadn't left them, now they were at loss. They didn't know _how_ to react with the facts that their children were able to merge with Digimon to become protectors of an alternate world. There was also the fact that all four DigiWira looked absolutely imposing in their fused forms…their Wira Digital forms.

"Mama…is that _Che-che_ and Shaomon…?" asked the little boy, Liu Meng, to his mother. He was staring at the images of the four fused warriors with rapt attention.

"Mummy, Daddy…Abang's a hero…?" Manny's sister Debbie asked her mother.

"Josh…" both of JD's parents said with quivering voices.

"That's our little girl there…" the Nadarajah couple said in awe.

Jackie let the family members of the DigiWira recover from their shocks first, while wondering on how exactly to tell of the DigiWira's current predicament.

"Wait a minute," Grandpa Chang spoke up. He was the one who appeared the least frazzled of all the revelations. Jackie suspected that it was because Liu Ying had always been truthful to him ever since the wise elderly man found out about Shaomon months ago. "What of the boy? Adam? There are only _four_ of the fused DigiWira you have mentioned."

Everyone's attentions were all focused to Jackie and Grandpa Chang. The principal too cleared her throat.

"And come to think of it, where is Adam's family members? I don't see Alisha Ariff or their parents?"

Jackie exhaled a long breathe.

"Adam hasn't gained the ability to merge with his partner, but Patamon, as Sagittarimon, is already as strong as an Ultimate Digimon," Jackie explained, and hesitated.

"And what of his family? Surely they are worried about him too?"

"Adam is not missing; he's with…a family member at their home." Jackie was unsure why he didn't just refer to the family member as Adam's brother. "His current guardian…his sister, Alisha, she's been involved in a car accident and currently is under care and observation at Subang Jaya Medical Hospital. The accident took place last Friday, and right now she's in a coma."

"Oh…" the principal nodded, looking concerned. The others processed the information, but didn't say anything.

"I've talked to Abang Adam before…" Debbie murmured at her parents. "Abang spent a night at his place last week…remember?" Mr. Abah and Mrs. Kimberly merely nodded weakly.

"Poor boy," Grandpa Chang said softly. He'd met Adam once; the boy had wanted to use the telephone and Liu Ying had offered hers. The boy was so respectful; he couldn't help but to like him. His granddaughter had chosen her friend well.

Mr. Nadarajah cleared his throat. "What of our children's disappearances? Are they now at this…Digital World?"

"Yes, they are," Jackie confirmed. "But…there's a complication. Earlier, the DigiWira were called to battle a recent threat. They managed to deal with the said threats, but then…someone… attacked them and knocked all four of them out unconscious. We still had no idea of who or what that had attacked them. They are now hospitalized in an infirmary in the city they have protected from evil Digimon. According to…a doctor there…they are still unconscious, but there is nothing fatal. The injuries they have sustained have been healed, but they still remain unconscious. As of now, there's no sign of them waking up."

"Oh, God!!" Mr. Johan – JD's father – exclaimed. His stunned expression was mirrored by his wife. Jackie thought that for the first time, they actually looked horrified. Probably because they had thought that JD was simply playing truant at first. The couple slowly turned to each other, but there was awkwardness displayed between the two still. However, they no longer looked so cold between each other.

"Manny…" Mrs. Kimberly choked out a sob. "Why did he do this?" She seemed to be lost of words. "We nearly lost him…when he almost drowned…why…?" Her husband, speechless, could only offer a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. Their hands intertwined, and were held by their daughter. Debbie hadn't fully grasped what was currently happening, but her instincts told her that her big brother and Gayathri (whom she'd regarded as a big sister figure), as well as their friends, were in danger.

"Ying…" Mrs. Evelyn Chang sobbed, burying her face in her palms. "I've told her that it's dangerous to go there. She's always been an obedient child; why wouldn't she listen to me this time?"

"It's her calling," Grandpa Chang said calmly. "I was not inclined to agree with her when she told me that, but I accepted it. Shaomon has always said that she'd protect Ying. I am sure that she has done her best to do so." He took the confused Liu Meng from his daughter-in-law, putting him on his lap instead.

"This is unacceptable!" Mr. Nadarajah boomed. "I want you to go…to this Digital World…and bring my daughter back!"

"Mr. Nadarajah…sir…" Anding tried to calm his employer down.

"_You_ knew about her involvement, don't you?" Mrs. Nadarajah demanded from the young man. Her eyes were brimming with worried tears. Like her daughter, Mrs. Nadarajah also wore her emotions on her sleeve. She was immediately comforted by her husband. It was clear that both of them really doted on their only child.

"I do, ma'am," Anding admitted. "But Miss Gayathri has insisted that I never speak a word about it with you two. I'm sorry. She said that you'd stop her from doing this if you know…"

"Why would she think that?" Mr. Nadarajah asked.

"Sir…what would your reaction be if Miss Gayathri came to you and told you about all this?" Anding asked carefully.

The Nadarajah couple had no answer to that. As they comforted each other, their eyes were set on their neighbors, whose son was also involved in this matter. Mr. Nadarajah and Mr. Abah exchanged grim nods as they calmed their crying wives.

"Everyone, please calm down," Jackie said helplessly.

"Calm down?" Mrs. Leeanna – JD's mother – said with prim frostiness, rising up from her seat. "Our children are out there and you ask us to calm down?"

"Leeann, sit down…" Mr. Johan said exasperatedly, grasping his wife's hand and gently pulled her down. Immediately the brown-haired woman's prim façade dissolved into tear-stricken expression, laced with guilt. "Oh God, Joe….it's us, isn't it? We're at fault at this….if only we weren't fighting the whole time…no wonder all our children are so distant from us!"

JD's father could only frown and nod, somewhat realizing what his wife had just said. And for the first time, everyone saw him drawing his wife near to his body. The coldness he had displayed to his wife was gone. "We'll get help, Leeann, shh…for Jade, Jas and Josh's sakes…we'll make it work."

"So what do we do now?" Grandpa Chang asked with surprising calmness.

"How can you be so calm, father?" Mrs. Evelyn Chang asked.

"I trust Ying," the old man said simply. "And Mr. Chan has said that they are all healed. Besides…this is not the first time the children have faced with such dire predicament. Ying has told me many stories, which is why I trust her to be able to make it now, as she had been before. The same is true for her friends."

Jackie smiled. "What Mr. Chang has said is true. You have to trust your children. And…although it's not my place, I hope that you will not try to stop them. I have been watching out for them here, as TobuCatmon, their mentor at the Digital World, has been doing at the Digital World. Your children are very resourceful, as all DigiDestined have been. They are not chosen simply, they aren't picked randomly. The DigiSpheres chose them to be their wielders for a reason…you have to trust them, as without them, the part of the Digital World they are assigned to protect would crumble in the hands of evil."

"It's just a world of monsters!" Mrs. Leeanna exclaimed. "Why is it so important for our children to defend it? Why not have those…Digi…Digimon…defend their own world!"

Jackie's mouth was set thin. "The Digital World and our world are connected; both worlds existed in parallel with each other. The Digital World is created from computer data from this world, coupled with hopes and dreams of the people in this world…there are so many aspects that I myself do not understand yet, but I do know this…"

His hanging sentence drew the attentions of all the family of the DigiWira.

"Should the Digital World fall to the hands of evil, all telecommunications system in our world…all electronic items, _everything_ that operates by computer…everything that is necessary for this world's development, ALL will _cease_ to function." The revelation caused everyone to gasp in shock. "But that's not all…"

"What could be worse?" Mr. Nadarajah asked forebodingly; as if not wanting to know the answer, somehow knowing that it would be bad but hoping that Jackie would deny it. He owned a major telecommunications company – he knew what would happen if what Jackie had said come true.

Jackie heaved his breath slowly. "The evil Digimon will not be satisfied with only conquering the Digital World. For a brief time, they might, but soon their attentions will be set on OUR world. Digimon such as Myotismon, who had been a thorn on the Japanese DigiDestined's side for years, was a living proof of that. Luckily, what your children are facing right now is still not up to such level…_for now_. What they are doing now however is _vital_ to keep the evil at bay. For this country, your children are the only line of defense to ensure that evil Digimon invasion would not take place here, as it had been two years ago in Japan."

Everyone was speechless; stunned beyond belief that such threat could happen to them and the peaceful country. They wanted so much to contradict it, but knew at the same time that Jackie was speaking the truth. It was too elaborate and too detailed to be considered as lies. And somehow, they were even _believable _now that all the proofs were shown. At the same time, they lamented the facts that there was nothing else they could do. They could only wish for the children's safety, as the muezzin's call of prayer from the mosque echoed rhythmically against the otherwise silent night.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 29 – Of Bane and Blood_**

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"Hey, sleepyhead."

Adam blinked twice, flinching slightly as lights invaded his eyes. The profile of his brother became clearer. The young man was grinning at him.

"It's about time you wake up, Adam. You're asleep for four hours straight," Aizad said, holding out his hand. Adam took it, and he pulled Adam up with seemingly no effort at all.

"That long…?" Adam frowned. "I don't know what's gotten into me…I don't usually sleep that long." He turned his body sideways and let his feet down, and Aizad plopped down on the farthest end of the three-sitter sofa.

"Take it easy, little brother…you're overtired," Aizad said with a relaxed tone. "I've been sleeping myself; but I've been up for a couple of hours."

Adam looked around the living room. He saw Tsukaimon at the one sitter sofa, idly looking through a magazine. But he didn't see Patamon around.

"Where's Patamon?"

Aizad shrugged. "He wasn't here when I woke up. But your Digivice is by the computer and the computer's switched on…maybe he's in the Digital World."

"That's odd…he doesn't go without me to the Digital World," Adam murmured.

"Oh, I'm sure he's hanging around somewhere." Seeing that Adam was still looking worried, Aizad chuckled. "Take it easy. Your partner's a big guy…despite his size. I'm sure that he probably has something to do, and he didn't want to wake you. Maybe he just thought of doing something at the Digital World. He'll probably be back soon, we'll just leave the computer on until he gets back, ok?" He shook his head, seeing that Adam was still looking unconvinced. "Patamon did leave a brief message for us though…it's in that word program in the computer, I didn't close it."

"Really?" Adam quickly went to the computer, seeing that the Microsoft Word program was open. He clicked on the tab at the taskbar, and saw a brief message.

_Adam... I have something to do at the Digital World. I don't want to wake you up. Don't wait up for me. - Patamon. _

"See?" Aizad said, already standing behind Adam now. He placed his hands on Adam's shoulders and steered the boy towards the kitchen. "Dinner time. I've heated up the instant lasagna we bought…I don't know how you eat this stuff…I've eaten two boxes of it already and still it's not as satisfying as eating rice. No wonder you're so thin."

"It's not bad, really," Adam said, his mind now focused on the cheese and tomato aroma coming from the lasagna. He grinned. "Mmm…"

Aizad smirked, and placed a full glass of orange juice by Adam's plate. "And don't forget to drink up."

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Around an hour later, at the Digital World, someone else began to stir from a deep sleep.

"Gah…damn it…" JD groaned as bright white light blazed into his weary eyes. Quickly he thrust an arm in front of his face to block out the lights. Slowly he got up from where he was lying and took a good look around. He was in a seemingly sterile room where everything was white and spotlessly clean. The window was open, and JD shivered slightly as he felt a cold draft on his body. Looking down, he saw bandages being wrapped diagonally from his left shoulder, to his chest, before ending at the right side of his waist. He saw two loose light green clothes folded neatly on the chair near to him. He snatched the clothes and hastily took the pants, struggling to put them on underneath the blankets.

He then looked around, and saw that Manny was still unconscious, on the bed beside him. Bandages could be seen on his body as well. Opposite their beds were two beds, with Agumon on the bed opposite JD's, and Penguinmon in front of Manny's bed. Both Digimon were still sleeping.

The sound of the door opening brought JD's attention to a green hulking figure with horns, long white hair, a pair of black pants, and a white medical coat walking in.

"Ah, good…finally you're awake," the Ogremon said pleasantly, completely contrasting his imposing features. Suddenly piercing shrieks could be heard coming from outside, presumably from the room next door. The shrieks were soon followed by a loud sound of something being slammed out of the door and onto the wall. The wall inside the ward shook slightly, and the picture frame that hung on it fell onto the floor. Echoes of the shriek could still be heard, and JD thought he recognized the shriek.

From the door, a yellow-furred ape crawled inside their ward. His arms soon gave way and he plopped onto the blue-white tile floor of the ward, muttering, "I'm…not…pervert…"

JD sweatdropped, and heard a groan from the bed beside him and from the Digimon. He saw Manny waking up.

"Hey. Put something on before you get up…it seemed like someone felt like doing a full-body checkup without our permission," JD muttered, indicating to the folded clothes.

Manny blinked, looking confused, before his cheeks flushed bright red. He snatched both clothes and quickly put it on.

"You humans are clothed way too much," Dr. Ogremon said, shaking his head. "Anyway, I'm happy to announce that other than the superficial wounds, it looks like you're in a good condition. But I'd advise against fighting…or fusing with your partners…or moving a lot…at least, until we can get the chief doctor Lobomon back. He's looking for herbal remedies to quicken the process of healing for your wounds and to remove the scars, somewhere around the mountain sides in this city. He was also in charge to treat the leader…MachGaogamon…the poor old dog…Whoever attacked you all was definitely brutal..."

JD nodded. He looked around for any indication of the time. The only clue he got was the darkness outside the window. "What time is it?" JD asked.

"Ten past nine, according to your world's time," Dr. Ogremon answered. The door suddenly slammed open and in walked two rather harassed-looking girls.

"What's the big idea leaving us wearing absolutely _nothing_ just now?!" Gayathri demanded angrily. She eyed the ape that was lying on the floor and snorted with disgust. She was now wearing a similar set of loose clothes that Manny was wearing. The same was true for Liu Ying. Behind them were their Digimon partners.

"It was for treatment purposes. And don't worry, a female doctor was assigned to care for you; I'm only in charge of the guys," Dr. Ogremon explained with a placating tone. He bent down and pulled the ear of the yellow ape. "Apemon here…he's always confused the male and female wards. Can't say this is the first time he's been in this kind of situation…"

"Confused, as if!" Liu Ying scoffed. There were tints of blush on her fair face.

"He didn't look confused when he walked in the girls' ward," Labramon snorted.

Dr. Ogremon eyed the Apemon, who looked somewhat bruised up. "Uhh…what did you girls do to him?"

Floramon snickered. "An accidental telekinetic combined with super scream is not something you want to experience…"

"Hey, you guys ok?" JD inquired to the girls. The girls saw that the boys had woken up and strode past the whimpering Apemon and the doctor.

"If you can say, bandaged all over, is ok…then yes, I'm fine," Liu Ying said dryly. She eyed the shirt on the chair. "Put it on, why don't you?"

JD shrugged and took the shirt. Liu Ying took a seat at the now-vacant chair, while Gayathri sat at the chair beside Manny's bed. The door swung open again and a female Digimon in red dress and red magician hat entered. She was also wearing a doctor's medical coat.

"Greetings. I'm Dr. Witchmon, the girls' doctor. It's good to see you four up and about," the female said with a girlish voice. The two doctors stood in front of the beds. "I'm glad to say that you four, and your partners, are all in a satisfactory condition. Nothing is broken, and the only things you have to worry about are scars…" Gayathri flinched upon hearing this; even Manny and Liu Ying looked aghast, while JD shrugged uncaringly. "But do not fret; the chief doctor Lobomon is also our best cosmetic doctor…he knows all kinds of herbs and remedies necessary to remove scars."

"Thank you for treating us," Liu Ying said politely.

The doctors smiled. "No…thank you, all of you. You've saved our city. This is the least we could do for you," Dr. Witchmon said.

"Don't worry about payments, it's on the house," Dr. Ogremon said.

The DigiWira nodded. Manny glanced at the darkness outside the window. "We better head back," he said slowly. "Our parents must be wondering about us by now…"

The doctors exchanged dark looks amongst themselves.

"Usually, we'd require our patients to stay overnight at least, for observations purposes," Dr. Witchmon said with a cautious tone. "But, even if we let you go…I'm afraid that's not an option you all have for the time being." She observed the DigiWira grimly, as if holding out much grimmer information from them.

"What do you mean?" Gayathri asked, perplexed.

"Come to the window," Dr. Ogremon said. The DigiWira, their partners, and the doctors all strode towards the window. They all were surprised to see what was outside.

A dark blue-black energy dome surrounded Zephyrus City, from the gates to the mountains. The dome crackled with mild electricity. It looked opaque, somewhat impenetrable. The barrier was the main reason why Zephyrus City was _abnormally_ dark – usually with the Digital World having three moons instead of one; it seldom became so dark during nighttime.

"A barrier has been placed around our city after Peckmon and Swanmon stepped out from the city to inform your mentor about your conditions," Dr. Witchmon informed. "Nobody is able to pass through the barrier, in or out."

The DigiWira were stunned. They stared at the energy dome.

"Why would someone raise an energy dome around this city?" Gayathri wondered.

"To block people from getting in the city…or from getting out…" Liu Ying's voice trailed off as she eyed her fellow DigiWira one by one as a horrible suspicion crossed her mind. "Or to keep _us_ in!"

"What? Why?" Manny asked. He looked at the other DigiWira nervously.

"Adam…" JD realized, his eyes widening. "He's the only one _not_ here. He's still outside. That means…"

"Whoever's doing this…" Liu Ying continued.

"Is trying to separate us from him, I bet that's it," JD finished. He slammed his fist against the wall. "Shit! Jetsilphymon and Mystimon being here was a trap to lure us all in!" As he thought about that, his mind raced, making quick links between everything that had taken place these past few days. It still didn't make enough sense for him, although he believed that he was in the right track. Knowing that the other DigiWira would only contradict him because he had no evidence to support his theory, JD bit his lip and refrained from speaking up. He scowled and folded his arms across his chest, wincing slightly as his body was still injured.

"The real target is Adam?" Manny asked forebodingly. "But…he's still back in our world…"

"Wait a minute!" Gayathri said, her tone brightening ever so slightly. "If Adam's still out there…he can get us out here. As far as I can recall, his teleportation power has improved ever since you two got back from the Dark Ocean," she said, gesturing to JD who nodded. "If we can contact him, he can come here and get us all out."

"Of course," Liu Ying nodded. "Good thinking, Gayathri."

'_That is, if his brother doesn't keep him out from helping us,'_ JD thought sourly as he stared towards the distance. Seeing that his teammates rejoicing at the idea, JD refrained from voicing out his grim suspicion that somehow Adam wouldn't come. _'Wouldn't **be able** to come…'_ he amended silently. _'But I hope I'm wrong.'_

But still JD couldn't shake off the sinking feeling that his friend was in danger.

xxx

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The clock struck past midnight, and Adam lifted his head from the Science report he was doing. He hadn't been able to concentrate to work on the report on his own because of his anxiety of Patamon's whereabouts, and he needed to submit it the next day, so he'd decided to just copy what Gayathri had written, occasionally altering the sentence sequences and using his wider thesaurus to find synonyms for certain words. As he reread the report, he was sure that the teacher wouldn't be able to say that he'd copied a friend's work.

"If you go through all the work just to copy, then it's not copying," Aizad commented from across the table. He grinned. "Copying is when you spend only a few minutes or so rewriting what your friend has written, and then forget about it. _You_ on the other hand, have reread everything, replaced certain words, alter sentences…I don't think it's called copying."

"The teacher's dead-strict," Adam deadpanned as he traced a diagram from the science textbook. "I don't want to mess up, that's all."

"That's my boy," Aizad snickered. "Are you almost done?"

"Yeah," Adam said, and yawned. He eyed the cup of Milo by the table, frowning. "Hmm…the color's a bit odd, I think," Adam murmured.

"Hmm?" Aizad stood up and eyed the cup. "Maybe I've added a few things…" he said with a mock-serious tone.

Adam laughed. "Maybe it's just my imagination," he decided, and finished the Milo. He yawned again. "I'm going to bed."

"You better. It's _way _past your bedtime. Go ahead; I'll join you in a minute."

Watching Adam's retreating figure, Aizad exchanged a smirk with Tsukaimon, who'd been watching the whole exchange between the brothers. Tsukaimon was holding Adam's D-Terminal.

"There's a message for Adam actually, from the other DigiWira," Tsukaimon said in a hushed tone. "They're calling for his help. Luckily I've put this in silent mode."

"You know what to do," Aizad said. The man's dark brown eyes flickered towards the computer. "Should we leave it on the whole night?"

Tsukaimon nodded. "It's not like he can come back here anyway."

xxx

xxx

"_Diamond World Mandala!!"_

"_Jelita Shocker!!"_

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!"_

"_Dragonforce Striker!!"_

The black-indigo force field crackled ferociously with onyx lightning when the four attacks collided upon it. Four lightning bolts of dark blue appeared and struck all four Wira Digital squarely on their chests, sending them crashing against the nearest building to the gate with one explosion. Due to the forces and combined weights of all four of them, the walls gave way almost instantly, causing the roof to crash over the fallen Wira Digital.

A loud growl was heard and a golden gauntlet emerged, sending stones and rubbles flying.

"DAMN!!" Satriamon swore and got back up on his feet. He kicked away some bricks furiously. Beside him, Xianamon stood up, relatively unharmed.

"That went well…" Puspamon grunted, accepting Samudramon's proffered hand.

Samudramon cast a look towards MachGaogamon, who was standing nearby with crutches. Behind him was a number of citizens of the city, some of them were familiar faces such as the doctors, and the ones who'd joined in the battle the previous day. The leader of Zephyrus City had visibly winced. "Sorry about that," Samudramon said apologetically.

The blue bipedal canine Digimon hesitated for a brief while before shaking his head. "Uh…that's fine."

"How are we going to get out of here?" Puspamon wondered, wincing as she rubbed her back. "Ow, ow, ow…my back hurts."

"It's already morning and still no reply from Adam," Xianamon said, looking up at the dome-shaped force-field. It was really hard to tell whether day had come by or that it was still night, as the barrier had blanketed the whole city in permanent darkness. It was, in fact, nearly eleven in the morning. "By now, Adam should have known that something odd has happened to us since we all do not appear at school," the sorceress said. "I wonder why he did not reply to our messages."

"I've got a theory, but no one listens to me," Satriamon grunted. JD was utterly convinced that Adam's brother had something to do with this. His theory however was debunked by almost everyone, except for Manny – but everyone knew that the boy was just too polite to contradict JD.

"For all we know, the force-field might be the reason our messages did not reach Adam," Xianamon pointed out.

"The messages were _delivered_," Satriamon snapped. "All of you saw the status reports on your D-Terminals."

"Still…why would Adam's brother try to keep him out from us?" Samudramon asked.

"He doesn't like us that much, remember?" Satriamon said grimly.

"Us, yes…but what about the girls?" Samudramon returned. At that, Satriamon grunted in annoyance and didn't reply. "That's why I think there's another explanation," the merman finished.

"What are we going to do?" Puspamon said despairingly.

"We'll keep trying. _Flaming Torch!!_" Satriamon turned his whole body into magma and propelled himself towards the force-field, intending to ram it heads-on. Upon collision, the barrier electrocuted him with black thunderbolt and sent him back flying. "AGGHH!!"

Xianamon shook her head and extended her arm, steadying Satriamon's fall with her telekinetic power. When the red knight was a meter away from the brick road, she let go of him, causing him to crash onto the ground with a thud.

"HEY!!" Satriamon got up and rubbed the back of his head. "You could've at least land me in one piece."

Xianamon ignored Satriamon and cast a look towards the force-field. "It looks like all we can do now is wait."

"Looks like we don't have to do that." Puspamon pointed upwards. There was a ripple there. "Somebody's coming in."

"Scratch that; make that some_bodies_," Satriamon said forebodingly, as pairs of foot were seen descending from the dome.

Four demonic figures came through the force field and into the city, despite the force-field having proved to be impenetrable earlier. The Wira Digital tensed; each one of them looked equally dangerous. They immediately suspected that the demons probably had something to do with the force-field's appearance as they watched the demonic quartet stepped foot on the brick roads of the medieval city.

The largest of the four had thick arms and legs draped in purple fur. His body was dark gray, and had a five-point star tattooed on his chest. His legs ended with horse-like hooves. Large leathery wings jutted out from his back. His ivory head bore a resemblance to an Oryx - the ears were spread out horizontally and his brown horns grew vertically upwards before curving backwards at the tips. Dark purple hair framed his emotionless face, which was thin, smooth and hairless. Red eyes sparkled with intelligence stared towards the DigiWira. He set an imposing figure with his 9-feet height.

The second was a scarlet demon with a human shape. He was lightly armored with gray steel around his lower extremities and forearms. High black collars were fastened around his neck with a golden bat ornament, and the collars loomed over his head. He had yellow eyes, short ebony hair, elf-like ears and small horns jutting out from the head. Held in his left hand was a red trident. This Digimon was also tall at 8-feet height.

The third was an aristocratic-looking figure wearing a dark blue suit and a black cape with the inner part being scarlet. He wore black gloves and boots. His burnished blonde locks were tied back, with some bangs framing his gaunt, pale face. Crimson bat mask totally offset his ice blue eyes. Despite his noble appearance, a closer look on him would reveal that he had vampiric qualities; one that was prominent was his white fangs which escaped his blood-red lips. His bat-theme appearance would also be a dead-giveaway, with his bat mask and the bat ornament that fixed the cape he was wearing on his suit.

And finally, the fourth demon was dressed unconventionally in flowing silken robes of dark red and pink. Golden bat wings were folded around his very thin waist, while a pair of red bat wings was spread out from his back. His face was obscured by the blade-shaped facemask he wore. He stood at a slight hunched posture, making him as tall as the vampire demon beside him at 7-feet tall.

"We've been watching you trying all morning to break through the force-field, unfortunately to no avail," the vampire said with a deep, pompous voice. "And so we thought, perhaps the mighty Wira Digital are in some dire need for entertainment."

"Who the hell are you?" Satriamon growled.

The aristocrat bowed in a gentlemanly way. "Myotismon, the handsomer of the Blood Brothers, that's me…" He then gestured towards the demon in flowing robes. "And this is Matadormon, the brasher one. Both of us are renowned vampires, while these two…" Myotismon beckoned for the tallest two of the group. "The biggest one here is Mephistomon, and this red devil is called Phelesmon. They are the Bane Brothers – demonic brothers, masters of darkness, antithesis to all that is light and pure, so they claimed."

"We're here to see to the Puaka Generals' order that all of you are…taken cared of," Mephistomon said with silky, groveling voice. The way he talked suggested slyness.

"Typical," Xianamon snorted.

"Handsome? _HIM?_" Puspamon said incredulously, looking at Myotismon. "Someone hasn't been looking at the mirror lately."

"Maybe he's an acquired taste," Satriamon snickered.

"Ah, I'll let you know that I have had many females falling heads-over-heals when I graced them with my presence," Myotismon said pompously. He leered at the fairy Wira Digital.

"I fail to see what's so attractive about guys wearing lipstick!" Puspamon retorted, annoyed of Myotismon's snobbish demeanor. She pointed a finger towards the four demons accusingly. "You're the one who set up the force-field!"

"Not all of us, although I'd love to take credit for such an ingenious creation," Myotismon said. "You can thank the Bane Brothers for they were the ones who have set up the force-field."

"Such a beauty, isn't it? Everyone can get in, but _nobody's_ getting out," Mephistomon chuckled darkly.

"Everyone gets in but nobody gets out?" Satriamon smirked, flexing his golden claw-gauntlet. "Then you've made a big mistake, coming in here. Because whether it's you or some other sick friends of yours who set up this force field, it's seriously pissing me off." Satriamon's green eyes flashed dangerously. "And I'm bad as hell when I'm pissed off."

The red dragon-man warrior leaped towards the four demons after enveloping his body with raging flames. However, the demon with the flowing robes streaked past his companions and began to move faster. Matadormon skillfully and speedily spun around Satriamon before delivering a kick onto the dragon-man's chest. The kick sent Satriamon flailing towards the brick gate, and the force that came with the crash had caused a big crack on it.

Satriamon got up quickly and flexed his golden gauntlet. "Now you've made me _mad_," he growled.

Matadormon snickered and raised his arms. The flowing pink sleeves fell to his elbows, revealing glistening metal rapiers as fingers. Matadormon then brandished each finger-rapier, and had them grazing against each other.

"Holy shit…" Satriamon gulped.

As Satriamon and Matadormon began to fight it out, Myotismon laughed. He eyed Xianamon and Puspamon alternately. "Now, which one of you ladies want to dance with me? Come now, don't be scared…I don't bite." He laughed again and revealed his vampiric fangs. "Although, it is not such a bad idea…I am looking for a queen by my side…"

"Ugh, he's so full of himself!" Puspamon seethed, annoyed at the vampire demon's snobbish behavior. She fluttered towards the domed sky. "I'll take you on, vampire!_"_

"Impatient, aren't we?" Myotismon flew after Puspamon and raised his cape. _"Grisly Wings!!"_

Puspamon used her super speed and soared towards the sky with unrivalled swiftness, easily avoiding the barrages of dark bats that flowed out of Myotismon's cape. To her horror, the bats simply veered from their original course, chasing her instead. It was as if they had their target locked, and would follow her all the way to the end of the Digital World if needed be. She sped upwards and spun around. She crossed her arms and her body glimmered with shining pink aura. She then unfolded her arms, thrusting them wide apart and released a raging fuchsia hurricane with flowers within it. _"Hibiscus Hurricane!!"_

The hurricane enveloped the bats and destroyed them before it itself degenerated. Myotismon saw this and realized that Puspamon wasn't as easy a challenge as he had assumed. He quickly spread his capes wide and began giving chase to the fairy Wira Digital.

This left Xianamon and Samudramon to battle the Bane Brothers. Samudramon glanced sideways at the sorceress Wira Digital.

"Did you notice how Matadormon attacked Satriamon?"

Xianamon nodded grimly. "No doubt he's responsible for attacking us yesterday."

Mephistomon and Phelesmon observed their enemies without much thought. The larger of the two then pointed one arm towards both Wira Digital and released a black energy orb covered with purple smog. _"Death Cloud!!"_

Xianamon countered immediately with her magical powers. _"Diamond World Mandala!!"_

Seeing Mephistomon had chosen Xianamon as his opponent, the other demon eyed Samudramon with a smirk. He then launched himself towards the merman, his scarlet trident crackling madly with obsidian thunderbolts. Samudramon grasped onto his own metallic trident tight and waited for the right moment to strike. When Phelesmon was drawing near Samudramon immediately blasted him with focused pressurized water with his left hand. His right hand was spinning the trident, energizing it with the power of thunder.

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!"_

xxx

xxx

Adam thought it was weird that he hadn't seen any of the DigiWira that Tuesday. Gayathri was absent the whole day, and from what he'd gathered, so were Liu Ying and Manny. He assumed that JD wasn't at school as well, and that was confirmed when he didn't spot any blonde-haired student at all during recess time.

"This is really odd," he murmured as he packed his stuff. School had ended and he was feeling glum. _'Where is everyone?'_

Patamon hadn't returned home at all that night. And now, all the DigiWira were absent at school at the same time. Had something happened in the Digital World?

"Hey, Adam!" a prefect classmate of his called from outside the classroom. "The principal wants to see you now."

"The principal?" Adam frowned; he couldn't remember if he'd done any mistake that would merit a trip to the principal office.

"Don't look so worried; she wasn't mad at all when I saw her," the prefect said to him. "In fact, I think she looks worried. There are a lot of people inside her office; I've never seen the principal office so crowded before."

"Oh…" Adam nodded and picked up his bag, noting how lightweight it was without Patamon. "I'll go there now. Thanks, Shah."

"See you tomorrow!" The prefect waved him goodbye and walked away.

Adam had a lot of questions in his mind as he made his way to the principal's office. His prefect classmate Shah had been right; there were a lot of people there. Even though the windows of the office were closed, Adam could see distinct shapes of people there, as well as exchanges of conversation between them. He knocked at the door, which was left slightly ajar. To his surprise, it was Jackie who'd opened the door.

"Adam, come in," Jackie said, and locked the door after Adam stepped in. Adam froze upon seeing eleven sets of eyes staring at him – nine adults and two small kids.

"Good afternoon," Adam managed to say, his tone quivering.

"Good afternoon to you too. Adam, take a seat," the principal instructed towards a vacant chair near the door. "These are the family members of your missing friends."

"Missing?" Adam's eyes then took in all the other people inside the office, and it dawned to him that they were the family members of his fellow DigiWira. He recognized Liu Ying's family, and it wasn't that hard to connect the others to the other DigiWira. There was one plump woman who looked like Gayathri, and two men who looked like JD and Manny should they lost twenty or so years of age. His eyes then shot up wide, realizing that with his friends missing, and their parents here…

"Adam," Jackie said, laying a comforting hand on Adam's shoulder. "It's alright. When Liu Ying, Gayathri, Manny and JD did not return from the Digital World last night, I talked to TobuCatmon and we've decided to tell the parents and the principal the truth about the five of you." He leaned closer to Adam, adding in a whisper, "I did the same thing when you were kidnapped by the ShadoWira last time."

"Oh…" Adam said, leaning against the back of the chair.

"Boy…" A large man with an ample belly, a very dark complexion and a booming voice, said. Looking at him, Adam recognized that this must be Gayathri's father. "Have you any news about Gayathri?"

"And Manny?" A man with brown skin, spiked black hair and prominent cheekbones, continued. Evidently Manny had inherited most of his features from his father.

"And my granddaughter," Grandpa Chang continued. Adam had met Liu Ying's family before; Grandpa Chang and Liu Ying's little brother were the only ones he'd recognized.

"Josh…JD, whatever all of you are calling him," a woman with sleek, layered brown-blonde hair, said.

Adam's face fell. "I'm sorry…I didn't know about them being missing until now," he said softly. "I…I wasn't with them at the Digital World yesterday. I was at the hospital, visiting my sister."

"But you can go to the Digital World, right? Mr. Chan told us you have a device…a Digivice…which can be used to open portals to the Digital World via a computer?" A broad-shouldered man with dark brown hair asked. Looking at the man, Adam had no doubt that this was JD's father – the similarities between father and son were striking. Adam nodded and took out his silver-pale blue D3-Digivice. This prompted Mr. Johan Awaludin to continue, "So this means you can go there and look for Josh and the other kids."

"Will you go there now?" A plump woman with curly brown hair asked. "My little girl's there somewhere…something wrong must've happened…" She flustered, her eyes shone with tears.

"Vee…" Mr. Nadarajah said softly to his wife, addressing her by her shortened given birth name, Vanitha.

"I'll go now," Adam said, his eyes set on the principal's computer.

"Can any of us come with you?" Mr. Abah asked.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Jackie intercepted with an apologetic tone.

"Here, Adam," the principal turned the monitor on her table so that the screen was facing Adam. "You can use my computer…Jackie has already done something to it…"

"I've set up the coordinates so that it would lead you to Zephyrus City, where the others have gone to yesterday," Jackie clarified. He eyed Adam's bag. "Where is Patamon?"

"He…hasn't returned home too since yesterday," Adam answered, obviously worried. First Patamon was missing, and now he learned that his friends were missing as well. Something was seriously wrong here. He strode past the parents, bowing his body ever so slightly, before reaching the table. Feeling unnerved, as if the stares of all the family members of his friends were like arrows going through his body, Adam pointed his Digivice towards the screen, and called: "DIGIPORT OPEN!!"

A simultaneous gasp of wonder and awestruck was heard as the parents and the principal watched Adam being bathed by white light that erupted from the screen. They saw Adam slowly diminishing within the light. When the light was gone, the dark-haired boy was no longer around.

xxx

xxx

Adam arrived on a green pasture that was quite similar to Green Meadow. The TV set he'd used as a way out from the intermediate digital plane that connected his world and the Digital World was conveniently placed right in the middle of the paddock, surrounded by some round purple bushes that Adam had never seen before. Across the distance, from the higher ground, Adam could see a wide dark blue dome which crackled with black electricity. The dome was as large as a city.

"That's Zephyrus City?" Adam wondered. It wasn't what he had expected to see for a city. The domed city appeared to be about a mile away. "I wish Patamon's here," he said to himself, still wondering where his Digimon partner was at the moment. _'It's really unlike him to be off without telling me…but then again, I had him worried when I came to the Digital World alone, and was gone for more than half a day…that was the day I met Abang Zad.' _ The memory made him smile as he thought fondly of his older brother. _'I hope Abang Zad doesn't get too worried that I don't go straight home…I forgot to call him, I hope Jackie will do that for me…'_

'_Maybe I can try summoning Patamon back,'_ Adam thought. He held out one hand, palm facing the sky. "Patamon!!"

Nothing happened. Patamon didn't appear. Adam supposed that Patamon must be somewhere out of range of his teleportation power. Sighing, he cast a long look at the domed city. With the blink of the eye, Adam teleported right in front of the dome. He could hear screams, sounds of fighting, explosions, but he could see nothing other than dark blue opaqueness that was in front of him. He could see an outline of what looked like an entrance…a gate, no doubt. The closer he walked to the barrier, the clearer the outline of what he had perceived as gates became. It was indeed a gate, somewhat similar to a castle's gate he had seen in medieval stories on TV.

"How do I get in?" Adam tentatively reached out for the barrier, fully expecting a reaction. However, the barrier did nothing. Extending a quivering index finger, Adam let the tip of his finger graze the barrier ever so slightly. To his surprise, his finger went _into_ the barrier harmlessly. Nothing unfavorable happened. "Here goes…" Adam closed his eyes and crossed the energy barrier, arriving underneath a short tunnel which connected the world outside to a city behind the gates. He winced upon hearing crashing sounds, explosions, screams, battle cries and the sounds of gusts of wind all intertwined into one. It was chaotic! Adam pressed his temples as he walked further carefully.

It was a fearsome battlefield inside the gates; a site of mass destruction. Nobody had noticed him coming, and with all the noises, they wouldn't. Adam crept near the wall, and walked along it, careful not to make his presence known until he reached the end of the tunnel. He peered outside, and saw several familiar figures.

Satriamon was battling a Digimon with flowing robes. They were exchanging blows one after another, and Adam noticed that the Digimon Satriamon was battling had very long, sharp rapier-like claws. Satriamon's armor was chipped in various parts. The other Digimon's flowing robes were scorched. Adam grimaced slightly upon hearing flows of colorful languages escaping Satriamon, who was evidently frustrated by his enemy. The enemy Digimon however didn't reply; he merely leaped towards Satriamon and his claw-rapiers clanked against Satriamon's larger gauntlet. The sound of metals grazing each other echoed the area as the two Digimon began forcing each other backward, with little success. It looked like the two of them were at even standing, but Satriamon's foe was as calm as Satriamon was infuriated. Adam hoped that Satriamon would be able to keep his head; one wrong move and it would give the other Digimon the chance to totally best him out.

Xianamon was seen firing waves of indigo and golden lights towards a hulking, purple-furred Digimon with thick arms and legs, black leathery wings and ivory head. The satyr Digimon countered by firing a focused blast of black energy waves which nullified Xianamon's attacks. Similar to Satriamon's condition, Xianamon appeared to have seen better days. Her cream yellow robe was torn over the edges. Her movement was slightly slow – she seemed to be tired. Retreating towards a pile of rubbles, where it looked like a building had been on that place once, Xianamon began flicking her arms towards her ghastly enemy, who easily knocked away the stones by slapping them with his thick arms. Adam saw that this was a battle that would prove difficult for Xianamon to win. While the sorceress was seen flustered, her enemy didn't look the least perturbed, nor had he sustained any injury at all. In fact, Adam somehow suspected that the monster actually looked like he was _toying_ with Xianamon, and Adam knew how powerful Xianamon could be.

Earsplitting screams were heard, and Adam's attention was brought to the sky where a beautiful fairy in pink was involved in a scuffle with a very humanly Digimon in blue patrician outfit and black cape. Adam hadn't seen Gayathri's fused form before, but her screams were very familiar so he easily concluded that this must be Puspamon. The enemy Digimon released a crimson energy whip and lashed it towards Puspamon. Puspamon countered it by waving her black staff forward, and shrieked in surprise when the whip grazed her hands. This forced her to release her staff. The staff spun across the midair before finally landing on a pile of stones that looked like they had once formed a building. Infuriated, Puspamon retreated several foot away from the enemy and crossed her arms over her chest as her whole being began to glow bright pink. Adam then saw multiple flowers erupted from her body and sailed towards the enemy at rapid speed, but they were nullified by torrents of bats that were released by the enemies. The bats persevered and flew towards Puspamon, but were driven away when Puspamon thrust both arms forward and released a pink whirlwind of flowers. Adam was amazed to see how Puspamon was able to handle herself; the aristocratic Digimon looked strong and evil.

And finally, all the way to his left Adam saw Samudramon and a scarlet demon battling each other. Both wielded tridents and were seen lashing out their weapons against each other. From all the battles he'd seen, _this_ had to be the bloodiest of all. Samudramon's body had slash marks all over, with clear liquids flowing out from the wounds. The X-shaped armor that Adam knew Samudramon should be having on his body was not visible, and Adam soon saw it somewhere on the ground, slashed in half. The demonic enemy seemed to be suffering a lot less. There were faint tear marks on the demon's sleek collars, but that was all. Similar to Xianamon's situation, Samudramon too looked like he was being overpowered.

'_Oh no…what should I do?' _Adam wondered. _'I'm no good around here without Patamon…'_

At loss, Adam was forced to remain at the sidelines and he observed the battle his friends were having with the demonic Digimon. He prayed for their safeties, and kept a sharp lookout for any opportunity for him to lend his assistance. Nobody had known of his presence yet.

His chance came when the purple satyr Xianamon was fighting released a focused of dark energy which throttled Xianamon who had been blocking it by raising her telekinetic barrier. Xianamon was slammed against a sturdy pillar, and slid down the pillar onto the ground. She was attempting to stand up, but Adam knew that she wouldn't be able to make it in time – the demon satyr had already released three dark energy spheres towards the sorceress. Taking a deep breath, Adam whispered, "Xianamon," and focused his mind so that she would end up at a distance away from the satyr. Just as the energy spheres from the dark satyr were about to hit Xianamon, she vanished in swirls of bright orbs, and reappeared safely on a rooftop of a two storey building. The satyr looked momentarily stunned, but to Adam's slight dismay a wry smirk escaped the demon's mouth.

That phenomenon immediately caused a brief standstill – _ALL _the Wira Digital knew who exactly could've generated such phenomenon. The demons too ceased attacking momentarily. Adam chose to remain in hiding, despite hearing his friends murmuring his name. He was perturbed, somehow feeling that the satyr demon was now searching for him. He retreated all the way towards the energy barrier, and let out a gasp when the barrier electrocuted him mildly when his fingers grazed the barrier.

'_Oh no! I can get in, but can't get out?'_

'_Adam…thank you,'_ Xianamon thought. She looked around, and saw Mephistomon seemingly trying to figure out where Adam was. She needed to distract him before he found Adam, although she herself had no idea where Adam could have been in the midst of the battlefield. She however, had a suspicion. _'He must've come here using the main entrance…he might be hiding within the tunnels. I cannot let Mephistomon get to him, but I am not strong enough to fight him…'_ Xianamon's eyes lurked to a different opponent instead, and an idea came to her. _'However, judging by how Puspamon is handling Myotismon, I think all she needs now is a helping hand to finish off that vampire once and for all. Together, we may then battle Mephistomon.'_

Myotismon currently had his back on Xianamon, which was exactly what she needed. Xianamon pointed her arm and fly whisk towards the back of the caped Digimon and cried out, "_Diamond World Mandala!!" _The waves of magical powers slammed against the caped Digimon's back, catching him completely off-guard. The waves sent Myotismon sailing towards her fairy friend.

Puspamon saw her opportunity and crossed her arms, letting her body glow bright pink. _"Jelita Shocker!!" _She then thrust her arms forward and showered the flying Myotismon with rains of flowers which then released pink laser beams all over the vampire's body. Myotismon shrieked agonizingly, writhing in pain in midair as his body was overwhelmed by Puspamon's finisher. The pink aura that was glowing all around him was tearing him apart. He couldn't stand it any longer.

With a loud, parting cry Myotismon was the first of the demons to fall. He exploded into data particles and his data scattered all over Zephyrus City.

Xianamon heaved a breath of grief satisfaction, but panicked as she felt her power left her wholly. The battle with Mephistomon had taxed her greatly; the demonic satyr was very strong and durable. Hadn't it been for Adam's interference she would have been finished off by Mephistomon. With a flash of gold light she was Liu Ying and Labramon once again. Puspamon flew over them and picked both of them, landing on the ground safely before she too de-digivolved.

'_Oh no…we've devolved,'_ Liu Ying thought despairingly. _'Now how can we fight Mephistomon?'_

A loud shattering sound was heard and the girls saw Samudramon being thrown through a window of a one-storey square building. Phelesmon sneered and sent a black thunderbolt towards the door, destroying it with an explosion. The demon then sauntered into the building, but was slammed away by torrents of pressurized water which knocked him over the brick gate. Samudramon emerged from within the waters and sailed not to the demon, but _all the way_ towards Matadormon who was fighting Satriamon. He had seen how Xianamon and Puspamon teamed up to finish off Myotismon, and that had given him an idea. He knew he was no match for Phelesmon; somehow the scarlet demon had proven to be much more powerful than he'd appeared to be. He'd need Satriamon at his side if he wanted to defeat Phelesmon for good. But before that, he figured that he would help Satriamon delete Matadormon off first. With that in mind the marine-based Wira Digital summoned a cloud over Matadormon which then let out a mystical downpour all over the robed demon.

"Satriamon!" Samudramon spun his trident, generating thunderbolts on both tips of the weapon. He then threw the spinning Double-Edged Thunderblades towards Matadormon, watching as it sailed all the way to the demon's back.

With a loud clang of metal to metal, Matadormon howled as he felt the Thunderblades singed his demonic wings as well as eroding his metallic body. The demon attempted to escape the rains, but felt his body became gradually weakened that his knees had started to buckle. He then fell on his knees, fully at Satriamon's mercy. Seeing a shadow looming at him, the demon looked up at the tall, foreboding figure of his opponent – a look of deep hate crossed his green eyes. He knew he was defeated, but he wouldn't show any sign of fear.

"Defiant to the last. _Dragonforce Striker!!" _Satriamon slashed his golden gauntlet onto Matadormon. The sound of broken metal permeated the air, followed by a defeated shriek. Matadormon's neck had been severed, his body burnt in harsh flames, and he burst into data particles almost as soon as his head slid off from his body. Satriamon was seen looking anywhere but at the place where Matadormon had been kneeling – even he didn't dare watch himself performing the deed up close. But it had to be done.

Samudramon blinked, trying to suppress his uneasiness. What mattered now was Matadormon had gone. Two demons were defeated, leaving two demons left. Unfortunately for Samudramon, his plan wouldn't come to being, as there and then he felt the Digital Access power leaving him. He devolved immediately into his composite selves. Satriamon followed suit immediately.

They saw the girls and their Digimon approaching them; their eyes trailed over Mephistomon's looming figure completely. The satyr was not attacking them. He was merely standing over where he had been at before Xianamon vanished in front of his eyes, and he was now observing the DigiWira and their Digimon impassively. He seemed to be waiting for something.

"AHA! I've found the meddler!" Phelesmon's shout was clear and sent dread to the DigiWira. However, just as an explosion was heard at the gates, a burst of light orbs appeared in between of JD and Manny, and Adam's rolling body materialized. His sudden appearance had nearly knocked Manny down hadn't it been for the other boy's sturdier figure. Adam's eyes were widened in fear and his breath haggard – he'd experienced a close brush to doom when Phelesmon attacked him, and had escaped. Seeing that he was safe he coughed out dust, looking relieved at the same time as JD and Manny helped him up.

"Ah…the five DigiWira, together again," Mephistomon simpered. He eyed Adam intently. "Your interference has cost us greatly, and for that, young one, you shall pay! _Death Cloud!!"_

A great ball of smoke and dark energy erupted from Mephistomon's arm, the yellow star on his chest shone menacingly as the dark sphere went sailing towards the five DigiWira and four Digimon. JD and Manny immediately sent torrents of flames and water but they bounced harmlessly against the incoming sphere. Gayathri attempted to add up to the force with her super scream, but that didn't help much as well. Liu Ying sent some stones and rubbles flying towards the sphere, but they combusted into smithereens upon contact with Mephistomon's attack. The Death Cloud attack was now a mere two hundred meters away from the DigiWira, and Adam saw one by one the other DigiWira was forced to stop attacking – the battle they had with the demons had weakened them a whole lot more than they had expected. Their legs gave way and the four DigiWira dropped to their knees. They were quickly supported by their equally drained Digimon partners.

It was now up to him. He hadn't been involved in battle; his power was still in near-full strength. '_I can do this.'_

Adam focused his mind and raised both hands right in front of his chest, with the palms facing the front, willing his teleportation power to teleport the black sphere away. His dark brows knitted tight as he concentrated hard on the arduous task that lay before him – he had never attempted to teleport an Ultimate Digimon's attack before. The black sphere was a hundred meters away from them now…and Adam held his breath when white orbs began to surround Mephistomon's energy sphere. The smaller white orbs began to envelop the larger black orb, before fully coating it with bluish-white light. Mephistomon's attack vanished but reappeared again right smack in front of them…but in the form of a _glittering white_ orb of energy. The sphere of light hung in midair momentarily in front of the DigiWira. The purple smokes were gone as well, replaced by silvery wisps of blue glitters.

It was beautiful, and it radiated with power. For a while, all DigiWira stared at it with awe. Trusting his instincts, Adam swung his hands full-force towards the white sphere.

"Go back to that demon!" he said with hope. The sphere responded by sailing back towards Mephistomon and slammed against the satyr.

Mephistomon hadn't expected this to happen. He didn't expect the boy to be able to purify the dark sphere into an orb of pure light. Had he deflected the dark sphere back Mephistomon was able to absorb it back without harm. But this…this was a sphere of light. He could not stand the light. The orb slammed onto him with such harshness and brutal force that Mephistomon fell on his back, screaming and writhing wildly in agony as the white sphere burned against his skin.

"AGGGGGHHHHH!!! The light!!"

'_What's going on…?'_ Adam wondered, feeling his knees buckling again. Something didn't quite add up. He lamented himself silently for becoming so weak that quickly. Just before his knees gave way, JD and Manny supported him from each side.

Phelesmon saw what was happening to his comrade, and quickly flew towards him. He pointed his trident towards the fallen Mephistomon, calling out, _"Black Statue!!"_

A black beam of light was shot out from the trident towards the white sphere, turning it into massive pound of rock. Then Phelesmon proceeded by shooting a focused thunderbolt which shattered the rock into data particles. He glanced victoriously towards the DigiWira, menace reflected from his yellow eyes.

Mephistomon evaporated into wisps of dark purple smokes and soared towards the sky. The domed energy barrier that surrounded Zephyrus City crackled with electricity before it vanished, revealing the clear sky outside. The purple smokes that had once been Mephistomon swirled around and a pair of red eyes emanated from it.

"This isn't over yet, DigiWira. We'll be back! Come, brother." An ominous chuckle was heard from the clouds. "We still have a bigger fish to fry."

Laughter echoed as the purple smokes floated away. Phelesmon glared at the DigiWira for a brief few seconds before he too turned himself into scarlet smokes and joined Mephistomon without a word. The red smokes intertwined with the purple ones and they vanished within a ripple in the sky.

"Yeah! Go away, cowards!" JD exclaimed gleefully. "When you come back, we'll be ready for you!"

"_Don't_ tempt fate!" Manny said, his eyes widened, knocking his fist lightly against JD's arm. "We could barely hold out against them just now. The last thing we need is for them to come back and attack us," he said with a worried tone.

"Ok, ok!" JD said, his left arm still supporting Adam. "Hey, Adam…what did you do?" His voice barely holding out his awe.

Adam shook his head. "I…I don't know. I just wanted to teleport the sphere back to him."

"It looks like your power of light has purified Mephistomon's attack before deflecting it back to him," Labramon analyzed. "However, Mephistomon is an Ultimate Digimon. As Xianamon, we had a tough time fighting him. His power far surpassed ours, I can sense it. You were able to drive an Ultimate Digimon away with your power…that _is_ amazing."

"It's not really my power…I just gave him back what he'd tried to give us," Adam considered, looking unhappy. The DigiWira then noticed that Adam was alone. Patamon was not with him.

"Adam, where's Patamon?" Liu Ying asked.

"And what's with the long face," JD asked.

"It's Patamon," Adam said glumly. "He's missing."

"Missing?" The other DigiWira asked, confused.

"I think so…he hasn't come back since yesterday afternoon. He did leave a message though, but…I can't help worrying." Adam told the DigiWira about the note Patamon had left him.

"I'm sure his fine," Gayathri consoled. "Besides, if you _really_ need him in a battle you can just summon him back with your power, right?"

"Already tried that. It didn't work."

A loud bang was heard from the distance, followed by an explosion of light which was visible from Zephyrus City. That prompted all the DigiWira to head towards the gate. The barrier had been lifted, they could see everything clearly. They saw a figure flying over the sky at rapid speed, escaping crackles of purple and red thunderbolts which seemed to come from the ground. The assailants of the flying figure couldn't be seen due to the high slopes of the paddock nearby the city, but Adam gasped when he recognized the flying figure. He'd know the angel Digimon anywhere, and by narrowing his eyes, he could see that the angel was not alone. He was carrying someone who was familiar to him.

Raging thunderbolts followed the angel and one struck the regal Digimon on the back. Cries of pain were heard and Adam saw both figures limped and began plummeting towards the paddock.

"Abang Zad!! Piddomon!!" he cried in panic, eyes transfixed on the falling figures. His brother and the angel Digimon were instantly enveloped by white light and vanished.

They reappeared on the ground right by the gates. Piddomon writhed in pain and devolved back into an unconscious Tsukaimon. Aizad rolled over, choking out blood. His dark brown eyes were transfixed on Adam, who was kneeling by his body. He clutched his chest, and was about to say something, but choked out blood again before managing to gather up strength to say something.

"You're…not back…Jackie…called…Digital World…worried…came here…attacked," the dark-haired man wheezed weakly and closed his eyes. His head fell limp near Adam's knees, staining the gray material of his pants with dark red blood that came from his mouth.

"No…" Adam whispered. "Please, no…"

Gayathri knelt beside him and immediately ran two fingers over the young man's neck. She then placed a hand on his left chest, before inspecting his wrist. "He's alive, Adam," she said soothingly, placing a hand on Adam's quivering shoulder. "Your brother's alive. I can feel his pulses…they're weak, but they're there…it's a good sign."

Adam grabbed hold on Tsukaimon with one hand and placed another on his brother's chest. His stricken face calmed slightly as he felt Aizad's faint heartbeat. "Infirmary," he said raggedly, and the three of them vanished. The other DigiWira realized in horror that the danger was not yet over.

From the distance, two figures could be seen. Two humanoid demons clad in black leathers and wings. One male and one female.

The Puaka Generals had arrived.


	30. Unholy Ramification

"DAMN!!" JD swore as he stared at the two dark figures that hovered menacingly at a distance. "As if we haven't got enough problems already."

"I told you not to tempt fate," Manny said silently, looking away upon feeling JD's deadly gaze being fixed on him.

Against the late afternoon sky, the two demons were a total contrast with their dark outfits. The bigger of the two was a hulking figure with large tattered wings and long arms, with a thin body and a masked face. Its companion was a female of smaller stature. She had slim, hourglass-shaped body draped in tattered leathers. Long white hair escaped the back of her masked face. One of her arm ended with massive sharp claws.

"Who are they?" Liu Ying asked. "They look…different."

Labramon let out a soft growl. "I feel them being a lot eviler than the ones we have fought."

"They are just hovering there, not doing anything…" Agumon observed. He winced when Penguinmon slapped him on the arm with his short wings.

"There you go, tempting fate! You're just like your partner!" Penguinmon scolded Agumon, and fidgeted upon hearing a soft growl coming from the dinosaur's partner.

"It's not like they're there simply for display purposes," Floramon defended Agumon. She looked up at her human partner. "Gayathri, what do you think?"

"Look at them. Wearing all black, and one of them is a girl. Eughh, what's with those clothes? Gothic images are so _not_ in these days…"

Everyone sweatdropped, but the brief funniness of Gayathri's comment evaporated when the two demonic Digimon were seen spreading their wings. They took up to the skies and approached Zephyrus City. The DigiWira immediately took out their Digivices and attempted to Digital Access, but to their surprise nothing happened. The answer became apparent when one by one, their legs buckled, starting from Gayathri, Liu Ying, Manny and finally JD. Hadn't it been for their Digimon partners they would have plopped down onto the pavement – they used their bodies to support their human partners into a semi-standing posture.

"Truth be told, I feel drained, after battling Mephistomon," Liu Ying admitted.

"Me too," Manny murmured. "Phelesmon was brutal…"

Gayathri nodded. "So was that lipstick-wearing guy…what was his name? Motasmon? Mortismon?"

"Myotismon," Floramon clarified, smiling slightly. "His lipstick was even _darker_ than our shade…"

"They're almost here," Manny said forebodingly, as the two demonic Digimon were getting closer to the city. They began to glow with menacing orange and purple aura, and even from the distance their eyes could be seen glinting blood red. Both were flexing their claws, and their laughter echoed throughout the green paddock. "And we can't fight…"

"_We_ still can," Labramon said tentatively, looking at the other Digimon partners. "We are still in our Rookie forms…I still have some energy in me. How about you three?"

Penguinmon considered his answer first. "I would've more energy if I have something to eat first…but yeah, I'm still up for a fight."

"I think I'm ok," Agumon said, rubbing his chin lightly with his clawed hands.

"Count on it," Floramon said, raising her hand.

Labramon looked at the DigiWira with determination reflected from her eyes. "You four take cover –"

"WHAT? NO WAY!" JD exclaimed, disgusted.

"JD…" Manny placed a placating hand on the blond boy's shoulder. "We're not strong enough to Digital Access."

Labramon cleared her throat. "JD, Manny is right. In our Wira Digital forms, you DigiWira have more control over our Ultimate forms, which is why you four are usually the ones who are the first to lose energy when we devolved, while we Digimon serve as reservoir and means for attacks, although we have equal control on our joined minds. This is why we need you four to replenish your strengths, no matter how short the time because every second _counts_."

It took a while for the DigiWira to process what Labramon had just said. Then, one by one, they nodded.

"What's your plan, Labramon?" Liu Ying asked.

"A Plan B, if you may say so. DNA Digivolve us into our Ultimate forms, and then take cover. We should be able to handle them."

The DigiWira hesitated, but realized that the Labrador Rookie was right. They all took out their Digivices, which energized the Digimon for advancement to Champion level. Then waves of green and dark purple lights washed out from the four Digivices and flowed over the Champion Digimon.

**_Fairymon…Youkomon…DNA Digivolve to…LILYMON!!_**

**_Flarizamon…Depthmon…DNA Digivolve to…REICHMON!! _**

They all watched as the beautiful floral maiden and the dark lion knight flew towards the approaching villains.

"Never thought we'd see Reichmon again," JD murmured. He and Manny had no need to summon Reichmon after gaining the ability to Digital Access, or Shadow Access as it was termed before their conversion to the side of good. This would be the first time Reichmon appeared as a good guy.

"We should get moving," Liu Ying said, turning around towards the city entrance. Lilymon's last entrance was fairly recent so she didn't think much about it as JD did. "We have to warn the citizens of this city; they're not safe yet." She walked briskly into the city, followed by JD.

Gayathri shivered as she took one last glance towards their partners before following the others back into the city. "Somehow I think those two aren't just enemies, but THE enemies."

"Let's hope Reichmon and Lilymon are able to stop them," Manny said comfortingly, and walked by the curly-haired girl side by side.

xxx

xxx

"Someone!! Anybody!! HELP!!" Adam cried out in panic as soon as he materialized inside Zephyrus City's infirmary. **"HELP!! PLEASE!!"**

A white-armored Digimon wearing a wolf mask, a purple striped sash around his neck and a doctor's medical coat rushed towards the hospital foyer where Adam, Aizad and Tsukaimon were at. He was followed by a green ogre and a red-dressed woman, both also in medical coats.

"What's going on here?" the armored Digimon asked with concern, kneeling opposite Adam as he inspected Aizad's condition.

"He's attacked!" Adam said. "He's injured! A…a Digimon…probably Mephistomon or Phelesmon. Please help him…"

"Of course we'll help," the woman in red said soothingly as she took Adam's hands. "I'm Dr. Witchmon, and you need to step away from…"

"He's my brother…please, help him. I've just met him back," Adam said weakly and allowed Dr. Witchmon to take him towards the chairs. "I don't want to lose him again…"

"Of course. Dr. Lobomon and Dr. Ogremon will do their best," Dr. Witchmon assured. She observed the dark-haired boy with concern and pity, and seated him on one of the waiting chairs. She then took out a chocolate bar from the inside of her white coat, opened the wrapping and gave it to Adam. "Eat this. It'll help calm your nerves."

Adam blinked at the doctor, confused, but his hand went for the chocolate. With another assured nod from Dr. Witchmon, Adam took a bite. He watched as the one called Dr. Ogremon lifted Tsukaimon gingerly while the taller Dr. Lobomon cradled Aizad. "To the emergency room," he heard Dr. Lobomon instructed to the other doctor.

Dr. Witchmon left Adam to follow the other two doctors towards a corridor. Adam immediately stood up and darted quietly to follow the. He saw them entering a glass door and went there. From the outside, he watched as the doctors laid his brother and Tsukaimon on an operation table. The glass door was slightly ajar, but Adam refrained from entering, knowing that he'd be asked to go out. He however strained to hear what the doctors were speaking.

"Poor lad," he heard Dr. Lobomon said as he cut Aizad's shirt. Adam saw a nasty gash spread across his brother's chest and shoulders. His tan skin was unnaturally red, seemingly focused on the left side of his chest. Adam couldn't see in detail as Dr. Lobomon then moved beside the gashed side to inspect it even further. "Who did this to him?" He heard the doctor asked his two colleagues in a dreading tone.

"The boy said that Mephistomon or Phelesmon are probably the ones who inflicted this kind of wound to this man," Dr. Witchmon answered grimly. She shook her head.

"By the Guardian Beasts…those two are Ultimate Digimon! How this man _survives_ their attack is beyond me…" Dr. Lobomon said.

Adam felt like his heart had just suddenly stopped beating. He took a few steps back until his back collided with the cool wall of the corridor. Trembling, he slid down against the wall and sat onto the cool floor, watching as the three doctors inside the emergency room began reaching out for various ointments and instrument.

"Please…not again…" Adam pleaded silently. His temples began to throb.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 30 – Unholy Ramification_**

xxx

xxx

"Stop! You're not going farther!" Reichmon barked, brandishing his black and gold spear towards the incoming demons. The spear was crackling with electricity.

Behind Reichmon, Lilymon was hovering several meters upward. Both her arms were extended forward, with her palms merged and transformed into cannon.

The two demons cackled, but stopped nevertheless. The female floated in front of the male, and was simpering, as if finding the situation somewhat amusing. She cat-walked while remaining airborne, and stopped ten meters away from the two DNA Ultimates.

"Oh, and I suppose you're going to stop me?" she challenged. A smirk formed on her pale, half-obscured face as her scarlet eyes glinted menacingly.

This female Digimon stood at approximately 7-feet tall. Slim with shapely figure, she was draped in black leathers which covered her torso and extremities, with the exception of her left arm and leg. Chains were wrapped around her right forearm and waist. Her right arm was humanly, but her left arm was long, reaching her feet and ended with large scarlet claws. Her face was half obscured, and her skin pale blue. She had a pair of tattered leathery wings which looked like they were a continuation of her outfit, appearing almost similar to a cape. Her white hair cascaded down her back. She radiated a dark kind of beauty.

"You couldn't even drive _our minions_ away. What makes you think you can challenge US?" the larger male inquired with his gruff voice.

The male stood at a hulking 10-foot tall. He was as lean as his female counterpart. His body armor was ivory with seven red orbs affixed along the left side of his torso, from the shoulder till the abdomen. Underneath the body armor was a leather black suit which covered his whole extremities. His arms were both long, grazing the tips of his feet and ended with golden claws. His large wings were bright scarlet. His face was totally obscured by a golden mask, which had six holes for…his six gleaming red eyes. He had a pair of horns jutting out from the sides of his face, and white hair flowed down his back.

"Don't think that because you've successfully destroyed the Blood Brothers, and have driven away the Bane Brothers, that you're OUR match. Your victory against the Banes was a stroke of luck, while good strategies and teamwork were the reason you've won against the Bloods," said the female haughtily. "However, it's nothing that _we_ should be concerned about. In fact, to us, everything is going according to what we have planned."

"The Banes and the Bloods were only our minions," the male chuckled. "You're looking at the real deal now."

"You mean…" Dread filled Lilymon and Reichmon instantly.

"Yes." The female simpered. "You're standing face to face with the Puaka Generals." She brandished her formidable claw. "Any last wish before we finish you off?"

Both Reichmon and Lilymon tensed, but it was Reichmon who recovered first. "Bring it on, lady!"

"It's _LadyDevimon_, if you please," the female finally revealed her name. She zoomed towards Reichmon and pointed her claw towards the dark knight.

Reichmon immediately swung his staff towards LadyDevimon's claw. The two weapons collided with a loud clang. For a moment there was a standstill as the two Digimon forced their strength upon each other. LadyDevimon quickly wrapped her claws around the spear and attempted to pry it off from Reichmon.

"Not a chance!" Reichmon growled, and retracted his spear, pulling LadyDevimon along with it. _"Blazing Spear!!"_

LadyDevimon quickly abandoned her earlier attempt and pulled back. She spread out her arms just as a burst of green-yellow flames erupted from Reichmon's spear, and sent torrents of dark energy with bats to counter the flames.

"_Darkness Wave!!"_

The flames from Reichmon's spear formed a hulking gryphon, but it was immediately overpowered by the bats that were sent by LadyDevimon. A few of those bats slammed against Reichmon, forcing him to fold his metallic golden wings forward in an act of self-defense.

"Not bad," LadyDevimon said after the dark waves she'd sent had dissipated. "However, not good enough!"

Lilymon warily observed the other Puaka General, who was nearly twice her height. At 6-feet tall Lilymon was an equal match to LadyDevimon, but as the dark female was already engaged in a fight with Reichmon she was left to face the enemy who was as big as Reichmon.

"Who are you?" she asked the demon warily. If she was going to fight him, then she'd better know his name first.

"_NeoDevimon_," the male demon said simply. He assessed Lilymon with his three pairs of red eyes. "You don't look like a challenge against me," he said darkly. "But alas, physical looks can be misleading. This should be interesting."

With that said he raised one arm and swung it forward, tearing the very fabric of space, leaving leaking red aura trailing his clawed hand's movement. _"Guilty Claw!!"_

Lilymon spun around and delivered a flying kick towards NeoDevimon's extended arm. _"Flower Cutter!!" _She successfully kicked the claw away. Without waiting any longer she then made a nimble back flip and pointed her cannon-hands towards NeoDevimon, having a clear shot for the demon's chest. Green aura began to glow from the tip of the cannon as Lilymon summoned the power of nature to fuel her attack. _"Flower Cannon!!"_

A green energy orb burst out from the cannon and was slammed against NeoDevimon. The demon staggered backward slightly, but didn't look the least bedraggled by the attack. He let out a snort and successfully managed to retain his balance. A sneer was heard as he saw Lilymon looking surprised.

"Pathetic!" he muttered, and swung his claws towards Lilymon once again with frightening speed. _"Guilty Claw!!"_

Lilymon zipped away from the claws' paths and flew around the claws, drawing her hands down as she circled the very long arms. _"Vicious Vines!!" _Dark green vines with thorns were magically generated from her hands and she began wrapping NeoDevimon's arms tight, making sure that the thorns pricked the demons' arms in the process. She then thrust those long arms away and made a dive towards NeoDevimon's chest as her whole body glimmered with yellow and pink aura. The fairy then delivered forceful kicks repeatedly on NeoDevimon's chest, calling up the attack named: _"Sun Crescent Kicks!!"_

To the dryad's annoyance, NeoDevimon barely looked like he was fazed with the kicks. "That tickles," he commented, and hunched his body slightly. Then, he straightened up with rapid speed that Lilymon bounced away from his body. With a dark chuckle he then swung his claws, which were charged with black and red thunderbolts.

"_Stun Claw!!"_

"AAAAHHH!!!"

Lilymon was brutally slashed by NeoDevimon, and was sent crashing onto the ground with an explosion. She devolved back into Labramon and Floramon, and both were too injured to move.

"Sometimes though, physical looks _can_ tell you the truth as well," NeoDevimon said mockingly.

In the meantime, LadyDevimon was successful in flustering Reichmon with her quickness and agility. She circled around the dark knight over and over again, and gave out an eerie echoic laugh which served to confuse Reichmon even more. "HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA AHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!" She laughed, amused of seeing her plan working.

Reichmon however had lost his patience. LadyDevimon could spin around him as long as she wanted, but Reichmon had had enough. His body began to permeate with black and orange flames as an apparition of a creature erupted from his body. The creature was quadrupled with a sturdy body, and from the flames a fiery human head was visible, and so were serpentine tail which was lashed back and forth. It was a chimera.

Reichmon had summoned a fiery chimera in retaliation to LadyDevimon's tactic. _"Manticore Firestorm!!" _

The fiery chimera burst all around him with a loud howl from Reichmon. Most of the flames caught up with the flying LadyDevimon, grazing her arms while burning her hair and outfit.

"Why you!!" LadyDevimon screeched and spread out her arms. _"Darkness Wave!!"_

The torrents of bat and dark energy were at first countered by the blazing inferno that was still generated from Reichmon. However LadyDevimon began to overpower the knight after a couple of minutes passed. The Puaka General summoned her energy and let out another wave of dark energy, which then sent Reichmon falling on his back. With a vengeful scream, LadyDevimon released a third wave which caused Reichmon to writhe in pain. "_DARKNESS WAVE!!!!!_" LadyDevimon shrieked and unleashed her final dark wave which engulfed Reichmon with dark power so strong that his element of purified darkness was not able to withstand.

With a bright flash of red and blue light Reichmon regressed back into Agumon and Penguinmon.

"So much for the mighty champions of the good," LadyDevimon spat and wiped both her hands together – her left claws had morphed into hands after Reichmon was trounced.

The four defeated Rookies huddled close to one another fearfully as the Puaka Generals loomed above them.

xxx

xxx

"This gash looks awful," Dr. Lobomon said as he inspected the red laceration spread across Aizad's chest.

Around the laceration were small bulbous inflammations which looked as if someone had spilled acid on the young man's body. On his left chest was a much more prominent marking in deeper shade of red. Dr. Lobomon observed the prominent region carefully, palpating it with his hands.

"This looks like an internal injury," he deduced to the watching Dr. Witchmon. "Dr. Witchmon, do you have the multipurpose healing cream?"

"Yes," Dr. Witchmon produced a white tube. She opened the tube's cap. "Should I…?"

Dr. Lobomon nodded. "Go ahead." The tall wolf-man sighed. "We'll see whether it can cure these horrible gashes. He's a human…he should be taken a look at back at the Human World. But we'll do what we can first." He observed as Dr. Witchmon began spreading a generous amount of cream over the gashes, and sighed in relief upon seeing that slowly the gashes began to disappear. "Put some more of those creams at that hyperemic region on his left chest," he instructed.

Dr. Ogremon came back from an adjacent chamber of the emergency room, holding an X-Ray. "There seems to be no internal injury," he informed his other colleagues.

"That's good to hear," Dr. Lobomon said. "But what do you suppose this mark is?" he asked the other two doctors, pointing at the deep red area.

"Maybe it's the place where he's been hit by Mephistomon?" Dr. Ogremon suggested, looking at the said area closer.

"The color's not receding here as it's been on the other parts of his body," Dr. Witchmon observed.

Dr. Lobomon sighed. "Nevertheless, it looks like he's stabilizing." Suddenly his eyes narrowed when the deep red marking began to take another shape. _Something_ seemed to be wriggling about underneath the skin of Aizad's chest, wanting to break free. "How curious. You two…take a look at that…"

As the three doctors bent down to look at the strange occurrence, they didn't notice Aizad's right arm shot up…and made a grasp onto Dr. Ogremon's throat. The doctors gasped in terror as Aizad rose up, and opened his eyes. There were no irises inside his eyes…instead there was total, complete blackness. A snarl escaped his mouth as he pulled Dr. Ogremon up with a strength that defied his stature; the green ogre doctor was bigger than him. His fingers were clasped tight around the doctor's neck.

"Thank you for such _amazing_ hospitality, doctors," Aizad said with a menacing deep voice. The red mark on his chest – the gashes he'd been inflicted were gone – began to glow, and a five pointed yellow star appeared there. "Now I have no use for you…goodbye!" He clenched the doctor's neck tighter, and sounds of bones cracking could be heard. The unfortunate doctor let out a weak yelp before his eyes fluttered close and his head hung limp. Then he burst into data particles and the star on Aizad's chest began emitting out yellow glow…which _absorbed_ the data particles from the doctor he had just killed.

"What is the meaning of this?!!" Dr. Lobomon shouted, as Dr. Witchmon screamed in fright.

Aizad sneered as he dismounted the operation table, and walked towards the two doctors. He looked around. "TSUKAIMON!" he barked.

The purple mammal Digimon sailed from another room adjacent to the emergency room. With a dark red glow Tsukaimon Digivolved into Piddomon, and the angel didn't waste any time. He spun his staff and chucked it through Witchmon's belly, deleting her without mercy. With a smirk that was not befitting his regal features he flexed his body and absorbed the female doctor's data.

"You…You…" Dr. Lobomon howled in rage and tore off his white medical coat. He then produced two swords of light and prepared himself to battle Aizad and Piddomon. To his surprise, both Aizad and Piddomon snarled and retreated. It was then the sound of the glass door of the emergency room opening was heard.

"Abang Zad!!" Adam stood at the doorway, eyes widened in fear. He gazed at Aizad, whose eyes began to look humanly once again.

"Boy…stand back! He's dangerous!" Dr. Lobomon warned.

"Dangerous? ME?" Aizad laughed and looked at Adam. "You know me better than that, right little brother?"

"I…I saw you…delete the doctor," Adam quivered. "I saw Piddomon kill Dr. Witchmon…"

"Boy…STAND BACK!!" Lobomon snarled, shielding Adam from Aizad and Piddomon.

"But…he's my brother," Adam said, and walked past the doctor. "I don't understand," he said, gazing questioningly at Aizad.

Aizad smirked. "You don't have to." He snapped his finger, and Piddomon instantly devolved back into Tsukaimon. The mammal Rookie floated in front of the DigiWira and let out wisp of black and purple vapor from his mouth, which clouded Adam's face. Adam's pupils dilated and his face appeared in a daze.

"You have any objection if I kill off this doctor, little brother?" Aizad reiterated with an amused smile. He folded his arms across his chest; the star tattoo on his left chest was still glowing.

The smokes began to clear and Adam seemed to consider his brother's question. "No objection, Abang Zad…" he said with a monotonous tone.

"WHAT?!!" Dr. Lobomon screamed.

"Good. Now come on over here…" Aizad beckoned Adam to come to him. The DigiWira obeyed without question and walked towards Aizad. The young man placed a hand on his shoulder, and turned him around. "Don't look…things are just going to get a little bit nasty around here." He chuckled as Adam unquestioningly turned around.

A flash of crimson light was seen and Piddomon had returned. With a nod from Aizad he flew towards the ceiling, a distance away from the doctor's light swords. He glanced towards Aizad. "Shield the boy," he said, and flexed his wings forward. Aizad immediately moved to cover Adam as Piddomon's wings burst with flames. He flapped his wings, generating warm winds which were spread out all around the moderate-sized emergency room. Various equipments from the emergency room were lifted, uprooted and pulled out and all of them coalesced together with the focused tornado Piddomon had begun to summon in front of him.

Dr. Lobomon backed away in fright. He looked at Adam, noticing something unnatural. His sharp mind also noticed how the man and the angel shied away immediately from his light swords. It baffled him slightly – Piddomon was an angel Digimon, synonymous to the light. Why would he be afraid of the light swords? However, there was no questioning that the man was definitely not what he appeared to be. That star tattoo on his chest was no mere mark.

He returned his gaze towards Piddomon, who was trailing him like a vulture eyeing its prey. Knowing that he would not survive the day, Dr. Lobomon threw both his swords towards Aizad's bare back. The man wasn't facing him – he was shielding the boy from Piddomon's tornado.

"LOOK OUT!!" Piddomon shouted, but it was too late. His attention was affixed on the tornado; he hadn't time to divert the light swords away from Aizad.

Aizad however had quicker reflex. He heard sounds of something approaching and the fine hairs on his neck stood up immediately upon _sensing_ the light. He turned around just in time, but the swords had grazed the left side of his back before sailing towards the wall.

"AGGGHHHHH!!!"

Adam blinked as he felt his body being pushed onto the floor. He then felt a heavy weight fell on him and was surprised to find his brother, face contorted in pain.

"DOWN!!" Aizad snarled and pushed Adam's head onto the floor. Shrieks of tornado were heard, followed by a defeated scream and the sound of something bursting. Adam gasped in shock but he was in no immediate danger as his brother was shielding him. Then his eyes shot wide and realized that in doing so, Aizad would be the one who'd receive the vicious blows from the tornado Piddomon had generated.

The tornado receded immediately, followed by loud crashing sound of various medical equipments onto the floor. Adam felt his brother moving away, and looked up. His brother had his back facing Adam, and Adam was horrified upon seeing the sight of total destruction of the once pristine emergency room.

"What's going on?" Adam asked curiously, his eyes looking at the burning red marks on Aizad's back, as well as a few bruises. He looked around and noticed that Dr. Lobomon was nowhere in sight. Piddomon had devolved back into Tsukaimon. "Where's Dr. Lobomon? Why were you fighting? Did he attack you or something? Why –"

"Adam, stop asking questions and try finding the healing cream!" Aizad said with gritted teeth.

Adam winced upon hearing the harsh tone from his brother, but caught up with Aizad's pained voice. He held out his hand and summoned with a shaking voice, "Heal…healing cream!"

Orbs of white light swirled around his outstretched hand, and a half-used tube of healing cream materialized on his hand. Aizad let out a pained growl.

"I got it…" Adam said slowly, wondering why his brother didn't want to turn around to face him.

As if his question was being answered, Aizad glanced across his shoulder. His face was contorted slightly, as if he was suppressing pain. A strained smile escaped his mouth. "Sorry for being short with you just now…it's just…it's painful and you were asking questions one after another, I guess I've snapped." He then gestured with his head towards the cream. "Will you…?"

Adam nodded. He saw Tsukaimon perching on top of Aizad's shoulder, and noticed that the mammal was breathing out purple vapor. "Hey, Tsukaimon, are you ok?"

Tsukaimon nodded. "Never better." He then exhaled the vapor towards Adam's face. Adam's face became dazed once again and he dully rubbed the healing cream on Aizad's back, no longer asking questions. Tsukaimon smirked. "There."

"Your Bad Message works, eh?" Aizad asked.

"Like I've said: Never better," Tsukaimon said. "Everything's still according to the plan. Right now, the _Puaka Generals_ are fighting the others as we speak." Tsukaimon's tone was mocking as he mentioned the Puaka Generals. "That thing you've been feeding the boy…it works well with my Bad Message. He's like putty in your hands."

The man and the Digimon laughed in amusement.

'_Adam…'_

Adam blinked slightly. He thought he heard voices…but it could be the headache he was having, right? It made him hearing voices that were not there.

'_Danger…'_

Danger? Adam looked around. There was no danger. He was with his brother and Tsukaimon. What could possibly be dangerous?

But wait…the voice was _very _familiar.

'_Adam…don't…trust…them…'_

Adam blinked once, then twice. The cloudiness he was feeling slowly evaporating, and he began looking around him. He was putting cream on his laughing brother's back. Both his brother and Tsukaimon weren't looking at him. They were talking…Adam couldn't get what they were talking about. Were they laughing?

'_Adam…run…'_

With his head clearing gradually, the mysterious voice immediately clicked in his mind. Adam's eyes snapped back into attention.

"Patamon?"

Immediately Aizad and Tsukaimon turned around to look at a bewildered Adam. Tsukaimon let out a frustrated groan, but Aizad was merely staring at him. He was smirking.

"So it's true…" Aizad said with a low voice. "The DigiWira of Light _is_ incorruptible. Your Bad Message doesn't work too well after all, Tsukaimon."

"So are the stuffs you've been giving in his drinks!" Tsukaimon retorted.

"What?" Adam said hoarsely.

Aizad reached forward and grabbed Adam around his neck. A malicious sneer escaped his mouth. "Ah-ah-ah…don't try to escape, or you'll suffer the same fate as that Ogremon," he warned, and stood up, bringing Adam to stand as well.

'_He's not your brother…'_

Adam looked deep into Aizad's eyes with fear. "Who…who are you?"

"Me? I'm your brother, you know that."

"LIAR!" Adam spat, feeling Aizad's fingers closing in around his neck. "My brother would NEVER lay his hand on me! NEVER!!" His voice sounded broken. "Who are you?" he asked as Aizad steered Adam to stand in front of him, face facing forward.

"I'm your brother."

"Liar!" Then Adam's eyes narrowed and he shouted out, "Liar! Liar! Liar! LIAR!!"

"Don't be a brat," Aizad snapped. "Now…teleport the three of us out from this mess, and towards the field outside!"

Adam remained still, staring at the young man in front of him with disgust.

"I'm waiting, Adam…"

Adam still didn't move.

"Do you know where disobedient little brothers will end up at?" Aizad said with a mock-threatening voice. He leaned close to Adam's ear. "They'll burn in hell!"

Adam choked out a sob as his eyes searched around the destroyed emergency room wildly. He saw a sword, glowing dimly underneath an overturned metal cupboard. _'The doctor's sword!'_ He quickly swung his hand towards the sword's direction. Before he could utter out the necessary summoning incantation the sword was teleported to his arm. Feeling slightly deja-vu, Adam swung the sword recklessly.

"HAHAHAHAHAH!!" Aizad laughed loudly and seized the sword from Adam. He grasped the blade and hissed loudly; Adam noticed dark vapor coming out from Aizad's grasp. He yanked the sword away from Adam and threw it out through the window. "Nice trick, but anticipated, little brother." His grasp around Adam's neck tightened and the boy began gasping out for breath. "Now, don't try teleporting away because you'll end up teleporting me as well, and we'll be back at square one. Unless, if you do what I've told you to do and teleport us to the meadow outside the city."

"I shouldn't have trusted you…" Adam said bitterly. "Who are you?"

"I'm your brother…" This time around, Aizad was saying it with the most mocking manner. "Your older brother…your dearest big brother, your hero…your beloved, protective Abang Zad…"

"LIAR!! You're NOT my brother! You're NOT! You're NOT! YOU'RE NOT!!" Adam shivered violently. "Abang Zad would NEVER do this to me! He never bullied me!"

"Oh…?" Aizad said, amused. "Then what about that night before the accident?"

Adam froze, looking absolutely horrified. "No…that…that's not…"

"As far as I remembered…I've smacked you in the face…and…let's see, what was your words? Aha…_you're the biggest, meanest bully around here and I HATE YOU and I NEVER EVER want to see you again!!_ Ahahaha…those were the words of a ten-year-old you, more than a couple of years ago, on a dark stormy night before the accident…or have you forgotten?"

Adam appeared as if he had been slapped on the face. He ran a hand on his right cheek instinctively.

"Good. You haven't forgotten. So you must also still remember how I smacked you, huh? Want to taste it again?"

Subconsciously, Adam shook his head. A phantom, burning pain suddenly was felt on his right cheek – with no reason at all.

"I thought so. Now teleport us to the field!" Aizad ordered. "Teleport the three of us there and you'll get the answers to whatever questions that are playing in your mind."

His head hung limp in defeat, Adam realized that he had no choice other than to comply with what his older brother had instructed.

Deep in his heart, he began to seriously doubt that the man behind him _was_ his brother in the first place.

xxx

xxx

Seeing their partners defeated from afar, the four DigiWira immediately went back to the paddock. They knew that they were no match for the Puaka Generals, but they had to try. Their partners, as Rookies, were severely outmatched in comparison to the Ultimate level Puaka Generals. It was like comparing the earth and the sky.

They halted when bright orbs exploded from thin air and three figures materialized. They saw Adam, but their shock they saw that he was being restrained by the neck by his own brother. Tsukaimon was hovering above the brothers. Looking closer, they saw that Aizad no longer looked like the pleasant-looking older brother of Adam they had encountered or caught a glimpse at before. The one who was restraining Adam was like a totally different person altogether; his face was contorted severely, giving him a malevolent look.

"What's going on here?" Liu Ying wondered, shocked.

JD snarled. "I _knew_ there's something wrong about him." He increased his pace and generated a fireball on his palm. "HEY!! What do you –"

"Come any closer…" Aizad reached inside his pants pocket and took out a metallic pen-knife. He flipped the blade out and pointed it towards Adam's neck. "And things will be bloody here!"

The DigiWira all halted. "What are you doing – he's your brother, goddamnit!!" JD shouted.

"Yeah, he's my brother…I can do WHATEVER I want with him!" Aizad snarled back sadistically. His reply appalled all the DigiWira but they had no choice but to remain where they were at.

Aizad leaned closer to Adam's ear, grinning viciously as he whispered, "Okay, little brother…here's what I want you to do. Summon your friends' Digivices and DigiSpheres, now!"

"WHAT? No!"

Aizad's grip on Adam's neck tightened. "Now, let's rephrase that. What were you going to say to me?"

"No…"

"I'm warning you, Adam. I might not be so lenient after this." He pressed the blunt side of the blade on Adam's neck. "Last time, I've smacked you. Who knows…this time I might kill you…" He said that with such nonchalance that it broke Adam's heart completely. What had happened to his brother?

"Take my Digivice and DigiSphere instead…"

Aizad snorted. "What the HELL am I going to do with your Digivice and DigiSphere? They're of no use to me! If I have to repeat myself one more time, your precious little Patamon will be nothing but a mere memory for you, little brother…"

Adam gasped in shock. _'He knows where Patamon is?'_

Aizad laughed heartily. "Yeah, I know where Patamon is all right. He had become too nosy…luckily we managed to keep him under control."

"Is he…did you…did you harm him? Did you delete him?"

"Oh, we will IF you don't stop your INCESSANT questions and do what I've told you to do!" Aizad said viciously.

Adam raised a quivering hand towards the other DigiWira, and said, "I'm sorry, guys…DIGIVICES!! Yellow DigiSphere! Pink DigiSphere! Red DigiSphere! Blue DigiSphere!" As he said that, tears flowed out from his eyes. He felt like he was betraying his friends. Adam saw white orbs swirling around his friends, and moments later the Digivices and four glowing orbs materialized on the ground, in front of where he and Aizad were standing.

"Tsukaimon, take them all," Aizad instructed. Tsukaimon immediately flew towards the Digivices and DigiSpheres and gathered them all with his small hands. The Digivices and DigiSpheres fell out of his small hands, causing the little Rookie to swear violently. He then Digivolved into Piddomon and easily scooped all of the devices.

"You've got what you want! Now let him go!" Gayathri shouted.

"Right! Where are my manners?" Aizad chuckled, and leaned towards Adam's ears. "Thank you, my dear little brother…heh heh heh hehehehehheheh…"

Adam stiffened as Aizad's voice changed gradually with one syllable uttered. From the familiar voice it grew deeper, silkier, more menacing and echoic. He was then shoved onto the ground, landing on his face as he heard Aizad laughing loudly towards the heavens as they began to darken. Thick purple clouds appeared on what had been a clear afternoon sky. Cold, biting winds were blown out from those clouds.

Adam turned around to look at his brother, and instead received the most shocking revelation of his life. _'No…it can't be!'_

The yellow star tattoo on Aizad's left chest shimmered with sickly yellow glow and Aizad began to grow in height. His tanned torso began to take a sickly dark gray hue. Dark purple furs spurted out around his legs and forearms. His legs morphed into thick horse legs and his shoes burst to let out black hooves. He hunched and black leathery wings sprouted out from his back. Finally, Aizad's rugged humanly face contorted into a bestial expression, changing into an ivory goat-like face with a pair of scarlet eyes. His ears became longer and were raised upwards at the same level of where horns began to sprout out, and his dark hair became thicker, coarser and dark purple. All the while, the yellow star on his chest never stopped glowing.

"Remember me?" the beast said with a sadistic grin after the transformation was complete.

Adam felt as if his heart had failed him. He certainly didn't expect this. He heard the other DigiWira gasped in shock.

"Mephistomon!"


	31. All Hell Breaks Loose

Words couldn't convey how shocked Adam and the other DigiWira were upon the outrageous revelation. Adam froze in his place, eyes widened as he stared at the simpering Mephistomon.

Beside the dark satyr, Piddomon began to glow with blood red and black aura as he began to shift form. His angelic wings became black, leathery and tattered. His white leather outfit became the deepest shade of ebony, with an orange bat adorned over his chest. His orange hair vanished into data particles and devilish horns took form on his head. His helmet melted into dark leather which covered the upper half of his face, revealing nothing but a pair of menacing red eyes. His light tan skin became pale blue. His arms elongated towards his feet and the hands shifted into claws. He smiled evilly, revealing small fangs.

Piddomon was no longer an angel; but rather, a fallen angel – a devil.

The black-clad devil let out blood red aura once again, and said in a gruff voice, **_"Devimon Digivolve to… Phelesmon!!"_**

The other Bane Brother had revealed himself as well. 'Aizad' had been Mephistomon, and Tsukaimon had been Phelesmon.

"What the hell…?" JD said, at loss of words. He suspected that something was amiss with 'Aizad' and 'Tsukaimon', but never had he thought that they could be Mephistomon and Phelesmon.

Gayathri had gasped so loudly upon the revelation that she now had her hands clamped in front of her mouth. Her brown eyes widened in utmost shock. She too was speechless.

Manny stared at Phelesmon, to whom Samudramon had been outmatched. To think he had admired the Digimon when he first set eyes on him, when Phelesmon had assumed his angelic guise Piddomon. His stomach churned; he thought that he was going to be sick that instant.

A lot of things ran through Liu Ying's analytical mind at this moment. _'We've beaten them and they have escaped after Mephistomon's attack on us backfired. Not long after they were gone, 'Aizad' appeared with Piddomon, badly injured. We thought that they were attacked by the Bane Brothers, while it was actually a set-up. They reassumed their guises in order to…' _

Liu Ying observed Adam, and was reminded that Adam had brought the injured 'Aizad' and 'Tsukaimon' to the infirmary. Her thoughts resumed, _'...in order to gain access to the infirmary's healing stuffs. I bet they are now healed back at full strength... and decided it's time to unveil their true identities.' _ Something confused her, though. _'Why such elaborate plan? They could've just destroyed us…why had they gone through the trouble to assume guises as Adam's late brother and his partner?'_

"…Why??" Adam asked heartbrokenly. He couldn't believe it. All these while, it was the Bane Brothers who were with him. They had appeared in the guises of Adam's late older brother and 'partner' right at the moment when Adam needed support the most. "WHY?!" he choked out, feeling his vision blurring.

"Why?" Mephistomon asked. He smirked and glanced towards the Puaka Generals. "It's not my place to say. I'll let the Puaka Generals explain everything."

NeoDevimon and LadyDevimon both laughed haughtily. "It was all planned out from the very beginning, right after we were all freed from that accursed Grademon's prison spell," LadyDevimon began with her simpering voice. "Grademon has cost us three hundred years of long entombment; do you know what that would feel like, especially when all the while you're imprisoned but your mind remain aware of the surroundings? For THREE HUNDRED YEARS we all had to endure the pain, humiliation, and utter boredom of not being able to do anything!"

"But we were patient," NeoDevimon continued. "Yes, we were…and it's all worth it, seeing Grademon's heirs shocked and broken like this. And what's more, we now have the powerful DigiSpheres Grademon have created to combat the forces of evil, and as a bonus, their Digivices too!"

"Simply said…" LadyDevimon said. "We only need your teleportation power as a guaranteed way to gain the Digivices and DigiSpheres. Of course we couldn't just go directly and ask you to surrender your friends' Digivices and DigiSpheres…we're not stupid. Special plan had to be concocted."

NeoDevimon chuckled darkly. "And it's a success."

The other DigiWira immediately went towards their shell-shocked leader and friend. All the while, Adam had remained transfixed on the ground where Mephistomon had thrown him. He was too shocked to move. His face was frozen in a look of sorrow and disbelief.

"But…how?" Adam whispered, looking at Mephistomon. "How could you've known about my brother? All the memories…everything…_how_?"

Mephistomon laughed. "That's easy." His eyes were fixed at JD and Gayathri. "Remember Tapirmon, you two?"

Both the blond teen and the curly-haired girl froze in surprise. They had fought Tapirmon the previous week. The Rookie Digimon had fed off the nightmares of all the DigiWira to use against them, but was thwarted by Satriamon and Puspamon.

JD was also reminded of Adam's nightmare – losing all his family. He had experienced Adam's nightmare first-hand when Tapirmon blasted him with all the DigiWira's nightmares. Pity swelled in his heart as he gazed at the broken DigiWira leader as every puzzle pieces concerning Adam began to merge, now giving him the main idea.

"Right after we were freed from imprisonment, we were told to immediately attack you," LadyDevimon said. "However, the Puaka Generals are anything BUT brash and careless. Amongst the generals of our Master we are known to be the slyest, most cunning of all. We like to know our enemies' weaknesses, and use them to our advantage. So we sent that little spy of ours to your home world via a DigiPort to get a glimpse of your weaknesses and nightmares."

"However we've got more that we bargained when Tapirmon returned to us with a wealth of information pertaining to you," NeoDevimon smirked at Adam. "You were at your most vulnerable due to your sister's accident. It reopened old wounds that never really healed. The day you lost your parents and dear brother never cease to haunt you."

"STOP!" Adam shouted, shivering horribly as he clutched his head. "Stop! That's private! You can't….you can't know that!"

"Oh but we do. We also know that an incident that took place between you and your brother before the accident is the main catalyst of your guilt," LadyDevimon taunted.

"Stop saying it…don't say it…" Adam said softly. "Don't say it…" He buried his face in his palms.

"HEY! Stop it!" JD barked towards the Puaka Generals.

Both Puaka Generals laughed. "Aren't you the hypocrite one, _ShadoWira_?" NeoDevimon spat. "Deny it all you want, all four of you are simply _dying_ to know what exactly we are talking about!"

The other DigiWira were speechless. Neither knew how to retort back, because what the Puaka Generals had said were true; they really wanted to know what was really troubling their friend.

But not like this…

"You're in luck, because we'll entertain you," NeoDevimon continued. "We're having so much fun here reliving the past."

"Now, DigiWira of Light…where were we?" LadyDevimon said, "Ah yes…we'll see what your friends will think of you when they know the truth." She paused and smirked menacingly, leaving her words hanging on purpose to tantalize the other DigiWira.

_The truth?_ Those two words were playing in the minds of all four other DigiWira just as soon as LadyDevimon had said it.

"Should we say it out loud, or would you rather admit it yourself?" NeoDevimon said, satisfied upon seeing the curious expressions of the four DigiWira and how Adam reacted to his question.

Adam raised his head, revealing bloodshot eyes and tear-stained cheeks. He was breathing in and out rapidly. His face had become very pale, and he looked terrified. But he didn't say anything. His eyes were looking at the other DigiWira pleadingly, desperately wanting them NOT to ask questions.

"Since today's been a revelation day, we might as well just reveal the truth, shouldn't we, NeoDevimon?" LadyDevimon asked with a sneer.

"Let's," NeoDevimon grinned sadistically. "I haven't had so much fun in three hundred years."

LadyDevimon cackled with glee and pointed an accusing finger towards Adam. "Face it, boy! You don't even fit to hold the power of your White DigiSphere! How can you, when we all know that YOU are the one responsible for sending your parents and brother to their doom two years ago?"

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 31 – All Hell Breaks Loose_**

xxx

xxx

"You're a lying bitch!" JD responded. He glared at LadyDevimon venomously.

"Adam couldn't have done that!" Liu Ying said angrily.

"We have NO reason to believe you!" Gayathri pointed out.

"That can't possibly be true!" Manny declared, looking at Adam. "Haven't you villains done enough to him?"

The Puaka Generals laughed.

"The four of you are so adamant in defending your friend…has it even occurred to you that your friend didn't even deny what we've just said?" NeoDevimon prompted.

Immediately the four DigiWira turned their gazes towards Adam.

"It's not true, right Adam?" Gayathri said.

Adam hesitated. His hesitance troubled the DigiWira. _It couldn't be true…right?_ That was what was currently echoing in their minds.

"She's right…LadyDevimon's right…" Adam said softly, fixing his gazes towards the grassy ground. The temperature around them suddenly felt like it had dropped several degrees after Adam's confirmation. "If it wasn't for me…they would still be alive." He looked up and the other DigiWira could see tears flowing out freely from the boy's eyes. He looked completely heartbroken. "I caused their deaths…I'm to blame…it's my fault."

"THERE!" LadyDevimon said with satisfaction. "He admits it! Murderer!"

"No…I'm not a murderer…"

"If it weren't for you they would still be alive! It's YOUR fault they're dead!" NeoDevimon shot mercilessly. "Do you deny it?!"

"No…"

"Then you're as good as murdered them!" LadyDevimon declared.

"STOP MESSING WITH HIM!!" JD shot up to his feet and released three fireballs towards the unsuspecting Puaka Generals. One of the fireball singed LadyDevimon's shoulder, the other caught the tip of NeoDevimon's right wing while the other missed its target.

"You insolence!" LadyDevimon shrieked, and spun in midair before raising his arms to her sides. _"Darkness Wave!!"_

Seeing Adam too devastated to defend himself Liu Ying immediately raised a telekinetic barrier to shield herself and Adam from the incoming attack, while the other DigiWira and Digimon immediately retaliated with their flames, waters, supersonic scream and various attack techniques. Their combined efforts managed to halt the incoming bats but they were quickly overpowered. JD, Manny and Gayathri were knocked off their feet, thrown several meters away from where they were at. Liu Ying braced herself for the bats to come into contact with her shield. She winced in pain as the bats attempted to destroy her translucent telekinetic barrier.

'_Just a bit…more…'_ Liu Ying thought, gritting her teeth to suppress the pain that seared on her arms.

The barrier slowly became more opaque and with a loud cry Liu Ying pushed the energy shield towards the bats with her mind. The bats were deflected and destroyed, but Liu Ying was also affected severely. She was sent flying towards the other DigiWira and was almost knocked out hadn't her head landed on JD's body instead of the ground. That elicited a groan from JD and he woke up, followed by Manny and Gayathri. The Rookies soon followed, awake but severely weak.

None of them were up for a fight anymore.

"What could five measly humans and four weak Rookies do against a powerful Puaka General such as _moi_?" LadyDevimon asked snobbishly.

"_Hunting Cannon!!" _

A yellow thunderbolt suddenly was struck on LadyDevimon's back, causing her to shriek in surprise. The devil-woman staggered forward whilst hovering in midair but managed to regain her composure. The attack was not strong enough to wound her, thanks to the fact that she was a strong Ultimate Digimon.

Everyone looked past LadyDevimon and saw a familiar brown centaur wielding cannon and wearing a knight's helmet.

"Centarumon!" Adam exclaimed, surprised to see his partner. He was even more surprised to see that the said partner was now in his natural Champion level.

Centarumon raised his body upwards and stood on his hind legs, before galloping at rapid speed towards the DigiWira. He evaded a torrent of bats sent by LadyDevimon and leaped out of NeoDevimon's claw's path with excellent speed and maneuverability. His attention was only fixed on Adam, and he was avoiding the two Puaka Generals that were on hot pursuit. However, Centarumon had forgotten that the Puaka Generals were not the only threat around here.

"_Death Cloud!!"_

Mephistomon's attack slammed against his back and sent him tumbling onto the ground. The force from the attack pushed him into skidding along the field, unearthing grasses and soils before he dedigivolved back into Patamon right before Adam.

Adam picked up Patamon. "Patamon…" he said as a tear trickled down his cheek. "I was so worried…"

"Tsukaimon knocked me out," Patamon said with disgust. "I saw your brother…"

"He's not my brother," Adam said coldly.

Patamon regarded it with a nod, and continued, "I saw him putting stuffs inside your drinks. That explains all the headaches you've been getting. They realized that I knew about them so they took me away and locked me inside an abandoned hut. They forced-fed me those stuffs they've been giving you…I was knocked out and was chained. I just woke up today and broke free by digivolving into Centarumon." He coughed weakly. "Then I came here as soon as I could…"

Patamon was injured, but the wounds were not fatal. It looked like he had been roughed up even before LadyDevimon attacked him. The rookie mammal immediately stood up on Adam's forearm and scanned around the paddock wildly. "Adam, your brother…"

"Is dead," Adam said flatly. "I know…they're impostors…I was tricked…" his voice quivered again. "I heard your voice…warning me…"

"HUH?" Patamon looked at him, bewildered. _'I only thought about it. I wanted to warn him…had he actually picked up my thoughts?'_

"Patamon…" Adam's eyes widened upon seeing the Puaka Generals and the Bane Brothers all readying themselves for an attack.

"We've got what we wanted," NeoDevimon said, his six eyes glinting dangerously.

"We have the Yellow, Pink, Blue and Red DigiSpheres," LadyDevimon said with a chuckle. "We have no use for the White DigiSphere and its bratty wielder…"

The Puaka Generals stretched out their long arms towards Adam and Patamon. They were hovering merely twenty meters away from the DigiWira pair; a focused blast from any of them could easily slay both Adam and Patamon.

"Adam, Digivolve me into Sagittarimon Radiant Mode now," Patamon said.

"But Patamon…you're hurt!"

"Now's not the time to worry about that, Adam. Just do it, I'll be ok," Patamon urged. "Don't argue. We don't have time."

Adam nodded and took out his Digivice as the Puaka Generals began calling out their attack names.

"_Darkness Wave!!"_

"_Stun Claw!!"_

Waves of bats coated in dark energy and a dark red laser beam were sent towards them as Patamon began digivolving…

_**Patamon…Golden Armor Digivolve to…Sagittarimon Radiant Mode!!**_

… and they slammed against the pristine white armor of Sagittarimon, who had his back facing the villains as he protected Adam and the other DigiWira and Digimon partners. Sagittarimon let out a pained howl and dropped to his knees. While having the strength akin to an Ultimate Digimon while in his Radiant Mode, the power combination of the two Puaka Generals were still too devastating for Sagittarimon to handle. A loud cracking sound was heard and Sagittarimon's body armor shattered and fell onto the ground.

"Sagittarimon!"

"Adam…I'm alright…" Sagittarimon wheezed, but as soon as he said that he devolved back into Patamon once again.

"Patamon…" Adam cradled Patamon in his arms. The Rookie Digimon could barely open his eyes. There was a serious gash on Patamon's back.

Adam looked up at the approaching Puaka Generals and Bane Brothers. His eyes darkened in silent rage. Something in his heart stirred to life.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" the Puaka Generals laughed loudly. "What are you going to do now, boy?" NeoDevimon taunted.

"Looks like you're not only going to be responsible for your parents' and brother's deaths…but also your friends as well!!" LadyDevimon cackled maniacally. "Oh, yes…it's simply beautiful. I love it! Let's spare him so that he'd go crazy with guilt," she said to NeoDevimon.

"Fine with me," NeoDevimon said. "Any last words, boy?"

"YOU…YOU MONSTERS!!!"

Adam's body shook with anger. He balled his fists tight. His eyes glinted with renewed edge and he roughly wiped the remains of his tears. He would not cry about this. He'd had enough.

The villains would pay dearly for this. The Puaka Generals…the Bane Brothers…all of them would pay!

Deep inside him, Adam felt the raw power that had once attempting to lash out during his capture by Dragomon resurfacing. It seemed to have detected Adam's hurt and sorrow, and was _feeding_ it. It then urged Adam to let it take over.

And this time around, Adam had no wish to be in control. All that mattered to him now that the enemies…Mephistomon, Phelesmon, the Puaka Generals…he wanted to destroy them all!

Adam willed _it_ to come out. His gray irises darkened into dark purple as his body began to glow with bright violet aura.

"So they call me a murderer…fine then. I'll do just that to ALL FOUR OF YOU DAMNED CREATURES OF HELL!!!" Adam screamed loudly and the violet aura emanating from his body exploded into a furious whirlwind of energy which sucked both Adam and Patamon in. The clouds parted ways as the purple whirlwind soared towards the sky. Multiple lightning struck against the whirlwind, which did nothing but to energize it with raw, undulating power.

_**Digital Access Digivolution!!**_

The whirlwind receded and a lightly armored humanoid with eight metallic wings emerged. The Digimon made a somersault in midair as lightning struck its right arm, forming a curved crimson blade which radiated with sickly yellow and purple lights. The Digimon zipped across the air and lightning struck his wings, causing it to glow with dark purple. He then made a back flip and stood stoically in midair, radiating with violet aura that gave him a menacing look.

With him not moving, everyone could then see his profile in detail. He was draped in light gray armor, and his chest was protected with metallic and black plates contoured to his muscular body shape. On his shoulders were mounted shoulder guards with white metallic wing projections, with the wings bent down the posterior side of his arms. His arms were wholly padded with black armor from the shoulder to the hands which still offered durability in movements. Thick metal bracelets of violet color and with digital runes inscribed on them adorned his wrists. His left hand ended with five sharp crimson claws, while a wide crimson jagged blade extended from the bracelet above his right hand. His crotch was protected with black triangular plates which were sculpted to fit the region between his waist and his upper thighs. The sides of his thighs were also padded with the same armor, while the rest of them were covered with light gray leather. Knee guards with amethyst jewel on it protected his knees, and were in continuation with his metallic black boots.

Lightning flashed behind the Digimon and his face was illuminated. He wore a gleaming black facemask which obscured the upper half of his face. The helmet was pattered to have a slight projection lining the middle of the helmet, extending all the way upwards to give the facemask a single thin pointed tip. Projections could also be seen above the eyes, jutting upwards at roughly 45 degrees elliptically and ended with sharp pointed tips. Yellow eyes shone, void of emotion. His lower visible face, with fair skin, was lined with light gray leather at the sides which seemed to be in continuation with his body armor. Sleek white hair fell an inch below his shoulder blades and framed his face, contrasting the black facemask.

Jutting out from his back were four pairs of metallic wings. The top and lowest pairs of wings were onyx black with light purple accents, and had the appearances of feathers made out of metal. The middle two pairs were white with dark purple accents, and bore similar appearances to the black pairs in pattern and length. All the feathers had sharp tips which glinted with light reflected from the streaking lightning over the sky.

**_Aldiyamon!!_**

The four DigiWira and their partners stared in awe of the fifth Wira Digital that had appeared. A knightly warrior with eight wings, Aldiyamon looked like an angel, but his dark armor gave him the appearance of a dark angel as well.

That was what Aldiyamon was – an avenging dark angelic knight Digimon.

"He looks…" JD struggled to search for the right word to describe Aldiyamon. His face fell as he found the right word. "…wicked…"

"Whoa…" Manny and Gayathri were both speechless as their eyes were fixed on the angelic knight.

Liu Ying however felt that something didn't appear quite right with Aldiyamon. She saw something that the others didn't notice at the moment as their attentions were solely fixed on the Wira Digital. She saw their partners shivering; Labramon's hair stood up, and so were Penguinmon's feathers. Agumon and Floramon, being reptilian, felt an unnatural chill radiating from Aldiyamon.

Labramon had felt this kind of foreboding sensation before. "Ying, something is seriously wrong with the Digivolution!" she informed her partner uneasily. Her mind was brought back to a certain black-armored Digimon. _'Black Knightmon…'_ Her eyes widened as she made the connection. _'A corrupted Digivolution…'_

"What…how did they…?" the Puaka Generals stared at the newly-digivolved Aldiyamon.

"This is preposterous! How can they fuse?" LadyDevimon shouted.

Aldiyamon turned his gaze sideways, towards the Puaka Generals. He let out a dark, ominous laughter which reverberated all over the green paddock loudly. As he laughed the winds grew fiercer and the temperature dropped to a chilling level.

NeoDevimon waved his hands and hordes of Vilemon materialized from thin air. They were the Puaka Generals' foot soldiers. The other DigiWira and Digimon partners had fought some Vilemon the previous day when they invaded Zephyrus City, and had beaten them. The rodent-like Champions were not that powerful, but together they could pose a threat.

And now, almost forty Vilemon were currently surrounding the hapless four DigiWira. Weakened and powerless without their Digivices and DigiSpheres, they could do nothing to ward off the cretins. The Vilemon noticed this and hopped excitedly towards their foes, closing in on them from all sides, arms flexed and fangs bared, ready to attack.

Unfortunately for them, there was one particular Wira Digital who wouldn't even give them a chance to do so.

Orbs of purplish black light suddenly appeared around all the Vilemon. With confused chattering the Vilemon halted, which only caused the orbs to be able to lock onto them easier. All the Vilemon were absorbed by the orbs as they floated two feet high above ground, before something unexpected happened.

Without warning, the orbs EXPLODED with a bright flash of violet light, scattering millions of data particles all over the paddock.

Everyone – the other DigiWira, the Digimon, even the Puaka Generals and the Bane Brothers – froze in shock. They then heard Aldiyamon chuckling out his ill-omened laughter again, and for the DigiWira, the angel's laughter sent chills down their spines. The laugh sounded hollow and menacing, void of emotions and totally unremorseful for the mass deletion he had just committed.

"What the –" JD wondered, realizing that Aldiyamon had easily wiped out forty Vilemon – that was forty CHAMPION Digimon – with his teleportation power, which seemed to have evolved along with Adam and Patamon's Digivolution. Granted, any of them, while in their Wira Digital forms, could accomplish that as well, but none could do it as fast, as easily, as effortlessly, and as mercilessly, as the Wira Digital that was now hovering at the sky.

'_Shit…'_ JD thought as a memory crossed his mind. _'SkullSatamon did mention about this…Adam has powers that can rival even Grademon's! Is **this** what he'd meant that time? Did he mean Aldiyamon?'_

Confounded, NeoDevimon snapped his fingers again and thirty Vilemon appeared around Aldiyamon. All of them immediately charged towards the angel, who didn't even regard the incoming Champions as threats. With a mere flick of his left hand, Aldiyamon showered the Vilemon with his purple light orbs, coating each and every Vilemon inside separate light orb before with another flick of his hand, causing the orbs to explode along with the Digimon inside it. A wild smirk escaped the dark angel as he set his eyes on the Puaka Generals and the Bane Brothers. His gaze lingered at Mephistomon longer than the others. The smirk vanished and his mouth was set thin.

Then, with a speed of lightning Aldiyamon shot towards the Puaka Generals, flexing his eight metallic wings as he set towards them. All eight wings radiated with dark purple aura. The metallic wings on his shoulder guards flexed upwards, joining the other wings as they too glowed violet. Aldiyamon halted and crossed his arms in front of his body into an X, causing his whole body to glimmer with dark red lights.

"_Final Fury!!" _

In rapid succession Aldiyamon uncrossed his arms, thrusting them sideways, and released concentrated waves of red and purple energy beams from his very being. The energy waves slammed onto LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon with such ferocity that it knocked both Puaka Generals off their feet.

Even before the furious waves receded Aldiyamon cocked his head sideways and thrust his bladed arm towards Mephistomon. _"Hellstar Kris!!" _

The jagged blade erupted with crimson energy and extended in lengths towards Mephistomon with a blink of the eye, akin to a lightning strike. Everything happened so fast that Mephistomon's right arm was slashed brutally with the glowing crimson blade. The blade then was retracted back by the angel who then focused on the Puaka Generals.

LadyDevimon was the first who rose from the ground. She growled in anger and her clawed arm shifted into a spear. _"Darkness Spear!!"_ she roared, and launched herself towards Aldiyamon.

Aldiyamon pointed his jagged blade towards the incoming LadyDevimon. _"Hellstar Kris!!"_ The blade erupted with swirls of crimson energy as it elongated towards the incoming devil woman. With a direct thrust Aldiyamon struck his blade towards LadyDevimon's spear. A loud clang ensued and LadyDevimon was flung backward, rebounded from the force of their weapons' collision. She managed to regain her balance after somersaulting backwards twice, but she was also shivering while Aldiyamon remained in his stoic posture.

Then, without warning Aldiyamon spun sideways and launched his jagged blade onto Mephistomon again, this time around slicing the sides the satyr's left leg. He smirked upon seeing dark liquid escaping the unfortunate Bane Brother's leg as well as some purple hairs hacked off from the leg.

Mephistomon howled and was sent to his knees. _'Curse it…'_

"Yeah! Adam!!" JD launched his fist upwards, excited of the outcome of the battle. His former apprehension now forgotten, he was amazed to see how Aldiyamon managed to single-handedly handle both the Puaka Generals and the Bane Brothers at the same time.

"He's going to win this," Gayathri breathed out in awe.

Manny looked uneasy as he observed Aldiyamon. _'A dark angel? That's never a good sign...Phelesmon is a devil – a fallen angel. What if Aldiyamon falls in the same category…?'_ He clasped his arms around his body to suppress his shiver elicited from his inner thoughts.

"Looks like Aldiyamon will always have his eyes on Mephistomon, no matter who attacked him," Liu Ying said.

"Mephistomon was the one who pretended to be Adam's brother," Labramon replied. "Aldiyamon's anger towards him far eclipsed his desire to fight the other villains. That explains why he can still attack Mephistomon although the others are engaging him in a fight." The rookie Labrador sighed.

"Why the long face, Labramon?" Floramon inquired curiously.

"Aldiyamon has killed…" Labramon whispered.

"So?" Penguinmon asked. "Those Vilemon were pretty nasty. They were the bad guys, and he deleted them. Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?"

"In normal circumstances, it is good news," Labramon agreed. "But you're forgetting one thing: Aldiyamon is not a result of a normal Digivolution, or in this case, Digital Access Digivolution."

"You've lost me," JD and Agumon both said.

Labramon sighed. "Aldiyamon has killed while in his Dark Digivolved form," she said sadly. "There's no turning back for him now."

That resulted in a chilling silence amongst the DigiWira and Digimon.

Labramon gulped and added silently in her mind, _'Unless…'_

NeoDevimon lifted his clawed arm as he flew forward, followed by LadyDevimon who had recovered from Aldiyamon's previous attack. The two Puaka Generals spun around Aldiyamon and slashed Aldiyamon with their claws…only to have them stuck at his curved blade. Aldiyamon retracted his bladed arm and his wings flexed upwards once again. With a smirk, he declared, _"Final Fury!!" _

Both Puaka Generals were blasted at close range with crimson and dark violet lights which sent them flying. Then, he spun towards Mephistomon, whom immediately saw that another attack was coming. The satyr managed to counter it this time around by firing black laser beams which deflected the incoming blade.

Aldiyamon grunted in annoyance and spun his bladed arm vertically…slashing against Phelesmon's red trident this time around. The trident was cut over its shaft, to Phelesmon's astonishment. The red devil immediately retreated a few steps back to avoid Aldiyamon's deadly Hellstar Kris.

"Look out, Aldiyamon!!"

A warning scream from Gayathri caused Aldiyamon to turn back towards the Puaka Generals. He was met instead with bouts of dark-energized bats from LadyDevimon. Grunting, he waved his clawed arm and teleported the bats away before combusting them into data particles by merely flexing his claws.

"_Stun Claw!!" _NeoDevimon attacked him from the back, slashing against his metallic wings. Several metallic feathers were pulled off from the wings, and Aldiyamon grunted in pain. Before he could retaliate NeoDevimon delivered another slash upon his back, causing the dark angel to lurch towards LadyDevimon.

LadyDevimon delivered a flying kick which connected against Aldiyamon's chest which sent the angel back towards NeoDevimon. She laughed mockingly towards Aldiyamon. "Looks like the table's turned to our favor now, angel-boy!"

"Heh, heh, heh…" NeoDevimon readied his claw, but to his astonishment Aldiyamon then vanished in swirls of violet orbs.

"_Avenging Strike!!" _

Within a split second, NeoDevimon felt like his wings had been ripped brutally, followed by a slash on his right shoulder. Aldiyamon had reappeared behind him, and the angel looked even more infuriated than he had been. As NeoDevimon lurched forward Aldiyamon pointed his retracted blade towards the devil's back, and summoned, _"Hellstar Kris!!"_

The Kris-blade extended like lightning towards NeoDevimon, and shot _through _the devil's back. Dark liquid burst out from the wound, followed by small amount of data particles. NeoDevimon screamed in anguish and began to limp in midair.

Aldiyamon however was not finished. NeoDevimon had been the one who had successfully struck him on the back, while the others had failed. The angel had no intention to let it slide without making NeoDevimon pay for it…and he intended to make the devil pay with his blood and life. He eyed the synthetic devil Digimon who had begun falling towards the ground and flexed out his metallic wings.

"_Final Fury!!" _

As waves of dark energy slammed forcefully onto the injured NeoDevimon's back, Aldiyamon cast one cold glance towards Mephistomon. He pointed his Kris towards the dark satyr and watched with satisfaction as the blade extended swiftly, successfully searing the satyr's waist. Aldiyamon smirked; he wouldn't kill Mephistomon yet. Mephistomon had wronged him greatly…Aldiyamon wanted to torment him first. He wanted Mephistomon to suffer punishments which was why his blade strikes were not fatal.

"Sneak attacks one after another and yet you still couldn't kill me!" Mephistomon snarled as he clutched his bleeding waist.

"You'll be surprised with what you can live through," Aldiyamon replied coldly. It was the first time he had spoken in true sense of words. Before this the only time anyone would hear his voice was when he summoned the attacks. His deep echoic voice possessed a menacing chill that sent shivers to anyone who heard it.

And Mephistomon was no exception. His eyes widened in alarm as he processed Aldiyamon's words in his mind. Then slowly he backed away.

Had he made a mistake on invoking Aldiyamon's fury?

Mephistomon then saw that he had no need to worry. His eyes trailed LadyDevimon as the devil-woman caught the fallen NeoDevimon's arm. A bright red glow was elicited from their joined hands, and Mephistomon realized that the Puaka Generals were about to summon a power greater than an Ultimate Digimon to counter Aldiyamon.

"Looks like they're doing it," Phelesmon noted as he joined his fellow Bane Brother.

"Whatever works in our favor," Mephistomon replied.

LadyDevimon stared at Aldiyamon with spite. "You might have overpowered us, angel-boy…but we still have another trick up our sleeves."

NeoDevimon grunted angrily, "Let's see if we can wipe that smirk off your face. Let's see if you can deal with a _Mega_ Digimon."

With that uttered, LadyDevimon shone with dark red glow while NeoDevimon exuded dark orange light from his body. The two of them became two motes of light which coalesced around each other before merging together to form one being that could defeat Aldiyamon.

_**LadyDevimon…NeoDevimon…DNA Digivolve to…**_

A hulking humanoid beast emerged from the explosion of light, looking like a perfect amalgamation of the two Puaka Generals. Standing at a massive 40-feet height, the Digimon had black muscular body with long crimson arms ending with claws. His thick legs were covered with thick, dirty brown furs and his feet were pale and ended with sharp red claws. His wings were similar to NeoDevimon's, scarlet and leathery but now as massive as his whole being. His face was pale, similar to LadyDevimon, with the upper-half of his face obscured by a black mask which revealed blood-red slanted eyes. His long hairs were white and long, also a trait from LadyDevimon. Dark red horns jutted out from the sides of his head, giving him the quality of his namesake.

The beast howled, sending unholy winds with a flap of his massive wings as he revealed his name.

…_**VenomDevimon!! **_

"What the hell…" JD asked, feeling his knees buckling as he eyed the towering VenomDevimon. He then winced upon feeling Agumon's claws closing around his feet. "Agumon!" he hissed.

Agumon gasped in horror. He clasped JD's legs fearfully. "Josh…that's a Mega Digimon!"

"A Mega Digimon?" all DigiWira asked at the same time. Even Floramon and Penguinmon looked perplexed, while Labramon froze in shock.

"That's a level above Ultimate Digimon!" she gasped. "I've…heard of it. It's a difficult level to achieve. Our Digital Access powers give us only the power of Ultimate level. Even Aldiyamon can't be VenomDevimon's match; Aldiyamon is an Ultimate Digimon."

"HOLY SHIT!" JD swore.

"For once, I agree with you," Liu Ying whispered as she stared at VenomDevimon.

"This can't be good…" Manny said forebodingly. "How can Aldiyamon beat him if VenomDevimon's a level higher than him?"

"This is the worse," Gayathri mumbled. "The worst of the worse…"

VenomDevimon let out a sycophantic laugh as he stared down towards his diminutive opponents. He flapped his wings once and sent another gust of wind towards the DigiWira, enjoying the sight of seeing them being sent heads over heels across the paddock and their Digimon partners flying haphazardly. Then the demonic Mega turned to face a stoic Aldiyamon…who didn't look the least afraid despite VenomDevimon being nearly six times his size.

"_Venom Infusion!!"_

VenomDevimon's eyes shone dark red and he released two laser beams towards Aldiyamon.

The dark angel immediately teleported away, causing the beams to nearly scorch Mephistomon and Phelesmon who were standing in the sidelines hadn't them being quick enough to fly out of the way. The Bane Brothers met with Aldiyamon whilst midair as an explosion erupted in the background. Aldiyamon smiled maliciously and struck his Hellstar Kris forward, slashing both Mephistomon and Phelesmon across their chests.

Despite VenomDevimon being the bigger threat, Aldiyamon still had his eyes on Mephistomon. He chuckled with grim satisfaction upon inflicting the injury towards the Bane Brothers before turning his sight towards the demonic Mega.

"_Venom Infusion!!" _

Aldiyamon vanished in swirls of violet orbs and the laser beams were shot towards the empty-side of a paddock, causing another massive explosion.

VenomDevimon growled angrily. "If you refuse to fight me, then your friends shall suffer my wrath instead."

With that said, he fired a Venom Infusion towards all the DigiWira.

Something stirred inside the dark angel and he let out a stunned gasp. Quickly he raised his hands and teleported all the DigiWira and Digimon out of the way right before the lasers came into contact with the grounds. They were transported to a spot still undestroyed by VenomDevimon's attack. He had brought them together behind him.

"You cannot teleport them away forever," VenomDevimon said gleefully. He raised one clawed arm and swung it towards Aldiyamon. _"Nightmare Claw!!"_

Aldiyamon thrust his crimson blade forward. _"Hellstar Kris!!"_

The extended blade shot through VenomDevimon's opened palm, causing the dark Mega to howl in pain and forced him to retract his claw. Angered, VenomDevimon retaliated by shooting random lasers all over the paddock, uncaring whether the lasers hit their target or not. He didn't even care that some of the lasers nearly hit the injured Bane Brothers, who'd be destroyed hadn't they cancelled out the lasers with their own attacks. Aldiyamon used his blade and teleportation power to block the stray lasers from hitting his powerless friends.

"You'll suffer for your impudence!" VenomDevimon boomed, and stopped firing lasers in random. He glared down towards the impassive Aldiyamon, seething with anger.

Aldiyamon readied himself, silent as ever. He hovered above his friends, knowing that with the possibility of VenomDevimon shooting random lasers all over the paddock, the other DigiWira and Digimon would be safest near him, where he could protect them.

VenomDevimon chuckled darkly and pointed his palms forward. "I tire of this. It's time to finish you all off once and for all." Black and red fireball erupted from his erect palms, growing bigger and bigger as seconds passed. "Have a taste of my _VENOM INFERNO!!"_ Unholy flames spewed forth towards Aldiyamon and the DigiWira.

Aldiyamon took a deep breath and flexed his wings as well as extending his arms wide. _"FINAL FURY!!"_

VenomDevimon's flames were countered by Aldiyamon's purple energy waves, and for a brief few moments there was a standstill. Then, Aldiyamon felt his body and arms shook as he strained to give out more power to his attack as VenomDevimon pushed more power to his attack. The dark angel soon realized a fatal folly to his earlier assumption.

There was no way he could cease from attacking. If he retracted his arms for just a mere millisecond, VenomDevimon's flames would engulf him and his friends and they would all be killed. The DigiWira might be able to make a run for it, but VenomDevimon's flames were massive and no matter how far they run the flames would eventually catch up with them. There was no running away from the Mega demon.

'_I have to save them…'_

With a roar, Aldiyamon pushed forward the flames which were gaining on him. There was a mere seven meter distance between VenomDevimon's flames and himself, currently being pushed back by his Final Fury attack. Aldiyamon knew that he wouldn't be able to block the attack for long. He had to do something.

'_There's only one way left…'_ Aldiyamon thought as his yellow eyes shifted into white with gray irises. A tear trickled down his cheek as he glanced back towards the other DigiWira. His heart became heavy; it was difficult for him to accept what he would need to do, but it was even more difficult for him to inform it to the others.

"Guys…" he said, with a voice that sounded like a matured form of Adam's voice. The voice was regal and it echoed with nobility – a total opposite to how he'd sounded just minutes before. "I'll take care of the Puaka Generals once and for all…I'm counting on you to finish off the Bane Brothers." He closed his eyes once and called out, "DIGIVICES!! DIGISPHERES!!"

At a safe distance away from the titanic clash, Phelesmon gasped when the Digivices and the DigiSpheres he were holding vanished in orbs of white and violet lights. They reappeared on their respective owners' hands.

"What is he thinking?" Mephistomon wondered.

The DigiWira all looked up at Aldiyamon's forlorn expression. The dark angelic knight was still blocking VenomDevimon's attack, but he was glancing across his shoulder towards them.

"Take care of yourselves, everyone," Aldiyamon said as calmly as he could, but the tear stain on his cheek betrayed him.

Realization immediately dawned upon the DigiWira.

"Adam…DON'T!!" JD shouted.

"There's got to be another way!" Liu Ying cried.

For the first time, everyone saw Aldiyamon smiling. However it was a sad smile…a parting smile…

"Goodbye…"

Aldiyamon turned back towards VenomDevimon, his eyes set as he focused the remaining energy within him into his attacks. VenomDevimon's flames were pushed slightly backward, and at that brief moment thousands of bright white and violet orbs exploded from Aldiyamon. From the light orbs, more light orbs spewed forth, multiplying them into millions. The orbs swirled around the two Digimon, coating all of them and their exchanging attacks.

The DigiWira saw for a brief second that Aldiyamon's dark form began to shift. His metallic wings became pure feathers and shone with silver hue as his armors turned pearly white and his hair assumed the color of ebony-brown. Then they saw no more, as Aldiyamon and VenomDevimon were both enveloped by the light orbs.

"No…" Gayathri gasped, trembling in fear. "ADAM!!" She said, instinctively attempting to run towards Aldiyamon. She was restrained in time by Manny and Floramon.

"Don't do this, Aldiyamon. Please…" Manny pleaded, his hands clasped tight around Gayathri's wrists. He knew however that Aldiyamon couldn't hear him anymore.

"Adam…Patamon…don't…" Gayathri sobbed softly. She couldn't believe this was happening.

"ALDIYAMON, DON'T DO IT!!!" JD screamed.

Liu Ying stood, stunned beyond belief that she was left speechless. Tears trickled down her face.

Inside the dome of glittering white orbs, VenomDevimon panicked as white orbs began coating his legs. He shook them off, but the orbs just kept on coming. From the feet they crept upwards until his entire lower limbs were covered, before moving towards his torso and arms.

"CURSE YOU ALDIYAMON!!" VenomDevimon shouted and transferred more power to his attack. "There's no way you're bringing me down with this!"

"We'll see, won't we?" Aldiyamon said with a hollow voice as his black facemask shifted into white visor with silver linings and small wings projecting out from the lower sides. The visor extended upwards into a triangular form, and it was slightly transparent.

VenomDevimon saw the light orbs began coating his shoulders and realized that his effort to break free was futile. He let out a defeated chuckle.

"Fine then. If I'm going down…I'll take you with me, blasted Wira Digital of Light!"

"Heh…that was my intention all along," Aldiyamon said softly as the orbs coated VenomDevimon wholly, leaving only his head uncovered for the time being. He then saw the orbs beginning to coat VenomDevimon's flames and soon, his own energy waves before enveloping his own arms, body, legs and wings. Another tear trickled down the angelic knight's face but he held on with determination – he couldn't let go, as their exchange of attacks was what that was keeping VenomDevimon from breaking free from their connection. If Aldiyamon broke free from the connection, not only would VenomDevimon's flames kill him but the other DigiWira would also fell prey in the process.

By maintaining their connection, at least the other DigiWira and their partners would be safe.

"Good luck, my friends…for everything…" Aldiyamon whispered. Every muscles and nerves in his body felt as if they were ripped apart due to the strains of exuding a lot of power, but strangely, he was at peace. He closed his eyes.

'_Adam, are you sure about this?'_ Patamon asked from within their joined mind and body.

'_It's the only way, Patamon. Either way, **we** won't make it…but this way, at least our friends will make it. I'm sorry for dragging you into this. It's unfair for you.'_

'_No apologies needed, Adam. I want you to know, Adam…that I have no regrets. Being partnered to you is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Even though we've only been with each other for a short time…I'm content. I've found you, I wouldn't ask for anything else.''_

'_Me too, Patamon. Me too…I love you.'_

There was a pause before Patamon's reply came, sounding like he was choking a sob. _'I love you too, partner.'_

Another pause came as they heard VenomDevimon shrieking. _'Patamon, is this considered suicide?'_

'_No, Adam. This isn't suicide in my book. This is sacrifice…for the greater good.'_

'_That's nice to hear…altogether now…'_

'_I'm with you to the end.'_

Aldiyamon watched with grim satisfaction as VenomDevimon was fully coated with the light orbs, before his own vision was obscured with profound white lights. Everything became deathly quiet. He breathed out a prayer, hoping that his plan would be a success and for his friends' safeties, before whispering…

"_**Final…Purification…"**_

An explosion of white light soon ensued, blinding everyone momentarily with its dazzling radiance. When the lights receded, both Aldiyamon and VenomDevimon were nowhere in sight.

The DigiWira were stunned beyond belief and collapsed onto the ground. Gayathri was crying uncontrollably and buried her face against Manny's shirt. Manny's expression froze with horror as tears flowed freely out of his russet eyes. Liu Ying was sobbing too in her hands, as Labramon tried hard to comfort her partner while crying silently herself. Floramon, Agumon and Penguinmon supported each other, grieving for their fallen friends.

"I hope you're HAPPY NOW!!" JD roared in anguish towards the Bane Brothers. His green-blue eyes shone; the blond was struggling hard to blink back tears.

Mephistomon and Phelesmon didn't say anything. Their expressions were unreadable.

"You've tricked him! You broke his heart! YOU'RE the one who caused him to do this!" JD's voice broke into a sob. "Adam wouldn't have done this if you didn't shatter his heart with false hope!" He fell onto his knees and wiped his eyes roughly with his sleeves. "Damn you two…" He clutched his Digivice, and seeing this, Agumon parted from his fellow Digimon and trotted towards his DigiWira partner, laying placating hands on his anguished partner's shoulders. While still kneeling, JD roared, **_"Digital Access Digivolution, HAA!!!"_**

Satriamon emerged from a pillar of red light generated from the Digivolution process. The other DigiWira followed; and soon Satriamon was joined by Xianamon, Puspamon and Samudramon.

Mephistomon snapped his fingers, and created a dark purple energy dome which imprisoned the four Wira Digital.

"GAAHH! Not this again!" Satriamon roared loudly and slashed his gauntlet against the barrier. That only resulted in him being thrown onto the ground.

"Calm down for a while," Mephistomon smirked as he approached the energy dome.

"Adam and Patamon are DEAD and you ask us to calm down!" Puspamon said angrily. Her evolved form still bore tear marks on her cheek – she had continued crying in silent.

"Yes, and that was very noble of them," Mephistomon said, exchanging gleeful smirks with Phelesmon who had come by his side.

"STOP SMIRKING!! IT'S NOT FUNNY, YOU ASSHOLES!!" Satriamon roared.

"On the contrary, Wira Digital, it _is_ rather funny…" Phelesmon said and left his sentence hanging. His yellow eyes glinted with what looked like…satisfaction?

There was a tantalizing tone in the red demon's voice…as if he was about to reveal a horrible secret and was merely pausing for a dramatic effect.

"Adam's and Patamon's sacrifices are heartfelt," Mephistomon said, shaking his head in mock-sadness. "They had hoped to remove the bigger threats, trusting that you four would avenge his deaths by destroying the two of us."

"Believe it…we will," Satriamon snarled.

Mephistomon continued as if he didn't hear Satriamon. "It's just too bad that they've got the _wrong_ guys…"

The Wira Digital froze upon Mephistomon's revelation.

"What do you mean?" Xianamon demanded.

"Had they removed _us_ from the picture, then only it could be said that they've removed the bigger threat," Mephistomon said silkily.

"Heh, heh, that's right. Instead, all angel-boy did was removing the _decoys_!" Phelesmon revealed.

"Because, you see…" Mephistomon drawled. "The Puaka Generals are _not_ LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon…they were just puppets, controlled by excellent puppet masters."

Samudramon gasped as Mephistomon's revelation set in. "You mean…"

"It can't be…" Puspamon said, horrified.

"NO!!" Both Satriamon and Xianamon exclaimed. Both of them were shaking with rage.

"_Yes_. LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon weren't the real Puaka Generals. In fact, a long time ago, they were once champions of the side of light. They were once Grademon's allies! They were once the Saintly Siblings who fought for the side of good _against_ the Puaka Generals!! However, they failed, they fell, they were corrupted into evil, and ultimately they became puppets…"

Mephistomon smirked triumphantly, enjoying the sickened reactions of the four Wira Digital as he continued, "They became the Puaka Generals' puppets. They became **OUR** puppets."

xxx

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**Author's Notes:**

…sobs… Poor Aldiyamon…

_**Aldiyamon**_

_Name derivation:_ Arabic. _Diya_ means 'light', 'splendor', 'glow', 'shining'. _Al-_ is like a prefix. So _Al-Diya_ could mean **_the Light_**, roughly. I'm not well-versed in Arabic, so readers who know the true meaning of the words, please correct me if I'm wrong.

_Comparison to other Digimon:_ His armor and facemask are basically similar to Ravemon, with some modifications here and there. His eight wings are inspired from MagnaAngemon. The same is true for his hair style. His metallic qualities come from GuardiAngemon. And finally, his winged shoulder guards are like the ones on Duftmon (new Royal Knight from Digimon Savers).

_**VenomDevimon**_

It's a re-colored version of _VenomMyotismon_, with black body instead of red and white hair instead of blond. I would've left the real name intact, but since a Myotismon has already been killed off in Chapter 28, it won't look right if the Puaka Generals' Mega form is named after a fallen villain. So he…she…it…HE gets the name VenomDevimon instead. Luckily, VenomDevimon doesn't have that creepy crotch-monster thingy that VenomMyotismon has.

I'm pretty sure no one has ever created an Aldiyamon yet, but as for VenomDevimon I'm not quite sure. The name is rather plain and easy to come up with…

The idea for Mephistomon and Phelesmon to be the real Puaka Generals, as well as the ones who betray Adam, comes from the origin of their names – _Mephistopheles, _which means 'he who is not a lover of light' from Faust. It fits the plot, with Adam holding the power of light and the Puaka Generals being the one who deceive Adam so thoroughly and cruelly that it ultimately ends with Aldiyamon's death.


	32. Fighting Spirit

"DID I NOT PERSONALLY TELL YOU **NOT** TO HARM THE CHILD OF LIGHT?!!!"a raspy voice bellowed loudly. It was SkullSatamon, and he was infuriated beyond belief.

Before the image projection of the dark demonic Ultimate, the Puaka Generals stood straight-backed, barely flinching.

"You did, Master," Mephistomon said with a careful tone. "However, we didn't have an inkling that the child would go to such measures. We didn't expect him to sacrifice his life in order to kill VenomDevimon. We merely hoped that the boy would be spiritually crushed and broken so that he would submit himself to you, Master."

"I have been waiting a LONG time for him!" SkullSatamon said coldly. "Aldiyamon was _exactly_ what I have hoped for. His combustion power would easily destroy the barrier Grademon erected around my Horror Hall. I have long suspected that Adam's teleportation power would evolve to deadly proportions and today my suspicion was proved to be correct. You should have stepped in when he was stopping VenomDevimon! Your own Mega form was enough to deal with whatever such simpletons as those former Saintly Siblings could have given you, or so I recall."

"We apologize deeply for our mistake, Master," Mephistomon said, bowing his head slightly.

"We do have the other four DigiWira, Master," Phelesmon supplied.

SkullSatamon snorted; his empty orbital sockets glowed with eerie green aura. "I have no desire for them. Not any of them has power akin to the child of light!"

"So what should we do now, Master?" Mephistomon inquired.

The dark lord glowered at his two minions via the communication link they were sharing. "You will figure out how exactly to free me from my imprisonment, or rest assured that the powers you now have will be stripped away!" As he said that, the bat insignia on his skull shimmered blood-red, and both Puaka Generals suddenly winced in pain as two bat signs emerged from their foreheads. They staggered a little before SkullSatamon lifted the pain he had exerted on the Puaka Generals. He stared at them with silent fury.

"You have messed up. It is only in my good grace now that you two still retain your Ultimate and DNA-Mega powers. Should I see no use in keeping you two any longer…"

SkullSatamon cut off the communication link, leaving his sentence hanging.

The Puaka Generals heaved in relief as the pain SkullSatamon had inflicted on them diminished. They lingered in the darkness of their lair momentarily.

"What do we do?" Phelesmon asked the bigger general.

Mephistomon smirked, his eyes glinted in contemplation. "For now, we'll do as he says."

"For now?"

"Yes, for now. _Until_ we drained off the powers from the four Wira Digital, that is. Speaking of which, I think it's time we pay our guests a visit."

xxx

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TobuCatmon cast a forlorn look at a framed picture in his hands. Inside the picture were Liu Ying, Adam and Gayathri, in their gray uniforms and with their partners. The picture was taken after they had beaten Lynxmon, and the first day they had all received the uniforms. The furs underneath his eyes were damp with tears as he gazed sadly at the dark-haired boy, who was grinning widely at the center of the picture with his partner perched on his head.

"It seems like only yesterday you joined the team, and now you've been taken away from us," the Champion Digimon sighed. Another tear dropped onto the glass that covered the picture. "Had I know this is how things turned up to be, I'd block the White DigiSphere from being activated. You might not join us if that happened, but at least you would be safe, oblivious to the Digital World."

"You can't blame yourself, TobuCatmon," said a brown-haired man in beige garb, who was sitting by the table.

"He's just a child, Jackie," TobuCatmon said softly, staring at the man's blue eyes as he continued, "a sweet, innocent boy who's got a bright future waiting for him. He didn't deserve this."

"From what I gather, Adam's been sad for a long time, no matter how cheerful he appeared to be," Jackie said grimly. "His parents and brother passed away two years before, and now Alisha is in coma…it'll been a week if Thursday approaches."

"Do you think that's why he was willing to sacrifice himself?" TobuCatmon asked. "Was it because he thought that he had nothing to lose anymore?"

"We may never know, but I don't think it's because of his sister. Alisha is not dead," Jackie said, adjusting his garb. "Although I can't imagine how are we going to tell this to her should she wakes up. It will crush her to pieces…_she_ might not want to go on, learning that her only flesh and blood is gone as well." The cerulean-eyed man leaned against the table. "This wasn't what I had in mind when I agreed to Gennai's idea to supervise the Malaysian kids…I mean, I've supervised the Chinese, Indian, Hong Kong, Vietnamese and Cambodian DigiDestined before and they never had trouble as big as this…_nobody_ got killed…"

"I'd give anything for the DigiWira to only have boring encounters," TobuCatmon sighed. "Instead, they've been getting life-threatening run-ins one after another. The Mage and Dryad Generals, Dragomon, now the Puaka Generals…and to think there are FIVE other generals still imprisoned, and the team is now without its heart…"

"Heart?" Jackie asked.

"The White DigiSphere is the heart to all the other DigiSpheres; that much I've gathered from my study of the DigiSpheres, the prophecies and everything about the battle between Grademon and SkullSatamon three hundred years ago. The team is strong with its heart…now that the heart has been ripped apart from the team; I fear that everything will go downhill from this point on."

"We can't just give up yet!" Jackie said indignantly. "What of the others? Liu Ying, Gayathri, Manny, Joshua? Their partners? What of them? Their families were almost crazy with worry back at school earlier. They wanted to call on the police but I'd assured them that everything would be fine. Liu Ying's grandfather was a great help in keeping things under control back then, but I can't say the same for other parents." The man grunted as he looked at TobuCatmon. "We have to rescue them!"

"We don't even know where they're being held now," TobuCatmon said. "The Puaka Generals didn't exactly publicize their lair's whereabouts."

Jackie grunted as he leaned back against the table. "I hate this, not being able to do anything. I'm supposed to watch over the DigiWira, and now one of them is dead. Never in history had a DigiDestined died in battle." He stood up abruptly, causing the stool he sat on crashed onto the marble floor. "Well I'm not going to sit around, doing nothing! I'm going to try and save them."

TobuCatmon placed the framed picture of the three DigiWira back on a flat stone nearby. Then he fluttered towards the blue-eyed man. "I'm with you…but we don't even know their lair is."

"Then we'll ask around. I'm getting tired of pretending to be a school teacher while all the while I'm one of this world's guardians of the DigiDestined. It's time I act like one."

"I thought you were the one who chose to disguise as a school teacher in order to get close to the DigiWira?"

"…It did sound fun when I first thought about it…"

TobuCatmon's face faltered. "How are you going to defend yourself, then?"

Jackie thumped his chest. "I have the data of those Jedi warriors from Star Wars movies plus the abilities of that famous actor Jackie Chan. I know how to defend myself." Jackie took out a small metallic tube from his belt. He pressed a button and two streams of blue light erupted from the upper side of the tube, before joining together to form a glowing rapier made out of light. "I also come equipped with my own light saber." He gazed into TobuCatmon's blue irises. "What's _your_ backup?"

"I'm not chosen to be the guardian of this sanctum for nothing," TobuCatmon answered cryptically. "I can defend myself if needed be."

Jackie eyed his light saber, then at TobuCatmon, before looking up at the dark heavens. The three moons of the Digital World were aligned in a weird near-45 degree angle, with the green moon now seemingly at the front side, followed by the blue and magenta moons. Something seemed odd about the moons, but Jackie brushed it off.

TobuCatmon was studying the moons as well. "The moons are in a rather peculiar position, don't you think?" he asked Jackie.

"No time to worry about that," Jackie said. "Let's get moving."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

**_Chapter 32 – Fighting Spirit_**

xxx

xxx

"RAGGGGHHHHH!!" Satriamon yelled and attempted to yank free his arms from the glowing chains that restrained him to the wall.

"Save your strength, Satriamon," Mephistomon sneered as he walked down the stairs which led to the dungeon underground. "Those chains are made to block your powers. You'll find that you can't utilize your attacks and special powers while being restrained by the chains."

"So there's no use struggling," Phelesmon said, appearing behind his bigger companion.

The Wira Digital were inside a massive dark dungeon, chained on four sides of the wall. Their wrists and ankles were clasped by thick bracelets which were joined to the walls by equally thick chains. Bigger, thicker clasps made of rusty metal were fixed around their waists, and joined to the chains. The chains and the clasps were all glowing with yellow-green hue.

After the startlingly unexpected revelation of Mephistomon and Phelesmon being the real Puaka Generals, the two demons had electrocuted the four Wira Digital with bolts of lightning so severe that the heroes were immediately knocked out unconscious. Xianamon was the first to wake up, followed by Satriamon. Puspamon and Samudramon were still out like light. The flower woman's head was hung down, while the merman had reverted into his real form – his legs had shifted into a sleek blue fishtail which was wrapped with the glowing chains.

At the center of the dungeon was a rectangular podium, with a stone pedestal. On the pedestal were four candles, colored red, yellow, pink and blue respectively. In front of the candles were the Digivices and DigiSpheres. The candles were lit, and from the looks of it, they had just been lit. Small traces of wax residues were seen around the candles. The candles were the main source of light inside the otherwise-dark dungeon, but they were anything but beacons of light amidst the darkness. Something uncanny seemed to scream out from the candles, but their purposes were currently unknown to the Wira Digital.

"Nice candles, aren't they?" Mephistomon asked silkily. He ran his hand over the flames that were flickering over the candles, seemingly savoring the heat.

"We don't care about your freaking candles!" Satriamon snarled. "I'll burn them all right now if it gets YOU to shut the hell up!"

"Ah, Satriamon, you don't want to do that…" Mephistomon snickered. "Because you see…the four candles here have been bound with your life-forces via your Digivices. Since we can't corrupt your DigiSpheres we have to drain your power the old-fashioned way. The mystical candles here could do the trick. These candles won't burn as quickly as normal candles – they burn at a slower rate. It will take a full 24 hours for the candles to be totally used up. We have just lit them about an hour ago before you two woke up, so there's 23 hours of wait still."

"And you're telling us this WHY?" Satriamon snarled, still attempting to break free by yanking the chains.

Mephistomon shrugged, as if without a care in the world. "Oh nothing, I think it's just good courtesy to inform you this…seeing that after 23 hours has passed you four will be dead, wilted like a dead plant drained out of water. 24 hours are the amount of time the candles need to drain your powers properly and wholly…and after that you all will perish like your dear friend Aldiyamon. Ah, poor boy…in fact, I think there's a little bit of big brother in me who's starting to miss him…" the satyr cackled. "…NOT!"

The revelation stunned Satriamon and Xianamon. The mention of Aldiyamon's death caused pain to swell within their hearts, but the earlier revelation of them going to perish after one day had passed shocked them into silence. Xianamon's head limped down and Satriamon could see a faint trickle of tear moving down her cheek. Pain gripped the dragon-man – he wondered what Aldiyamon – or Adam – could have done to earn such bad luck one after another. The human half of Satriamon – JD – was momentarily ashamed to think that the first stroke of bad luck Adam had earned as a DigiWira was the boy's several run-ins with him when he was the evil Red ShadoWira. It all had ended when Karatenmon mysteriously vanished – Satriamon still didn't think that he had been the one who had killed Karatenmon, but there was nothing that proved to be otherwise so he'd accepted it. Peace didn't seem to reign long for Adam when JD's brash attempt to infiltrate the Shadow Realm had caused him and Agumon to be brought to the Dark Ocean, and Adam and Patamon had gone there to bail them out. That only led Adam into Dragomon who wanted his power of light. Luck was at their side when they managed to escape, and another bad luck came when Mephistomon entered the picture, disguising as Adam's dead older brother in order to use his teleportation power to gain the other four DigiWira's Digivices and DigiSpheres. It all had ended with Aldiyamon's sacrifice to delete VenomDevimon…but VenomDevimon wasn't the Puaka Generals at all. It had been Mephistomon and Phelesmon all along.

'_And I still haven't done anything to make up for what I've done to him,'_ JD thought desolately inside his joined mind. _'And now, I never could.'_

"We'll leave you to think about it," Mephistomon said. "Phelesmon, let us go and celebrate our victory."

Phelesmon smiled evilly. "Very well. A celebration is already long overdue."

"Yes, yes…this has been a most gratifying day," Mephistomon agreed as he climbed the stair. "I can't wait for tomorrow."

"You'll never get away with this!" Satriamon roared angrily.

Phelesmon shook his head as he followed Mephistomon. He gave the Wira Digital a mocking gaze. "What is it with you hero types? Always the same line." The red devil and the dark satyr both laughed at the joke heartily.

The two conscious Wira Digital stared hatefully towards the retreating figures of the Puaka Generals, and heard the door being slammed shut with a loud, heavy creak. Darkness reined the dungeon and all they could see clearly were the four candles that would spell their dooms, and the barely-illuminated figures of Samudramon and Puspamon. Xianamon's silent sobs could be heard and Satriamon tried his best to control his own emotions.

His thoughts reeled back to what Mephistomon had said about the four candles. Silently he tried to call out his fires, only to find out that the Puaka Generals had been right. The chains around them were blocking them from using their powers. He glanced sideways and saw that Xianamon's sobs had receded. The sorceress was silent, as if trying to do something. Satriamon caught the soft grunts she were letting out and saw she was subtly flicking her head.

"I can't use my telekinesis," she said despairingly, realizing that she was being watched. "And I cannot astral-project myself either," Labramon's voice rang out. "What are we going to do?"

Satriamon didn't have an answer to that.

xxx

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"…Where…where am I?"

All around him was complete whiteness. There seemed to be no up, down, front or back. Everything looked the same.

As he walked, he felt as if he was stepping on a solid surface, yet he could see no surface. It was as if he was walking in midair. The air was still, yet he could still breathe. His surrounding was so quiet that he could even hear himself thinking or the soft beats of his heart. While the whiteness was bright, it didn't blind him.

Not knowing what to do, he continued walking. _'Is this how afterlife is?' _

His ears suddenly caught some sounds and at the same time he could feel something as well. Gentle winds caressed his face, coming from out of nowhere, causing his dark hair to flutter ever so slightly. The air felt comfortably warm, and he could detect a distinct salty smell. He could also hear the sounds of leaves rustling against the wind, and the sounds of soft waves and the squawking of seagulls. Everything seemed so familiar.

He blinked, and his surrounding slowly shifted. The whiteness began to reveal a grayish-blue sea against a clear sunny afternoon sky. White and light gray seagulls flew above the sea merrily, enjoying the warm breeze. He looked down, and saw his black boots contrasting clearly against the yellow-brown sands with pebbles and seashells scattered around. The sea water grazed his boots gently. Glancing left and right, he could see tall coconut trees – some of them stood erect pointing towards the sky while some were bent at weird angles, one of them was even close to the ground. Their leaves swayed gently against the winds, causing distinctive sounds to echo all around the beautiful beach. Those who weren't familiar with the sound might thought that a hurricane was brewing, but he knew better and was not alarmed with the sound. If one listened closely, they could easily distinguish the peaceful sound that was now permeating all around him, and the silent furious sound of the hurricane.

Beyond the coconut trees were a shady area with grassy land and trees shorter than coconut trees, but tall enough to form canopies which blocked the blazing sunrays partially. A moderate-sized yet handsome house could be seen built in the middle of a clearing. It was a wooden house stood on pillars, with a verandah set lower than the opened door leading inside the house. Dark green stone stairs were built facing the verandah's entrance. Joining the pillared wooden house was a rectangular stone-walled building built above ground with the walls painted light orange. Parked near the stairs was a red _Proton Iswara_. Surrounding the house was a somewhat sandy clearing, with hibiscus shrubs and pots of orchids and roses, among some flowers that could be recognized from the distant.

'_I'm back…I'm home…'_

"ADAM!!! AIZAD!!!"

He blinked, and saw a young woman with long dark hair coming out from the inner door. She was wearing a simple light pink T-shirt and a dark red batik sarong, and she was seen carrying a jug of water. After placing the jug on the floor – which was covered with tablecloth – she leaned against the wooden railing beside the stairs. She seemed to have spotted him.

"Adam! Come on, lunch is ready! Call Aizad home too!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Ayah and Ibu are coming out now! You two better be here when they're here!"

Adam blinked. _'Kak Lisha? I thought she's in the hospital…'_

"Hey, come on, Adam!" Adam nearly fell frontward when someone slapped him lightly on the back. A young man with a white towel flung against a wet body was grinning at him. His dark hair was plastered against his forehead, dripping with water, and his black shorts were wet as well. He looked as if he'd just come out from the sea.

'_Abang Zad? Oh no…not this again…'_

"Come on, Kak Lisha's calling us there…" Aizad grabbed Adam's hand and began pulling a semi-reluctant Adam towards the house. He then paused, seeing Adam's stricken expression, and frowned in confusion. "Why are you looking like you've seen a ghost? And what's with the weird uniform?"

Adam pulled his hand away. "I'm not falling for this again!" he said breathlessly and began taking a few steps back.

"Falling for what?" Aizad asked, looking genuinely disconcerted. He pulled the towel flung on his shoulders up and began wiping his damp hair.

"You're not Abang Zad…you're Mephistomon…"

"Me-fis-who?" Aizad's face frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Adam stared at Aizad in disbelief, before his eyes darting wildly around his surrounding. The beach, the house, his brother, and his sister…and his eyes widened in further disbelief as he saw two more figures emerging from the entrance. Both looked to be around their mid forties. The man was moderate in height, smart-looking with light-tanned skin, dark brown eyes, dark hair and a moustache. He was wearing a light-blue work shirt with the sleeves rolled up over his elbow and black pants. Beside him was a fair woman with a very warm and sweet expression and dark gray eyes. Her dark hair was pulled back in a bun and she was wearing a light green simple baju kurung. Both of them were looking at Adam and Aizad.

'_Ayah? Ibu? But…how?" _Adam looked suspiciously at Aizad, who was looking more and more baffled. _'Mephistomon CAN'T be this good!'_

"Come on now, boys. I only have an hour left before I'm needed back at school," the man, Mr. Ariff Aizudin called with a 'come-back-here' wave of his hand. "You might be on holidays now, but I still have meetings and whatnot at school, so come along. I'd like to have the whole family with me during meal times."

Adam couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing now. _'What's going on here? This is so confusing. I can't believe that Ayah and Ibu are here…but…is it all a trick?"_

"Adam, is something wrong?" the woman, Mrs. Aleza Azhari, asked. It was a gentle inquiry that stirred Adam's heart.

Without warning, a tear spilled down Adam's left eye. He immediately rushed past a still-confounded Aizad and practically leaped up the stairs before embracing his mother with a shivering body. Clearly confused, Aleza ran a hand up and down his youngest son's back.

"I miss you so much, Ibu…" Then he pulled himself from the embrace and hugged his father as well. "And you too, Ayah…I miss you…"

Aleza and Ariff exchanged confused glances. "Umm…okay, we both love you too…but care to explain why you're reacting as if you haven't seen us for years? We just saw each other this morning before I went to work," Ariff asked Adam as the boy pulled away from the embrace.

Adam couldn't find his voice to answer his father – he was looking at his parents up and down in rapt disbelieve.

"Maybe it's the hormones..." Aizad cracked as he climbed up the stairs. "Kak Lisha got that whenever she has her periods…" At this, Alisha gave her younger brother an ugly stare as Aizad continued, "I forgot how I was like when I came of age…maybe little brother here is finally maturing…" He paused when both his hands were clutched by Adam, who was looking at his eyes deeply with his dampened, inquiring gray eyes. "Uhh…"

"Are you for real this time?" Adam asked softly, sounding like a scared child. He was searching Aizad's eyes for any sign of him being Mephistomon in disguise, but all he could see was a pair of confused, but warm and somewhat mischievous dark brown eyes. Adam darted his eyes on Aizad's body, looking for the yellow star tattoo, but it wasn't present. Then he gazed at his brother's eyes once again. "Are you really you, Abang Zad?'

"Umm…no, I'm an alien from outer space and if you don't drop this act I'll take you to Mars and…" At this, Adam's mouth broke into a grin before he rushed towards his older sister. "Fine, no hugs for me, I can see that I'm not wanted…" he grumbled in a joking manner. The young man exchanged confused looks with his parents as they watched Adam hugging a very surprised Alisha.

"Kak Lisha, you're ok!"

"Um…why won't I be, Adam?" she asked as Adam pulled away. She placed her palm on Adam's forehead. "Are you feeling alright, Adam? Do you have fever or something? You're acting really odd and it's starting to worry all of us here."

Adam smiled happily as he looked at his assembled family members. "I'm alright," he said with a happy chuckle as he wiped a tear that was about to fall from his right eye. He felt like he was about to burst with profound joy and happiness. "I'm finally _am_ alright."

xxx

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The lunch was a really enjoyable one, and Adam noticed that his mother had made all of his favorite dishes that day. But even without his favorite meals, Adam was very content with having all his family members with him. They were sitting on the verandah floor in a circle of five around clutters of used plates, enjoying some watermelons as desserts. Adam watched as his father talked about his work with his mother, whom listened with interest, occasionally offering her opinion. Sounds of bickering could be heard and Adam saw that Aizad was teasing Alisha about a local village man who apparently was very interested to have Alisha as his wife – in which Alisha recoiled in disgust as the said man was even older than their father, whom had married three times on separate occasions…with his first wife already divorced, the second one had died while the most recent had become an invalid because of a hereditary sickness. He giggled upon seeing Alisha becoming very red in the face, which resulted in Aizad being pinched so severely over his forearm that it caused the young man to howl in pain, which caused Adam to laugh even harder.

What more could he ask for? His family was whole…once more. And Adam wouldn't want it any other way.

"**Adam…"** a disembodied voice whispered.

Adam stopped laughing and looked around, and was confused upon seeing that nobody else seemed to have heard the voice. His parents continued to talk, undisturbed, and so were his siblings. It was strange; the voice had been rather audible.

"**Adam…"** There was that voice again. Adam knew he wasn't imagining things – the voice was real.

"Did you hear something, Abang Zad?" he asked, poking his brother on his left arm – Aizad was sitting beside him.

Aizad acted as if he wasn't aware that Adam was talking to him. Adam snorted and waved his hand in front of Alisha.

"Kak Lisha, did you hear something?"

Alisha continued talking to Aizad, ignoring Adam completely. It struck Adam as strange – his brother might pretend to ignore him sometimes just to tease him, but not his sister.

"Kak Lisha? Hello?" Adam waved his hand in front of his siblings frantically. "Abang Zad?" Both of them continued talking as if they didn't even see Adam's hand flailing in front of them.

"Ibu?" he called, knowing that his mother would listen to him. To his disappointment, his mother's attention was solely fixed to his father. "Ayah…?" Adam called, but his father ignored him too. He rose slightly from his seat and tugged his father over his shoulder. He was surprised that his father didn't even budge. He tried poking his father on the back but the man didn't even turn around to reprimand Adam. Confused, Adam leaned his head in between his parents, just to get their attention. They continued talking, undisturbed. And of all things, they were talking about the weather and Adam knew that nothing was more boring than the weather. He crawled towards where his sister was seating and tugged her hair – Alisha was very sensitive of people touching her shining, well-cared hair and Adam had seen Aizad tugging at their sister's hair every now and then just to spite her. Alisha didn't respond – she was now yelling at Aizad for a rather dirty joke Aizad had just told her and the leering face Aizad was giving her – something about him imitating a perverted man mentioned in the joke.

'_Why are they ignoring me…? Why are they acting as if I'm not here?'_

As a last resort he went to his brother and did the only thing he thought that could annoy Aizad. He pinched the man's nose and pulled it frontward. Aizad hated that and Adam often used that tactic to wake him from sleep every morning – his brother was a heavy sleeper. Still, Aizad ignored him despite his nose reddening. Adam was expecting that his siblings would yell at him now, but they were still talking. This was very strange – as the youngest usually Adam would get everyone's attentions easily, but now his parents and siblings were ignoring him.

"**Adam… focus. Take a closer look and you'll see what is real, and what is imaginary."**

"Huh…?" Adam thought, feeling more and more confused. He stared at his family, feeling very sad that they were ignoring him.

"**Look with your heart, Adam, not with your eyes."**

Adam breathed in and out slowly and observed them more intently. Slowly, the whiteness that Adam saw earlier appeared, covering the beautiful surrounding of his house and garden with white mist. The clear voices of his parents and the bickering of his siblings became softer until they were only whispers. One by one, they disappeared and Adam was in the white void was again, sitting on his own in the middle of nothingness. Choking a sob as his family members vanished out of sight, Adam rose from his sitting position as the scene shifted to a familiar setting. He was now in a sterile hospital ward, and he saw Alisha – unconscious – on a bed with bandages and wires all over her. Her left leg was plastered in immobilizing cement cast. There was a pink plastic clip on her right thumb, with the clip having a wire that joined the clip with a monitor that displayed Alisha's heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen level. She was still in coma.

"Kak Lisha…" Adam said, heartbroken upon seeing his sister severely injured and unconscious, and he realized what the voice had meant.

"**You're now seeing what is true, rather than what you prefer to see, Adam,"** the calm voice said to him.

Adam saw a flash of gold emanating from his side as the hospital room vanished into nothingness and he was now in the white void again. Only this time, he wasn't alone. From the flash of gold a humanoid being in gold armor appeared. It stood no more than seven feet tall. The newcomer was wearing a billowing cape of rich blue, and his helmet, also gold, was pronged in four. His shoulder armors projected into spikes of gold, and twin swords were affixed on his back.

"**Greetings, young DigiWira,"** the figure said with its deep, noble masculine voice. **"I'm called Grademon."**

"Grademon?" Adam said, surprised. _'This is Grademon? The one who created the DigiSpheres?'_ Given his state of confusion earlier, Adam didn't feel too excited upon meeting Grademon, but still he was surprised enough to give the armored warrior in front of him now a quick appraising look.

"**The one and only,"** Grademon replied, as if knowing what Adam was thinking. Although, he could also be answering to Adam's inquiry.

Adam nodded, still subdued to be too excited or giddy, although in normal situation, he'd be circling around the warrior, poking him and asking lots of question.

Instead, he just asked, "What happened just now?"

Grademon held out a hand towards Adam. **"Come, Adam. All will be explained in due time. You have seen what you wanted to see and what is true…but right now, we'll see what you NEED to see, and what you need to conquer."**

Adam took the warrior's hand, still somewhat confused. As soon as their palms joined each other, the whiteness became dark and the scene shifted back to Adam's house by the beach…only it wasn't sunny. It was not even day – it was nighttime, and the winds were somewhat fierce and it was raining cats and dogs. Looking sideways, Adam saw that Grademon had somehow shrunk – he now stood merely at six-feet-tall and his armor had shrunk along with him.

Grademon caught his gaze, and with a nod they both vanished in orbs of gold – and reappeared by the doorway of a room shared by Adam and Aizad.

Inside, Adam saw a younger version of him, aged around ten to eleven, hovering around the desk where a younger Aizad – roughly fourteen to fifteen years old – was sitting, doing his homework. The teen had a frown locked on his face as he heaved his breath slowly while doing his homework. Aizad appeared to be frustrated, and the younger Adam didn't seem to be helping much.

Adam's heart beat wilder. _'This is…'_

"Are you done yet?" Young Adam asked in a voice as sweet as a ten year old could have mustered as he poked his head over Aizad's shoulder, trying to see what his brother was doing.

"Not yet, Adam," Aizad answered dully.

Two minutes passed. "Are you done now?"

"No, Adam…" There was a faint hint of annoyance in the teen's voice.

"Oh, ok…" Five minutes passed by and the young boy grew impatient. "How about now?"

"No!" Aizad's voice rang shrilly. He glanced towards his younger brother with an annoyed look and a pair of tired eyes. "I still have homework to be done. Just watch TV yourself."

"It's no fun," young Adam pouted, shrinking slightly upon meeting his brother's intense glare.

It was very rare that Aizad snapped at him; Adam guessed that his brother must be in a really sullen mood that day, and he knew why. It was the last day of their holiday and Aizad had procrastinated in doing his homework until the very last day. He had spent the entire morning and early afternoon looking for used ice cream sticks and sea shells for his Art project, and spent the later half of afternoon constructing the house model with them. Then the teen realized that he still had homework in practically every subject so he had been burying his nose over his books for the last four hours. And young Adam was growing impatient of not having his brother accompanying him watching the nightly serials they always watched together.

"Then wait. Just sit still for a while. If you stop bothering me I can finish this quicker and we can watch TV then."

As Aizad turned back to face the books, the young boy sat on the large queen-sized bed that the two of them shared, and looked admiringly at a house model built with ice cream sticks joined with glues. It didn't look sturdy at all, and Adam, out of curiosity, reached out a finger to trail the structure of the model.

"No, don't touch it!" present-day Adam exclaimed, wide-eyed and with a gasp. He tried to reach out for young Adam, but his hands just went through the young boy and the house model. Young Adam didn't look disturbed at all as he lifted the model from the bed. "DON'T!" The curious young boy, unaware of his older self, now had both hands on the model, and present-day Adam watched with dread, knowing exactly what was about to happen…and the dreadful consequence that would follow such an innocent, curious, act.

"Uh-oh…" Young Adam muttered, scrunching his face in disgust as he realized that the glues hadn't dried yet…and his hands were glued to the model. Looking at his brother, who still was too focused on his homework to notice, young Adam tried to pull his hand carefully and quietly, but the model wouldn't budge from his hands. Then he saw his brother turning around and he panicked. Without thinking he shook his hands frantically and suddenly…the house model was sent flying towards the wall, colliding against it before shattering into sticks and sea shells once again. He gasped loudly.

"ADAM!!!" Aizad yelled, his eyes transfixed on the pile of ice cream sticks and sea shells – some of the sticks were still joined, but the house model he had built during the better half of the day was destroyed. He glared angrily at young Adam who was frozen with fear and shock. The tenseness that had been built up from earlier that day began to rise up like a volcano that was about to erupt, and without thinking straight he swung his hand and struck Adam squarely on his right cheek. He had even forgotten to control the amount of strength exerted from the blow. A loud thud was heard and the smaller boy was sent tumbling on the bed.

Present-day Adam gasped softly, and Grademon laid a placating hand on his shoulder as both of them saw young Adam turning to face Aizad, who had a horrified expression on his face. A burning red mark was visible on where he had been struck, and the look from his eyes showed that he was shocked, sad, disbelief and hurt at the same time. The boy was blinking rapidly as he touched the place where he was struck by his brother. He was shivering.

"Adam…" Aizad said softly, looking absolutely regretful of his action.

Adam knew that that was the first time his brother had ever laid a hand on him…and it had also been his last. Adam saw the crushed look on Aizad's eyes upon seeing the fearful look that was reflected from young Adam's eyes, which usually shone with admiration whenever Aizad looked at them. Adam knew his older brother prided himself for being a good brother to him, and now, it hurt him to see that the look was no longer there as they usually would be. Quickly the teen leaned towards the cowering boy, trying to see how much damage he had done.

"Adam…little brother…I'm very sorry…"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Young Adam screamed, and pounded his fist onto Aizad's chest. Immediately the teen stopped, and it wasn't because the blow his little brother had just delivered on him. The blow didn't even hurt him, but the icy look that his brother was shooting him did. His next words caused Aizad to freeze in shock. "You're the biggest, meanest bully around here and I HATE YOU and I NEVER EVER want to see you again!" the boy exclaimed shrilly as tears flowed down his cheeks. He got up from the bed, wiped his tears, and ran off from the bedroom, going through the present-day Adam who was now pale as a ghost upon seeing the whole commotion between the two brothers.

"Grademon, why are we seeing this again?" Adam said hoarsely. He knew this memory well.

"**You need to see this, Adam. It has been haunting you for so long."**

They watched briefly as Aizad remained stiff as a log, before the teen shook his head with a sad expression. It struck the present-day Adam that he had never seen his brother this distressed. Aizad then looked at the pile of ice cream sticks and sea shells, and assessed the whole damage.

"Great…I'm running out of glue…" He glanced at the clock. "It's almost ten…better ask Ayah whether he can take me to that stationary shop."

Hearing this, Adam felt his heart nearly stopped. He shivered as Aizad walked through him, heading towards the living room. Adam and Grademon followed the teen, and saw young Adam sitting stoically on a large cushion spread in front of the cupboard where the TV was at. He was watching TV alone, ignoring Aizad completely as the older boy attempted to make eye contact with him. Then he sighed and went towards his parents who were sitting at the living room.

"Ayah, can we go to the stationary shop? I need to get some glue," Aizad requested.

Ariff glanced outside, where it was dark and raining. "Is it really necessary now? It's raining outside."

"I need to pass up the art project tomorrow, and I need glue. I ran out of the old one."

"I thought you've completed your project earlier?" Aleza asked as she put down the newspaper she was reading.

"Yeah, I did…" His eyes went towards young Adam, who was ignoring him although it was clear that the young boy was listening in. Aizad sighed and said, "But I dropped it…by accident."

His father shook his head. "You should be careful next time, and not to wait until the last minute," he reprimanded Aizad. Aizad just nodded silently and watched as his father got up from his seat. "Alright, I suppose I can drive you there. I need to get some new pens anyway." He glanced at his wife. "Za, want to come along?"

"Sure." The woman got up. "Let me put on my headscarf and we're set to go. Adam, honey…" she called towards her youngest son. "Want to come along?"

Young Adam shook his head, eyes transfixed on the television.

Aleza shook her head in amusement and headed towards a closed door. Knocking it lightly, she said… "Lisha, take care of Adam. We're stepping out for a while."

The door opened and Alisha's head poked out. "Ok, Ibu." She was studying inside her room – she was now in her second year in university.

Present-day Adam's body shook as he watched the retreating figures of his parents and brother. Memories one after another invaded his mind.

"NO! DON'T GO!!" he cried out, tears welling up to his eyes. Of course, nobody heard him except for Grademon, who placed a hand on Adam's shoulder, restraining Adam who was flailing his hands in despair, trying to stop his parents and brother from exiting the house.

"**Let them go, Adam,"**Grademon said softly. **"Let them go."**

"But…but…they'll DIE!! This is the night…the night…of the accident!"

"**Yes, Adam, I know." **

"IBU! AYAH! ABANG ZAD! Don't go, please!!" Adam cried out tearfully. His arms tore wildly towards the retreating figures of his parents and brother.

Grademon placed both his hands on the DigiWira's shaking shoulders as they watched the main door being closed. Thunders rumbled outside the house, and the rain grew more intense. The sound of the car being started was heard.

Adam shoved Grademon's hands away and rushed out of the house in a frantic attempt to stop his parents and brother from driving off. He leaped down the stairs, but they were too high for him to jump and Adam lost his balance, falling painfully on his chest on the ground. Grunting, he got up and ignored the pain, immediately ran towards the car, trying desperately to stop them from going although he knew that nobody except for Grademon could see him. But still, he had to try. The car skidded away from him, and Adam teleported in front of the car's path. The car drove through him, sending chills coursing every inch of his body, before making a right turn over the gate and drove off in the middle of the raining night.

"Don't go!!" He fell to his knees and cried; knowing only to well what was going to happen to his parents and brother. "No…no…" he sobbed, and his tears blended with the rains.

A hand touched his shoulder. **"Adam, you _have_ to let them go…"**

"No…I don't…I can't…." Adam looked up hopefully at Grademon. "Surely there's something we can do to save them! We can teleport them back here, right?" he asked.

Grademon shook his head, tearing the hope away from the DigiWira. **"No, Adam, there's nothing we can do. You have to let them go,"**he urged softly.

"This can't be happening again, Grademon…not again…"

"**It will happen, Adam. I'm so sorry, but you can't change the fates of your parents and brother."**

"They'll DIE, Grademon. They'll die…in a car accident. It's tonight…it's going to happen tonight!" Adam said hysterically as rains spattered over his head and Grademon's armor. His face was wet with rainwater and tears, and his eyes bloodshot. His dark bangs were plastered on his forehead.

"**Yes, Adam, but there's nothing we can do about it."**

Adam's sob grew more intense as Grademon's words entered his mind and his heart. "I'll never see them again, Grademon! They'll die tonight, and I'll never see them again. I'll lose them…I'll lose my parents, and my big brother." Adam's arms flailed out again, as if reaching out for the car which sound was now only barely heard in the midst of the heavy downpour and strong winds. The lights from the car soon vanished.

"**Adam, you have already lost them," **Grademon said firmly but truthfully – the truth was brutal and painful, but it was needed and it was necessary**. "They have long passed, and you know that, Adam. This is their fate. You know it as well as I do, that death is not something for us to decide nor do we have power over it. It's God's will, you know that. This is their fate…it was written long before they exist, that their lives would only stretch to this fateful day. You can't do anything about it. It's time to let the pain go, child."**

As Grademon's words sunk in, Adam let out an anguished cry against the rainy night before he collapsed onto the muddy soil. He just sobbed and sobbed, each cry was more tormented than before. He clenched both fists, and from the lights emitted by the house's lamps, Adam's fists were both bone-white, clenched so tightly in his despair and loss. Nails dug into the flesh of his palms and blood soon trickled down his palm, intermixed with the rainwater and his tears.

"I'll never see them again, Grademon. I'll lose them forever…" his voice was soft now. He sounded like a very frightened child.

"**Their deaths are unfortunate, Adam, but you must move on…"**

"It's my fault…" Adam's tone was so hollow that it shocked the noble warrior. The boy looked up at the warrior, who'd been shielding him from the rains. "If only I didn't wreck that model, if only I didn't annoy Abang Zad…they wouldn't have to step out, and everything would be perfect. It's my fault…I caused their deaths."

"**Adam…it's not wise to dwell in 'what-ifs' and 'if-only" for it will not do you good, and it's something which I believe is not encouraged, forbidden even, to think about, according to your belief. Your parents and brother's deaths is NOT your fault, and never is. As far as I know, regardless of any situation their deaths would still be this very day, only in different circumstances. I am not sure about that myself, but I do know that it is never your fault. Do not blame yourself over this…you have no power over death as everyone else."**

Grademon shifted his body slightly and raised his cape, protecting the hunched, kneeling, grieving Adam as the boy let out the pain that had been buried in his heart.

"**You haven't cried at all after receiving the news of your parents' and brother's deaths,"** Grademon said softly. **"You need this, child. Cry. Cry to your heart's content."**

With that said, Adam's head limped down and he cried. Softly, he sobbed, and Grademon stood watch silently and protectively. Every now and then his head lifted up towards the gate, and his sobs would sometimes alternate with hiccups and coughs. Twice, he nearly vomited and he actually vomited once, due to crying so hard. Yet he never stopped crying, and Grademon never wavered. It was unclear for how long they both remained like that.

Then a police car drove into the garden, followed by a red van. Two policemen got out from the police car, and a couple with a teenaged boy stepped out from the van. All of them marched towards the house, climbed the stairs and knocked the door. Adam looked up, and saw the police informing his younger self of what had happened. He saw young Adam froze with shock. He saw his uncle and aunt hugging him tight, them sobbing softly, but little Adam wasn't crying. It was as if he knew the worst had yet to come. Then Alisha stepped out, and she plopped down onto the verandah, screaming and crying in sorrow when the news of their parents and brother's death was told. Their uncle restrained Alisha while their aunt hugged Alisha tight, as the boy – Adam's cousin – held his shoulders. Young Adam just watched in frozen horror as Alisha cried and cried.

"**Adam, it's time to say goodbye," **Grademon informed gently, touching his shoulder.

Adam nodded weakly. He thought that with all the crying he had done that night, he could no longer cry. But as soon as he thought about it, tears flowed down again. His mouth quivered, knowing that with the word uttered, everything would be final.

But it had to be done. For his own sake, Adam knew he needed to do this. Taking a deep breath, Adam whispered,

"Goodbye…Ibu, Ayah, Abang Zad…"

"**Well done, Adam,"** Grademon said with a clear, gentle voice. **"Now you can move on, and heal."**

Adam nodded again. They watched in rapid succession of the following events – the time his deceased parents and brother were buried and how young Adam had remained beside their graves from morning till dusk, not budging and refusing to eat, continuously whispering for forgiveness for believing that he had been the one responsible for their deaths. He never told anyone about this, due to the overwhelming guilt he was feeling. His uncle had to come and carried him back to his house where Adam and Alisha were taken cared for.

Back at their uncle's home, Alisha had hugged him tight and cried in an attempt for her to comfort her youngest brother…now her only brother. All the while, Adam was silent, not crying…a frozen expression of grief had remained on his face. Everyone knew that he was hurting, and everyone noticed an aura of sadness that always accompany Adam wherever he went to, but he never wavered. Not once had he cried, and not once had he confided in anyone. The young boy had buried everything in his heart, and never moved on.

Then a scene was shown when Alisha had to return to the university - Alisha had promised him that she would study hard and graduate, and find a good job so that she would be able to take care of Adam on her own, despite their uncle and aunt's insistence that Adam should be under their care. Alisha had insisted that she wanted to care for her brother, no matter how difficult things would be. She kept her words after a year and a half passed.

"**You still have so much to live for, Adam. You have to be strong for your sister, and you've done well for more than two years. You need to take care of her too, as she too needs to take care of you. You two need each other, and for this, you must live. Your sister is _still alive_, Adam. She's counting on you for your support."**

They returned to the white void, and images of his DigiWira friends soon appeared one by one. JD, Liu Ying, Gayathri and Manny.

"**And…your friends need you now too. Your fellow DigiWira need you more than ever and you are the only one who can save them from the hands of evil."**

Adam nodded wordlessly again.

"**I wish you good luck, Adam…for here, we must part," **Grademon said.

"You're leaving?" Adam choked out. He looked up at the majestic warrior, his face still bearing the tear-marks along his cheeks. But he wasn't crying anymore.

"**It's not me who's leaving…it's you," **Grademon informed, and from his tone of voice it could be said that he was smiling wistfully. **"We are now in your subconscious, Adam. I am here to help you go through your painful times, and help you free your secret demons. I'm happy to have met you, Adam, and I wish you all the best."**

"But…I thought that I'm dead now. Patamon and I sacrificed myself to beat the Puaka Generals."

"**No, Adam. You're not dead. At great cost of your own power, and the power of your White DigiSphere and your Digivice, you and your partner are saved right before the brink of an actual death. It's not your time, you still have a destiny to fulfill and you are greatly needed by your friends…who are captured by the REAL Puaka Generals."**

Adam gasped. "Mephistomon and Phelesmon…they're the Puaka Generals?"

"**Yes, Adam. Mephistomon and Phelesmon are the Puaka Generals and they are creatures of the dark who have great fear of the light. They now have seized your fellow DigiWira, and whatever intention they have for your friends – they can't be good. Only _you_ can save them now, Adam."**

Adam's eyes set in fierce determination, and he nodded. "Mephistomon and Phelesmon had crossed the lines, impersonating Abang Zad like that. I'll never forgive them for what they have done!"

"**Never based your will to go on for revenge, Adam, for it will only kill you from the inside out. Do what you have to do, but never based it for vengeance. When all of these are taken care off…enjoy life, do what you must, live life to the fullest. Make as many friends as you can. Take chances every now and then, reasonable ones of course. Let your sister in, let your friends in and let Patamon in…."**Grademon's blue eyes shone. **"That much advice I can offer to you, Adam."**

Adam sighed, and nodded again, understanding that the golden knight was right. "I'll do that, Grademon," he said. He looked up at the mighty warrior tentatively, before reaching out in a motion to embrace him. Seeing it, Grademon knelt down and scooped the boy with his arm, returning the gesture warmly. The boy buried his face on the warrior's shoulder, inadvertently dampening his cape with silent tears as he whispered, "Thank you, Grademon…for your help. I…I needed it, and I really appreciate it."

"**That much I can do for my heir,"** Grademon said as Adam pulled away. He placed his large hand – easily bigger than Adam's whole head – and wiped the tear marks on the boy's cheeks before pushing the boy's dark bangs away from his eyes. It was a fatherly gesture which the warrior himself had never thought he'd be able to accomplish.

"Will I see you again, Grademon?" Adam asked.

Grademon appeared to be beaming with joy, although it was hard to discern with all his armor. **"I'll always be here for you, young warrior," **he said, and placed his palm on Adam's chest – indicating his heart. The golden knight then nodded as he slowly lowered Adam on the 'ground' of whiteness, and said, **"Time is of great essence, Adam. Remember this - let the moons lead you to the light. Also remember that I'll always be there for you…I might not appear to you in person like this, but you'll find that in time of greatest need, someone will guide you from within."**

Adam blinked. "Like a guardian angel?"

At this, Grademon chuckled. **"In a way. Now go, DigiWira. Close your eyes, and wish that you're back at the Digital World."**

"I'm really glad to have met you, Grademon. Goodbye…" Adam closed his eyes, and felt his body spinning…

"**And I you, young warrior. And it's not goodbye. Just good journey…and good luck." **

xxx

xxx

In the middle of the ruined battlefield near Zephyrus City, orbs of white light materialized in midair. The dark paddock was illuminated with blue-white orbs before a bright explosion of white light followed. As the light receded, Adam's body took form from head to toe, lying quietly and suffering a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise he was fine. Three DigiEggs appeared in swirls of light, all huddled near his weakened body.

'_I'm…back…' _He blinked, watching the dark cosmos that was spattered with twinkling stars and the soft glows of the three moons.

Adam stirred slowly, and raised his body up. He looked down at the DigiEggs, wondering what they were. Then he remembered that all Digimon who got deleted was reconfigured into DigiEggs, but why were there _three_ DigiEggs? And which one was Patamon's DigiEgg? There was a DigiEgg with pink hearts, another DigiEgg with orange polka dots and the third with beige diagonal stripes. All of them were the same in size and shape.

Something made him lift his hand, and on his palm his Digivice and White DigiSphere materialized in orbs of light. The Digivice's glass screen suddenly shattered and cracks were seen on the plastic body of the device. His DigiSphere was looking somewhat dull gray in color instead of its usual white brilliance.

Adam's heart sank. He was reminded of Grademon's words – the powers from the Digivice and DigiSphere were all used up to save him in the near brink of death.

"ADAM!!!" a voice rang out.

Surprised, Adam whipped his head back and saw an adult male running towards him. He was robed in beige, with swept back brown hair and blue eyes that were visible in the moonlight. The man was impossibly familiar – but Adam didn't expect him to be at the Digital World.

"Jackie?" he wheezed in disbelief. What was the computer teacher doing here, in the Digital World? And why was he dressed like a Jedi from those Star Wars movies?

A purple blur zipped past Jackie from the back and zoomed towards Adam. TobuCatmon fluttered around Adam with tears around his eyes.

"Oh, Adam! Thank goodness you're alright! What happened?" TobuCatmon asked rapidly.

"I…I'm not sure. Grademon told me that we were in my subconscious just now, before I was brought back here," Adam said, rubbing the back of his head as Jackie knelt beside him.

"GRADEMON?" TobuCatmon and Jackie said in disbelief.

"But that's impossible!" TobuCatmon said. "Grademon was gone without a trace after his war with SkullSatamon."

Adam shrugged, he was too tired to argue and he couldn't be bothered about it. He knew that he'd met Grademon; that was enough.

"Adam, your Digivice and DigiSphere…" TobuCatmon pointed towards the damaged devices. He inspected the devices worriedly. "Oh dear, looks like they have both been exhausted wholly to aid in your…reconfiguration? Is that the right word to say it?"

"It's not reconfiguration," Jackie said. "Remember the fundamental of teleportation? It's by dissembling the molecules in one's body, and reassembling it again at a different place. I've done some thinking, and I think the explosive power of Aldiyamon stems from the increased rapidity in the process of dissembling the molecules, and scattering them away so thoroughly that reassembling them would be impossible. I believe _that_ is the concept of Aldiyamon's combustion power." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And… now with Adam being back here, I think it's using the concept of reassembling. Aldiyamon's data was scattered due to the explosion, and greater power is needed to pull them back together. The powers used to aid the reassembling, I believe, were the ones from the Digivice and the White DigiSphere both, but they were both used wholly that they're now exhausted of their power."

"That's logical," TobuCatmon said.

"But whose DigiEggs are those, other than Patamon's?" Adam asked.

"Since you were fighting VenomDevimon, I believe these are the DigiEggs of their two selves," TobuCatmon answered.

"What? Why are _they_ reconfigured?" Adam asked, looking at the DigiEggs in disgust. It made him sick thinking that villains such as NeoDevimon and LadyDevimon had been given a chance to start anew as well. But then Grademon's words about not to live on for revenge echoed in his mind. Adam sighed.

"The Digital World works in mysterious ways," TobuCatmon answered. "Perhaps when they hatch, we can ask them…although all reconfigured Digimon usually lose their memories of past selves."

"Huh?" Adam was perplexed at this revelation. "Won't Patamon remember me then?"

TobuCatmon's ears drooped down. "Chances are, he won't. I'm sorry."

Adam was reminded of the time he had spent with Patamon. The first time they had met – how both of them fought against Deltamon, and how Centarumon was propelled to Sagittarimon. Patamon's love for soap drama serials back home caused Adam to smile wistfully, as well as his abilities to work with microwaves so well that he had taken upon himself to prepare Adam's lunch after the boy got back from school. Every night, they would cuddle against each other, sleeping the night away. His face darkened upon being reminded of how Centarumon was overwhelmed with grief and anger that he accidentally Dark Digivolved into Black Knightmon, but that was countered with his amazement of how Sagittarimon attained his Radiant Mode. Their brief stint as Aldiyamon, despite it being a corrupted evolution…Adam had never felt such power in his hands before.

He sighed desolately. "Perhaps…it's for the best," he said softly, his eyes drawn to the DigiEgg with orange polka dots. The dots were similar to the color of Patamon's fur. He was still sad upon thinking that Patamon would not remember him, but realized that up to his deletion Patamon still carried the pain of having Dark Digivolved into Black Knightmon, and later on Aldiyamon. If the reconfigured Patamon had no memories about those bleak moments, then Adam was happy for him. Their friendship could be re-forged, as his friendship with JD had been, and they would have new memories together. After setting free of his inner demons, Adam felt as if he too, had been reborn.

And technically, he was.

"What are we going to do now?" Adam asked as he examined his broken Digivice and dull DigiSphere. He tried summoning his teleportation power, but failed. "I don't have my power, and I don't have Patamon…" His eyes looked up at the dark heavens, as if asking for an answer. His eyes widened upon seeing the weird angle of the moons. "Let the moons guide you to the light…" he whispered, quoting Grademon.

"What did you just say?" TobuCatmon asked.

"Let the moons guide you to the light," Adam repeated. "Grademon told me that…"

TobuCatmon and Jackie looked at each other in confusion. They looked at the moons – they were now in a perfect alignment of 45 degrees, and all of them saw a peculiar phenomenon. All moons became pale yellow for a brief few seconds, radiating with light so bright that the sky around them was brightened like day. Then the lights diminished and the moons were restored to their original colors.

"Of course!" TobuCatmon said knowingly. "I remember now!"

Adam and Jackie exchanged confused looks. TobuCatmon looked at Adam with a hint of a smile set on his worried-panicked face.

"Adam, there's hope for you to restore the power in your White DigiSphere and possibly, repair your Digivice."

"Really…?"

"But Adam, the journey is hard and you only have one whole day, beginning now. Grademon had made this journey before, to get the power of light for the White DigiSphere, three hundred years ago. It's a miraculous coincidence that today is actually, exactly, three hundred years from that day!"

Adam was reminded of TobuCatmon's story about their DigiSpheres, and realization dawned upon him. "You mean…"

"Today is the day the Lost Mountain appears, and it only appears once every century. Adam, you must seek out Lady Ophanimon of the Lost Mountain. Only she can restore the light in your DigiSphere, as she was the one who'd given her power to it in the first place. It's…it's the only way you can regain your powers and save the others!"

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**Author's Notes:**

For sure I won't kill off the main protagonists just like that. :D

However, I'm trying out with the angst genre for this chapter…I don't know whether it works or not in favor of the story. Nevertheless, this chapter has been in my mind for a very long time – more than a year, in fact – a walk down Adam's dark memory lane. Some part of it is inspired from Digimon 02 – when MaloMyotismon used the power of illusions against the DigiDestined but with a twist. We get to see a great deal of Adam's past and his family, and the stuffs that have been tormenting him. The hints have been placed here and there throughout the earlier chapters, and are more reinforced when JD enters the picture, with him noticing Adam's brooding manner when he too was brooding.

And how was Grademon, who's made a surprise appearance here? Not really what you have expected, right?


	33. White Light, Part I

Puspamon sighed as she stirred back into consciousness. She felt her body being very weak. Her arms were chained, and a large metal clasp was fixed around her slim waist.

"You're finally awake," Samudramon's voice echoed hollowly, drawing her attention.

Puspamon saw that everyone else had awoken. All of them suffered the same fate as her – chained to walls, and looking terribly drained. Samudramon no longer retained his legs which suggested that he had lost a considerable amount of power. Xianamon's shoulders were sagged and her head was hung down. Satriamon, defiant as ever, was the only one who wasn't leaning against the wall. The red dragon-man was staring towards the stairs leading towards a metallic door, as if his glare could melt the door.

"I feel…weak," she said, looking at Samudramon.

"It's those candles," Samudramon said, gesturing towards a pedestal where four candles were burning. From the wax residues that accumulated around the candles, one-fourth of the candles were used up. "They're draining our powers."

Puspamon sighed. Her thoughts rolled back to her most recent memory. She remembered being trapped inside Mephistomon's dark dome barrier along with the other Wira Digital. A monstrous being with enormous wings came to mind. VenomDevimon – Puspamon remembered him well too.

She choked a sob as a certain dark angel crossed her mind. The angelic knight was countering VenomDevimon's attack with his own to protect the other DigiWira.

Aldiyamon.

She was reminded of an explosion of harsh white light. When the lights subsided, Aldiyamon and VenomDevimon were no more. Aldiyamon had sacrificed himself to save them, only for them to end up being captured by the real Puaka Generals.

Adam was no more. Patamon was gone too.

Not wanting to believe the cold, hard truth, Puspamon felt a tear trickling underneath the pink visor she was wearing, trailing her left cheek before hanging momentarily at her chin. Her head hung down in defeat, and the tear dropped onto the freezing floor. One tear followed another, before Puspamon – her human half – allowed herself to cry freely. Within Puspamon, Gayathri thought despairingly of her classmate.

No more Adam sitting beside her if they ever managed to escape this prison. No more Adam to complain about having too much homework, as she had often heard him complaining to Hakim. No more Adam to lead the DigiWira team. And…how was she ever going to tell Dina that Adam had died? Despite not getting any confirmation from her demure, pretty friend, Gayathri knew Dina adored Adam. She'd caught her best friend taking a glance once or twice whenever the boy happened to be around the vicinity. Belinda was more vocal in teasing her, but Gayathri had always remained silent, for Adam was her close friend too…and she knew that Adam had liked the girl too. The boy would blush so often if Dina's name was brought up. Adam however, hid his feelings better than Dina. Gayathri then realized that Adam hid A LOT of stuffs from them, and deploying a happy façade to cease them from questioning him.

She had _so_ much to ask Adam.

How were he and his family before the accident? Where had he been staying then? Had he liked any other girl before Dina? What happened to him when the then-evil JD and Manny captured him? What did he experience while being imprisoned by the ShadoWira for one whole night? Gayathri wondered how Adam had the strength to live with so many deaths in his family…she couldn't imagine her parents being gone – it would rip her to pieces. How did Adam stay strong?

She'd never going to have the chance to ask those questions…for Adam was no more.

Her head hung limp, the fairy Wira Digital then sobbed quietly, grieving for the loss of a dear friend.

Watching Puspamon crying, Samudramon knew exactly the reason. He inhaled his breath deeply, for he too was grieved.

Adam was a good friend to him. Despite his earlier misgiving due to Manny being evil, that animosity evaporated instantly when Manny had retrieved Adam's lost DigiSphere. That night after the battle with evil-Satriamon and the fake-Karatenmon, Adam had offered Manny to stay at his apartment. They weren't the closest of friends then, as Manny was new to the school and wasn't Adam's classmate. That night however, the boy was nothing but warm and friendly, making him felt like they'd known each other for long. Despite their grave situation then, they had somehow managed to discuss a lot of stuffs and both boys had found out that they had a lot of similar interests other than computers. For instance, both loved the Harry Potter storybooks and followed the movies diligently. Adam had just begun to develop interest in anime, and Manny had considerable amount of anime collections which he had then promised to share with Adam. Adam also had expressed an interest to try climbing Mount Kinabalu – Malaysia's highest peak located at the state of Sabah – the mountain which Manny had climbed once until its low peak. Manny had said then, should Adam had the opportunity to visit Sabah then Manny would be only too happy to take him for a hiking trip to conquer the mountain.

That night alone, they had become friends. But those memories were now only memories…

Samudramon's body shivered slightly and a tear trickled down his cheek.

Xianamon had been mourning her deceased friend for two hours now. For Liu Ying, Adam's death brought back memories of her late father, who also had passed away in an attempt to protect others. Her father had been a policeman, and a renowned Inspector as well – Liu Ying had heard his father's colleagues referring him as Chief Inspector Chang. Liu Ying was twelve years old when her father had passed, for shielding a distinguished member of the parliament he was assigned to protect from a stray bullet, during a major function at a famous shopping complex. There had been an armed robbery and the parliament member and her father had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And now, seeing how Aldiyamon had sacrificed himself to destroy VenomDevimon, ultimately killing himself, had reopened the wound she thought had long since healed.

Her first impression on Adam had not been good when the boy first joined the team; Liu Ying had thought that the inexperienced boy was too gullible to become a DigiWira, let alone lead the team. The boy had been late for school even, the morning before his anointment as the DigiWira leader. Then she saw how warm the boy was to her despite her initial misgivings to him, and they had become good friends. Once, the boy had confessed to her that he'd thought that _she_ would make a better leader, and that he'd felt that Liu Ying was still, the _de-facto leader_ of the team. Liu Ying then had promised the boy that she'd give nudges every now and then to help Adam improve and live up to the responsibility the carrier of the White DigiSphere had. In time, the boy had become a natural. This was proven during that time when Gayathri had fallen prey to Sorcerymon's spell, and Adam had employed both skill and wit to get close enough to her in order for him to give her the antidote. Pretending to become evil would never cross Liu Ying's mind at that time; she followed everything close to the book while Adam had some flexibility, if not a bit impulsive.

Aside from that, Liu Ying realized that there was still so much she didn't know about Adam.

And the thought of not being able to do so only aggravated her pain.

Satriamon sighed; realizing that he alone was the only one who had maintained his tough exterior, although deep inside he was the most tormented. Not too long ago, before Puspamon woke up, the Puaka Generals had come by again to check on the candles. Satriamon had spat out various threats towards them, but Mephistomon's cool, snide retort had silenced him until now.

_"Why, JD…wasn't it YOU who have tried to kill Adam so many times before, when you were evil? I thought you should be happy that we've done the job for you." _

It was a huge blow for JD. Adam had insisted before that JD had more than made up for his past deeds; when JD chose to stick with him at the Dark Ocean rather than accepting Dragomon's offer to leave him there. But truthfully, JD thought that was not enough and he was still figuring out what ways could he make up for his actions. He had seen how hurt Adam had looked during the revelation of JD being the Red ShadoWira. He had thought that it was because they were friends then.

It was true that he had felt a certain kinship with the boy, which he himself couldn't understand. If Adam had actually thought that he had been like a brother to him, JD felt honored. Not many people liked him that much – even with his own brother and sister JD didn't get along well. They had just drifted apart.

Were there really similarities between him and the real Aizad? Manny had pointed that out, but it turned out that 'Aizad' had been Mephistomon in disguise. But Phelesmon had said that Mephistomon had given a very convincing act – he even had fooled Adam completely. He'd wanted to find out more about this, but he never knew how to bring that up.

_'But it's too late,'_ JD thought despairingly. _'I'll never have the chance to do even that.' _

As the Wira Digital grieved for their friend, little did they know that their 'deceased' friend was actually pretty much alive, and was now rushing towards the Lost Mountain for their sake.

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**_WIRA DIGITAL _**

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**_Chapter 33 – White Light, Part I _**

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The cool winds of midnight rushed against his face, making it difficult for Adam to open his eyes. In fact, it was near impossible until he raised one arm just to block the winds, and peered through the spaces between his fingers to get a good look at a mountain that was covered with mists. Another hand was secured against a tight knot on his chest – he had bundled all three DigiEggs inside Jackie's beige robe and had carried all of them along with him on his journey towards Lost Mountain. Sure, the orange polka-dotted DigiEgg looked like it would've been Patamon's DigiEgg, but Adam was not sure. And neither were Jackie or TobuCatmon. He didn't want to choose the wrong egg and ended up with NeoDevimon or LadyDevimon instead of Patamon. Come to think of it…NeoDevimon's wings had been reddish-orange sort of color, so to be on the safe side Adam packed up all three and brought them along with him.

Adam was lucky that he didn't have to make the journey on his own. Time was of essence and if he set foot towards the Lost Mountain it would take him more than a day to reach the place where the mountain materialized…and the mountain only appeared for one day every one hundred years. He wouldn't be able to make it in time. Luckily, he was a DigiWira – and the _only_ DigiWira who was not captured by the Puaka Generals. Thus many Digimon were more than eager to help him get to the mountain. Jackie and TobuCatmon however had procured the aid of one of the fastest and strongest Digimon they could've found in such short notice – the leader of Zephyrus City, MachGaogamon.

MachGaogamon had learned of Adam's plight and took pity on him. Despite still healing from the sneak attack upon him two days back, he was still the swiftest option they had for such a short moment notice. Besides, the Ultimate Digimon had lived long enough to know the exact location where the fabled mountain was set to appear, so he was Adam's best bet to get there in time. MachGaogamon was confident that he would be able to take Adam to the Lost Mountain within five hours. It was the best that he could do, and nobody could top that.

And right now, he was nestled safely on MachGaogamon's left forearm as the leader of Zephyrus City flew him to the mountain. The jet propellers affixed on the Ultimate Digimon's back whirred softly, taking them at a speed of 140 miles per hour. The misty mountain became closer and closer, and MachGaogamon halted when they were less than half a mile from it.

"We're here," MachGaogamon informed as he landed on the ground. He let the boy slid down his arm, careful not to let him fall. "Do you need me to wait for you to come down?"

"It's alright," Adam said, securing the bundle of DigiEggs he was carrying. "I'll get my powers back after I meet Lady Ophanimon, and I can teleport myself back. You don't have to wait for me."

MachGaogamon looked down at the young dark-haired teen with worry. "But, what if…"

Adam's eyes narrowed edgily. "There is no what if. I _have_ to get back my powers."

MachGaogamon heard the determined tone in Adam's voice, and nodded. "Very well. We'll part here, DigiWira. I hope that you will be successful."

"Thanks for taking me here, MachGaogamon," Adam said, the sternness he had just exhibited was gone.

MachGaogamon nodded and took off towards the dark heavens. Adam sighed and took a deep breath as he began walking towards the mountain. The ground around him was barren, yet the mountain stood there, thick and lush with trees and shrubs growing all over them. Faint mists around the mountain gave it a mysterious aura. Looking up, Adam could see its peak but he couldn't see anywhere that had the possibility of being Ophanimon's dwelling place. But still, he had made it that far and all he needed to do now was to climb towards the peak.

_'I've told Manny once that I wanted to climb Mount Kinabalu…'_ Adam thought contemplatively. _'I guess the Lost Mountain is a good way to practice.'_

He increased his pace and noticed the change of texture of the grounds. The ground where he was right now was bare and dry. The soil of the steep hill of the mountain looked dark and anything but dry, although it was far from being wet or muddy. There were no signs of vegetations on the ground he was at, but there were a plethora of plants growing on the rich soil of the Lost Mountain. Even the air seemed a lot cooler at the hill, and it was already rather cold at where Adam was at. The mist that blanketed the mountain gave it an aura of mystery.

_'This is it. I'm going in.'_ Adam was about to step on the dark soil of the mountain, when a clear authoritative voice stopped him.

"Halt, stranger!"

Adam observed the place where he thought he'd heard the voice and saw the owner. It was an angel, coming from the top where the sky was darkest. The angel was female, and she was a stunning sight seen gliding in on shining golden wings with faint pink aura glowing about her. She swooped down fast, nearly reaching Adam before pulling back and brought her descent to a halt. With a couple more beats of her four wings she made the final landing right beside Adam.

Adam blinked – the female angel stood at a couple inches shy from six feet tall. There was an aura of mystery and regality that permeated from her being. Her eyes were masked with yellow visor, but the eye parts were holed, revealing a pair of intelligent blue eyes. She had golden hair that escaped the large red beret she wore on her head. Red shawl was draped around her neck. Her skin was light tan. She had on a bikini-style golden armor which covered her breasts, and a pair of belts crisscrossed her exposed abdomen. A blue tunic extended down her waist to her knees, and a pair of long toned legs escaped the sides of the tunic. Her forearms were protected with golden armor, and her boots were gold as well. She was wielding a golden scepter, and a sword was secured on its holder slung on her back. She was a magnificent sight to behold.

"Lady…Ophanimon?" Adam croaked.

The angel stared at him with curious eyes. "No. I'm d'Arcmon, Lady Ophanimon's page." She pointed her scepter onto Adam's chest. "Now identify yourself stranger, and state what business you have on this sacred mountain."

"I'm Adam Ariff, and I'm a DigiWira. I come here to seek audience with Lady Ophanimon."

"She does not wish to see anybody. You can turn around and leave."

"I can't!!" Adam cried out, which caused d'Arcmon to tilt her head in surprise. Quickly the boy composed himself and reiterated, "I can't. Not when my friends' lives are at stake and I'm their only hope. I really _need_ to see Lady Ophanimon."

The angel's eyes softened. She pulled away her scepter from Adam. "Elaborate."

So Adam explained to her his current situation. He also took care to mention that he was in the possession of the White DigiSphere, which power was granted by Lady Ophanimon three centuries ago. d'Arcmon listened to him, not interrupting at all.

"Very well," d'Arcmon decided, after Adam had finished regaling his plight. "Your cause is worthy. However I can't guarantee that Lady Ophanimon will agree to see you."

"I have to meet her – my friends' lives are at stake!" Adam said intensely. "I'll appreciate it if you take me to her. I'll figure out how to convince her to see me when we get there."

"That much I can do," d'Arcmon agreed. Her blue eyes sparkled with mirth. "You seem different from the rest who came here only to seek power and fortune."

"You'll help me?" Adam asked hopefully.

The female angel answered him by turning around, and with a wave of her scepter a path was cleared. Trees moved aside and shrubs slinked away, leaving a straight path leading up. d'Arcmon glanced towards Adam and nodded her head.

"Come. If you wish to seek the lady's audience before the mountain disappears, I suggest we get moving now."

Adam didn't need to be told twice. He immediately followed d'Arcmon, noticing that with every step he took the path behind him began to close back up. Gulping at the mysterious phenomena, he secured the bundle of DigiEggs he was carrying and increased his pace to catch up with d'Arcmon, who was walking with a very fast pace.

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"We'll stop here for a while," d'Arcmon announced as they reached a waterfall.

Adam nodded, grateful of the break. He could hear the sounds of waterfall cascading down the stones, and despite the darkness of the night Adam had no doubt that the view would be breathtaking. He lowered the bundle he was carrying and massaged his sore shoulders – the DigiEggs had turned up to be quite a weight for him as he trekked his way up the mountain. They had been walking for a couple of hours now, and according to Adam's watch it was thirty minutes to six in the morning.

"We'll continue after sunrise – that's thirty minutes from now," d'Arcmon said. "You may refresh yourself and the water is safe to drink."

"Where are you going?" Adam asked, seeing the angel stepping away.

"I'll look for some fruits for you to eat, and I trust that you might need some privacy," d'Arcmon answered bluntly. She then spread her wings and fluttered away.

Looking around, Adam noticed that he was alone. He had thirty minutes. His body felt filthy and being dead and brought back to life in the span of one day was not something he'd want to experience again. He also felt tired and weary, and the waterfall looked very tempting. He could do with some freshening-up. He shrugged off his torn jacket and the white shirt he wore underneath, and ripped off a portion of Jackie's garb. He dipped the cloth inside the river, rinsed it slightly and began wiping his body, before washing his face and hair. Despite the fact that he was alone, there was _no way_ that he would go skinny-dipping inside the river, no matter how tempting. The water was cold but not actually freezing; Adam was able to adjust to the coolness of the water after a few seconds passed. Then, satisfied that he was clean enough, he ripped another piece of cloth from Jackie's garb and dried himself off, before wearing back his shirt and jacket. Remembering d'Arcmon's words about the water being safe for drink, Adam scooped some water with his hands and gulped them generously. He felt refreshed instantly.

Faint reds were seen across the horizon and it was now dawn. Adam marveled upon the breathtaking sight, made even more so when the golden-winged angel appeared. She had taken off her beret, and Adam saw that she was holding it with one hand. She landed beside Adam and handed the beret – which contained what looked like apples.

"Meat apples. Eat these. You'll need the strength as it will take us until dusk to reach Lady Ophanimon's citadel," d'Arcmon urged.

Adam obliged, and was surprised to find that the apples actually tasted descent. He ate a couple of apples and took a drink at the waterfall. They then resumed their journey in silence.

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Adam wondered whether he should really press his luck by even _thinking_ about it…but so far, the journey had been, well…easy.

With d'Arcmon as his guide, he encountered no difficulties. The angel, while aloof, was perfectly civil to him. Adam dared not to ask her a lot of questions, but when he did, the angel had answered them with simple, as-short-as-possible sentences. When she felt that Adam was beginning to ask more questions, all she needed to do was to increase her pace and the boy was forced to clam up and catch up with her.

Morning turned to afternoon without interruption and Adam felt that they'd made quite a progress. It was rather cool there despite the blazing sunrays – Adam was briefly reminded of his holiday at the Cameron Highlands with his family when he was very young. It made him smile fondly, thinking about the memory he had with his family. His heart still stung with sadness, and Adam suspected that it would never go away. But he also felt that it was getting more and more manageable. When Kak Lisha woke up, Adam wanted to have a long talk with her. He knew that his sister would wake up one day, and until then, he'd wait and pray.

"You're awfully quiet," d'Arcmon's voice brought Adam back to reality.

"Just thinking about stuffs," Adam said. He looked at the time and saw that it was one o'clock in the afternoon. "How much further?"

"We should be there by dusk, as scheduled."

"Can we go faster?"

The female angel tossed her blond hair back in mild haughtiness. "_I_ can, but _you_ can't."

Adam's shoulder sagged and he secured the knot of the bundle to make sure that it was perfectly balanced on his back. He then wiped off the sweat on his forehead. They resumed their journey in silence once again, and Adam had to divert his attention away from constantly watching the angel, who wasn't exactly decently dressed according to his book.

They suddenly heard a soft whimper, followed by a wheezy cough. Adam looked around and could see no one, but upon walking further both he and the angel saw a short, grandmotherly figure in green robes. Her gray hair was pulled up in a bun but still some hair managed to cover her eyes. She was slumped over a thick black tree trunk, and was clutching a broom. Her mouth was stitched and she had very pale skin.

"YOU!" d'Arcmon roared. The old woman looked up with beady black eyes at the angel, and whimpered again.

Adam looked at the old woman pitifully, and was surprised to hear the hatred evident in d'Arcmon's voice. "Who's she?"

"Babamon." The angel had practically spat out the name. "I've told her to always remain at her hut – she's not fit to go to this far up the mountain. She should've just stayed by her hut."

"I was looking for herbs for my cough," Babamon defended herself, sounding very weak. "Unfortunately, child, you are right. I am old, and I'm not fit for this kind of journey. But my cough is getting worse and I couldn't stand it. The cough remedy I have concocted before had all been used up. I need to brew a new one." She sighed and looked up at d'Arcmon. "Child, would you be so kind to accompany me back home? I…I am afraid that this cough will get the better of me."

"Not today, Babamon," d'Arcmon said tersely. "I'm on a mission. I need to guide this human boy to Lady Ophanimon's citadel."

"Please, child…" Babamon pleaded. "I might not make it on my own."

"Then consider it a lesson, Babamon!" d'Arcmon said. "I seem to remember that you had thought that I, a young Champion, was not fit to advice a Mega old crone like you!"

"I was mistaken, child," Babamon said, and coughed violently. Her whole body shivered. "I was a fool. And I apologize. Now, can you…?"

"My answer is the same, Babamon. It is no, and it is final," d'Arcmon said coldly. "Adam, come. Don't pay attention to her. She is perfectly capable of making her way back to her hut without aid."

Adam looked at Babamon worriedly. The old woman was coughing again violently, and Adam gasped softly upon seeing that the Digimon was crying. She was rubbing her chest and looked as if she was having a real difficulty in breathing. In fact, she looked like she was about to pass out.

"She looks sick," Adam said, taking pity at the ancient-looking Digimon.

"Grandchild…" Babamon looked up at Adam hopefully. "Will you...help an old woman like me?"

"The boy's on a mission, Babamon. He has no time to entertain you," d'Arcmon snapped. "Come, Adam, we must be off."

"Please, grandchild…I need your help…" A tear trickled down the wizened female's face and she gasped for breath once again. "At least…if something were to happen to me, I'll have someone to help me. I don't want to be left alone…"

Babamon's words immediately stirred Adam's heart. He understood completely the fear of being left alone – he'd always have that. He knew that he had a bigger mission to fulfill, but he couldn't leave this old woman on her own when she was obviously sick. His friends' lives were at stake and he couldn't afford to lose time…but then he didn't have the heart to leave Babamon here when she was most vulnerable. If he were placed in Babamon's situation, he'd want to be saved.

"d'Arcmon, you say that we can reach Lady Ophanimon's citadel by dusk, right?" Adam asked.

"Indeed."

"But the Lost Mountain will still be here until midnight?"

"Precisely, but…surely you don't want to wait that long? You'll want to complete your mission as soon as possible."

Adam sighed. "I do. But…" he looked at Babamon, "I can't leave her on her own like this."

"She'll distract you from your mission," d'Arcmon said. "Don't jeopardize your mission only because you feel that it's your responsibility to help her. Remember, you _need_ to seek Lady Ophanimon's council, it is best that you arrive there as soon as possible."

"But I can still make it, right? She stays somewhere by the waterfall, and I can just make a run for it after making sure she's safe and sound at her home…I can do that, right? I can still arrive at the citadel before the mountain disappears."

"Only you know your own capabilities, Adam. But I will ask you this: are you willing to take such risk?"

Adam was silent. Babamon's whimpering and coughing could be heard. He looked down on the ground.

"I thought so," d'Arcmon said. "Come on, we better get moving."

Adam didn't budge. He looked up at d'Arcmon. "I have to help her," he insisted, gesturing to Babamon. "I'll take her home, and then I'll come back here. Will you be here for me?"

"I cannot guarantee you that, Adam. If you walk away now, you might not even make it here. The treks you have journeyed so far were easy because they were chosen by _me_. I know the ropes around the mountain like I know the back of my hand. Besides my magical scepter is able to clear a path or make a new one wherever I can't find the correct one, and I have made your journey considerably easier by using the shortest possible way. I will not follow you to help this old woman – my order is only to screen out those who seek Lady Ophanimon and guide those who are worthy. I have advised her against venturing the harsh jungles; that much I have done. I don't see that it's my problem to help her when she was the one who was too stubborn to listen to me."

Adam nodded. "If you can't wait for me, I understand. And I thank you for helping me out today. Can you point me to the direction of the citadel then?"

d'Arcmon sighed. "Consider what you're doing, Adam. Your mission is more important."

"It is important," Adam said. "But…I can't just leave her here. If the mountain will be here until midnight, I still have time."

Babamon's cough and gasps of breath were heard again. d'Arcmon saw that there was no changing Adam's mind.

"Fine…follow the direction of the setting sun and you'll find the citadel." She leaned against a tree trunk and watched as Adam knelt beside Babamon and helped the ancient woman up to her feet.

"Come on, grandma, I'll help you out," Adam assured Babamon, holding her hand. The old crone was only until his shoulder in height, so Adam had to lean down slightly to be able to support her. This was not easy, as he was also balancing the bundle of DigiEggs which wasn't very light.

"Your heart is good," Babamon wheezed, as Adam led her down the hill, towards the waterfall. "I'm sorry, grandchild, for being a bother."

"It's alright. I can still make it. For now let's get you back to your house, alright?" Adam cast a parting glance towards d'Arcmon, and saw that the angel was staring him with an unreadable expression. He nodded once before turning his attention towards Babamon.

d'Arcmon watched the retreating figures of Adam and Babamon with a thoughtful smile. Sighing, she then vanished in swirls of golden data particles.

xxx

xxx

_"Abang Zad…I'm tired…" five-year-old Adam whined. _

_Ten-year-old Aizad shook his head. "Just a little bit further, Adam." _

_The brothers were exploring a small forest nearby their house, following the river stream which would eventually led them to the sea. They had been on what Aizad had called a mission to find some hidden treasures inside the forest. Of course, there had been no such thing, but it was school holidays and Aizad had been bored. So he'd dragged his still very young brother along with him, and Adam had followed his older brother blindly. They had been inside the forest for about three hours now and it was already noon. _

_"I'm hungry too…" Adam muttered, and winced as he accidentally stepped inside a small hole. His foot was caught inside the hole and he sprawled onto the ground. A sharp pain exploded from his right ankle and it was so unbearable that Adam cried tearfully. _

_"Adam!" Aizad immediately crouched down and paled upon seeing the ugly bruise on Adam's ankle. "Oh no…" _

_Hearing that only caused little Adam to become more worried, and coupled with the pain – it was something every five-year-old could NOT bear. As a result he cried out even more bitterly. _

_"It hurts…-hic-…it really hurts, Abang Zad…it's broken, I know it is…' _

_"Shh…shh…don't cry…" Not knowing what else to do, Aizad immediately turned around and glanced across his shoulder. "I'll carry you back, ok?" _

_Adam nodded and struggled to get on his brother's back. He wrapped his arms around Aizad's neck and folded his legs around his brother's body, feeling slightly better although the pain was still throbbing. But it wasn't as intense as before. In fact, he could even laugh as his brother zoomed out of the forest, pretending to be a speeding jet fighter. _

xxx

xxx

The memory caused Adam to smile fondly as he was walking down the hill with Babamon. It eased his worry of his impending task, and Adam found that he was now put in a somewhat similar situation to how his brother had been placed years ago. Adam was lucky that he didn't have to carry Babamon; the old woman was rather plump and Adam doubted that he could carry someone her size. Besides, the DigiEggs were already heavy enough. He wondered then how exactly his brother had managed to carry him back to their house.

Suddenly, Adam paused as something odd crossed his mind. Somehow the forest had gotten darker and cooler. The canopies were thicker there. It was actually pretty normal, but Adam couldn't shake off a feeling he was now having. The fine hairs on his neck stood up. Something about this place was uncanny…Adam got a feeling like they were being watched. He would have brushed off this feeling as a figment of his imagination, but the last time he'd felt like this it turned out that he was indeed being followed.

"Something wrong?" Babamon asked slowly.

Adam looked around carefully. "I don't know…" His eyes widened as a sound of snapped twig was heard, followed by rustles of shrubs.

A feminine chuckle was heard and a woman suddenly stepped out from behind a thick trunk. She leaned beside the trunk and smiled at Adam.

"Hello there," she said seductively.

Adam gulped and he felt Babamon froze. Something about this woman spelled 'DANGER', but Adam couldn't take his eyes off her. She was easily one of the most beautiful women he had ever set eyes upon with a figure to-die-for. Standing tall at around six feet three, her height was accentuated even more by the high-heeled black boots she was wearing. The boots wrapped around her shapely legs like a second skin and extended until her mid-thigh. A contrasting deep red outfit was worn by the woman, boasting her perfect figure and made by leather so thin and fine that it looked like it was painted on her natural snow-white flawless complexion. Yellowish-green vines crisscrossed her cleavage, accentuating the shapes of her bosom before spiraling around both her gloved arms. On her right arm the thick vine hung limp, like a whip, while on her left arm the vine was stiff, straight and pointed – much similar to a rapier. Dark green mantel with high leaves-like collars and silver interior was clasped on her back, secured by a spherical pink jewel. Her lips were painted violet but her eyes were not visible as she was wearing a rose-shaped headdress which was placed on her head like a helmet. Blond hair escaped the back of her headdress and cascaded down her cloak.

Adam couldn't find his voice to return the woman's greeting. The woman didn't seem to mind, though. She cat-walked towards Adam slowly, seemingly eyeing Adam with intent although her eyes were not visible. Her smile grew wider, as if she liked what she was seeing.

"You're even charming up close…" she said, and placed a hand on Adam's right shoulder. The hand then was pulled softly so that it grazed his collarbone before ending right under his neck. The hand then propelled Adam's chin upward and Adam flushed slightly upon noticing that his face was dangerously close to the woman's body.

"Rosemon, let him go," Babamon said tersely.

"Be quite, hag," Rosemon replied coolly. "You two have trespassed on my turf. I have the power here and I shall do what I please."

Adam wanted to turn his head anywhere but at Rosemon, but Rosemon's hand held his head in place. Her grip was surprisingly strong for a woman with a frail figure. Yet again, Rosemon seemed to have an imposing aura around her, accentuated even more with her choice of apparel and her weapons, which in all made her appear like a dominatrix. He looked even way up and saw that the rose headdress Rosemon had on was glowing, and _blooming_. Sweet smell of roses permeated from her body and Adam found himself increasingly captivated by Rosemon's beauty.

Babamon pointed her broom towards Rosemon. "I'm warning you, fairy…"

_"Thorn Whip!" _Rosemon effortlessly flicked her right arm and whipped Babamon off her feet. The old woman rolled over the earth and was slammed into the nearest tree trunk. Rosemon smiled in satisfaction and turned her attention back towards the DigiWira.

Adam blinked slightly in confusion as Rosemon knelt in front of him – Adam was only 5 feet 4. She then slipped her left arm around Adam's back and pulled the semi-captivated boy towards her. Her right hand was tracing Adam's chest, collarbones and shoulders. It caused the DigiWira boy to flush with embarrassment.

"What…what are you doing?" Adam asked nervously. He sweated and his heart pounded faster when Rosemon undid the topmost button of his gray jacket.

"From the moment I saw you, I knew I _must_ have you," Rosemon said with a deep, throaty female voice. Adam was confused, and Rosemon smiled. "I saw you this morning…while you were by the waterfall. I could not take my eyes of you, and I blame _you_ for that…" she said with a sultry grin.

At the revelation Adam blushed as red as Rosemon's outfit. He'd thought he had been alone. _'Thank God I didn't go skinny-dipping…'_ But still, it was pretty discomforting but that soon turned to annoyance, and Adam scowled.

"Oh come now…don't scrunch your face like that," Rosemon chuckled, and leaned closer to Adam. Her voice dropped into a whisper as she said, "I didn't say that I wasn't enjoying the view then."

Adam was speechless. But then the cloudiness he was experiencing evaporated and his eyes narrowed. He suddenly didn't find Rosemon that beautiful anymore. What she had done, and what she was doing now to him…it made him sick. He placed a hand on Rosemon's arm and pushed it away.

"Hey! I'm only thirteen, you know!" he said indignantly.

Rosemon shook her head. "It does not matter to me. You're a male, and I happen to know what all males want. But I can see that you've yet to mature. I wonder…how you'll look like when you're fully grown." She smiled again, seemingly having a wicked idea. "I know; I'll keep you with me and wait until you've grown into a man. Then we'll have lots of fun."

The rose headdress bloomed even more and Rosemon glowed with pink aura. To Adam's astonishment all of Rosemon's clothes evaporated, and he blushed furiously as Rosemon merely chuckled in amusement. Her whole bare body was glowing pink and she leaned closer onto Adam's face. Her lips were puckered up slightly and she loomed close towards Adam – having the intention of kissing him. Adam closed his eyes tight and bit his teeth together, drawing his lips in while looking away.

_'She can't be serious! I'm just a kid! I'm **still** a kid! This is…this is…'_

An image of a pretty demure girl with straight dark hair, dark brown eyes and very fair complexion suddenly crossed his mind. She was smiling at him. For a brief moment, Adam was entranced.

Then he found renewed strength.

"BACK OFF!!"

Without thinking, Adam let out a guttural roar and raised his leg – kneeling Rosemon sharply over the gut. The flower woman grunted and stopped glowing. When Adam opened his eyes, he saw that Rosemon's clothes had reappeared and her headdress had returned to its original state. Her grip on Adam was released and Adam immediately retreated a few steps back, eyeing Rosemon warily. He sweated nervously. _'Uh oh…now I've made her mad. But what else was I supposed to do?' _

"Ok, look here…I'm sure one day you'll meet a guy who will love you back, but it won't be me," Adam said quickly. "Right now, I have a mission to complete after I send Babamon home. I can't be with you…and even if I can, I don't want to. I don't even like you, and I don't think I can. If you catch me, I'll do whatever I can to escape."

"All I have to do is restrain you until midnight, and then you'll have to wait for another century before you can go back to the digital plains," Rosemon pointed out.

Adam faltered. "But…you can't make me love you." It was a very weak argument, Adam knew, but it was all he had. Rosemon looked like a powerful Digimon who would have no problem in forcing Adam to bend to her will. That much she had proven earlier.

To his surprise, Rosemon nodded. A smile tugged on the woman's lip – but it was not a sly smile nor was it a seductive one. It was a neutral smile…a knowing smile.

"Of course I can't. You're in love with somebody else," she declared bluntly. She sounded disappointed too, but it was hard to tell. Her tone was as neutral as her smile.

"I…what?" Adam blinked in confusion. His cheeks colored ever so slightly upon Rosemon's declaration.

"No one breaks off the charm of my _Forbidden Temptation_ like that unless he's in love with someone else and stays true to the one he loves," Rosemon pointed out. "You might not realize it yet, or maybe that love hasn't really blossomed, but it's there. Of all people, I should know." The flower-woman sounded forlorn.

Adam thought about it and shook his head. He decided that he really didn't like this flower woman. "I don't know what you're talking about…but I really need to go. I can't waste any more time than I've had…no thanks to you." He glared at Rosemon.

Rosemon stepped aside, unfazed. "Then go. I won't stop you."

Adam blinked. "But…just now, you were…"

"I can still change my mind…"

"Ok, I'm gone!" Adam rushed towards Babamon and saw that she was relatively unharmed. Adam took her hand and guided her away from Rosemon, who merely was watching them with an unreadable expression. Adam wanted to get away from the seductive woman as far as he could – what Rosemon would have done to him hadn't he been quick enough to knee her on the gut. Adam shuddered and refused to think more about it. '_Who knows what would happen if I just gave in to her? Probably her slave…ewwwww…'_

Rosemon watched the retreating figures of Adam and Babamon before letting out a wistful smile. She waved her arm in front of her and vanished in red data particles.

xxx

xxx

The afternoon sky had begun to darken when they finally arrived back at the waterfall. Adam sighed as he allowed Babamon to pull him along towards the house. His legs were very sore with all the walking he'd done, and he was beginning to feel very weary. They went along the river and towards the cascading waters. The view was as beautiful as Adam had thought it would when he was here in the morning. The two of them went past the waterfall and climbed the hill slightly. There, nestled amongst the stones and over a small clearing in the middle of the steep ground, was a small wooden hut.

"We're here," Babamon said happily. She trotted past Adam and clutched the boy's hands. "Thank you so much for accompanying me back here, grandchild. I couldn't imagine what the journey would have been without you."

Adam shook his head, smiling wistfully. Other than their encounter with Rosemon, nothing much had happened. "It's alright. I'm happy that we're safe. Now that we're here, I better take my leave now, grandma." His knees buckled. He didn't know whether he could make a run for it in time – he was exhausted.

"Won't you come in first, grandchild?" Babamon asked. "I have something I want to give to you…as a token of my gratitude."

"It's not necessary, grandma," Adam politely said. "And I really can't stay."

"I insist, grandchild. You'll need it more than I do to aid in your quest. Come on," Babamon said, and tugged Adam's hand to follow her.

Sighing, Adam obliged. Adam supposed that Babamon would want to offer him a drink, and he could do with that. His throat felt dry. And a drink might energize him for the run he'd have to do to make up for the lost time. They arrived at the hut, which looked bare from the outside. It was an old hut too, but was kept clean. There were windows, both closed. There was nothing extraordinary with it.

"Come in with me, grandchild," Babamon said soothingly. "Don't worry too much; I'm sure you'll be able to complete your quest. You have a really good heart, and you're a good boy."

Adam cast a look at the darkening sky, noticing that the sun was now setting behind the hut. He sighed, and allowed Babamon to steer him in. The wizened woman opened the door, revealing a dark interior, and beckoned for Adam to go in. The entrance however was too short for Adam to walk in, so he had to bend his body slightly. When he glanced back in, trying to look for Babamon…his mouth hung wide open in utmost shock.

The interior of the small hut suddenly morphed into a magnificent chamber with marble floors and glittering gold pillars supporting a shining white roof in swirls of glittering stars. The chamber was so spacious that it was practically impossible for a small hut to have such big interior – the chamber was easily three times as large and five times as tall. The windows were opened and Adam saw not the forest, but a magnificent view of sunset. The door had changed as well into two ivory doors with intricate designs and golden knobs.

His eyes fell upon Babamon, who glimmered with soft green light as she transformed into a regal, green-armored angel with ten sets of golden wings. Her armor covered her whole body save for her toned abdomen. Her helmet covered the upper half of her face and had a golden star marks. Deep orange hair with blond highlights framed her face and flowed down to her ankle. Pristine white silk gown ruffled softly underneath armor she was wearing. She stood at 6-feet-5 tall, and she was smiling warmly towards the shocked Adam.

"One who sacrifices his need for others' sakes will always be greatly rewarded, Adam," she said with a gentle, echoic voice that reflected wisdom and power. "I am very proud of you."

"Lady…lady Ophanimon?" Adam whispered. She had to be Ophanimon. A grandiose name such as that could only befit a magnificent being such as the woman in front of him now.

"Indeed I am," Ophanimon confirmed.

"But…but…how?"

Ophanimon smiled. "Hadn't d'Arcmon told you that you will reach my citadel by sundown?"

"Yes…but…"

"And is it not sundown now?" Ophanimon gestured towards the window.

Adam nodded, and saw glitters of red and gold appearing behind Ophanimon. Rosemon and d'Arcmon stepped out from the glitters and both knelt in reverence before the grand angel. d'Arcmon's appearance didn't surprise him, but he was flabbergasted upon seeing Rosemon again. Granted, the flower-woman wasn't paying him any attention.

"You have tested him well," Ophanimon said to the two female Digimon. "He deserves to be here, and more."

"I…I don't understand," Adam said.

Ophanimon smiled her mysterious smile and said, "Many who come here desire only power that I can give them, but every so often they are blinded by their thirst of power that they failed to observe the basic fundamentals that make them truly deserving the power I can bestow upon them. Many forgot that kindness is a great virtue. The will to help others in great need – that is very admirable. And it was funny that while many were so focused on gaining power, the same bunch would also fall prey to temptations. That is why I would always have d'Arcmon and Rosemon – my two pages and friends – to screen out those who were unworthy, and Adam…you are the second one that has made it to the end."

"Who's the first?" Adam automatically asked, still trying to grasp in what Ophanimon had just said.

"I believe you already know the answer to that," Ophanimon answered.

When he thought about it, Adam realized that since he was the _second_ one to have made here, the first and only other could only be… "Grademon."

"Exactly."

"But…what would happen if I decided not to help Babamon…uh…you…?" Adam asked curiously.

Ophanimon smiled, but shook her head once. "You don't have to know that…nor do you need to know what would happen if you succumb to Rosemon's temptations. All that matter is that you are here. Three hundred years ago, when Grademon came to me wanting my power to power up the White DigiSphere, I've had my reservations. I was worried that the one who'd be chosen to wield my powers would use it for evil, or for personal gain. After spending the day with you, Adam…I realize that my worries were senseless."

She placed a hand on Adam's shoulder. "You embodied _everything_ that I could have ever hoped for to wield my powers. You have a good, loyal heart with capacity for kindness and love. You always place others above yourself. Your purpose in seeking me had not been because you wanted the power for your own gain, but because you needed it to save your captive friends. Despite your dire situation, there was still room for you to extend a kind act to one in need, and you were still willing to help me even with d'Arcmon's constant warnings. And you were able to resist Rosemon's sensual temptations - there was a saying that mentions '_even the strong and mightiest men fell to women'_. You have kept your guard up and your mission remained your top priority – you have no idea how many would easily abandon their quest for power just to spend a night with Rosemon…"

At this, Adam turned a shade of pink.

"We have other important things to deal with other than idle chitchat, I think," Ophanimon said. "Hold out your Digivice and DigiSphere, Adam."

Adam quickly obliged and took the devices out from their compartments on his belt.

Ophanimon's mouth was pursed slightly. Then she smiled. "They _are_ damaged badly…but it's nothing that cannot be fixed. But it will need the help of another artifact which I believe is currently in your possession. The Ivory Gem; is it with you?"

"Yes," Adam said, and produced the white diamond-like gem from the D-Terminal.

Ophanimon smiled and extended a palm towards the broken Digivice and the DigiSphere. Both devices floated from Adam's hand and were bathed with a flash of gold.

When the light receded, Adam marveled upon the sight of his glowing White DigiSphere, restored to full power, and admired his restored Digivice – which had different coloration and design. The Digivice was now more symmetrical, with a circular dark screen in the middle surrounded by gold ring with runes inscribed on it. Two identical gold-colored buttons were placed below the circular screen. The Digivice's body was silver white. The Ivory Gem however, was nowhere in sight.

"This is your upgraded Digivice – the **Juara Digivice**," Ophanimon said with a touch of pride in her voice. "The Ivory Gem's power is used for the repair work and the upgrade, but rest assured that you can still summon its power, now with the Juara Digivice."

"Whoa…" Adam said in awe as the Juara Digivice landed on his extended hands. The device felt warm in his hands. He looked up and saw Ophanimon placing her palm gently on his chest. A flash of gold erupted from the angel's hand, and when the light subsided Adam felt his body invigorated, clean and refreshed. His exhaustion was gone. The stiffness and soreness he'd felt before had evaporated. Even his dry throat was moist, as if he had just taken a cool drink.

Looking down, Adam was more amazed to see that his uniform had undergone a transformation too – they were no longer gray with white lining, but white with silver linings. He still retained his black boots and belt. His whole body was radiating with pristine white aura.

"With your light, you are now truly a bane for creatures of darkness such as Mephistomon and Phelesmon," Ophanimon said with a thoughtful expression.

"You know the Puaka Generals?" Adam asked.

Ophanimon nodded. "Three centuries ago, Mephistomon and Phelesmon had seen potential threat in whoever managed to procure the power of light from me. They may be strong, but their greatest weakness is the radiance of the light. Three centuries ago, they had awaited my mountain's appearance, ready to attack. However…" at this, Adam could see a brief smirk appearing at the ravishing female angel's serene face. "…they were no match for Grademon and the newly empowered White DigiSphere, and were driven away even further by my own power of light."

"Nice…" Adam grinned, but was almost thrown off balance when the bundle of DigiEggs he was carrying shook wildly.

The three DigiEggs flew out from the garb and orbited around Adam, basking in the light that was radiating from Adam. Then the DigiEgg with pink hearts hatched and a cute white kitten with large ears, blue eyes and tail striped with violet lines emerged. The kitten landed gracefully on its hind feet and stood with it, looking up at Adam with admiration in its eyes. The DigiEgg with beige stripes followed, and a cute beige-furred puppy with blue eyes and drooping ears emerged, landing on all fours beside the kitten. It too then looked up at Adam with sparkling eyes.

Adam would have sweatdropped if his attention was soon turned towards the remaining DigiEgg. It landed on his extended hands and cracked. To Adam's delight, Patamon emerged from it, staring at Adam with wonder. However, Adam soon remembered TobuCatmon's words about reconfigured Digimon not having their past memories, and his eyes became damp with tears. He was happy and sad at the same time – happy to have regained his Digimon partner, sad that Patamon had no memory of their past adventures and lives together. He hugged Patamon close and tried in vain to suppress his tears.

"Adam…why are you crying?"

Adam pulled back in shock after hearing Patamon's words. "You…you remember me?"

"Of course I remember you. How can I forget? You're my partner!" Patamon declared. "And you're my dear friend," he added with a smile. Adam laughed happily and the two reunited DigiWira partners embraced each other in joy, watched by Ophanimon, Rosemon, d'Arcmon and the two new hatchlings.

"Who are they?" Adam asked, looking at the new hatchlings.

"Sa-la-sa-la…" the puppy said with a smile and an innocent, somewhat sing-song voice. "Sa-la-mon!"

"Ga-to---mon," the kitten said with a childlike voice. Both of them sounded so. They looked up at Adam admiringly.

Adam stared at the two hatchlings with wonder. If they had been reconfigured along with Patamon, then that could only mean that they were once NeoDevimon and LadyDevimon, the decoy Puaka Generals. It was hard to believe that these two adorable Digimon would digivolve into menacing creatures.

"Adam, Salamon and Gatomon were once good before they fell into the Puaka Generals' trap three hundred years ago. They were known as the Saintly Siblings while in their Ultimate forms, before Mephistomon and Phelesmon captured them and corrupted them wholly, transforming them from angels to fallen angels. You have done them an invaluable favor when you deleted VenomDevimon – it was the only for them to be saved," Ophanimon explained, as if sensing Adam's doubt. "And now, they are both reborn…and I suspect they will want to follow you."

"Me? Why?" Adam asked, perplexed.

"Look at them," Ophanimon smiled, "You have cared for them the same way you cared for your own partner. They could feel that while in their DigiEggs, and I don't think they will want to part with you." She nodded towards Salamon and Gatomon. "Both of them are holy beasts Rookie Digimon for now, similar to Patamon, but in future they will recapture their latent memories and when that time comes they will also regain their heavenly forms, and become great assets for you and your team. I suspect great danger coming for you, your friends and your world…you will need all the help you can get."

"We come with you?" the kitten, Gatomon, asked Adam. The way Gatomon talked indicated Adam that the kitten was female. Her tail was flicked up, and a golden ring was there.

"We help!" Salamon declared exuberantly. It was jumping up and down excitedly – it was clearly male. Around his neck was a similar golden ring to Gatomon's, but larger and formed a collar.

"I suppose you can," Adam said, and the two Digimon squealed with delight and trotted towards Adam, latching on his feet like pets. Adam sweatdropped.

"You have fulfilled your quest, Adam," Ophanimon said. "And now, I think it's time for us to part ways. Your friends need you now." She gestured towards the twilight sky outside.

"Will I see you again, Ophanimon?" Adam asked, suddenly felt heavy-hearted to part with the great angelic Digimon. He couldn't understand it.

"I'm afraid not," Ophanimon answered with a sigh. "However, I am glad that we have at least met, for I now know what a fine young man the White DigiSphere has chosen to wield the powers I have bestowed upon it. I can rest assured that my power now lies in good hand. I could ask for nothing more for an heir to my power."

Adam nodded, feeling his eyes blurring with tears. He wiped them, and took a deep breath. "Can I ask one more question before we take our leave?"

"Of course, Adam."

"You mentioned great danger coming for us – me, my friends and our world. What did you mean by that?"

Ophanimon's warm face became slightly grim. "The Puaka Generals may be your greatest threat and your greatest enemies now, but they are not the only enemies you will have to face."

"You mean SkullSatamon?"

"That vile Digimon _is_ your ultimate threat, but he is _not_ the only ultimate threat you have to worry about."

Adam stared at Ophanimon blankly. "Uh…you lost me there."

"Adam, Adam…" Ophanimon shook her head, her smile returned. She ruffled the boy's hair affectionately before taking a few steps back. "No matter how many threats you will be facing, I have great faith in you and your friends to be able to deal with it. Things that will take place will take place, and when that time comes you and your friends will deal with it the best way you can. But there is no point in worrying yourself prematurely about things that have not yet to come. Focus on the Puaka Generals first, Adam. They alone are a threat dangerous enough; you don't need to worry about others yet. When the time comes, you will be ready for them, but the time will not be now." She smiled, and her two pages rose from their kneeling position.

"Good luck, Adam," d'Arcmon said with a smile. "I knew that you were going to make it when I first saw you."

"What she says," Rosemon said, amused to see that Adam had recoiled in fright when she spoke up. "Don't worry, Adam. It was merely a test back then." Seeing Adam's uncomfortable gaze, the flower woman sighed. "Would it make you feel better if I told you that while I did see you while you were by the waterfall this morning, I did not let my gaze go astray? I didn't see anything inappropriate…I was just teasing you."

"That's a relief," Adam said with a weak smile. His cheeks reddened again.

"Whoever that has stolen your heart is truly a lucky girl," Rosemon said bemusedly, earning a deeper blush from Adam.

"I think it's time we take our leave," he said with a scarlet face. The three women chuckled and nodded. Adam bent down and scooped Salamon and Gatomon into his arms, while Patamon held on tight from his favorite location – Adam's head. "Goodbye, everyone."

He closed his eyes, and thought, _'JD, Liu Ying, Gayathri, Manny…I'm coming for you. Just hang on.'_

With that, Adam held out his Juara Digivice and White DigiSphere. "Ready, Patamon?"

"I'm with you, Adam."

**"Digital Access Digivolution!! HAAAAA!!"**

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

The Adam-Rosemon scene is something I've come up with at the spur of the moment, just to add more spice in this chapter. Hopefully I didn't go too far with it. But I kind of liked how the scene turned up, along with the other scenes. As for the somewhat '_fanservice_' part of Rosemon's appearance…well, her _Forbidden Temptation_ works that way in Digimon Savers…so…uhh…never mind.

Adam calling Babamon 'grandma' doesn't indicate that she is actually Adam's grandmother, but rather, she looks old enough for Adam to call her grandma in a respectful way. It's very different from how Fairymon would call Shutumon 'grandma', which she did simply to spite the evil bird-woman.

The Adam-Patamon reunion scene is inspired (copied, more likely :P) from Masaru-Agumon's scene in Digimon Savers.

The Gatomon you're seeing here is the Rookie version of the Champion-level Gatomon. I saw an entry of a child-level Tailmon in '**Wikimon Encyclopedia**' and thought that I'd add her in the story. The entry mentioned about her not having a Tail Ring, but I decided to modify it as Salamon has a golden ring around its neck, and take away the gloves instead. That idea stems from Digimon Adventures, where Gatomon mentions that she uses her gloves to hide the scar inflicted upon her by Myotismon's severe lashing. And Salamon is male in this story.

More about the Juara Digivice will be revealed in subsequent chapters. The upgrade is inspired from Digimon Savers. (Digivice iC to Digivice Burst)

**Glossary:**

Juara – A Malay word which means victor / champion.


	34. White Light, Part II

The Puaka Generals leaned against the stone thrones of the main hall of the Blackmoore Bastion, blanketed by the shadows. Both marveled upon the sights of red, yellow, pink and blue energy spheres that were coalescing around them. Those spheres occasionally let out wisps of ghostly energy which the two Puaka Generals basked with glee.

"Everything's going according to the plan," Phelesmon noted, watching the wisps with a greedy look in his yellow eyes.

"Luck seems to be at our side," Mephistomon agreed.

They were currently draining the powers of the four captured Wira Digital via the candles they had set up. Those candles were representatives of the four Wira Digital themselves, and by burning them the candles would leech out the powers from the four Wira Digital. As the Wira Digital drew their powers from their Digivices and DigiSpheres, the candles had been the perfect means to completely drain the powers from them. The DigiSpheres would reject any attempt to capture their powers, but as they fueled the power for the Wira Digital, indirectly their powers were also sapped. The Digivices however were the easiest to corrupt.

"Three more hours to go," Mephistomon said gleefully.

"And the best part is, the DigiWira of Light _and_ the Saintly Siblings are both out of our way," Phelesmon said. "No need for us to worry about their power of light!"

The two generals cackled with content and satisfaction, remembering how they had fooled the DigiWira of Light, manipulating him at his weakest in order to gain the other DigiSpheres. Nobody had seen that coming. It was a perfectly executed plan.

However, no matter how perfect a plan was, if one looked close enough there was bound to be a flaw.

As for the Puaka Generals, the flaw took form of a magnificent sight of a white knight with eight wings, gliding against the midnight sky in white radiance. He swooped down upon the dome shaped bastion and flapped his wings once before making the final touchdown. Calmly the angelic knight looked up at the Blackmoore Bastion, and the light that was radiating from his body and wings enlightened his face with skin completely contrasting the sleek dark-brown hair that framed his face. His hair extended to an inch below his collarbones and was pulled into a half-ponytail. White triangular facemask with silver linings covered the upper half of his face, and wing miniatures protruded from the sides of the manteau.

This angel-like being was none other than Aldiyamon, with some differences. His earlier form was the result of a corrupted Digital Access Digivolution, fueled by fury. But now, he had achieved his true form and looked even more impressive. Standing at 7-feet tall, he was lightly armored in white leather all over his body. Steel plates contoured to perfection shielded the upper half of his torso. Over his shoulders were mounted silver metallic wings, with the wings folded vertically behind his arms. The armors that padded his arms were steel-colored, but offered the durability akin to normal clothes. Silver bracelets with digital runes inscribed on them adorned his wrists where the armors ended. The belt around his waist was dark gray with a golden eight-pointed star was affixed on the center. Knee guards with amethyst jewel protected his knees, and were in continuation with his metallic silver boots. Shining from his back were four pairs of heavenly wings of silver hue. Nested safely on his arms were Salamon and Gatomon.

"We're here," Aldiyamon said, looking down at the two Rookies he was carrying with a smile. "You two stay out here, and out of trouble, alright?"

"OK!!" the two Digimon chirped obediently, and leaped down from Aldiyamon's arms. They scampered away to a safe distance, hiding behind a large rock.

Aldiyamon nodded; satisfied to see that the Rookies would be safe where they were at. "Now to make a grand entrance."

The wings on his shoulders shone bright gold as the wings on his back glimmered with white and silver. The metal wings dismounted his shoulders as an apparition of a white firebird burst fourth from Aldiyamon. The metal wings then coated the firebird's own wings as it blazed with energized power.

"_Solaris Firebird!!"_

The firebird screeched and flew towards the bastion. It slammed against the wall of the bastion and caused a massive explosion as it burst through the wall. Aldiyamon smirked when he heard confounded gasps from inside, followed by cries of disbelief. Confidently he walked inside the opened gap and saw that the firebird of light was screeching wildly, shining the dark hall with the harsh light of day. He then smiled upon seeing the surprised visages of Mephistomon and Phelesmon. The firebird shrieked again with eyes blazing white and charged towards the flabbergasted Puaka Generals, not allowing them any chance to fight back as it slashed both generals with its sharp metallic wings.

The Puaka Generals hissed in pain before generating dark energy orbs and launched them towards the white firebird, effectively forcing it to hover away. They set their eyes upon the angelic knight, and despite having slightly different appearance, Aldiyamon was instantly recognizable.

"YOU!!" Mephistomon roared. His chest harbored a straight gash as a result of the firebird's slash. Liquid trickled down his body from the wound.

"It can't be! You're supposed to be DEAD!" Phelesmon shouted. A diagonal slash was evident on his abdomen and chest. "How did you…?"

With a wave of his hand, Aldiyamon allowed the firebird to recede as his eight wings were giving enough light to illuminate the hall. The metal wings returned to his shoulders. He suppressed a grin upon seeing the Puaka Generals practically flinching at the lights generated from his wings.

"You can't get rid of me that easily," he said coolly.

"Really?" Mephistomon sneered. He raised his arms upwards and generated a black energy sphere. _"_It doesn't matter, I suppose, because we'll just finish you off NOW!! _Death Cloud!!"_

Phelesmon thrust his red trident forward. "_Black Statue!!"_

The two attacks coalesced together and fused to become a powerful crackling black orb of darkness. With a loud snarl, the generals sent the combined attacks to drown Aldiyamon with darkness, to purge the angel from his light. They laughed upon seeing Aldiyamon being slammed by the orb wholly; basking in the darkness that once again dominated the hall of their bastion. For a moment there was silence, and no trace of Aldiyamon. It looked like the Puaka Generals had defeated Aldiyamon.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!" the Puaka Generals cackled.

"I should've known that angel-boy's merely all talk!" Mephistomon said triumphantly.

Suddenly the hall shone brighter than ever before. The shadows were washed with white radiance. A glittering silver orb of light was seen, and from it Aldiyamon emerged unscathed. His mouth was quirked in a way that suggested mild amusement.

"WHAT??!!" Mephistomon shouted. His voice quivered upon seeing Aldiyamon. The angelic knight's radiance was killing him. His body felt blistered by the light. He hissed and attempted in vain to suppress the searing pain he was experiencing. Unfortunately, the only thing he was not immune with was the sacred light that now blazed upon him. He pointed his fist towards Aldiyamon, and opened his fingers wide, releasing ribbons of black energy towards the angelic knight.

"_Deistic Guard,"_ Aldiyamon said calmly. The metallic wings on his shoulders flung wide and folded in front of his body, forming a protective shield which shone with silver aura. Then, the aura radiated and took form of an orb of silver light around Aldiyamon. The black lasers slammed upon it and were reflected away, grazing the pillars of the dark hall instead. The pillars shook; their sturdiness disrupted. The metallic wings then reverted back to their original position, with their wielder unharmed. "Any more bright ideas?" Aldiyamon asked lightly, smirking at the pun he had unintentionally put in.

"This can't be!" Phelesmon said disbelievingly. His whole body felt as if it was being burned by the light emitted by Aldiyamon. His skin was formerly dark scarlet; now it looked like he was being cooked red hot. He raised his arms to shield his eyes from being blinded. As a result his smooth arms felt like they were about to melt. Aldiyamon seemed to take notice of him, and generated the firebird aura about him once again, but never let the shining apparition attack. Despite that, the blinding light that was released from the bird and the angel were severe enough for the weaker of the Puaka Generals to handle. Phelesmon let out a scream.

Aldiyamon stared at Mephistomon silently, noticing that while the satyr was also flinching in pain he was the more resilient of the two. The angel's mouth set thin as he thought of what Mephistomon had done to him. This was the demon who had impersonated his brother for his own gain. Mephistomon had marred his good memories of his older brother. Not only that, he had used Adam to gain possession of his friends' Digivices and DigiSpheres. And now his friends were in their hands. His act was unforgivable.

'_Your miserable existence ends today, Mephistomon! For Abang Zad, for my friends…I'll finish you off if it's the last thing I'll do!'_

The angelic knight's right hand was now balled into a shaking fist. The fist exploded with bright white light as he raised it towards the ceiling.

"_Radiant Faith!!!!" _Aldiyamon shouted, and teleported towards Mephistomon before delivering a powerful punch against the satyr's belly. Everything happened so fast Mephistomon had no way to evade the punch. When Aldiyamon's fist connected with Mephistomon's body, a burst of glorious white light showered the dark beast and Mephistomon let out a pained howl. He took a few steps back, but Aldiyamon was not in the mood to spare him. Aldiyamon pulled back both hands, energizing them with more light before thrusting them forcefully against the satyr's chest, showering him with blinding light once more.

With a loud, pained howl the dark beast was plunged towards the wall, crashing his way through it into another chamber beyond it. Some of the bricks that had made up the wall fell upon Mephistomon, causing him to whimper.

Aldiyamon then turned sharply towards Phelesmon, staring at the scarlet devil with spite. The Digimon half within him – Patamon –harbored a grudge against the scarlet devil, and Adam agreed with him.

'_You helped him. You're no better than Mephistomon! You'll suffer the same fate as your fellow general.'_

"_Radiant Faith!!!" _With a thunderous growl Aldiyamon delivered a powerful kick over the devil's gutter. From his metallic boots showers of white light sparked forth and Phelesmon shrieked, agonized. Aldiyamon took flight and slammed his feet over the devil's chest, causing him to choke out dark liquid which evaporated before they could stain Aldiyamon's shining boots. Phelesmon was sent flying towards the prone, unmoving body of Mephistomon.

Grim satisfaction filled Aldiyamon's heart as he watched the quivering bodies of the Puaka Generals. He felt no mercy towards them. They were evil and they deserved to be destroyed.

"_Solaris Firebird!!"_

Aldiyamon watched as the firebird of light burned and sliced the two Puaka Generals with its sacred flames and sharp wings. Amidst their agonized cries, Aldiyamon could only feel content. He felt that he had cleaned his late brother's name.

'_No one messes with my family…'_ he thought silently. _'My late brother was the best brother I could've ever wished for; he didn't deserve you foul beings marring his good name. This is the least I could do back to repay him.'_

The hall blazed with white light as Aldiyamon turned around to look for a way out from the hall. He needed to look for the captured DigiWira. Looking back, he saw his white firebird still scorching the Puaka Generals brutally. He had no doubt that the firebird of light would do its job well against the light-phobia Puaka Generals.

His metallic wings rematerialized on his shoulders, Aldiyamon set forth looking for his friends.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 34 – White Light, Part II**_

xxx

xxx

Gayathri watched anxiously at the empty hallway from the classroom. She was hiding behind a partially closed window, and peered through it in anticipation. Her heart leaped when she saw Dina appearing at the hallway. A look of mild confusion was evident on the girl's demure face. She tossed a stray hair behind her ear and leaned against the hall, as if anticipating for someone's arrival. On her hand was a paper.

'_Any moment now…'_ She grinned to herself. From the corner of her eyes, she then saw a dark-haired boy walking towards the hallway. He too, was holding a paper in his hand. _'Adam's here.'_

Adam walked in a leisure pace, not appearing to be in rush although there was a look of anticipation on his face. He then froze and blush crept on his cheeks upon noticing Dina at the hallway.

'_Don't just stand there, Adam! Talk to her,'_ Gayathri urged silently. _'Same goes for you too, girl. Poor boy's speechless whenever he sees you! Talk!'_

"Uhh…hi…" Both Adam and Dina said at once. Then they blinked, and clammed up instantly.

"Umm…I didn't expect to actually see you here," Adam said with a bashful tone, after a couple of silent minutes passed.

Dina showed Adam the paper she was holding. She looked confused. "Uhh…why's that? I thought _you_ want to see me here?"

Adam blinked in surprise. He raised his hand, and Dina's eyes widened upon seeing it. "According to your letter, _you _asked me to be here…exactly 10 minutes after school clears out."

Gayathri sweatdropped. _'Uh-oh…this isn't going to be good…'_

"But I didn't send you any letter. Y-You're the one who sent this to me…" Dina said, flabbergasted. She was blushing furiously. Her fair cheeks were now deep pink.

"Uh…no I didn't…" Adam said. Then he looked up. "Wait…who actually gives you that letter?"

"Gaya…" A suspicious look crossed Dina's face.

"She gives me 'your' letter too," Adam said, finally seeing things a whole lot clearer. Dina nodded.

"I think I'm beginning to see where this is going."

"It's a set-up," Adam murmured, blushing even more.

'_Oh no! They've discovered the truth! I'm a goner!' _

Gayathri froze when suddenly both Adam and Dina vanished. The corridors and the hallways soon followed and Gayathri saw herself sitting beside an empty table amidst a full classroom. Her panicked face turned gloomy, and a tear trickled down her dark cheek. She choked out a sob.

'_I could have never set Adam and Dina up like that, because Adam's no more...'_

xxx

Liu Ying saw Adam sitting forlornly beside the lake at Green Meadow, watching the setting sun as he threw pebbles into the lake. He appeared to be in a desolate mood, and Liu Ying couldn't blame him. However, she hoped that what she now had in mind would be a success. Grasping a worn diary close to her chest, Liu Ying stepped towards the oblivious Adam quietly.

"Adam?" she called softly. The boy glanced at her, and she gulped upon seeing that Adam's cheeks were stained with tears. "Do you mind if I join you?"

Adam considered her request quietly before nodding. He moved slightly from the flat stone he was sitting on, giving Liu Ying room to sit. Then he turned back his attention to the calm surface of the water, watching the reflection of the sun against the reflected red horizon. Liu Ying took her place, and placed the journal she'd taken with her on her thighs. She waited for Adam to break the silence, and found out that she didn't need to wait long for it.

"When I lost my parents and Abang Zad, I felt like my heart being ripped apart to pieces. I still am…" Adam said, his tone sounded sad. He looked at Liu Ying with desolate eyes. "Out of all DigiWira, I knew you'd understand me the most. How did you cope, Liu Ying? How did you cope with your father's passing?"

Liu Ying exhaled softly and handed Adam the journal she'd taken along with her. "Read the first page, Adam."

Confused, Adam opened the cover and saw a small paragraph with neat, child-like handwriting. He read them softly.

'_Dear Papa;_

_I'm sorry for waiting so long to write to you. The truth is…I'm still coping without you being here with me. Grandpa says that I should write to you everyday, as if you're alive. At first I didn't see the point. But after one month of not having you with us, I started forgetting all the bad things about you. I'm afraid that I'll forget all the good things about you too. So I decided to follow Grandpa's advice._

_I really miss you, Papa. We all miss you. Meng cries every night because you're not there to tuck him in. Mama cries whenever she thought I or Meng aren't around. _

_Grandpa says that he'll live with us so that there's someone who could take care of us. Grandpa is strong for us, but sometimes I saw a tear coming out from his eyes when he was at the garden. He misses you too._

_Everyone misses you, Papa. I miss you teaching me difficult Math equation. I miss you eating dinner with us. I miss you watching cartoon with me, although you always fell asleep five half-way. I miss washing the car with you. I miss massaging your shoulders and your head when you came back home tired. I miss you scolding me whenever I messed up. _

_I need to go now, Papa. Mama is calling – she wants me to help her preparing dinner. I promise I'll write again soon._

_Love, Ying'_

Liu Ying saw a tear escaped Adam's eyes – he could feel the pain that was conveyed in the writing. She suddenly felt her eyes tearing up too. She wanted to comfort her friend, but it was she who ended up crying as well.

Suddenly she gasped, when Adam faded away from her sight. Her shoulders sagged when she was reminded that Adam was no longer alive.

'_I could've never comforted Adam like that, because Adam…Adam…sacrifices himself for us…'_

xxx

"Manny! Wait up!"

Manny glanced behind him and smiled upon seeing Adam struggling to catch up with him. The other boy's face was sweating profusely – his dark bangs plastered on his face and he was panting for breath. Adam slumped on the concrete path they were walking on and took a generous gulp of water from the plastic bottle he was carrying. Then he offered the water to Manny, who politely declined it as he had his own water canteen.

"Tired already?" Manny asked Adam.

Adam let out an exaggerated sigh. "You never told me that climbing Mount Kinabalu is going to be _this_ tiring!"

"We've only been walking for two hours," Manny pointed out. "And we're just climbing the lowest peak. The highest peak would require skillful rock-climbers."

"Oh…but still, how long would it take for us to reach the top of the lowest peak?"

"Probably about an hour or so; depends on our stamina…" Manny saw a group of people arriving. "There's my uncle and the group he's tour-guiding. We better get moving too if we want to reach the top by noon."

He then gasped when he saw Adam disappearing in wisps of fogs. Then he remembered – there was no way that he could've brought Adam along with him on his hiking trip.

'_Adam's gone…'_

xxx

"You never told me really – why did you target me a lot when you were the Red ShadoWira?" Adam asked JD bluntly. "Did you hate me that much then?"

JD froze, and the basketball he was balancing on his finger slipped and bounced upon the court's floor. He turned to face the younger boy, who was waiting for an answer. They were in a middle of a basketball game – with JD coaching Adam on the game. Apparently, that had triggered a memory to Adam; their last basketball lesson had been during the time when JD was still evil.

"I never hated you," JD said quickly. "That was the spell's doing."

"Well, every spell must have its trigger…" Adam's voice trailed off.

"Uhh…let's take a seat while I figure this one out, ok?"

Adam nodded. The blond teen beckoned for the bench and they both sat down. He tried figuring out an answer for Adam's question. Of course, he could've said that he chose Adam over Liu Ying because Adam was the more gullible DigiWira, but that might offend the boy. He could've said that he thought that their situations were almost the same, and then he felt like smacking himself on the head for the lack of sensitiveness. Adam's parents and brother were dead, while his were just distant. There was a whole LOT of difference there. And of course, he couldn't tell them that he was simply drawn to Adam because the boy had first reached out to him – by sending him that birthday message. That would set off a wrong kind of impression.

It didn't really make a lot of sense, JD thought. Why _did_ he target Adam a lot? When he was the Red ShadoWira, he seemed to hate this boy for no good reason. Whatever did Adam do to him anyway – the boy had been nothing but nice, if not just civil, to him. Liu Ying had loathed him back then – it would be more logical if he attacked the DigiWira girl instead.

Wait…didn't Manny target Gayathri because he liked her?

Ha, ha, ha…very nice, Josh. That wasn't it. That certainly was not it. That much he was sure about. Something did draw him to Adam, but nothing like that kind of thing.

He did feel a kinship with the boy. He had seen Adam brooding about. He had learned about Adam's past from Hakim. Somewhere along the line, JD felt like he could relate to the boy. And at one point, he did feel pity for Adam. He himself wasn't close with his older brother and older sister. He'd thought…if he were to have a younger brother or sister, he wouldn't treat them the same way Jade and Jas were treating him now. Granted, they weren't bad siblings…but they weren't any good either.

Judging by how Adam was devastated with the loss of his brother and parents, JD figured that Adam had been very close with his brother. Since Adam was living with his sister, he assumed that they were close as well for his sister to be willing to become his guardian.

That was the kind of closeness JD longed to have with his siblings.

He felt a little bit jealous there. Jealous. Pity. Kinship.

Weird combinations. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Manny's adoration for Gayathri turned to exploitation.

JD's pity and mild jealousy turned to extreme hatred. That hatred led to him manipulating Adam's longing for a brother figure to his advantage. And it had worked.

That blasted Karatenmon's abhorrence spell.

And…there was something else. There was something else he had thought when he first befriended Adam, spell or no spell. That feeling became more prominent when they were in the Dark Ocean. It was as if they had been friends for a long time, and JD knew that it couldn't be true. He had no friends that lasted that long, and he'd known Adam for less than a month. Yet he felt like he had known the boy for much longer than that. And something made him felt a little…protective…when he was around Adam.

It was really odd.

JD's eyes widened suddenly when Adam began to flicker out of existence right before him. Adam's body faded into nothingness.

Then he remembered. Adam was already dead. He'd never have the chance to really explain himself.

'_I wish I have a real answer to your question, Adam. But even if I do, you're not around to hear about it any longer…'_

xxx

xxx

Aldiyamon felt a sense of eeriness when he found a large, locked metal door at the bastion's underground basement. It was just too bad that his real mode did not possess the terrifying combustion power that his darkened mode possessed, as that ability could be handy in times like this. Still, Aldiyamon supposed that he shouldn't complain – it was the radiance that came with his real mode that had enabled him an easy victory against those treacherous Puaka Generals.

"It's locked," Aldiyamon said, after trying the large metallic knob. He took a couple of steps back. "Let's see if I can't fix that…"

"_Radiant Faith!!" _The white angel punched the door – only to make another huge dent. "Oww…" The angelic knight grimaced in disdain as he shook the hand he'd used to punch the door. _'I can drive away the Puaka Generals but can't open a simple door? Hmm…let's try another attack…'_

"_Solaris Firebird!!"_

A focused amount of energy was slammed against the door and a loud creak was heard before the door shook wild. Then it was flung inside and crashed over the wall across the entrance. _'Wait a minute…shouldn't I just TELEPORT inside?' _He grimaced again. _'No good…I don't know how it looks inside. I need to see where I'm going before teleporting…oh never mind…'_

Aldiyamon walked down the stone stairs and was met with a very dark chamber. Four almost used-up candles were flickering at a pedestal at the center of the spherical chamber – they'd be gone in a couple of minutes or so judging from the accumulated waxes. Then he saw the Digivices and the DigiSpheres – and as he went lower into the dungeon the lights radiating from his wings washed upon four sickly figures, and Aldiyamon gasped.

Satriamon, Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon were all chained to the walls, and they were all unconscious. What made Aldiyamon even more shocked was the total lack of color on them. They were all in shades of gray; the only thing that had the remotest resemblance of color was the rusty metal chains that were used on them, and the sickly green hue emitted from the chains. Aldiyamon quickly rushed to the nearest figure – Satriamon.

"Satriamon…" He knelt in front of the dragon knight and shook his shoulders.

Satriamon looked up slowly and Aldiyamon saw his eyes focusing on him with so much effort. "Who…are…you?" he croaked.

Aldiyamon was taken aback – Satriamon didn't recognize him? "I…"

"Candles…" Satriamon groaned, interrupting Aldiyamon instantly. He sounded very weak. In fact he appeared to be muttering that to himself more than to Aldiyamon. "Stop…from…burning…all…out." His head hung limp once again; Satriamon was unconscious.

"Stop the candles from burning all out?" Aldiyamon repeated to himself. He rose from the floor and strode towards the candles. There he saw the four candles even clearer, and felt something ominous radiating from them. The Digivices were placed in front of the candles, and to Aldiyamon's horror all four Digivices were cracked – like his had been before its upgrade into the Juara Digivice. The DigiSpheres were all gray instead of red, yellow, pink and blue.

'_Oh no…what should I do?' _

Not knowing what to do, Aldiyamon trusted his instincts and took out his Juara Digivice. _'Ophanimon used her power of light and the Ivory Gem to restore my Digivice…maybe I can use my power of light and my Juara Digivice to do the same. God I hope this works….' _

His Juara Digivice glowed with the power of the White DigiSphere, which had been stored inside of it instead of the D-terminal. He raised the Juara Digivice up and the device poured out four beams of light towards the candles, instantly restoring them to an unused condition before they burst into data particles and swirled around the four Wira Digital. The candles' data were absorbed by the Wira Digital's bodies and their colors were restored.

'_It's working! Thank God.'_

Beams of white light were emitted towards the four Digivices and DigiSpheres and they floated in midair. The DigiSpheres' colors returned and the four broken Digivices transformed into newer Digivices which were colored deep red, dark yellow, pink and dark blue. All of them had golden accents similar to Aldiyamon's Juara Digivices. Aldiyamon realized that his friends' Digivices also had been upgraded into Juara Digivices.

The Digivices then absorbed the DigiSpheres and flew towards their owners, jolting them back into consciousness. Disconcerted murmurs were heard from the restrained Wira Digital, but they soon realized their current predicament. All of them tugged on the chains with low guttural growls coming out from them.

"RAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!" Satriamon roared and flames burst forth from his body. With one powerful yank, the chains that were restraining him burst into data particles.

Xianamon grunted and her whole body glimmered with bright yellow aura. _"Diamond World Mandala!!" _she yelled, and waves of indigo and yellow burst out from her body, destroying the chains without much effort.

"_Jelita Shocker!!"_ Puspamon surrounded herself with tulip flowers that generated from the flower she wore on her chest, and zapped the chains with hot magenta laser beams. The chains were immediately broken and combusted into data particles.

And finally, Samudramon shouted thunderously and summoned thunderbolts to destroy the chains that were holding him to the wall. He then transformed his fish caudal tail back into legs and stood up with a regal pose, his shining trident grasped in his hand.

Aldiyamon stared with awe and admiration at his friends' display of prowess. Then, one by one he felt their gazes fixated upon him. His heart sank; they looked like they didn't know him. Mild resentment arose within his heart, but that instantly evaporated when he realized that they must have thought that he was still dead. They wouldn't have any idea that he was alive and well.

Before he could explain everything, the whole dungeon shook wildly. The ceilings and the walls cracked and large stones that once constituted the ceilings began to rain upon them. His heart skipped a beat when he heard an ungodly laughter echoing the surrounding. He immediately suspected the worse.

"Hang on!" Aldiyamon said, and surrounded all five of them together with swirls of white and gold.

xxx

xxx

"YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT US, HUH?!!!" roared a fearsome dark centaur as he trampled the Blackmoore Bastion with his legs. The castle shook but was not destroyed…yet.

The demonic beast was massive; his height was nearly twice the Blackmoore Bastion, and he had a permanent screaming voice which sounded dual-like, deep, echoic and downright menacing. His upper half body was similar to a man, with a white ram head and horns. His arms were long and ended with arrow-like fingers. His lower quadrupled body was covered with thick purple fur and black ram horns grew at the sides of waist. At his crotch, barely covered by the purple furs, was a large red-lipped mouth. On his horseback was a pair of great dirty brown wings. His pale legs ended with dark purple talons.

"I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!!" the beast screamed again as he kicked the bastion, causing it to shake horribly. "YOUR EFFORT IS FUTILE! I'LL DESTROY THE BLACKMOORE BASTION AND KILL YOU ALONG WITH YOUR FRIENDS, HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!"

The demon beast flapped his great wings and took to the dark skies. "**_BLACK REQUIEM!!_" **The beast then generated a massive crackling orb of dark purple energy from the mouth on his crotch and blasted it towards the stronghold. The dark castle exploded and the four spires tumbled onto the ground with a sickening crash. That earned a maniacal giggle from the beast.

"**_BLACK REQUIEM!!_" **he shouted again, and blasted another purple orb onto the domed structure.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH!! THERE'S NO WAY THAT MEDDLESOME ANGEL CAN ESCAPE NOW!!" he laughed again, seeing the mass of ruins of the formerly forbidding bastion of darkness. "WITH THIS MIGHTY BODY, I WILL BE THE SUPREME RULER OF THE DIGITAL WORLD!!"

Suddenly, a sphere of white glittering orb burst forth from the ruins of the Blackmoore Bastion. It rose towards the sky at the beast's eye level before the lights faded. Inside the orb stood Aldiyamon at the center, with Satriamon, Xianamon, Puspamon and Samudramon surrounding him. Satriamon immediately engulfed himself with flames to stay afloat, while Samudramon generated a pillar of water to remain at the same level as his flying comrades. Xianamon used her telekinetic to stay airborne, while Puspamon and Aldiyamon both flapped their wings.

"THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!! HOW CAN YOU ALL BE _ALIVE_?!"

"So that we could send you to whatever that's considered hell around here!" Satriamon spat and zoomed towards the beast.

"FOOL!! INSOLENT INSECTS! YOU THINK YOU MEASLY BEINGS CAN STOP ME!" the beast roared. "I AM **GULFMON! **I AM A MEGA DIGIMON ACHIEVED FROM THE DNA-DIGIVOLUTION OF THE TWO PUAKA GENERALS, AIDED WITH THOSE PRECIOUS POWERS OF YOUR DIGISPHERES AND DIGIVICES! EVEN THOUGH YOU'VE REGAINED YOUR POWER SOMEHOW, IT'S TOO LATE! HAHAHAHAHAH! **TOO LATE!!** THE PUAKA GENERALS HAVE ASCENDED TO PERFECTION IN THIS GREAT ONE BODY!" He cackled maniacally once again. "NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW! **NOTHING!!!"**

Gulfmon saw Satriamon incoming and released a wave of powerful scream from his normal mouth. Satriamon was pushed back by the strong gust of wind and was sent tumbling heads-over-heels. He however was balanced telekinetically by Xianamon.

"We need strategy to beat him," Xianamon admonished. "Charging without a plan will get you killed."

"NO STRATEGY WILL BE ABLE TO HELP YOU, FOR I AM INVINCIBLE!!" Gulfmon boomed. **_"DEAD SCREAM!!"_**

"_Solaris Firebird!!" _

Aldiyamon sent out his white firebird to counter the gales of screams that were hurled towards Satriamon and Xianamon. It managed to hold back against the attack momentarily, enough for the two Wira Digital to get away before the firebird was overpowered by the scream. The shockwave was blasted onto all five Wira Digital and made them lost their balance. Aldiyamon flapped his wings and was the first who regained his composure. Xianamon and Puspamon were next, thanks to their powers, before finally the non-flight capable Satriamon and Samudramon were kept afloat by Xianamon's telekinesis and Puspamon's wind power.

Aldiyamon flew close to Satriamon and Samudramon. "You two…I'll get you near Gulfmon enough for you to injure him physically."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Satriamon snapped – he hadn't realized that the white angel was actually Adam, for he would never snap at Adam that way.

Aldiyamon winced at the harsh tone of Satriamon. He wondered why the dragon man seemed to be so harsh at him, because the last time Adam checked; he and JD were in good terms, after their misadventures at the Dark Ocean. He had no idea that none of the Wira Digital knew who he was – that thought didn't cross his mind at all. In fact, he thought that he looked pretty much the same that he didn't think of introducing himself anymore.

The saintly knight didn't even realize that at the moment, all his friends were grieving at his apparent loss. And thus, Aldiyamon wondered what exactly he had done to earn Satriamon's foul mood towards him.

Truthfully, Satriamon was beginning to dislike the stranger for he reminded him greatly of the friend they had lost. The white angel was like Adam and Patamon's merged form – the dark angel Aldiyamon. And not to mention that this white angel also possessed the power of teleportation. It was too much for Satriamon…for JD, to bear. But he realized that the white angel had a point. "Fine, we'll do it your way!" he barked, not looking at the white knightly angel one bit.

Aldiyamon sighed and turned to the merman Wira Digital. "Samudramon?"

"I'll do it." Samudramon peered towards the mysterious white angel closer. There were similarities to this white angel and the dark angel Aldiyamon…but they were so minimal. This angel was radiating with power and benevolence, with feathery wings and no sword. The dark angel Aldiyamon was malevolent and cruel, but had come to his senses towards the end and had sacrificed himself to protect all of them. Samudramon didn't know what to think. For a brief moment, he thought that, perhaps…against all odds, that Adam and Patamon were still alive. That thought was immediately quenched when he was painfully reminded of Aldiyamon's sacrifice. Both Aldiyamon and VenomDevimon were gone. He had heard them exploded, and both of them were nowhere in sight thereafter. Immediately Samudramon's mouth set thin and he determinedly stared off at Gulfmon with his trident grasped tight.

Aldiyamon looked up towards the floating female Wira Digital. "Xianamon, Puspamon, follow me. We're attacking Gulfmon together!" With the order issued Aldiyamon waved his arms towards Samudramon and Satriamon, surrounding them with swirls of brilliant whites and gold. A blink of the eye later they materialized right in front of Gulfmon.

"_Dragonforce Striker!!" _Satriamon slashed his gauntlet with the projection of a fiery dragon clawing onto Gulfmon's left front leg. A sickening sound of something being ripped apart was heard. A wound was form, and dark liquid spattered out from it.

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!" _Samudramon spun his raging thunder-blades upon Gulfmon's right front leg. Digital blood flowed out from the laceration after a loud crack.

Gulfmon stumbled right after Aldiyamon teleported both Satriamon and Samudramon towards a safe distance over the sky. Cursing, he realized that he could not stand up any longer – Satriamon and Samudramon not only had injured him, but they had taken one step further.

They had _broken_ the bones of his legs.

Puspamon flew forward and surrounded Gulfmon's upper body, generating multiple tulips that showered upon dark beast.

"_Jelita Shocker!!" _Dozens of hot magenta lasers fired through Gulfmon's body in multiple directions. It was only because Gulfmon was a Mega Digimon that he was not severely affected by it. But the attack did injure him.

"_Diamond World Mandala!!" _Xianamon generated a circular rune beneath Gulfmon which let out waves of sapphire and gold, followed by thousands of glittering diamonds that tore through Gulfmon's whole body at about the same time Puspamon's Jelita Shocker was taking effect.

"_Radiant Faith!!"_ Aldiyamon plummeted from the sky and delivered a punch in the air, letting out a burst of white light which slammed upon Gulfmon's chest. That elicited a pained shriek from Gulfmon and seemed to generate the most profound response from the demonic centaur.

"AHHHHHH!! THE LIGHT!!! IT BUUUUURRRNNNNSSS!!!"

Seeing Aldiyamon's strategy working, the other Wira Digital had no qualms in following his lead. However deep in their hearts, they were still pained because this mysterious white angel reminded them so greatly of the friends they had lost recently. They channeled their pains into one common goal: to destroy Gulfmon once and for all in order to avenge their friends' death. With that set in mind they roared and channeled as much energy as they could for their next attacks.

And Aldiyamon had no idea that his friends were paining so greatly.

"_Shadow Flame Helix!!"_

"_Deep Ocean Submerge!!"_

"_Hibiscus Hurricane!!_

"_Gaia Retaliation!!"_

Orange dragon and black serpent coiled around Gulfmon's body, burning him severely. Then waves of high pressurized water blast struck Gulfmon from underneath, plunging him onto his back. Xianamon lifted the ruins of the Blackmoore Bastion and merged them with Puspamon's hurricane, and together they slammed their attacks upon Gulfmon. The demonic centaur screamed as he was lambasted with one attack after another…but the four grieved Wira Digital were not finished yet. They charged up their powers and sent out the third wave.

"_Flaming Torch!!" _Satriamon turned himself into a meteor-like being and propelled himself onto Gulfmon's injured torso. He managed to tear through Gulfmon's right shoulder and down all over his bestial back, leaving a trail of flames that burned upon the Mega Digimon.

"_Cosmic Thunderstrike!!" _Samudramon summoned thunderbolts from the high heavens and electrocuted the fallen centaur's body all over, ignoring the demon's shrieks.

"_Jade Needles!!" _Xianamon showered the fallen centaur with poisonous needles to weaken him.

"_Sprite Scream!!" _Puspamon fluttered close to Gulfmon's ears and screamed her lungs out, causing Gulfmon to lose his orientation for a brief moment. Gulfmon fell on his sides, unable to move.

The dragon-knight, the merman, the sorceress and the fairy Wira Digital then retreated several meters away, and their bodies burst with red, blue, yellow and pink aura. With a loud determined yell they charged again towards Gulfmon. Seeing them coming, Gulfmon raised his humanoid body up and spewed forth torrents of dark energy spheres towards them, but the Wira Digital evaded them. They loomed over the dark beast and delivered their attacks simultaneously.

"_Dragonforce Striker!!" _Satriamon's gauntlet released a mighty orange dragon of flames which shot towards Gulfmon with a deafening roar and claws ready to strike.

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!" _From Samudramon's spinning trident, a dragon made out of electric-blue lightning bolt was released, joining Satriamon's flaming dragon.

"_Diamond World Mandala!!" _The waves of indigo and golden released from Xianamon's fly whisk transformed into glowing apparitions of foxes which sailed along the dragons.

"_Jelita Shocker!!" _And finally the tulips from Puspamon merged to form an image of a glittering sprite which flew alongside the foxes and the dragons.

The apparitions coalesced into one before forming a mighty beam of bronze light which slammed squarely onto Gulfmon's torso. A loud explosion ensued and the bestial demon was sent sailing in midair before crashing onto the paddock. A deep, massive crater was formed and Gulfmon lay sprawled within it. Smokes erupted from his severely battered body. The Mega Digimon was weakened a great deal from the combination of the four Wira Digital's attacks.

Aldiyamon stared in shock at his friends – finally realizing what were fueling his friends into a crazed frenzy of attack. He had NEVER seen them attacking an enemy like this. He saw that his four friends were growing tired, but it didn't look like they were finished still.

'_They are still grieved …could it be that they haven't realized that I'm alive?'_ Aldiyamon approached the other Wira Digital, but before he could talk the four Wira Digital charged once more towards Gulfmon.

"_Dark Rage!!"_ Satriamon sent out dark energy from his free hand to sap the power from Gulfmon.

"_Divine Rain!!" _Whatever energy that remained in Gulfmon was then absorbed by Samudramon's rain.

"_Magical Stasis!!" _Xianamon froze Gulfmon in place, but noticed that Gulfmon was still able to move, albeit somewhat lagged.

"_Dream Rose Mirage!!" _Drawing Gulfmon's attention, Puspamon entranced him with a deadly mirage of roses and thorns.

Gulfmon screamed as he felt his power being drained, half of his body frozen and now he was seeing a black rose with thorny vines swirling around him. He shrieked and trashed about within the crater, but didn't do much damage as Xianamon had partially immobilized him in place.

"Come on, guys! Let's give him another!!" Satriamon shouted, but then his knees buckled. He was followed immediately by Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon. Usually they would not have been weakened like this – but they had given their all in each attack, which sapped their own powers in order to ensure that each of their attempts would inflict serious and grave injuries upon the Mega Digimon. "GAAHHH!! NOT YET!! We still…"

"Everyone…" Aldiyamon flew down towards them. "It's ok. I'll…"

"What the HELL did you mean by ok? It's NOT ok!" Satriamon snarled, and everyone saw how the white angel flinched. "Our friend's dead because of that f_XX_king beast! DON'T YOU TELL US IT'S OK!! BECAUSE IT'S SURE AS HELL NOT!!" Satriamon's knees buckled and he collapsed onto the ground, drained. He snarled angrily and thumped his fist onto the ground. The other Wira Digital all collapsed on the ground, looking weak and dejected.

Aldiyamon sighed, and was about to explain when Gulfmon roared loudly. The demonic centaur had risen from the crater and he looked absolutely enraged. Aldiyamon spun quickly from the other Wira Digital and took flight.

"You've caused enough grief already, Gulfmon," he said solemnly, hovering in front of Gulfmon. Aldiyamon twisted his right palm upwards, and a sword materialized on his hand. It was a glittering violet blade affixed on a silver hilt and holder. A golden eight-pointed star was embedded on the hilt, giving rise to a silver arrow-shaped projection that lined the middle of the blade. The arrowhead became the sword's pointed tip and the blunt side of it continued downwards with the purple blade. The sword radiated with white aura and spiraled with golden energy.

"**I** personally have a score to settle with you," Aldiyamon said, and made one vertical slash in front of him. **_"Heavenstar Gladius!!"_**

A dimensional rip was formed from the midair slash, and a golden pillar of energy which extended to the high heavens burst forth. Its width expanded three times its original size. The pillar then exploded and showered Gulfmon with golden and white waves of pure light. Gulfmon shrieked with agonized pain and was pushed all the way towards the rubbles of his ruined bastion.

"Wow…" Samudramon said in amazement.

"He's still alive!" Puspamon gasped, seeing that Gulfmon was still undeleted.

"Gulfmon is far stronger than any Digimon that we have faced before," Xianamon said. Her eyes darted towards the still unidentified white knightly angel. "But…so is that Digimon…" She couldn't shake off a sense of familiarity which was radiating from the angel. Something about his aura was proverbial. _'It can't be him…can it?'_

Satriamon stared at the heavenly Digimon. _'Who is he…?'_

Aldiyamon stared at Gulfmon with amazement. The Mega Digimon had been at the receiving end of the five Wira Digital's attacks but still he was standing. For Aldiyamon, the Heavenstar Gladius was his strongest technique and still Gulfmon was not deleted. He was aware that as an Ultimate Digimon, he was still outmatched compared to Gulfmon. His friends were drained off their powers it was a wonder how they still retained their fused forms, but they couldn't help him any more.

Aldiyamon took a deep breath as inspiration struck him from out of nowhere. He was no longer thinking…he was willing the power to do the job for him. He only hoped that he would be able to finish off Gulfmon. _'Give me strength…let me beat Gulfmon once and for all…'_

Aldiyamon's eight wings blazed with golden aura. He pointed his sword forward, and his left palm was held erect. The metallic wings on his shoulders spread out the same way as his feathery wings. From beneath his visor, his eyes flashed gold. His body radiated with white light which took form of a blazing firebird.

'_Solaris Firebird…Deistic Guard…Radiant Faith…Heavenstar Gladius…'_

"_**FINAL PURIFICATION!!" **_

First his left palm let out a beam of bluish-white light. Then the sword shot out spiraling waves of silver and white. The metallic wings followed, letting out golden energy waves before finally Aldiyamon's whole body burst forth with pure white energy waves. His heavenly wings let out a shower of feathers that spiraled around the energy waves Aldiyamon was letting out. All the energy waves slammed onto Gulfmon which such ferocity and power that sent the demonic beast crashing onto the ground.

Gulfmon shrieked a deafening, thunderous cry as the blast of pure light burned through his very being, burning him like the harshest light of day. He felt data separating from his body. Something inside him was going to explode…

"AAAAIIIIIEIEEEEEEEGGGHHHH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

The strong white light nearly blinded the other Wira Digital. They had to cover their eyes completely as they heard the sound of combusted data. Gulfmon's scream died out and the light began to recede…but it was still so bright. The four Wira Digital found that they had devolved into their composite selves while being bathed with the white light.

For JD, he was reminded of his experience at the Dark Ocean. He had seen a shining phantom appearing behind Adam and Sagittarimon, and it had let out the _same_ kind of attack which successfully repelled Dragomon away, right before he lost his consciousness and ended up back at the Digital World without much explanation.

'_It's him…that's the attack I saw being used against Dragomon at the Dark Ocean. Who is he...?' _

They began to lower their arms after feeling that the light was no longer harsh for the eyes. Still, they couldn't see much; the light was no longer blinding them as it was receding. It was like watching a setting sun.

Then, two silhouettes appeared. Amidst the brilliant whiteness their profiles could not be discerned. Their profiles became clearer in gradual pace as they approached the DigiWira.

One of them was clearly human and the other looked like a small flying creature. The light then dimmed as the silhouettes became clearer; the two figures seemed to have absorbed all the light to give themselves a soft white glow, which illuminated their features. The four DigiWira saw a familiar boy in a white DigiWira uniform with black boots and belt. Dark hair fluttered softly against the boy's fair face and gray eyes sparkled with merriness upon meeting their astonished black, brown, russet and hazel irises. They looked at the boy's warm, smiling face and froze upon hearing his voice.

"Hi everyone…I... tried to explain but…"

A shriek was heard and Gayathri was the first who had launched herself towards the boy, sobbing and cheering at the same time. Then she realized what she was doing and backed off, but grabbed the boy's hands and pressing them firmly, as if trying to determine whether the boy was real or not. She was crying uncontrollably, but it was clear that she was very happy.

"Adam…oh, Adam…it's really YOU!"

Liu Ying and Manny immediately joined Gayathri and each flung an arm around Adam's shoulders. They both tried to restrain their tears but failed miserably – but this time it was the tears of happiness. All four of them were laughing and sans Adam, were also letting out tears of joy as they bombarded Adam with many questions. Patamon received similar treatments from the other four elated Rookie Digimon, who was passing him around like he was a new toy.

"How is this possible?" Manny grasped Adam's shoulders firmly, as if making sure that Adam was solid, not a ghost. His eyes were damp but he was smiling widely. "We saw you disappearing with VenomDevimon…oops, sorry!" Upon seeing Adam's slight wince he instantly let go, realizing that he had pressed Adam's shoulder a little bit too hard in his elatedness. Adam smiled back forgivingly.

"We thought you're dead!" Liu Ying said, before Adam could answer Manny's question. She smiled warmly at the boy as she held his hands together, and shook her head, sending small teardrops over the ground and the hands. "You have no idea how good it is to see you now!"

"I miss you guys too," Adam said, beaming.

"Did you two get reconfigured?" Labramon asked, and shook her head as she released Patamon. "But it's too quick…and Adam is a human. I…I really do not understand…" The Rookie Labrador was trying so hard to process all the information in her logical mind.

"Who cares?" Floramon laughed happily, taking Patamon from Labramon. Her blue eyes shone with tears, mirroring her human partner's reaction. "They're here! That's all that matters." She passed the Rookie mammal to Penguinmon, amidst Patamon's gleeful protest.

"Hey, hey….watch it, I was just reborn…" he squealed as Penguinmon grabbed him with his stout wings.

"Flower-power's right," Penguinmon concurred as he passed Patamon to Agumon. "Good to see you, bat-pig!"

Agumon nodded as Patamon squirmed to break free from his claws. "This is amazing…miraculous, even…"

Gayathri beamed as she took notice of a change in their resurrected friend. "Your uniform's changed! I love it. They really look good on you!"

Amidst all the questions, Adam noticed that one person didn't come to join their happy reunion. He tried looking up amidst Gayathri's curly hair for JD, and saw the teen looking at him with a frozen unreadable expression. Gently he excused himself from Gayathri, Liu Ying and Manny and tentatively walked towards JD. He wondered whether JD wanted to yell at him for not telling them sooner that he was still alive – he certainly looked like he was going to. The blonde's eyes were staring at him dangerously and his mouth set thin. His chest rose up and down in steady rapid phase. Adam gulped and wondered whether it was a wise decision for him to approach JD. Weighing the pros and cons in his head, Adam decided that if JD wanted to pummel him he'd just teleport away to safety.

And so, he stopped about a meter away from JD.

"Please don't be mad at me for not telling you about me being alive sooner. I was going to tell but…you seemed _so _angry at me…"

Adam was cut off when he was unexpectedly pulled into a fierce one-armed embrace from the taller teen. Stunned, he clammed up until JD pulled away. His eyes were still blazing towards Adam's, but now Adam could also detect a hint of…dampness?

"Don't scare us like that anymore!" JD said hoarsely, and with a blink a small teardrop escaped his eyes.

Out of all DigiWira, Adam didn't expect to see the tough, yet cool, JD, shed tears upon seeing him. "JD, you're crying…"

"No, I'm not!" JD snapped, sounding pretty much as his usual self once again. "I've got this damn dust in my eye, that's all!"

'_Now _that_ is more like him…'_ Adam thought, grinning.

This earned roundhouse laughter from the whole team. Adam looked around and saw that none of his four teammates had their eyes dry, and that caused him to blink rapidly as well. Words couldn't describe how he was really touched of their concerns over him. _'I love you guys…'_ he thought fondly.

They then saw two bundles of energy speeding towards them. They were Salamon and Gatomon.

"Adam! Adam! Adam! Adam!" The two Rookies sped exuberantly towards Adam and launched themselves onto the boy, nearly causing him to fall if JD wasn't quick enough to steady him.

"Hey! Back off! He's my partner!" Patamon whined. He immediately soared above Adam and nestled on his favorite spot – Adam's head.

"Share!" Salamon said, sticking out his tongue as he snuggled on Adam's left arm.

"Yeah! Share!" Gatomon said, and let out a hiss. Adam sweatdropped as he allowed the white Egyptian kitten to climb all the way till his shoulder and let her sat there.

"Whoa! Who are these little tykes?" JD asked.

"A puppy and a kitten! They're so CUTE!!" Gayathri cooed.

"Salamon and Gatomon…new friends," Adam said simply, and let out a yawn. He smiled upon meeting their questioning gazes. "I don't know about you guys, but I haven't slept for more than twenty four hours. Why don't we head back to the Forest Sanctum, and…" He looked up at the dark night sky, remembering that the Lost Mountain would be gone by now. His face softened as Ophanimon, d'Arcmon, and even Rosemon, crossed his minds. The time on his watch showed that it was 2am at night. "…go home…I've got some stories to tell…"

"I'm too bushed to even go back home! Why don't we just camp out at the sanctum?" JD asked. "Besides it's in the middle of night…"

"What of our families? Won't they get worried?" Manny asked, immediately noticing that Adam's face adopting a slightly forlorn expression. He realized the unintentional folly of his sentence and looked at Adam apologetically.

The gray-eyed DigiWira wiped his sad expression quickly. This was a happy moment and Adam didn't want to think about the losses he had experienced now. He smiled. "Umm, no need to worry about that. All of your parents know about this already, and the principal, too. Jackie had to tell them everything when you all were captured. And…speaking of Jackie, there's something interesting that you'll find out about him soon. But we better get back first."

"How are we going to go back?" Liu Ying asked. "Unless your teleportation power has expanded…I don't think you can take us all in one go."

Adam grinned. "After all that has happened, I think I can do _that_ at least."

He spread out his arms, and from his body spirals of golden and white orbs burst forth. They rapidly expanded to all the DigiWira and the Digimon, enveloping them wholly. Within less than five seconds all of them vanished from the destroyed grounds of the Blackmoore Bastion.

xxx

xxx

"So, my precious little white light is still alive after all," SkullSatamon muttered, after watching the whole battle from the projection Sorcerymon was generating from his staff. He found himself to be in a really good mood now, and chuckled in amusement upon watching the flabbergasted reactions from Sorcerymon and Shutumon upon seeing the defeat of Gulfmon.

"I can't…believe it…" Shutumon said.

"That little runt and that Patamon of his…they've beaten the Puaka Generals!" Sorcerymon gasped. He was reminded of his encounter with Adam and Sagittarimon inside the forest near Wizardmon's house, during that time when his abhorrence spell caused Gayathri and Fairymon to attack Liu Ying and Youkomon. The boy hadn't been too strong then; if it weren't for Wizardmon's meddling interference Sorcerymon would have beaten them.

"As I suspected from the heirs of the White DigiSphere," SkullSatamon said, uncaring of the fact that the Puaka Generals were beaten. "They _do_ have the powers that can rival Grademon's. I've seen Grademon using the same technique against me…merging his attacks into one powerful blow." He was reminded of the battle that happened three centuries ago, prior to his eternal imprisonment. "It is a pity though; that Aldiyamon no longer seem to possess that terrifying combustion power that his darkened mode has…the combustion power can easily destroy the barrier surrounding my Horror Hall. But no matter…"

SkullSatamon looked down inside the obsidian orb that was confined within his decaying ribcage. He noticed no change on the level of the yellow hue since the defeat of the Dryad General. "Hmm…"

"But Master, the Puaka Generals are…were…two of the strongest generals you ever had!" Sorcerymon pointed out.

SkullSatamon nodded. "They a…were…but they also had strayed from my cause, as they had demonstrated upon reaching their Mega level again. Hadn't those children destroyed him, I would have seen to it personally that the two of them were killed off. They were not loyal to me wholly, like Karatenmon and Lilamon had been. They weren't true to me like the rest of the Darkshadow Brethren were. They even betrayed their coven for their own cause. I suspected that the _only_ reason why those two still followed my orders because I held their powers here…" SkullSatamon tapped his forehead and chuckled sadistically. The crimson bat mark tattooed on his skull glimmered faintly once.

"Master, let US battle the DigiWira now!" Shutumon requested. "We've once reached our Ultimate levels with the help of the Puaka Generals…if you will be so kind to-"

"Your time will come, Shutumon, Sorcerymon, but it will _not_ be now," SkullSatamon cut in. His dark orbital sockets glowed crimson. "For now, we will let the esteemed Darkshadow Brethren to attack the DigiWira. Free their leader first, and have him report to me."

"The leader of the Darkshadow Brethren?" Sorcerymon said in awe. "Isn't he-"

"That's all," SkullSatamon said with a dismissive tone which hinted the finality of the conversation. The two Champion Digimon caught it and retreated from the Horror Hall.

xxx

xxx

It would be no difference for Adam to remain in the Digital World or to go back home, as he had no one waiting over him back home. However, it was JD who'd been the vocal one in voicing out his intention to spend the night at the Forest Sanctum – mainly to get Adam to gauge stories about how exactly he'd been alive. The others took some convincing before realizing that it wouldn't make much difference. They had met Jackie too, and were surprised to learn that Jackie was actually their guardian from the Digital World and that he was a digital human instead of real human. But in their tiredness they had taken the information by stride, and not to mention that their main focus was Adam.

Jackie had promised that he would be discussing with the principal so that they could have another day off, and that special arrangement could be made for them to recover the missed days.

And now, all of them were sleeping. TobuCatmon had arranged for the girls to sleep on a couple of makeshift hammocks behind the walls of the sanctum, while the boys would sleep on a rattan mat spread over the marble floor of the sanctum. Within an hour, all of them were asleep peacefully, save for one boy.

Adam found it ironic that he was the one who was not able to get a shuteye, while the others sounded like they had already drifted off in dreamland. He could hear Manny's soft exhales from behind him – Adam was lying on his side and his back was facing Manny. He could hear Penguinmon's snores, and the sound of Agumon's claws clunking the marble floor whenever he shifted position. Despite their earlier disputes, Patamon, Salamon and Gatomon were now huddled close to each other – Gatomon had adamantly refused to part with Salamon just because she was a girl. And if Adam opened his eyes he could see JD lying on his back beside him.

Things that had happened to him these past few days came back to him. His sister's accident, the Puaka Generals' deception, his and Patamon's transformation into Aldiyamon Fury Mode (it was a name Adam had thought for himself, as he remembered how _furious_ he had been when he discovered the Puaka Generals' deceptions), their 'deaths', Adam's encounter with Grademon who had helped him facing his inner demons, their revivals, Adam's journey to the Lost Mountain and his meetings with Ophanimon, d'Arcmon and Rosemon, and finally the transformation into the real Aldiyamon and their victory against the Puaka Generals.

Now that everything was over, one important thing came back to mind.

His sister was still in coma. There was no indication of _when_ she would wake up. He hadn't visited his sister for three days, but he had done so for since day one of his sister's hospitalization. Every time he went to the hospital, Dr. Abu would just tell him the same thing. He wanted to think positively, but still…

What if his sister never woke up? What if she was doomed to remain in a coma?

Adam would be alone. Sure, he had relatives. He had uncles and aunts, cousins, grandparents…but his immediate family members would be all gone.

His whole body shivered again and an involuntary sob escaped. He clamped his mouth quickly, not wanting to wake up his friends. But tears began to flow out more freely and sooner or later JD and Manny would wake up. He immediately grabbed his white jacket – which he'd used as pillow – and teleported out from the sanctum. He didn't go far – just by the lake at the Green Meadow outside the sanctum. There he sat at a flat rock and convinced that he was alone, he let it all out.

He had his head buried in his thighs for so long, even after his sobs had receded. Hearing footsteps, he immediately glanced up and saw the other four DigiWira standing by.

"How…how long have you been here?" Adam asked, wide-eyed and flabbergasted as he immediately wiped out all the tear stains on his cheek.

The four DigiWira looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. Gayathri elbowed Manny, Manny poked Liu Ying, and Liu Ying gave JD a slight shove.

"Long enough," JD finally said.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Adam said. His eyes were looking down.

"Why?" Gayathri asked, her own voice quivering. "There's _nothing_ to be ashamed of. You've been through a lot. If it were _me_, I'd have cried a whole lot more…" She went to sit beside Adam and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Nobody will look down on you if you cry about this one."

"From the looks of it, you've been suppressing it for a long time," JD said and took a sit at Adam's other side. "It must've sucks…"

Liu Ying sat on the smaller stone, in front of the flat stone where Adam, JD and Gayathri were seating on currently. Manny sat on another stone in front of Adam. They were now forming a circle, with Manny and Liu Ying facing Adam.

"If you need to get something off your chest, we'll listen," Manny said quietly. "That much we can do…if not more."

"Manny's right," Liu Ying said. She was reminded of her dream about showing Adam her private journal which she dedicated to her late father. She made a point to show Adam the journal soon as a way to help Adam deal with the pain. Out of all the DigiWira, Liu Ying was the only other member who had also lost a family. But she still had her mother and brother, and grandfather. Adam had lost everyone except his sister, and was at the verge of losing her as well if things turned out bad…Liu Ying silently prayed that _that_ would never happen.

"Remember what you've told me when we fought Lynxmon?" Liu Ying asked, gazing at Adam. "You told me that I wasn't alone. Now I'm telling you that you're not alone in this one."

Adam looked at his teammates' faces one by one. "I'm really scared…" he admitted softly. His voice was like a frightened child's. "I'm really scared."

Nobody had the answer to that. No one dared to say 'everything will turn up alright' because nobody had the power to see the future. They were scared that if they said just that, and the opposite thing happened, then Adam would end up even more devastated than he already was. They didn't want to give him false hope.

For a long quiet minute, everyone was silent. Then JD came up with a sincere, perfect, and _only_ reply. He slung an arm around Adam's shoulders and grasped it firmly, his eyes staring at the distance thoughtfully.

"We'll think of something."

xxx

xxx

It was now nearing sunrise and everything was silent at the ruins of the Blackmoore Bastion. What once had been a domed stronghold was no more than a pile of rubbles now after the titanic battle between Gulfmon and the Wira Digital. Small wisps of smoke could still be seen from the ruins, marking the fact that the battle had happened not too long before.

A small pebble rolled down the pile of stones. Then another and another pebble rolled down following a big onyx stone stirring about. Something seemed to be moving in from underneath. The black stone then was pushed away and a shaking, purple-gloved arm emerged. The arm pushed aside another stone, and a yellow vulpine creature crawled out. The fox, Renamon, looked absolutely battered and beaten. His tufts of white fur that grew on his chest were stained with purple blood. Ugly lacerations could be seen all over his body. Renamon crawled weakly towards another stirring stone where a purple bat-like wing shot out from a narrow space between two stones. Renamon pushed the stone away and Tsukaimon was revealed.

"Curse that DigiWira of Light…" Renamon muttered hoarsely. "Curse that Aldiyamon and the other brats…"

The two Rookies slumped onto a stone, unwittingly causing it to shake due to the sudden weights. The stone gave way and the Rookies were sent tumbling down the pile of stones. They didn't even have the energy to yell. The two rolled off onto the ground when a shadow loomed before them.

Renamon opened his eyes weakly. In his moment of weakness, his eyes registered a face obscured by the shadows caused by the massive sets of wings the face-owner had. The rising sun illuminated the being's face. Renamon knew this Digimon well, and shivered.

"The…Hellion…General!" he said before fatigue seized him wholly and he slumped down.

The one referred as the Hellion General chuckled darkly. "The Puaka Generals…you two disappoint me. The thought of two former members of the esteemed **Darkshadow Brethren** defeated by a bunch of children is really insulting to villains of our caliber." He shook his head and bent down, picking both Renamon and Tsukaimon up and secured each of them against each side of his body. "Fortunately, _I_ still have use for you. The Master has deemed you as failures, but _I_ still think that you two can redeem yourselves soon…with my aid."

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**Author's Notes:**

To those who wonder, basically the real Aldiyamon is similar to the corrupted one with his colors and his facemask being the differences.

The next general is revealed to be the Hellion General, but he's not the only one. The Puaka Generals are still alive. And…there will be four other generals making their debut soon alongside this Hellion General character.

This chapter marks the closing of the Puaka Generals arc, and the beginning of the Invasion arc.

The swear word by Satriamon has been 'bleeped' as I've been made known that there are young readers reading the story. But it's still there to emphasis the mood, only bleeped so that it can't be said that there's a properly-spelled-out major swear word in this chapter.

Check out Aldiyamon's picture which I've drawn and uploaded, the link is there at my profile. I'm entering Digital Dive Forum's **_Design a Royal Knight_** contest, and Aldiyamon's up as a Royal Knight. The art isn't the best though because I'm not so good with drawing, but do check out the drawing if you have the time.


	35. Silver Lining

Adam watched the TV idly, with a cup of Milo in his hand and the sounds of three Rookie Digimon grappling playfully in the background.

It was now Saturday morning, three days after the final battle against the Puaka Generals. It was a free day, as the previous Saturday had been a club and society meeting day, and Adam planned to use the free day to just unwind. He'd planned to go to the hospital to visit his comatose sister during the afternoon, and JD had offered to accompany him the previous day. Liu Ying would be helping her mother at her salon, Manny was going to see a movie with his family and Gayathri was visiting an aunt.

Adam smiled as he remembered what happened after their return from the Digital World. Jackie had informed that they had the Thursday free, courtesy of the principal, but all of them were required to stay back at school on Friday to catch up with their missed days. The school principal – Mrs. Khadijah Basri - had also been made known of the fact that they were DigiWira, and she had taken it upon herself to monitor their extra lessons herself. Granted, she hadn't had to worry about Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri as the three of them had spotless school records (Adam had been late to school once, but that was all). The school principal had checked the school transcript from Manny's previous school and found out that the boy had caused no troubles as well. Her only concern had been JD, who had been known to skip detentions during the last two years he had been in the school, so the principal wanted to be sure that the blonde would at least get some work done. Nevertheless all DigiWira had stayed back to get their missed assignments and lab works from their respective teachers and the principal had seen their works and was satisfied. They still had tons of homework to be done during the weekend and Adam had spent the better half of the previous night doing them.

Salamon and Gatomon had wanted to follow Adam back home, and Adam was somewhat glad that he'd consented in bringing them along. Their childish antiques cheered up Adam a great deal and they had distracted him from thinking about his comatose sister too much. It was like having little siblings to be watched over. He however pitied Patamon, who always found himself being bullied by the two other Rookies.

As he watched the cartoon on TV, the phone rang. Looking at the time, it was 9.00a.m. Who'd be calling this time of day?

"Hello?"

"_Hello…Adam? Is that you?"_

A smile crept Adam's face. "Pakcik!" He could hear the person on the other side of the phone groan in mock-frustration and chuckled.

"_I told you not to call me that."_

"Alright, Zul. Sorry."

Zul was Adam's first cousin once removed from his home town at Kelantan – a northern east-coast state of Peninsular Malaysia. More correctly, Zul was the cousin of Adam's late father. So that technically made Zul some sort of uncle to Adam, despite them being the same age. Being that, Adam sometimes used the nickname 'Pakcik' – which meant uncle – just to irritate Zul.

"_How are you doing, Adam?"_

Adam smiled. After his parents' and Aizad's demise, Adam had stayed with Zul and his family until Alisha had gotten a steady job with solid income. Being the same age, they had gotten along well prior to the accident. After the accident, Adam had become very withdrawn, but Zul had been instrumental in cheering him up when he was at his worst mood.

Adam took a seat - this phone conversation would be long. Zul seldom called, but when he did they could talk for as long as an hour. "I'm doing fine…" Adam hesitated; he hadn't told his relatives about Alisha being in coma yet. There hadn't been time. Remembering the Puaka Generals, Adam was thankful that he hadn't mentioned to anyone about 'Aizad's' reappearance.

He decided not to worry his cousin about it. "How about you, Zul? It has been a while."

"_I'm great! But listen…the reason I called is that…well…it's Tuk Awang…" _

Adam straightened up. "What about Tuk Awang? Is he alright?"

Tuk Awang was Zul's grandfather, and Adam's great-grandfather. He was a forbidding ninety-year-old and was very stern. Adam had heard that a dispute Tuk Awang had with his eldest son – Adam's granduncle whom he had never met before – had caused the latter to flee the house and never returned. The story had been that this granduncle had fallen in love with a British woman during Malaysia's pre-independence era, and Tuk Awang had disapproved when the granduncle had voiced his intention to marry his foreigner sweetheart. As a result, the granduncle had gone ahead to marry the woman, and Tuk Awang in his fit of anger had chased him out of the house.

That was as far as the story went, according to Adam's late father and Zul's father – Adam's youngest granduncle. The story had become some sort of legend in the family, but no one dared to speak about it in front of Tuk Awang. However, it was said that after his eldest son's elopement Tuk Awang had mellowed considerably. As far as Adam had known, Tuk Awang was a doting great-grandfather who was as strong as an ox. And that comparison was meant literally – Adam had once seen him straining a bull that was chasing him and Aizad.

"_Tuk Awang has passed away last Monday, Adam. Heart stroke and diabetes, among other things," _Zul informed._ "Sorry to inform you this late…I tried calling you yesterday and two days ago but nobody picked up the phone. Figured I try again today…"_

"Tuk Awang's dead?" Adam whispered in disbelief. He blinked rapidly.

"_It's his time, Adam. At least, he's passed away in his sleep. He passed in peace."_

"I know, Zul…doesn't mean it has to be easy…" Adam murmured. There was a stinging feeling in his heart.

Zul became quiet. He knew that Adam was rather sensitive with death news, after losing his parents and brother to a fatal accident.

"_Anyway...Tuk Awang's death is finally making Ayah Long coming back home…after what, 50 years?"_

"Hmm…?" Then, it dawned to Adam that Zul was referring to Tuk Awang's son who had eloped and ran away from home – that man would be Zul's first uncle. "Oh, right. I wonder how he's like. This will be the first time you'll be meeting him, right?"

"_Yeah. I heard he's bringing his wife as well. They'll be here in three days; I think they're arriving tomorrow night. Truth be told – I'm anxious! I've never met a foreigner before! I don't even speak English much."_

Adam chuckled. "You'll get the hang of it. Hmm…he's your Ayah Long, does that mean he's my Tuk Long?" (Ayah Long – Eldest Uncle; Tuk Long – Eldest Granduncle)

"_Having living overseas all these years, he probably prefers Grandpa," _Zul snickered.

"I think it'll be an interesting experience for you," Adam said. "Wow…Ayah Su must be really excited now, isn't he? His brother's coming home." Ayah Su was how Adam referred to Zul's father. (Ayah Su – Youngest Uncle)

"_He can't stop talking about it, although when Ayah Long ran away forty years ago he was barely two years old," _Zul said. _"That's all we've been hearing these past two days. But I'm glad Ayah Long's coming back. According to Ayah, he's returning here to patch things up after all these times. He'll be staying with his son at KL for a day or two before coming here."_

"Oh. I don't know we have relatives here?" Adam asked.

"_So did I. I heard that they're from Australia. Ayah Long's son is a head pilot for Malaysian Airlines now, which is why he and his family came here about three years ago. I don't know exactly where they live though – I'll check it out and get back to you later. Maybe you and Kak Lisha can meet them."_

Adam bit his lip upon the mention of his sister's name. He took a deep breath and said, "I never thought that we'd have foreign relatives."

"_Right. Anyway…let's leave that to that for now. So what have you been up to lately? I haven't talked to you for like…more than a month!"_

Adam thought about what had happened the past one month. A little bit more than a month ago, he wasn't even a DigiWira. So many things had happened to him, and he felt bad for not being able to tell all of them to Zul. Zul was like Hakim; a close confidante prior to him being a DigiWira.

"_Made any more new friends?"_

At this inquiry, Adam smiled. The memory of his four fellow DigiWira comforting him by the Green Meadow Lake that night after they had beaten Puaka Generals was heartwarming.

"Well…I've made another one best friend and four very, very good ones…"

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 35 – Silver Lining**_

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Mr. Johan Awaludin and Mrs. Leeanna Abdullah looked at each other before gazing back at their youngest son's face.

"Are you _sure_ that's what you want, Josh?" Johan asked skeptically.

"Sure I'm sure," JD said, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the soft sofa. "I've thought about it these past couple of days. That is, if it's okay with you…"

"We don't object on this," Leeanna assured her son. "It's just…well…this is a _big_ thing, you know. If we are to agree with this we need to know whether you're willing to compensate a few things to make it work. You can't change your mind halfway. It isn't like getting a new videogame or a basketball…"

JD snorted. "I know that!" he snapped, but quickly he gave his parents an apologetic look for his shortness.

Johan waved it away and exchanged another look with his wife. The two of them had gotten along better these past few days. The three days they had spent worrying about their youngest son's wellbeing had rekindled some of their withered bond. They hadn't been fighting but they were not affectionate to each other much either. However, both had agreed to get help for them to deal with the problem with their marriage. At least, in front of their children, they would refrain from verbally fighting each other.

The discovery of their youngest son being one of those chosen children partnered with Digimon was like a huge blow for the couple. They did see changes in their son's behavior for the past one month. He had gotten surlier and had always kept himself in the bedroom, and had been downright hostile to everyone except for Bibik. Granted, Josh's behavior was not really what one would have wished for a son – they had just recovered from the shock that their son had been smoking – but after doing some deep thinking they saw that their negligence was what could have precipitated the coldness their son had displayed towards them.

An online research had pointed out that their son's disobedience, the smoking and the rudeness were all signs of him wanting to rebel against them. And the rebelling act was, in all actuality, something that had precipitated from the desire of any form of attention. And it didn't help that the husband and wife themselves were having trouble with their marriage – their busy jobs and desires had distanced them. Johan's job as one of the head pilots of Malaysia Airlines flight company coupled with his love to travel to places all over the world, and Leeanna being a very influenced and active direct products seller-cum-promoter with very hectic schedule of coaching those who were starting up as well as giving speeches to many places in Malaysia – that had placed a wedge in their relationship. Whenever they did meet, it would always be during nights when both were tired and irritable, which eventually led to constant verbal fighting and tongue lashing. Their obsessions with their interests were diminishing the spark that they used to have when they had fallen in love and the early years of their marriage.

Both Johan and Leeanna had agreed to take a break from their busy schedules in order to work on their failing marriage. Their son's constant disappearance and the discovery that Josh would rather endanger his life in a foreign world rather than being with his family had given them the wake-up call that they had needed for long. They soon saw that Josh was not the only one who had shown signs of loathing towards them – Jade and Jas also had shown them, although they had hidden their discontent better than their youngest brother.

After returning from the Digital World with the T-Rex miniature called Agumon, the couple had observed some changes in their youngest son. He didn't rebel as much, and often he would have that thoughtful look fixed on his face, like he was thinking about something really serious. They had tried coaxing Bibik for information, knowing that their housemaid was closer to their son than any of them, but Bibik was just as baffled. Josh looked perfectly healthy, but he seemed different.

For the past three years, they never had taken the initiative to find out what was really troubling Josh. Now, that would change.

Both of them asked their son about it the previous night, after explaining that they would get help for their marriage and that they would try not to fight so much. They had noticed the slight spark in their son's hazel eyes. And with coaxing from Agumon, Josh finally relented and told them what he'd been thinking about.

Now, they knew why. And they were surprised with it.

But it wasn't really difficult a decision. Their elder son and daughter were not living with them for the time being. Agumon seemed pretty content with anything Josh had arranged for him. As for the two of them, it wouldn't be a problem. Perhaps it would be a reminder for them _not_ to fight too much. That they had discussed with each other with mild amusement.

"Tell us, son, what makes you want to do this?" Johan asked.

JD shrugged. "It just feels right. Besides…I owed him. And he's my friend. I told him I'd help him."

Their son spoke about this friend of his with a certain intensity that both Johan and Leeanna found intriguing. This was because Josh had _never_ mentioned anyone as 'friends' before, ever since their moving to Malaysia three-odd years ago. And after returning from the Digital World they had heard him referring to at least FOUR people as being his friends. Not to mention, Josh was also a _partner_ to Agumon. Before this, Josh usually would refer to the people he hung out with as 'some kids from school' or something to that effect.

And now…_friends? Partner?_

"Josh, you do know that while we have to meet him first before making any final decision," Leeanna said.

JD nodded. "He's at his apartment right now. It's not even far from here. Why don't we go meet him? I'm sure he's awake now."

Once again, Johan and Leeanna exchanged confused looks.

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Adam was just about to settle down to watch TV when the doorbell to his house rang. He looked at the clock – it was half past ten. He didn't expect anyone to come.

"Come on; break it off, you three. We have company," he said to the three mock-scuffling Digimon. Instantly they obeyed and leaped onto the sofas and froze, pretending to be stuffed toys.

Adam peered through the peek hole and saw a familiar person. He opened the door and met JD's grinning face.

"Hey," the taller teen said. He looked nervous.

"Hi." Then Adam frowned. "Didn't you say that you'll be here in the afternoon?"

"Change of plans," JD said, sounding somewhat tensed. Adam then saw that JD wasn't alone as two more people appeared by the stairs. He looked at JD, confused. Why would JD be bringing his parents with him? He shook their hands politely before inviting all three of them in, beckoning for the living room. JD's parents stared at the three 'toys' with interest.

"Enough with the stuffed toys act, you three," JD said. "My folks know about Digimon."

Immediately Patamon, Salamon and Gatomon blinked. JD chuckled and took out his red Juara Digivice and said, "Agumon, _Access!"_

The Digivice glowed and from the screen a ray of light emerged. Agumon materialized from the light.

After returning from the Digital World, the DigiWira had found their Digimon contained within the Digivices. At first, all of them had panicked and tried to get them out. It was Gayathri who had unwittingly let Floramon out first by modifying the call that was used for them to merge with their partners. The Digimon were a little shaken at first, but after thinking about it they all had agreed that being in the Digivices were rather comfortable and they were able to retain their Rookie forms whilst inside as the environment inside the Digivice was similar to the Digital World. Being in the Human World would weaken them usually, which was why they all had been in their In-Trainings before.

Jackie had said that around the world, each DigiDestined's D-3 Digivices had been upgraded with a new function: _Digitizer_. The name had also been changed into D-4, an idea from one DigiDestined called Koushirou Izumi of Odaiba, Japan. The upgrade was initiated due to the increasing number of human-Digimon partnership all over the world, and the Chosen with big-sized or foreboding-looking Digimon partners usually had problems in traveling around. Thus, the Digivices were upgraded to include the ability to digitize the Digimon into the Digivices.

However the patterns of the D-4 Digivices were exactly the same as the D-3s, while the Juara Digivices looked completely different. That was something nobody had the answers, and the DigiWira had decided to leave it as it is.

"How about you four go play in my room?" Adam suggested as he carried a tray with cups and jug out from the kitchen. The Digimon scampered away and Adam placed the tray carefully on the living room's table. "I hope iced tea is fine…I didn't have time to boil some water and I didn't want to keep you waiting."

"It's alright, Adam. Please, sit down," Leeanna said. She was looking around the house, impressed of having seen everything to be in perfect order. The CDs and DVDs were placed in the DVD tower nicely, the floor spotless, the cushions arranged acceptably (a little mess had been made by the Digimon) and the tea she was served actually tasted nice. The New Zealander woman was a stickler to primness and she was amazed of seeing how Adam seemed to be able to take care of himself. She mentally grimaced upon remembering her son's messy room – the only place that was not messed up was the bed of her eldest son. Then her eyes saw a framed picture of Adam and his sister, and frowned. Both of them reminded her of someone. They somehow looked quite familiar. She could have sworn she had seen those pair of gray eyes before.

She exchanged a look with his husband, who was sipping the iced tea. She nodded when her husband caught her eyes – Adam was very polite and neat. And there was something else that was drawing her attention to him, but she couldn't figure out what. But it was all good – in fact, Leeanna was surprised to see how her seemingly rough-attitude son managed to acquire such a decorous friend. She was willing to bet that the other DigiWira were also different from her son as well.

Johan nodded back to his wife and glanced at the dark-haired boy, who seemed to be mildly confused. "Adam, Josh has told us what's been going on," he said. "We think we might have a solution to your problem."

Adam blinked. "You do?" he asked, not really aware of what JD's father had meant.

"Adam," JD began, drawing the younger boy's attention towards him. He seemed to be struggling with words, before letting out, "We're friends, right?"

Adam nodded, confused. "Yes. We're friends. Why do you ask?" He gave JD an assuring smile to emphasize his confirmation, noticing that JD was anxious for some reason.

JD grinned slightly, but it was a nervous grin. He took a deep breath before continuing, "Friends help each other out, don't they?"

"They do," Adam said, still not seeing where JD was going with his questions. "Umm…JD, why…"

JD held up his hand. "In that case, how do you feel about… coming over and stay at my house? Until your sister wakes up and recovers from the accident?" He stopped and observed as Adam's confused face turned into a surprised look.

Adam was speechless; he didn't see that one coming. The offer was _really_ generous. He was instantly reminded of the time when the other DigiWira were all comforting him after the battle with the Puaka Generals. JD had said with determined intensity that he'd think of something. Adam didn't think that he would go this far. It was totally unexpected.

Without his sister, Adam was somewhat lonely in his apartment. Sure, he had Patamon, Gatomon and Salamon to keep him company…but it wasn't quite the same as a human's company. Furthermore, that only reinforced his longing for his sister to be home. It didn't look like Alisha was going to wake up any time soon, and Adam found himself not really looking forward for days ahead in the apartment without his sister. Who would prepare him food? Adam's cooking skill was less than spectacular, and they had been living off instant foods for the past few days. Who would remind him to pray, or to take his evening shower, or to go to bed, or that he'd have enough TVs for one day? And those were just the tip of the iceberg; Adam had received far more worrying news, such as bills of the car's monthly installments, electricity, water and phone. His sister had kept sufficient funds in her bank account and Adam knew well enough how to withdraw them, but he lacked all the experiences to settle all those tasks. And speaking of the car, which was wrecked beyond repair, shouldn't there be insurance claim? Adam knew that his sister had insurances; he had heard her speaking about it without really understanding it, but now he had no idea how to make queries about it.

He turned to look at JD's parents, and saw them waiting for his answer. "I don't want to impose," he said softly, finally finding his voice back. He really wanted to accept the offer – it would be so relieving to have some adults who could mentor him in doing all those payment stuffs that he had no idea about. But Adam meant what he had said too; he didn't want to impose.

JD stared at Adam, who looked torn between two decisions. _'He didn't say no…that's relieving. But why reject it?'_ He looked at his father for help.

"It won't be an imposition," Johan assured, catching his son's eyes. Then he decided not to make it easy for his son, and added, "Besides, we think you might be a good influence on our son."

That earned a gape from JD. _'What the…'_

"But, seriously speaking, we'd love to have you stay over with us as long as you needed to. Josh's brother and sister are both staying in their university dorms. You can room in with Josh, and use Jade's bed. That's our eldest – and he won't mind," Johan continued.

"Maybe you can convince Josh to keep his room neat as you've done to your apartment," Leeanna added. That only caused JD to sweatdrop. "He can really be a slob, unfortunately," she said with a small smile as she shook her head – there was a teasing tone that JD hadn't heard for a _very_ long time.

"Speaking of which, you _could_ have the guest room if you want to, but Josh's grandparents are coming for a visit from Australia, and we've prepared the room for them," Johan said. "There was a recent death in the family and they will be here for a while before going back to my father's kampong…you can stay in the guest room after that if you can't cope with the messiness our son usually causes in his room." He then threw an amused smirk at their gaping son.

JD couldn't believe it. His parents ganging up against him? When did _that_ start? Nevertheless, he felt an excited flutter in his stomach.

"What do you think?" JD asked, stifling his impatience. He gazed at the boy, remembering that Adam's fear was to be alone. Somewhere down the line, he'd have to thank Tapirmon for feeding him Adam's nightmare. And Adam had admitted that night after the battle with the Puaka Generals that he was really scared of what was going to happen to him.

Adam thought about it. He had just gotten to know JD, and they had patched things up after the whole thing with the Dark Ocean. They were good friends despite being the exact opposite of each other and despite their bad start. They were teammates. And…although Adam would never admit it out loud, JD was so similar to his late brother that it scared him.

The phone suddenly rang. Adam gave his guests an apologizing look before picking up the phone.

"_Adam, it's me again. Listen, I've got the details about those relatives of ours in KL. Turns out –"_

"Umm…Zul? I have guests here," Adam informed.

"_Just jot this down; Ayah says that you actually live not that far off from them. Ayah Long's name is Awaludin, and his son is Johan. Ring any bell to you?"_

Adam froze upon hearing the names. His eyes darted towards JD's father. _'Great God…can it be?'_

"_Hello, Adam? You're still there?"_

"Yes…yes, I'm here. Zul…do you know anything else about them?" Adam wanted to be very sure.

"_As a matter of fact, yeah. Ayah Long's wife is named Kathryn Sutherland or Nurul Kathryn Sutherland Abdullah after she married Ayah Long. Their son Johan married a stewardess he'd met, a woman from New Zealand…and I think they have three kids. One of them should be around our age. Can't remember his name exactly…they all have similar initials…those modern mixed-blood kinds of names where they merge English and Malay names together. The one who is close to our age is …ummm…John? James? Jack?"_

"Josh," Adam supplied, earning a surprised gaze from JD. He held his breath as he elaborated, "Joshua."

"_YEAH! That's it. Joshua. Joshua, Jasmine and Jaden. Nice patterns. How'd you know that?"_

Adam gasped softly. He didn't see this coming at all.

"_Okay, never mind. I'll be off now. You have guests. I'll talk to you again soon ok? Salam, Adam…"_

Adam replied the parting greeting back and placed the receiver back on its place. He then took his seat beside JD, and looked at JD's dad.

"Uncle…" he began.

Johan smiled easily, but he wondered why Adam looked so stunned. Perhaps something from the phone conversation had shaken him slightly. "Yes, Adam?"

Adam's thought raced as he tried to figure out how exactly he was going to confirm the news Zul had just relayed to him. An idea hit him. "You mentioned just now that there is a recent death in your family."

"Yes, I did," Mr. Johan said, wondering why Adam had asked that particular question. His wife and son both looked baffled.

"By any chance…is it your grandfather who has passed away?"

Johan was surprised upon hearing the question. "Yes. It is my grandfather…but how did you know that, Adam? I didn't mention that, did I?"

"No…my cousin did. He was the one who called just now, and he had called earlier this morning to inform that Tuk Awang has passed away due to heart stroke and diabetes…"

Johan inhaled sharply. "Awang? That _is _my grandfather's name…and he died recently due to stroke and diabetes. Adam, who is this Tuk Awang to you?"

Adam looked at JD, then at JD's mom before returning his gaze towards the dark-haired man in front of him. "Tuk Awang is my great-grandfather."

"Oh, my God!" Johan exclaimed in disbelief. He looked at Adam in a mixture of awe and disbelief. His brown eyes lit with gradual recognition. He remembered that computer teacher whom had explained to them about the Digimon, the Digital World and the DigiWira. He had mentioned Adam by his full name while making the DigiWira's introduction. He hadn't paid the name much thought – it was a rather common name for Malay boys, but now… "How could I forget? Mohammed Adam bin Ahmad Ariff…you're that baby…you're Ariff's and Aleza's youngest son!" he rasped.

Adam shivered slightly upon hearing his parents' names. "Uncle…you knew my Ayah and Ibu?"

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**(Flashback)**

Johan scooped his sleepy three-years-old son Josh with one arm, while lugging the trolley-luggage with his right hand. Behind him, his wife Leeanna followed with a smaller luggage as they exited the arrival door of Subang International Airport, Malaysia. The three of them came from Australia, and they were now in Malaysia for a brief vacation as well as meeting some of their distant relatives. Johan was a pilot and after learning that his next destination was to fly to Malaysia, Johan's father had arranged for them to be picked up by his grandnephew. He had brought along his wife and their youngest son for the trip, as their other children Jaden and Jasmine had school to attend to.

It dawned to Johan and Leeanna that neither of them knew how Johan's cousin looked like. But their worries were alleviated when a moderate-height young man with black hair and moustache approached them with a warm smile. He was wearing a light blue work shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of dark pants. Beside him was a young woman, presumably his wife as she was cradling an infant. The woman had a sweet face, with fair skin and she wore a light pink headscarf which matched her dark pink baju kurung.

"Salam," the man greeted. "You're Johan?"

Hearing this, Johan answered the greeting and was relieved. He nodded. "Ariff?"

"That's what they call me," the man said with a smile. He gestured at the woman beside him. "My wife, Aleza. And my youngest son, Adam. He simply refused to part with his mother, that's why we brought him with us." The man chuckled and glanced at his wife. "Or is it the other way around?"

Ariff's friendliness immediately wiped out any doubt that Johan and Leeanna had about visiting Malaysia. Despite Johan being half-Malaysian himself, he had never stepped foot on his father's home country until this day.

"This is Leeanna, my wife. And Josh, my youngest," Johan introduced. Leeanna smiled, while Josh buried his face on his father's chest, refusing to meet the strangers.

"My, he is quite a handsome little boy," Aleza cooed, teasing the dishwater-blonde boy.

"He's usually not this shy," Leeanna supplied. "You should've seen him when he disturbs his brother and sister."

"Oh. Are they here too?" Aleza asked. She looked around, but saw no signs of two Caucasian children other than Josh.

"No…Jade and Jas are staying with their grandparents right now, as they still have school to attend," Leeanna answered.

"We've to leave Alisha and Aizad back at Kelantan as well. Aizad is down with the flu, and Alisha wants to follow her cousins to the beach," Aleza said. "And I can't leave Adam home with Aizad having the fever and all, and Adam is still breastfeeding." Baby Adam watched Leeanna in wonder with his round, gray eyes. He gurgled and smiled at his aunt.

"Oh, he's a darling!" Leeanna cooed, peering to look at the less-than-a-year-old Adam. "How old is he?"

Aleza beamed as she stroked Adam's small tufts of dark hair. "He's entering eleven months old soon."

"Can I hold him?" Leeanna requested.

"Sure."

The baby was passed to the Caucasian woman and she cradled it towards Johan and Josh. "Josh, say hi to your cousin."

The toddler Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman immediately lifted his head and peered at the infant curiously. His father held him closer to the baby his wife was holding, and Josh pointed a tentative finger towards the baby. He then gasped when his finger was clasped by the baby Adam, who then crowed with delight at having something new to play with. Josh looked around nervously as the baby attempted to put his finger in his mouth.

"I think he likes you," Aleza said with a smile.

Josh returned his gaze towards the baby. He curled his finger slightly to stop the baby from putting it in his mouth. "Hello, baby…" he said softly.

Johan and his family were then taken to the hotel where Ariff had arranged for them to stay at while they were at Malaysia. Ariff and his family were currently staying with another relative somewhere not far from the city, and he had rented a spacious, comfortable minivan for them to travel around Kuala Lumpur. Johan was amazed at his cousin's hospitality – he had a foreboding expectation about his father's side of the family upon hearing his father's story of how he was chased out of the house by his father – Johan's grandfather – upon him voicing out his decision to marry his British mother.

"That was pre-independence time," Ariff said as they lounged at the hotel's living room. "That was during 1955, right? Now it's 1992. A lot of things have changed…Tuk Awang has mellowed down since the death of Mek Nah." Mek Nah was Tuk Awang's late wife.

"That's good to hear. Maybe Dad will come back here one day," Johan said.

Suddenly a loud wail was heard coming from the bedroom where Josh was at, and where the sleeping baby was at. Their wives, who were preparing a small dinner at the kitchen both rushed to the room as well. They stepped inside the bedroom and saw…

A wailing Adam and a stunned Josh with his red shirt covered with white liquid that looked like vomit. The toddler looked like he was about cry as well.

"What happened?" Johan asked, looking at his son amusedly.

"Baby…almost fall…from bed…" Josh said, amidst baby Adam's wailing. "I carry him…and…and…baby sick…" He then sniffled.

"There, there, don't cry," Aleza immediately comforted the sad looking Josh as Leeanna went to get a change of cloth for her son. "You did well, you know? You're a hero."

Josh blinked. "I am?"

"Let's get you changed," Aleza said and pulled up the vomit-covered shirt from her nephew. "You know, maybe you and Adam will become best friends one day," she said thoughtfully as Ariff comforted his crying son.

"We will?" Josh asked.

Aleza nodded encouragingly. "My little cousin once threw up on me too, and we ended up being so close we might as well be sisters," she said smilingly. She doubted that the three-year-old would understand what she was talking about, but she said it out loud anyway.

Johan and his family's visit to Malaysia weren't long as he was on a work trip on behalf of the airline company he was working at currently. After four days, they were back at the airport, with his cousin and family following them to give them a proper sending off.

"We'll miss you," Aleza said, hugging Leeanna. "Don't forget to write."

The brown haired woman nodded. "I will, Aleza. Thank you for everything. We won't forget you."

Johan and Ariff shook hands, and embraced each other. "We should do this more often," Ariff said. "Maybe next time, when you have the time, you could come and visit our kampong. Send my regards to Ayah Long, will you?"

"I will," Johan said, and looked at Josh who was silently staring at baby Adam. "Josh, do you want to give a proper goodbye to your little cousin?"

The blonde tyke nodded and Johan lowered his son down. Aleza knelt down so that Josh could peer at Adam close. Josh smiled at the wide-eyed baby, before bending down and gave his little cousin a brief peck on the cheek. "Bye-bye, baby…" he murmured, and Adam gurgled at him smilingly. "I'll miss you."

"Wait, Josh," Ariff said and took out his large camera. "Sit at that chair now…okay…do you want to hold Adam?"

Josh nodded eagerly and climbed on the seat. Aleza then placed the baby Adam carefully in front of the tyke, and Josh clasped his arms around the squealing baby securely. And then, as if knowing what to do, Adam stopped struggling so much and gave a somewhat-toothless grin to his father, who was holding a camera. Leeanna also took out their camera and both pointed the cameras towards the two small children.

"Say cheese!"

**(End Flashback)**

xxx

xxx

"We've never got the chance to meet again when all of us became busy with our commitments and works…but we did keep in touch every now and then. Naturally, as years gone by we didn't get to send each others news so often, but at least twice a year, letters or emails were exchanged. Then, we heard about the accident a year after we moved here…"

Johan rose from his seat and took Adam's hand. He pulled him gently back towards the three seat sofa where he and his wife were seating, and had Adam sat beside him as he looked closer at the young teenager. "All these while…you're practically next door," Johan murmured. "You look a lot like your mother."

"I carried you a couple of times when you were a baby," Leeanna said, smiling. "Has it been _that_ long? How time flies…"

"He…he's family?" JD said, perplexed. He had no memory of their first encounter at all. His eyes widened in disbelief, and his mouth hung open slightly. "Adam's _our_ family?"

Johan nodded. "You two are second-cousins, to be precise." He tilted Adam's chin up. "I should have made more effort to find out more about you back then. As far as I've been made known, your sister had taken you in and you two are living in KL. I never knew that you two are staying here in Subang Jaya. I never expected you and Josh go to the same school. How long have you two known each other?"

"Only about a month, but we saw each other often," JD said, eyes boring at his newfound cousin. _Kinship_. That was how JD had felt for Adam before. He never really understood why he cared about Adam before. And now, upon learning that they were cousins...it all made sense now in a weird sort of way.

All these times, he'd been drawn to his own family. He'd been looking out for his family. They had even met before, more than a decade ago.

A smile cracked on JD's face.

"That…that's AWESOME!"

JD's enthusiastic declaration caused Adam to smile slightly. Then, he stood up politely and went towards a cabinet. He took out a photo album and browsed through them. He saw what he was looking for and brought the album to his relatives. Inside was a picture of a baby Adam held close by a blonde child. Baby Adam looked happily nestled at his cousin, and the blonde was looking partially at him while grinningly pointing towards the camera. It was a very endearing picture labeled '_Adam and Josh – October 1992_.'

"I've forgotten about this picture," Adam murmured, looking at the picture and then at JD. He immediately saw the similarities.

"Didn't we also have this pic, Mom?" Leeanna nodded absently at her son's query as her thoughts sailed back to the one-time meeting she had with Adam's parents. She was saddened upon realizing that she wouldn't be able to meet them again, and her heart went for Adam. Whatever doubt she once had to allow Adam to stay at her house had all evaporated – this was her husband's family, which made Adam _her_ family too.

"Adam, now that I know that you are my family, it is more important for me to make sure that you're well-taken cared off," Johan said intensely. "I can't have you living here on your own. You _have_ to come and stay with us…at least, until your sister is well."

Adam had shed tears of sadness this past one week, and the only time when he had cried out of happiness was due to a horrible lie. He dared not believe his luck of having a family once again. It was not what he had expected, nor had he seen that coming…but this time, his heart told him that this was the real thing. He could practically _hear_ his heart urging him to accept the offer.

Blinking back tears, Adam nodded twice with a thin smile.

"Is that a yes, Adam?" Leeanna asked. JD was grinning ear-to-ear now.

"I'll come." Adam nodded again, with a single tear drop escaping his eyes. "I'll stay with you, uncle, aunty, JD…thank you."

xxx

xxx

'_HUH?'_

Gayathri nearly dropped her pink cell phone in surprise upon receiving an SMS signed by both Adam and JD. Amidst the rowdy chattering of her aunt's house, she sat there on the single couch, unblinking and mouth slightly opened, not really believing what had been stated in the message. She certainly didn't see _that_ coming and punched in the keypads of her phone rapidly. _'You two, explain, now.' _

'_Adam and JD are __**cousins**__?'_

Gayathri's thought was mirrored by Liu Ying, who was helping her mother out at their family's hair salon. Business was good that day and Liu Ying constantly was shorthanded in the kitchen behind the salon, fixing Chinese herbal teas for the customers of the salon. But that didn't stop her from checking the new SMS. As the result, she was so surprised that she had accidentally poured more boiling water in the cup, causing it to flow out into the saucer and onto the table before she realized her folly. But then a smile crept on her face. _'Good for you, you two,'_ she thought, typing it out as a reply. _'Tell me the details.'_

In the meantime, Manny was concentrating on the movie he and his family was watching at the cinema when his cell phone blared up its SMS alert tone, earning him irritated hisses from the fellow patrons of the cinema. He had forgotten to switch off the phone or set it in silent mode, and grimaced as he heard annoyed muttering from the person sitting beside him as he fumbled with his phone. He scanned the short message and was stunned upon the revelation. _'Wow…cousins, huh?'_ Manny found himself unable to concentrate on the rest of the movie.

xxx

xxx

"Wow," Adam murmured as JD switched on the bedroom light. "Your room is _big_."

His eyes examined the bedroom with rapt interest. It was a spacious rectangular room with two handsome wooden double-sized beds of similar design. The bed at the center of the bedroom had crimson plain bedspread, while the one set by the wall was white with gray and black abstract designs. Both beds had two pillows and a bolster, and they were set apart by two brown bedside cabinets. A dark green carpet covered a portion of the parquet floor beside the crimson bed and pre-installed cream-colored cabinets lined the walls six feet from the crimson bed, extending all the way to the ceiling. Six feet across the crimson bed was a TV cabinet, with a 21-inch television, a DVD player and a Playstation-2 videogame console. Across the white bed was a long L-shaped table – a study table with drawers adjoining a computer table. Two black steel chairs with red cushions were pushed under the tables. A computer was seen, the CPU tucked in nicely beneath the computer table. Wired to the computer were two moderate-sized speakers with subwoofers. Bookshelves were affixed on the walls overlooking the tables, and above the TV cabinet. The study table had several stacked notebooks and a black study lamp. Adam could see various PMR study books – all seemingly used, lining the book shelf by the study table. Many other books, some used SPM mock-examination books and a plethora collection of comics dominated the shelf above the TV cabinet. The floor between the table and the beds were covered with dark green carpet as well, and in front of the TV cabinet was a large cushion. There was a window with dark green curtains, and above the window was the air-conditioner which kept the room cool. Four white spotlights lined the four corners of the room's plaster ceilings.

JD chuckled as he pulled Adam's luggage bag inside the room. "_Our_ room," he said with a grin as he plopped down on the crimson bed, lying on his back easily with his arms spread.

Adam smiled quietly and placed his schoolbag at the corner of the door, where a bucket for worn clothes was placed. He sat down tentatively on the white-sheet bed.

"What if your brother comes home?" Adam asked. "Will he mind me sleeping on his bed?"

"Don't worry your head about it, Adam. He rarely comes home because he's so busy with his practical trainings he rarely has time to come back. Even if he does return, it doesn't matter. Jade _always_ sleeps in the guestroom whenever he comes back," JD said. "He doesn't like being distracted whenever he's dating those huge textbooks of his, and I can be very distracting with the video games or the computer or the TV," he added with a smirk.

"Oh…"

Both of them became silence as Adam took in the bedroom's appearance, while JD was lost in deep thought. After the revelation of them being cousins, JD was happy, but that was slightly marred due to an uneasy fact which had been bothering his mind. He'd been good at hiding it, but now it was troubling him again. He thought that they had it settled – Adam had said that he had forgiven him then.

"Something's bothering you?" Adam asked, apparently noticing his cousin's troubled look. "You look like you have the world's problem burdened on your shoulders."

JD snorted and rolled on his side, plopping a hand to support his head.

"I was just thinking…about my ShadoWira days."

Adam observed JD quietly, he himself was reminded of their several encounters when JD was the Red ShadoWira – and all of them had not been good. Several attempted killings, one kidnapping, several beating-ups, and cruel trickeries…Adam had been on the receiving ends of possessed-JD's never-ending onslaughts back then. Adam admitted that up to the point until their meeting at the Dark Ocean, he'd loathed the blonde teenager greatly. That changed when JD stuck up with him against Dragomon, and did all he could to save him from the demonic sea creature, at the cost of his own life.

And now he saw the blonde looking so ashamed of himself. Obviously, JD was also thinking the same thing Adam was.

"To think that I've almost killed my own flesh and blood…"

Adam sighed. "JD…are you still at it again? I've told you…"

"Adam, obviously it's _not_ ok. I've tried forgetting about it, but it just kept coming back these past few days, especially after your seeming death. Now, after knowing that you're my family, I've been thinking a lot these past few hours…what if I actually killed you back then…at the Megalith Coliseum, or at Shadow Realm, or during that final fight…aghhh!! Damn that Karatenmon and SkullSatamon!" JD rose from the bed and stared at Adam. "How _can_ you forget those kinds of things, especially when it's you who've been on the receiving ends of all those stuffs I've done to you?"

Admittedly, Adam never had forgotten any of that. But he'd learned to separate the fact that the Red ShadoWira and JD were two different people. It was hard, and he hadn't still gotten the chance to get to know JD well. While the other DigiWira had gotten themselves acquainted with the eldest DigiWira, Adam had been preoccupied by the Puaka Generals. Other than their Dark Ocean experience, they hadn't had the chance to get to know each other more, and Adam didn't know whether he should count out the brief friendship they had when JD was the Red ShadoWira.

Nevertheless, now that they know that they were a family, this would be the perfect time for them to bond, not only as friends but also as family.

"One person I know once told me, that it's not wise to dwell in thoughts of what might have happened," Adam said with a firm, but soft, voice. "Because it will only eat you alive. Trust me…_I know_. What's important is that you didn't do it with your own free will, and that you were prevented from doing much worse. It's best if you just let it go. Besides, Karatenmon is gone, and one day, SkullSatamon will be too." The dark-haired DigiWira smiled warmly. "And…I don't blame you. Nor should you."

JD stared at Adam, moved by the words uttered by his younger cousin. Despite his young features, Adam's eyes looked beyond his years.

"Thanks, Adam." The blonde then gave him a crooked grin. "_You_ sound like the older, wiser one between the two of us. I thought _I _should be that for us?"

Adam looked like he was trying to suppress a wide grin as he tilted his head sideways ever-so-slightly. "Don't worry. You're still older…"

JD blinked. He didn't know that Adam could be witty as well. Then, he laughed and gestured with his head for Adam to sit by him, and the boy obliged. "You've told us about the Lost Mountain and your meetings with the three lady Digimon staying there. But what happened before that?"

Adam leaned his back against the bed's railing. "Let's just say I've had some turning-point experience."

"Nuh-uh. Not good enough," JD said, wiggling his index finger left and right. "Details."

And so, Adam told JD about his encounter with Grademon and his past demons. He hadn't told it to anyone yet, not even his sister, for he didn't want it to be dismissed as a dream. Because, it had been so real for him, all the pain and all the sadness, followed by a feeling of a heavy burden being lifted from his shoulders, and Grademon's advices constantly ringing in his mind…that all _had_ to be real, Adam thought. He described everything to JD, who listened to his cousin intently, realizing that he was now receiving the answers to some things that he'd been wondering.

Half an hour later, Adam finished his story after telling about his parting with Grademon. He smiled slightly. "Sorry if I bored you."

"What? No way," JD said. "Those are pretty powerful stuffs you've experienced, Adam."

"You believed me?"

"Hey, if you said that it's real, then it's real."

"You don't think that it's so hard to believe?"

JD gave Adam his lopsided grin. "Well, maybe. But so is a talking hamster and baby T-rex, or humans merging with those two animals to become…say…an angelic knight and a dragon knight. But, they're real, as you and I know. To top it off, someone I know has miraculously come back from an apparent death, so…nope, it's not so hard to believe."

Adam smiled gratefully. "Thanks, JD."

"No prob, cousin."

They were quiet for a brief few minutes. Then Adam spoke up.

"How come you're so nice to me and the other DigiWira, but with people at school, you're…uh…"

"Rotten? Bad-tempered? Just plain nasty?" JD asked.

Adam frowned. "I was going to say 'not so nice'…but you're not that far off…"

JD plopped down on the mattress, looking at the ceiling. "It's kinda hard being different from everyone, y'know. At first there were the nicer ones of the lot, but then there were the shitty ones…all because I look different. After a while I just decided not to let anyone in. And it didn't really help that these few years had been rough for me, but I'm glad that it's changing."

"I don't understand."

JD then explained about his family's situation, and he elaborated more on it from the explanation he'd given Manny a few days ago, seeing that Adam was a part of the family and now that he was staying with them, it would be best for the boy to have some insight about the family's situation so that he would not end up confused should he saw things that didn't seem fit.

"You know…" JD said, after spending about half an hour explaining. "I'm glad that the Red DigiSphere chose me to be its wielder…sans the ShadoWira part, in a way. But somehow, that too, worked in a mysterious way. It helped Mom and Dad to become closer to each other again. It led me to you, and the others."

Adam smiled. "Everything does happen for a reason."

"It does, doesn't it?"

Several minutes more passed in companionable silence, before their Juara Digivices beeped.

"_Can we come out now, Adam?"_ Patamon's voice rang out from Adam's Juara Digivice.

"_Out. Want out…"_ Salamon and Gatomon chanted pleadingly.

"_Josh…?"_ Agumon asked inquiringly from JD's Juara Digivice.

The cousins laughed and released the Digimon from the Juara Digivices. The Digimon – sans Agumon – stared wide-eyed around the room. Salamon and Gatomon quickly made their way onto the bed where Adam would be sleeping at and snuggled against the pillows, earning an indignant huff from Patamon. Agumon merely sat on the large cushion in front of the TV cabinet.

"Make yourself at home, like you should," JD said as he rose up sharply. He reached for a red towel hung on the towel-dryer beside his bed. "I'm gonna take a shower, and then we'll figure out what to do after that. Maybe watch a movie, or play some videogames, or if you want I can help you unpack. Sounds good to you?"

Adam nodded. He had just showered back at his apartment when they went back there to collect all the stuffs he'd need to have while staying with JD.

"Ok, JD."

"Great." JD went towards the door and was about to pull up his shirt when he paused. He turned back, and said to Adam, "Josh."

"Hmm?"

"You're family. Call me Josh."

"Alright…Josh." Adam saw a satisfied look crossed the older teen's face before the blonde exited the room, and the shirt Josh was wearing went flying from outside the room, landing carelessly on the sides of the worn-clothes basket. Adam shook his head and smiled wistfully as he was reminded of what his Aunt Leeanna had mentioned about JD's messiness. He went to the bed he was supposed to sleep at.

Feeling slightly tired, he rested his head on the pillow and let his thoughts flowed freely in his head. _'So it's true what they say; every cloud has a silver lining…'_

When JD had finished with his shower, he saw that his cousin was already asleep peacefully, surrounded by three slumbering Rookies. Agumon was the only one who was still awake.

"The four of them have been asleep for about fifteen minutes," Agumon said.

JD shook his head, slightly amused as he ran a hand on his damp hair. He looked at his cousin and smiled wistfully. "Sleep tight, cuz." Then, he grinned to no one in particular. _'I wonder how the others reacted when they got our SMS.' _

JD was about to make way for the cupboard when he noticed something blinking silently on the desk. It couldn't be his cell phone, because he didn't own one – the one he had was destroyed by the MetalPhantomon when he infiltrated the Shadow Realm. It must be Adam's phone. Quickly he went by the desk and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"…_Can I speak to Adam Ariff, please?"_

The voice belonged to an unfamiliar adult male. JD looked at his slumbering cousin. "He's sleeping. I'm his cousin; who's this?" He smirked slightly at his introduction to the caller.

The voice on the other end of the line paused, as if slightly taken aback by Josh's blunt directness. That person then cleared his throat and said primly, _"I'm Dr. Abu, Alisha Ariff's doctor. I'm calling about your cousin."_

JD stiffened and gazed at Adam once again. It was hard to determine whether this Dr. Abu was bringing good news or bad news. The doctor's voice was kept neutral, and JD thought that his brother Jade had also begun to sound like it. "How is she?" he asked. He listened to the doctor's explanation, his eyes widened briefly. "Oh…" He nodded. "I'll tell him."

xxx

xxx

In the Digital World, something sinister was about to take place.

In the middle of a bleak forest with dark-leaved vegetations, there stood a massive black step pyramid. Similar to the Cave of Solitude, the Shadow Realm and the Blackmoore Bastion, this place was generally avoided by many for its history. Three centuries ago, it had been the gathering place of five of the most fearsome villains of all other than SkullSatamon. It had been said that while they were SkullSatamon's generals, their powers were one that SkullSatamon himself was wary upon, for they worked as one and thus, were the most difficult to defeat.

The Darkshadow Brethren was formed after the downfall of the Mage and Dryad Generals – the first two generals who were successfully sealed by Grademon. Individually, Grademon with aid of his mystical DigiSpheres was said to be very powerful compared to any general. Therefore, the remaining generals had decided that it would be best if they formed a coven.

Mephistomon and Phelesmon were said to have been belonged in the coven of darkened Digimon as well, but had diverged upon having somehow attained the ability to become a Mega Digimon via DNA Digivolution – a feat the other Darkshadow Brethren members were unable to reach at the time. Proud of their newfound power, the two dark Digimon denounced their coven and worked as two individuals, focusing on trouncing those bearing the power of light. After successfully defeating the Saintly Siblings, they corrupted the two heavenly beings into their fallen forms of NeoDevimon and LadyDevimon, and used them as decoys. When Grademon had gotten hold of news about the Puaka Generals, Mephistomon and Phelesmon had made sure that their titles would point towards the corrupted Saintly Siblings instead of them. That led to the siblings being imprisoned first. After that the real Puaka Generals engaged Grademon in a titanic battle which lasted for two days before Grademon proved to be the victor. Overpowered by the mighty warrior, the Puaka Generals assumed their unstable DNA-Mega form of Gulfmon to fight against Grademon, but were trounced when Grademon turned the tables upon them. Using his DigiSpheres, _he_ too ascended to Mega level and was able to force Gulfmon to dedigivolve into his composite selves before imprisoning them.

Seeing that Grademon was able to digivolve into Mega form, and into a powerful one at that, the rest of the Darkshadow Brethren grew worried. However their leader, the Hellion General, possessed power strong enough to eclipse a normal Mega. It was said that the Hellion General had come across into an artifact which had given him the additional power. Thus Grademon changed his tactic and attacked the other brethrens, sealing them one by one in four separate places. To counter the Hellion General, Grademon once again assumed his Mega form and managed to cut the artifact which was powering the Hellion General into half. The Hellion General lost his profound power, and by being only an Ultimate Digimon, Grademon was able to seal him. However, before he was doomed into eternal imprisonment the Hellion General managed to retrieve half of the destroyed artifact and took it with him. Grademon then took the other half, and upon seeing that it was colored the purest of white, he gave it the name Ivory Gem and purified it with the White DigiSphere's power of light.

Then came the final battle with SkullSatamon, where both Grademon and his enemy assumed their Mega forms to fight each other out. Grademon's Mega form was not enough to counter SkullSatamon's Mega form, but with the additional power of the Ivory Gem Grademon's Mega form underwent a transformation and he was able to force his enemy back into his usual Ultimate form and back into the Horror Hall. Using the power he had, he then erected an impenetrable barrier around the castle, dooming SkullSatamon into an eternal live containment.

Four humanoid figures climbed the stairs of the step pyramid in silent anticipation, with Sorcerymon and Shutumon following them quietly from behind. The two servants of SkullSatamon couldn't shake the feeling of awe they were having over the sight of the powerful generals that they had released this past few days, after the Puaka Generals' defeat. SkullSatamon had then directed them to the location where the Hellion General was imprisoned, and from the Hellion General they had gotten the locations of the other four generals who had worked alongside the Hellion General three centuries ago, before they were sealed by Grademon.

"I can't believe it, Shutumon!" Sorcerymon whispered gleefully. "The Darkshadow Brethren! They're going to take the matters on their own hands."

"I know…" Shutumon returned, looking at the nearest general warily as they reached the top of the step pyramid.

Walking quietly into the pyramid, Sorcerymon and Shutumon saw that the Hellion General was standing in the middle of the hall behind the entrance. Two columns of light were seen, housing the Rookie forms of the Puaka Generals.

"My brethrens…" the Hellion General said, expanding his arms wide in welcoming his guests. "It has been TOO long. I see that everyone is here…"

"_Majin General_…" the Hellion General said, eyeing a demon in dark pin-striped suit with long white hair and a black manteau. He was wielding a machinegun.

"_Kappa General_…" The Hellion General observed a peculiar humanoid in white garb underneath green scaled armors with blue hair and small yellow beak as his mouth.

"_Shaman General_…" The said general was a humanoid fox with purple fur garbed in light gray Taoist monk robe.

"And last, but certainly not least, _Virago General_." A lynx woman with long fiery red hair sauntered frontward, in front of the other general. She was scantily clad in nothing more than a pair of scarlet metallic breast-clasps and light yellow pants.

"Not forgetting, of course, our renegade brethrens the _Puaka Generals_," the Hellion General said snidely as he cocked his head towards the beam which held Renamon. He flicked his blond hair haughtily as a wild sneer escaped his violet-painted lips. "Defeated by the Wira Digital, they have been reduced to Rookies. This proves that those five children are powerful opponents indeed." His ice blue eyes glinted as he flexed his angelic and demonic wings. "They are now resting back at their home world…and for now, we let them be. We will gather back all of our forces – our imprisoned brutes and those who have followed us centuries ago."

The Majin, Kappa, Shaman and Virago Generals murmured their agreements. The Hellion General's blue eyes glinted malevolently as he pumped his fist upwards. "And then, we will invade their world and lay waste to where they are weakest. When we are finished, there will be no love and happiness! Only greed, jealousy, _anger and CHAOS!"_ The Hellion General's voice increased as he finished his sentence. "To the Darkshadow Brethren and to the Master!" he exclaimed with valor.

"To the Darkshadow Brethren and to the Master!" the other generals shouted.

The Hellion General smiled and set his eyes towards the entrance, where two Champion Digimon were standing. "Sorcerymon, Shutumon, we will give you two weeks to free _all_ of the imprisoned Digimon. Set them free and have them gather at our Onyx Pyramid."

xxx

xxx

"You got any plans for today?" JD asked his cousin that Sunday morning, during breakfast.

Adam shook his head silently – his mind elsewhere as he idly stirred the spoon inside his cup of iced Milo. His thoughts were always about his sister. And apparently, it was very obvious.

"Thinking about your sister?" JD asked before spooning a generous amount of fried noodles into his mouth.

Adam nodded, now idly reaching for the fried noodles Bibik had prepared for them that morning. He didn't quite have an appetite.

JD was reminded of what Dr. Abu had told him the previous night. He wondered what would be the best way to inform the news to his cousin.

"I'll accompany you to visit Kak Lisha again today," JD offered. With them being cousin, it was only appropriate for him to address Adam's sister as 'Kak Lisha' despite the fact that he called his own older siblings by their names. But then again, Alisha was older than any of them and that was how Adam addressed his sister, so JD would go with that.

"Thanks, Josh," the offer finally prompted Adam to speak again after a brief moment of silent.

JD didn't blame Adam for his silence. He knew that it was awkward for Adam to adjust himself to his new surroundings. That coupled with his ongoing anxiety about his sister's condition bound to make someone who was usually lively to be downhearted and fairly inhibited.

Since both Johan and Leeanna were not home that morning – it was their second meeting with their marriage counselor – Adam and JD went to the hospital by taxi, alongside the three Digimon which they contained in their Juara Digivices. JD followed Adam quietly as the boy navigated the corridors of the fairly crowded private hospital of the town with apparent ease – noting that Adam would have no trouble finding his way to search for Alisha's ward blindfolded. JD also noticed the somewhat lackluster mood that Adam had – he didn't seem to be rushing, as if preparing himself to see the unresponsive body of his sister again today, like any other day.

They reached the single room ward where Alisha was registered, and Adam pushed the door quietly. JD heard a soft gasp coming from Adam, and went into the ward with a sigh. He saw a pristine white room, but _nobody_ was around. The room was empty. From the looks of it, the room had just been cleaned up – the faint smell of floor soap was still evident.

"Where…where is Kak Lisha?" Adam said, shivering. "She…she can't move…she's unconscious…what if she…"

Adam lost his voice as he thought of the worst possible thing that could've happened. What if his sister had passed away? His vision blurred and he buried his head onto the pristine white-sheeted mattress.

"Adam…" JD said, feeling guilty instantly for keeping the news from his cousin. He didn't expect it to be this way. The door opened quietly again.

Adam sobbed softly onto the bed when he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. He ignored it, thinking that it was JD. Then he froze upon hearing a familiar voice.

"Adam, why are you crying?"

He whipped his head up and saw the smiling face of his sister. She was sitting on a wheelchair, and was garbed in a white patient gown and a light pink headscarf loosely pinned on her head, and underneath the headscarf Adam could see that her head was bandaged. Her left leg was bandaged and her right leg plastered.

Despite that, she was alive, and was now smiling softly at Adam. Behind her was the black-haired doctor with a small unshaven stub of beard on his chin. Dr. Abu – and he was navigating Alisha's wheelchair.

"Kak Lisha!" Adam said, surprised. "You…you're alive! Oh, thank God…" He made a motion to embrace his sister when Dr. Abu stopped him.

"I don't think it's a good idea to do that, Adam," he said apologetically. "Your sister's rib bones are healing, so I won't advice any hugging for the time being."

At that, Adam abruptly stopped. Alisha then took Adam's hands and grasped them tight.

"How are you, Adam? Dr. Abu says that you're here almost everyday, waiting for me to wake up…" Alisha said, concerned more about her brother's well-being than her own. "I'm sorry to worry you…it must've been horrible for you…" She stared into his brother's eyes, knowing that Adam must have been feeling terrified. Their parents and brother had passed away due to a fatal accident, and now she too was involved in a car accident that had left her in coma for more than a week.

She glanced towards the blond-haired teen that was accompanying Adam, and thought that he looked vaguely familiar as she saw the teen looking nervous all of a sudden.

Adam thought about what had happened – the Puaka Generals' cruel trickery in impersonating their late brother Aizad. He thought that there was no use worrying his sister about it, as the Puaka Generals were already deleted. Besides, Dr. Abu was with them and he didn't know about the Digimon.

"I…I'm ok. What matters is that you've finally woken up," Adam finally said happily. He then looked at Dr. Abu wonderingly. "I thought you said you're going to call…?"

Dr. Abu looked mildly surprised. "I _did_ call you. Last night…you were asleep and your cousin answered the phone. I've told him that your sister has woken up last night."

At this, Adam glared at JD, who smiled sheepishly. He stood up and marched quickly towards JD. "You…you…jerk!!" Adam said, pounding JD's arm once. "You should've told me! I was so worried!" His face was red and his eyes shining.

"Heh…heh…surprise?" JD grinned, while wincing inwardly as his cousin's punch was a little bit more forceful than he'd anticipated. Well, he deserved it. Adam groaned in frustration.

"Cousin?" Alisha asked, confused. She stared at JD, wondering how in the world the Caucasian-looking teen would be related to them.

Seeing his sister alive and recovering however caused Adam's brief frustration at JD's antic to evaporate. He returned to his sister and beckoned for JD to come sit by him. Dr. Abu sensed that this was going to be a family moment and excused himself.

Adam took a deep breath, feeling very happy after a long period of sadness. "Kak Lisha, we've got _a lot_ of catching up to do…"

xxx

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**Author's Notes:**

Quite a surprising chapter, is it not? The idea of making Adam and JD cousins stemmed from a real life occurrence I saw somewhat recently – where two friends of mine, who were merely acquaintances with one another, suddenly realized that they somehow shared one common ancestry. They had the same great-great grandparents or something like that. Having seen this made me decide to think up of a plot which ties Adam and JD as second cousins. Luckily I have never expanded on JD's history prior to this chapter, despite his mixed heritage provides for an interesting back story. Now there's a bit of drama I suppose for the story.

Prior to Malaysia's independence in 1957, the locals' impression of foreigners were not good. That continued for years after the country reached independence, but has simmered down considerably as time passed by. Mixed marriages during those times were generally quite frowned upon, although some accepted it.

And that thing about JD being puked-on by baby Adam – the same thing happened to me with a baby cousin of mine, years ago.

Here's a basic guideline to Adam-JD familial relationship.

_Adam, Alisha – _JD's second cousins

_JD, Jade, Jas – _Adam and Alisha's second cousins

_Tuk Awang_ – Both Adam and JD's great-grandfather.

_Awaludin_ – JD's grandfather, Adam's granduncle, Tuk Awang's eldest son.

_Johan_ – JD's father, Adam's cousin-once-removed, Ariff's cousin

_Ariff_ – Adam's father, JD's cousin-once-removed, Johan's cousin

_Zul_ – Both Adam and JD's cousin-once-removed. Zul is their fathers' cousin, but is the same age as Adam.

_Ariff and Aleza – _Adam's deceased parents

_Johan and Leeanna – _JD's parents

Five generals have been revealed and I'm sure you'd be aware of their identities by now. Anyhow, guess away.

**Glossary:**

_MAS – _Abbreviation for Malaysia Airlines.

_Subang International Airport –_ Subang International Airport was Malaysia's international airport until Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) opened later in 1998.

I've made a drawing of the younger versions of Adam and JD, but with a slightly different rendition from the description in this chapter. You can check it out at my Photobucket site, the link is there at my profile. Thanks. :D


	36. Dawn of Darkshadow

"Oh, WOW!! This is so CUTE!" Gayathri gushed as she looked at the picture Adam was showing her. She took the picture and showed it to Liu Ying.

Liu Ying looked at the picture, and raised her eyes to look at the cousins Adam and JD who were sitting across the table. She looked down again and a smile tugged on her mouth.

"Who would've thought?" she murmured. It was the picture Adam and JD had taken together during their first meeting, more than 10 years ago.

"It's been _two weeks_ and I still have a hard time believing that you two are actually cousins!" Gayathri said.

JD chuckled. "See…" he said, pointing at his three-year-old self in the picture. "I was as handsome then as I am now," he declared smugly.

"Yeah…you were _so_ handsome that I actually vomited upon the sight of you," Adam murmured with a barely concealed smile.

"Oh yeah?!" JD caught his cousin in an unexpected but playful headlock. "Say that again, I dare you," he mock-threatened.

"Ack!! Let go, Josh!!"

"Wait, you threw up on JD?" Gayathri giggled. "This I've got to hear."

JD grimaced as Adam laughed while still being strained by him. "According to my mom, when I tried to lift him I held him by the stomach, and _it_ happened. And HE was the one who cried!"

"Bad idea," Liu Ying said, shaking her head. "Same thing happened to me once when I did that to my little brother." She scrunched her nose but let out an amused smile at the same time.

Two weeks had passed and Adam had fitted in nicely in his new living arrangement. His sister might have woken up from her coma, but she was still confined to the hospital and would need regular monitoring, medications and physiotherapy that the doctor advised it would be better for her to remain at the hospital. It wouldn't be for another month or two before she would be released.

Alisha was just as astounded as Adam had been upon discovering that JD and his family were their relatives, but took it as a sign that luck was finally shining upon them. Johan and Leeanna had assured Alisha that they were more than happy to have Adam staying at their house. And, it looked like Adam too had benefited a lot from staying with JD. He had lightened up considerably, and the aura of sadness that constantly hung around him was gradually diminishing.

As for JD, he had taken Adam in as a little brother he'd never had. That resulted with him comically hovering around Adam the first few days at school after the discovery. Many wondered of this recent development until words got out that the two of them were cousins – and that got people into a frenzied gossiping. How could Adam – a generally good boy in many teachers' eyes – and JD – classic bad boy and renowned troublemaker – be related? Even the teachers had been noticed to be giving Adam extra-long thoughtful looks. To add to the strangeness of their relation was the fact that JD appeared very Caucasian, despite having one-fourth of the Malay blood in him. And to Adam's dismay many girls had approached him with 1001 questions about his cousin, seeing that JD was the only Caucasian in the school and that had automatically made him one of the school's male heartthrob. Many people were just plain curious about him, and JD wasn't the most sociable person in their eyes. Several days ago all the approaching had stopped, to his relief – only for him to find out that it was JD who had issued a warning that no one was to bug Adam in _any_ way, or they would be answering to him.

Yes, it took quite a lot of getting used to, but the cousins were happy with it. And their fellow DigiWira friends were happy with it as well.

"I hate to break up your family moment, but…" Liu Ying deadpanned as she looked at her fellow teammates. There were only four of them. One was missing. "…where's Manny?"

JD released Adam and exchanged grins with Gayathri. "Actually, our meeting today _is_ about Manny," Gayathri began.

"Tomorrow is his 14th birthday," JD supplied. He looked at his watch. "He should be here in ten minutes or so. I purposely told him to come here at KFC at half-past three, but have all of us here half an hour earlier…" he lurked a glance towards Gayathri who was sitting opposite Adam.

"…to plan out a special birthday celebration for him," Gayathri continued, nodding at JD. The four DigiWira then huddled close to the table they were sharing.

"How did you know about his birthday? I'm his classmate and he's been pretty quiet about it," Liu Ying wondered.

"Maybe he doesn't want to make a big deal about this," JD supplied. "I only know about it because he briefly mentioned it when the two of us were in the Digital World."

"And I've confirmed it with Manny's mother last night – Manny's birthday is indeed this Saturday, 26th March," Gayathri smiled.

"So this means that this will be his first birthday here in Peninsular Malaysia," Adam said thoughtfully. "We have to make it extra special."

"Any ideas?" Gayathri asked, looking at the other DigiWira. "I've asked the counter guy whether we could organize Manny's birthday here this Saturday, but turns out that someone else has already booked this place for Saturday. And McDonald is booked this Saturday too while Canai and Such mamak café says that they are usually packed on weekends although they don't have any problem if we want to celebrate Manny's birthday there. However we go there quite often, so I don't feel like having Manny's birthday there. Unfortunately, right now I'm out of ideas." She had spoken so rapidly and enthusiastically that she was now out of breath as she eyed her fellow DigiWira.

"Well, what does Manny love doing?" Liu Ying asked.

"Computers," Adam supplied promptly. "But PC Fair's not until this coming August."

JD grinned. "Water," he said. His hazel eyes glinted. "And I know just the perfect…"

"Hi, everyone!" Manny suddenly appeared from the stairs which led him to the second-floor of the KFC restaurant, where the other DigiWira were currently at. "Wow, looks like everyone's here," he murmured as he approached the table where his friends were sitting at. He saw them huddling close to each other and frowned for a moment. The frown then evaporated into a somewhat knowing smile which was barely concealed with a blank expression. "What are you up to?"

Manny's choice of question struck the others as odd, and caught them slightly off guard.

"Up to?" Adam asked back, wide-eyed and panicked.

"UP TO?" Gayathri's voice was slightly shrill and she shared Adam's astounded expression.

"Up to?" Liu Ying asked, wondering of Manny's choice of words.

"Uh…we…we…" Gayathri began, looking at her teammates frantically as she tried to think up of a reason.

"We…uh…" Adam supplied unhelpfully. Manny had caught him off-guard.

JD lifted the paper containers of potato wedgies and the French fries and pushed the tray towards Manny. "We want you to get us some fried chickens," he said easily.

"That's it! Chickens!" Adam chirped, clapping his hands once for effect.

"Lots of chickens!" Gayathri added with an excited glint in her brown eyes. "And potato wedgies and fries and some drinks too."

"But…all of you have drinks and fries and wedgies already," Manny pointed out, confused.

"Oh, we're hungry and we need more of them. And shouldn't you get something to eat too?" Adam said, and promptly stood up. "Come on, I'll help you. Uhh…Josh…?"

JD smirked and took out a hundred-ringgit note from his pocket and gave it to Adam. "My treat, guys," he said, effectively stopping the girls from pulling out their purses. "Original-recipe chickens for me, ok Adam? Three pieces." He looked at the girls. "What do you girls want?"

"Spicy for me," Gayathri said. "Two pieces."

"Same for me," Liu Ying concurred, raising her hand partially. "Don't forget the coleslaw and mashed potatoes."

"Hey, what am I, the waiter here?" Adam grumbled lightly as he tried to remember all the orders.

"Nope. You and Manny can get anything you guys want too," JD replied with a grin.

"Got it," Adam said and dragged the confused Manny away.

When Manny and Adam disappeared the remaining three DigiWira heaved their breath in relief. "So? What place do you have in mind?" Gayathri asked.

JD grinned and beckoned for the two girls to lean towards him as he explained his plan. Gayathri and Liu Ying smiled and nodded approvingly.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 36 – Dawn of Darkshadow**_

xxx

xxx

The four DigiWira guided a blindfolded Manny as they made their way towards a building with bright colors. Manny had fumbled a couple of times, and was having a hard time trying to discern where he was at. He could feel the warm morning sun on his arms; he could hear excited squeals of children and sounds of several people running about. He also caught the sounds of water spattered about. But he had no idea where he was at.

"Come on, guys…I know today's my birthday," Manny protested as JD pushed him from the back. "I appreciate that you guys are taking me somewhere to celebrate, but can I have this blindfold off? JD tied it a little too tight…"

The other DigiWira glared at JD as they arrived at the entrance of Sunway Lagoon Theme Park. The famous dry and wet theme park was located beside the equally-famous Sunway Pyramid – a shopping complex built in the shape of a pyramid with a lion statue guarding its front, akin to the pyramids of Egypt. The pyramid part however only held the concourse; the rest of the shopping complex was inside a normal-shaped building but with walls etched with Egyptian designs on the exterior. Inside, however, was modernly designed but with statues and fountains of various nations' architectures added for good measures. Both attractions were situated in the town of Sunway which was adjacent to Subang Jaya, the town where the DigiWira were staying at.

The five of them paused at the ticket entrance and took off the blindfold from Manny. "Ta-DA!" Adam and Gayathri chorused. "SURPRISE!" Liu Ying smiled and JD chuckled as all of them watched Manny's mouth formed an 'O' shape in delighted surprise.

Manny had wanted to come here for years, but having stayed at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah before this made it difficult for him to go there. Never did he suspect that his DigiWira friends would be taking him here. He had expected them to come up with a surprise – that much his little sister Debbie had accidentally revealed the night before – but he'd never expected to have his dream come true.

"Happy birthday!" Adam, JD, Liu Ying and Gayathri chorused, before noticing that Manny was standing there with a frozen expression.

"Hey, you ok there, birthday boy?" JD asked, waving a hand in front of Manny's face.

Manny blinked. "It's just…well…I've been wanting to come here for a long time," he said. "Thank you."

Now that the blindfold had been taken off from him, Manny saw that each DigiWira was carrying a small bag with them. They were also dressed for the occasion and for the warm day. Adam was in a beige T-shirt with crimson collars and short sleeves, and blue jeans. JD was in a red muscle T-shirt with black abstract designs, and black jeans, and he wore a loose band made out of wooden beads hanging around his neck. Liu Ying wore a light yellow blouse and light blue jeans that extended to her knees, and Gayathri's choice of outfit was a pink top and a dark blue denim shorts. And Manny was wearing a dark blue, long sleeved T-shirt tucked in a pair of white khakis that went just above his knees.

All of them had their Juara Digivices clipped on their belts – their Digimon partners had been digitized inside the devices. They were able to see what their partners saw, and the DigiWira had found out that they could digitize foods too inside the Juara Digivices for the partners to eat – they'd just have to make sure that they would finish the foods.

"And here's your bag," Gayathri said, handing Manny a small blue sling bag. "Your mom packed it up for you, with extra pairs of clothes, swimming clothes, and anything else you'd need."

Manny took the bag gratefully and looked at his friends. "I'm so lucky to have friends like you," he said.

That took the DigiWira off guard. "Well, we're feeling pretty lucky ourselves," JD chuckled, and gestured with his head towards the ticket office. "I'll get the tickets."

Manny reached for his wallet, but JD stopped him. "Hey, birthday boy, don't worry about it. It's on us!"

"I can't impose on you like that…"

"Relax, Manny. You're not imposing on anything." JD took out several vouchers from his own wallet. "My mom got these for me – discount vouchers, up till 30 percent. And I think for birthday occasions they'd have it until 50 percent...it's around here somewhere. So all of us are actually benefiting here from your birthday…like commensalisms, or something, I forgot."

"Symbiosis," Adam and Liu Ying both amended the blonde simultaneously.

JD shrugged, grinned and slinked off towards the ticket counter. Adam turned towards Manny and added, "Symbiosis not only because we'll be getting discounts because of you're birthday, but actually, _none_ of us have been here yet."

"Oh…why's that? You all live close enough to come every day if you wanted to," Manny said.

"That's the thing," Gayathri said with a smile. "We live close enough to here, that we've constantly putting off coming here. Sunway Lagoon, I mean…I came to Sunway Pyramid with Dina and Bel _loads_ of time. But it never really occurred to me to come here. It's like I didn't really have a good reason to come here…"

"…until now," Liu Ying said. "And it has been a while since I've been here, mall and theme park both."

"And I've got to say, I'm glad that we're making this our very first non-Digital World outing," Adam concluded smilingly.

Manny took in all the explanations with a bashful smile. "Thanks, guys. It's perfect."

"It'll be even _more _perfect if we brought a birthday cake along, but the park has a strict no outside food allowed policy," Gayathri said.

Manny shook his head. "There's no need to get me a cake, guys. I'm completely happy now as it is."

"Really?" Adam pouted, which then morphed into a grin. "I think Josh has vouchers for those _Secret Recipe_'s delicious chocolate cakes and brownies…we planned to take you there after this." He grinned upon seeing Manny's astonished face.

"Your parents allowed us to take you out the whole day, and make sure that you'll be at that Thai restaurant in Sunway Pyramid at seven o'clock tonight. We have lots of time," Gayathri said. "And here's the best part; your parents want ALL DigiWira to be present. That means _we'll_ be joining you as well. We'll celebrate your birthday from morning till night!"

"It's really lucky for all of us that today is a free Saturday," Liu Ying said.

"If that's so, we'll get the cake before going to the restaurant," Adam said, and beamed. "This is great! I love Siamese foods."

Manny had never felt so happy before. "You guys have it all planned out, haven't you?"

"Of course," Gayathri enthused before gesturing towards the entrance. "I see JD's gotten our tickets. Let's go then."

Inside, Manny was swelling with happiness. His friends had arranged one surprise after another just for him. And to think that he had doubts prior on moving to Subang Jaya from Kota Kinabalu… he might have known the other DigiWira for about a month but already, they were a tight-knit group. Gayathri was his neighbor and he liked the girl – and their relationship had been going on well after the whole ShadoWira mess, but nothing was declared. Liu Ying was a helpful classmate and the cousins Adam and JD hadn't forgotten to include him in any of their activity.

Upon learning the fact that Adam and JD were cousins, Manny had his reservation, thinking that he'd be left out from the guys. However, that was not the case as the cousins didn't forget to include him in any activity they had planned together, other than those concerning their family. He had even spent a night once with them, just the previous weekend.

Being DigiWira had instigated a powerful bond between all five of them, and Adam's apparent 'sacrifice' during the fight with VenomDevimon had made them appreciate each other even more.

'_How lucky can a new kid in town can be?'_ Manny thought smilingly as he showed his ticket to the guard at the gate.

xxx

xxx

Three hours passed by swiftly before the DigiWira gathered at a vacant table. Their bags were currently stored in coin-activated lockers.

"That was so fun!" Manny said cheerfully as he sat down on one of the benches near the wooden table under a shady tree nearby the Wagon Wheel ride.

"You could say that again," Adam said as he plopped down beside Manny. His hair was in disarray as he didn't share Manny's and JD's preference of using liberal amount of hair gel. But with one run of hand through the straight bangs and his dark hair fell back in places once again.

"Ugh…" Liu Ying groaned, looking pale. She was rubbing her stomach. She looked like she was going to be sick.

JD and Gayathri were both holding trays of burgers and soft drinks which they had bought from a kiosk nearby. They had their lunches, exchanging their stories of what was the most exciting ride from all that had been featured at Sunway Lagoon's Dry Theme Park.

"I love Pirates' Revenge!" Adam enthused as he took a generous bite on his burger. He was referring to the 360-degrees rotating pirate ship, tagged as Malaysia's only rotating ship. "I like how my stomach feels all funny when the ship goes up and down, up and down, up and down…" he said, making sweeping motions with his hands.

"Yeah, yeah, we get the picture," JD grinned and teasingly ruffled the boy's hair, which caused Adam to yelp and swat his hand away.

"Are you kidding?" Liu Ying groaned. "I feel like throwing up after that ride," she said, rubbing her stomach. The Pirates' Revenge ride was their last ride before they went back to their table. "Give me boring Ferris Wheel any day, or Merry Go Rounds, or those Apache Teapots…" Apache Teapots were spinning teapot rides, quite likely among the gentler rides in the theme park. JD snickered at her, which caused her to glare at the blonde. "Thank goodness I didn't join all of you for that crazy Runaway Train ride!"

"You boring old woman," JD shot, which earned him a glare from Liu Ying.

"The Runaway Train is pretty fun," Gayathri said. Her affinity with the winds had enabled her to enjoy such fast rides, although if she were placed in that ride just a year ago, she would be saying the same thing Liu Ying had just mentioned. She looked at Liu Ying with sympathy; apparently, tough as she might have been, Liu Ying didn't share her enjoyment. "And I have to agree that the Pirates Revenge is pretty extreme. But what I do like the most must be that Morphis Simulator." The simulation show was indeed one of the best the DigiWira had ever seen.

At this, Liu Ying smiled and nodded. At least someone else shared her interest of the simulation show.

"That Niagara Falls thing is awesome," JD said. "And that Grand Canyon River Rapids, that's cool too!" His hair and shirt was slightly wet, due to the fact that he'd been the one who had suffered the most from the splashing waters from the thrilling boat rides he'd referred. "Did you see that guy who got his nose knocked on the rails when the Niagara Falls boat was going down? I saw him when we got out of the boat – his nose was bleeding! Poor guy…hehehehe…"

"That guy got a nosebleed! The least you could do is to feel sympathy," Liu Ying said, glaring at the blonde teen. "How would you feel if it were YOU who got knocked on the nose like that?"

JD shrugged. "Well, it wasn't me, was it?"

Liu Ying groaned and massaged her right temple. However it was apparent that she was straining NOT to smile, by taking a small bite on her burger.

"What's your favorite ride, Manny?" Adam asked, noticing that Manny was silent.

Manny smiled. "All rides are great because I got to do it with you guys"

"Sappy answer," JD deadpanned with a crooked grin.

"But it's the truth! This is the most fun birthday I've ever had," Manny insisted.

"That's good to hear," Adam said as he finished up his burger.

"Alright, we've covered the dry park…who's now up for the wet park?" At this, JD grinned devilishly and jerked his eyebrows up.

"Not until you and I go for Zuhr prayers first. If we forego it now we'll never get it done," Adam said, and pulled JD up. They went to look for the nearest _surau_ (praying room) while the other DigiWira waited for them to finish. The cousins returned about ten minutes later and both looked ready to go.

Sunway Lagoon was a theme park constructed on remains of an abandoned mine with high slopes. The higher ground was used to build the Dry Theme Park and along the slopes the path to the Wet Park were made. There were various ways to head towards the Wet Park and one of them being the Wild West themed game arcade, another attraction of the Dry Theme Park. It would lead them towards the Wet Park which was built on the lower ground. They would have to cross some souvenir shops and the gate before entering the lively Wet Park where various water-themed attractions were available for the visitors.

They could see kids running around in their swimming outfits, chased by their parents who were worried that they would slip. The Wet Park was pretty crowded as it was Saturday, but they managed to get a table near the café. They rented two double tyre-floats and changed into their swimming gears. All of them wore somewhat similar gears, with the boys sans JD choosing tanks of light gray and dark blue, and the three of them wore black tight shorts that went down until an inch above the knees; and the girls wore feminine versions of the boys' gears, colored pink and yellow.

All of them piled the table with their bags and towels, and took off their shoes. People were usually barefooted in the wet park as it would be easier and the floor was wet.

"You don't have that scar anymore," Liu Ying said, pointing at JD's right arm.

JD glanced at Adam, who was looking anywhere but at him. "_Someone_ managed to put some scar removing potion of TobuCatmon's on the scar while I was sleeping," he said with a crooked grin. "And _somebody else_ helped him out, too." JD glanced at Manny who immediately went red upon the comment. The eldest DigiWira shrugged. "It's too bad…I kinda loved that scar, but Adam seemed too bothered about it every time he saw them. Us being roommates now didn't help that much, so I pretended to be asleep that one night when he put that cream on my arm. You should've seen their faces when I suddenly shot up and shouted 'BOO!!' at them…their expressions are priceless!"

"Sneaky," Liu Ying commented, glancing at Adam. The dark-haired boy scowled at JD's laughing face. Manny was pretending to be very interested in whatever Gayathri was commenting about the water slides of the wet park. But it was evident that he too had heard of JD's remark, for his face was as red as tomato, and it couldn't be just because of the warm sun rays.

JD snickered as he glanced towards the Wave Pool. The waves were on and a lot of people were already there in the water and afloat on the tyre-floats. Across the Wave Pool was a stage, and there was a deejay with a microphone, entertaining the crowds with some funny jokes in-between of some upbeat songs played. Lifeguards in beige shirt and red shorts were seen patrolling the wet park, occasionally blowing their whistles to kids who attempted a dangerous jump or those who were running about the slippery grounds of the park. Vendors of several fast food kiosks were heard calling for the patrons to buy their foods. Occasionally the blonde teen felt several girls and women giving him second glances, and smiled smugly, but his grin faltered when he noticed a couple of guys were staring at him as well. With an irate snort he quickly returned his gazes towards the other DigiWira.

"Last one in the Wave Pool is a little girl!" the blonde announced.

Liu Ying narrowed her eyes dangerously at JD. "You are _so_ going to pay for that!"

"Can't catch me!!"

The two older DigiWira ran off towards the Wave Pool, with Liu Ying chasing a laughing JD. That scene left Adam, Gayathri and Manny sweatdropping.

'_I'll remember this birthday for the rest of my life…'_ Manny thought with increasing fondness for his friends.

"Well, that's something you don't see everyday," Gayathri said dryly, watching JD and Liu Ying ran off amidst the crowd of people. Two lifeguards blew their whistles at them, but had a wry, amused looks on their faces as they watched the two DigiWira teens running, making sure that they wouldn't get hurt.

Adam laughed. "I think Josh did that on purpose…" he said, which earned him questioning looks from Gayathri and Manny. "Umm… never mind. I don't know about you but I'm going to the Wave Pool too. Coming?" He however didn't wait for their response as a loud siren blared, with the deejay announcing that the waves were about to start. The boy immediately dragged the tyre-float towards the Wave Pool. He was followed by Gayathri and Manny when suddenly, something odd happened…

The bright sunny day swiftly changed as dark clouds obscured the sun and fierce winds blew towards the Wave Pool. The artificial waves were propelled to an unnatural height and people who were floating on the tyre-floats were all sent tumbling. Panicked shouts immediately dominated the formerly cheerful park. Those who were swimming around were sent flailing about – some crashing into the rising waters while some of the unfortunate others fell onto the grounds or the roofs of several wooden huts built around the Wave Pool. The lifeguards were shouting out instructions for people to evacuate the Wave Pool due to the sudden turn of events.

The DigiWira however remained transfixed as people ran past them. They had seen such occurrence before…but it was _never_ at their home world. They gasped when pillars of water erupted from the Wave Pool, with people, children and adults alike were caught inside the pillars. Terrified shrieks were heard everywhere. Children cried as they scampered about and several adults were seen desperately trying to locate their children amidst the mayhem.

JD and Liu Ying rejoined the three younger DigiWira and they retreated under a hut, away from the running people so that neither would get entangled with the panicking patrons. It was total chaos.

"What's going on here?" Adam cried out, trying to make himself heard.

"Don't know! But it's something digital, I bet!" JD hollered back.

"But…but…HERE?" Gayathri said incredulously.

"It's known to happen!" Liu Ying shouted.

'_Oh, no…'_ Manny thought with a heavy heart. Would his birthday be spoiled? Everything had gone so smoothly and he was enjoying himself.

From the sky, crackles of electricity took form before the air rippled. The ripple burst forth and an oval gateway formed and from it five buzzard-like creatures emerged. Each of them was nearly ten-feet wide in length. They were skeletal and deep red in color, with glowing red eyes. All of them were screeching like vultures as they swooped down towards the panicked crowd.

"Those are Digimon!" Adam said in disbelief, avoiding several people who almost ran into him.

"How…" Gayathri was speechless, overwhelmed by shock.

"We need to take cover first! THERE!" JD said, and led the younger DigiWira under a much more hidden hut. They watched as the giant skeletal birds flew all over the Water Theme Park.

Adam took out his Juara Digivice which he had clipped on his shorts and pressed a button. An image of the red buzzard was projected from the Digivice inside a faint column of light. Then a rectangular hologram appeared with the Digimon's basic statistic. Adam quickly read them.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Velgemon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Virus type_

_**Attacks:**_

**  
_Dark Obliteration – _**_Velgemon creates an energy ring around its opponent, which then constricts to crush the opponent into oblivion. _

_**Dark Vortex –**_ _Velgemon shoots out a laser beam from its middle eye towards its enemy with deadly precision._

xxx

The five DigiWira looked around and saw that the Wave Pool was almost cleared out of the civilians. Suddenly one burly lifeguard came up to them.

"You need to clear out right away! Those…those creatures!" the lifeguard said.

"We can't find our friend," JD lied quickly and pretended to squint towards the running people. "You go ahead. We'll hide here until we find him."

"But…" the lifeguard looked scared out of his wits, but he seemed reluctant to leave five teens behind.

"We won't leave until we find him!" JD snapped. The lifeguard shrunk back slightly.

"We'll be alright. Those buzzards haven't spotted us yet. But you better make sure that the others clear out from here safely," Liu Ying pointed out.

The lifeguard considered Liu Ying's words and nodded. "You better make sure you all clears out from here after you find your friend, you hear? I don't wanna hear there are five casualties if this makes tonight's news…" he shuddered and ran off.

After making sure that the Wave Pool and the attractions around them were completely deserted save for the the Velgemon, the DigiWira then took out their Juara Digivices and summoned out their Digimon partners. No one was around anymore to see the Digimon, and even if there were, the DigiWira couldn't care about that now when there were wild Digimon on the loose on their world. They needed to take action now!

"_Patamon, Access!"_

"_Agumon, Access!"_

"_Labramon, Access!"_

"_Floramon, Access!"_

"_Penguinmon, Access!"_

Their partners immediately materialized in front of them. They looked around the water park at the sight of chaos. Several nearby huts were dismounted by a couple of Velgemon, while the other three were seen trashing a nearby pond, which was thankfully deserted. The Digimon needn't ask their partners of what had happened – they had seen it via the safety of the Juara Digivices.

"Digimon attack, here?" Patamon wondered, surprised.

"It's an invasion!" Floramon gasped.

Suddenly, faint wails were heard. They sounded urgent, and more importantly, _more than one person!_

"**HELP!!" **

The DigiWira froze. "Someone's been left behind!" Gayathri gasped.

"It's coming from the rivers," Liu Ying said, scanning the river which was hidden by the shrubs planted along the artificial waterway. The wails were soft but desperate.

"I'll get to them," Adam said, and summoned his teleportation power. To his surprise, no bright orbs burst from his body. He could not teleport. He didn't even feel his power coming out from him. "I can't teleport!"

The other DigiWira attempted to tap in their powers, and found out that Adam wasn't the only one without power.

"We better Digital Access now," Liu Ying said, worried as the the Velgemon wrecked more havoc. One Velgemon was seen wrecking an abandoned hotdog kiosk, sending foods and sauces flying everywhere. Two were damaging the kids' slides and several huts. Another had crashed the wooden roofs down by cutting off the pillars that were supporting the roofs. One Velgemon punctured a large balloon constructed in the middle of a circular pool.

The Water Park was being demolished right in front of their eyes.

'_This isn't how I want to remember my birthday,'_ Manny thought sadly.

The only reason why the DigiWira were not being attacked yet was because they had chosen a rather secluded spot to hide from. The wooden hut was shielded by a stone waterslide. But that situation would not remain like that for long if they didn't take action.

"**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!!"**

Nothing happened as well. The DigiWira and the Digimon did not merge. The five DigiWira froze in mid-stance and the Digimon waited in anticipation.

"Damn. We can't Digital Access too?" JD groaned in frustration, wincing slightly as a nearby hut exploded in flames. Some of the debris went flying towards them, and singed their body.

"Maybe it's because here in your world, you are not data," Labramon said. "But we may still be able to digivolve normally."

"Ok, guys! Do it!" Gayathri said. She pointed her pink and gold Juara Digivice towards Floramon.

_**Floramon digivolve to… Fairymon!**_

Seeing Fairymon, the DigiWira were relieved that at least their Digimon could digivolve to fight off the invading Digimon. They quickly pointed their Digivices towards the other undigivolved Digimon. The light that erupted from Fairymon's Digivolution sequence had attracted the foes' attentions and they began closing in towards the hut where they were hiding.

_**Patamon digivolve to… Sagittarimon!**_

_**Labramon digivolve to… Youkomon!**_

_**Agumon digivolve to… Flarelizamon!**_

_**Penguinmon digivolve to… Depthmon!**_

"We'll take care of those Velgemon!" Sagittarimon said. "You five get to safety!"

"I'll look for the kids who're still left behind!" Fairymon soared towards the air, using the winds to hear the direction of the voices. The wind sprite sailed away as the other four Digimon prepared themselves to battle the Velgemon.

The five Velgemon plummeted from the sky and destroyed the hut where the Digimon had taken refuge. The DigiWira had run off out of sight, leaving the four Digimon to tackle the flying buzzards.

Sagittarimon galloped towards the shore of the Wave Pool and placed an arrow on his bow. He took aim and shot an arrow of lightning towards one Velgemon. The targeted Velgemon shrieked when the arrow pierced its wings and retaliated with its Dark Vortex technique which was evaded by the draconic centaur. Sagittarimon released torrents of meteorites which soared towards the Velgemon, but the buzzard destroyed all meteorites with its laser beams emitted from its middle eye. The dark bird then summoned its Dark Obliteration which closed in upon Sagittarimon. Sagittarimon struggled to break free from the dark energy ring but the ring was too strong. The ring then electrocuted Sagittarimon so severely until the centaur was slammed against the wall, too weak to move already.

Seeing Sagittarimon's defeat, the other three Digimon increased their guards against the Velgemon. They realized that a one-on-one battle would not work against the Velgemon.

Youkomon transformed into a glowing dragon and shot towards the second Velgemon. The Velgemon evaded Youkomon and spewed forth volleys of lasers, prompting Youkomon to retaliate with her Fox Tail Inferno. The fireballs neutralized the red hot lasers but the Velgemon continued attacking the kitsune Digimon with its Dark Obliteration. Youkomon found herself gasping for breath as the attack was squeezing her tight. She summoned her astral-projection power, letting out a golden-furred version of herself out from her physical body. The astral Youkomon then rolled in midair and morphed into a glowing blue dragon which was about to incinerate the buzzard into oblivion when suddenly the dragon specter diminished into thin air. The reason of it became apparent when Youkomon's physical body was seen flung towards one of the remaining huts. She had been attacked, and the one responsible for it was the Velgemon which had beaten Sagittarimon had aided its comrade. Her slammed weight upon the hut destroyed the hut's foundation, causing it to collapse.

From the distance, two beams of red and blue shot towards Flarelizamon and Depthmon, merging them into Reichmon. Reichmon swung his spear and released a roaring gryphon made out of yellow green flames which slammed against the first and second Velgemon. The two buzzards screeched as the flaming gryphon incinerated them, but they were strong enough to avoid deletion. Reichmon then found himself surrounded by the other three Velgemon and was flustered when the buzzards attacked him simultaneously with red hot beams. He growled and summoned his Manticore Firestorm technique which forced the buzzards in retreating as their wings caught on the flames.

However, Reichmon's victory was short-lived when pillars of water rose up from the Wave Pool. The pillars turned into water tornadoes, spraying water towards the burning Velgemon. The flames on them were quenched instantly and the five Velgemon soared amidst the water hurricanes. The water tornadoes then retreated towards the stage built at the end of the Wave Pool, inflicting heavy damage onto the stage. The stage was blown away by the sheer force of the water towards the lagoon behind it and the Surf Pool located adjacent to the Wave Pool. It seemed that someone was wielding the water hurricanes, but no enemies were seen other than the Velgemon.

The Velgemon charged towards Reichmon and with deafening screeches they attacked the DNA Digivolved warrior simultaneously with their laser beams. Reichmon howled and was propelled into the air, before devolving into Agumon and Penguinmon. Agumon was thrown towards the shore while Penguinmon was flung towards the raging wave pool.

"Penguinmon!!" Manny cried out, appearing from the wrecked huts. Behind him, Adam, JD and Liu Ying appeared. All of them were still in their swimming outfits – they hadn't had the time or the opportunity to change because of the mayhem caused by the Velgemon over the whole Water Park. The four DigiWira stood, transfixed as the Velgemon headed towards the higher ground – towards the Dry Theme Park and the shopping complex Sunway Pyramid located right beside Sunway Lagoon. Adam quickly darted towards Sagittarimon and Liu Ying went to Youkomon, while JD retrieved the severely roughed-up Agumon. Penguinmon however, was trapped within the raging Wave Pool.

The Wave Pool was constructed with a maximum depth of two meters around the stage, gradually decreasing towards the shore. If Penguinmon was flung towards the deeper side of the Wave Pool there was a possibility that he could get himself drowned.

"PENGUINMON!!" Manny cried out again, worried of his Digimon partner. The waters in the Wave Pool were raging dangerously and abnormally. The waves were propelled at a height which would have already violated the safety breach. The waves were _not_ the work of human technology. Water tornadoes rose higher and higher from the lagoon behind the wrecked stage and the Surf Pool, sending rains down towards the Wet Park and upon the four flabbergasted DigiWira.

The stage suddenly exploded and a bigger water tornado emerged from underneath, seemingly erupting from the ground below. The waves calmed slightly but the other water tornadoes remained, spinning and sucking in more water from the lagoon and the Surf Pool. From the bigger water tornado a humanoid shadow could be seen. Its profile became clearer as the water tornado around it receded.

The humanoid was garbed in loose white outfit underneath green leathery hides that protected its shoulders, torso and crotch region. A yellow-beaded decoration adorned around its neck, which was also tied with a long red sash. Its forearms and shins were draped with durable gray armor. This peculiar being had the face of a human but with a short beak of an avian. Deep blue hair framed its face. It held a dark metallic staff with a crescent proximal end and a thicker lower end with both hands.

"Who is that?" Adam wondered and scanned the Digimon with his Juara Digivice.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Shawujinmon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Virus type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Demon Quelling Staff – Waterfall Formation – **__Shawujinmon crushes his staff onto the ground, releasing gauges of high-pressured water._

_**Demon Quelling Staff – Whirlpool Formation – **__Shawujinmon generates a series of water tornadoes by spinning his staff._

_**Crescent Moon Slash – **Shawujinmon attacks his enemy with the crescent blade of his staff._

xxx

Shawujinmon stood at an impressive eight-foot height over the destroyed stage. He looked down upon the shocked expressions of the DigiWira with mirth. He pointed his staff towards the DigiWira and said with a groveling, slightly squawking voice.

"Behold the power of the **Kappa General**!" Shawujinmon leaped into the air and slammed his staff onto the surface of the Wave Pool, splitting the water into half before the staff connected with the floor of the pool. _"Demon Quelling Staff – Waterfall Formation!!"_

The ground rumbled as cracks were generated from the contact. High-pressurized water burst forth from the cracks and soared menacingly towards the darkened sky. Shawujinmon spun his staff and the water pillars transformed into water tornadoes. Then, Shawujinmon guided the tornadoes with his hands, motioning them to bend forward and zoomed towards the four DigiWira and their Digimon, before slamming onto them full-force. All of them were sent flying towards the wrecked huts before a bigger water tornado came upon them. It pulled the DigiWira and the Digimon inside of it, trapping all of them…

Save for one.

Manny had leaped out of the way and into the water before the tornado could pull him in. He swam towards the wall before emerging on the surface, staring in horror as Adam, JD and Liu Ying were caught inside the spinning hurricane of water. Patamon, Labramon and Agumon were also caught within a water tornado. He heard Shawujinmon laughing from the wrecked stage. Manny searched around the separated pathway and saw a blue rotund figure lying helplessly on the ground.

_'Penguinmon!'_ Manny dove into the water and swam towards his hapless partner.

"I don't think so, boy," Shawujinmon laughed and spun his staff. _"Demon Quelling Staff – Whirlpool Formation!!"_

Underneath the depths, Manny gasped as he felt strong currents pulling him. He saw a whirlpool taking form and struggled to steer away from it, but the currents that were pulling him were so strong that his muscles became strained instantly when he attempted to resist it. He accidentally opened his mouth, and let the chlorinated water inside his mouth. Flailing his arms, Manny panicked as he realized that he was losing air. His ears drummed wildly and his head throbbed.

He was drowning!

xxx

xxx

Fairymon flew amidst the destroyed Water Park with two small boys in her arms. On the ground, Gayathri ran after her partner as they made their way towards the stone stairs which would lead them towards the arcade that bordered the Dry and the Wet Parks. The Wet Park was abandoned completely and was a site of total destruction. The wet park was under attack, it would only be logical for the evacuees to head towards the place which was not under attack.

Fairymon had found the boys huddling in fright behind the artificial waterfall that cascaded over the manmade waterway that surrounded the Wet Park. Amidst the chaos they had been separated from their mother and they were too scared to come out from the river as they had seen the Velgemon causing destruction all over the Wet Park. They had been afraid of Fairymon too, but she had convinced them that they were in good hands.

Upon arriving at the cowboy saloon-themed arcade, Fairymon and Gayathri saw that the wooden door was closed and Fairymon didn't have much time. Gayathri knocked on the door but it was locked and nobody opened it. She glanced sideways and saw her partner lowering the two young boys – no more than six or seven years of age – before somersaulting back in midair. Gayathri immediately pulled the boys towards her and hid behind a table while Fairymon launched a full force Tempest Twist onto the door. The door was instantly pushed open. Loud gasps were heard before they changed into astonished murmurs.

Hiding inside the arcade were the people from both the Dry and the Wet Parks, made evident from the fact that half of them were still in their swimming gears while the other half were fully clothed. All of the people were transfixed upon seeing a beautiful winged woman entering the arcade with two kids in her arms. It didn't help that Fairymon was very skimpily outfitted, but then again, so were some of the women who'd come from the Wet Park.

"Who is that?"

"Look at her wings. Is she a fairy?"

"She isn't in league with those horrible bird demons, right?"

"I don't think so…she's too beautiful."

Gayathri walked in with the two young boys and stood beside Fairymon. Not long after, a woman wearing a one-piece swimming suit and a floral sarong wrapped around her waist rushed past the crowd. Her face was tear-stricken but she looked absolutely relieved.

"Richard! Michael!" the woman cried.

"Momma! Momma!" The two kids immediately ran towards the woman and onto the crying woman. The woman looked past the boys' shoulders towards Fairymon and Gayathri.

"Thank you…" she said.

Fairymon nodded. "You're most welcome." Awed murmurs were heard as their attentions were solely fixed onto the fairy Digimon.

"Who are you?" another man asked with a love struck expression glazing his face.

"What are you?" a teenaged girl who looked around Gayathri's age asked.

"I'm called Fairymon," the sprite said and flew up towards the other entrance of the arcade. "All of you stay here, but we need to go back to the water park." Fairymon bent down and lifted Gayathri up, cradling her with her arms.

"Girl, you know Fairymon?" the love-struck man inquired to Gayathri.

Gayathri didn't answer as she felt Fairymon was about to take flight once again. They sailed through the opened entrance and back towards the wet park, where they saw water tornadoes hovering over the Wave Pool.

xxx

xxx

**(Flashback)**

Ten-year-old Manny ran excitedly towards the beach. It was his first time being here and he was going to enjoy it to the fullest. Behind him, his parents Abah Jintoni and Kimberly Bhatt, and his two-year-old sister Debbie being carried by his father, followed with a picnic mat and a basket full of food.

"Stay near the shore, Manny," Kimberly cautioned her son. She looked sideways and saw her twenty-year-old brother Kenneth approaching, with his girlfriend.

Manny stepped into the water and giggled upon feeling the warm sea water washing his feet. His soles tingled as the sands underneath moved, following the currents. He jumped into the water and enjoyed the sensation of being soaked until his waist. For a while, he remained there and scanned around the beach with mild interest. He could see kids running about, adults picnicking around and several teenagers engrossed in a game of beach volleyball. Manny turned his attention to his family and saw that his father was going back to their car. His mother's attention was fixed upon Debbie, and his uncle Ken and his future aunt were engrossed in a conversation.

Then, Manny turned around and saw several adults swimming about freely against the calm water. It was a warm day and Manny wasn't content of being just by the shore. He wanted to go in further where the water would reach his neck. He was a big boy, he could handle himself.

With no one to stop him, Manny tentatively walked towards the deeper region of the sea. Soon he arrived at a spot where the water was just above his shoulders. He remained there for a moment before deciding that a few more steps towards the deeper parts wouldn't hurt.

A slow tide came, but it was enough to raise Manny off his feet. He tumbled into the waters and struggled to get up. Not experienced at all in swimming, he began to panic. At the same time his feet became cramped and he winced before slipping back into the water. He couldn't get up. Water rushed into his mouth and nostril as he flailed about. Then everything became black…

Until he opened his eyes and choked out water at the same time. Somebody was pressing on his chest and his back felt warm. Why was he lying on the beach? The last thing he remembered was being in the waters. He blinked and saw his uncle Ken looking very relieved. Then his mother seized him and pulled him into a hug as she cried.

"Oh, Manny…thank goodness you're safe! Thank goodness you're ALIVE! I was so, so worried!" his mother sobbed. Manny blinked and saw that his father was looking very worried as he comforted his crying sister. His uncle Ken and his girlfriend looked very pale. A small crowd had gathered around him.

Manny felt very dizzy afterward and slumped onto his mother's shoulder. When he woke up again he was inside the hospital. His parents told him that he'd nearly drowned if it weren't for his uncle Ken who had saved him just in time. Having been trained in first aid, his uncle had administered CPR upon him and it was his quick thinking that had saved Manny. However, Manny's young body could not handle the shock and he'd drifted into unconsciousness once again after waking up, which prompted his parents to rush him towards the hospital right away.

**(End Flashback)**

Manny opened his eyes and saw that he was still underwater. However, he could see everything clearly. His eyes didn't feel strained while being open. And weird enough, he could even breathe.

Looking at his hands, he saw that they were coated with blue aura. In fact, his whole body was coated with blue aura. He felt at ease being underwater. Gurgled sounds could be heard, but they became clearer as Manny focused. He could hear screaming. He could hear his friends screaming, and realized that they were still trapped inside the water tornado generated by Shawujinmon.

He swung his arms and glided underwater, looking for Penguinmon. It didn't take long, for he immediately saw his partner still lying weakly on the floor of the wave pool, at the area where the water was parted. Quickly he inched towards the wall of water and extended his hands out, grabbing onto Penguinmon.

Then he saw his Juara Digivice, clipped on his swimming shorts, burst with blue light. A familiar surge of power coursed through his veins.

xxx

xxx

Shawujinmon cackled as he observed the three DigiWira and their partners screaming helplessly while they were trapped inside the raging water tornado. He was controlling the tornado with his innate power of hydrokinesis, being a marine Digimon and an esteemed general of SkullSatamon. There was no way the DigiWira would be able to escape.

Really, what was so hard about defeating this bunch of kids, the Kappa General thought. To think that the Mage and Dryad Generals had been finished off by them and the Puaka Generals severely defeated two weeks ago. It was inconceivable.

_'The Hellion General is right to think that the DigiWira are weak in their home world. Here, the children are not data…hence the inability to merge with their Digimon partners. It will be an easy win for me.'_

Shawujinmon suppressed the urge to laugh upon seeing the hapless conditions the three DigiWira and their partners were currently at. He pitied them, in a way, for they were doomed. Shawujinmon was merely toying with them at the moment. They hadn't been giving him a decent challenge at all. Even the Velgemon brutes were able to deal with them.

_'Really…what could be so difficult…huh?'_

A pillar of glowing blue water suddenly shot towards the sky. The pillar burst and a half-man, half-fish being emerged. The merman had sleek blue fishtail, a pale human skin and long aquamarine hair. He was lightly armored on the torso and his face was obscured with a blue helmet. He was wielding a blue trident.

Something clicked in Shawujinmon's mind. This was one of those Wira Digital!

Samudramon had appeared.

_'How can this be? I thought those children couldn't merge with their Digimon partners in the human world?'_

Samudramon made slow waving motions with his arms and the water tornado that was trapping the other DigiWira and Digimon receded. He then generated water pillars to lower them towards the ground harmlessly. Seeing them safe, he gripped his trident harder and stared with silent anger towards the Kappa General.

_'You're wrecking havoc in our world…'_ Manny thought within his merged body. Samudramon generated blue thunderbolts with his staff. _'My friends have planned out this birthday for me, and you've ruined it. Not only that, but you and those Velgemon destroyed this place…the place where I've wanted to come for so long. And of all days, you just have to attack on my birthday…'_

From the water pillar he was floating at, Samudramon pointed his trident towards Shawujinmon and called out, _"Cosmic Thunderstrike!!"_

Shawujinmon gritted his teeth as he swung his staff to block the thunderbolt. The thunderbolt was diverted away but Shawujinmon staff shook slightly from the power of the thunderbolt. The attack didn't look strong, but Shawujinmon was surprised to have been proven wrong.

Samudramon raised his trident and swirls of water materialized around the pointed weapon._ "Deep Ocean Submerge!!"_

A wave of blue light was shot towards the Wave Pool and instantly a giant tidal wave took form and was blasted towards Shawujinmon. Shawujinmon retaliated by slamming his trident onto the ground and tornadoes of water burst forth, neutralizing the tidal wave.

It looked like the two marine Digimon were at equal standing. But Shawujinmon had no intention to let it be that way for long.

"Velgemon! Attack the other DigiWira!!"

xxx

xxx

"How come Manny's able to Digital Access?" JD demanded as he held the piggy-backing Agumon close. He watched the two marine Digimon battling it out with a frown so deep that a fissure had formed between his light-brown eyebrows.

Liu Ying shook her head as she looked at Labramon whom she was cradling. "If only we can Digital Access as well…"

Adam, who had Patamon perched on his head, looked up and gasped. "The Velgemon! They're coming at us!"

"Damn it…" JD muttered, shivering slightly as all of them were soaked to the bone. He instinctively ran his hand on his Juara Digivice, which then flared with red light. "Huh?"

"Our Digivices…" Liu Ying said, her own Juara Digivice glimmering with yellow aura.

"They're shining!" Adam said, with his glittering with white light.

The three DigiWira looked up upon the looming Velgemon and took out the Digivices which they had clipped on their swimming shorts. White, yellow and red energy aura spiraled out from the Digivices and around their bodies. Instantly they knew what they needed to do. **"Digital Access Digivolution! HAAA!!"**

Satriamon and Xianamon both emerged from pillars of red and yellow light, and they saw Adam and Patamon disappearing within orbs of white and gold. The orbs merged and a larger human was formed in a fetal position. As he stood up, eight wings sprang out from his back as his body was coated in white armor and steel plates. Large metallic wings were mounted on his shoulders as a white manteau obscured his face.

Aldiyamon soared towards two Velgemon which had made him their target, and propelled himself upwards at a very sharp angle just before they reached him. That caused the two Velgemon to collide against each other over the heads, earning a laugh from the angel as his silver wings shone with radiant light. A white firebird with metallic wings burst out from his body and pierced the two Velgemon before dissipating into thin air. Aldiyamon then summoned his Heavenstar Gladius and made a vertical slash in midair. A golden pillar of light took form and blasted the two Velgemon with pure light, combusting both buzzards into data particles.

Satriamon slammed his magma self towards one Velgemon, causing the buzzard to shriek as the flames from Satriamon incinerated his body. Satriamon plummeted towards the ground, having lost the momentum to his flight. However his flailing free hand was caught by Aldiyamon.

"You're just in time!" Satriamon said, relieved.

Aldiyamon grinned. "What are cousins for anyway?"

They made their way above the incinerated Velgemon when Aldiyamon let Satriamon go. Satriamon charged his gauntlet with raging flames and launched the powerful Dragonforce Striker onto the Velgemon, deleting it instantly.

Xianamon found herself facing one Velgemon who unleashed its Dark Obliteration technique towards her. The sorceress froze the attack in midair and sprayed the Velgemon with her poisonous needles. She then showered the Diamond World Mandala towards the Velgemon, deleting it instantly. Not long thereafter, from above, another Velgemon was about to attack, but before Xianamon could defend herself from the incoming buzzard she saw the Velgemon being thrown off course by a flowery hurricane.

"Puspamon," she said, and smiled. She could handle the Velgemon, but she sensed that if she did, her sprite friend would not appreciate it. So, she retreated.

"Looks like there's an unplanned party here and I'm all set on crashing it!" Puspamon growled as she sailed above Xianamon and attacked the Velgemon with Jelita Shocker. With a loud parting screech the Velgemon was deleted.

The four Wira Digital then flew towards Samudramon who was pitting strength against Shawujinmon. The two marine Digimon had slammed their weapons against each other and both looked to be at equal ground.

"What are you doing here?" Samudramon demanded, pressing on against the bigger Digimon.

"Isn't it obvious, dear boy? I'm here to destroy your precious home world so that you will know that it's not your place to mess with the Master and his elite Darkshadow Brethren!" Shawujinmon said, and pushed Samudramon away with one mighty thrust. He then slammed the thicker end of his metallic staff towards Samudramon's abdomen. The merman grunted as he was sent flying from the force of the attack, earning a satisfied chuckle from the Kappa General. However, he halted when he saw four more figures had appeared.

Shawujinmon warily scanned his surroundings. _'No…the five of them are together. Even the Puaka Generals in their DNA Mega form were beaten when these children band together. I have to finish this battle as quickly as possible!'_ The Kappa General hoisted himself towards Samudramon and retracted his staff back. _"Crescent Moon Slash!!"_ The crescent-end of Shawujinmon's staff glimmered with yellow hue as he was nearing the merman…but a roaring dragon and a screeching firebird heading his way forced him back to a retreat. Somersaulting to avoid the fire-based attacks, Shawujinmon hissed in pain as the attacks managed to scorch his garbs. With an annoyed grunt, he summoned water pillars which effectively wiped out the fire specters before they could do more damage upon him.

Samudramon was tumbling backwards in midair when suddenly he was steadied in midair by a pink whirlwind and an invisible force. The merman realized that his friends had come to the rescue. He looked behind and saw Puspamon and Xianamon, both balancing him in midair with their wind and telekinetic powers. Above, Satriamon and Aldiyamon double-teamed against the Kappa General. He grasped his metallic trident tight, watching as Shawujinmon pummeled Satriamon and Aldiyamon with water hurricanes. Satriamon was the first to plummet down, because as a fire-based Digimon Satriamon was weak against water Digimon. And Aldiyamon, upon seeing that Satriamon was heading towards the raging wave pool, had abandoned Shawujinmon entirely to catch Satriamon from falling.

Samudramon used a water pillar to balance himself and signaled an OK sign for the females to attack. He watched as Xianamon froze Shawujinmon partially in midair and realized that Shawujinmon must really be an exceptionally strong Ultimate Digimon for being able to withstand Xianamon's Magical Stasis. Then Puspamon seemed to be controlling something invisible towards Shawujinmon and Samudramon saw the Kappa General writhing in pain. He knew exactly what Puspamon was doing and saw an opportunity to attack. With Shawujinmon being weakened by Xianamon's freezing technique and Puspamon's Dream Rose Mirage, it would be the perfect time to strike.

Samudramon quickly set fourth towards the incapacitated Kappa General. To his surprise the general had broken free from the girls' hold and slammed them with ferocious water tornadoes. The two females were flung towards the sky. They however vanished in swirls of white and gold, and reappeared safely nearby the destroyed huts.

"Your meager tricks won't work on me, pesky children!" Shawujinmon aimed the sharp end of his staff towards Samudramon. _"Crescent Moon Slash!!"_

Seeing Shawujinmon speeding towards him – the general having the advantage of flight capability to use against him – Samudramon immediately spun his trident to transform it into a double-edged blade. He readied himself and slammed the Double-Edged Thunderblades against Shawujinmon's staff. To his own astonishment Shawujinmon's staff was cut in half due to the sheer force of the spinning weapon. Shawujinmon gasped at this and retreated a few meters back, his hands quivered as he let go of the destroyed weapon. It was evident that he hadn't expected this to happen.

"Go, Samudramon! Finish off that overgrown duck!!" Satriamon shouted encouragingly, and Samudramon didn't need to be told twice.

Taking advantage of the Kappa General's surprise, Samudramon transformed his tail into legs and delivered a powerful kick onto the general's belly, deploying Manny's ninjutsu skill which sent the bigger Digimon plummeting down towards the Wave Pool. A massive splash ensued and Samudramon saw the opening he had been waiting for.

_"Divine Rain!"_

A heavy downpour showered the Kappa General. Shawujinmon felt power leaving his body and his knees buckled. He attempted to move away, but the clouds where the rains poured down kept on following him, rendering his effort futile. He saw a black energy beam and barrages of needles being showered towards the villain, and realized that Satriamon and Xianamon had also contributed to his plan on weakening the Kappa General.

_"Cosmic Thunderstrike!"_

Thunders rumbled and a massive blue lightning bolt struck down continuously onto Shawujinmon body. The effect was deadly; Shawujinmon's drenched body was electrocuted severely and Samudramon didn't show any indication that he would be relenting.

Shawujinmon couldn't move at all. All his muscles became rigid and flexed at a horrible angle. He screamed, thinking that he would be done for when all of a sudden; an oval gateway was opened from the sky. From it a humanoid fox with violet fur and garbed in gray monk robe emerged. The bipedal fox was about 8-feet tall and held itself with poise and regality. It coolly brandished a giant paintbrush and drew a symbol which shone with purplish-white light. The atmosphere around the shining symbol grew dark, emphasizing the symbol better.

_"Talisman of Night!!"_

The symbol then loomed towards Samudramon, forcing the merman to withdraw his attack in order to evade it. The purple symbol came into contact with the ground and caused a massive explosion, throwing all five Wira Digital off balance. The flight-capable Wira Digital easily regained their balance before helping the non-flight capable ones. They then saw the fox generating a swirling purple portal above itself and Shawujinmon. The portal enveloped both Digimon with purple lights and vanished, leaving the Wira Digital with the awful sight of a severely destroyed Sunway Lagoon Water Theme Park.

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The swirling portal opened inside a massive stone chamber and the Kappa and Shaman Generals stepped out from it. The Shaman General waved his giant paintbrush and the portal closed down. He then eyed his fellow general, who looked worse for wear, and sighed before aiming a sleeve-covered hand towards Shawujinmon.

_"Talisman Spell,"_ the Shaman General said, and a red paper talisman shot out from within the sleeve. It pasted itself on Shawujinmon's chest and glowed bright red. "You'll be healed slowly."

"I'm in your debt, Doumon," Shawujinmon said.

"Don't be. We're all brethrens here." Doumon clicked his tongue. "However, it's proven to be foolish for us to take on the Wira Digital one-by-one."

"Obviously," snorted a slurry male voice from the darkness. A demon standing at 8-feet tall – similar to Shawujinmon and Doumon – slinked out from the shadowed part of the chamber. He was dressed in a dark-blue pin-striped suit which looked like it had been pressed. He was spinning a knife with his right fingers, and was holding a machinegun with his left hand. Red eyes twinkled from the black manteau he was wearing. "How about we all attack them together next time?" he said, and wetted his pale lips with his tongue. "I really would like to meet that beauty in pink…"

Doumon's nose twitched. "Don't tell me…" The monk fox eyed his fellow brethren suspiciously. "Haven't you learned, Astamon? You and your desire upon flower-based female Digimon…didn't the Dryad General teach you a severe-enough lesson when you tried to woo her three centuries ago?"

Astamon, the Majin General, smirked. "She was just playing hard to get last time…but it's rather unfortunate that she's got deleted. Hey, you two…" he cocked his head towards two Champion Digimon who were watching their exchanges with idle cautiousness. "Was it Puspamon who deleted Lilamon?"

"Uh…yes, general, sir," Sorcerymon answered. "She and her other two friends…"

"Marvelous," Astamon said. "She definitely will prove quite a challenge, this Puspamon. But I love a challenge."

"Count me in!" Shawujinmon said immediately. "I still have a score to settle with that wretched Samudramon!"

"Count me _out_," Doumon coolly rejected. "I, unlike you two hot-blooded fools, will remain here to observe the Wira Digital more before I make my move. Besides, who will bail you two out when you are overpowered, like Shawujinmon had been today?" The Shaman General scanned the whole chamber, noticing that two of their members were absent. The Rookie-forms Puaka Generals were still held in stasis inside the pale blue columns of light in order to recover them from their severe injuries. SkullSatamon's two servants were standing at the far corner. "Where are Lucemon and Persiamon, I wonder?" he said, but didn't really sound like he was curious.

"Do you even need to ask?" Astamon said, and snickered. "It's been three hundred years…what do you think they're doing?"

Shawujinmon snorted. "Not again…" The Kappa General then sighed. "Never mind. While they're still at it we might as well begin planning our next move. Doumon can open another portal to the Human World, and I will need at least three days to recover…"

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Manny was quiet as the five DigiWira walked around the Sunway Pyramid shopping complex. Truth be told, he was feeling down. His birthday was ruined by the Digimon invasion, and to add salt to the injury the culprit had escaped right before his eyes. However, despite his brief anger of the Kappa General had escaped, that soon turned into relief upon realizing that if the battle had dragged on longer, Sunway Lagoon would suffer heavier damage than it had now. The damage the theme park had sustained was extensive, but it had been contained only within the water park. The dry theme park was relatively untouched, and there were no fatalities, from what he'd heard before the team made their way to the shopping complex adjacent to the park.

They had talked about the Digimon invasion for a while, but everyone then saw how glum Manny was due to the unfortunate turn of event and decided to drop the subject momentarily. Seeing as how they were victorious against Shawujinmon and his legion of Velgemon, the DigiWira decided that they would ask Jackie and TobuCatmon about it later, and spent the rest of the Saturday celebrating their friend's birthday.

They soon reached the cake cafe Adam had mentioned earlier that day, and Liu Ying accompanied Manny outside the bakery as the other three DigiWira went inside to choose a cake. They soon returned with a big box of cake, which they would take with them to the Thai restaurant where they would be meeting Manny's parents for his birthday dinner.

"We still got about one and a half hour," JD said. "Who's up for some ice-skating?"

"I'm all over it," Liu Ying said, and looked sideways at Adam. "How about you?"

Adam nodded. "I'd like to, but I don't know how…"

"No problem. I'm quite an expert," JD boasted. "I can teach you." His eyes went to Manny and Gayathri and he jerked his eyebrows up questioningly.

"I'll pass," Manny said slowly. He gave the DigiWira an apologetic smile. "I'm a bit…tired…after the battle with Shawujinmon."

JD looked like he was going to insist, but Adam restrained JD, and urged him to go rent some skating shoes while giving his cousin a knowing look. JD caught it and nodded, somewhat hesitantly.

"Why don't you three go ahead? I'll stay here with Manny," Gayathri said. "Give me the cake, JD."

At this, JD smirked and was about to make a comment for Gayathri's willingness to be left behind, but he was stopped by a cool glare from Liu Ying. The three of them then went towards the counter of the shopping complex's ice skating rink while Manny and Gayathri took a seat on the chairs located not too far from the rink. The TV was switched on and several people huddled around it, watching a cooking show that was on air with idle interest while some other people watched the people who were skating on the rink, staring admirably to those who were skillful and wincing at those who had fallen on their butts.

The two DigiWira observed their friends with interest; JD was seen giving Adam some pointers on how to skate and was demonstrating them, although his eyes were lurked at Liu Ying every now and then, attempting to impress the girl. Liu Ying appeared somewhat amused before she left the cousins alone, skating around the rink with skills that caused several skaters to stop in order to admire her moves. She stopped with a graceful spin after circling the rectangular-shaped rink twice, and was seen shooting JD a triumphant look. That caused the blonde to scowl and he then focused his attention solely on teaching Adam, who was watching their exchange with a wry look. Adam was seen saying something at JD, which caused the blonde to glower at him. Gayathri could have sworn she saw a tint of redness on JD's cheeks.

"I wonder what Adam was saying to JD which caused him to blush like that?" Gayathri began the conversation, staring at a laughing Adam who was attempting to get away from JD who was about to give chase. However, one backward stride had caused Adam to lose his balance and fell on his backside. "Ouch…" she winced, and saw the glower and the blush on JD's face evaporated, replaced with a worried look as he helped his cousin up. From a distance, Liu Ying had halted and watched the cousins with concern, before deciding that they were alright and resumed circling the rink for the fifth time.

"Don't let me stop you from joining them, Gayathri," Manny murmured as his eyes tailed the three skating DigiWira.

Gayathri shook her head. "I've ice-skated a lot of times already. Whenever Dina, Bel and I come here we usually never missed ice-skating." Gayathri knew how to ice skate as well, thanks to her rollerblading experience, but she felt that Manny needed her company. At her reply, Manny nodded with a desolate look on his face.

"If I were you I'd feel sad as well," Gayathri said understandingly. "What happened today was really awful. I'm sorry it didn't work out well."

"It's just that…I've wanted to come here since I was little, and when I finally get to be here…" His shoulders sagged and he shrunk in his chair, looking so dejected.

"Manny…" Gayathri felt so sorry of her friend. Her ears suddenly caught of the sound of the TV. They turned around and saw that someone had turned up the volume of the TV – and their eyes widened upon seeing that a woman in a smart suit and a pair of frameless glasses was doing a report amidst the background of the destroyed Wet Park of Sunway Lagoon.

**"Authorities are baffled pertaining to the unfortunate event that had taken place at Sunway Lagoon earlier today. Several unknown creatures, depicted as birds with skeletal features and red feathers, had appeared out of nowhere at Sunway Lagoon's water park and had caused heavy damage there. While there are no fatalities, ten injuries have been reported. Several eye-witnesses claimed to have seen a beautiful fairy in the company of a teenaged girl as they have rescued two boys from the water park but the fairy did not seem to be in league with those giant birds, as she was reported to have rescued two boys who were caught in the melee…"**

"Oops," Gayathri whispered, shrinking closer to Manny as the reporter was referring to her. "I shouldn't have shown my face to them. Big mouths…"

Manny smiled a little but his eyes were glued to the TV as they were shown a scene of the battle that had taken place at the Wave Pool. The two DigiWira saw the five of them, as Wira Digital, fighting against Shawujinmon. They wondered how on earth the reporters would be able to record the battle scene. It was surreal; like watching a science fiction show, only now they knew that the fight had been very real.

**"The situation however seemed to have been taken cared of by the appearance of five beings that resemble humans. One had the appearance of a white knight with eight wings, the other a merman and the third, a warrior in red armor. The last two are evidently females; one having the appearance of a fairy in pink and the other looked the most human of all, with yellow garb and black hair. They were seen battling the giant birds and another human-like being in white garb."**

"Never thought we'd see ourselves in TV," Gayathri joked, trying to cheer Manny up. But she straightened up instantly upon hearing the final revelation.

**"The total amount of damage is estimated to be reaching a million ringgit, and the area that is damaged is said to be the wet park. Sunway Lagoon will be closed to public for the time being, but the management has stated that the dry theme park should be operational again once they have done some check-ups to ensure that everything is working in perfect condition. The wet park however will require extensive repair works which will begin effective tomorrow morning.**

**"Sources from Japan have mentioned that similar attacks had taken place at Odaiba, Tokyo during Christmas 2002. The creatures involved are known as Digimon, short for Digital Monsters who originated from an alternate world called the Digital World. The Japanese government has advised cautions to be taken to handle these threats, and have mentioned that no human military arsenal could be used to counter these Digimon threats. When asked of what measures we could take, we were told to place faith on a group of children…who would have been chosen to protect this country from the Digimon threats. Called as DigiDestined, these children are said to be partnered with good Digimon, and they are said to be the ONLY defense line the country has against the Digimon."**

Murmurs were heard from the large crowd that had gathered around the TV. Even those who were skating were now huddled towards a speaker which music had been turned off in favor of the latest breaking news. Manny and Gayathri saw their fellow teammates froze in the middle of the skating rink.

**"This is just in. The Japanese government's statement has been backed up by the President of the United States, who stated that similar Digimon attack has taken place around Rockefeller Center, also during Christmas 2002. The Russian government has also supported the claim, saying that the Red Square, Moscow and the Siberian lands have also been attacked by wild Digimon, but were taken care of by the DigiDestined around the world….more faxes have been received from various countries as we speak, backing up this claim which has sounded so unbelievable at first…**

**"Now, the questions that remain – will we be safe from those Digimon threats? Who are these chosen children that we have been told to put our faith upon? Can they really protect us? Is the attack on Sunway Lagoon just the beginning? This is Rita Kaur, reporting live for TV3. Now back to our usual program…"**

"Great," Manny muttered as the news ended. "Now it will go down in the Malaysian Book of Records that 26th March is the day Malaysia first got attacked by Digimon."

"Hey, we've beaten them, right?" Gayathri said. "When they come, we'll be ready for them. Come on, cheer up Manny. You don't look so cute if you sulk around like that."

A warm blush crept on Manny's cheeks. There was a compliment in Gayathri's teasing. "I don't sulk," he protested.

"Yes you do, you've been sulking for hours now," Gayathri deadpanned, but she was also smiling to take out the sting in her comment. "Come on. There's no reason we can't still celebrate your birthday. It's just entering six; we still have one hour before your family arrives here. We should make the best of the remaining time."

Manny thought about what Gayathri had just said, and realized that she was right. He saw Gayathri standing up.

"Gayathri, wait," Manny said softly, and stood up as well. Gayathri looked at him questioningly. "I'd just like to say thanks. You know, for being here with me. And I'm sorry for being so sullen. Minus the Digimon battle, my birthday today is still the best one I've ever had. And it's all because of you, JD, Adam and Liu Ying." He took a deep breath and smiled genuinely for the first time since the battle with Shawujinmon. "I'm very grateful to have friends like you guys."

"I'm glad to hear that, Manny," Gayathri said, beaming. "How about we join the others?"

"I don't know how to ice-skate."

"So was Adam, but look at him now," Gayathri pointed towards their team leader, who was gliding merrily at the rink with JD watching his back with a worried expression. And the blonde's worrying over his cousin was sound when the younger DigiWira suddenly lost his balance and landed on his backside once again. Both Gayathri and Manny winced upon the sight. "Umm…that can happen whether you're a beginner or an expert. But, I can safely claim that I'm quite alright when it comes to rollerblading, so ice-skating shouldn't really be a problem. How about if I teach you? We'll take it slow."

Manny smiled and nodded. "Sounds like fun. Come on."

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**Author's Note:**

And so the Invasion Arc begins…and the DigiWira that gets the spotlight here is Manny. I feel like I haven't been expanding his character the most, with the Puaka Generals arc focusing on JD and Adam. The Invasion arc will be Manny and the two girls' turns but the cousins will get their spot as well. We get Manny's back story in this chapter. What I hope is that by the time I have finished written this story, all characters have enough background stories.

With the Juara Digivice being similar to the D-Power/D-Arc in Digimon Tamers I have decided to include the same Digimon Analyzer features.

Although the Frontier Human and Beast Hybrid Digimon who have been making appearances in this story are all classified as Champions by me, I have decided to put Velgemon in the Ultimate Digimon category. Having them as Champions would make them so easy for the Wira Digital to beat. Velgemon seems to be on par with Fusion Hybrids in Frontier. Besides, it will work better for the story as Velgemon (and Duskmon) will serve as the Darkshadow Brethren's brutes.

Picture link is at my profile page. :D It's of Adam, JD and Manny.

REVISED: Fixed a glaring error in which I've accidentally put Duskmon in the chapter. They are here in the earlier draft but I figured I wanted to have them appear in later chapters. I've missed a few paragraphs during editing, apparently. :(


	37. School Under Siege

"It's been five days now," JD noted as he and Adam parked their bikes inside the school bicycle sheds. "No attacks. It's getting on my nerves."

Adam bound their two bikes with a bright red cable bicycle lock and set the numbers of the combination lock as JD used another cable lock to bind his bike to one of the pillars inside the shed. They were relatively early to school that Thursday morning, and the bike shed was not fully occupied yet. It was the main reason why the cousins chose to come to school early.

"I know," Adam murmured. "I wonder what they're up to this time."

On Sunday, the day after Shawujinmon's invasion at Sunway Lagoon, the DigiWira had gone to the Digital World to seek Jackie's and TobuCatmon's opinion on that matter. TobuCatmon himself was surprised, as he had no inkling of the attack at the DigiWira's home world – his magical staff only showed attacks that took place in the Digital World. He however, had felt something evil reverberating around the southeastern side of the Digital World. The dark presence was much more ominous than what he had felt before. The DigiWira then described Shawujinmon, and TobuCatmon consulted his book before confirming that Shawujinmon was one of the fearsome Darkshadow Brethren – a general known as the Kappa General.

Remembering another Digimon that had helped Shawujinmon escape from Samudramon's attack, they described it at TobuCatmon, and found out that it was another general titled the Shaman General. He was also part of the Darkshadow Brethren named Doumon whose magical power rivaled Karatenmon, the Mage General. It was said in the entry that the Mage and Shaman Generals had been rivals. There were three other generals, and TobuCatmon warned the DigiWira that the Darkshadow Brethren always attacked their enemies as a team. The DigiWira immediately read all the entries and found out that there were _seven_ of the Darkshadow Brethren, and much to their relief they saw that they had destroyed two of them already. They learned of the Majin, Virago and Hellion Generals, all whom had not been seen yet.

They spent the next few days in anxiety, worrying that more Digimon would appear. But the past few days were peaceful, with no attacks at both the Digital World and their home world. However, the attack at Sunway Lagoon remained the hot topic of people all over the country. Footages of the battle kept on being played during news and show intervals. People were kept on edge as some remembered the Digimon attack all over the world that took place towards the end of year 2002. Malaysia hadn't been attacked then. The militaries and the police forces were kept on alert. Talk shows discussed of this attack often, and more and more people were now made known of Digimon. Learning of the exploits of the group of children called DigiDestined, some demanded that the country's own DigiDestined to step forward and identify themselves. However, for their safety and privacy, the DigiWira were all advised to keep silence. Those who already knew of their identities were sworn to secrecy, and the DigiWira were lucky that they only consisted of their own families and their school principal. For now, they had to be careful; they were also fortunate that nobody had caught them Digital Accessing with their partners at Sunway Lagoon – the security cameras were long since destroyed _before_ the Wira Digital made their appearances. Out of all five DigiWira, Gayathri had been the most anxious as she was seen together with Fairymon, but luckily the news simmered down and people had assumed that she was just a civilian that was rescued by the fairy Digimon.

The cousins walked out of the bike shed when three people stepped in front of their path.

"Well, well, well…ever since you've met your cousin, you seem to have forgotten all about us," sneered a gangling, dark-skinned teen with thick curly hair.

Beside the tall teen, an equally-tall teenager with a thicker built chuckled. "Some _friend _you are, JD." Behind the two teens was a bespectacled teen shorter in height than the other two.

"Samy, Megat, Kenny," JD addressed them smoothly while holding out his left arm sideward, motioning for Adam to stand behind him. He snickered as the dark teen – Samy – approached him. "Had a good smoke, huh?" The stench of tobacco was evident from Samy.

"That reminds me…you haven't been around to join us at all these past three weeks," Samy said.

"Took you three weeks to notice?" JD said, crossing his arms across his chest. While Samy and Megat both appeared intimidating enough, JD's stature was more impressive with him having both of their finer features – Samy was tall, Megat was broad, JD was both. JD chuckled and waved a hand uncaringly. "Sorry guys, but I gave up smoking already. And stop right there, I don't want to get smoke reek on my body."

"Really?" Megat snorted. He chanced a glare at Adam, who was observing their exchange curiously. "I bet that that little mister goody-goody was the reason, huh?"

"Watch your mouth, Megat," JD warned. "That's _my cousin_ you're talking about."

Megat snorted derisively. "We've been watching you these past three weeks. How the hell did you suddenly manage to get along with that prefect-girl Liu Ying, that rich girl Gayathri and the new kid who you socked on the nose? Him, I can understand," Megat pointed at Adam before continuing, "but the rest of those goody-two-shoes?"

"That's for me to know and _not_ for you to find out," JD snapped.

Kenny peered out from Megat's back and stared at the blonde teen and his dark-haired cousin. "Why the sudden hostility, JD? All we're curious about is why you've stopped hanging out with us and started hanging with those you yourself called _perfect little angels_, if I'm not mistaken. You used to think of them as geeks, teacher's pets…and now? Seems to me that you're now trying to become one as well."

Megat laughed. "Nice words, Kenny," he said, slapping the smaller boy on the shoulder before looking at JD. "What's the matter? Scared of getting expelled from the school after your last stunt with that Sabahan kid? Or are you trying to get on old Gurmit Singh's good side? We all know that he's constantly trying to find your faults."

"And that's your problem, why?" JD challenged. "It's not your damn business to tell me how I should act. Who are you, my mom?"

Samy snarled and gripped JD on the collars. "Your smartass change of attitude, that's our problem!"

Adam gasped, but JD merely chuckled as he balled his right hand into a fist. He was about to lay a punch on Samy's belly when a firm feminine voice stopped him.

"Is there a problem here?"

All of them turned sideways and saw Liu Ying with two more prefects behind her. Samy quickly let go of JD and sneered. He then turned and beckoned for Megat and Kenny to leave JD and Adam alone. The cousins and the prefects stared at their retreating profiles before the other prefects went away, leaving Liu Ying with the cousins.

"What was that all about, JD?" she asked, with a normal tone compared to her authoritative one she had just displayed.

"Just old buddies who decided to be assholes…" JD muttered. He then gave the prefect a lopsided grin. "Y'know, I could've dealt with them on their own…"

"And get yourself suspended again, or expelled?" Liu Ying retorted. "JD, you _promised_ us."

JD had said not too long ago that he wanted to turn a new leaf and have a fresh start. That was after the whole fiasco with the Puaka Generals and the revelation that he had a cousin and several good friends who were concerned about him. Adam and Manny had both urged him to give up smoking, occasionally offering him bubble-gums as substitutes which JD snorted away, saying that he wasn't addicted to smoking that he'd need substitutes, but he took their advices readily. Then Liu Ying had made a check of JD's school records and found out that JD couldn't afford to make another major mistake or he could get himself a longer suspension, or worse, expulsion. For the past three years he had been in the school, JD's records were not something one would be proud of. The principal was willing to cut JD some slack, knowing his dual identity, but still, she said that the other teachers didn't know about this, and she would be forced to indeed punish JD should he mess up once again. That had made JD promise that he would try not to disobey the school rules anymore.

"It wasn't his fault." Adam came to JD's defense. "Those guys…they started it."

At this, Liu Ying's stern expression softened. She looked at JD. "Really?"

JD flashed his famous crooked grin again and slung an arm around Adam. "What he said. Nice to know that some people care."

Liu Ying snorted, but no sooner than that a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Whatever. I'm going…"

But she was stopped short when two figures were seen streaking from the skies towards the school at top speed. The DigiWira could barely make out blurs of blue and pink before without warning, they crashed on the school's artificial fountain, effectively wrecking it into pieces and sent the waters flowing upon the tarred parking lots. The commotion instantly grabbed the attentions of ALL the school pupils, teachers, canteen vendors, and most importantly, the other three DigiWira.

"Aren't they…" one student gasped, pointing at the merman and the fairy that lay on the wreckage of the fountain.

"…the Digimon?" one continued, recognizing them from the news she had seen on TV.

"They're the ones who fought those bird demons at Sunway Lagoon last Saturday!" one boy decried. "Them and three others…"

A crowd was formed around the destroyed fountain where Samudramon and Puspamon were sprawled haphazardly. Their bodies bore evident of being attacked, judging from the cuts, wounds and what seemed like a deep knife cut on Samudramon's left shoulder. Samudramon was unconscious but Puspamon was still awake, despite terribly weak. She flinched about in pain, and looked absolutely uncomfortable with the crowd that had formed around her and Samudramon.

JD and Liu Ying pushed their ways towards the two Wira Digital while Adam immediately took off, unnoticed by everyone who was gathering around the Wira Digital. They stared at their friends, who had obviously been assaulted brutally. JD swore while Liu Ying held her breath. They wanted to comfort their friends, and ask what had happened, but they couldn't do so with all the people around them. Jackie had strongly advised them to preserve their civilian identities.

A couple of minutes later showers of white and gold orbs burst from the calm morning sky above Samudramon and Puspamon, and Aldiyamon descended in his decorous and mysterious way. His appearance automatically made the crowd made way, murmuring excitedly upon the sight of the third Wira Digital. Silently, Aldiyamon inspected his fallen comrades and Puspamon was seen whispering something at him. A slight hint of surprise crossed the angelic knight's features before he disappeared again, taking Samudramon and Puspamon along as they teleported to somewhere unknown, leaving the crowds open-mouthed in awe.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 37 – School Under Siege**_

xxx

xxx

A pair of intelligent green eyes watched within the darkness as an oval portal opened inside the dark hall of the Onyx Pyramid. Doumon and Shawujinmon stepped out from it, with Astamon supported in the middle. Doumon had a mild disapproval etched on his face, while Shawujinmon looked tired, but Astamon definitely had seen better days. His usually crisp outfit was frayed in many parts and he was breathing in and out rapidly.

"What happened here?" asked a loud feline-like voice. A tall and curvy figure appeared from the corner of the hall of the Onyx Pyramid. She placed her hands on her narrow hips, and quirked an eyebrow as she adjusted a stray wisp of red hair behind her large feline-like ears. Underneath the semitransparent veil she wore, it was evident that she was smirking. As she stepped further into the light, the three generals were graced with the figure of a lithe woman with cat-like features. She wore nothing more than a pair of gleaming cherry-colored breastplates which barely protected her modesty and a pair of yellow puffy leopard-spotted pants. Her arms were black-furred and lank, ending with curved, feline-like claws. A pair of black tails swished back and forth from her hind, occasionally clanking the golden rings that decorated them as she sashayed towards the three male generals.

"Nothing, milady," said Doumon airily. "Just two hot-blooded generals deciding to take some fresh, human-world morning air. And while they were at it they decided to wreck some havoc."

The Virago General pursed her lips, barely seen under the semi-transparent veil she wore on her face. "Looks like someone wrecked havoc on _them_."

The Shaman General sighed. "Of course, of all the places in the human world they could've gone to, they've chosen the DigiWira's hometown."

"Ah, I see…" Persiamon said and eyed Shawujinmon and Astamon. The two generals recognized the gleam from the cat-woman's emerald eyes and both groaned in frustration. Persiamon crossed her arms over her bosom, looking slightly miffed at their expressions before beginning, "Why can't you act like generals instead of minions? We have _plenty_ of minions ready at our beck and call…just send _them_ instead of going to the human world, until we've fully replenished our powers, you dolts! Do you want to end up like Karatenmon and Lilamon? Destroyed by the hands of pesky brats? Such a disgrace…"

"Here we go…" Shawujinmon sighed.

"Another morning lecture from the mother Cockatrimon…" Astamon grunted.

"What did you just say, booze-breath?" Persiamon said sharply. Hearing no replies, she snorted. "I thought so. For all that is bad and nasty Astamon, do something about that annoying smell that's permeating from your suit. It's giving me a serious bout of headache, and I can't think when I have a headache. Have you showered recently…I don't think so, with that horrid stench. Do I have to ask Shawujinmon to spray you with his waters? For an Ultimate Digimon you sure act like a little dumb In-Training. If Lucemon is here…"

"Yeah, yeah, Persiamon, we can't have that now, can we?" Astamon said loudly, and slapped off Shawujinmon's and Doumon's hands that were supporting him. He slouched towards a doorway and disappeared within the darkness. His voice could be heard muttering, but what he was saying was incomprehensible although it was obviously aimed towards the Virago General.

"Hey, if you have something to say to me why don't you say it in front of my face?" Persiamon hollered at Astamon's retreating figure. "Pff. I thought so."

To avoid another round of lecture from the sole female member of the Darkshadow Brethren, Shawujinmon quietly walked away from the somewhat miffed feline. He could feel the sharp eyes of the Virago General tailing his retreat, but did nothing to acknowledge or deny it. He merely went towards the door that would lead them to their private chambers, and called it a day.

"The nerves of those two," Persiamon muttered.

"Now, now, Persiamon," Doumon said. "Getting angry will give you nothing but premature wrinkles now, am I wrong?"

Persiamon snorted. "You've always been one with the wise words, Doumon," she said. She snorted again in a very unladylike manner, and continued with a miffed tone, "It's not like I'm angry over nothing! We've nearly lost the Puaka Generals – thank all that is rotten and nasty that Lucemon managed to rescue them at their brink of deletion. Should _any_ of us got deleted prematurely it would put a dent on Lucemon's master plan, and we simply can't have that."

Doumon nodded. "Those two are reckless, I must say, but they meant well. As far as I have been made known, those children didn't fare better than them as well. It was a two-against-two battle before the others showed up." He chuckled lightly before continuing, "I believe at this moment, the Wira Digital must be recovering from the attack. Perhaps an Ultimate Digimon and several brutes will be enough to deal with them for now."

"One Ultimate?" Persiamon wondered. Then she nodded. "Yes, that will do for the time being. If we're lucky they could destroy those children and if we're not…" The Virago General shrugged. "More power for those kids, for the time being. Give them false hopes that they can actually beat us…" she smiled evilly, and the two generals chuckled as their profiles were engulfed by the darkness.

xxx

xxx

"What happened to them?" asked Mrs. Khadijah Basri, the school principal as she observed the prone, unmoving bodies of Gayathri and Manny on the beds of the school's infirmary. Jackie was putting bandages on them with Adam's help, while Labramon, Patamon and Agumon were treating Floramon and Penguinmon who were injured. Salamon and Gatomon stood by the corner of the infirmary, observing the crowd with rapt interest akin to a child.

"They were attacked," Adam explained, turning around to face the late-forties woman. He then caught JD's and Liu Ying's eyes. "It was Shawujinmon and another general…I didn't catch his name, but Puspamon told me about him before I brought them here."

"Damn that overgrown duck," JD muttered, before inching back to his seat upon meeting the principal's glare.

"Language, Joshua," said the principal mildly. She tolerated it, however, understanding why JD had said it in the first place. She gazed at the three teenagers who were now meeting her eyes steadily. "Are you saying that the Digimon who has attacked Sunway Lagoon was the one responsible to attack Gayathri and Emmanuel?" She had seen the news, and having known that five pupils of her school were the Wira Digital had made her even more worried.

"Yes, Mrs. Khadijah," Adam said. "And Shawujinmon was with another general…"

"A general?" the principal asked, confused.

Adam nodded. "Shawujinmon wasn't alone. He attacked them with another bad guy…" he simplified for the principal's understanding.

Mrs. Khadijah didn't quite get it still, but she supposed that she wouldn't be able to unless Adam explained it in a very detailed way. Right now, she suspected that the teen was not in the mood. The boy was evidently worried about his two friends, and his emotion was mirrored by the other two DigiWira. Sensing that they were a tight-knit group, the principal had granted them permissions to be at the infirmary and had informed their respective class teachers that _she_ had needed them for something. Adam had made a stop at the computer room while the others tended to the injured Gayathri, Emmanuel and their Digimon partners, returning not long after with several medications which he'd claimed to originate from the Digital World. He had gotten them because by calling a doctor would risk their identities being made known to public, and that the Digital World's medicine was effective to deal with injuries sustained from a Digimon battle. She'd wanted to object but soon noticed that the teens seemed to know what they were doing…as if they had done it several times already. They didn't panic at all, but sat together in composed silence, worried but not so much flustering as any kids their age would be.

"We should inform their parents, at the very least," she finally said uneasily, feeling helpless that she couldn't do anything to help. The most she could do at the moment, and which she had done, was to procure the infirmary for their use. Nobody, teachers and students alike, were to enter the clinic without her explicit permission, and the school was to go as normal. That much she had done to ensure that no curious ones would stumble in the infirmary and find out about this. But she supposed she didn't have to worry that much, as nobody really knew where Aldiyamon had taken Samudramon and Puspamon earlier that morning.

In all actuality, Aldiyamon had simply teleported them (and devolving them in the process) to the computer room, and then to the infirmary.

"Don't…" Gayathri's voice protested weakly. Everyone's attentions were instantly focused on her.

"Gayathri! You're awake!" Liu Ying immediately went to her friend's side, sitting by her at the table.

"…wasn't injured much," the usually bubbly girl mumbled as she cast a look at the still unconscious Manny.

"What happened to you guys?" Adam asked.

"It…it was Shawujinmon…" Gayathri began. She had a disgusted look on her face before adding, "…and one perverted demon called Astamon…"

xxx

xxx

**(Flashback)**

Gayathri calmly walked down the road, humming a song as she made her way towards Manny's house. Apparently her parents were needed for a board meeting at their company, and were in a rush that they needed Anding to drive them there first thing in the morning. However, her father had taken control of the situation and had called Manny's mother, asking whether she would be willing to drive Gayathri along with Manny to school that day? Of course, Mrs. Kimberly Bhatt had agreed readily.

Manny's family owned two cars and his father had already gone off to work with their smaller car, leaving his mother with the more luxurious car. It was a normal routine for Kimberly to send her son to school and her daughter to the kindergarten for the past one month she'd been here, and taking Gayathri along would not be a problem at all since she went to the same school as her son. In fact, it was an arrangement that seemed to work the best, as Gayathri had easily initiated a conversation with her usually bashful son and her chatty daughter.

Gayathri too was enjoying conversing with Manny's family, before suddenly the car was halted so suddenly that they were nearly thrown towards the front. Debbie, who was riding shotgun, screamed in fear – it was lucky that she was strapped securely with the seatbelts. Kimberly looked severely shaken as her eyes were transfixed on the commotion that was taking place in front of them. Before Gayathri could comprehend of what was going on, an explosion was heard and to their horror, a car was flung in the air, crashing against an electric pole. Another blast was heard and a lorry was sent spinning across the roads, nearly crashing onto a house before one of its tyres got stuck inside a large drain. That caused the lorry to jerk wildly and a man flung out from the door. The ground shook before water pillars erupted at a distance, and several vehicles were caught within them. Terrified screams were heard, and both Gayathri and Manny knew that something was up.

The two DigiWira proceeded in getting out from the car before Kimberly could protest. Manny leaned back in and asked her to drive away with Debbie to safety, away from here. "Those are the Digimon that attacked us at Sunway Lagoon…they're very dangerous, mummy, and I don't want to see you and Debbie got hurt by them." He then got out from the car and closed the backdoor.

"But…"

"Aunty, we'll be ok. We've beaten them once…we can do it again," Gayathri assured. "But we can do it better if we know that you're safe."

It took Kimberly a while to remember that while Manny and Gayathri were children, they were also _chosen_ children, and they were destined to fight evil Digimon. That much she had gathered from what Jackie had mentioned to her and the other parents when the DigiWira did not return from the Digital World. Besides she had a young daughter who was far more vulnerable to any attacks, and she was sure that Manny and Penguinmon…or their fused form Samudramon, could never focus in hindering the villains if they were there. She didn't like this, but she had a feeling that there was nothing else she could do, but to pay heed to what they had asked her to do.

"Be careful," she said finally.

"Be careful Abang….Kak Gayathri…" Debbie said, looking close to crying already.

The teens smiled grimly as they watched the black Honda Accord drove away from the battle site. Then they took out their Digivices and released their partners as a familiar villain appeared in view. Looking around, they saw that no one was around – everyone had taken refuge inside the confines of their houses or anywhere away from the intersection where Shawujinmon was at. There was another Digimon standing close to Shawujinmon, and he was firing black lasers from a machinegun towards the buildings and shops of Taipan Commercial Center and the Subang Jaya Municipal Council located diagonally across from it. Sounds of shattering glasses and combusting walls were heard, followed by a maniacal cackle which sounded so much like one who had too much alcohol. Shawujinmon had summoned more water pillars which threw various vehicles all over the intersection. People were running about in chaos, shouting in horror as the two Digimon continued attacking the precinct mercilessly. The DigiWira also saw, to their horror, several bodies lying around chaotically. They would be killed if the demons were not stopped.

Looking at each other, they realized that they couldn't afford to waste any more time.

"**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAAAAA!!!"**

Puspamon took to the skies while Samudramon propelled himself forward with a jet of water. Both Wira Digital headed towards the two villains, who ceased attacking for a while upon realizing their company.

"So we meet again, Samudramon," Shawujinmon said with his haughty, squawky voice.

"And allow me to introduce myself." The other demon, a pinstriped-suited man with a large red shawl draped on his shoulders and a black mask adorning his face, said in a slurry, drunk-like voice. "I am Astamon! And I am here to…" he looked up and grinned towards Puspamon, "…see your beautiful self, sweetheart."

A vein nearly popped out from Puspamon, and she eyed Astamon angrily. _'Sweetheart? I'll show you sweetheart! Who does he think he is…my boyfriend? Just what I need…a male version of that Lilamon!' _The sprite inhaled deeply and let out a powerful Sprite Scream towards both demons, taking them by surprise. Astamon and Shawujinmon were flung backwards from the shockwave of the supersonic scream, crashing on an abandoned lorry. Then, without waiting she sailed towards the fallen generals and blasted them with the Jelita Shocker. Samudramon followed suit by drenching the villains with the Divine Rain before electrocuting them with the Cosmic Thunderstrike. To Puspamon's slight amusement, Samudramon's mouth was set so thin he appeared to look somewhat miffed. It was rather obvious that he also didn't like Astamon's comment on Puspamon. Their combined attacks resulted in an explosion, and at first they thought that the villains were done for.

However, they were gravely mistaken. To their horror their attacks seemed to bear little effects on the two generals when the smokes from the explosion began to clear. Black lasers spewed forth from the smokes, several of them grazed upon the two Wira Digital.

"Feeling hot? Maybe a blast of water will cool you down!" Shawujinmon taunted as he released jets of high-pressured water blasts to slam upon the Wira Digital.

Before the Wira Digital could retaliate they saw Astamon soaring towards the skies and pointed his machinegun towards them. "Although I'd rather have you as my lifelong partner, it appears that it's a relationship that's doomed from the beginning. Goodbye, sweetheart!" He clicked on his gun and summoned, _"Hellfire!!"_

Black torrents of flames engulfed the two Wira Digital, causing them to scream in pain. The fires were soon engulfed by raging waves of water from Shawujinmon, sending the two heroes crashing onto the windows of the Municipal Council. Shrieks of the workers there could be heard when the two Wira Digital crashed inside the building. They were just about to get up when another wave of Hellfire from Astamon blasted upon them, nearly burning the whole building if it weren't for Shawujinmon's attack which put out the flames.

"It seems like you're destined to be saved after all, sweetheart," Astamon noted, watching the drenched sprite with interest.

"Shut your trap, Astamon! They're the enemies!" Shawujinmon snapped.

"Hey…can't a guy appreciate a beauty without being disturbed?"

The two Generals continuous onslaught had weakened Samudramon and Puspamon severely. However, realizing that they were putting the lives of the council's workers in grave peril if they were to remain there caused them to get back up on their feet. Heading out from the building, the two heroes saw their enemies hovering above them. Not willing to give up, Puspamon summoned her Hibiscus Hurricane and Samudramon called out the Cosmic Thunderstrike. The two attacks merged into one lightning-hurricane and slammed onto Shawujinmon, throwing him all the way to Taipan Commercial Center. Astamon saw this and snorted before attacking Samudramon with his gun, spewing forth lasers which knocked Samudramon off his feet. Laughing loudly, Astamon continued firing lasers towards Samudramon, before he was halted by magenta beams emitted from several larger-than-life tulips.

"Ah, sweetheart. Coming to your boy's defend, eh?" Astamon sniggered and pointed his gun towards Puspamon…before retracting it once again. He eyed Puspamon from up till down repeatedly, taking in the battered form of the still-gorgeous fairy. A smile tugged on his lips. "I'll spare you, beautiful Puspamon. My only condition is that you abandon your pathetic friends and join _me_."

"In your dreams," Puspamon spat, and generated her illusionary attack. _"Dream Rose Mirage!!"_

Having maintained eye contact with Puspamon gave the fairy the opportunity to generate the powerful mind attack against him. Astamon was astounded upon suddenly noticing a massive black rose blooming behind Puspamon, and thorny vines snaked from underneath the flower towards him. Before he could move away, the vines wrapped all over him and the thorns dug into his skin. Astamon cried and struggled to break free.

Puspamon wasn't strong enough to maintain control of her illusionary attack, as Astamon was bigger than her, but she held on. The key to execute the Dream Rose Mirage was her concentration and it seemed that she had Astamon wrapped under her control for now. Yet the general proved to be too tough to be kept restrained for long.

Too focused on finishing Astamon off with her mirage power, Puspamon didn't notice the other enemy coming from her back. Shawujinmon approached her silently, his metallic staff ready to strike. The Kappa General swung his staff up high and was ready to hit the fairy Wira Digital when a thunderbolt forced him to let his staff go. With an angry snarl he looked down, and saw Samudramon on his feet. He quickly glided down and caught his staff.

"Aren't you the resilient one?" Shawujinmon said with a sneer. "We'll fix that…_Crescent Moon Slash!!"_

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!"_

During their previous battle, Samudramon had managed to slice Shawujinmon's staff into half with his powerful double-edged blades. So it was shocking when this time around, the spinning trident was caught inside the curved-blade of the staff instead. Flabbergasted, Samudramon tried retracting his trident but failed as Shawujinmon was evidently stronger.

"You simply can't think that you can use that same attack on me, boy!" Shawujinmon said triumphantly before pulling his staff back and seized Samudramon's trident at the same time. Then he kicked Samudramon on the belly before using _both_ the trident and the staff to pummel the merman Wira Digital viciously and repeatedly. Then, to deliver the final attack he spun his staff and managed to cut Samudramon on his right shoulder with the sharp edges of his staff, and pounded him even more with the thicker end of his staff. "It's the end for you now, boy!"

Samudramon was flung towards a lamp pole with a defeated cry. His weight caused the pole to bend at a very narrow angle before he slumped down on his face, unconscious.

"Samudramon!" Puspamon gasped, her concentration disrupted. At the moment however she couldn't care, as Samudramon had been beaten. Then she realized her folly and turned around…only to find out that the Majin General was no longer where he was at before. She was about to spin around when a large hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her towards a body.

"That wasn't very nice of you, sweetheart," Astamon said huskily. He grinned as Puspamon writhing helplessly to break free from his grasp. Being bigger, Astamon knew that the fairy's effort was futile. "You're lucky that I'm still in a forgiving mood, sweetheart…"

"UGH! Stop calling me sweetheart you perverted, foul-smelling beast!" Puspamon roared and tilted her head upward. Her nose, partially hidden by the visor, caught the unbearable stench of what she suspected was alcohol or a very bad perfume, and she scowled in disgust. "You're messing with the wrong girl here…_Sprite Scream!! AAAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEIIIII!!!!!"_ The supersonic scream, being launched at close range, deafened the Majin General so severely that he lost his orientation and was forced to let Puspamon go. The shockwave that came with the attack nearly ripped his head off his body should he maintained his grip on the feisty sprite. He was forced to let her go.

Seizing her advantage, Puspamon flung Astamon towards the sky with the Hibiscus Hurricane, and pulverized him with the hot beams of the Jelita Shocker. Astamon was sent flying towards an unseen distance by the powerful hurricane, and Puspamon hoped that her attacks would take care of the demonic general. Her attention now was brought towards the remaining general, but she didn't know whether she could take him on another battle. Astamon was stronger than her – she was fortunate because Astamon had made the wrong move by drawing her close to him.

"Curse it!" Shawujinmon snarled, feeling weakened himself after the battle with the two Wira Digital. _'Since when they've gotten so powerful…Astamon has been defeated? That fool; he shouldn't have hold the fairy close to him! But still…I can finish both of them now…' _

Puspamon knew that if Shawujinmon engaged her in a battle, she would lose. Her energy was depleted, and Samudramon was knocked out. The only way of escape she could think about was…

"Hey you guys! Perfect timing! Aldiyamon, Xianamon, Satriamon, GET HIM!!" she shouted, trying to sound as excited as she could whilst looking at the distance.

'_Curse it! Doumon, take me away NOW!!'_ Shawujinmon thought without even looking back. Instantly an oval portal appeared on top of the Kappa General and he was sucked in.

Puspamon heaved her breath in relief before making way towards Samudramon. _'We have to go to the school…to the others…before they return.'_

**(End Flashback)**

xxx

xxx

"That was a very close call, you two," Liu Ying said. "Why didn't you call us?"

"There was no time," Manny answered. He had awoken from his sleep while Gayathri was telling the others about the attacks, and had supplied some inputs as well. "They were destroying everything in sight at the intersection…we had to stop them there and then."

"How bad was the damage?" Adam asked.

"Very bad," Gayathri said, grimacing. "The municipal council would be closed for sure. Lots of houses were damaged when those villains threw the cars all around. Some Taipan shops are destroyed too. The roads where the battle had taken place were damaged even worse – remember how Shawujinmon summon his water pillars back at Sunway Lagoon? Only this time, he used the roads…they'll need major reconstruction. And the people…I don't know…we saw several injured ones, but…" She sighed. "I wished we could've stopped them earlier."

"You've done your best," Liu Ying said consolingly. "At the very least, you've driven them away."

JD frowned. "Knowing the bad guys…and I _know_ how they think, having been one myself…they'll be back for sure."

Not long after JD had said that, the school bell rang. Nobody paid attention to it…before they noticed that the bell rang for nearly a minute long and still showed no indication of stopping. Another minute went by and the bell was still ringing, and by this time everyone knew that something was up. Commotions could be heard coming from the classrooms and the labs, shouts and gasps were becoming more and more prominent and the sounds of doors being opened took place in a seemingly sequenced manner.

"It's the emergency bell!" the principal said. She peered through the window and saw students and teachers coming out from the classes, lining up before heading towards the assembly ground. She recognized it immediately as the practiced fire drill. But there seemed to be no indication of fire.

Or perhaps she'd thought too soon…the grounds suddenly shook as she saw a hulking figure in red armor and fiery wings stomping the ground of the school's soccer field. The figure looked very much humanlike, except for the fact that it was way taller than the school's four-storey buildings. Above the armored being were five giant birds that were instantly recognizable as the birds which had attacked Sunway Lagoon last Saturday. The armored figure roared loudly before spewing forth bursts of fire bullets which immediately caught the school canteen and the nearest school block – the designated Block A which housed the classrooms for Form Four and Five students, the school library and the teachers' offices. Instantly, alarmed shrieks were heard as the buildings were set ablaze. Students ran haphazardly while teachers and prefects tried their hardest to keep order, despite evidently terrified as well.

"Oh my God!" the principal gasped, backing away from the window with a very pale expression. "What is that?"

"Digimon," Adam said breathlessly as he scanned the invader. He recognized the Velgemon, but not the armored Digimon, although he thought that whoever it was it was distinctly similar to Satriamon. And apparently JD and Agumon realized it too, for JD was heard swearing angrily under his breath.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Ardhamon__**   
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Virus type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Solar Wind Destroyer – **__Ardhamon generates a massive sphere of fire and lambastes it towards his enemies._

_**Atomic Inferno – **__Ardhamon shoots fire bullets from the gauntlets on his arms._

xxx

"This freak's _mine_," JD growled and took out his Juara Digivice.

"Josh, wait…you can't Digital Access here!" Adam stopped his cousin by placing a restraining hand on the older boy's arm. Upon meeting the glare of the blonde teen, the team leader quickly clarified, "Satriamon's too big to fit in this infirmary."

Upon the explanation, JD's glare softened to the point of looking sheepish. "Oh…yeah. Sorry 'bout that."

Manny and Gayathri both rose from their beds, but Liu Ying held up her hand to stop them. "You two are still injured…if Ardhamon is an Ultimate, the three of us can handle this."

"Two of you will handle this," Adam said, observing the panicking students and teachers alike upon seeing Block A of the school set ablaze. "Aldiyamon is needed more to teleport away all the people in this school to a safer place. The public field beside the municipal council will do…"

"But the municipal council is damaged from this morning's battle," Gayathri said. "But…that's the safest place anyway. And we want to help."

"Samudramon is needed to put out those flames," Manny pointed out.

"Are you and your Digimon partners up to it?" Jackie asked, looking at the injured DigiWira and partners with worry.

"Sure do," Penguinmon said confidently…but then he flinched and held his rotund belly. "But not so much for a battle with that big ugly guy. Quenching flames, sure. No prob. But battling evil ugly guy again, no, I don't think so."

"Puspamon wasn't as badly injured as Samudramon," Floramon said. "The least we could do is to divert those Velgemon away while Aldiyamon teleports all of the students to a safer place."

The school principal took out a key. "Here's the key to the infirmary's back door. I suppose you all need to step out in order to…uhh…"

"Thank you, Mrs. Khadijah," Liu Ying said and immediately took the key. She darted towards the backdoor and all five DigiWira and their partners rushed out. Salamon and Gatomon hopped onto Jackie as the computer instructor guided the school principal out.

"**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAAAAA!!!"**

The principal's mouth hung slightly in amazement after watching her school pupils merged with their Digimon partners to become a magnificent white knight with shining wings, a sorceress-like woman in yellow robe wielding a fly whisk, a sprite in pink, a merman with blue tail and a red-armored warrior.

The panicking crowd gasped upon seeing five beings depicted as the ones who had saved Sunway Lagoon appearing from behind the school's second block. Three of them had already been seen earlier. The merman instantly showered the canteen with heavy rains, unwittingly drenching most of the pupils as he moved the raining cloud over the burning Block A. The fairy with glittering pink wings shot up towards the sky and began countering several crimson buzzards before she was joined by the angelic knight.

"Aldiyamon and Puspamon are battling the Velgemon…Satriamon, do you think you can handle Ardhamon on your own for the time being while I create force-fields around the school?" the sorceress with yellow fox mask was heard asking the red armored figure. "I will join you as soon as Aldiyamon is ready to teleport everyone to safety." With that said, she assumed a meditative posture and everyone gasped as a faint golden force-field was formed right in front of the sorceress. Satriamon and Samudramon were kept out of the barrier.

Satriamon smirked. "No objections." He immediately crossed the field, ready to fight the enemy who was approximately twice his size.

"I'll back you up," Samudramon offered. "The flames are nearly all put out."

"Don't strain yourself," Satriamon said.

Meanwhile, on the clear late morning sky, Puspamon and Aldiyamon were gliding with profound nimbleness and agility as they led the five Velgemon towards the sky, away from the school and the houses around it. When they were far enough, the two Wira Digital turned around, and noticed that the Velgemon were flying towards them in a V-shaped formation.

"I'll go behind them…use your hurricane to push them away, ok?" Aldiyamon didn't wait for his friend's confirmation; he quickly teleported away and reappeared about a hundred meters behind the Velgemon.

Puspamon saw what Aldiyamon was attempting to do, and obliged. _"Hibiscus Hurricane!"_

The flowery hurricane slammed onto two of the Velgemon, pushing them straight towards Aldiyamon while the other three screeched as they scrambled away.

Aldiyamon generated his sword and slashed it in a vertical, forward direction. _"Heavenstar Gladius!"_ A pillar of pure energy was formed and it rushed towards the incoming two Velgemon, incinerating them with concentrated holy energy. Aldiyamon smiled grimly as the buzzards were deleted. Looking up, he saw one Velgemon fell prey to Puspamon's Jelita Shocker, but another came to her back and grazed her with its sharp wings. Puspamon shrieked and fell to the ground, her wings injured. Aldiyamon quickly pointed a hand towards his friend, and Puspamon was safely teleported to the ground. He then looked up at the incoming two Velgemon and shook his head. "Two against one? That's hardly fair now…yikes!! _Deistic Guard!!_" He quickly folded his metallic wings in front of his torso when the Velgemon both shot obsidian lasers towards him. A silver sphere was generated around him, deflecting the lasers towards the roofs of the school buildings.

"Now look at what you've done?" Aldiyamon groaned and balled his hand into a fist. White sacred aura erupted from it and Aldiyamon drew his fist back, aiming at one Velgemon which was hovering in front of the other. _"Radiant Faith!" _ A beam of white and gold energy slammed against one Velgemon, throwing it against the other buzzard. "I've had enough of you two…let's see how you two birds of darkness handle a firebird of light. _Solaris Firebird!!"_

A shrieking phoenix burst forth from Aldiyamon's shining wings and it incinerated the remaining Velgemon with its holy flames. Not long after, they were deleted and a loud applause was heard coming from the ground. Aldiyamon quickly made his descent as Xianamon lowered the force-field. He nodded at Xianamon, who then flew towards the battlefield to assist Satriamon and Samudramon in facing Ardhamon.

"Is everyone here?" Aldiyamon called out. He scanned the large crowd of students and teachers, taking in several familiar faces of his classmates and ex-classmates, teachers, canteen vendors, cleaners, shopkeeper, and others that he knew by their names or faces. His gaze paused briefly at a pretty girl with a demure expression, moving his gaze away quickly when he saw the girl blush. "Alright, now I need you to hold on to each others' hands…yeah, that's right, _hands only_, please…" he added upon hearing a mischievous remark from one Form Five boy regarding of _which_ places they would need to hold on to, which was also responded by several angry hisses from the girls nearby to the said boy. He scanned the crowd again, and was satisfied that everyone was following his instruction. He then looked at the nearest boy at him…a small Form One boy who was looking at him with an expression of awe and amazement. He held out his hand. "Here, hold my hand." The boy excitedly grabbed hold on Aldiyamon's hand, earning a somewhat amused smile from the angelic Digimon. "Right, here we go. One, two, THREE!"

Orbs of light burst out from the angels and rapidly surrounded the entire crowd before they vanished, right before several stray flame bullets shot towards the now-empty assembly ground.

In the meantime, Satriamon and Xianamon found out that Ardhamon was a very tough opponent.

"There's only one room for a fire warrior Digimon in this area, and guess what? You ain't him! _Dragonforce Striker!!"_ Satriamon shot up towards the bigger Ardhamon and struck his powerful gauntlet upon Ardhamon's armored torso. A fiery dragon was generated and Ardhamon snarled before knocking the smaller Satriamon away without much effort.

"Oh, how cute…a very, very small wannabe warrior of flames who dares challenge the likes of me," Ardhamon snorted. "The chances of you winning the fight is so highly improbable that's it's cute, especially since you're so small and little and I'm so big."

"Who you're calling so microscopically small that he'd need a magnifying glass in order to be seen?!" Satriamon shouted and fired his Dark Rage technique. To his dismay, the black lasers simply were deflected away by Ardhamon's apparently strong armor.

From the distance, Samudramon sweatdropped upon hearing Satriamon's remark. _'I didn't know JD watches Fullmetal Alchemist?'_ Manny thought from within his merged body. A smile tugged at his lips before he winced, realizing that he was still too weak to join the battle. From the corner of his obscured eyes, he could see Puspamon making her way towards him. She seemed to be in a slightly better condition than him, but was not fit for a fight either. They would have to remain on the sidelines.

But there was at least something Samudramon could still do. Ardhamon was a Digimon of fire, and fire's greatest weakness was water. He pointed his trident towards the sky above Ardhamon and summoned, _"Divine Rain!"_ The rain would leech out some of Ardhamon's power, which would make him more vulnerable against Satriamon and Xianamon.

Xianamon flew up to Ardhamon's eye level and noticed that Ardhamon's neck and face were not armored. She quickly waved her fly whisk and showered the villain with her poisonous Jade Needles. Coupled with Samudramon's Divine Rain, Ardhamon would be weakened enough. Or at least, she hoped he would be.

"Unhanded tricks! Blast you annoying cretins! Now burn under the wrath of my _Atomic Inferno!!"_ Ardhamon shouted with fury and spewed fire bullets towards his foe. To his annoyance, Xianamon simply erected an energy barrier which absorbed some of the bullets, before deflecting the accumulated power as a wave of golden light which nearly knocked Ardhamon off his feet.

Seeing that inspired Xianamon on how to further disgruntle the villainous Ardhamon. She shot a yellow energy wave towards the field ground, exclaiming _"Gaia Retaliation!"_ The ground instantly shook and a small crevice begun to form under Ardhamon. Before the draconic villain could move his leg, it was caught in the middle of the crevice and he fell on his knees. Seeing him down, both Wira Digital quickly seized this chance to attack.

"_Dragonforce Striker!"_

"_Diamond World Mandala!"_

The two attacks slammed upon Ardhamon, eliciting a loud cry of pain as his armor begun to crack. The force from the attacks had sent him flying, but Ardhamon immediately regained his composure while in midair. Infuriated he raised his arms upwards and called forth his deadly finisher – the Solar Wind Destroyer. Eyeing Satriamon, Ardhamon sneered and sent the powerful sphere of fire towards the said Wira Digital. The fireball zoomed with amazing speed and slammed against Satriamon who took the attack heads-on.

Then, an explosion took place.

"Satriamon!!" Xianamon, Puspamon and Samudramon gasped in horror. There was no way Satriamon could survive that kind of attack. Xianamon generated her telekinetic barrier to shield herself from the thick suffocating smokes as well as the rains of soil and stones while Puspamon and Samudramon used their wind and water powers to protect themselves. When the smokes receded and the rains of soils and stones stopped, they saw a crater was formed in the middle of the field.

But Satriamon was nowhere to be found.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Who's the mightier fire dragon-man now, weaklings?" Ardhamon guffawed evilly. He eyed the shocked Wira Digital, basking in the fear that was starting to show from them, before a cocky voice intervened.

"I still think that's me, you bastard!"

Looking up, the three Wira Digital and Ardhamon saw Satriamon at the sky; somehow able to fly. Satriamon didn't look harmed at all despite the powerful attack Ardhamon had launched at him. But upon closer inspection and as Satriamon moved sideways, they saw four pairs of glittering silver wings and a smaller humanoid frame holding Satriamon's body. Laughing, the Wira Digital immediately realized what had happened. Aldiyamon must have teleported Satriamon away in the nick of time, as he was now supporting the said dragon-man.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'll be constantly watching your back?" Aldiyamon groaned as he held on the bigger Satriamon. "You're heavy, you know that?"

"What finer ways to develop your muscles, cousin," Satriamon smirked as Aldiyamon flew them towards the astonished Ardhamon. "Let me at him! I'll squash him with my Dragonforce Striker."

"Here. Maybe this will help. _Solaris Firebird!!_" Aldiyamon summoned his firebird of light, this time merging it with his metallic wings. The resulted firebird was a flaming bird with steel wings which plummeted towards Ardhamon. Aldiyamon then swung Satriamon once and saw that he landed on his feet perfectly on the Solaris Firebird's metallic wings, using it as a sky glider for Satriamon. Together the firebird took Satriamon towards Ardhamon who attempted to stop him by firing fire bullets.

"Pretty fancy combo…but it won't be enough to stop me! _Atomic Inferno!!"_ Ardhamon shouted.

Satriamon laughed as he instinctively guided the firebird-glider to avoid the flaming bullets, while using his gauntlet as a shield to protect himself from any stray fire bullets. Ardhamon seemed flustered as Satriamon approached him. When they were close enough, Satriamon jumped off from the firebird as it slammed upon the evil dragon-man, sending him crashing on his back.

Satriamon's moment had come. He ignited his whole body into flames, charged up his gauntlet and roared, _"Flaming Torch!! Dragonforce Striker!!"_

Slamming the Chrome-Digizoid gauntlet upon Ardhamon's body, there was a brief standstill at first as Ardhamon's armor was hard as diamonds. Then a slow crack was formed on the armor, growing bigger and radiated wider as Satriamon pressed on. Finally the armor was destroyed and evaporated into data particles and Satriamon successfully laid the final blow upon Ardhamon's chest. Ardhamon shrieked in pain as the sharp claws of Satriamon's gauntlet penetrated through his body, tearing apart flesh and breaking bones to pieces. With a defeated cry, Ardhamon combusted into data particles.

"Who's the small one now?" Satriamon smirked as he landed on his feet on the cratered field. He looked up at Aldiyamon and raised a thumbs-up, grinning. Noticing the others he gave them the thumbs-up too. He looked around, noticing that it was lucky that they managed to confine Ardhamon from attacking the neighborhood. Apart from needing major clean-up and probably new paint, the houses around the nearby neighborhood were pretty much in one piece. The school, however, had partially lost its Block A and the canteen.

'_Damn…why can't Block C be the one which was set on fire? Then I'll have no classes to attend to…'_ JD groaned from within his merged body, but squashed that thought immediately.

'_Tough luck, Josh,'_ Agumon giggled.

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A white van screeched into a halt in front of the school gate, and the passenger door instantly swung open. A woman with super-straight dark brown hair, wearing a frameless pair of glasses and a smart red suit and pants jumped down. She was holding a microphone and saw in amazement as the smaller warrior in red laid the finishing blow upon the massive armored villain.

"Oh, darn it! We've missed the battle!" the woman groaned in frustration. "Quickly, Chia! Those warriors are still around. Perhaps we can still get an interview from them." She snorted upon seeing the driver stumbling out with the camera equipment from the back of the van. Then she glanced at the mirror beside the passenger seat, eyeing her make-up. "Right. Come on, let's go inside the school!"

"Right away, Miss Kaur!" The thin young man with spiked black hair said, and followed the woman inside the school. "Camera's on roll in five, four, three, two…" He flashed the woman a thumbs-up. "You're on air."

"**Welcome to TV3's late-breaking news. I'm Rita Kaur,"** the woman began with a very prim tone. **"Earlier today, the town of UEP Subang Jaya has witnessed a staggering attack from the creatures known as Digimon. Witnesses have said that the attacks were instigated by two humanoid beings, one of them being the exact same culprit that has laid waste to Sunway Lagoon last Saturday. It has been said that while the earlier attack fortunately bore no fatalities, the number of casualties is astoundingly high, at 56 in total.**

She beckoned for the cameraman to follow her as she walked along the driveway, crossed the semi-burned school canteen, and halted, indicating for the cameraman to take footages of the damaged school buildings as she spoke. **"And more recently, just about an hour ago the teachers, pupils and workers of USJ 2 National Secondary School, Subang Jaya have magically appeared at the field of the Subang Jaya Municipal Council, believed to be transported there by one being called 'Aldiyamon'. The reason for this is because the school had been the next target of the evil Digimon. Right now, I am at the site of the battle, but apparently the battle has been taken cared of. We might however, have a chance to get to know these **_**heroes**_**…there they are! Yoo-hoo…you five!" **

The five Wira Digital turned around and saw a woman approaching them, followed closely by a cameraman.

"**Hello. I am Rita Kaur, and we are currently live on-air on TV3. Smile for the camera. Can you five spare a minute or two so that we could ask you a few questions?"** Rita Kaur said with a hopeful tone. **"Please do so. The people of this country are simply **_**dying**_** to find out about the heroes who have saved this country from the Digimon attacks."**

The angelic knight looked at his four counterparts, feeling slightly nervous upon noticing the camera being focused on all of them. The red-armored warrior shrugged uncaringly, the pale-skinned man with an X-shaped armor donned on his body avoided Rita Kaur's gaze, the yellow-garbed woman simply snorted in mild annoyance while the pink fairy-like being sighed as she leaned against the other female for support, looking fairly weakened.

"Umm…sure. What do you want to know?" Aldiyamon finally said.

"**Firstly, who are you five?"**

"We're the Wira Digital."

"Wira Digital? Very nice…" Rita Kaur commented before moving on with the second question. **"Can you introduce yourselves to us? I think the media is getting **_**so**_** tired of describing the five of you as...the white knight, the red-armored warrior…you get my drift. Proper names would be easier and more helpful for future references, thank-you notes, everything."**

Aldiyamon nodded. "I'm called Aldiyamon, and this is Satriamon, Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon."

Rita frowned, obviously thinking about something. **"Judging from your name, you are Digimon."**

"We are, sort of," Aldiyamon said.

"**If that is so, where are your human partners? As far as we all have been made known, the DigiDestined are partnered with Digimon."**

"That is true," Aldiyamon confirmed, beginning to get nervous of the woman's questions. "They're…somewhere safe, we hope. Oh, look, we've got to go now! Superheroes' works are never done. To all the people of Malaysia…do not worry. We'll do our best to fend off the enemies. Until then…uhh…goodbye."

Before Rita Kaur could protest, Aldiyamon spread his arms and surrounded all five Wira Digital with orbs of white and gold. Within seconds, they teleported away, leaving the reporter and her cameraman sidekick awestruck. Her mouth was opened in a very un-ladylike 'O' shape.

"Umm…Miss Kaur? We're still on air."

Rita Kaur chuckled and turned back to the cameraman with a smile plastered on her face. **"There you have it everyone – the heroes of Malaysia! The Wira Digital – Aldiyamon, Satriamon, Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon. Let us hope that they will do what they have promised. This is Rita Kaur reporting live for TV3. Now back to our usual program…"**

"That's one fine scoop, Miss Kaur!" Chia the cameraman congratulated as soon as he switched off the video camera.

Rita Kaur smiled haughtily. "Yup. This will definitely put my…our names in history. I can see it now….Rita Kaur, most famous for her rare scoop with the Wira Digital! Now come on…let's go back to the TV station and ask for a raise. For all of our hard works and this very rare scoop, we deserve it! Move it."

"Yes, Miss Kaur."

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"Superheroes' works are never done?" JD laughed as he ruffled his cousin's hair. "That's so _cheesy_, Adam."

Adam grimaced and swatted JD's hand away. "It was the best I could think of. And I didn't see _you_ helping out."

"Luckily we managed to escape that Rita Kaur from asking us more questions," Liu Ying said. "In times like that, your teleportation power really comes through."

Aldiyamon had teleported all the Wira Digital into a secluded vicinity of the Municipal Council, where he had checked out earlier. They then reverted to their composite selves and digitized their Digimon partners back into their Juara Digivices before making way towards the field where the whole school populace was at. Reporters were seen interviewing several students and teachers, some students were lounging about, discussing about what had just taken place. They saw Jackie and the principal underneath a tent, fiddling about with the microphone and on a table near them were Salamon and Gatomon, frozen in their stuffed-toy acts. The principal saw them coming and beckoned for them to join the others.

"Attention please, everyone," Mrs. Khadijah Basri called out, her voice amplified by the speakers. "Settle down, everyone. I have an announcement to make."

The crowd still was restless. Some paid the principal attention, but most others were too excited or engrossed in their conversation to listen. The principal repeated her words and gradually, helped by the teachers and the prefects, the students grew silent.

"I have received words that the school is now safe. But unfortunately, the Block A and the school canteen are damaged."

Murmurs resulted. The principal decided to continue.

"Until we can work a way to settle this, I will grant all of you holiday until the end of the week. Form Four and Five students will receive notifications on how we will get around with this problem, as their classes are the ones which suffered the heaviest damage." Groans were heard from the two eldest batches of students, eliciting an amused smile from the principal. "We can't possibly grant holiday to you all until the end of the year…what of your exams?"

"Great. A huge Digimon battle has taken place and all Mrs. Principal is worried about is _exams_?" JD groaned amidst the amused chuckles from the students and teachers.

"_You're_ the one with a major exam this end of year," Liu Ying pointed out. "I suggest _you_ listen up."

"Hmph. Thanks for reminding me."

"The municipal council has been so kind to arrange busses for us to return to the school. After collecting your school items, you may all return home," the principal concluded. The crowd, the DigiWira included, began to disperse as all of them headed to the busses to go back to school. It had been a tiring day, and the DigiWira found themselves so looking forward to go home for their long-deserved breaks. But in their mind, they couldn't help but notice that the villains they were facing now were much more dangerous than before. First the villains had attacked a major attraction place, now their town and school were targeted.

What would be next?

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**Author's Notes:**

This chapter doesn't feature a major attraction of Malaysia like the previous one, but I think it's important nonetheless. The attack at school is something I've planned for quite a while. Please pardon the rather randomness of the whole chapter. Originally, that part where Samudramon and Puspamon battled Shawujinmon and Astamon are its own independent chapter, while the 'School under Siege' theme is another chapter. I just decided to merge the two chapters together so that all Wira Digital get their moment in fighting, and tie them together using the ever-so-useful flashback method. :D

Why Ardhamon instead of Aldamon? Well, Aldamon and Aldiyamon are almost too similar in terms of spelling I'm afraid readers might confuse the two while reading the chapter. Ardhamon and Aldiyamon, now they look somewhat different. :D

I still can't find the time to complete the drawing for the other Wira Digital, because writing is my top priority. However, to those who haven't noticed, I have added the drawing of Liu Ying and Gayathri at my profile page. Xianamon and Puspamon drawing is still halfway done – Xianamon is done, Puspamon isn't.


	38. DigiWira in Distress, Part I

_Salutations, Liu Ying,_

_It has been a while since our last e-mail, but it's alright because I trust that you have been kept busy lately. I've heard from the news and from Gennai that Malaysia has been under the attack of wild Digimon twice, but both times the wild Digimon were thwarted by a group of Digimon who called themselves the Wira Digital. Now, I trust that you and your team of DigiWira will have things under control, but should you ever need our help, remember, the Japanese DigiDestined are always happy to lend a helping hand. _

_It has also come to my attention that the five new Digimon, the Wira Digital, are all one-of-a-kind Digimon whom have never made any appearance elsewhere, both the Earth and the Digital World. Are they your Digivolved partners? The last time I've heard from you, there were only three of you, with Sagittarimon, Fairymon and Youkomon being the highest level of Digivolution achieved by your Digimon partners. Since then, apparently your team has acquired two more additions. How are Adam and Gayathri, by the way? I hope they are also in perfect state of health. Do send our regards to them and for the newer members too._

_If it's alright with you, I would like to request some updated details about your team and your Digimon partners, and their achieved Digivolution stages and names. It's for database purposes for future identifications, and should you require that your identities are kept as secret for the time being, I will do so. I know for once how feisty reporters can be; we were hounded by reporters constantly after the incident with Armageddomon in 2003, but luckily all the hype has simmered down following the peace we are enjoying nowadays. But apparently in your country, the threat has just begun. I wish you luck for your future endeavors, and don't hesitate to ask for our help if things get out of hand._

_Best regards, _

_Koushirou Izumi a.k.a. Izzy_

Liu Ying smiled and began typing out a reply for the email she had received from her online pen-pal and also fellow DigiDestined. They had corresponded to each other since the first week after Liu Ying was chosen to become a DigiWira. As she had been alone then, Izzy had been instrumental in guiding her online of various stuffs about Digimon and the Digital World. Through Izzy, Liu Ying had acquired many other DigiDestined pen-pals whom she still kept in touch every now and then. The last time she had sent out e-mails to them was before JD and Manny entered the picture as the evil ShadoWira.

She spent the next half an hour outlining briefly about the team's newest members and their partners, and explained about the new Digital Access Digivolution ability, wondering whether this kind of ability had existed before or a totally new discovery. She had no qualms in telling the details to Izzy – the Japanese boy was renowned for his ability to figure out baffling facts pertaining to Digimon, and he was the one with the Crest of Knowledge. Then, after putting in details about their latest threat, she hit the send button and closed all the programs before shutting down the computer.

Her eyes trailed to the clock, noticing that it was late. Her grandfather, mother and Liu Meng had all gone to bed. Labramon too was already sleeping in Liu Ying's room. Liu Ying was the one who was still up, as she had wanted to do an online browsing to check whether the news about the Digimon attack at Sunway Lagoon and their town made the news or not. The attacks were on the front pages of every newspaper for _two_ days after the attack on the school. She grimaced slightly as she thought of the repercussions of the Digimon attack had caused at their town.

While there were fortunately no casualties, the injuries toll and damages were high. The townspeople were in a constant state of anxiety, fearing that the Digimon would attack again. Aldiyamon's brief words, which was broadcasted live on TV and printed on newspapers, had given a miniscule amount of relief for some, but many still feared that the Digimon would again invade the town. Some houses were damaged but not totally destroyed, but the roads leading to the intersection between Taipan Commercial Center and the Municipal Council had to be closed for extensive repair. The media, thankfully, had given mostly good portrayal about the Wira Digital, alleviating the worries of many.

_Mostly_, because some had criticized them for not being able to _prevent_ the attacks and damages from happening in the first place.

But these opinions were quickly slammed by those who knew what was going on, basically from exposures to other countries that had fell prey to Digimon attacks as well.

All in all, the Wira Digital had instantly achieved celebrity status, and the mystery surrounding the identities of the Wira Digital's 'human partners' further caused speculations and gossips to rise. Nobody knew that the Wira Digital were both Digimon and DigiDestined. Fan sites and blogs sprouted like mushrooms after a rainfall following the revelation of the five Wira Digital.

Liu Ying shook her head. "I better go to bed. Tomorrow, school's starting back."

Following the brief holiday the principal had issued, Liu Ying had constantly seen construction workers working on the damages at the school. The canteen was almost done in repair works, while the Block A had minimal damages on the rooftops and the classrooms on the fourth floor. The library on the third floor only suffered broken windows, and the teaching staffs' offices were intact apart from some broken windows. The classrooms on the ground floor were undamaged.

Before calling it a night, Liu Ying decided to check the door and the windows, to make sure that they were locked. She peered out of the sliding door, noticing that at midnight it was relatively a quiet night outside. The street lamp illuminated the street adequately. The park across the street was deserted, the trees casting dark shadows over the ground. A car was parked under a tree, and Liu Ying thought that it looked familiar. Hadn't she seen it before, parked at the exact same spot for the past few days?

She shrugged and drew the curtains close. Maybe her neighbor had gotten a new car. No need to get paranoid over it.

Unbeknownst to Liu Ying, her house had been under constant surveillance for the past few days. Someone was watching the house occupants' every movement, memorizing every details of it. That person slinked lower from the driver seat when he saw Liu Ying peering out through the glass door, and returned to his original position when the girl drew the curtain close. He saw with satisfaction as the light was put out and started up the car, careful to turn off the lights in order not to attract unwanted attention. Some of the neighbors of the houses around the one he was watching were not asleep yet, and he didn't want to risk anyone knowing what he was up too. He had been planning this for a long time. He had waited long enough before finally the window of opportunity had opened itself upon him. He would make sure that this plan would be set to action very soon.

With that in mind, he chuckled silently as the car steered onto the street and drove away, already looking forward for tomorrow morning.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 38 – DigiWira in Distress, Part I**_

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"These new brutes you have developed are indeed amazing," Doumon praised, studying the lines of humanoid, black-armored humanoid Digimon. They all looked formidable.

"Indeed they are," Persiamon said haughtily, running her dark crimson claws against her silky red hair. "I'm the beauty and the brains around here, if I may say so myself. Even Lucemon is downright pleased with them…they are even more dependable than those wild Velgemon that Shawujinmon and Astamon had come up with, or those Vilemon the two Puaka Generals used. I have to admit, it baffles me of why Mephistomon and Phelesmon decided to use such annoying weak critters as their brutes. They are just _Champions_! Truly, I don't see…"

"Ahem," Doumon interrupted, knowing only too well that if let be, the Virago General could ramble for long. The feline woman stopped, and Doumon gave her an apologetic smile. "Apologies for the interruption, Persiamon, but I simply _must_ know the names of these amazing brutes you have for us."

"Impatient, aren't we?" Persiamon laughed, not the least offended at all of the interruption. After all, the Shaman General and she were long friends, and the priest fox was always so cordial and polite to her as compared to Shawujinmon or Astamon. "Well, I suppose I can tell you, seeing that we will have shared control over them…they are called Duskmon."

"Duskmon," Doumon repeated. "I like the sound of that. Are they ready for battle?"

Persiamon nodded. "They are _hatched_ ready. Why…do you need them now?"

"If it's possible," Doumon said. "I have just thought of a way to attack the DigiWira and I thought these Duskmon are perfect. I will just have to look for a decent Ultimate Digimon or two to seal the deal."

"Oh, tell me about it," Persiamon said, her emerald eyes sparkling with glee upon meeting Doumon's ice-blue sharp eyes. Doumon leaned in and told her, and with every second passed Persiamon's eyes grew wide with surprise and excitation that she could barely control her giggle. Doumon returned to his stoic position and looked satisfied at Persiamon's reaction. "Oh Doumon, your plan is simply perfect and excellent! Simply rotten, evil and nasty! I like it! If only I can clear my timetables of some long-due schedules, I might just stick around with you to help. But alas, Lucemon needs…"

Doumon shook his head. "Have no worries, Persiamon. I will take care of the Wira Digital in a manner that Shawujinmon and Astamon could never think off."

"That's why I like your plan," Persiamon said with a snide tone. "Here's hoping that you would be successful so that not only our dear Kappa and Majin Generals could learn from you, but also I won't have to damage my beautiful claws. It's a perfectly win-win situation for all of us."

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Mondays were the days where Liu Ying would head to school earlier than usual, for it was the day when she would know her prefect duty for the rest of the week. Outside, the sky was barely lit with the early morning sun. Her mother was preparing breakfast and her grandfather was listening to the radio. Her brother was still asleep.

"I can drive you to school if you want," Evelyn Chang, Liu Ying's mother, said as she placed a plate of toasted breads on the table. The mid-thirties woman grimaced as she cast a look outside the door. "It's still too dark outside. I don't really like it if you walk to school at this time of morning."

"Don't worry, mama," Liu Ying chuckled as she spread the strawberry jam on her toasted bread. "Nothing has gone wrong for the past two years."

Labramon trotted towards the dining table, sniffing slightly before turning away with a dejected look on her face. "No banana fritters?" she said and slouched on the floor where a saucer of milk was placed. She eyed the milk for a moment before drinking it.

"And besides, I have Labramon to keep me safe," Liu Ying continued before eating her toast. Then she took one long look at her dejected partner. "Don't worry Labramon; we'll get you your banana fritters at the school canteen later. I'll digitize them for you so that you can them inside your pocket dimension."

Evelyn Chang knew that she didn't have to worry about her daughter's well-being. After all, Liu Ying was a DigiWira, and one of the five now-famous Wira Digital of the country. But still she found that hard to believe as she gazed at her going to be fifteen-years-old daughter. The fame didn't seem to get over her head at all – never mind the fact that their identities were kept as a close-guarded secret. The hairdresser couldn't help but to feel a swell of pride in her heart for her daughter's accomplishment. _'Kang…if only you're still here. You must be really proud of our little girl. Keep her safe always,'_ she thought silently, and smiled.

"I suppose I'm just being a mother. I've been so busy lately at the salon that I'm always home late. We've just got a couple of women who are really impressed with the way I cut their hair the other day, and now they just come in every other day to get their hair fixed for events and gatherings they are holding," Evelyn said, changing the topic. "But it's good for the business so I'm not complaining. In fact…I'm going to work earlier today because one of them has fixed an appointment for me to do her hair for a morning function she's attending…"

It was a normal breakfast for her family. After fifteen minutes, Liu Ying stood up and digitized Labramon in her Juara Digivice before taking her schoolbag.

"Bye Mama, Grandpa," she said and exited the house.

Walking out from the gate, Liu Ying began walking towards the school, noticing that it was still rather dark. No one was around – it was the time where those who attended the mosque for the morning prayers to still remain there and the time before the elderly people who would usually gather at the park for a Tai-Chi exercise to step out. And it was too early for students who walked and cycled to school. She eyed the car which she had seen the night before, wondering about the car's owner. She supposed that she would find out about it sooner or later.

A rustle was heard as Liu Ying passed the trees. Curious, she stopped and was about to turn around…

…when a cloth-covered hand shot up beside her and clamped her mouth tight. She attempted to struggle but her nostrils were invaded by a foul-smelling chemical, and her head started spinning. Against her wishes, her eyelids drooped down and her limbs gave way. She heard a chuckle and felt her body being lifted off before everything became so eerily dark and quiet.

xxx

xxx

"I wonder why Liu Ying is absent today," Manny said as he met up with the other DigiWira in front of the school library. Being also his classmate, Manny couldn't help but wonder of his teammate's absence today. The last time he had heard from her, which was the previous night when they discussed via online of the homework they would need to pass up that day, she had sounded well and had been looking forward to come to school after a few days off.

"Maybe she's sick?" Gayathri suggested. "It could happen overnight, you know."

"Or maybe she decides to have an extra one day off for the heck of it," JD said with a crooked grin. "If it were me, I'd do just that."

"But this is _Liu Ying_ we're talking about, not you," Adam said, poking at his cousin's arm. "She won't just skip school _for the heck of it_, as you've so nicely put in. I think Gayathri's right; she must be sick." The youngest of three boys there rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe Josh and I can stop by her house today while on our way back." He cast a fleeting look at JD and had to suppress his grin of the sudden interested look his cousin had on his face.

"You'll do that," Gayathri nodded. "I think Anding's already here so I better get going. How about you, Manny? Is your mom coming today or do you want to tag along with me?"

Manny smiled and shook his head. "I have library prefect duty now…and it looks like there are a lot of things to be cleaned up. We need to reorganize the books after the mess last week's fight had caused. Luckily we manage to end that fight quickly."

JD flashed his crooked grin and jerked up his eyebrows. "Thanks to me and my brilliance…"

"Oh no, you don't. We all contributed fairly in the battle," Adam protested, glaring up at the tall blonde. "Don't take all the credit."

"Uh, oh…here we go," Gayathri whispered to Manny. "This could be interesting."

"How long do you think this will last this time?" Manny whispered back.

Gayathri shrugged. "Probably a minute or two." The two of them then watched amusedly at the arguing cousins.

"But _I_ delivered the finishing blow," JD said, leaning at his cousin, apparently trying to use his bigger stature to intimidate him.

"With our help," Adam returned, unimpressed. He held a hand up. "And if _I_ weren't quick enough to teleport you away from Ardhamon's flaming sphere that time, who knows what would happen to you!"

"Satriamon's a fire Digimon," JD pointed out with a triumphant smirk. "_Nothing_ would happen if the flaming ball hit me."

"Fine. The next time I see a flaming sphere heading your way, I'll keep that in mind," Adam grumbled. He looked at the other two DigiWira and noticed that they both looked so hard not to laugh. "What are you two looking at?" he muttered. "I'll see you two later, or tomorrow, or whenever…" he said, before turning around and stalked off without looking back at all.

"I swear, JD, you really have rubbed off on him," Gayathri laughed as soon as Adam was out of sight. "He's _never_ acted like that before."

"Is that a good thing or bad?" JD asked, grinning himself.

"As long as he doesn't swear like you do when you're angry, it's a good thing," Manny said with a small smile. JD blinked, and the two younger DigiWira chuckled.

"Fine, I get it. I'll try not to corrupt him too much," the blonde DigiWira grinned. The three DigiWira laughed again.

"Adam looks happier though," Gayathri mused. "After all that has happened to him, he certainly looks happier now."

JD nodded. "It was rather hard at first. He could be as shy as you, Manny!" At this, he looked at Manny who smiled back at the comment. "Then I figured out that maybe I can get him to loosen up a little by teasing him around…and I present you now the end product…which has run off…" he added, rubbing the back of his head.

"Shouldn't you go after him? He might leave to Liu Ying's house without you," Gayathri said.

"Nah, he won't. Especially since…" JD took out a set of keys from his trousers pocket and smirked.

"Now you're really going to get it from him," Manny shook his head.

"No worries. I know how to deal with him," JD shrugged. He then eyed his watch and looked at Gayathri. "I'm going now. Wanna walk along with me?" he asked in a teasing suggestive manner.

Gayathri shook her head and gave JD a dry look. "Not interested, sorry. Anyway I need to borrow a book at the library. You go ahead."

"You don't know what you're missing," JD said easily and waved goodbye to his two friends. He walked with a leisure pace towards the stairs, not seemed to be in a hurry at all.

"I didn't want to mention this to JD while he was around…" Manny said to Gayathri as they made their way towards the library. "But I don't think Adam is the only one who's benefiting from their recent familial discovery. It seems to me that it works both ways." He was briefly reminded of the conversation he and JD had once before the trouble with Zudomon and MarineDevimon.

"Definitely. He turns out to be a quite a cool guy," Gayathri said, and frowned slightly when she realized to whom she was speaking too. "Umm…in a big-brotherish sort of way," she added as an afterthought.

Manny smiled inwardly upon seeing his friend flustering a little, noticing the hasty amendment Gayathri had made to her sentence. After a brief awkward pause the two of them changed the topic and entered the library.

In the meantime, JD saw a rather sulky-looking Adam standing inside the bicycle shed. "Haha…what's with the long face? Surely you didn't forget that I hold the keys to our bikes' locks?" Without waiting for a reply the blonde teen began unlocking the locks as Adam looked on. After a minute and still no reply, he looked up and saw that Adam was looking away from him. Grinning devilishly he reached up and laid a hand on Adam's right shoulder, and made a mock-hissing sound. "Oooh, cold. No wonder you're giving me the cold shoulder, eh? Maybe some fire would do you good?" His teasing questions were returned with a glower and JD removed his hand. "Oookay, so you're not talking to me. Its fine, I'll talk to you still. Anyway I was thinking. How about after we visit Liu Ying, we make a stop at Baskin Robbins and get that ice-cream you liked so much the other day? What was that flavor again?" He observed his cousin – who had looked away again – intently, waiting for the expected reaction.

"Bribing me with ice-cream now?" Adam asked, turning back to look at JD. The sulkiness had somehow evaporated. "And it's Pralines and Creams."

"Just because I know you'd cave in quickly at the thought of that ice-cream," JD smirked as they took their bikes out from the shed.

Adam shook his head and rode on his bike. He looked over his shoulder at his cousin; a smirk worthy of JD began to appear on his boyish feature. "Nah…I caved because I know you just can't wait to see Liu Ying!" He laughed at the astonished look on JD's face and quickly took off. When he was at a rather safe distance, he turned back and held up to fingers. "That's two for Adam, and for you, _zilch_! Ha ha ha…" The younger of the cousins immediately took off again towards the gate.

"Come back here, you!" JD roared after the surprise had ran off, quickly giving chase to his cousin. His cheeks burned a little, and it wasn't because of his affinity to the fire element.

The cousins had just arrived at the street where Liu Ying's house was at before Adam stopped his bike abruptly. Seeing that, JD halted as well. "Hey…what's wrong? Why did you…" he stopped when Adam pointed forward. JD followed the direction and saw a police car parked outside of a house. "Don't tell me…"

"That's Liu Ying's house," Adam said, their early playful rivalry forgotten. "We better go and see what's going on…"

The two boys approached Liu Ying's house with anticipation and parked their bikes by the gates. They could hear the sound of a woman crying. Adam tentatively pressed the bell switch on the gate which alerted the policeman and the policewoman, as well as the house occupants. An elderly man peered through the window, and upon seeing them he went outside.

"Come in, boys." Grandpa Chang's voice was grim. He shook the boys' hands, and the boys could see that the old man's hands were trembling. They went inside and saw three sets of eyes staring at them. "They are my granddaughter's friends, it's alright. They should know what has happened to Ying." Then, noticing Adam and JD's confusion, he explained, "Liu Ying has been _kidnapped_."

The revelation shocked the cousins. "Kidnapped?" Adam repeated, astounded. JD could be heard swearing under his breath. "When?"

"This morning, while on her way to school. It seems that it has happened right at this street, when no one is around," Grandpa Chang clarified.

"Mr. Chang, is it wise to let them know of this?" one policeman asked sternly.

"These two boys are good friends of my granddaughter. They have the right to know," Grandpa Chang said, and gave the DigiWira a meaningful stare.

Both Adam and JD caught the look, which could easily meant that Grandpa Chang wanted them to stay longer to ask them more, but the questions couldn't be asked when there were other people around. They had a look around – Liu Ying's little brother was sleeping on a large cushion in front of the TV, while Liu Ying's mother was being comforted by a policewoman. She was clutching a paper.

"We will begin our investigation immediately," the policewoman assured Mrs. Evelyn Chang. "We'll need the paper too so that we could run a test to look for any fingerprint." Evelyn gave the policewoman the paper, and the policewoman passed it to her male colleague.

"Please inform us if the kidnappers call you," the policeman said. "I will return shortly with the technician and several more officers to wire the phone line in this house. Mei, continue questioning Mrs. Chang. And these two boys too," the policeman instructed, sizing up Adam and JD once before stepping out of the house.

As soon as the policeman had left the house, the policewoman sighed in relief and turned to the still-sniffling Evelyn. "Evelyn, pardon Jason. He's a good guy but he tends to get too serious whenever we have a case."

"It's alright, Mei," Evelyn said.

"May I use the toilet?" Mei the policewoman requested. "I wasn't going to ask when Jason was around, since he doesn't think…"

"Mei, you're our family's friend. You used to work with Kang…" Evelyn said, and pointed towards the kitchen. "The toilet is at the back of the kitchen."

The policewoman excused herself and the DigiWira waited for her to leave the living room. As soon as they heard the sound of the toilet door being closed, Adam quickly took out his Juara Digivice and pressed a button. Faint light burst from the device's screen and they saw a black rectangular with green grid lines. Two dots of white and red appeared almost overlapping each other, and dots of pink and blue were there, not too far from the white and red dots.

"What are you doing?" Evelyn choked out amidst her soft sobs.

"I'm trying to locate the signal from Liu Ying's Juara Digivice," Adam said, noticing that Liu Ying was not around the nearby vicinity. He increased the scanning range to include the whole town, and still was left with no signal. Increasing the range again to now include the whole of Klang Valley, once again they were led with nothing. The rectangular flickered before finally, when the four dots of white, red, blue and pink looked almost overlapping each other at the lower left side of the rectangle, a yellow dot was present, at the farthest upper right corner of the rectangle.

"There!" JD exclaimed, pointing at the yellow dot. "That's Liu Ying's Juara Digivice's signal!"

"That's almost the whole state scanning range," Adam murmured. "She could be anywhere in Selangor or KL."

"You mean…" Grandpa Chang said with a disbelieved tone.

"It looks like wherever she is now, she is somewhere at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur," Adam analyzed.

"How do you know that?" Evelyn asked.

"Our Digivices come with the ability to detect the signal of other Digivices," Adam clarified. "If Liu Ying is carrying her Digivice with her right now, that's the place where the kidnappers have taken her. It's hard to determine but at least we now have a lead…" Adam hit a button and the digital locator vanished when they heard the sound of the toilet being flushed.

"Should we tell the police about it?" Evelyn asked with a wavering voice. She looked greatly worried of the well-being of her daughter. She shook her head once and gave the two boys a very meaningful, tear-stricken look. "Can _you_ save Ying? Can you…as the Wira Digital…save her? I know she is one as well, but…"

"We'll do what we can," JD said quickly.

"Why do you think Liu Ying has been kidnapped, aunty?" Adam asked.

"We've received a note inside our mailbox," Evelyn explained. "There, stamped with letters cut out from newspapers, and I quote, '_Your daughter is in our possession. Do not inform the police. Wait for our call for further instructions. If you inform the police, we can not guarantee the safety of your precious daughter.'_"

"Playing detectives, boys?" asked the policewoman as soon as she reappeared from the kitchen. She looked mildly amused.

"Mei, it's alright. Adam and Joshua are Ying's friends from school," Evelyn said quickly, seemingly regained a small grain of calmness after the revelation that her daughter was somewhere around Kuala Lumpur. She turned to look at the two boys with a meaningful gaze. "Now, boys…didn't you say that you have something to do?"

"Um…yeah, we did," JD said and tugged Adam's hands. "C'mon, Adam."

"We're really sorry of what had happened, and if there's anything we can do…" Adam said politely.

"Thank you, boys," Evelyn nodded. The boys had given her hope even more than the police force could do. In times like this, she was thankful that Liu Ying was one of the DigiWira, for that had enabled her to be located swiftly by her fellow teammates. If they were an ordinary group of kids, Evelyn would have her doubts in trusting them to search for her daughter. But the two boys who stood in front of her now were nowhere near ordinary – they were the ones who had saved the town, the school and Sunway Lagoon from the invasion of the evil Digimon. Liu Ying had told her much about the Wira Digital – Evelyn had no doubt that they were powerful. If they could handle a bunch of evil Digimon, a bunch of kidnappers wouldn't be a problem, right?

But it was only natural for her as a mother to gravely worry about her kidnapped daughter's well-being, until she was returned to her safe and sound. _'Kang…'_ she thought of her late husband. _'Please look out for our daughter. Please make sure that she is safe…'_

xxx

xxx

"We'll do whatever we can to save Liu Ying, Grandpa Chang," Adam said as they walked out to the gate.

"I know, Adam, Joshua," Grandpa Chang said. "It is the reason why I am not in a nervous wreck right now. Liu Ying has told much about you all, and I have no doubt that you will do your best to rescue her from these kidnappers." His eyes glinted with anger upon the mention of the kidnappers.

"Do these kidnappers have any motive to take Liu Ying?" JD asked. "Is it just random that they've picked Liu Ying out of all kids from the school?"

Grandpa Chang seemed to hesitate in answering. He looked to be in deep thought, as if trying to determine what exactly to tell the DigiWira. "I don't think that the kidnappers have randomly picked their target. They posted the note to our mailbox, which means that they _know_ where Ying is staying. It takes place on this very street…" The elder man suddenly looked at a large tree at the park across the street. "I wonder… come with me, boys."

They crossed the street and the boys followed Grandpa Chang towards a large tree. Grandpa Chang seemed to be looking for something…and no sooner than that everyone saw what was peculiar about the location they were now at.

There were tyre marks on the ground, and several cigarette butts scattered, partially buried by the earth.

The boys saw Grandpa Chang frowning. "Ying has mentioned about a car parked here these past few days. She wondered whether any of our neighbors has bought a new car. What if… we were being watched the whole time?" the old man said.

"So the kidnappers did target Liu Ying," Adam concluded. "That leaves us with the motive of kidnapping."

"Ransom or revenge," JD promptly said. "In the movies, those are the usual reasons."

Grandpa Chang smiled grimly. "Perhaps you are right. Nevertheless, we will know when the kidnappers make their call." He paused, seeing two police cars driving along the street. "The police have returned. Maybe it's best if you two take your leave now before they decided to question you…after all, your Wira Digital identities are supposed to be kept as a secret."

"We'll do what we can," Adam said. "I promise. I owed Liu Ying that much," he added with an intensity that surprised JD and Grandpa Chang.

"Thank you, boys. I hope, for our sake, you will be successful. But whatever you do, don't endanger yourself," Grandpa Chang cautioned. The boys shook his hands and followed him back to the house to retrieve their bikes. Then the elderly man welcomed the policemen who had come and bid the DigiWira farewell.

"Adam…" JD began, placing a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "What did you mean when you said you've owed Liu Ying that much?" he asked carefully.

Adam lowered his eyes, avoiding JD's gaze on him. "You don't want to know."

"Then why am I asking you?"

Adam looked up; the hesitation was clearly reflected by his expression. "Remember when you kidnapped me…back when you were evil? The girls came to me, despite the danger, they came to rescue me." He saw JD's face darkening. "I'm sorry, Josh. I didn't want to bring it up…you did ask…" Adam mumbled, looking grim as well.

JD quickly put on a poker face, despite the remorse he was feeling. He wasn't going to let Adam feeling guilty because for one, it wasn't even Adam's fault. "I did ask, Adam. And I really wanted to know. Don't worry about it."

"Really?" Adam asked.

"Hey, you know me. I'm tough," JD assured. He decided to change the topic. "We really need to tell Manny and Gayathri about this."

"You're right," Adam said, and took out his cell phone, as JD still hadn't bothered to get a new one following the loss of his old, modern one at the Digital World. He handed the phone to JD. He told his other teammates and had them meet at JD's house in an hour – this was something that must be told face to face, not via the phone. Adam just indicated that it was important to Gayathri, who had left the school, and sent an SMS to Manny as he was on duty at the library.

"Hey, you still want that ice-cream?" JD asked after Adam put the phone away.

Adam made a face. "You're still thinking about ice-cream when Liu Ying is kidnapped?"

"No, but I think we could use some major stress-reliever, and ice-cream is just what the doctor's ordered."

xxx

xxx

"KIDNAPPED?!" Gayathri and Manny gasped at the same time, one and half hours later. They were now at JD's house and the cousins had just finished telling them the unfortunate news which had befallen their teammate and friend.

"Oh, poor Liu Ying," Gayathri said, her eyes began to water. "It must be horrible for her. Do you know where she is now?"

"That's why all of us are here," Adam said. "We've talked to her mom and grandfather – they and the police still don't have a clue of where Liu Ying is currently being held at. But, fortunately, Liu Ying is a DigiWira and being a DigiWira means that she has a Digivice." Adam then displayed the location of Liu Ying based on their Digivice signal. "It looks like she's currently somewhere at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, but I'm not too sure."

"Do you have a map? Maybe we can narrow down the location," Manny said, gazing at the holographic image from Adam's Juara Digivice. They could hear Bibik gasped in awe upon the sight of the hologram as she served the kids and the Digimon drinks and some snacks. Their Digimon partners, as well as Salamon and Gatomon, peered at the hologram with interest while munching away the snacks.

"I think we have a city map lying around somewhere," JD said, promptly getting up from his seat to look for the said map. He returned later from the store room with a folded map. They opened the map and laid it on the table, gazing at the hologram while trying to figure out the exact location of Liu Ying's Digivice signal.

Manny held up the map against the hologram and looked back and forth between the two. He took note of the scale and knitted his brows together, examining the map and hologram intently, trying to ignore the burning gazes that were fixed on him as he made some mental calculations of the scales involved in the map and the scale. It was lucky that his favorite subjects were Geography and Math – they were both put in good use now. "I think…Liu Ying is being held somewhere around Batu Caves."

"Batu Caves?" Gayathri repeated, dumbstruck. "But it can't be at the sacred grounds of the cavern and temples, right?"

"Batu Caves is a large area…it might not be at the temple," Adam reasoned. "The town near the temple is called Batu Caves too."

"Oh…ok, that's a relief," Gayathri said. "So how are we going there?"

"According to this map, we should take the Putra LRT train to the Batu Caves station…" Manny said, before JD snorted derisively. "What?"

"I can't believe you're thinking about taking the LRT when we have a better and quicker option," the blonde said.

Gayathri brightened as Manny grinned sheepishly. "Oh, yeah! You're right…I nearly forgot."

Adam sweatdropped upon feeling three pairs of eyes being locked on him.

xxx

xxx

Feeling her head spinning, Liu Ying groaned as she began to come around. Her hands and legs felt sore. She was sitting on a wooden chair, and her arms were drawn back and tied to the chair. Her legs were bound to the wooden furniture as well – she couldn't even move. And to make matters worse, her mouth was taped. The smallest fraction of luck she was now having was the fact that her eyesight was not compromised – she could at least take in her surroundings.

Looking around in wonder, she noticed that she was in a very dark and wide warm place. Judging from the rectangular size of it, plus some piles of broken furniture and the cobwebbed walls, she was inside an abandoned warehouse. Sweat beads formed on her forehead, tickling her nose and the sides of her face as they trickled down. _'Where am I?'_ she thought, not able to speak. _'I'm kidnapped…but why?'_

"Ah, good. Sleeping beauty has awakened," said a sly male voice. Liu Ying turned her head sideways and saw, somewhat obscured by the shadow, the visage of a moderate-sized man sitting on a worn one-sitter sofa. A stand fan was placed near him, cooling him from the warm, stale air of the warehouse. The man stood up, giving Liu Ying a good look of his profile. He was dressed in a tight pair of black jeans which looked like it hadn't been washed for a long time. He wore a loose blue tank top, showing off a pair of muscled tattooed arms from shoulders down to the wrists. He had black hair with the sides shaved but the back kept grown down his nape. His right ear was studded with an earring. But she couldn't see the face.

"Umm…umm…" she said.

"What? Oh, I forgot. Erik, remove the tape from the girl's mouth," the man instructed, and Liu Ying realized that they were not alone.

A tall, thin bald man in black leather jacket and blue jeans approached her from the other side, seemingly appeared from the shadows. He gripped Liu Ying's right shoulder with strength that nearly caused her to recoil before ripping away the tape from her face, not caring that it had caused her yelp in pain. The man known as Erik merely sneered and slinked back.

"Careful there, Erik. We don't want to ruin her," the man that lurked under the shadows chastised.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" Liu Ying quickly demanded, despite feeling scared.

"Straight to the point," the man laughed and stepped into the light where Liu Ying could see his face. He was a rather good-looking man but with a hardened expression that bore a mixture of a sneer and a scowl, if that was possible. Those expressions made him look like a classic villain, and a man not to be trifled with. "Just like your late father, Miss Chang."

'_What's Papa got to do with this? Papa has passed away…'_

"I see that you're confused, Miss Chang. Allow me to introduce myself, but before that, let me recollect you of a certain someone your dead father has put behind bars for life now, shall we?" The man chuckled again and stared at Liu Ying. "Does the name Raymond Lau ring a bell, Miss Chang?" he asked softly.

Liu Ying thought that the name was familiar. She thought hard about it before a very painful memory resurfaced. The name this man had spoken was the reason why she was without a father now. Raymond Lau was the criminal who had shot her father, who had jumped in line of a very important and influential person targeted for the shot.

"Of course you'd remember my older brother," the man said with a light laugh. Liu Ying gasped in shock, and the man chuckled again. "That's right, Miss Chang. I'm Raymond Lau's brother…Riley Lau. And as for why you are here…why do you think kidnappers kidnap people, I have to ask? From what I've heard you're a very brilliant girl. Come now, it's not so hard. Oh what the hell, you should know already. Let me just clarify it for you now, yes?

"You're here because I plan on using you to demand the government to set my brother free, and to demand two million ringgit as ransom!" Riley Lau declared with a cackle.

Liu Ying gulped in shock. "We…we don't have that much of money!"

Riley Lau shook his head, apparently amused. "Don't worry, Miss Chang. I'm sure a particular Deputy Prime Minister will be more than willing to pay the ransom in exchange for your safety," he chuckled softly as he slinked towards Liu Ying. He placed a hand underneath Liu Ying's chin and raised it up. "After all…that much he could do for the daughter of the man who had jumped in front of the bullet for him three years ago. And couple that with the fact that our beloved DPM is also heading the ministry of defense, it shouldn't be too hard for him to work things out for my brother to be set free now won't it."

Liu Ying heaved her breath in shock of the revelation. She had heard that her father had died protecting a very important person – she had no idea that the person was currently the country's Deputy Prime Minister.

"You…you're wasting your time," she said in a whisper. "The Deputy Prime Minister has never stayed in contact with our family."

"Oh, is that so?" Riley Lau asked with a snort. "That's not what I've been informed about." He returned to his couch and took a photograph from it before returning to Liu Ying. "Then how would you explain this, Miss Chang?"

Liu Ying looked at the picture, and gasped softly, recognizing her mother and grandfather and also the Deputy Prime Minister, apparently discussing something inside an office. She didn't even know that her family knew the Deputy Prime Minister.

"I've planned out on rescuing my brother for a long time now, Miss Chang," Riley Lau said with a triumphant grin. "For three years, I've had it all planned out. I planted a man to infiltrate Mr. DPM's office – he became one of his bodyguards and he managed to snap this photo. Apparently the DPM has been so kind in offering his support for your family, feeling eternally grateful for your father's heroic sacrifice. Both your mother and grandfather had declined his offer, but when the goings got tough for your family with its sole breadwinner gone, some help _had_ to be gained. Your family reached an agreement with the DPM – and your mom's hair salon is born…the shop lot at that bloody expensive Taipan Commercial Center is _fully paid_ by the DPM, and it was the only time your family would accept the DPM's offer. But I'm sure now that they'll have nowhere else to turn to again but the DPM, and I'm positively certain that the DPM will willingly pay the ransom. After all, life is priceless, and out of all people, the DPM should know that better," Riley Lau cackled maniacally.

"You…you monster!" Liu Ying shouted, and at that time her eyes twitched. Riley Lau gasped as he was suddenly flung against the wall.

Seeing this, the man known as Erik and another man whom had been unnoticed by Liu Ying both came up to her, but they too were flung to a distance by Liu Ying's telekinetic power. But this time around they didn't get thrown as far as Riley had been…and Liu Ying was panting really hard now as a severe throbbing was felt on her temples. Both Erik and the unknown man got back up on their feet and snarled angrily as they made way towards Liu Ying.

"Don't touch her!" Riley's commanding voice echoed, and the other two men froze. He looked at Liu Ying and gave her a grin as he wiggled his two fingers in a naughty-naughty manner. "Miss Chang, you have quite a talent there. Telekinesis, huh? Now that's something you don't see everyday…"

Liu Ying blinked at Riley's statement. Shouldn't he be surprised at her display of power? Instead, he merely looked amused and miffed at the same time. How in the world did this man get to display two opposing emotions at one time? She wished she could just throw him off his feet again but TobuCatmon had warned them that in their home world their digital abilities would be severely limited.

If only she could call upon Labramon. Which reminded her…her Juara Digivice! Where was it?

"Looking for this?" Riley Lau sneered and held up something shining in yellow and gold. He laughed upon seeing Liu Ying's astonished expression. "You're quite a gem now, Miss Chang. Your late father would have been _very proud_ of knowing that his daughter is one of the famous Wira Digital, Malaysia's only line of defense against evil Digimon. Oh yeah, you certainly didn't expect that I'd know about that now would you? How _could_ I have known about this, you must wonder?

"I've forgotten to mention one more reason why I have kidnapped you, Miss Chang. You see, simply said, I've struck a deal with the devil to ensure that I'd get what I want, and then more!" Riley laughed once again and didn't stop for a while. When he finally regained his composure, his expression was now set back to its former scowling and sneering combo features. "You're also here as a bait for the other DigiWira friends of yours to come here and rescue you. Don't think that I don't know that this shiny thing you have here also serves as a tracking device for your friends to trail you. They'll be here in no time flat. And then, when all of you are here…" Riley raised his thumb up and his index finger erect, forming a finger-gun. "Bang! It's bye-bye Wira Digital…"

"You evil man! What did we ever do to you?" Liu Ying said, horrified of the new revelation.

Riley Lau chuckled and held up his hands in a surrendering position, a gesture defeated by the mocking expression he now had on his face. "Hey, I'm only in for the money and for my bro's freedom. You're gonna have to talk to the higher boss about that. He's right behind you. Turn her around, boys."

The two men obliged and turned the chair she was sitting on around, bringing her along with it. She was now staring at a darker part of the warehouse, void totally of light. Several figures shifted within the shadows. Two pairs of crimson eyes could be seen flanking a taller figure with ice-blue eyes. Liu Ying's heart nearly stopped when a priest-like humanoid fox appeared, flanked by two black-armored warriors with red blades extended from each of their arms. The fox's expression was calm, cold and calculating, showing no expression at all.

"I present to you the big boss," Riley chuckled. "Doumon, the Shaman General."

xxx

xxx

**Author's Notes:**

I'm trying out the mystery/thriller/detective like genres here…I've tried angst, humor, some romance before, but not thriller. I did try this concept once when Adam was kidnapped by JD, during the ShadoWira saga, but this takes place in the real world, with a twist! The Deputy Prime Minister which is mentioned and portrayed here is fictional, nowhere related to the real one. I include him here for the plot. All the people in this story are purely fictional although some may have names based on real people.


	39. DigiWira in Distress, Part II

Dato' Sri Sulaiman Daud leaned back on his comfortable leather chair, eyeing the stack of papers on his handsome mahogany desk with mild interest. The computer on the right side of the table was switched on, but he paid no attention to it. He fiddled with the hem of his smart dark suit, briefly tempted to loosen his dark blue tie when he thought against it. There was a meeting in one and a half hour and he might need to be there earlier than usual.

For a moment, he eyed the surrounding of his spacious office. Dark maroon carpet covered the whole room, giving no inkling of how the floor looked like underneath. The plastered ceilings had one spotlight on every corner, and white light poured out from the space between the ceiling and the plastered layer, illuminating the whole office. Black leather sofas lined the right side of the office, and on their opposite was a sturdy glass table. This was where he would entertain his guests. At the far end of the right corner was a bonsai plant, purely for decoration, placed beside a tall rack of books. The door was located opposite his table, and above the entrance the air-conditioner hummed softly, barely audible if it weren't for the office to be quiet in the first place. At the left side of the office, hung on the walls, were framed pictures of people in royal outfits and traditional _Baju Melayu_ costume. Two of them, the ones in royal outfits, were that of the current reigning Sultan and Sultana of Malaysia. Beside the Sultan's picture and set slightly lower, was the picture of the current Prime Minister. And set at the lower right side of the Sultana's picture was _his_ picture.

Dato' Sulaiman Daud was the country's current Deputy Prime Minister, and had been so for the last four years.

The last four years had been hectic, with him heading the ministry of defense _and_ being the Deputy Prime Minister at the same time. His usual day would start early in the morning and ended late at night. He was lucky that his family had supported his works and understood the responsibilities he carried. It wasn't that he was complaining; he loved his job and would do his best in every endeavor that came his way. Aside from all the works that seemed to pile up his desk, he also took time to perform charity works. These he had begun somewhat recently – only since two years ago. Before that, he'd thought that his schedule was so busy that he could never find the time to do so. He'd wanted to, but never could or never tried to.

The change came during a very fateful event that had taken place two years ago. It had changed his whole perspective of life, and made him appreciate life even more.

It was all because of one man. That one man had taken the bullet that was meant for him, and it had ended his life. That day, one woman became a widow and two children were left without a father. Chief Inspector Chang Liu Kang had fallen during his duty to protect him while on a social event at Suria KLCC, the famous shopping complex flanked by the even more renowned Petronas Twin Towers – the tallest twin towers in the world. It was an unsuspected attack and it had cost the police inspector his life. Dato' Sulaiman had gone to great lengths to ensure that the culprit – Raymond Lau – was sentenced to prison for life.

Then, realizing that the fallen inspector had left behind a family, the Deputy Prime Minister had tried to offer his help many times, but the offers were politely turned down by the inspector's wife. However, one offer was graciously accepted by the inspector's family as without their sole breadwinner they had no means for income. He had procured a strategically-located shop lot at a commercial center located in the heart of a thriving housing community, and had paid for it in full so that the family could immediately start up their business there without having to worry about paying rents. And that alone had been the only way he had helped the family of the inspector whom had saved his life. From what he had heard, the shop had become a famous hair salon – not what he had expected, but still, it was a rather famous one at that and the family was doing well. He'd never forgotten to send them greeting cards with continuous offers for help, but the inspector's family always insisted that they had received all the help they needed and they were very thankful for that.

Dato' Sulaiman however felt otherwise; it was _he_ who was thankful. Thanks to the late chief inspector, he was still alive. Chang Liu Kang's sacrifice had made him see things in different perspectives. He became involved in various charity works, and would find the time to do so. He had a particular soft spot for orphanages – remembering that the late inspector had two children. From what he had heard, the eldest – a girl – was now a teenager, and her younger brother had begun kindergarten. Both of them were doing well. That set his heart at ease.

His rusty brown eyes fell on the calendar. He saw that it was less than a week before _that_ date. Five more days exactly before the date where he could have died, if it weren't for the inspector's sacrifice. He made a mental note to ask his secretary to get an appropriate greeting card for him to send to the Chang family.

The phone rang once before a soft female voice greeted him. "Dato', there's a phone call waiting for you. Should I direct it to you, or would you like me to take a message?"

"Who is it from, Yati?" Dato' Sulaiman asked his secretary.

"It's a woman – she introduced herself as Mrs. Evelyn Chang and she said that she really needs to speak to you."

His eyes widened in surprise. She would not be calling unless there was something serious going on. "I'll take the call. Direct it to my office."

The secretary murmured her agreement and soon Dato' Sulaiman was greeted by Evelyn Chang, who sounded like she had been crying. There was hesitance in her voice, followed by stifled sobs. Dato' Sulaiman realized that something was seriously wrong. What could possibly happen to cause Evelyn Chang to call him – the Chang family had assured the Deputy Prime Minister that they would never ask any more than they had done in regards to Inspector Chang's death. The Deputy Prime Minister however felt that he had done so little in relieving the burden Evelyn now had to carry for her family.

"Evelyn, what's going on?" he prodded gently. The woman sounded so grieved and scared, it unnerved him. The last time he had seen Evelyn, she looked so composed and strong despite her rather frail features. She hadn't shed a single tear in front of him. To hear her sniffling sobs made the Deputy Prime Minister realize that something had indeed gone horribly wrong.

"_Dato'…my daughter…she's been kidnapped…"_ His suspicion was immediately confirmed. Evelyn told him the whole details – apparently she had received an untraceable phone call from the kidnapper who claimed to be Raymond Lau's brother. His brows furrowed in anger and concern as he deciphered the details which were intermixed with sobs.

"I'll be on my way to your house, Evelyn," Dato' Sulaiman assured. "No, no, it's no problem. I want to come, and I really want to help," he added quickly. He heard the woman on the other line said something, and quickly cut her off. "Evelyn, don't apologize. You did right by calling me. Do not worry; I will be at your house in an hour. No, no…trust me, it's not an issue at all, but we will have to discuss that with the police as well."

As soon as the phone conversation ended, Dato' Sulaiman sighed and quickly pressed the button on his telephone, and the secretary's voice was heard again. "Yati, clear or postpone all my schedules – there's something I need to do right away." With the order issued he quickly rushed out of his office, with one place set in mind.

xxx

xxx

"The call has been made," Riley Lau said, switching off his cell phone. His face was fixed with the sneer-and-scowl combo expression once again as he pocketed the cell phone. "In times like this I'm very much thankful that the prepaid system does not include registration…there's no way the police can detect where we are. And even if they do, it's not like I don't want them not to." He smirked wildly and crossed his arms over his chest; his eyes glanced briefly at the dark-armored figures hidden within the shadows. "They'll be sent to their doom."

Liu Ying stared at her kidnapper with silent fury. Thoughts raced through her minds – how did she manage to throw Riley off his feet with her telekinetic power? The last time she'd checked – none of the DigiWira were able to use their powers here on their home world. She wanted to lash out again with her mind power just to wipe the smirk of her captor's face, but found herself unable to do so. She glanced sideways and saw Doumon, the said Shaman General, sat in a meditative pose with his eyes closed. She wondered how on Earth Riley managed to procure the assistance of Doumon. It seemed so improbable – she still had a hard time believing it.

"Miss Chang, I can easily see through your mind – I know what you're thinking right now," Riley said with an amused chuckle. He glanced at his watch before looking back at the girl's face. "Well, I suppose I can entertain you while we wait for your friends or the police. What's taking them, I wonder?"

Liu Ying didn't reply. She merely stared at the man's face, hoping to capture every detail so that when she escaped, she would have sufficient details to describe to the authorities.

When she escaped? Liu Ying had faith in that – after all the stuffs that she had been through the past seven months as a DigiWira, she was determined not to let this kidnapping be the end of her. Adam had been through a much more precarious situation. He had been kidnapped by the then-evil ShadoWira, brought in front one of the most terrifying Digimon she had ever known (who was luckily imprisoned), battled the ShadoWira who seemed to have targeted him, and escaped. Of course, Adam wouldn't be able to do it without her and Gayathri, but still, he was kidnapped and he had escaped.

Now, after the initial shock of being kidnapped and the kidnappers' association with the Shaman General, Liu Ying no longer felt fear for them. Sure, she was afraid, but now she was able to keep it in check. All that was there was tremendous loathing for the vilest man she had ever met. She began thinking of a plan of her own, but realized that she would need Labramon for it to take effect. That was not possible because Labramon was contained inside her Juara Digivice and the Digivice was in the possession of Riley. How in the world would she be able to get hold on the Digivice?

She thought of many ways, but one stood out. She remembered the stunt Adam pulled when Gayathri was under the mild abhorrence spell, and once again, according to Adam, the trick he had done which pitted the evil Red ShadoWira against Karatenmon. Would it work? She'd need the boldness of both Adam and JD to pull this stunt together. She had nothing to lose, but everything to gain if her plan worked.

"You wonder," she spat at Riley with the most irritable voice she could muster, and that wasn't a hard task at all. "Those buttons are there for something more than decorations, you dim-" Liu Ying halted abruptly, but unbeknownst to Riley who was now glaring at her, she did that on purpose. It was a show she put on to appear intimidated by the kidnapper.

"Good to see that I still have that intimidating factor," Riley snickered. He examined the light yellow and shining gold Digivice, and pressed a button tentatively.

'_Now!' _Liu Ying's heart raced and she yelled out, _**"LABRAMON, ACCESS!!"**_

Instantly Labramon sprang out from the Digivice, flustering Riley who yelled in surprise. The Digimon had heard everything but she couldn't do anything about it while contained in her pocket dimension. She had waited so patiently, waiting for Liu Ying to wake up, knowing that her partner would think of a plan. Once she was out, the Digivice bathed her in gold and yellow light no sooner than the time she managed to bite the man's shoulder. For a Digimon, it wasn't ethical to attack a human, but the man had endangered her partner so Labramon had made a small exception – protecting Liu Ying was her biggest priority. The man shrieked with agony and surprise – Labramon hadn't hold back with her bite – and found his shoulder severely bleeding.

_**Labramon digivolve to…Youkomon!!**_

Shocked gasps were heard from the other two men who were involved with the kidnapping, mixed with Riley's infuriated snarl as he held on his wounded shoulder. None knew what they should do upon setting sight of the frightening-looking fox with blue furs and nine fiery tails.

Youkomon sprang towards Liu Ying, wanting to rescue her, but she was slammed by an invisible force which threw her towards the wall. The kitsune Digimon grunted as she attempted to stand up, and erected her nine tails, aiming at the one who had attacked her.

Doumon stared at the Champion Digimon with a snort, before flicking his hand. A glowing symbol appeared above his palm. "_Talisman Sphere!"_

Suddenly Youkomon found herself contained in a semi-invisible sphere. She attacked the sphere but that the force-field was undeterred by the nine fireballs. Instead it deflected the fireballs back at her, singing her furs and tails. Youkomon slumped on the ground, beaten by her attack. It was lucky that she didn't use the Dragon Wheel – the force of that attack would devolve her.

"Pest," Doumon muttered and closed his eyes, continuing with his meditation, as if nothing had happened.

Liu Ying's heart beat wildly in anxiety while witnessing the brief battle, and she was thankful that Youkomon wasn't seriously hurt. Riley was spitting out curses in several languages – some Liu Ying could not understand – as he looked back and forth between her and Youkomon. His face was red under the scanty light from the half-obscured window, and contorted with fury.

"Mangy bitch! If you give me rabies I swear I'll skin your furry body into throw-rugs and make mink coats out of your tails!" he snarled angrily as one of his friends approached him with a piece of dirty cloth. "Get that thing away from my shoulder, you imbecile! The wound could get infected with that nasty piece of cloth! Find a clean one now, will you!" Clenching his injured shoulder Riley staggered towards Liu Ying, stared down at the girl for a while before slapping her on the face, causing the chair to fall down sideways from the sheer force of his strike. "That's for the stunt you've pulled there, girly, and be thankful that I have more use for you, because if I don't, you'd _wish_ that you're slapped a hundred times rather than…" He let his sentence hung as he pulled the chair back up with his good arm.

Liu Ying's right cheek burned from the slap, and she willed so hard not to let tears fell from her eyes. She gritted her teeth tight and stared back at the man spitefully. Then she flinched again, but not because of the pain from the slap but the oily feel on her cheek, followed by a strong rusty odor. The smell of blood which she now suspected staining her face was nauseating. And although she wanted more than ever to retaliate, Riley's unfinished threat didn't go idle by her mind.

"That's better," Riley sneered as he bandaged his injured shoulder with a semi-clean cloth. He grabbed Liu Ying's long raven hair, causing the girl to yelp, and drew his face close to her. "You listen here, Miss Chang. No more stunts or I'll tear off your school uniform to bandage my wound when this one is fully soaked with blood." Liu Ying's eyes widened along with a gasp and Riley snickered at the effects. He stuck a thumb on Liu Ying's left temple, drawing it down, wiping the blood from her face carelessly. Liu Ying flinched away and Riley laughed. "Behave and I won't touch you. I don't go for underage girls, but when push comes to shove…" Once again he let his sentence hung before turning back to sit on his chair.

Liu Ying's heart nearly stopped at his comment, and for once, she was really scared. A single tear escaped her eyes before she cast a look at Youkomon. The Champion was obviously pained from the looks of her sharp ice-blue eyes, seeing her partner being harassed by the kidnapper. Liu Ying quickly composed herself and gave an inconspicuous nod to Youkomon, who at first looked perplexed. Riley was observing her, but to him she might just appear like she was muttering gibberish. _'At least my plan works,'_ she thought, and mouthed two words while looking at a pile of furniture, hoping that Youkomon would get it.

And the kitsune caught it instantly with her acute senses. _'Astral projection…'_

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 39 – DigiWira in Distress, Part II**_

xxx

xxx

Batu Caves, loosely translated as the Caves of Stones, was located thirteen kilometer up north from the metropolis of Kuala Lumpur. It was first discovered in 1892 and was an important place for those who practiced the Hindu religion. Aside from that it was also one of Malaysia's tourist attractions, luring tourists from all around the world to witness and climb the 273 steps which would lead to the caves. These caves would lead to underground large natural chambers constructed as the interiors of Hindu temples. The stairs, painted white and red, were a rather stark contrast amidst the greenery of the trees that grew on the hills around them.

Leading towards the stairs was a spacious square clearing flanked by brightly-painted Hindu temples, with a colorful arch constructed over the first step of the stairs. A large Hindu deity statue in gold loomed over the clearing, casting shadows which provided some shades to those who couldn't withstand the afternoon heat. A band of mischievous long-tailed macaques scampered around the clearing in front of the steps, sending pigeons flying about as locals and tourists alike watched in mild amusement as they went about their business. It was a bright late afternoon day and the weather was pleasant enough for the tourists to walk around with leisure pace as they enjoyed the sights of the famous landmark. As it was a weekday, not many people were around and it was fairly quiet around the temple site. Even the locals that were around were mostly shop vendors and Hindu monks, some seen talking with the foreign visitors while others attended to their own businesses.

Suddenly, without particular reason the pigeons and the macaques scampered around, some even colliding with the people who gasped with bewilderment over the animals' sudden behaviors. The clearing was left bare and people looked around, wondering what could have caused the animals to flee. The reason became apparent when soft glows of white and gold suddenly appeared from the air, becoming more radiant in a blink of the eye before four figures materialized. The crowd instantly gasped with awe as they set their eyes upon the figures that had made names for themselves recently, and those with cameras didn't waste time in snapping photographs of the four warriors.

"Phew….luckily I managed to remember this place well from my visit here last year with Kak Lisha," Aldiyamon said as he lowered his arms, willing the bright orbs of light to disappear into thin air. He sweatdropped upon noticing the amazed expressions of the people around them, and sighed. "Uh oh…looks like we've made quite a grand entrance." Then, lowering his voice to a barely audible level, he added, "This is all _your_ fault, Satriamon! You and your bright idea, teleporting here…"

"You got any better ideas?" Satriamon smirked, not caring about the crowd at all. "It's fast, it's free, and we don't have to break a sweat. It's the sweetest ride here."

The crowd's hushed whisper became more excited but none dared to approach the imposing figures of the four Wira Digital yet.

Puspamon flapped her shining, semi-translucent pink wings and fluttered above the other Wira Digital, unintentionally causing some of the males from the crowd to ogle at her as she scanned around the temple area with a small smile on her face. "It's been a while since I'm here," she whispered – or rather, the Gayathri inside of her did for Floramon had never stepped foot on this place. She was careful enough to make sure that her voice was low. She soared until reaching the golden deity statue's waist level before realizing what she had done to the crowd, and smiled sheepishly as she waved a hand. "Oh…hello, everyone! Don't mind us. We're just here for quite a bit…"

Samudramon produced his Juara Digivice on his palm and conjured the digital map. They needn't worry about preserving their identities while in their Wira Digital forms. The map showed a considerable distance between the yellow signal and the other four, but the map was now in a close-ranged scale. "We're closer. Now, if only I can take out the map as well, but I can't while in this form," he said to Satriamon and Aldiyamon.

Satriamon nudged Aldiyamon with a finger. "C'mon…time for us to manipulate your teleportation again."

The angelic knight shook his head. "Nu-uh. Can't do that."

"Why not?"

Aldiyamon turned his face around towards the tallest Wira Digital, glaring at him underneath his silver visor. "Because, as I have told you a thousand times, I can't teleport to a place I haven't been at. I need at least a mental image or picture or something…"

"Why?" Satriamon asked again.

"Because…" Aldiyamon took another breath, knowing all too well that his cousin (with the DigiWira being cousins, Patamon and Agumon too had decided that they would be 'cousins' as well, without actually knowing the meaning of the context) was only provoking him. It had been JD's favorite past time for the past three weeks Adam had moved into his house. The angel smiled as he came up with a rather smart reply. "The last place we'd want to end up at is a dirty toilet, although I won't mind if _you're_ the one who end up there."

'_That ought to make him shut up,'_ Adam thought.

'_I don't know, Adam. This is your cousin we're talking about,'_ Patamon giggled back in reply.

Satriamon grinned deviously. "_I _won't mind if it's a girl's toilet."

'_Why do I even bother?'_ Aldiyamon ignored Satriamon, turning his gaze towards Samudramon and Puspamon. Samudramon was diligently studying the digital map, trying to remember its details. Above him, Puspamon was _still_ looking around the Batu Caves with rapt interest.

"I think I've got it," Samudramon said when the arguing between the other two Wira Digital stopped. The digital map vanished as Samudramon kept his Juara Digivice back in its pocket dimension. "We need to find a secluded place to return to our normal forms, and start looking from there."

"Why can't we remain in our Wira Digital forms?" Satriamon asked.

"We're attracting a lot of attention and I still need to refer to the other map," Samudramon answered.

"_And_ we might alert the kidnappers, if they are nearby," Aldiyamon answered. "That would make this whole rescue mission we're planning to be utterly pointless…"

Aldiyamon was cut short when a loud screech was heard coming from the sky. The avian shriek instantly prompted everyone to raise their head, and the crowd gasped in horror and fear upon setting eyes over a massive figure of a birdman looming towards the clearing. They scampered about in panic, trying to find places to hide. The birdman's profile was obscured because it was flying in front of the direction of the sun, making it appear as a black silhouette amidst the sun rays. The Wira Digital couldn't make out of the birdman's details, but they soon realize that the birdman was not alone when several smaller figures appeared behind the birdman. They were the Velgemon and there were five of them.

"We've got company!" Puspamon swooped down towards her friends, looking absolutely miffed. "They can't attack here! This is a sacred place! Why I oughta…"

"Don't worry. We've taken care of them once, we can do it again." Satriamon raised his golden gauntlet up his face, smirking menacingly.

"Scan the intruder. I'm getting everyone out of here…" Eyeing some of the fearfully transfixed crowd of people, Aldiyamon quickly flew over them. He let out thousands of white and gold orbs which instantly transported him and them towards a safe place he had recalled in his mind. Everyone – the monks, the tourists, the vendors, some kids, even the screeching macaques – were teleported away, leaving Satriamon, Samudramon and Puspamon a clear venue to deal with the enemies.

"I can't let them approach this place!" Puspamon quickly soared towards the intruders before Satriamon and Samudramon could stop her.

"What's with her?" Satriamon asked, confused of his fellow Wira Digital's attitude.

"To Gayathri, this place is a sacred place for her belief. I probably would've reacted the same way if a church is attacked, as you and Adam might if it's a mosque that's under attack," Samudramon explained calmly as he once again produced his Juara Digivice in order to scan the enemy Digimon.

"Ah…" Satriamon nodded, and peered closer to the other dragon man to have a look at the analyzer.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Garudamon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Vaccine type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Wing Blade – **__Garudamon releases a flaming bird from its wings towards its enemy._

_**Eagle Claw – **__Garudamon uses its sharp claws to slash the enemy with the added power of fire._

xxx

"Interestingly enough, a Garuda is a half-man, half-bird creature from Hindu mythology, and we're now up against a Garudamon at a sacred place for Hindu people," Samudramon remarked.

Satriamon was about to come up with a reply when fogs burst out at the corner of the clearing. Several figures stepped out, all of them unfamiliar. A heavily-muscled humanoid with black skin and four arms walked out from the fogs first. Clearly a male, he wore only a dark brown loincloth secured by a thick white band around the waist. His shins and forearms were protected by bronze gauntlets. The Digimon was particularly peculiar not only because he possessed four arms, but also _three_ sets of faces, each covered by differently-colored masks of yellow, blue and red. A large ring-shaped bronze metal was attached on his back, and his hair seemed to be made out of flames. Fire seemed to radiate from his back as well. He wore a solemn expression on his face and his mouth was set thin as he set eyes on the two Wira Digital.

Behind him, two black-armored figures shifted quietly. They were all identical, with strange eyes decorating various parts of their bodies. Their armored arms ended with curved red blades.

"Check out those weirdoes," Satriamon instructed Samudramon.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Asuramon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Vaccine type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Fire Fists of Shiva – **__Asuramon attacks his enemies with flaming fists._

_**Multiple Faces **__– Asuramon shoots out laser beams from his three sets of eyes, harnessing the power of fire, darkness and poison._

xxx

"And another interesting fact is that Asura is a demonic deity, also from Hindu mythology," Samudramon murmured.

Satriamon snorted. "How do you know all that? All I've noticed that the Darkshadow Brethren have a weird fetish of using fire-based Digimon. It was Ardhamon last time, and now Garudamon and Asuramon."

"I read," Samudramon said, giving Satriamon a matter-of-factly look.

Satriamon shrugged. "Ah, whatever. Scan those men in blacks too. They look like foot soldiers to me."

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Duskmon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Virus type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Deadly Gaze – **__Duskmon shoots out red laser beams from the eyes adorning its armor._

_**Lunar Plasma **__– Duskmon rushes towards his enemies, slashing his Kris blades towards them which let out trails of dark-powered red energy._

xxx

"Don't tell me that those Duskmon are from Hindu mythology too," Satriamon said.

"I don't think they are," Samudramon said. "But it looks like this time the Darkshadow Brethren are going all out in presumably an attempt to stop us from finding Liu Ying."

"What have they got to do with Liu Ying's kidnapping?" Satriamon asked.

"Probably nothing. Maybe they've realized about the kidnapping and are stopping us from finding her, because admittedly four Wira Digital are easier to beat than five."

"Looks like we have our work cut out for us then," Satriamon grinned, brandishing his fearsome gauntlet again. He looked up at Puspamon who was soaring towards Garudamon and the Velgemon. "Hopefully she'll be able to handle them on her own while our little angel gets everyone to safety."

"Somehow I think Aldiyamon won't appreciate that comment," Samudramon said, producing his trident with a flick of his hand. The weapon appeared in swirls of water. He was, however, grinning back at the other dragon man's remark.

"Nah. He already knows I'm calling him that." Satriamon's playful tone disappeared as he set sight upon the approaching Asuramon. "I'll take muscle-man. You take those men in blacks."

Samudramon nodded, gripping his trident tight. "Sounds like a plan to me."

xxx

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Above the 273 steps of the stairs and inside the hills were caverns with high-vaulted ceilings. Compared to the bright sunny atmosphere outside, the interior of the cave was gloomy and cool with scanty amount of light. A niche could be seen constructed at the side of a rock wall, with a carved Hindu deity set into an ornate altar. As one walked through the cave more colorful figures from the Hindu mythology could be seen placed around the cave, giving it a mystical sight to behold. The cavern ended with more stairs leading to a higher cave, appearing like a center stage set in front of a massive amphitheater. An opening could be seen over the stone ceiling, allowing the daylight to cascade down the murky recesses of the caverns. There at the higher cave was a temple with more deific carvings and with candles lit, giving more light to the somewhat dark interior. The temple-cave was relatively empty save for a couple of monks with dark skin, wearing long sarongs around their waists. There was a booth at the corner of the cave, selling some souvenirs for tourists who'd like to have some memorabilia of their visit to Batu Caves.

A bright flash of light burst forth and the empty cave suddenly was filled with a number of people and a grandiose figure in white. The quietness transformed into noises as the macaques shrieked and scampered towards an opening at the wall which led them to the trees outside, fearful of the humans. The people murmured in amazement, wondering how they got into the caves. Battle cries could be heard outside, causing the angelic knight before them to twitch.

"Everyone, stay here where it's safe," Aldiyamon instructed. He spread out his wings and took flight. "A battle is occurring outside and I need to help my friends."

Without waiting for an answer Aldiyamon sped out towards the opening, hearing an all-familiar shriek.

Outside, Puspamon was cornered from all sides by Garudamon – a massive birdman who was nearly _five_ _times_ her size – and its Velgemon lackeys. It was muscular and covered with light red feathers, which darkened as they formed its massive wings. Its arms and legs ended with sharp talons. Underneath the orange helmet it wore, green eyes flashed with intelligence.

"I'm warning you, birdbrain; get out of this holy place!" Puspamon said angrily, pointing a finger towards Garudamon.

"Hah! And who's gonna stop me from destroying this place? Certainly not you, little girl!" Garudamon spat with a proud masculine voice, indicating that it was a he. "I was instructed to destroy you and your friends only, but I figured why let the fun stop there…I'll destroy everything in sight when I've taken care of you. Velgemon, attack her!"

The Velgemon screeched and swooped down towards Puspamon. Puspamon retaliated by letting out an ear-splitting scream with spiraling pink energy waves, blasting the Velgemon away. The attack however only disoriented them, but to her surprise, Garudamon was unaffected. The attack didn't seem to faze him. "How did he…?" Puspamon wondered.

Garudamon guffawed and tapped the helmet he was wearing. "Scream all you want, girly. I can take it. But I wonder how you will fare against my _Wing Blade!!" _

Scarlet light exploded from Garudamon and a fiery phoenix was unleashed. It soared towards the clear blue sky before plummeting towards Puspamon.

The sprite Wira Digital quickly crossed and uncrossed her arms over her body, releasing a hurricane of flowers towards the blazing phoenix. The phoenix was trapped inside the hurricane, but to Puspamon's dismay it only aggravated the blazing phoenix even further. The fires on it flickered wilder and it grew bigger.

"Did you forget that you can't use wind to fight with fire? This is definitely going to be an easy fight on my part." Garudamon snapped his finger and the phoenix loomed over Puspamon.

Puspamon sweated profusely due to the excessive heat emitted from the phoenix. Her skin seemed to burn, becoming redder until she had to retreat away. From her back at a distance, she felt another incoming heat wave…but unlike the burning hot like the scarlet phoenix in front of her, the warmth from her back was comforting, and the burning sensation she was feeling slowly dissipated away. She heard a familiar avian screech, somewhat melodious compared to the wild nature of the red one in front of her. Smiling slightly she turned around just in time to see a white firebird streaking above her, slamming itself against the phoenix. The two birds fought it out before both vanished in data particles.

"Sorry I'm late…but better late than never," Aldiyamon said as appeared beside Puspamon. He blinked upon the sight of a very massive Garudamon. "Whoa…check out Big Bird."

"He's called Garudamon, and I'm going to make sure that he's going to stay as a myth rather than reality," Puspamon replied. "You take care of the Velgemon, okay?"

"Sure thing." Aldiyamon nodded and summoned the Heavenstar Gladius in his right hand. Puspamon fluttered above and Aldiyamon found himself surrounded by five Velgemon. He was outnumbered, but not exactly outmatched. Quickly he surrounded himself with a glowing silver sphere which protected him from their attacks. "Now I've got to figure out what's the plan to deal with these buzzards."

"So you have procured some help," Garudamon said as Puspamon reached his eyelevel. "Big deal. I'm the bigger brawn around here and I'm gonna show it to you why many dared not mess with me. _Eagle Claw!!"_ Garudamon slashed his talons towards Puspamon, who swiftly evaded the attack by making an agile back flip in midair. Garudamon struck again but the smaller Puspamon was too nimble and graceful for the attack, and soon Garudamon grew frustrated and lost focus.

This was the opportunity Puspamon was waiting for. She released a furious whirlwind which slammed onto Garudamon's head, causing it to snap upward before uplifting his metallic helmet. The Hibiscus Hurricane died down and the helmet plummeted towards the ground, leaving a flustered Garudamon without the protection he once had against Puspamon's scream.

"What was that thing you said about your helmet? It protected you from this, right?" Puspamon shrieked out her Sprite Scream, further disorienting Garudamon.

The Ultimate-level birdman however was quick to regain his composure. "Curse you! _Wing Blade!!"_ The ferocious phoenix was summoned and it flew towards Puspamon.

This time around, Puspamon was ready to intercept the attack. She spun around once before letting out bursts of tulip flowers, which in turn shot scorching magenta lasers all around the incoming bird of flames, incinerating it completely. Garudamon gasped and released another Wing Blade and Puspamon had to evade, having just released her attack she'd need time to call upon her power. The phoenix streaked towards the caverns where the people were seeking refuge.

"Oh, no!" She quickly darted her gaze towards Aldiyamon, who was still figuring out a way to deal with the Velgemon. "Aldiyamon! The temple!"

From within his protective sphere, Aldiyamon heard Puspamon's dire call and an idea quickly came to him. A smile formed on his face as he summoned, "Uh, Garudamon's red bird, whatever it's called…" He braced himself as Garudamon's phoenix was enveloped in bright light orbs, vanishing and reappearing merely several meters away from them. The Velgemon shrieked as the flaming bird scorched all of them with its searing fire. His protective sphere shook slightly from the force of the phoenix, Aldiyamon's smile turned into a satisfied grin as three Velgemon plummeted towards the ground, defeated and badly burnt. Two other Velgemon which had darted away just in time squawked angrily and zoomed towards Aldiyamon who had dropped his Deistic Guard.

"_Heavenstar Gladius!!"_ A shining pillar of light slammed against the remaining two Velgemon, deleting them instantly. Aldiyamon then teleported down until he was further below the plummeting Velgemon, and made a horizontal slash facing the sky. A wave of holy light streaked towards the three fallen birds, destroying them in a blink of the eye. The exalted knight laughed in delight and hovered there, giving a victorious thumbs-up towards Puspamon before observing the battle scene below…noticing that it had suddenly flooded heavily.

Puspamon grinned and cast a look towards Garudamon. "Ha, ha…see what's happened to your lackeys?"

"Impossible!" Garudamon sputtered. His attack had caused the defeat of the Velgemon. He narrowed his eyes angrily and observed Puspamon. "You'll pay for that!" He let out a roar and flexed his arms while stretching out his large wings. Flames burst out from his body and a phoenix emerged, bigger and more menacing than the previous ones. Garudamon smirked upon noticing the anxious look that crossed his opponent's beautiful feature. "Take this, you little trollop! _WING BLADE, FULL POWER!!"_ He bent down and the fearsome phoenix flew out from his back.

"Ok, I don't know what that means but judging from your tone I think that that's an insult." Trying to appear confident, Puspamon was actually worried. She raked her mind for a solution before her thoughts fleeted back to the final battle the five Wira Digital had with Gulfmon. That time, she had been consumed by sorrow of Adam's apparent death, and the sheer determination to delete Gulfmon once and for all. That had caused her Jelita Shocker technique to morph into a much more powerful form.

'_I have to protect this place no matter what,'_ she thought and her body glowed with pink aura. _"Jelita Shocker…"_ she said, and an inspiration suddenly struck her mind. More and more tulips spiraled out from the tulip decoration she had on her dress, coalescing together as they shot towards the incoming firebird. Puspamon smiled and confidently called out, _"…POWERED UP MODE!!"_

The flowers merged and transformed into a glowing apparition of a fairy three times the size of Puspamon. The glimmering pink fairy sailed through the flaming bird, dissipating it instantly in an explosion of pink light. The glowing fairy however didn't stop there – it flew all the way towards Garudamon at top speed and zapped through his chest, before emerging from his back in forms of flower petals. Garudamon bent forward and clutched his chest, screaming, appearing to be in severe pain. His face contorted horribly as his whole body was slowly enveloped by an aura in deep shade of pink, beginning from his chest and quickly irradiated to all parts of his body until he was wholly coated by the pink aura. Then, with a defeated shriek he combusted into data particles.

"I did it," Puspamon said with relief. "Batu Caves is saved."

xxx

xxx

While the aerial battle took place, the battle on the ground was no less than exciting. Satriamon had tackled Asuramon while Samudramon had taken on the two Duskmon. The battle between the two Digimon of fire was nothing more than them exchanging flaming fists one after another, and they both looked to be at an equal power. Asuramon only had the advantage of having four fists instead of two, but Satriamon used his gauntlet as a shield to protect him from a number of Asuramon's Fire Fists of Shiva, awaiting the chance to deliver his own punch. That chance never came because whenever he attempted to do so, one of Asuramon's fists would block out his fist, resulting in a stalemate.

The battle between the aquatic Wira Digital and the Duskmon however was slightly more interesting than the fight between the two fire Digimon.

Samudramon had employed his usual strategy and used his Divine Rain first to leech out the powers from the Duskmon. He however soon realized that his support technique didn't work well on armored foes when the Duskmon showed no signs of weakness. They had proven to be formidable opponents and skillful swordsmen, using their blades to deliver one slash after another towards him. Soon Samudramon was flustered when he couldn't even energize his simplest technique, because the Duskmon didn't seem to relent after being exposed to the rains for fifteen straight minutes. It was time for him to change strategy, he thought, while blocking their swords with his trident. The two of them managed to overpower him in terms of strength and Samudramon was pushed back.

The Duskmon, quiet yet deadly, pressed on to the merman Wira Digital as their eyes flashed red. _"Lunar Plasma!!"_ they chorused together, and sent Samudramon stumbling towards the golden deity statue. The statue shook momentarily but didn't lose its balance. Seeing Samudramon flustered, the Duskmon rushed towards him, swords ready to attack.

Samudramon got back up on his feet and spun his trident with energized power of thunder. The Duskmon leapt towards him, plunging their swords towards the merman simultaneously. Samudramon's spinning weapon transformed into a double-bladed staff with the blades shining with glorious blue hue. Thunderbolts crackled as Samudramon too made a leap towards the Duskmon. He thrust his Double-Edged Thunderblades towards the swords, cutting them off cleanly before forcing the Duskmon to retreat.

The brutes looked momentarily abashed, before their eyes glinted red and the destroyed blades were restored into their former untouched states. Seeing this, Samudramon inhaled sharply in surprise. He backed away towards the deity statue as the Duskmon approached him.

'_They are a lot stronger than the Velgemon…'_ Samudramon thought and looked up. Puspamon and Garudamon were battling each other while the Velgemon seemed to be flocking all around a silver sphere which protected Aldiyamon. He gave a fleeting gaze towards Satriamon and Asuramon; both were still exchanging flaming punches one after another and Satriamon's temper seemed to have reached its peak, evidently shown by the string of curses spewed out from his mouth as he attacked the calm deity Digimon. _'What can I do? The Divine Rain isn't effective, the Double-Edged Thunderblades didn't work much and their armors protect them from lightning bolts. My only chance is…'_

Samudramon waved his trident in a horizontal sweeping motion and from out of nowhere, waves of ocean water poured all over the clearing. They slammed the two Duskmon from behind, spiraling around them before lifting them up in a giant water pillar. That had shaken the brutes considerably and Samudramon noted that they were actually _struggling_. They didn't even try fighting off the water pillar – Samudramon could hear them choking, gasping and howling at the same time. Feeling that he had found a strategy to use against the Duskmon, Samudramon retained the use of his Deep Ocean Submerge. He concentrated hard and without him knowing, visages of glowing blue eyes appeared on his helmet, pulsing with power. The water pillar suddenly expanded twice, and spun like a raging whirlpool, all the while letting out a faint blue glow. The Duskmon howled agonizingly and combusted into data particles.

'_What was that…?'_ Samudramon thought in amazement, and felt his arm muscles tightened and became very sore. The water tornado calmed and flooded the clearing before the water was carried away all over the places. He heard snarls coming from the sideways, and let out a sheepish grin upon setting sight of the drenched figures of Satriamon and Asuramon.

"What the hell was that?!" Satriamon shouted. "I was fighting….oh…" The fiery dragon man turned sideways and nearly sweatdropped upon setting sight of a very pathetic-looking Asuramon. He was now without his flaming hair, and the fire that had been flickering on his back had been put out. He now appeared as a very sullen bald man, drenched from top to bottom. And he looked pitifully weak. "How about that? Looks like the big bad Asuramon is afraid of water now, isn't he?" Satriamon sneered as he raised his gauntlet high. Asuramon only looked up, too weak to move, appearing to already resign to his fate. "Thanks for a good workout though, but you're a bad guy, so…_Dragonforce Striker!!"_

An explosion of data particles followed soon after, securing the Wira Digital of their victory of the day.

"Oh, good, there's no damage on the temples and the statues and the stairs…only some flood, but they'll get around fixing that…"

Satriamon and Samudramon looked up and saw Puspamon fluttering over the air, inspecting what damages that could have been inflicted over Batu Caves. Aldiyamon descended down, looking unruffled as always, as if not having just been involved in a battle a few moments before. The angelic knight touched down between the two bigger-sized dragon-men and the three of them shook their heads as Puspamon continued her inspection to make sure that the sacred place for Hindus was truly safe.

"She truly is concerned about this place now, isn't she?" Satriamon said, scratching the back of his still-drenched hair.

"Can you blame her?" Aldiyamon replied. "Luckily nothing is damaged and all the civilians are all safe and sound up there on the cave."

"What do you think the attacks are about?" Samudramon asked. "From the looks of it, it seems like the Darkshadow Brethren has everything to do with Liu Ying's kidnapping, despite the evidence which has proven to be otherwise."

"_I am afraid that you are right, Samudramon."_

The Wira Digital balked in surprise as a semi-opaque yellow fox with nine tails materialized in front of them.

"Youkomon! If you're here…and you're also supposed to be with Liu Ying….what's going on?" Aldiyamon inquired breathlessly.

"_Samudramon's deduction is correct. The Darkshadow Brethren does take part in Liu Ying's kidnapping…'_

"But how?" Puspamon asked, now with the other Wira Digital.

"_Liu Ying is in danger, Wira Digital. You need to come here, but be careful. One of the generals is expecting you,"_ Youkomon said urgently, looking around her as if she was expecting to be attacked. _"Unfortunately I am confined in a force-field…I cannot protect my partner, but at least I could alert you…"_

"Where are you being held at?" Samudramon asked.

"_I think we are currently being held inside an abandoned warehouse. I…I cannot hold on my astral form much longer. The force field is constantly trying to block me. Be on your guards always, Wira Digital…and hurry." _

The astral-projected image of Youkomon vanished abruptly as soon as she delivered her warning, leaving the four Wira Digital astounded.

"Now what do we do?" Satriamon wondered.

Samudramon analyzed what Youkomon had relayed on them. "Well, we know that we are near where Liu Ying is being held. Youkomon told us that she's inside an abandoned warehouse, so I think…" The merman looked at his friends. "We better start looking for one, and I think we'll fare better in human forms."

"I still don't understand why Youkomon told us that a general is waiting for us," Puspamon said. "I thought Liu Ying is kidnapped by humans."

"That baffles me too," Samudramon admitted. "From the way Youkomon had said it, it does sound like both humans and Digimon are working together in the kidnapping. But Liu Ying's family has received a ransom letter from the kidnapper, and according to you two…" he gestured to Aldiyamon and Satriamon. "…there are signs that somebody had been lurking around her neighborhood before the kidnapping. Those don't really sound like the way Digimon would attack, I think. If they want Liu Ying, they can just barge into the house and take her. All these sound like a plan that has been carefully thought of. The kidnapper didn't make any mistake. They knew where and when exactly to corner Liu Ying. And the police have no idea where to look."

"Wow, good thinking, Samudramon," Aldiyamon remarked after a moment of silence. He was very impressed with Samudramon's – or rather, Manny's – deductions of the whole situation.

"Let me guess; you know all that by _reading_?" Satriamon asked Samudramon teasingly.

"Detective novels," Samudramon clarified.

"Man, you really need to get a life," Satriamon commented with a snicker.

"Hey, watch it. At least he's thought of something," Puspamon chided the red-armored dragon man. "I don't see you coming up with a thought."

"I thought of coming here by teleporting," Satriamon pointed out with a lopsided grin. He gave Puspamon a challenging look. "What did _you_ come up with?"

Puspamon glared at Satriamon, not able to come up with any answer. She finally settled with a disgruntled _Hmmph_ and looked away. "Hey, hold on…" she said, as something Garudamon had said earlier came back to her. "Do any of you know what _trollop_ means? That Garudamon called me that and I don't know what that means." She frowned upon seeing Samudramon's pale cheeks turned a deep shade of red and Satriamon's mouth hung open in surprise. Aldiyamon however looked as dumbfounded as she was. "Umm…guys?"

"Come closer," Satriamon beckoned. Puspamon approached him and the dragon-man whispered the meaning of the word to her. Puspamon blushed furiously and balled her hands into fists.

"Why…that potty-mouthed Garudamon!! I oughta…"

"Relax. You deleted him already. Consider that a payback," Satriamon pointed it.

Aldiyamon didn't understand what was going on and merely shook his head. He figured that if Puspamon was that frazzled upon discovering the meaning of the word, he could always ask his cousin about it later. He looked up at the sky which began to show signs that it was nearing early evening. The sun was no longer above them, but somewhere near the western horizon amidst the visible skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur. In an hour dusk would approach.

"We better get moving now. Let's find a secluded place and dedigivolve."

xxx

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Waves of dark energy from the barrier blasted upon Youkomon, devolving her back into a weakened Labramon. The Rookie slumped onto the floor, her beige fur having black spots all over. A cut could be seen on the right side of her body.

Liu Ying gasped in shock. "You don't have to do that!" she shouted at Doumon. Then she cast a worried look at her Digimon partner. "Labramon! Are you alright? Speak to me…please."

"I…I am fine…" Labramon wheezed, opening her eyes tiredly. "Don't…worry…Ying."

Doumon chuckled softly. "Don't think that I did not realize about your attempt back there, foolish dog. I may not know what you were up to, but I did notice something magical tempering with the barrier." The priest-like general closed his eyes again, resuming his meditative pose. "Something tells me that you have attempted to alert the other Wira Digital, but don't trouble yourself with that. I have sent several Digimon to take care of them…hmm…interesting…." Doumon opened his eyes again and stared at Labramon. "The digital signals from the Garudamon and the Asuramon I have sent to fight the Wira Digital have vanished. It seems to me that the Wira Digital have beaten them."

"You're not going to get away with this, ALL of you!" Liu Ying exclaimed, feeling a flutter in her heart. Her friends were coming! She cast her eyes at Labramon and the Rookie Digimon gave an inconspicuous nod towards her – she had warned the Wira Digital. Now her friends would be aware of the threat that was waiting to meet them. "Whatever you're planning, you'll fail!"

"Oh, I won't bet on that, Miss Chang," Riley snickered from the shadows. He slinked forward and placed his hands on his hips, his face smug. The white cloth he had wrapped his injured shoulder was now red with dry blood. "You see, even as we speak I bet now your family is now meeting the DPM, telling him about the demands and the ransom I've told you about." He took out his cell phone and punched in some numbers. "I'll make a call, and I'll put it on loud speaker so that you can hear our conversation…Greetings, Mrs. Chang, and old Mr. Chang."

The firm voice that replied was familiar, but not of her mother or grandfather. Liu Ying's eyes widened when she realized that the one speaking was the Deputy Prime Minister himself.

"_Riley Lau. I trust you know who I am?"_

"Ah…Dato' Sulaiman Daud. So you are there too. Truly an honor," Riley chuckled, showing that he didn't mean what he'd just said. "This will make things easier. I trust Mrs. Evelyn Chang has told you about my demands."

"_They have. That can be arranged, but I want to know that the girl is safe."_

Riley snickered and glanced at Liu Ying. "Go ahead, Miss Chang. Say anything you want, satisfy their eagerness to know that you're ok."

Liu Ying gave the kidnapper a dirty glare, refusing to speak anything. Riley looked amused before the scowl-sneer expression returned. He yanked a small black gun from his back and pointed it towards Liu Ying, causing her to gasp. "He…he has a gun!" she said in shock. Riley smiled back in satisfaction.

"_What? Riley…if you harm her in any way…"_

Riley laughed. "Oh relax old man. The gun's not loaded, see?" He opened the chamber of the gun, and Liu Ying saw that the bullet chamber was empty. "Tell them, Miss Chang! Tell them, or you'll learn that it doesn't take bullets to make a gun useful. Perhaps your late father had mentioned about it before, but seeing that you're too dumb to understand a simple instruction… that seems to be highly improbable."

"It's not loaded…the gun's not loaded," Liu Ying said with a defeated tone, glaring angrily at Riley for his insult.

Riley ignored her, continuing to speak with the Deputy Prime Minister. "There, you see? As long as you comply with my wish, Miss Chang will not be harmed. You have until midnight – I want to hear in the news that my brother has been set free from Kajang Prison where he is held right now. In fact…it's two hours to eight. Change of plans; make the announcement in the eight o'clock news. Then I will disclose a location for you to leave the ransom money, and you'll get back the girl. And no funny stuffs – no police. I know by saying that, you'll alert the whole Bukit Aman police squad to trail my movement. You don't want to do that, seriously. If you value their lives, you will ask them _not_ to try tracking me."

Riley switched off the phone before a reply could be made, and pocketed both the gun and the phone. "Now, we wait for the news. By then, I think we've managed to take care of _all_ the Wira Digital eh Doumon?"

Doumon didn't bother to open his eyes, merely giving the man a perceptive nod as he meditated.

xxx

xxx

"The line is dead," Dato' Sulaiman Daud said, putting the receiver back on the phone with a frustrated growl. He eyed the anxious looks of Evelyn Chang and Grandpa Chang, his expression softening upon meeting the curious gaze of little Chang Liu Meng before it turned stern upon landing on the four policemen and policewoman that were hovering around a brown-haired man with a laptop. Wires could be seen connecting the phone and the laptop as the man typed furiously.

"No matter, I've managed to get a lock on the location," the man declared triumphantly, looking up at the Deputy Prime Minister's face. His azure eyes glinted in excitement as he stared at the screen. Faint green light was reflected from his face. "They are somewhere around Batu Caves. I couldn't get a hold on the exact spot but at least we have a lead."

Dato' Sulaiman Daud nodded. "And who might you be?" he asked – the man was already there when he arrived at the Chang's household. He had assumed that the man was working with the policemen and had paid no heed to him. Now, hearing that the man had been able to track the location of Riley Lau's call, his interest was piqued.

The man stood up and extended a hand. "Jackie Chan. I'm a computer teacher at Liu Ying's school, and also a freelance computer technician and dealer."

"We thought that he could help with tracing the call, sir," a policeman supplied. "He's a computer genius and he's helped around with the computers at the police station."

Dato' Sulaiman Daud nodded as he shook Jackie's hand. "Good work. Now, alert the Batu Caves police station. Tell them to search every nook and cranny for any possible location of this kidnapper. I want him captured tonight."

"Understood, sir." The policeman saluted and stepped outside to make a call.

The Deputy Prime Minister sat down on the couch, pressing his right temple as Mrs. Evelyn Chang served him a glass of cold drink. Jackie stood up and collected his laptop and briefcase.

"Excuse me, sir," he said politely. "I need to take my leave now. There's something else I have to do."

"Of course, Mr. Chan. Thank you for your help. I'm grateful," Dato' Sulaiman Daud said.

"Always happy to help, sir." Jackie stepped out of the house and headed to his car. _'DigiWira…I can't believe that you didn't tell me about this!' _he thought as he stepped into the car. He revved up the engine and glanced at a map spread on the passenger seat. Taking out a red marker from his briefcase, he circled out Batu Caves on the map and drove off.

xxx

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**Author's Notes:**

I decided for this story arc to have three chapters instead of two to ensure that it's executed better. Things got so cramped and rushed if this is a two-chapter arc. Splitting it into three give me the chance to feature another Malaysian attraction as well as letting the story progress. This chapter also allows me to feature a new modification for the Wira Digital's attacks, beginning with Puspamon's.

Asuramon and Garudamon have both been specifically chosen to be the enemies in conjunction of the battle taking place at Batu Caves. As Samudramon has clarified in this chapter – the two Digimon are based from Hindu mythology, and Batu Caves is a sacred place for Hindus.

Before anyone ask me about this, I'd like to say that Dato' Sulaiman Daud is a fictional character, not the real Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister. The _Dato'_ prefix in his name is a title knighted by the Sultan to people who have done great deeds and contributions.

And before I forgot; a big THANKS to those who nominated for Wira Digital at the Digital Fanfiction Award. It's truly a big surprise for me. Voting is now open, so if you have the time please send in your votes for this story. Thanks again.

I have done some artworks but they have no connection with this chapter. Check them out via the profile page.


	40. DigiWira in Distress, Part III

"Where do you think we should go ask after this?" Gayathri inquired. "Nobody we asked seems to know where's the nearest abandoned warehouse."

"Maybe we're doing it wrong." Manny rubbed his chin as he thought back about the last five persons they had asked. "We've asked a young man, a girl, a mother with three boisterous kids and a crying baby, a gruff man who…could use a bit of mouth-freshener and deodorant, and a man who's new in town. I think maybe we should look for someone older who's stayed here long enough."

"Good idea," Gayathri said. Her eyes caught a shop. "I'm rather thirsty. Maybe we can go to that shop and get some drinks…then we can ask the shopkeeper. The shop looks rather old; I bet the owner must be just as ancient." She grinned at the joke.

Manny smiled back. "I could use a cold drink myself."

"_Manny and Gayathri go on a date…"_ Penguinmon's voice blared from Manny's Juara Digivice. Instantly, the two DigiWira halted and Manny's cheeks colored. _"Hey Floramon, continue the song!"_

"_That's not how the song goes, and you sure don't have the right voice to sing!"_ Floramon said snobbishly. _"The song's like this…Manny and Gayathri sit under a tree…"_

"_Oh, whatever! I know the lyrics after that! Ok…they sit under the tree. K-I-S--"_

"Alright, stop right there you two!" Gayathri hissed, blushing amidst the two Digimon's singing. The two Digimon ignored her and continued their songs. It was lucky that nobody was around them, or they'd wonder why there were four voices coming from two people.

"_First comes love…then comes marriage…" _Floramon sang.

"…_and then the baby in the carriage!"_ Penguinmon finished and laughed heartily.

"Penguinmon…" Manny said with an exasperated tone. Suddenly, a glint crossed his eyes as he grinned at Gayathri, indicating her to play along. "Penguinmon, how'd you like to be the main dish for dinner tonight?" he asked with a carefully tailored low-tone voice.

If it weren't for the fact that he was smiling, and if it weren't for the fact that she was facing him now, Gayathri would have thought that the evil Blue ShadoWira had returned. It surprised her, actually, as Manny rarely, if never, attempted a joke – which made his mock threat towards Penguinmon even funnier. She had to conceal her mouth to stop laughing, their current predicament momentarily forgotten.

Penguinmon's laughter died down instantly. It was clear that he too hadn't seen that coming. A brief second passed in stunned silence before the Rookie sputtered out, _"Not…not funny!!"_

"Aww, why not? I heard Manny's a decent cook. Oh, while you're at it, maybe you can make side-dish out of Floramon," Gayathri said with a satisfied tone, smiling back at Manny.

"…_shutting up now,"_ Floramon muttered grudgingly.

"You guys have no sense of humor," Gayathri giggled.

"_Humph! Says you. I only laugh at funny thing!"_ Penguinmon retorted. _"Do you know how boring it is in this pocket dimension?"_

"I don't hear Patamon and Agumon complaining," Manny pointed out.

"_That's because they're scared that JD would strangle them to deletion if they spoke up…"_ Penguinmon muttered.

Manny and Gayathri chuckled at that remark. "You're lucky he's not here to hear that. Somehow I don't think he'd appreciate you speaking about him like that," Manny said.

"Oh, I don't know. JD has quite a sense of humor," Gayathri said. "Maybe he'll use his fire power to roast you alive."

"_Humph. Aren't you the comedian?"_ Penguinmon then snorted and didn't say a word.

Manny and Gayathri then entered a shop to buy some drinks, and some snacks for their disgruntled partners. After paying the shopkeeper – a wizened woman with white hair pulled back in a large bun who was manning the counter – Manny and Gayathri exchanged glances and Gayathri gave a small nod.

"Excuse me, but do you know of any abandoned warehouse around here?" Manny asked politely.

The old lady peered through her glasses suspiciously at the two DigiWira teens. Her gaze was shifted back and forth between them and the wrinkles on her forehead creased deeper. She glanced outside and saw that it was getting dark, before looking at the two teens again. All of a sudden she looked angry.

"Do you think that I don't know what you two are up to? A boy and a girl going to an abandoned warehouse, just the two of you, at this time of day?!" she said furiously. Her wrinkled face reddened and her eyes shot up wide, glaring at the teens. She stood up and pointed them the door. "I certainly do _not_ condone of this kind of behavior! It's inappropriate! Get out from my shop, and go home right now!"

The DigiWira were stunned at the woman's outburst. What could have set off this woman's temper? Seeing the woman reaching for a feather duster, the two of them immediately exited the shop. Manny was bewildered while Gayathri looked furious herself.

"How rude of her! And you were asking so politely for the direction!" Gayathri seethed. "What nerve."

"Oh my God…" Manny said, finally realizing what the woman had meant. "I think we _do_ look suspicious, asking around for an abandoned warehouse when it's nearing dusk and there are only two of us…" His face reddened with embarrassment. "We've given her the wrong impression. No wonder she said that it's inappropriate…she must have thought that we're going…uh…" He stopped there; face now so red that it would put tomatoes to shame.

Gayathri thought about it, gasped and blushed as well. "But…she couldn't…I mean…we're just…oh never mind…"

The two of them stood there by the roadside, transfixed and were avoiding each other's eyes.

"Oh, this is silly," Gayathri finally said. "We _know_ that we're not doing anything wrong or inappropriate. That lady can assume whatever she wants. She doesn't know who we are, she knows nothing! Humph!" To emphasize her annoyance of the shopkeeper's assumption, she turned back and stuck out her tongue.

Seeing that brought a smile back on Manny's face as his blush subsided. "I sure hope Adam and JD are luckier than we are."

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"Excuse me." Adam smiled courteously upon greeting an elderly man who was sitting at a roadside stall, reading a newspaper.

The fifty-something-year-old man looked up from his newspaper and took in the features of the young boy standing in front of him, and a taller older boy with blonde hair standing several meters behind him. "Yes?" he inquired.

"This might sound rather odd…but do you know if there's an abandoned warehouse around here?" Adam hoped that his question didn't sound _too_ odd. After all, what kid would be looking for an abandoned warehouse? He looked back at JD, who gave him an encouraging faint smile – he'd refused straight-out to be the one asking and Adam saw his point. A Caucasian-looking kid asking about abandoned warehouses would be even more suspicious than local kids asking about them. Thus, when the team split into two to cover more ground, Adam was the one who had been asking around for any warehouse as told by Youkomon, while JD would hang around in the background. JD would also be the one who would contact Manny and Gayathri in order to get the updates on their part.

So far, for the past one hour they had spent asking around, nobody was able to give them any helpful answer. They had gotten locations of several warehouses, but none were abandoned.

"Abandoned warehouse?" The man observed Adam more keenly after pushing his glass up. He put his newspaper on the table. "Why would you be looking for an abandoned warehouse, son?"

Adam inhaled and remembered the excuse JD had supplied to him. He had been repeating it five times out of eight people they had managed to ask. "We're playing scavenger hunting and one of the tasks is to get to an abandoned warehouse and retrieve an item there. Unfortunately, I'm new at school and the club who's sponsoring the scavenger hunt has forgotten to supply the direction to the abandoned warehouse because supposedly, everyone knows where it is. And my friend over there is a foreign exchange student – he's even more unfamiliar to this town than I am."

The man nodded, but still had the puzzled look on his face. "Isn't it a bit late for you to still playing games? It's almost dark."

"We're way behind schedule because both of us aren't that familiar with the town yet," Adam said with a smile. "Luckily the main objective of this game is to finish it, not winning it."

"Oh, I see." The man nodded, seemingly satisfied with Adam's reasoning. He thought for a brief fraction of a minute before nodding again with a smile. "As a matter of fact, I do know of one abandoned warehouse not too far from here. Do you want me to say the location, or if you have a pen and paper I can draw out a rough map for you to get there."

"That'll be great. Thank you," Adam said and took out a small notepad and a pen from his jeans pocket. It was lucky that Manny had thought of getting those before they split up. Adam gave the notepad and the pen to the man and watched keenly as the man sketched a crude map.

"As far as I know, there's only one abandoned warehouse around here. And I've stayed here for nearly twenty years now. It used to be a warehouse for a furniture company back in mid-90s, but during the economy downfall times the company was forced to close down. The warehouse has been abandoned since. It's located at the outskirts of the town, over Bukit Dahlia." The man looked up from the notebook and beckoned Adam to come closer to him. "See that Petronas gas station over there? What you should do is to turn right after passing the gas station, and walk straight until you reach a junction. If you're walking there it'll take you about fifteen to twenty minutes." As he told that he drew out arrows on the diagram. "It's a T-junction and you should go straight. From there you can see some rows of shops, several office buildings, a couple of restaurants and a mosque. While walking, keep your eyes straight in front of you and you'll soon see some undeveloped grounds stretching towards some hills after passing by the mosque. Those hills are Bukit Dahlia. To get there you'll need probably another thirty minutes or so. When you reach the hill, walk up there until you reach a paved clearing and you'll find the warehouse."

'_It does sound like a good place to hold someone hostage,'_ Adam thought. "Thank you very much, mister. You've been a really big help to us," Adam said smilingly as he took the notepad.

"You're most welcome, son." The man returned Adam's smile and adjusted the thick glasses on his nose. "Good luck with that game of yours. Be careful, too. I don't understand why your club needs you two to go there – it's a very secluded area and who knows who hang around there. And by the time you two arrive there it will be around eight. You should take a taxi if you have some cash with you."

Adam nodded. "Maybe we should. Thanks again. Goodbye, mister." He walked towards JD with an eager smile.

"Looks like you've got it." JD jerked his eyebrows up once to emphasize his question. He offered the Coca-Cola he was holding towards Adam, who took it without much thought and drank from it before handing it back to him.

"Not sure whether it's _the_ warehouse we're looking for, but the man said that it's the only abandoned warehouse around here, so I think we should check it out." Adam showed his cousin the rough map. "But we should get a taxi…it's getting real late." He looked up at the darkening sky with a grimace.

JD nodded and took out Adam's cell phone, which he'd been holding with him while Adam asked around for locations. "Let me call Manny and Gayathri and have them meet us here. Then we can hail a cab and go there together."

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 40 – DigiWira in Distress, Part III**_

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"This is it." Adam looked around the dark vacant surrounding. A kilometer behind them was the mosque where the man had told him, and way further the mosque was the shops. Where the four of them were at right at that moment was at the roadside of a very empty road. The four DigiWira looked at the lightless Bukit Dahlia, with aid only by the moon. "It looks kinda creepy."

"Don't be such a baby." JD stepped by his cousin and squint his blue-green eyes to get a clearer look at the hill. It was a rather large, somewhat flat hill. He could only see trees from where they were standing. And although he wasn't looking at Adam, he knew that his cousin was glaring at him due to the comment, but chose to ignore it. "I don't see any warehouse. Trees are rather thick though, you could probably hide several dead elephants inside and still people won't notice."

Manny took out his Juara Digivice and activated the digital map. The four DigiWira held their breaths when they saw that they were close to Liu Ying's Digivice signal. The scanning scale was the most narrowed down scale so they knew that Liu Ying couldn't be that far off. The warehouse inside the hill would be the one where the kidnappers were holding her.

"Think we should call the police?" Gayathri fidgeted, looking around them. Nobody was around – the area was deserted.

"Nah. What for? We can handle this," JD said confidently. "Those kidnappers won't stand a chance against the four of us."

"But remember, Youkomon told us that one of the Darkshadow Brethren generals is waiting for us," Manny cautioned. "I still don't understand how the kidnappers manage to work together with the Darkshadow Brethren."

"Maybe they are under a spell like you guys," Gayathri suggested, and squirmed upon seeing that both Manny and JD tensed at the comment. "Sorry…I was just stating a fact."

"It's…alright." Manny shook his head. "And you might be right, Gayathri."

JD cracked his knuckles and gave a low growl. "Well, spell or no spell, that's no reason to…" His words died down when his gaze fell on his cousin, and he was reminded once again of the ugly fact that _he_ had kidnapped Adam once while under Karatenmon's spell. "I mean…we still have to save Liu Ying, so let's get moving."

"Do you think we should Digital Access before going there?" Gayathri asked.

"Not here. We might be seen." Adam gestured towards the hill. "We'll Digital Access there. The trees are thick enough to provide cover."

It took the DigiWira ten minutes to reach the foot of the hill and they followed a narrow, somewhat steep, paved road up. For a while, they walked in silent anticipation, not knowing what to expect. All the while, Manny had the holographic map displayed and they saw that gradually the four dots were getting closer and closer to the single yellow dot. JD, being the eldest and the largest of all, led the walk and the other younger DigiWira suddenly bumped onto the blonde's back when he suddenly halted.

"Look." JD pointed forward. Several meters in front of them were a closed rusty gate with wire fences. The road widened behind the gate into a paved clearing and an old-looking warehouse stood there silently, dark and mysterious under the pale moonlight. Details of the warehouse couldn't be seen as shadows loomed from the bare stone prominence set right behind it. Large piles of moldy broken furniture could be seen at the corner of the gate. A small truck with flat tyres and rusty paint was parked by the furniture piles, obviously abandoned for years.

"It seems deserted." Adam walked past JD to try opening the gate. He pushed the gate and it moved with a loud creak. "It's unlocked…how odd."

"You think they're waiting for us?" Gayathri asked nervously. "This might be a trap."

"If it's so, then we better Digital Access." JD took out his Digivice and looked at Adam. "Do the honor, Adam."

The DigiWira leader nodded and together they raised their Digivices, and were about to press the buttons which would release their partners, before a piercing sound came from out of nowhere and four thin lasers shot towards their Digivice, forcing the DigiWira to let them go. Alarmed, they turned up and saw two Duskmon standing on top of the stone prominence behind the warehouse, eyes shining red with deadly force.

"I'll take your Digivices, kiddies." A sly voice appeared from the shadowed part of the warehouse. The DigiWira turned sideways and saw a black-haired man wearing a black tank top and dirty black jeans, with tattooed arms and his right shoulder bandaged with bloodstained cloth. The man looked at them with a scowling and sneering face. The DigiWira were about to bend down to retrieve their Digivices when the sound of a clicking gun made them freeze. "Ah, ah, ah…don't move a muscle, DigiWira. Or you'll taste the gun. Put up your hands where I can see them."

Hesitantly, the DigiWira did as they were told and watched as the man with the gun sauntered towards them. The Duskmon on the hill leaped down and landed silently behind the man's back.

"Who are you?" JD barked, glaring at the man.

The man chuckled as he halted, staring at the tallest DigiWira who looked as tall as him at six feet height. "Riley Lau, and I'm the one who kidnapped your dear friend Miss Chang." Sneering, Riley pointed his gun towards JD. The warehouse door sprang open and two men walked out from it. One was a bald guy with a portly beer-belly, wearing a dirty white singlet and dark pants. The other man was with curly short hair dyed bright orange, wearing a green T-shirt and denim jeans. All of them looked equally as menacing as Riley. "Pick up those flashy little trinkets, boys," he instructed the two men.

"Guys!!" A familiar cry was heard from inside the warehouse. The DigiWira couldn't see past the door where it was so dark, but they recognized the voice anywhere.

"Liu Ying!!" Gayathri gasped. "She's in there."

"Well, duh," Riley snorted. "Where else would she be? You've seen her Digivice signal from your own Digivices."

The DigiWira were bewildered and stared at Riley. How did he seem to know a lot about them?

They watched as the two men were about to collect their Digivices, before JD yelled, "Adam, stop them!"

"Juara Digivices!" Adam immediately vanished in swirls of bright light orbs, and the Digivices disappeared along with him. He reappeared again at a distance with the Digivices in his hand. "I got them!" Adam fumbled with the four Digivices and pressed on the buttons. "Patamon, Access! Penguinmon, Access! Agumon, Access! Floramon, Access!"

The four Rookie Digimon shot out from the Juara Digivices and stood in front of Adam protectively. Their eyes widened upon seeing their partners in danger and their bodies became rigid. Their arms raised up, ready to attack as their eyes were affixed on the man who was threatening their DigiWira partners.

"I warned you," Riley said with a bored tone, and aimed his gun towards the nearest target – JD. A thunderous bang was heard following a bright spark of light, causing Gayathri to shriek in terror. Her scream was amplified and pink spiraling energy waves blasted towards Riley, throwing him off his feet. "What the hell…" he snarled and quickly got back up on his feet. He anticipated seeing one DigiWira dead from the gunshot, but what he saw caused him to swear loudly in disbelief.

JD, who had closed his eyes in reflex upon seeing Riley pointing the gun at him, opened his eyes and saw the gun bullet hovering just a few meters in front of him. The bullet was letting out wisp of gas and a very faint sound indicating that it was still moving, albeit so slowly, as if there was a force was slowing it down from reaching its target. For a moment, he froze wide-eyed before his ears caught a pained grunt coming from inside as the bullet pushed itself towards him, now almost reaching his sweaty forehead. _'Liu Ying…?'_

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Inside, Liu Ying was watching the whole thing and upon seeing Riley pointing the gun at JD she'd quickly summoned her telekinetic power. She didn't have time to think – she only willed her power and hoped that she was quick enough. Now, she was gritting her teeth hard and sweat poured down her face profusely as she used all her energy to attempt pushing the bullet away. It was an arduous task for a speeding bullet was nearly unstoppable – and Liu Ying knew she wouldn't be able to stop the bullet from hitting its target soon. Her power was only slowing the bullet down. Her temples throbbed painfully and she felt that if she gritted her teeth harder they would chip off each other due to the force. _'I can't…hold…on…'_

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"Josh!!" Adam cried out quickly and JD was teleported out of the way just before the bullet regained its momentum – barely missing its intended target and hit a tree instead. JD reappeared beside Adam and soon was followed by Manny and Gayathri, whom Adam had also teleported, taking advantage of the sudden chaos. Everything had happened within the span of less than a minute. Turning around, Adam saw his usually cocky cousin visibly pale under the moonlight. The blonde was visibly shaking all over - a sight which caused Adam to frown with worry. "You alright, Josh?"

JD nodded wordlessly, trying hard not to show how shaken he had been due to the close brush to death he had just experienced. He had faced more dangers before – Karatenmon, Dragomon, the Puaka Generals – a bunch of crooks shouldn't scare him. But then again, the gunshot was real. If it weren't for Adam's and Liu Ying's interferences, the bullet would shot through his head. He would be dead. Thinking about that made him shiver; his knees buckled and he would have fall onto the tarred ground if his cousin wasn't quick enough to support him.

"T-thanks, Adam…" He smiled weakly. "I owe you one."

Adam shook his head. "You don't owe me anything. We're family, and we're friends." He was very relieved that his cousin was alright, but couldn't suppress the strained groan from escaping his mouth as his own knees buckled – JD was bigger than him, and thus heavier. "….heavy…" Hearing that, the blonde quickly straightened himself up.

"Do me a favor?" JD gazed at his young cousin's inquiring face before continuing with a firm, albeit still slightly shaky voice. He snorted in disdain at his show of weakness. "No mentioning this to anyone other than the team, ok?" Adam made a zipping motion over his mouth, and JD let out a strained smile. "Umm…no mentioning about this at all, ok?"

"That'll cost you a tub of Pralines and Creams ice-cream, though," Adam said thoughtfully, causing JD to stare at him in confusion. The sight of a shaky JD was not something he was used to seeing and Adam knew that his cousin needed a gentle prodding to return to his normal self. "And I'm serious. But you can share." He watched as a crooked grin finally appeared on JD's face – and Adam knew that his old cousin was back to normal.

"Fine. Deal."

"Are you ok, Josh?" Agumon asked worriedly as he approached his DigiWira partner. "You scared me back there."

JD flashed his lopsided grin. "Nice to know someone really cares instead of taking advantage of the situation." He gave Adam a fleeting glance and saw his cousin giving him a bemused look.

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Manny and Gayathri, having recovered from the threat quicker, turned their attentions towards the thugs and the Duskmon. They weren't sure of what to do – fighting in their Wira Digital forms was definitely overkill against the three thugs. Penguinmon and Floramon looked more than ready to take on the thugs, but the Duskmon were Ultimates.

Seeing them unsure, Riley and the two thugs laughed as they advanced towards them. Riley stared at Gayathri with a sneer. "You, little girl, are in serious trouble!"

Hearing the threat unnerved Gayathri, but it was Floramon who retaliated to it. _"Rain of Pollen!!"_ The Rookie Digimon sprayed glowing green pollens towards the three thugs. Instantly they sneezed continuously, spewing out curses as Floramon giggled haughtily. "That's what you get for trying to mess with us!"

"Hey, Floramon! Don't hog all the fun!" Penguinmon trotted towards the sneezing thugs – a funny sight, seeing that he was a very stout bird, but it wasn't as funny when one realized what he intended to do. He jumped towards the thugs, landed in between them before spinning around like a spinning top, swinging his flippers furiously. _"Endless Slaps!!"_

The three thugs fell on their back after receiving the onslaughts from the two Rookie Digimon. Manny and Gayathri laughed at the funniness of the situation – they knew that Floramon and Penguinmon were both pretty harmless and that they wouldn't cause fatal injuries upon the thugs. However things turned nasty when they were blasted with lasers coming from Duskmon, sending them tumbling back towards their partners.

"Penguinmon!"

"Floramon!"

The two Rookies were injured, but luckily it wasn't a direct hit – had it been a direct hit it would have hurt the thugs as well, and that was not the Duskmon's intentions. Nevertheless, they were out of commission and Manny and Gayathri were forced to digitize them back inside their Juara Digivices where their injuries would heal slowly. They glanced helplessly towards their friends and saw that Adam and JD were about to merge with their partners. That comforted them – at least there would be somebody who could deal with the Duskmon.

"**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!"**

"Hey, you two – how about taking someone your own size?" Satriamon thrust his arms forward and shouted: _"Shadow Flame Helix!!"_

A fiery orange dragon and a hissing black flaming serpent sped out from Satriamon's outstretched arms and coiled around the two Duskmon. Behind the dragon man, Aldiyamon flew out and released his Radiant Faith, slamming the two Duskmon against the wall. The Duskmon immediately got back up on their feet and let out angered growls as they set their eyes on Aldiyamon and Satriamon.

"Go look for Liu Ying! I'll handle these guys!" Satriamon said. He watched Aldiyamon flying inside the warehouse before turning his gaze towards the Duskmon. The thugs, upon seeing him, had immediately scampered away, save for Riley Lau who stared at him with reddening eyes. "I have a bone to pick with you later," he growled menacingly, basking in the satisfaction of seeing the man squirm. "Hey, Manny, Gayathri, make sure this worm doesn't escape while I deal with these guys. And try stopping those running pinheads too, will you?"

Satriamon sped towards the Duskmon while Manny aimed towards the two running thugs. With a deep breath he released a jet of high-pressurized water from his hand towards the pavement, flooding them with water which caused the two thugs to slip and fell face-on.

"Snotty brats! You all have fallen into a trap!" Riley declared.

Gayathri stared at the man with narrowed eyes. "It's a trap alright…but who caught who?" she shot back with a superior smile. Then, deeming the man as uninteresting to look at Gayathri turned her attention towards Satriamon who took on the Duskmon single-handedly. Satriamon laid a fiery punch upon one of the Duskmon's eye armor, burning it, causing Duskmon to howl. The other Duskmon had its Kris blades slashed by Satriamon's Dragonforce Striker. Before long, it could be decided already that who would end up as the victor. And it seemed that after his close brush of death, the JD half of Satriamon was in the mood for destroying evil Digimon.

Seeing Manny's attention focused on the other two thugs and Gayathri on Satriamon, Riley reached towards his sock and took out a blade hidden underneath it. Grasping it tight, he made a lunge towards Gayathri. "This would wipe the smile off your face, girly!"

Gayathri turned, horrified, and her natural reaction upon seeing a man wielding a blade lunging at her was to recoil and _scream_. In her case, her scream blasted Riley back on the pavement. A faint crack was heard and Riley let out a pained moan as his eyelids fluttered rapidly.

A flaming explosion took place and the DigiWira saw Satriamon standing victoriously with no Duskmon in sight, with the devil-may-care lopsided grin on his face.

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Aldiyamon flew inside and the radiance his wings emitted illuminated the dark warehouse. He instantly saw Liu Ying tied to a chair, struggling to break free. But before he could say something, several glowing red scrolls were blasted towards him from the sides. The scrolls pasted all over Aldiyamon before electrocuting him with scarlet thunderbolts. The exalted knight was instantly weakened and fell on his knees as a dark chuckle was heard. The lights from his wings becoming fainter, Aldiyamon saw the profile of a purple-furred humanoid fox donning a gray monk robe gazing at him with piercing ice blue eyes.

"Greetings, Aldiyamon. Don't worry – those scrolls won't kill you. But I would like to test how far you can take on my _Thousand Curses!"_ Doumon let out blasts of paper scrolls upon the weakened Aldiyamon, but this time around the angelic knight was quick enough to teleport out of sight. Grunting in annoyance, Doumon fired his scrolls in random directions.

"Sneak attack?" Aldiyamon's voice rang out of nowhere. "Two can play that game, Doumon! _Radiant Faith!"_

With Aldiyamon nowhere in sight, Doumon couldn't exactly pinpoint Aldiyamon's location, and thus couldn't avoid a stream of holy energy beam which blasted him from the side. Aldiyamon reappeared in front of the force-field which was containing Labramon. He laughed upon the sight of Doumon without his black monk hat, wanting to irritate the monk due to an ulterior motive.

Doumon snatched his hat and wore it before glaring at Aldiyamon. He aimed a sleeved arm towards the angelic knight and released his Thousand Curses.

Aldiyamon smirked and vanished in orbs of light, causing the paper scrolls to stick on the force-field. "Fooled ya!"

"NO!" Doumon realized his folly as the magic spell in the paper scrolls cancelled the spell of the force-field. The barrier and the scrolls vanished and Labramon was free. Angrily he summoned out a giant paintbrush and drew a purple symbol at rapid pace. He readied himself and caught faint hints of light orbs rematerializing. Quickly he bellowed: _"Talisman of Night!!"_

Aldiyamon, fresh out of his teleportation, was instantly blasted against the wall and crashed through it. Doumon levitated and smirked with malice upon seeing the prone body of Aldiyamon, trying to get up. "Oh no you don't, troublemaker. Have rest. _Talisman of Night!!"_

Aldiyamon screamed as another magical symbol was shot upon him. The symbol burned through his armor and sapped out his power. Having been attacked by the Shaman General earlier, Aldiyamon could not withstand another direct attack. Unrelenting, Doumon continued by firing his Thousand Curses which pasted themselves all over Aldiyamon's body. The scrolls shone with menacing red aura, and Aldiyamon found himself immobilized completely, from head to toe.

"If you're so smart, why not try figuring out how to escape your current predicament, hmm?" Doumon taunted. "Oh, that's right. You can't move. How silly of me. Allow me to assist you in getting up!"

Doumon swoop down gracefully and grabbed Aldiyamon by the neck. Whilst in midair, crackles of electricity shocked Aldiyamon while Doumon laughed as the electric bolts spiraled around his body. The priest-like general looked invigorated as his eyes shone with dark purple aura. "How nourishing," he said with a mocking smile.

A loud snarl was heard as Satriamon jumped in. He saw what Doumon was doing and growled angrily. "Let him go, sucker face!"

"Of course, but NOT until I've drained him of his energy," Doumon said with glee, as Aldiyamon's head limped down. The exalted knight Digimon no longer radiated with pure white light as he usually did.

Satriamon leaped up in blazing flames towards Doumon, only to find himself lambasted by Doumon's Thousand Curses. The scrolls electrocuted him, but Satriamon flexed his body back with a feral roar and his body burst into flames – incinerating the scrolls completely. He landed on the floor with a smirk. "Your hocus-pocus won't work on me, papa fox!"

Doumon narrowed his eyes irritably at Satriamon's remark and threw Aldiyamon towards the dragon man. "Take him then. I have all the power I need."

Satriamon caught Aldiyamon and held the unconscious white knight in a semi-cradling position. A flash of white ensued and Aldiyamon regressed into Adam and Patamon, both unconscious.

"Satriamon, we'll watch over Adam and Patamon," Gayathri said as she and Manny entered the warehouse. "You go and fight Doumon."

Satriamon laid Adam and Patamon gently at Gayathri and Manny. "Take cover in the forests. I have a feeling that things are going to be nasty around here."

"Indeed it will," Doumon chuckled, fixing Satriamon a piercing stare. He stretched out his right palm and a symbol materialized over it. Then he grabbed it as it solidified into metal, and used it as a weapon. _"Talisman Star!!"_ He threw the metallic symbol towards Satriamon, using it as a boomerang.

The Talisman Star bounced away upon contact with Satriamon's golden gauntlet and burst into data. "You call that an attack, you sorry excuse of a general?" Satriamon mocked.

Doumon chuckled. "Perhaps I've underestimated you. You are after all the one who's sent Karatenmon to his doom. It's time for me to get serious." Doumon swung his right arm back and his paw burst with dark purple flames. A smirk crossed his stern face, indicating a dastardly plan in the making. "Maybe this will impress you. _Radiant Faith!!"_

Satriamon gaped in shock upon hearing the attack, resulting in him being blasted by a beam of purple light squarely on the chest. He was sent flying against the wall, but thanks to his armor he wasn't seriously injured. However he was bewildered of the attack Doumon had used upon him. Quickly he scrambled back on his feet, and his armor now sported a small crack in the middle. "That…that was _Aldiyamon's _attack! How the hell did you…"

"Indeed. Having absorbed his power I have gained knowledge in executing his attacks." Doumon raised his arms sideways and a purple firebird burst from his body. "I'm sure you will recognize this attack as well. _Solaris Firebird!!"_

"Shit! _Dragonforce Striker!!" _ Satriamon summoned a fiery red dragon to counter the firebird, but his effort was in vain. Doumon's Solaris Firebird fully overwhelmed the dragon before slamming upon his body. His armor cracked even more and Satriamon was slammed to the wall once again. Clutching his pained chest, he looked up, only to see that Doumon was now wielding a familiar silvery-purple sword. "Damn it…you're not going to use his attack against me, fox face!" he snarled and summoned all his remaining power.

"Oh but I already am using it…" Doumon said haughtily, and raised the dazzling sword of light. _"Heavenstar…"_

Satriamon channeled all his power into his gauntlet, and it blazed with furious, pulsing fire. A low growl escaped his mouth. Inside, JD's thoughts raced. _'You're behind all this all along…you and that son-of-bitch Riley. You're the mastermind behind Liu Ying's kidnapping, and you hurt my cousin. You'll pay for that.'_

"_Dragonforce Striker…"_

"…_GLADIUS!!"_ Doumon slashed the air vertically and caused a dimensional rip. From it a pillar of lavender light burst forth, shooting up through the warehouse's roof before it moved towards Satriamon, who was still energizing his attack.

A flaming dragon snaked out from Satriamon's gauntlet and hovered in front of its wielder. Satriamon swung his gauntlet arm back before making a punching motion, completing the supercharged attack's name. _"…POWERED UP MODE!! HAAAAA!!!!"_

The red dragon roared mightily and streaked towards the incoming pillar of light. It coiled its serpentine body around the pillar and there was a struggle of power as the pillar attempted to move and the dragon stopping it. Before long, the two attacks burst into data particles, blinding everyone around them with a bright explosion of light.

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"Amazing!" Manny and Gayathri gasped at the same time, outside the warehouse. They saw a pillar of light and a red dragon bursting out from the roof and the explosion that ensued thereafter. A soft groan was heard coming from Adam, who was being supported in between Manny and Gayathri.

"Adam…you're awake!" Manny said.

"What happened?" Adam asked with a hoarse voice. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck."

"Nu-uh. Try rabid priest fox," Gayathri said with a smile. Adam smiled weakly at the comment. "Doumon absorbed your power, which caused Satriamon to run amok. They're fighting right now."

"What…what about Liu Ying and Labramon?"

Gayathri pondered about it thoughtfully. "They weren't inside the warehouse. We didn't see them."

"But…I saw Liu Ying – she was tied to a chair!" Adam insisted.

"Adam, we saw you as Aldiyamon tricked Doumon into attacking the force-field he'd surrounded Labramon. So Labramon managed to escape," Manny deduced, laying a hand on his stricken friend's shoulder. "I think Labramon managed to free Liu Ying and they've both gotten to safety using another way. Maybe they're behind the warehouse. Maybe they're looking for us right now."

Gayathri nodded while Adam still looked unconvinced. "Manny's right Adam. We better get to safety too. Come on."

Together they retreated, but in the darkness they couldn't see their way clearly. Their feet knocked over something semi-rigid and they were all thrown onto the floor. A loud howl of pain ensued and the DigiWira sweatdropped. They turned around and saw Riley writhing in pain. The man stirred slightly and opened his eyes, meeting the DigiWira's gazes. Hatred sparked from the man's eyes.

"You…you little banshee!" he shouted at Gayathri. He tried to move but instantly yelped upon the slightest attempt. "My hip…you broke my hip you little bitch! I can't move."

Instantly, Manny and Adam could see Gayathri fuming with anger, and backed away. The DigiWira girl glared at Riley furiously.

"First that trollop comment from Garudamon, now banshee and bitch from you! What's with you bad guys?! I am a DECENT girl with a DECENT background and a DECENT upbringing! You're the immoral one around here you horrible man! You kidnapped Liu Ying, you nearly killed JD and you nearly killed ME! And yet you have the decency to call me such spiteful names when it is you who are the moral-depraved one around here! Just looking at you now makes me sick, _sick,_ SICK!" Every 'sick' said by her was accompanied by a kick on Riley's side, followed by a solid stomp on his right thigh. Riley howled again, spewing out curses amidst his pain. "Serve you right!" she said, and stuck out her tongue.

Manny and Adam looked at each other, both were sweatdropping and were trying so hard not to smile – the sight of their bubbly petite friend trashing a criminal was truly a gem.

Something shining fell out from Riley's pocket. Gayathri blinked upon seeing a familiar golden contraption. "Oh my gosh! That's…"

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Liu Ying and Labramon emerged from the back of the warehouse, having found another exit door. They ran as fast as their feet could carry them, wanting to get to the other DigiWira. Liu Ying's first instinct was to help JD, but then she'd realized that her Digivice was with Riley. She needed to find it first.

When they arrived at the courtyard of the warehouse, they were stopped short upon seeing Gayathri stomping upon a prone figure of Riley. Gayathri was heard shouting at Riley and from the sound of it, she was very upset and angry at the same time. Then she saw Gayathri picking up something, and Liu Ying's heart skipped a beat upon realizing that Gayathri had found her Juara Digivice.

"Gayathri! Manny! Adam!" The duo rushed towards the others.

"Liu Ying! Labramon! You're safe!" Gayathri squealed in relieved delight and the two girls embraced.

To Liu Ying's surprise, Gayathri was crying. "I was so, so worried!" the petite girl said. "Kidnapped! I couldn't believe it when Adam and JD told me about it. I…"

"I'm so glad that you all came for me," Liu Ying said, stopping Gayathri from her ramblings. She smiled gratefully at Adam and Manny who joined the reunion. "Thank you for coming for me."

"You'd have done the same thing for us," Manny replied, returning his friend's smile.

"You came for me when I needed your help the most," Adam said softly, referring to his own kidnapping about a month ago. He smiled slightly. "It's only fair if I returned the favor…but I'd do it anyhow."

"Thank you." Liu Ying nodded and cast a look at the prone figure of Riley, who was moaning softly, seemingly in pain. "What happened to him?"

"Gayathri _trashed_ him," Adam said with a laugh. "You should have seen her. That guy suffered a broken hip from what I gather, courtesy of one supersonic scream. And as if _that's_ not enough he also has received _three _kicks and a stomp."

"I saw that." Liu Ying shook her head amusedly at the now-blushing Gayathri. "It was…rather funny, actually. What did he do to you?"

"Umm…he called me some names which I don't appreciate." Gayathri's expression was sour. "And he tried to kill me, and almost killed JD! He kidnapped you. In my opinion he totally deserves that broken hip of his _and more_!"

Liu Ying's expression darkened. "That reminds me…" She walked towards Riley and knelt beside him. The thug sensed a presence by his side and turned to face Liu Ying who was glaring at him with a deadly expression. The thug's eyes widened and he gasped in shock.

"YOU! How…how did you…" Before he could finish his sentence, Liu Ying slapped him loudly on his right cheek. Riley sputtered out some saliva and choked in shock.

Growling softly, Liu Ying stood up and with a glare at the man who had kidnapped her she kicked Riley hard on the hip, knowing only too well that it would only aggravate his injury. She couldn't care less. Her anger returned and tears formed on the brims of her eyes. She swung her arm, causing Riley to double over – making his pain worse. She didn't care, and almost swung her hand again before a strong hand grasped her wrist.

"Liu Ying…that's enough," Manny said softly. He saw the pain-stricken look on his friend. "Don't do this, Liu Ying. You're better than this."

"No!" Liu Ying whisked her hand free from Manny. The DigiWira saw a tear trickling down her face and was surprised of Liu Ying's sudden mood change. She swung her hand and Riley was sent tumbling several meters away. "You don't know him! He…he planned this for years! All because he wanted to set his brother free…" Liu Ying stared at each DigiWira. "His brother was the one who killed my father." The DigiWira gasped upon hearing the revelation. Another tear fell from Liu Ying's cheek – she had struggled so hard to keep her emotions in check that day, and they all now flowed out freely, unrestrained, uncontrolled. "He planned to extort a ransom of two million ringgit from the Deputy Prime Minister because he knew that Dato' Sulaiman Daud would pay up. My father died protecting the Dato', and this…this ANIMAL planned to exploit this knowledge for his own personal gain. He even made a pact with Doumon to make sure he gets what he wants, and Doumon took advantage of this to lure all of you here. He…he doesn't deserve to live."

Liu Ying trembled and tears flowed freely from her face. Seeing that, Gayathri rushed forward and pulled the taller girl in an embrace, soothing her. That only caused the usually composed girl to sob on Gayathri's shoulder. Labramon whimpered and slumped down, fully affected of her partner's furious waves of emotions.

"Liu Ying, don't let your anger get to you," Adam said with a low but firm voice. "I did the same mistake and you know what happened."

Liu Ying's crying halted and she looked up, seeing Adam looking so desolate. She hiccupped twice and slowly pulled herself back together. Gayathri took out a tissue from her pocket and offered it to her, which she accepted graciously to wipe her tears.

"It's now only a matter of time before Satriamon beats Doumon and we all can go home," Adam said encouragingly. "Let justice deal with Riley and his goons."

"I'm afraid that it won't be that easy, DigiWira!" A cold voice echoed in the middle of the night.

The DigiWira and Labramon looked at the warehouse and saw Doumon emerging from the roof, holding a limp Satriamon on the neck. They gasped as Doumon threw Satriamon carelessly on the roof. The unconscious Satriamon slid down the steep roof and nearly crashed onto the ground if it weren't for Liu Ying's timely intervention. She lowered Satriamon on the ground, and the dragon man devolved into JD and Agumon, both knocked out. The fallen duo was then teleported by Adam close to them.

"I have Satriamon's and Aldiyamon's powers now!" Doumon declared with glee. "All of you are at my mercy once and for all!"

"We won't let you win!" Liu Ying said, staring at Doumon defiantly. Her tear-brimmed eyes shone with sheer determination.

"What can you do to me?" Doumon taunted. "With the powers of fire, darkness and light complimenting my own magical skills, I am invincible! The Darkshadow Brethren shall be victorious and the Master will be set free from his imprisonment!"

"You're forgetting that my partner and I can still stop you!" Liu Ying said, and her body burst with yellow aura. Labramon barked her agreement and she too glowed with the same aura.

_**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAA!!**_

In a flash of golden light, Liu Ying and Labramon vanished and Xianamon stood in their place. The ethereally beautiful sorceress levitated to the sky and set herself in fighting pose. She was still radiating with the same golden aura that her composite forms had generated prior to her awakening – making her appear even more impressive amidst the dark moonlit sky. She was like a beacon in the darkness.

Doumon snickered as he summoned Satriamon's Dragonforce Striker Gauntlet on his left arm, and wielded Aldiyamon's Heavenstar Gladius Sword with his right hand. The two powerful weapons radiated with flames and light, both dark purple in color as Doumon charged towards Xianamon.

"_Dragonforce Striker!! Heavenstar Gladius!!"_

A fiery purple dragon and a wave of lavender light were shot towards Xianamon. Immediately the sorceress countered with her Diamond World Mandala but the magical energy waves were consumed by the combination of the attacks. Xianamon soared towards the sky and evaded the furious waves of power, which caused a massive explosion as they slammed against the hill in front of the warehouse. Trees were uprooted, some destroyed. A fire soon erupted from the forests as the result of the explosion.

"These new powers are absolutely amazing! Here! Take on these, witch! _Shadow Flame Helix!! Solaris Firebird!!"_

Xianamon gasped and tried evading the dragon, the serpent and the firebird that were heading her way. She managed to do so but the flame-based techniques caught on some more trees and the fire was aggravated even more. She could hear the DigiWira coughing as smokes became thicker.

'_He is as strong as two people now. And there is only one of me…'_ Xianamon thought despairingly. The golden aura around her body intensified and the black eyes on her fox mask shone with yellow lights. She felt herself astral-projecting without her will, and gasped upon seeing an exact copy of herself now standing beside her. The only difference was the garbs – the other Xianamon's outer garb and fox mask was periwinkle blue instead of light yellow.

"What happened?" Xianamon thought out loud.

The second Xianamon smiled. "You said that there was only one of you and Doumon had the power of two Digimon. So…here I am." The second Xianamon had a lighthearted approach in speaking, contrasting to the formal way of speech Xianamon usually cultivated. "Your desperation gave birth to a new attack – the _Duo Focus_. It's an evolution of the astral projection power, only that instead of projecting your spirit out of your body, it duplicates you instead, and you get yours truly. So now, I think we're more than able to kick some old priest's butt! After all, two heads are always better than one!" Xianamon II giggled and shot towards Doumon.

Xianamon stared at her blue-garbed replica incredulously, but decided to process the new information later. Quickly she followed her clone.

Meanwhile, the DigiWira were staring at the sudden turn of event with awe.

"Whoa…check out Xianamon!" Adam said in disbelief. He was sitting in a kneeling position, with the unconscious JD's head supported on his thighs. Agumon had already been digitized back inside JD's Juara Digivice for the dinosaur Rookie to heal.

"You mean _Xianamons!_" Gayathri said, her eyes looking back at forth from Xianamon and Xianamon II.

"Amazing!" Manny said simply.

"Hey you! Yeah, you! You with the forever-sulking face!" Xianamon II hollered, waving her fly whisk frantically to draw Doumon's attention. Doumon looked up, and Xianamon II grinned. "Now that I've got your attention – take this, you brazen old coot! _Matrix World Mandala!!"_

Similar to Xianamon's Diamond World Mandala, the Matrix World Mandala also generated an ancient magical rune in the air but it let out burst of white energy wave towards the enemy instead of golden and sapphire, along with ruby-colored projectiles. It slammed upon Doumon, who was too surprised to move, hurling him towards the warehouse. A loud crash was heard, but Doumon reemerged a split second after, looking angry. That however, didn't frazzle the Xianamon clone. She merely looked on with a conspiratorial grin, seemingly waiting for something to happen while Xianamon stared at them, confused.

"Three…two…one…boom!" Xianamon II giggled, and all of a sudden Doumon writhed and contorted in agony.

"What did you do to him?" Xianamon inquired, hovering close to her duplicate.

"Oh, you'll see…" Xianamon II smirked. "Ah never mind, I'll tell you. Our attacks are more or less the opposite of each other. Similar to the fact that I'm Yin and you're Yang. Your Diamond World Mandala can heal your friends while just doing some normal physical damage to your foes. My Matrix World Mandala however attacks the opponent from the _inside_. It'll do some scattering of data inside his body. Kind of like a computer virus. Pretty nifty, eh?"

Xianamon smiled. "It sure is." She decided that it was the perfect time to attack him and flew towards Doumon. _"Jade Needles!!"_

"Pffft. You call that projectile assault? No, no…that simply won't do. Let me show you how it's _really_ done, sister." Xianamon II crossed her arms in front of her body and uncrossed it, letting out shining needle projectiles radiating cold aura. _"Soul Freezing Needles!!"_

The silver needles joined the jade needles as they rained upon the flustered Doumon, pricking and jabbing him on various sites of his body. Doumon shrieked as the Jade Needles poisoned him, slowly sapping his energy away while generating a stabbing pain sensation from the insides. The Soul Freezing Needles however proved to be deadlier – they caused a sudden drop of temperature to a subzero level on the insides. Doumon shivered and immediately summoned the flames from the power he had taken from Satriamon, and the chill subsided. However the flames died away too and Doumon's expression contorted in rage as he realized what was going on. That duplicate Xianamon had corrupted his data composition – rendering him unable to use some of his attacks. It would take a great deal of magical power on his behalf in order for him to resist the lingering effects of his foes' attacks. He summoned his paper scrolls and quickly recited an incantation which would remove the traces of the Xianamon's spells on his body. It worked.

Looking up, he snarled at the two sorceresses and decided to let out all his absorbed power. Lifting his arms he recalled the Dragonforce Striker Gauntlet and the Heavenstar Gladius Sword, before a pair of metallic wings materialized on the black spires he wore on his shoulders. A sinister plan came to his mind.

When he absorbed Aldiyamon's power, he had managed to get a glimpse of the angel's mind and saw another incredible technique which Aldiyamon had been holding back. It was the attack that had nearly destroyed the Puaka Generals, summoned by combining all his techniques into one. It was strong enough to defeat the Puaka Generals in their DNA digivolved Mega form – what if Doumon combined his power and the powers he had absorbed into one? It would probably cause wide-scale destruction on the human world! Doumon liked the idea.

Chuckling darkly, he continued summoning all his powers. His body shook as more power flowed all over his body. Fiery purple dragon, blazing black serpent and lavender firebird swirled around him, roaring, hissing and screeching menacingly. Flames erupted from his entire body. The sword shone bright as a star while the gauntlet emitted bright sparks of fire. Red paper scrolls spun around his body in malevolent rapidness, and his giant paintbrush materialized in front of him, pointed towards Xianamon.

"Now you're going to get it, witches!" Doumon cackled maniacally. "Behold! Aldiyamon's deadliest technique! _FINAL PURIFICATION!!"_

Waves of energy began to burst from his whole body and the two Xianamon braced themselves. But then another unexpected thing occurred.

Doumon suddenly shrieked in pained agony as the overflowing powers refused to leave his body. He fell back and his body contorted in an odd angle in midair. He convulsed horribly, screaming and howling as the flames consumed _him_. The serpent, the dragon and the firebird incinerated his ceremonial outfit and scorched his purple furs. The sword, the gauntlet and the giant paintbrush slammed against his body, inflicting severe wounds. Dark liquid leaked out from the wounds. His paper scrolls, enchanted to attack his enemies, plastered on his body instead, electrocuting him severely. Doumon howled with defeat as he plummeted towards the ground, creating a small crevice upon impact, followed by an explosion.

"What happened to him?" Xianamon wondered in awe as the smokes that resulted from the explosion began to subside.

"Don't know, but you know what they say. If it's not broken, don't fix it." Xianamon II waved her hand airily and beckoned for them to approach the crevice.

The two Xianamon peered above the crevice. Xianamon wrinkled her nose in disgust while Xianamon II giggled. "Hmm…looks like whatever the now-naked priest was trying to do have backfired. He looks weaker than an In-Training now. My work here is done. Ta!" Xianamon II glimmered in faint gold light and her body became translucent and ghost-like before she slowly seeped back into Xianamon's body. It was a fascinatingly strange experience for Xianamon, but she was glad that the Duo Focus technique was unleashed just in time. Sighing with relief she went towards the other DigiWira.

"What just happened there?" Gayathri wondered. "One moment Doumon was going to attack you, and then…he was the one who got attacked by his own attacks. Okay, now I'm getting confused."

"The Final Purification has backfired," Adam explained before Xianamon could reply. He shivered slightly, knowing all too well the reason why the attack had backfired. "It's an attack too powerful for an Ultimate Digimon to handle because it's done by combining all my other techniques into one. Aldiyamon Fury Mode got deleted while executing the attack against VenomDevimon." He grew quiet as Xianamon, Manny and Gayathri stared at him – all of them remembered that fateful day.

"But…as I recall Aldiyamon managed to execute the Final Purification perfectly in our battle with Gulfmon," Xianamon pointed out.

"As Aldiyamon, I've learned how to control it the second time around, but I won't use it unless it's absolutely necessary. The battle with Gulfmon was the first and the last time I used it. I think I can handle the attack when the merged techniques are of my own…but apparently Doumon tried to merge a little bit _too much_ power in his attempt to destroy you. He couldn't handle that much power and it rebounded…which is a good thing," he added as an afterthought with a grin.

"I better finish him off now once and for all." Xianamon headed towards the crevice, peered over it and gasped.

"Xianamon, what's wrong?" Adam called out curiously when he saw Xianamon frazzled.

The sorceress Wira Digital turned around. "Doumon is gone!"

"For good?" Gayathri wondered. "Maybe the strain of that backfired attack finally got to him. Maybe he got deleted silently while we're talking."

"I don't know," Xianamon said, unsure of Gayathri's ideas but more than willing to believe it. It had been a long and tiring day. "I certainly hope so." Xianamon returned to her composite selves – Labramon had gone one step further in her devolution and was now Shaomon.

Liu Ying looked at the three thugs. "Oh no…" she said, realizing something. "They know about us. What if they give away our identities to the press? We'd be exposed."

"I hope that you'll remember that the next time you decide to head to a battle and forget to inform _me_!" A male voice called out, causing the DigiWira to look around in confusion. From the gate, they saw a familiar man running towards them.

"Jackie!"

The digital human plus their computer teacher plus their DigiDestined guardian stopped by them, panting as he tried to catch his breath. He looked at the four teens with an affronted look on his sweaty face. "I'm supposed to watch over you guys! Luckily I managed to find my way here – the fire on the forests plus the Digimon battle had alerted the locals around here. I think I've broken the speed limit while rushing here – I'd probably get a ticket tomorrow delivered to my office. The police and the firemen are on their way here…" Loud sirens were heard approaching from a distance.

"Jackie, what do we do about those kidnappers?" Liu Ying asked urgently. "They know about us…they'll tell the media about us."

Jackie gave the DigiWira a conspiratorial smile. "Not if I can help it."

xxx

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The abandoned warehouse had become a lively place that night. News about Digimon battle and the appearance of the Wira Digital there, and Batu Caves previously, had provided excitement for the townspeople. Policemen scoured the entire warehouse, and some paramedics tended to Riley and his accomplices who were unconscious and injured. Reporters could be seen trying to enter the warehouse premise but they were halted by several burly policemen.

Liu Ying saw that one of the reporters was none other than Rita Kaur, and behind her was her cameraman friend. She was the loudest of all the reporters who demanded to be permitted to enter for her to make a report. Liu Ying turned her head away and tugged at the blanket which was offered to her by a policeman – apparently someone who knew her late father. She was sitting at the back of an ambulance, and looked up to find a kind-faced female paramedic offering her a cup of drink and a bar of chocolate.

"You poor girl. You must be terrified," the paramedic said with pity. "Kidnapped and caught in the middle of all those Digimon battles. It's really lucky that you are not injured. Eat the chocolate, dear; it'll help calm your nerves."

Liu Ying was far from terrified but took the chocolate and the drink anyway to please the paramedic staff. "Thank you."

"If you want anything, just ask any of the medics around. They'll help you. I have to inspect those kidnappers – they're still unconscious."

Liu Ying nodded and watched the paramedic walking away. She wasn't worried – Riley and his gang would not have a single memory of the fact that Liu Ying and her friends were the Wira Digital. Jackie had modified their memories – the benefit of being a digital human – making them forget about their Digimon knowledge. Any trace that would link the Wira Digital and Liu Ying was wiped out from the crooks' memories. As far as they knew, they had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a kidnapping gone horribly wrong for them. Then, Jackie and the other DigiWira had taken off with Jackie's car, while Liu Ying remained there to provide the statements for everything that had happened there. She had told the policemen her part of the story – she was kidnapped by Riley and explained the reasons of the kidnapping, sans the part of luring the other Wira Digital to come to the warehouse. She'd also described in great detail of the battle between the Wira Digital and Doumon, and when asked about the injuries the crooks had sustained, Liu Ying told them that they had been caught in the fire while trying to flee away. The Wira Digital had saved her and had taken off when they were absolutely sure that she was fine and that the authorities were on their way here. Everyone believed her.

A commotion at the gate brought Liu Ying's attention back from her reverie. She saw the police shouting for the undaunted reporters to clear the way as a luxurious Mercedes Benz with tinted windows drove through it. Liu Ying wondered who could be coming when the back door opened and she saw her mother stepping out, followed by her grandfather.

"Mama! Grandpa!" She threw the blanket, jumped down from the ambulance and rushed towards her mother.

"Ying! Oh, oh!" Evelyn Chang was overwhelmed with relief and ran at her daughter. Mother and daughter embraced each other tearfully and Grandpa Chang soon joined the family embrace, glad and relieved to see that his granddaughter was safe. They ignored the camera flashes and the excited chattering from the reporters. Then Evelyn pulled back and studied her daughter carefully. "Ying…are you ok?"

Liu Ying smiled and wiped her tear. "I'm alright. My friends…they came for me," she added with a low voice. "There is Digimon involvement with the kidnappers, but the kidnappers won't remember anything. We took care of that part. It's a plot to get the ransom money, to free the man who killed Papa, _and_ to destroy the Wira Digital."

Evelyn hugged her daughter again in relief; the words Liu Ying had just said flew over her head. She'd have to ask her daughter to give her a detailed story when they were back at their house. For now, she was glad to see her daughter again. She let her daughter go after a few seconds. "Ying, I want you to meet somebody." She beckoned towards a man who stepped out from the back seat. Instantly the reporters were left in stunned silence, wondering why _he_ was there as well with the family of the kidnapped girl.

"The Deputy Prime Minister…Dato' Sulaiman Daud!" Liu Ying gasped in surprise. The reporters by the gate became frenzied and tried to take photos, but they were effectively blocked by the police who immediately took charge of the situation.

"Greetings, Liu Ying. I'm so happy to see you alright," Dato' Sulaiman said, and extended his hand with a warm smile. "Consider me a friend of your family."

"It's an honor to meet you, Dato'," Liu Ying said and took his hand.

They saw the paramedics pushing a wheeled stretcher with Riley on it, and the Deputy Prime Minister beckoned for them to stop wheeling. Riley was already awake and stared at Liu Ying and the Deputy Prime Minister with hate-filled eyes. "So _you_ are Raymond Lau's brother. I'm glad to say that you will be joining your brother in prison soon enough. Evidences are all against you and I will personally vouch for Miss Chang Liu Ying's statements, should it come to that, in order to make sure that your evil acts would not go unpunished." The Deputy Prime Minister's face was set firmly as he mentioned that to the criminal, and one who looked at the man's face would know that this was not just any idle saying. It was a promise that would be carried out.

Riley merely let out a snarl and the Deputy Prime Minister beckoned for the paramedics to take him away.

"Thank you," Liu Ying whispered gratefully, relieved and satisfied that Riley was going to pay for his crimes.

xxx

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"Hey, look." Astamon gestured to the hollow window, where amidst the dark night atmosphere a violet flash of light emanated.

"He's back!" Persiamon rose from the stone seat where she was leisurely relaxing, and was about to go to the window before meeting the figures of Astamon and Shawujinmon. "Hey, out of my way booze-breath! Move aside fish-face. Pure beauty coming through!" She shoved the two Generals aside and peered out of the window.

Shawujinmon fumed while Astamon shook his head as he leaned towards his fellow general. "Don't pick a fight with her. She's got a mouth that can send even Mega Digimon packing. I think _that's_ why she's called the Virago General." The two generals snickered at the joke before joining Persiamon – the hollow window was big enough to fit all three of them.

They all peered out, and saw at the bottom of the step pyramid's stairs laid a battered prone figure that they at first didn't recognize.

"Hey, who's that ugly naked guy?" Astamon said with his slightly tipsy voice. He blinked twice, trying to get a better look at the humanoid with vulpine characteristics. He thought that the fox looked familiar and glanced back at the two columns of blue light which were housing the comatose Rookie forms of the Puaka Generals, gazing at Renamon longer before turning back to look at the seemingly unconscious purple-furred fox in confusion. "Mephistomon's relative maybe?"

"You dolt!" Persiamon smacked the Majin General on the head, causing Astamon to yelp. She turned back to look at the fox and exclaimed with a shocked voice. "That's our friend! It's Doumon!"

The three Generals scrambled out from the hall and rushed down the five hundred steps towards Doumon. Persiamon looked over the Shaman General's severely battered form. Her eyes twitched – she had never seen Doumon without his ceremonial robes and had to admit that Astamon's mistake was understandable.

"You two, take him up!" she ordered the other generals.

From the hall above, Lucemon observed as Shawujinmon and Astamon carried Doumon while Persiamon fussed over them. His icy eyes glowed white, before a smile formed on his pallid face as images of the battle between Doumon and the Wira Digital crossed his mind. _'Looks like you were successful in absorbing Aldiyamon's power, but grew overconfident and the powers backfired on you.'_ An evil smile graced his face as he turned to look at the comatose Puaka Generals. _'You have drained the powers from Satriamon, Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon via their Digivices. That should have rendered them powerless, but when Aldiyamon made his entrance instantly the four were back. That is normally impossible…unless…'_

The Hellion General's eyes returned to normal as he took out a gleaming black gem from his belt. It was shaped like an arrowhead cut in half. His finger trailed the smooth edge of the half-arrowhead gem. _'Grademon has cut the Soul Crystal into half in our battle three hundred years ago – separating it back into the Ivory and Obsidian Gems. I have the Obsidian Gem with me. Grademon is nowhere in this Digital World, but the Ivory Gem must have been passed down to the guardians of the DigiSpheres these past three centuries. No doubt the Ivory Gem is now within the possession of the Wira Digital for they are the heirs of Grademon. The Ivory Gem is always drawn to the power of light…'_

Lucemon smirked as he kept the Obsidian Gem back in his pocket as he walked back to his private chamber when he heard the noises made by his fellow brethren. He walked along a narrow passage, lowering his angelic and demonic wings so that they appeared to be a half-leathery, half-feathery cape. His sharp mind continued its trails of thoughts. _'Once separated the Soul Crystal could never be united. Over the three centuries, their powers would grow. The Wira Digital now are remarkably powerful now that there are five of them. They had troubles fighting Karatenmon and Lilamon when their number was not complete. But they nearly destroyed the Puaka Generals when Aldiyamon ascended to power.'_

'_The Ivory Gem must be powering up the five Wira Digital right now. And I am pretty certain that Aldiyamon has used the Ivory Gem to restore the powers of his friends. I cannot reclaim it back, but…'_ Lucemon smirked again. _'No matter. The Obsidian Gem's power has also grown, and without its lighter twin its power is easily tainted. It will certainly aid us in defeating the Wira Digital. All I have to do is to wait for my team to be complete.'_

xxx

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_Dear Papa,_

_It's been a long and hectic day today. I was kidnapped by Riley Lau – the brother of the criminal who had shot you. He planned to extort money from our family AND the Deputy Prime Minister, and he also wanted to get his brother out from prison. He also has complotted with Doumon – another Darkshadow Brethren general – to lure my friends to where I was held in order to finish us off once and for all. That plan didn't work out, for my friends managed to come to my rescue and I, as Xianamon, managed to beat Doumon. I'm not sure whether he was gone for good – Gayathri said that it had seemed like it, but somehow…I'm not sure. I hope he does. But I have a feeling that this won't be the last time I saw him. _

_Dato' Sulaiman Daud has taken the time to personally come along with Mama, Grandpa and Meng to make sure that I am alright. He really is grateful for your sacrifice. Thinking about that makes me sad, but I know that you're always watching me. And I'm really proud of you, Papa. All the police I've met today know about you and respected you, or at least have heard about you. You are a hero for everyone…and you're my hero. _

_Dato' has invited us to have lunch at his house this weekend. He also has promised that he will make sure that Riley would be sentenced to prison for life, just like his brother. _

_I'll talk to you again tomorrow, Papa. Mama insists that I stay at home tomorrow. I think she's still worried, and I think I'm going to enjoy a day off just to rest. _

_Goodnight, Papa. I love you. _

Liu Ying smiled wistfully as she closed her diary. It was already past midnight and she was lying on her bed. On the large cushion beside her bed, Shaomon could be heard snoring softly. She envied her partner for being able to sleep – all the excitement she experienced that day had made her restless. She couldn't sleep – she was not sleepy at all but her mother had insisted that she'd go straight to bed.

Her cell phone let out a soft music – indicating an SMS. She wondered who would be sending her a message that time of the night. To her surprise, it was a message from one of the DigiWira.

_**Hey. How you doin'? Still awake? Just wondering, that's all. And bored. Can't sleep and Adam's already off to dreamland.**_

Liu Ying contemplated whether to reply to JD's message or not. It was really late. But then again, she wouldn't be going to school tomorrow, and she couldn't sleep as well. And she thought that it was rather nice of JD to ask of her wellbeing. It made her smile.

**I'm ok. Can't sleep as well. What are you doing up at this time of night? Shouldn't you be sleeping by now?**

Less than a minute later, a reply came.

_**Doumon KO-ed me for so long during the battle I can last the whole night without sleep. And I've been up later than this time and still manage to wake up in time to school. Plus I now have a live alarm clock rooming with me. No worries.**_

Liu Ying smiled at the nonchalant reply and typed out a reply. **That's comforting to hear. I'm not going to school tomorrow so I don't have to worry about waking up early. My mother insisted that I stay at home tomorrow. She said I need time to recover.**

_**Really? No school for you tomorrow? Lucky you. Wish I got kidnapped too.**_

She ended up exchanging SMS back and forth with JD for the next three hours.

xxx

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**Author's Notes:**

There you go; the end of the small Liu Ying arc. How are the surprises I've included in this chapter? I think all the DigiWira get their chance to shine in this chapter. I think I have neglected the Digimon a lot, so this chapter kind of makes up for it. Labramon/Youkomon has played her role in alerting the DigiWira, and Floramon and Penguinmon have their moments.

I especially have fun writing the part where Riley Lau gets his just desserts. Serve him right, in my opinion.

I have enhanced Doumon's abilities and have given him the power-absorbing ability, which isn't stated in his profile. But hey, it makes him a deadly enemy.

Along with this update I have also included some snippets of how I came up with Xianamon in my blog. Check it out if you're curious.


	41. Forever Friends

It was in the middle of the night in the Digital World, a clear cloudless night with three half moons. Over the sky, three humanoid figures flew in the air. They seemed to possess wings to aid them in their flight. The one leading the flight seemed to be wearing a rather bulky armor, which shone with green and gold amidst the moonlights. The second was tall and clearly feminine. Flanking the trio's rear, the third was the shortest out of the three. They flew together quietly amidst the middle of the night.

The trio flew towards a mountainside region and descended at a clearing. By this time, it was clear from their profiles that all three of them were females. One of them didn't possess wings – the presumed wings was actually her cloak, which billowed down her back when she stepped foot on the ground. Together they walked, seemed set on their destination.

After a minute of walking, the trio of women reached an opening of a cave. Entering the cave with calm alertness, it didn't take them long before they reached two rock statues which resembled centaurs. The women noted that instead of bearing horse-like features, the centaurs looked more like a bull and a ram.

"Vajramon and Pajiramon, obviously," the smallest of three women said. She glanced at the one standing beside her. "Would you like to do the honor?"

The flowery woman smirked and extended her right arm. The vine that coiled around her arm stiffened into a pointed rapier. She rose slightly over the air and swung her glowing-in-red arm with a strong, firm command of: _"Roses Rapier!" _

The vine-rapier extended towards the two statues, radiating with pink aura and with red energy spiraling around it. It struck the two statues and destroyed them into data particles.

"Greetings, ladies," a dark, deep yet attractive voice said.

The three women whirled around in surprise and saw two figures standing at the cave entrance. Their figures were shrouded in darkness with the faint lights of the night passing beside and above their profiles. A moment later they saw the newcomers' profiles clearer – they were a humanoid feline with flaming red hair and a taller humanoid with angelic and demonic wings. Their hearts skipped a beat upon the sight of the two higher-ups of the Darkshadow Brethren – the Hellion and Virago Generals.

Lucemon gave the women a piercing glare from his ice blue eyes. "That's quite far enough. Your meddling shall stop here," he said calmly.

Persiamon smirked haughtily. "You shouldn't have left your safe haven where you're at your best. Whatever possessed you to leave Lost Mountain and walk the ground with us mere mortals?" she said snidely as her emerald eyes glinted with malice. She brandished her sharp crimson claws and leered at the ladies.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 41 – Forever Friends**_

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"What a quiet week," Adam said as he strolled out of the computer classroom on Saturday afternoon. He felt an arm slung easily around his shoulders and met his cousin's gaze, lazily grinning at him.

"It's getting real boring," JD remarked. He looked at the girl walking by his side and cocked up an eyebrow. "Don't you think so?"

"Boring?" Liu Ying grimaced and adjusted her schoolbag on her shoulders. "It's been a pretty _eventful_ week for me with all the students and reporters hounding me about the kidnapping this whole week. I'd give anything to have a _boring_ week."

"Oh yeah." JD and Adam looked at each other and nodded in understanding.

The news about Liu Ying being kidnapped that Monday had spread like wildfire at the school after it being announced on the news and Tuesday newspapers. Whether it was because she was allegedly rescued by the Wira Digital or that the Deputy Prime Minister was said to be the kidnapper's target, nobody really knew. But for the past three days (she was absent to school on Tuesday) Liu Ying had constantly been hounded by her friends to get details about her kidnapping. And to top all that, reporters also had waited up for her outside the school premise on Wednesday and Thursday, but they were ordered to go away by the school principal who had gotten tired of them calling her office to get her opinions about that matter.

"Anyway…" Liu Ying eyed JD's right knuckle which was currently rested on Adam's right shoulder. It had a medical plaster taped on it. She had to suppress a smile upon the memory of how JD got that small wound on his hand. "How's your hand?"

"Oh, this?" JD grinned. "Don't worry about it. Having a resident first-aid guy living with me helps a lot." At this, Adam chuckled.

"Really, Josh? Just last night, you were whin---_ummph_!" The 'ummph' resulted from Adam's mouth being clasped tight by JD's hand to stop him from speaking. Liu Ying looked at the cousins curiously, JD shrugged with a smile while Adam struggled to remove JD's hand from his mouth. And to Adam's dismay, Liu Ying then shrugged it off as well.

The previous day, when there had been miraculously _no_ reporter hoping to get her story, she had decided that it would be safe for her to walk home. JD however had suggested him and Adam to accompany her, since they came to school by bikes and it would be no problem for them to walk her home. The suggestion proved to be rather well-thought of, as while the three of them walked to Liu Ying's home, two reporters jumped out of the bushes by the playground, intercepting them by surprise. The reporter had been Rita Kaur and her trusty cameraman sidekick Chia. Surprised of the sudden ambush, Liu Ying had been deeply flustered – she was after all kidnapped at the exact same spot. Rita Kaur had pursued her questions relentlessly, then without the restriction from the school principal. However she hadn't count on JD suddenly moving on the cameraman and punched the video camera's lens. The lens shattered to pieces, damaging the whole camcorder as well as throwing the poor cameraman on the ground.

It was a brash attempt from the blond teen to shut the reporters up, but it had worked. They had scampered away instantly.

"Think they'll show up again today?" Adam asked after JD moved his hand away from covering his mouth.

"I really hope not," Liu Ying said with a shudder. She looked around to see whether there was anyone nearby before continuing. "Today, as I've told you, my family and I will be going for a dinner at the Dato' Sulaiman's house," she said with a whispery voice to the two boys.

"That's great," Adam smiled. "It's not everyday you get to dine with an important figure."

"Humph. _We_ are important figures too, y'know," JD said, pointing towards himself. "Too bad only we know that we're important."

Adam and Liu Ying both chuckled at the blonde teen's remark. They were then joined by Manny and Gayathri who had just exited the computer classroom.

"Anything we missed?" Gayathri inquired, seeing her friends laughing.

"Nothing that you don't already know," Liu Ying explained, pointing at JD's hand and made a gesture about the dinner with the Deputy Prime Minister. She had informed her fellow DigiWira about it in advance, just in case that there was a Digimon attack. "So what are your plans for today?"

"Oh…me and the girls are going out shopping," Gayathri said with a smile. "Heard that there's a sale today and it has been a while since I go shopping with them."

The other four DigiWira shared a knowing look and smiled at their bubbly friend, who was known for her love of shopping.

"What are you guys up to today?" Liu Ying asked the three male DigiWira.

"Just hang out," JD said. "Adam wants to learn some of my Capoiera moves and we invited Manny to come along as well."

Manny nodded. "Thanks for inviting me," he said with a smile. He looked at Adam thoughtfully. "If you want I can teach you a move or two which I learned from my Ninjutsu classes."

"That'll be great!" Adam beamed with delight. "I've always wanted to learn some martial arts but I just couldn't find the time."

"I hope nothing goes wrong today," Liu Ying said melancholically and looked at the other DigiWira. "The reason Dato' Sulaiman chose this day to invite us for dinner is because it's been three years since my father's death. My family and I will go to father's burial ground first to pay our respects, before heading to Dato's house."

The DigiWira were quiet before Gayathri empathically reached out and grasped Liu Ying's shoulders. They then separated at the school gate with their plans for the day set in mind.

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"It's been ages since we do this," Belinda Foo said wistfully as she twiddled the sushi on her plate with her chopsticks. "Hanging out together and all."

"I'll say." Gayathri put a small roll of sushi in her mouth as she idly watched the other customers of the sushi bar the three of them were at. Then she eyed the three shopping bags they had placed on one chair – the clothes they had bought for that day at Subang Parade – the town's first shopping complex. Their shopping trip was fun and now they were having a mid-afternoon break, but for Gayathri she felt that the atmosphere between her and her friends were rather tense. Sure, they exchanged jokes and gossips, but whenever she had been looking elsewhere she'd feel her friends gazing at her with what seemed to feel like suspicion. Gayathri didn't know what to make out of it but it made her uneasy.

Dina Fadlullah demurely spooned her miso soup without speaking much, but her eyes caught Belinda's. Gayathri saw her two best friends exchanging looks and wondered what was up.

"Gaya…we've been thinking." Belinda eyed Gayathri directly. "Lately it seems that you were always…unavailable to do the stuffs we usually do."

Gayathri stopped eating; the sushi she was balancing with her chopsticks slipped off and landed on the green wasabi paste. She was caught off guard. "I…I've had something I had to do."

Belinda sighed as she swallowed her sushi. "That's just it, Gaya. Just when did you start using 'something' when you're with us? You're always the one who's not into hiding anything, but we can't help but notice that lately, you seem to have a lot of things to hide from us. What gives?"

"Bel…" Dina said, placing a placating hand on her friend's shoulder. "Calm down a bit."

Bel shot a pointed look at her friend. "Dina, you're as curious as I am. Don't back out now. I think we deserve an explanation of at least – One – what she's been up to lately. This past one month or so in particular. Two – since when did she hang around Chang Liu Ying, Adam Ariff, JD Kamaruzaman and Manny Abah as often as she does with us? The five of you seem…clicked. I don't know why. With Manny or Adam I can at least understand, but also with Liu Ying, and, and…with…_JD_? And three – just _how_ on earth did you manage to be close to JD? I've been trying to get him to notice me for ages and failed, but he seems friendly around you and Liu Ying…not to mention all over his newfound cousin and chummed enough with Manny although they seemed to be enemies at first, according to the gossips. What gives?"

Gayathri took some time to process Bel's questions as she thought of how to answer them without divulging the fact that they were the DigiWira. She wanted so much to tell them, but Jackie had advised against it. She trusted her friends, but she didn't know how they would handle the knowledge. It might scare them off and she didn't want to risk that. But she had to admit that she'd seen this coming. The last one month, ever since Adam had joined the team, her DigiWira commitments had increased so much that she always had no time to spend with her girlfriends. When it was only her and Liu Ying, the Digimon attacks at the Digital World were never too serious and they always were able to take care of it quickly. The gap of the battles had been between two to three weeks before Adam came in. Her life outside of her DigiWira commitments was not affected at all.

But when Adam joined her and Liu Ying, SkullSatamon began releasing his Generals. The threat level they faced instantly increased, culminating in the appearance of Manny and JD as the evil Blue and Red ShadoWira. Battles began taking place frequently, as much as every alternate days in one week if not daily. Gayathri began having troubles coming up with excuses for her best friends whenever she had to miss hanging out with them during the afternoons after school, or shopping trips over the weekends.

After Manny and JD reformed and became DigiWira themselves, the threat augmented even more with the appearances of the Puaka Generals. The DigiWira had found themselves detained in the Digital World for a span of three days as the Puaka Generals focused their attacks on Adam. She had been lucky that her family had been made known of the fact that she was a DigiWira by then, and Anding had been instrumental in covering her disappearance when Dina and Bel dropped by her house, wondering about her sudden disappearance. Unfortunately, the girls had been friends so long that Anding himself had trouble thinking up of believable excuses on her behalf, and those he had given were fairly weak that the girls had doubted about it. It didn't help much that Gayathri too hadn't thought of explaining herself to her friends. The suspicions increased.

And then when peace prevailed momentarily, not even Dina and Bel, but also some of the school populace had begun to notice that the five DigiWira hung out with each other rather often. Just a month before, the five of them weren't seen with each other as they had their own group of friends, but after the fiasco with the Puaka Generals they had forged a bond so tight that they began hanging out with each other naturally. Of course Gayathri still remembered about her friends but even so, Dina and Bel had noticed when she constantly moved back and forth between the two groups of friends she had. It didn't help that Gayathri never really gave them a complete explanation of how she was able to become such close friends with her fellow DigiWira.

"Gaya?" Dina asked soothingly, snapping Gayathri out of her reverie. "It's ok if you don't answer. But I wish you do answer. After all, we're best friends right?" She smiled slightly before continuing, "Do you still remember when we started being best friends?" She asked that with hope that it would diffuse the tenseness of their current situation.

"Of course. We met when we were…Standard Five." Gayathri was confident of her answer but was surprised to see a brief scowl crossing Bel's face.

"No, we've been best friends since Standard _Four_, when we were ten. I can't believe you've forgotten that."

"Bel…come on. It's not like it's ruining our friendship," Gayathri protested weakly.

"Seems like it has," Bel mumbled as she stuck one sushi into her mouth grumpily.

"Bel, that was uncalled for," Dina hissed as Gayathri gasped. "We've agreed to _ask_ Gaya about this, _not_ forcing her to answer. Why are you…?"

"Dina, it's alright," Gayathri cut in quickly. She blinked once, not believing that this day had finally come. She had thought that her active duty as a DigiWira would eventually put a strain in her relationships with Dina and Bel, but never thought that the day would come. She loved her fellow DigiWira, but she also loved her best friends. She was left in a fix – how could she answer them when she didn't know how to do it without divulging the fact that she was a DigiWira?

Her thoughts were stopped short when they heard a commotion coming from the main boulevard of the shopping mall. The ground shook slightly as explosions were heard. People were heard screaming and running around in panic. The patrons of the sushi bar where she and her friends were at stood in panic and some were already exiting the establishment, some out of curiousness and other out of fear and to get to safety. The girls quickly abandoned their meals and clutched their shopping bags, ready to exit the establishment. But while Dina and Bel were heading inside the mall's department store to get to the exit located away from the commotion, Gayathri – with her DigiWira instinct roused – was turning to head towards the boulevard.

A hand grasped her wrist and yanked her away from the boulevard's direction. She spun and met with Bel's glare. "Are you nuts, Gaya? It could be those crazy bad Digimon out there. Let the Wira Digital handle them and let's get out of here!" The tallest of the trio tugged Gayathri's arm towards the department store.

"I want to check it out first. You two get to safety, okay? Here, take my bag." Gayathri then immediately took off towards the boulevard before her friends could stop her. She heard her friends screaming fearfully as the mall shook, calling her back to safety. Part of her wanted to turn back to join them, but she needed to know the situation and contact the boys. Perhaps they could take care of the Digimon threat and she didn't have to reveal herself to her friends.

She reached the boulevard and saw a familiar Digimon whom she hated so much. _'Astamon? Of all the Digimon I have to see, it's got to be him?'_

"_Gayathri, what do we do?"_ Floramon inquired from within the Juara Digivice. _"I can fight Astamon as Fairymon so that you can go with your friends."_

"No, Floramon. Astamon's way too powerful for you. Puspamon's the best bet we have now but if I merge with you Dina and Bel will notice that I've disappeared. I'll have to call the boys."

Gayathri took out her cell phone from her handbag. She flipped open the phone and was about to dial Manny's number when she heard familiar voices.

"Gaya! What on earth are you thinking? It's dangerous out here!" Bel called out. Trailing her closely was Dina, looking aghast.

"AHA! It's you!" She turned her attention back towards Astamon upon hearing his triumphant exclamation. Her eyes widened upon seeing the Majin General approaching her with his hands stuck inside the inner part of his suit. A lecherous grin made him look even more hideous and Gayathri felt compelled to release Floramon and Digital Access into Puspamon so that she could blast the Digimon away. She was even feeling tempted to dart away with her super speed or scream her lungs out; anything to deter the general.

But she couldn't. Not when Dina and Bel were around. What would they think about her?

Thus she froze on her spot, unresponsive of her friends' frantic screams for her to run away from the menacing Digimon. She was about to do just that when her vision was obscured by what looked like golden dusts. She saw Astamon already thrusting his hand towards her and realized that the Digimon was the one who'd thrown the dusts at her. Feeling her head spinning, she spun around to warn her friends to get away when to her horror; she saw both of them slumped on the ground. Then her own vision blurred before she felt a hand caught her falling body.

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Feeling her eyelids heavy and a mild headache, Gayathri had to force herself to open her eyes when she heard a suppressed sob. That alerted her instantly and she saw Dina and Bel, both tear-stained and looking absolutely horrified, huddled to each other. They saw that she had woken up and immediately went to her.

"Oh, Gaya, it's so horrible here." Dina was the first to speak, her voice stricken and quivering. Her usually neat hair was slightly disheveled, and her face was tear-stained and slightly marred with dirt. Her clothes, usually neat and pristine, were dusty. "These…creatures and horrible monsters…"

Bel was sitting, looking horrified. Her condition was no better than Dina, and Gayathri supposed that she wasn't faring any better too. She felt bad seeing her two best friends here with her – she'd rather be captured alone because she knew who she was up against. And if she was alone she wouldn't be restricted. But that wasn't possible now so Gayathri quickly sit up and assessed her surrounding.

They were currently held captive inside a cave, apparently, judging by the dim light, narrow walls and low stone ceilings. A dark yellow semi-opaque force-field was erected to prevent them from escaping. Through the force-field Gayathri could see that across the cave another force-field had been erected with three females – apparently adults – were being held. But on a closer look Gayathri saw that the women were dressed rather oddly to pass as humans – two of them even had wings. One of the winged women was donned in heavy green armor while the other was garbed in a warrior-like outfit. The third woman was a flower woman in red leather and green cape. One thing all three of them shared in common was the fact that they were all wearing identical thick plain gray collar around their necks. They had their faces obscured, as all humanoid Digimon usually was, but it was plain obvious that they were greatly weakened. They looked like they had been detained for days.

'_They're Digimon,'_ Gayathri deduced silently.

Two shadows appeared from where the light came from. Gayathri held her breath, but sighed with relief upon seeing that they were the Duskmon. Two of them. _'Good, no sign of Astamon.'_

Seeing the Duskmon and the feminine Digimon, Gayathri realized that she must now be at the Digital World. But why would Astamon capture her and her friends? Gayathri groaned lowly as a suspicion of Astamon's reason of capturing her came to mind – the demonic Digimon was pretty enamored by Puspamon. Looking at the three women, she wondered whether they were caught by Astamon as well. All three of them were beautiful females.

A choked sob pulled Gayathri's attention back to her friends. She realized that if it weren't for them chasing her they wouldn't be here, detained, scared out of their wits. She decided that she needed to comfort them. She groaned – her D-Terminal was in her handbag and her handbag was not with her. She only had her Juara Digivice. She could release Floramon but decided against it for now. If her friends were threatened she would not hesitate to Digital Access, but for now she decided that she'd hold out as far as she could.

'_We've found Liu Ying from the signal of her Juara Digivice when she got kidnapped. Surely the guys can find me here too.'_

With that thought etched in her mind, she crept towards Bel and Dina and tried to comfort them.

"We should have run away to safety," Bel said slowly. She sounded scared and lost at the same time.

"I know," Gayathri said softly. "I'm so sorry…it's because of me you two are captured as well."

"Don't say that," Dina said, wiping her flowing tears. "It's not your fault. You were just curious. We chased after you because you're our friend. You're our best friend. We couldn't just leave you there."

Gayathri was touched by Dina's comment and momentarily was tongue-tied. Then she gave a warm smile at the distraught girl and pulled her close in a half-embrace. _'I really wish I can tell you about us, but we've agreed to keep this as a secret.' _

"Why are you so calm, Gaya?" Bel asked amidst her own silent sobs. "Aren't you scared? We're in the middle of who-knows-where and you're not freaking out at all."

Gayathri wasn't scared. Puspamon could easily take care of the Duskmon should they attempt to harm her or her friends. But saying that out loud wouldn't be a good idea. Thus, she gave Bel and Dina a firm grasp on their hands and smiled. "We're in this together. I hope the Wira Digital will get here soon. They'll save us, I'm sure. That's why I am not scared." She then gave a gentle nudge for both girls to rest their heads on her shoulders, hoping that it would calm them down.

"Why are you still so nice to me? I was rotten to you back at Subang Parade," Bel said with a low voice. She looked up at Gayathri. "I shouldn't be so suspicious to you. You must have your reasons."

"I'm not blameless either for that," Dina murmured. "We're sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize, girls. I'd have done the same thing you two did if one of you acted like I've been doing. I wish I can explain it to you, really I do. It's just that…." Her voice trailed off upon seeing the two Duskmon stopping in front of their force-field prison. She felt her friends tensed up, heard them gasp in fear and quickly squeezed their shoulders comfortingly while glaring back at the Duskmon. The Duskmon returned her gaze dispassionately. _'If you don't move away right now…'_ she willed with her mind, and to her surprise the Duskmon moved away. Dina and Bel were trembling and Gayathri hoped that the others would come to their rescue in time.

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JD skillfully made a back flip before spinning around and delivered a perfect flying kick with a loud fighting shout. Then he bent down and touched his right hand on the ground, propelling his body up in a 45 degrees angle with only his right hand firmly planted on the ground for support. Another back flip ensued followed by a backward cartwheel before he stood up, sweaty and with a smug expression on his face.

"Show off," Adam muttered with a smile at his cousin. His words however betrayed the impressed look radiating from his face.

"With skills like that, he has the right to do that," Manny murmured as he took a sip of his mineral water.

Adam leaped down from the table where he was sitting and approached his cousin, handing a small red towel at him. "You're going to teach me those incredible moves?" he asked hopefully.

"That and more," JD said as he took the towel and wiped his face. He threw a grin at Adam before asking. "How come you didn't ask me to do this earlier? It's almost a month since you moved in with me. I could have taught you this from last month and you'd be a pro by now."

"Umm…" The dark-haired boy looked away from his cousin's inquiring face for a moment, mildly embarrassed about the question. "I was…shy, I guess."

JD snorted. "Shy? With _me_? What on earth for? Remember I told you about this shy-nonsense? It's not like I'd say no. I could use the practice too." Adam smiled sheepishly and JD shook his head, remembering that every now and then Adam still had his reservations. Despite one month had passed since Adam moved in with his family, the younger boy still was in the process of getting used to his new life.

The three DigiWira were currently at the park close to JD's house, and as they had mentioned earlier, the more skillful JD and Manny were showing Adam some of the martial arts moves they had learned from their trainings, as per the youngest out of the three guys had requested. Adam had no real training other than some moves which his late brother had taught him, and since he had committed himself to the first aid society at school he wouldn't be able to join any of the martial arts clubs at school. Thinking that having at least some basic skills in martial arts would improve his fight when he and Patamon were Aldiyamon, Adam had asked the two former ShadoWira to teach him some of them.

"Where and when did you learn Capoiera, JD?" Manny asked.

"I started when I was about six. It's something I picked up when I was still at Australia," JD answered easily. "A guy lived across the road was doing his moves one day and I happened to be outside when he did that. Got curious and I asked him about it. Turned out he owned a dojo downtown. You can guess what happened next."

"So you've been doing this for ten years already," Adam said. "Wow. No wonder you're so good in this."

JD gave Adam a lopsided grin before looking at Manny. "When did you start with Ninjutsu?"

"Form One," Manny answered. "There was a Ninjutsu Club at my old school and like you, I got curious about it. So I signed up." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully before continuing, "I'm actually pretty much a novice in Ninjutsu because I was more active in the swimming club then. There's not much I can share with you two."

"At least you can share something. I have nothing to give but a lot to learn from you two," Adam mumbled. "I didn't even master the few Silat moves my late brother taught me…" He became silent for a moment, looking slightly downcast before shaking his head off with a sigh.

JD, knowing that Adam had inadvertently touched a sore spot, quickly interjected with a pat on Adam's shoulder: "Capoiera, some basic Silat andNinjutsu, and the power of teleportation…those are pretty potent combination to make up a formidable fighter."

Adam blinked twice before scratching his head. "I never thought of it that way, actually. I just want to be ready should any Digimon would engage me in a close physical combat instead of just blasting them with some power attack and then teleport away. The Radiant Faith technique works well in a close combat – we tried that once with Mephistomon. But thinking about it now, I think that our move was pretty clumsy compared to how the two of you handle yourselves when you're Satriamon and Samudramon."

JD nodded and grinned lopsidedly. "No worries. When we're done with you, you should be a good enough fighter."

"So…we start now?" Adam asked eagerly.

JD and Manny exchanged looks before focusing their attentions at Adam. "Know what? Let's start with some basic stretch I showed you last night. Then it's chin-ups, push-ups and sit-ups."

"No moves?" Adam asked, sounding somewhat disappointed.

JD chuckled and flexed his left arm, causing his biceps to bulge. "Your hands are used to support your movement and weight, so a pair of strong arms will really help." Amused of seeing the crestfallen look on his cousin's face, he added with a pat on Adam's shoulder. "We'll do that, and then we can proceed with one of the basic Capoiera moves. Sound good?" Both Adam and Manny agreed instantly.

And so for the next one hour the three DigiWira boys enjoyed themselves with the basic first step of Brazilian art of dance-fighting, accompanied by the upbeat tempo music which was blaring from Adam's cell phone. They would have gone for another step when their D-Terminals beeped, alerting them immediately. Adam took his D-Terminal and read the message relayed by TobuCatmon as the other two boys loomed over him to take a look at the message as well.

_DigiWira, I have detected a strange emergence from your home world to the Digital World recently. However something is blocking the Sun Staff from displaying it wholly. I think it would be best for you to investigate about this, if you are not doing anything. I have not alerted the girls, as Liu Ying has said that she has a meeting with someone important and Gayathri is going out with her friends. _

_Signed, TobuCatmon._

"The message's pretty vague," JD noted. "Think we should check it out?"

"Maybe we should take a quick look just to make sure everything is ok," Adam decided. "With the Darkshadow Brethren around we can't be too sure."

"TobuCatmon won't call us if there's nothing," Manny agreed.

JD nodded. "Then we better go back to my house – our Digimon partners are all there."

The three boys returned to JD's house and saw their partners were currently engrossed with the Playstation 2 videogame in JD's room. Penguinmon looked angry as Patamon seemed to be defeating him – the former having wings for hand didn't help him much in using the player controller, and Patamon's front feet served equally well as hands. On the sidelines, Agumon, Salamon and Gatomon watched the two players whilst cheering for the ones they were rooting for. Agumon, with claws as hands, couldn't play the game as well so he pretty much settled in cheering role. All Digimon looked up when the three DigiWira barged in the room.

"Anyone up for a trip to the Digital World?" Adam asked. "It's nothing serious from the way TobuCatmon sounds in his message, but we think it might be best if we take a look."

"Thank goodness. I'm up! I'm done playing anyway!" Penguinmon huffed in disgust as he placed the controller down. His early instinct was to throw it but he didn't want to risk JD's wrath upon him.

"No, he's done playing because I've beaten him twenty-five to zero," Patamon said. Penguinmon stuck his tongue out towards the bat-winged hamster.

Everyone approached JD's computer and booted it on. Suddenly JD let out a groan and took a few steps. He was clutching his stomach.

"Uhh…you guys go ahead first."

Adam glanced towards JD. "Something wrong Josh?"

"Nothing. Nature calls, and from the feels of it, it's gonna be a while." JD grinned sheepishly and fetched his towel. "I'll join you two later ok?"

"We'll call you if we need you, then."

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xxx

Aldiyamon and Samudramon appeared within showers of white orbs at a clearing leading towards a reddish-gray mountain region. Vegetations were rather scanty and the sky was a faint shade of purple, marking that they were now at one of the nether regions of the Digital World – parts were usually best left untouched. But TobuCatmon had mentioned of a strange activity taking place here. The two Wira Digital approached the mountain cautiously and halted when they saw two Duskmon guarding an entrance to a cave. Quickly they took cover behind a large rock and peered out.

"Duskmon!" Aldiyamon whispered. "TobuCatmon's right. Something strange is going on here."

"They're not the only ones around. Look up there." Samudramon pointed upwards and they saw two Velgemon perched on the mountain peaks. Then something stirred from the back of the mountaintops and a black hulking avian figure emerged. Coated in darkness, it was a great bird with raven-colored feathers tipped with violet. The armor coating its beak and face was gold and so was the pestles mounted on its wings. But the most peculiar feature the bird had was the fact that it had _three_ legs instead of two. The Wira Digital quickly ran a scan on the avian to get its facts.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Yatagaramon__**   
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Vaccine type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Mikafutsu No Kami – **__Yatagaramon channels the power from the pestles on its wings towards his third leg and fires a data-breaking beam towards its enemy._

_**Haguro – **__Yatagaramon blankets its surroundings in darkness with the black light emitted from its wings._

_**Guren Tsume – **__Yatagaramon ignites its claws with flames to attack the enemy._

_**Guren Dama – **__Yatagaramon unleashes fireballs from the cobalt pestles on its wings._

xxx

"With these many Digimon at the entrance, the Darkshadow Brethren must be guarding something inside the cave," Samudramon deduced carefully.

"I can teleport inside the cave and have a look inside there," Aldiyamon offered. "We won't have to engage them in a fight."

"I don't know if that is such a good idea," Samudramon said. "There might be…oh, no. Not him again."

The Wira Digital saw a humanoid materializing outside the cave, and Aldiyamon noticed that Samudramon seemed to have encountered this Digimon previously. He hadn't met this Digimon but had heard of him. Instantly both Wira Digital became wary – if a Darkshadow Brethren member himself was present here, something important must be inside the cave. The two champions of good exchanged glances and reached an unspoken agreement as they watched Astamon adjusting his suit and sash.

"Wonder how my pretties are doing right now?" They heard Astamon spoke to himself as he entered the cave.

"I don't like the sound of that," Samudramon groaned. Aldiyamon gave him a questioning look which prompted him to elaborate. "The first, which was also the last time Puspamon and I met Astamon, he called Puspamon 'sweetheart'. I don't know whether he's like that with all girls, or just Puspamon." The now-humanoid merman's mouth was set thin, looking absolutely tensed.

"Well, he said 'pretties', meaning that there's at least more than one girl inside the cave," Aldiyamon pointed out.

Terrified screams echoed out from the cave. "That confirms it," the white knight said. "Astamon's holding at least two girls hostage inside there. We've got to save them."

"I'll go inside," Samudramon said immediately. "I've seen how Astamon fought – I can battle him. Can you take care of the Digimon outside?"

"Sure thing. I've taken five Velgemon before. I can handle it." Aldiyamon held on Samudramon's wrist. "We'll teleport at the entrance of the cave and you go in while I ambush those Duskmon from the back."

A conspiratorial smile appeared from Samudramon. "At the Batu Caves, I've discovered that the Duskmon are pretty much weak against water. I'll give you a head start so that you only need to take care of the Velgemon and Yatagaramon."

Aldiyamon grinned. "It's a deal."

The Wira Digital teleported over the entrance, and the lights generated from Aldiyamon instantly alerted the Duskmon about their arrival. The two brutes turned around, but before they could do anything they were blasted with Samudramon's Deep Ocean Submerge, which drowned them. Samudramon had been right – the water attack had incapacitated the Duskmon almost effortlessly and with another blast of the same attack they were deleted. Angered squawks were heard coming from the sky and Aldiyamon stepped out from the cavern's entrance while Samudramon entered the cave.

The royal angel spread his wings and saw the giant figure of Yatagaramon, flanked on each side by a Velgemon, looming over him. Quickly he summoned his Heavenstar Gladius sword and readied for battle.

xxx

xxx

"_Hello, my pretties…enjoying your stay here?"_

Samudramon quickened his pace along the caves as he heard the echoes of Astamon's leering voice. He was at a clearing and saw a narrow corridor up ahead. Faint light seemed to emanate from it and Samudramon could make out a distinct shadow of Astamon on the stone walls. However he was stopped short upon hearing a quivering fearful voice which responded to Astamon's taunt.

"_Gaya….what horrible monster…"_

'_Isn't that Dina's voice?'_ Samudramon wondered in surprise – his human half easily recognized the voice as Dina Fadlullah was his classmate. But the name Dina had spoken had caused him to gasp softly. _'And Gayathri's here too? What is going on here?'_

He crept along the corridor, careful not to make a sound. The corridor led him to a ravine which was blocked by wooden banisters and over them; something was glowing from below, casting eerie shadows over the cave's ceiling. Approaching the banister, Samudramon peered down and saw a small circular clearing underneath, lit by several torches hung on the walls. Astamon stood at the middle of the clearing, laughing gloatingly towards a semi opaque force-field glowing with green hue. Inside the force-field, to Samudramon's surprise, were Gayathri, Dina and their friend Belinda Foo. The merman Wira Digital saw another force-field set opposite the one containing the girls, with three humanoids imprisoned within it. All of them were female and they looked like they had been drained out of their energies from the way they slumped at the floor.

'_How did they get here?'_ Samudramon wondered.

'_Will you stop with all the questions so that we can go down there and rescue your girlfriend?'_ Penguinmon shouted shrilly inside their joined minds, causing Samudramon to wince.

Samudramon realized that Penguinmon was right, and quietly summoned his metallic trident. Grasping it tight, he pointed the trident towards Astamon and called out, _"Cosmic Thunderstrike!!"_

The lightning bolt struck Astamon squarely on his shoulder, blasting him towards the nearby wall. Astonished gasps were heard coming from the girls, and Samudramon jumped over the banister before summoning a pillar of water to descend safely.

"It's a Wira Digital!" he heard Dina squeal excitedly.

"He's Samudramon!" Belinda joined in, sounding happy. "He's come to save us!"

Samudramon saw Gayathri gazing at him with a smile, and nodded. Warily pointing his staff towards Astamon, who was beginning to rise from his fall, Samudramon released another blue thunderbolt which electrocuted Astamon again, causing the demon to let out an irritated groan. Seizing the chance while Astamon was down, Samudramon quickly darted towards the force field, thinking of how to break it and release the girls. He tried touching it but the force-field responded by jolting him with thunder. Smirking slightly, Samudramon shook his hands and knew instantly how to lower the force-field.

"Stay back, everyone." Samudramon rose his trident up and spun it swiftly, transforming it into the Double-Edged Thunderblades before thrusting it through the force-field. The barrier instantly jolted Samudramon with lightning bolt but Samudramon, being a Wira Digital of water and thunder elements, could withstand it. The collision of two thunder elements caused a tear to form underneath the place where Samudramon thrust his trident into. The tear enlarged gradually and became a hole, just big enough to get a girl out one of the time.

"Girls, look," Gayathri said, pointing at the hole. Samudramon nodded at her, looking visibly strained. She realized that they didn't have much time. "Dina, you go first, quickly."

Dina quickly crawled through the hole and scrambled up her feet as he heard Samudramon groaned loudly. The thunderbolts from the force-field seemed to be overpowering the Wira Digital – Samudramon was seen shaking and his feet were pushed into the earth gradually. "Bel, Gaya, quick!" she cried in panic.

"Bel, go." Gayathri gave her friend a gentle push towards the opening and watched Belinda crawl out to safety. The two girls huddled outside and Gayathri took a deep breath before moving towards the hole. But she halted when Samudramon let out a pained cry and was thrown off his feet towards the wall under the banisters. She gasped – out of worry for Samudramon more than the fact that she was still trapped inside.

"Gaya!!" Belinda and Dina cried out.

Samudramon groaned and rubbed his chest in pain – the force-field was stronger than he'd thought. He rose to his feet and attempted to move towards it, wanting to get Gayathri out before noticing that Astamon was also getting back up his feet. Panicked slightly he turned his gaze from the villain to the trapped Gayathri and the girls. Gayathri would be safe for the time being inside the force-field, and he'd deal with Astamon, but first he needed to get Belinda and Dina out to safety. He approached the two distraught girls and gave Gayathri an apologetic look, relieved slightly when the girl returned it with an assuring nod, mouthing silently for him to take the girls away.

"Come on, you two…I'll get you to safety," Samudramon said gently towards the girls.

"But…what about our friend?" Belinda asked, shocked upon hearing that Samudramon was suggesting that they leave without Gayathri.

"We can't just leave her here! She's our friend." Dina was already tearing up again.

"Girls, don't worry. Just follow Samudramon to safety. I'll be ok in here, and I'm sure Samudramon will rescue me later. You two need to follow him so that you won't be in his way if he needs to battle the enemy," Gayathri said with empathy.

Dina and Bel were both struck with how calm and mature their friend sounded, and nodded involuntarily, not resisting Samudramon as he led them toward the stone staircases which led towards the corridor and eventually outside. Once they reached the corridor, the girls spun and looked at Samudramon with tear-stained eyes.

"Mr…uh…Samudramon," Bel said awkwardly, not knowing how to address the heroic figure before her. "We'll be ok here. Please save our friend. We'll stay here where it's safe."

Samudramon contained his mild amusement of hearing Belinda addressing him so politely and assessed the situation. He nodded and gestured towards the other side of the corridor which would lead back to the clearing before the entrance. "Don't go all the way out yet; there's a battle taking place outside." He gave them an assuring smile and added, "Don't worry. I'll see to it that your friend will be safe." With that he turned around and went back towards the inner side of the cave with the girls staring at his back in awe.

He saw that Astamon was already on his feet, looking absolutely miffed but unhurt. Gayathri was already clutching her Juara Digivice.

"Where are the girls?" Gayathri asked.

"Safe," Samudramon replied quickly. "Hang on, I'll get you out."

"Heh, don't act like I am not here, you brat!" Astamon roared and threw his knife to stop Samudramon from approaching the barrier. "Your arrival is certainly unexpected, but no matter. Those escaped girls aren't the ones that I want. I have Puspamon and the sacred ladies of the Lost Mountain with me."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Astamon! Floramon, Access!" Floramon appeared before Gayathri and without wasting time, Gayathri called out, _**"Digital Access Digivolution, HAA!!"**_

Unbeknownst to Gayathri, two pairs of amazed eyes were currently watching her as she merged with Floramon in swirls of pink light, transforming within a pink hurricane into Puspamon. They gasped in disbelief and awe; all the while their best friend was actually one of the famed heroes of their country.

"I can't…believe it…" Dina whispered. "Gaya…_that's_ why she'd been too busy to hang out with us lately. I…I never expected her to be Puspamon."

"Oh dear," Belinda gasped. "I…I'd been such a jerk to her earlier at Subang Parade. I…she…she never told us this."

"Maybe she can't…" Dina's voice trailed off as she observed Puspamon standing in place of Gayathri inside the force-field.

"_Jelita Shocker, Powered Up Mode!!"_

Puspamon glimmered with bright pink aura as a shining sprite emerged from her body. The sprite slammed upon the barrier with swirls of hurricane before passing through it. For a moment, the barrier reacted to the sprite by attempting to electrocute it, but it was no use as the sprite seemed to be more forceful. The barrier shook wildly before exploding into data particles as the sprite flew through it, slamming upon the force-field opposite it. The barrier combusted before the sprite diminished into data as well.

"NO!" Astamon shouted, astounded.

Puspamon fluttered beside Samudramon, and saw the three women weakly tried to move. "Samudramon, those Digimon are weakened greatly. They'll need your help to escape. I'll take care of Astamon." She gave her friend a warm smile and urged him to go. The smile vanished when she turned her gaze towards Astamon.

"_Hellfire!!"_ Astamon screamed, pointing his machinegun towards Puspamon.

"_Hibiscus Hurricane!!"_ Puspamon's tornado of flowers pulled Astamon's machinegun out of his hands, and Puspamon willed the tornado to slam the machinegun over the walls, wrecking it instantly. Seeing Astamon glaring at her, Puspamon smiled sweetly as her Black Rose Staff appeared in her hands. She raised the wooden staff up and called out: _"Dream Rose Mirage!!"_

"Oh, shit!" Astamon swore, but it was too late. A giant rose appeared before Puspamon and Astamon unwillingly found himself unable to pull his gaze away as he was drawn into Puspamon's hallucination technique. He shrieked when thorny vines wrapped themselves around him, trashing wildly in agonizing pain.

"Bye, hotshot!" Puspamon was about to finish off Astamon when a swirling portal of purple energy appeared before the shrieking Astamon. From it, to Puspamon's surprise, Doumon and Shawujinmon emerged. They shot Puspamon a deadly gaze before Shawujinmon released a stream of water towards Puspamon, slamming her against the wall.

Doumon chanted a spell and pasted a scroll over Astamon's forehead. Astamon stopped writhing and blinked in confusion before realizing what had just happened to him.

"Puspamon!" Samudramon called in worry, and was about to go to her aid before a hand caught his wrist.

"Young warrior, you're no match for all three of them," the angelic woman in green armor wheezed. "But if you can remove this collar from my neck, I can fight them off."

Thinking that it wouldn't be too hard, and having a help would increase his chance in battling Shawujinmon, Doumon and Astamon, Samudramon quickly grasped the collar tight and tried pulling it out. Grunting slightly, Samudramon felt the collar starting to break before it was split into two. "There…" he said, turning back to face the villains, who suddenly looked pale, as if they had just seen a ghost.

"It was that collar which prevented me from using my powers, but now that it's gone…"

Samudramon was about to turn around before his vision was blinded by a glorious burst of golden light. The light dissipated as soon as it had appeared, and standing before Samudramon was the same angelic woman, but she didn't look weak anymore. In fact, from the way she stood, it seemed that she had been completely rejuvenated. There was a majestic aura emanating all over her, from the way she carried herself, her glistening emerald armor and her golden wings and weapons. Samudramon felt humbled over her presence. _'She's magnificent!'_ Samudramon thought.

"DAMN IT! Ophanimon's been set free!!" Astamon screamed fearfully.

'_Ophanimon? Isn't she… is she the same Ophanimon Adam talked about? The one who restored the power of his White DigiSphere and Digivice?'_ Samudramon wondered, recognizing the name.

Ophanimon pointed her golden javelin towards the three Darkshadow Brethren and called out mightily, _"EDEN'S JAVELIN!!"_

A burst of golden energy spewed forth from her sword and slammed upon the Majin, Kappa and Shaman Generals. The cave was brightly illuminated by the golden energy, followed by terrified and pained screams from the generals. Doumon was heard shouting something else before the lights died away…and the generals were nowhere in sight.

"Are they gone?" Puspamon wondered as she approached Samudramon and Ophanimon.

"I doubt it," Ophanimon answered, lowering her javelin and met the gazes of the two Wira Digital. "They have escaped."

"Rats," Puspamon said. "I was hoping that you'd ridden them off once and for all."

"Perhaps some other time," Ophanimon said with a warm smile as she knelt down to help the other two women, who still appeared drained. She glanced back at Samudramon. "Will you…"

"Oh. Sure!" Samudramon quickly tore the collars away from the other two women and Puspamon assisted Ophanimon in supporting them up. Samudramon gazed at Ophanimon before addressing her. "You…are you the same Ophanimon who has restored Adam's White DigiSphere's power?"

Upon the mention of Adam's name, the angelic woman smiled. "Indeed I am. You must be his friends."

"It's an honor to meet you, Ophanimon. I'm Samudramon and she's Puspamon. We've heard a lot about you from Adam." Samudramon bowed slightly, which was an amusing sight as he was almost a foot taller than Ophanimon.

Puspamon recalled the story TobuCatmon told him – about how Grademon had searched for Ophanimon to obtain her power of light in order to energize the White DigiSphere. She was now standing face to face with the one who'd given Aldiyamon his power. She couldn't help but to feel awed by the glorious Digimon's presence. Silently she recalled the Digimon Analyzer to learn their identities better.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Ophanimon__**   
Attributes: **__Mega level, Vaccine type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Eden's Javelin – **__Ophanimon releases a burst of holy energy beam towards her enemy from the javelin she wields. This attack is especially strong against dark-based Digimon._

_**Sephirot Crystals – **__Ophanimon summons crystals and use them to attack her enemy. The crystals are able to tear upon the Digizoid alloys._

_**Virtuous Throne – **__Ophanimon unleashes the holy Throne – her winged unicorn – from her shield to paralyze her opponent._

_**Seven Star Union – **__Ophanimon summons seven orbs of light and slams them upon her adversary. This attack is akin to a Seraphimon's Seven Heavens._

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Rosemon__**  
Attributes: **__Mega level, Data type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Roses Rapier – **__Rosemon wields the vine on her right arm as a sword and attacks her enemy._

_**Thorn Whip – **__Rosemon whips her enemy, turning it into her slave._

_**Ivy Hug – **__Rosemon summons vines to immobilize her enemy._

_**Forbidden Temptation – **__Rosemon summons the power from her Tifaret crystal and releases a burst of energy from her whole body._

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__D'Arcmon__**   
Attributes: **__Champion level, Vaccine type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Beatings of Love – **__D'Arcmon crosses her two swords and releases holy energy beam towards her enemy._

_**La Pucelle – **__D'Arcmon uses advanced swordsmanship skills to overwhelm her enemy._

_**Beauty Stunner**__ – D'Arcmon releases a pink thunderbolt from her scepter, stunning her foe. _

xxx

"The honor is mine, young warrior," Ophanimon said warmly. "I don't see Adam with you."

"He's outside…as Aldiyamon. He's fighting off a Digimon called Yatagaramon," Samudramon supplied.

Ophanimon looked concerned. "Then we better go outside. He might need our help."

xxx

xxx

"_Haguro!!" _

Yatagaramon soared towards the sky and flapped its wings, releasing waves of black light which blanketed the surrounding in night-like darkness. The attack gave Yatagaramon the advantage of stealth within the darkness – with this technique its opponent could never see it coming. Yatagaramon's black feathers would blend nicely with the darkness.

Of course, Yatagaramon didn't count Aldiyamon being the Wira Digital of Light. The silvery-white radiance emanating from the angel's wings never left him; instead it grew brighter and amidst the darkness Aldiyamon was like a guiding beacon. He looked around, searching for Yatagaramon. He could hear it, but he couldn't see it yet.

"Darkness? Let's see if I can't fix that, you birdbrain." Aldiyamon let out his Solaris Firebird which slowly caused the darkness to part. He detected Yatagaramon retreating within the part where it was still dark and pursued it with his firebird of light aura glowing about him. Then, locking in the bird's target Aldiyamon unleashed the Solaris Firebird, watching as it tore apart the darkness before slamming against the dark bird.

Yatagaramon let out a pained squawk and soared towards the air. It repeated the same attack once more and again it was nighttime. But once again, the darkness attack was nullified, this time with multiple beams of lights released by Aldiyamon. Yatagaramon let out a growl unbefitting its avian status and streaked down with unrivalled speed as its claws burst with flames of darkness. With a screech Yatagaramon launched its Guren Tsume upon the vulnerable-looking angel, but was surprised when its claws hit something that burned with pure light. Blinking, Yatagaramon saw that Aldiyamon had surrounded himself with a silver energy sphere.

From within the sphere, Aldiyamon held on his protective shield, grimacing as it shook upon being clawed relentlessly by Yatagaramon. The Deistic Guard shielded him perfectly from Yatagaramon's onslaught, but it left Aldiyamon with no other way to escape or attack back. He'd had an easy time dispatching the Velgemon but Yatagaramon evidently was in a completely different league from the two avian brutes. Aldiyamon was further left at a disadvantage upon discovering that Yatagaramon was actually a Vaccine-type Digimon instead of Virus-type, which rendered his light techniques ineffective against its dark-based attacks.

Then he remembered his Capoiera lesson from JD. As Adam, he still couldn't carry out the moves as well as JD, but now as Aldiyamon he could at least give it a shot. An advantage of being a Wira Digital was the fact that he was very flexible in his techniques as compared to the rigid ways Digimon fought. Channeling his power to his feet and hands, Aldiyamon lowered his shield, giving Yatagaramon a perfect opportunity to strike him, should he was unprepared. But Aldiyamon was anything but that. So, when Yatagaramon loomed towards him with its burning claws, Aldiyamon threw a punch towards the giant bird with a yell of _"Radiant Faith!!"_

His punch connected to the center of Yatagaramon's third claw, causing the bird to stagger in midair, taken by surprise. Seizing his opportunity, Aldiyamon threw another punch in the air, this time releasing a beam of light from his hand which hit Yatagaramon squarely on its chest. Taking advantage of Yatagaramon's situation Aldiyamon flew towards it and halted right under its beak. With a grin that would make his cousin proud, Aldiyamon made an agile back flip, kicking Yatagaramon's golden-armored beak forcefully. Yatagaramon screeched in anger but Aldiyamon was ready with another attack – this time unleashing a kick which knocked the wind out of Yatagaramon. Then he whipped out his sword and slashed the air, creating a pillar of golden light which blasted towards Yatagaramon. Confidently, Aldiyamon whirled around and grinned, knowing that his Heavenstar Gladius would delete Yatagaramon.

A couple of seconds passed by and Aldiyamon frowned. There was no sound of Digimon combusting into data. Instead there was a loud screech, pained and furious, coupled with a deadly sound of something crackling menacingly. Aldiyamon turned around and saw Yatagaramon still alive, and its eyes were now crimson, drowned in bloodlust.

"_MIKAFUTSU NO KAMI!!"_

A stream of purple energy beam slammed upon Aldiyamon and caused him to plummet towards the ground with a loud explosion. A crater was formed and Aldiyamon found himself unable to breath as pain shot all over his body. Clutching his chest Aldiyamon rose from the crater, gasping upon seeing his whole body phasing in and out. Quickly he took a deep breath and harnessed the basis of his teleportation power – the power to dissemble and reassemble the molecules of his body. Slowly the pain receded and Aldiyamon became solid once again.

'_That was too close,'_ the angelic knight thought, seeing the violet sky was once again blanketed in darkness. Underneath the silver manteau, Aldiyamon frowned. _'It's time to give an all-out attack before things get out of hand. And I've had enough hearing attack names that I can't understand."_

Aldiyamon blinked out in showers of bright lights and reappeared at Yatagaramon's eye level, a hundred meters away from the giant crow. He flexed his metallic wings to that they crossed his chest and pointed his sword and hand forward. A white phoenix aura radiated from his wings as he shone bright as a star in the midst of darkness, completely unaware of two pairs of eyes that were watching him from the caves below. Regally he called out: _"FINAL PURIFICATION!!"_

Yatagaramon was blasted with beams of radiant white lights which spewed out from Aldiyamon. The beams of the Mega-class technique pushed it further towards the high heavens, enveloped it in furious whirlwind of light before tearing its whole body apart. With a loud parting screech Yatagaramon combusted into data particles and the night-like sky turned to day once again.

Aldiyamon's whole body sagged as he teleported onto the ground, and dedigivolved – having used his Final Purification he was no longer able to retain his Wira Digital form.

Adam and Patamon's prone bodies were still for a while, before Adam slowly raised his head up. His vision was slightly blurry, but it quickly readjusted itself. He saw two pairs of legs, one in light pink jeans and the other were bare underneath the knees. Looking up in confusion, Adam's eyes widened in surprise upon seeing two much unexpected people. _'Oh no…how did THEY get here?'_

"Adam?" Dina asked, perplexed and sounding amazed at the same time. "_You're_ Aldiyamon?"

"You guys are the Wira Digital? You and Gaya…and…" Belinda slapped a hand on her forehead when realization struck her. "That can only mean…JD, Liu Ying and Manny…no wonder you guys are so close with one another! We…we've wondered why…we never would have thought that you guys are the Wira Digital. It…it's unbelievable!"

Adam looked at Dina and Belinda and sighed, realizing that his cover was blown. "What are you two doing here?" he asked finally while sitting up.

The girls were about to explain when Adam's attention shifted to the cave entrance where Samudramon and Puspamon emerged, along with three Digimon whom Adam had thought he'd never meet again. He gaped in shock, and quickly stood up and ran towards them.

"Ophanimon! Rosemon! D'Arcmon!" He eyed them one by one before looking at Ophanimon confusedly. "What…how? I thought you three would remain at the Lost Mountain?"

Ophanimon placed a hand at Adam's shoulder, gazing at the boy with adoration. "It's a long story," she said.

"Hey Adam," Rosemon greeted with a weak voice. "Didn't think you'd see me again now, did you?" D'Arcmon snorted towards the flower-woman at her comment, before turning to look at Adam, giving him an acknowledging nod with a brief, no-nonsense, but strained smile.

Adam's cheeks became fairly pink as he avoided Samudramon and Puspamon's questioning looks – he had conveniently skipped the intricate details of his encounter with Rosemon when telling the other DigiWira about his adventures at the Lost Mountain. "Not really…but it's good to see you again, nonetheless."

Puspamon stared at Adam, and then at Belinda and Dina who were now approaching her. Questions raced through her mind – why would Adam be in his civilian form instead of Aldiyamon while in the company of Bel and Dina? She tensed when both of them were in front of her, and stifled a gasp when they each grabbed her hand. At her 6'5'' height, the two girls were considerably dwarfed – both stood no higher than her shoulders.

Belinda was the one who squealed in excitement first. "This is so surreal! I can't believe that my friend is a Wira Digital! You should've told us…but I think maybe there's a secret code or something which prevented you from telling us?" Upon seeing Puspamon looking at her with a badly-attempted confused look, the sporty girl snorted. "Don't look confused or pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about, Gaya! We saw you transform back at the cave."

Puspamon sighed as she exchanged a look with Samudramon. With a faint pink glow she regressed to Gayathri and Floramon, and Samudramon joined her, dedigivolving into Manny and Penguinmon.

Formerly clutching Puspamon's hands, Belinda and Dina saw that they were now holding their best friend's hand. With an excited squeal she gave Gayathri a hug. "So this is your big secret huh Gaya? I never saw this coming. This is really amazing! Wow…" She released Gayathri from her embrace and beamed. "I'm so… so proud of you!"

Hearing her friend's declaration, Gayathri beamed as well. "You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you guys about this!" she said, sounding excited as well. "I'm so _relieved_ that you two know about this now! I'm sorry for keeping this from you, but we have agreed not to tell anyone else but our immediate family about this."

"We understand, don't we Bel?" Dina said.

"You bet! It must be a great responsibility, Gaya, having to protect the country from evil's attacks," Bel said with a pumped fist. "I totally understand. All the superheroes – Spiderman, Superman, Batman – they all have secret civilian identities so it's only normal, I suppose, for Puspamon to have secret identity…identities…too." Gayathri and Dina sweatdropped upon the comparison as Belinda eyed the plant-reptile creature that was standing beside Gayathri.

"Girls…I'd like you two to meet Floramon." Gayathri gestured towards her Digimon partner smilingly.

"Hi!" Floramon chirped happily as she grabbed the hands of her DigiWira's friends, shaking them with so much enthusiasm. "I've heard so much about you from Gayathri and I'm so happy to finally meet the two of you!"

Dina and Belinda nodded as they bore their gazes on Gayathri appraisingly. "Girl, you've got so much to tell us!"

Gayathri giggled. "I can't wait to fill you two with the details."

xxx

xxx

"When we saw you leaving that night, Rosemon was the one who voiced her question – of whether it was really necessary for the three of us to remain for another century in the Lost Mountain," Ophanimon explained when all of them had gathered at the Forest Sanctum. "I had my reservations at first – I was appointed long ago to be the guardian of the mountain in return for me to gain my power. It was a deal I have made with the previous guardian of the mountain when she had finally reached her deletion age. I could not leave the mountain because I am bound to my promise, but Rosemon and D'Arcmon both have no such obligations – they were there because I took them while they were still in their DigiEggs when I first stepped in the mountain. So I offered Rosemon and D'Arcmon the possibility for them to step out of the mountain and lead regular lives at the Digital World's physical plane as opposed to the astral plane where the Lost Mountain would be for a century. They were eager to have lives outside the mountain, but I could see that they were also reluctant to leave me here.

"That night just moments before the Lost Mountain would return to its astral plane, I went along with Rosemon and D'Arcmon to give them a proper send off. But never did I anticipate bold moves from both of them as the mountain was about to disappear. Rosemon seized me with her vines, and together they pulled me out and off the mountain, just a few seconds before the mountain disappeared."

The DigiWira, the partners, their new friends Dina and Belinda, as well as TobuCatmon, all chuckled at Ophanimon's story. However they stopped when they saw Ophanimon looking slightly troubled by this.

"Would there be any ramification of you being out of Lost Mountain, milady?" TobuCatmon asked.

Ophanimon sighed. "That was the first thing that had crossed my mind when I was out of the mountain. For several days, we stood guard there in anticipation, wondering about that. But then I saw that I probably had nothing to worry about." She looked like she was concealing something, but nobody pressed her to divulge it. "Anyhow," she said with a smile. "With that settled, we decided that we would aid you in your battle against SkullSatamon's evil forces. Throughout this past one month, we have been tailing the two servants of SkullSatamon – Sorcerymon and Shutumon – and go one step ahead of them as they tried to locate SkullSatamon's entombed henchmen, and destroyed them. However, our actions were noticed by Lucemon and Persiamon and they confronted us at that Saffron Cave. We were captured and I realized one possible side-effect of us being out of the Lost Mountain."

"What's that?" Adam asked.

Ophanimon seemed to be considering her answer for a moment before she finally replied to Adam's inquiry. "When I first came to Lost Mountain, it was because this part of the Digital World had been terrorized by four demonic Digimon known as the Four Terrors. Villages and cities were destroyed and many Digimon were killed. An elder told me of the legend of the Lost Mountain and I went there to ask for power to beat the Four Terrors. The then-guardian of the mountain told me that I could harness the mountain's power to trounce the Four Terrors if I remained there as its guardian. I didn't have a choice as the Four Terrors were already approaching the Lost Mountain, so I agreed to it and became the next guardian of the Lost Mountain. The mountain's sacred power propelled me to my final Digivolution level, and with its power I alone had been able to send the Four Terrors to their doom. Then I discovered that should I leave the Lost Mountain, I would lose the power the mountain had given me. And as a guardian of the Lost Mountain, I am bound to remain there until the next chosen guardian comes along to claim the position."

"But you're still Ophanimon," Adam pointed out.

"I discovered that I'd lose my power…not my Mega form," Ophanimon replied. "But…although I have retained my Mega power and my angelic form, the power I possess now is no better than average Mega Digimon. If the Four Terrors are still around, I could never beat them. Similarly, Rosemon also lost her Mega-class power, now having only powers on par with above-average Ultimates. And D'Arcmon's power is akin to regular Champions, despite as an angel she should be possessing powers rivaling Ultimates. This was why Lucemon and Persiamon were able to beat us quite easily – Lucemon, despite being an Ultimate, has powers rivaling many strong Mega Digimon. Persiamon's power is also not something to be looked down upon."

Everyone took a moment to process the information. Adam, Manny and Gayathri, and their Digimon partners, exchanged nervous glances when they heard about what could be the next threat they would be up against. Dina and Belinda, now aware of their friends' situations, also had a foreboding feeling about it.

"But didn't you manage to beat Astamon, Doumon and Shawujinmon back at the cave?" Manny asked. "And the three of them are all Darkshadow Brethren generals."

"Were they accompanied by Lucemon and Persiamon, I might not be the victor," Ophanimon said, hinting on how powerful the two were compared to the other three.

"Look at the bright side, everyone," Adam said. "At least now, we have more helps in battling the Darkshadow Brethren. That ought to count for something."

"And I don't have to hide my being a Wira Digital from my best friends," Gayathri said and smiled at Dina and Belinda, who both murmured their agreements.

"So…what do we do now?" Manny asked.

"Ladies, you are more than welcomed to stay here," TobuCatmon offered. "And DigiWira…and friends…I suppose it's getting somewhat late, and with the threat of the day has been taken cared of you might want to head back to the Digital World. After all, Dina and Bel's parents might be wondering about them."

"Right." The DigiWira huddled at the TV set. Adam took out his Juara Digivice and gave a smiling look at their new allies. "It's good to see you three again and I think I'm looking forward to battling the Darkshadow Brethren with you three."

"The feeling is mutual, Adam," Ophanimon said. "Goodbye, for now."

"Girls, hold my hands," Gayathri said. "We're in for a bumpy ride."

"What do you mean?" Dina and Bel asked simultaneously as Gayathri held their hands tight.

"DIGIPORT OPEN!!"

xxx

xxx

The bathroom door opened and let out a wave of warm steam as JD stepped out, fresh out of shower and with a white towel fixed around his waist. A smaller tower was flung on his shoulders. He walked into his room and saw Agumon looking at him expectantly.

"Any message from Adam and Manny?" he asked, while drying his damp hair using the small towel.

The miniature T-rex shook his head. "No…no messages."

"Maybe they've taken care of it…but what's taking them so long?" JD wondered as he looked at the clock. It had been two hours since Adam and Manny went to the Digital World, and if they had been able to take care of the threat there, it shouldn't be taking them this long. It was the reason why he'd decided to take a shower – his friends or TobuCatmon would've called him if the threat was high. He shrugged.

Suddenly his computer's monitor flared with white lights. Silhouettes of people and Digimon were visible, and JD frowned. He could see _five_ people instead of two. The lights died down and the blonde boy's mouth opened slightly in surprise. There were three girls along with Adam and Manny, and two of the girls were staring at him unblinkingly before one looked away.

"Oops…" Adam said with a sheepish smile at his cousin. Behind him, Belinda squealed, Dina blushed, Gayathri frowned and Manny strained hard not to smile.

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Meanwhile…

_**Renamon digivolve to…Devidramon!!**_

_**Tsukaimon digivolve to…Devimon!**_

'_Excellent,' _Lucemon thought. _''It won't be long before the Puaka Generals reach their Ultimate forms once again, and then, my plan is set. The ladies' escape does not concern me; once the Puaka Generals reach their Ultimate forms, I will have them take care of those ladies so that they will not interfere with my plans.'_

xxx

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_**Author's Notes:**_

It really took me a while to get this chapter ready, with its _three_ subplots combined in one. This chapter covers Gayathri and her two friends, the relations between the three DigiWira guys, and also the reappearances of Ophanimon, Rosemon and D'Arcmon. Surprise! There is a reason for me to make them appear, and Dina and Belinda will make somewhat regular appearances from now on instead of recurring. The same goes for the three ladies of the Lost Mountain.

As always, I look forward for your comments. Until next chapter, bye!


	42. A DigiWira Catastrophe, Part I

JD rolled over and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the digital clock, informing him that it was already 6.00pm on a Thursday evening. Rubbing his eyes to shake off the desire to continue on his afternoon nap, he cast a glance on the black and white-sheeted bed beside his own bed, to see whether his cousin was still asleep. Patamon, Salamon and Gatomon were still napping; Adam wasn't there with them as he'd been when both of them decided to take an afternoon nap. And although he didn't look for him, JD knew Agumon was at his favorite large cushion in front of the TV, probably asleep as well.

'_He's awake already?'_ JD sat up and turned his gaze towards the computer table; the next place he'd thought Adam would be at, since the TV was evidently switched off. _'Aha!'_

Adam seemed engrossed in whatever he was doing that he didn't notice JD already awake. Not that JD could blame him – Adam had on the earphones so that he could listen to some music without disturbing JD from his sleep. Adam was seen typing something, before leaning back, presumably reading something before he typed something again.

'_Chatting again, obviously,'_ JD smirked, knowing with whom exactly his cousin was chatting with.

He took a moment to reflect everything that had happened between the two of them ever since the discovery that he and Adam were cousins. It was just a little more than a month ago when the discovery was being made and JD had to admit that a part of him still felt surprised with it. Watching his cousin typing away at the computer, JD smiled, thinking that a month ago it was almost impossible for Adam to make himself at home.

The first three days had probably been the most awkward for Adam, since those were also the days where JD's grandparents from Australia dropped by for a visit. Adam had never thought that he'd met his granduncle and grandaunt from down under, but having him at the house proved to be a blessing for Awaludin Awang and Kathryn Sutherland Abdullah as Adam easily filled them in with some details about their relatives, whom Awaludin had not met for five decades. Despite the discomfiture, the meeting Adam had with his Australian relatives proved to be the ice-breaking he needed to begin fitting in with his newfound family.

After his grandparents left, JD began thinking of ways to get Adam to be comfortable around him in particular. Not that Adam was awkward around him, but JD had thought that the other boy was just _too excruciatingly polite_ to his liking. It wasn't a bad thing, but what JD wanted was for them to get along like a family – someone whom he could joke around with and tease playfully without the other boy withdrawing away. It was his inherent nature that so often got misinterpreted by the others. His older brother, Jaden, was just too serious while his older sister Jasmine had a personality that mirrored his own that they often ended up with a verbal fight whenever they set eyes on each other.

Luckily, it was Bibik – the family's maid – who was the one who'd come up with the perfect suggestion. It had taken JD about three days to do it, but in the end, he thought that it was worth it.

**(Flashback)**

"Rise and shine, cousin. C'mon, I have something to show you." Without waiting for Adam's response, he pulled Adam out of his bed and led the boy out of the room. It was a Saturday, and a free one, and JD was glad that Adam had decided to sleep in that day instead of waking up early as he usually did. That gave him time to make the final touches on what he was about to show to his cousin. He gave the other boy a brief look and saw that aside from his still sleepy face, Adam was pretty much decent to step out of the room in his oversized white shirt and black cotton pants he wore to sleep. His dark hair was slightly disheveled, but it was nothing to worry about.

"What time is it?" Adam murmured, not resisting JD at all.

"Nine," JD answered as they walked down the stairs. "Ok, here's where you close your eyes."

"Hmmm…?" Adam frowned. "Why?"

"Don't ask. Just do it." JD hoped that Adam would not argue with him on this. He wanted the boy to be surprised.

Still too sleepy to argue, Adam decided to just play along and closed his eyes. "Ok…now what?"

"Come on." JD took Adam's hand and carefully guided him through the living room. He saw Bibik smiling at them as she placed some breakfast on the dining table. His parents had both stepped out to do some groceries, and his siblings would not arrive home until later. It would be the first time for Adam to meet Jade and Jas, and JD wondered how that would turn up to be. "Careful there," he said, as Adam accidentally knocked his feet against the handsome mahogany table at the center of the living room. The other boy murmured softly in pain and was about to open his eyes before JD sharply said, "Hey, no peeking yet."

"Ok…"

They stepped out from the house and Adam balked slightly, apparently noticing the sudden rush of light and warm air from outside. Not bothering to wear their sandals JD led Adam to the garden where the thing he had been working with for the past three days stood waiting. He smiled proudly of his work, and hoped that Adam would like it.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Adam asked.

JD positioned Adam so that he would stand right opposite of the thing he wanted to show him. "Ok. Now."

Adam opened his eyes, and gasped. In front of him stood a bike, glistening in silver, white and violet against the morning sunlight. There was a fresh smell of paint and oil, and JD grinned as Adam made the connection immediately with the filthy shirt he was currently wearing – which was also soiled with paint and oil.

"You like it?" JD asked.

"I…" Speechless, Adam merely nodded in return. The bike was beautiful. "It's wonderful…"

"Good, because it's yours."

"Huh?" Adam looked at JD. "I can't accept this. It's…it's just too much."

"You mean after all the works I put in to modify Jas's bike into this one, you're going to reject it?"

Adam was quiet for a while and JD could see that Adam liked the bike. Now all he needed was to convince Adam to accept it. He would have to be blunt.

"Look, Adam. The way I see it, you actually _need_ this. Dad's starting work again this Monday and he can't send us to school anymore. I know your sister used to send you to school every morning, but it looks like you're gonna have to get to school on your own from now on, at least until Kak Lisha buy a new car when she's healed, and I don't see that happening in a couple of months. You could walk to school if you want, but I think biking is easier and quicker. And maybe you could also use the bike to get to the hospital instead of using the cab which is plain expensive. You get to visit your sister more often and you'll get some great exercise. Tell me if I'm wrong with all these."

Silently, Adam shook his head. "It's just…" He lost his words again.

JD sighed and laid a hand on Adam's shoulder. "Ok, just think of this as an early birthday present from me. Come to think of it, when's your birthday anyway?"

"Second day of December," Adam murmured, but JD saw that the other boy's face was beginning to light up.

"Ok, so on that day, don't ask a present from me, alright?" JD grinned as he saw a hint of a smile beginning to form on Adam's face.

"Did you say you modify this bike?"

"Uh-huh. Jas's bike was too pink and it was already conked out, being in the den for years. I took it out, changed the seat, the tyres and the chains, oil the chains just this morning, and gave it a new paint job based on Aldiyamon's color scheme. Cool eh?"

"What will Kak Jasmine say about this? It was her bike…"

JD snorted. "She already has a car, and I already asked her. She doesn't care. So now, it's yours."

Adam nodded, already running his hand along the brand-new-looking bike. "Uhh…can I take it for a spin, then?"

JD laughed and gave his cousin a slight shove. "It's _your_ bike. Hang on, I'll get mine and we can go together."

"Josh, wait…" Adam gazed into his cousin's eyes. "Thanks…"

"Not at all, Adam."

**(End Flashback)**

That had eased Adam up considerably with him, and JD was glad for that. He'd even caught Adam telling some of his friends about his new bike (without the other boy knowing) up to the point of showing off the bike while at school, and had enjoyed seeing the disbelieved looks from Adam's friends.

He and Adam had gotten off from a bad start, no thanks to Karatenmon. But now, he was glad that the two of them truly got along. Some even said that they were almost like brothers already. In fact, JD already had considered Adam like a younger brother he never had, but he wasn't sure whether the feeling was reciprocated by Adam. The 'brother' subject was a sore spot for Adam, with him having lost an older brother before and the dirty trick played by the Puaka Generals, taking advantage of Adam's loss of brother and parents to fit their own evil scheme. In fact, even JD himself had played the same trick when he was the Red ShadoWira, up to a certain degree.

JD shook his head. That was the past. Now however, his care for the other boy was genuine. Adam had been through a lot and JD couldn't imagine how the boy was still able to be as how he was right now. If it were him to be at Adam's place…JD shuddered at that thought. Although he still sometimes didn't see eye-to-eye with his folks, and even though he didn't get along well with his siblings, he couldn't imagine losing them. He had promised himself that he would never do anything to hurt the other boy again.

'_Of course, playful teasing and badgering don't count as hurting, right? Time for Adam to get his daily teasing dose, heh heh…'_

Smirking, he grabbed the shirt he had thrown on the floor before he went to sleep and wore it quickly. Creeping quietly towards the computer table, he snatched the earphone from Adam and leaned over him, taking a look at the chat conversation the other boy was having.

"AAH!" Adam quickly got up and blocked JD from reading the chat conversation. "Hey! Private conversation!"

"Looks like someone has a girlfriend…" JD taunted, and saw tints of crimson emerged from Adam's cheeks. "Adam and Dina! Kinda have a nice ring to it."

"We're just friends!" Adam protested.

JD smirked. "Don't you know that that's probably the most clichéd answer ever existed?"

Adam frowned. "I could say the same thing about you and Liu Ying."

"What about it?"

"Oh I don't know…late night SMS-es and the missed calls you two exchanged?" Adam asked with a raised brow. "Here's something to talk about: _Hey, what are you doing right now? __**Oh, just homework. You? **__Homework again? You really love homework don't you? __**Hey, the teachers give you homework, you're supposed to do it. What about you? Done your homework already?**_ _Nah…I'll copy 'em tomorrow…"_

This time, JD turned crimson as well. "Hey, you're not supposed to read that!"

"You used my cell phone for those particular messages, when your credit ran low," Adam pointed out with a cheeky smile. "How was I supposed to know which messages are mine and which are yours?" he proceeded with a very innocent voice. "You should've deleted those messages."

"Smartass!" JD smirked and seized the smaller boy into a headlock – not able to counter Adam's valid points. He pulled the boy away from the computer and proceeded by playfully torturing the boy.

"Ack! That's so low, Josh! Ahahaha hey stop it! That tickles! Ack! Hey! _GUYS, HELP!!_"

"Huh?" JD wondered who Adam had called for help. No sooner than that, he felt something closed in on his head and pain shot up from both his ankles. "YEOOOOWWW!!!"

He was forced to let Adam go, and realized that Patamon was already clutching his head while Gatomon and Salamon relentlessly clung on his ankles, each having a large bite on either side of his ankle. He jumped around the room trying to get rid of them but failed to do so. Patamon let go quickly but the other two Rookies were more resilient. JD finally doubled over his bed and flailed his legs, wanting to shake off the Saintly Siblings.

Adam laughed. "Ok, you two…let him go." Quickly Salamon and Gatomon let go and both looked at Adam with large adorable eyes and cute smiles. Adam took out some chocolate bars from his schoolbag and the two rookies pounced at him.

"YAAAYY! Chocolates!"

"I can't believe you bribed them with chocolates for this." JD sat up and rubbed his ankles, shaking his head. His ankles were red, but not really painful as they had been when the Saintly Siblings bit him.

"Does it hurt?" Adam asked, sitting by JD and looked at the ankles with concern. "I told them not to bite so hard…"

"Relax." JD slung an arm around his cousin and grinned, showing that he bore no ill feelings. But then a devilish grin played up his face and he said with a low, menacing voice. "But I'll be sure to tell Agumon to bite your butt when you least expected it, so be very afraid cousin…." He exchanged a look with Agumon, who'd been watching the whole ordeal silently. The Rookie dino returned his partner's look with an extremely toothy grin.

Adam paled. JD smirked triumphantly and patted Adam's head in mock pity.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 42 – A DigiWira Catastrophe, Part I**_

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"Come on you two! Attack me, now!" Persiamon's eyes narrowed as she observed Shawujinmon and Astamon hesitating. A smile curled out from her lips as she relished in their fear. It was quite well known to their coven that Persiamon's power rivaled the Puaka Generals' who were only next to Lucemon in terms of superiority. She widened her legs apart for more support and her sharp eyes trailed the figures of the Kappa and the Majin Generals back and forth. "Come on. Give me your best shots! I won't move away."

"You won't move?" Astamon asked incredulously. "Surely you jest."

Persiamon snorted impatiently. "Come on already. Attack me. You'll never get the chance to attack me like this. Or are you scared of getting your butt kicked again? It certainly didn't take much to beat you. Even that inexperienced Puspamon managed to give you a good beating and she's just a mere child while you are a renowned general."

"Oh, that's it, Persiamon. It's on!" Astamon said hotly and looked at Shawujinmon. "C'mon, let's attack her together!"

Shawujinmon nodded and summoned his Demon Quelling Staff. He spun it around, generating water spirals around the black metallic staff. Meanwhile a knife slid out of Astamon's sleeve and he spun it expertly at the tips of his fingers before grasping it by its shining holder. Then with a loud cry both generals attacked Persiamon, who didn't seem to have any inclination to move.

"_Helter Skelter!"_ The Virago General widened her arms and a fireball formed on her right palm while a bluish white sphere emitting wisps of fogs generated on her left. She thrust the white ball towards Shawujinmon, and it transformed into a projection of a snow-white tiger. The icy tiger roared and leaped towards Shawujinmon, who out of surprise, halted as the tiger streaked through his body. Instantly the spiraling water from his staff froze into ice, and crashed on the stone floors of the hall. Shawujinmon suffered the same fate as he was immobilized by a coat of ice. At the same time, Persiamon flicked her right hand and sent the fireball towards Astamon. The fireball exploded into three yowling fire cats which growled furiously as they leaped towards the stunned Majin General. His crisp suit and sash caught flames and Astamon had to stop pursuing Persiamon in order to put out the fire. Seeing these, Persiamon laughed with delight and walked away into the doorway leading to the generals' private chambers. "Even without moving away I could still beat you two." She sauntered away with a mocking laugh which echoed the hall.

Persiamon walked through the corridors smilingly before stumbling upon a taller figure with great wings and sparkling ice-blue eyes.

"Lucemon."

"Finished torturing Astamon already?" Lucemon inquired with a simper.

"It's not like he doesn't deserve it, after letting Ophanimon and the others escape right before his eyes. If it weren't for his _idiotic_ idea of kidnapping that Puspamon he lusted so much the Wira Digital wouldn't have stumbled upon Saffron Cave," Persiamon huffed.

"But how did Shawujinmon get tangled along with it?"

"He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Wait…are you using that psychic ability of yours to read my mind and get all the insight of the battle?"

"I happened to not be at the hall while you were demonstrating your prowess to our fellow brethrens," Lucemon pointed out. Persiamon huffed again indignantly.

"It does not matter that our brethren have unwillingly let the three sacred ladies escape with the Wira Digital," Lucemon said smoothly. "Not anymore. The Puaka Generals have awakened and it's only a matter of time before they regain their Ultimate forms. While they are training to reach their goals, we still have some time to toy around with the Wira Digital until we can begin with my master plan."

"I'm not one who likes to just toy around," Persiamon reminded the Hellion General. "I already have a plan in mind."

"Care to share?"

Persiamon smirked. "You're the one with the mind reading ability. Surely you don't need me to do say it out loud."

Lucemon took a moment to do so, before nodding with approval. "How enchantingly evil, this plan of yours, I must say."

"Evil is what I do best."

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Instead of staying back at school before going to the Friday prayers at the mosque beside the school, this particular Friday was the day when JD's dad had the day off from work, having just returned from an international flight early that morning. And his big brother Jade was also at home, having just completed a monthly exam paper that morning. As such, Johan Awaludin had asked for JD and Adam to get home as soon as school let out so that the four of them could go to the mosque nearby their home together.

"Hi, Abang Jade. Sorry I didn't get to say hi to you earlier…we were in a hurry to get ready," Adam said to his eldest cousin, forty minutes later, as they were about to board the family's car. He fiddled with a stray light purple thread from his Baju Melayu nervously; he seldom met JD's older siblings and was still pretty much intimidated by their presences.

Jaden Daniel Kamarulhafiz, clad in a light green Baju Melayu over a pair of khakis, smiled at the dark-haired boy. After their first meeting, he'd decided that he quite liked the recent addition to their family. The boy's polite and shy demeanors bode well with him. "Hello, Adam. Don't worry about it." He noticed that Adam was alone. "Now where's Josh? We're going to be late if we don't get moving right now. Parking the car is going to be tedious if we don't get there in five minutes."

Johan glanced at the clock on the wall. "Jade's right. JOSH!!!!!"

"Here! Yeesshhh, hang on!" JD sounded annoyed as he ran down the stairs whilst trying to adjust the burgundy Baju Melayu he was wearing over a pair of jeans. "I can't find the buttons for this….ah. Thanks, Bibik." He took a couple of stud-buttons from the family's maid and quickly fixed them on his shirt. "I'm set."

"Good. Come on." Johan beckoned for his sons and nephew to board the family's BMW as the house gate was opened automatically.

The journey to the mosque took them only five minutes by car, and by the time they reached the main mosque of USJ Subang Jaya they saw that people were beginning to crowd the mosque, as the muezzin was about to give the afternoon's prayer call. They managed to find a strategic parking spot and quickly got out from the car. They were about to walk towards the mosque when suddenly an explosion took place at the park opposite the grand mosque.

JD and Adam saw a portal materialized amidst the explosion, and a tall lanky figure of a feline-like woman emerged from it. The mosque-goers were stunned at the sight of the beautiful scantily-clad figure, unaware that she was a great threat.

"Who's that chick?" JD wondered.

"_That's no chick, Josh! That's a Digimon!" _Agumon exclaimed from JD's Juara Digivice.

"_And not just any Digimon…she's a strong one. I'm not surprised if she's also a General!"_ Patamon added, from Adam's Juara Digivice.

"C'mon!" JD grabbed Adam's wrist.

"Where are you two going?" Johan demanded.

"Digital Accessing!" JD called out, already beginning to make way towards the ablution chamber while dragging Adam along.

"Digital what?" Jade wondered.

"Just get to safety!" Adam cried out. "That woman is dangerous! Take cover in the mosque!"

Johan and Jade watched in confusion as JD and Adam made way towards the now-abandoned ablution chamber. They entered the chamber, and flashes of red and white lights later two Wira Digital stepped out from there, drawing attention instantly from the mosque-goers. Some of the kids cheered instantly.

"That's Satriamon and Aldiyamon!" one boy exclaimed.

With a flick of his hands Aldiyamon teleported everyone into the mosque before both of them made their way towards the park adjacent to the mosque. The cat-woman saw them and with a flick of her hand, she released several crimson energy ribbons towards their way. Aldiyamon folded his metallic wings and summoned the Deistic Guard to shield himself, while Satriamon blocked the energy ribbons with his powerful gauntlet. Surprisingly, the ribbons were strong – they had easily forced both Wira Digital into retreating involuntarily.

"_Heavenstar Gladius!!" _Aldiyamon called out his silver sword and slashed the ribbons into smithereens.

"_Dragonforce Striker!!" _Satriamon did the same thing by using his gauntlet.

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_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__Persiamon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Virus type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Helter Skelter – **__Persiamon manipulates the power of fire and ice to attack her enemy._

_**Vampire Dance – **__Persiamon unleashes dark powers and energy-sucking bats with her belly-dancing._

_**Sekhmet Shadow Sutra – **__Persiamon unleashes energy ribbons, manipulating them to fluster her nemesis. _

_**Blight of Bastet – **__Persiamon curses her enemy with incurable blight._

xxx

"This is one tough alleycat," Aldiyamon muttered after scanning Persiamon. "We have to settle this quickly."

"Alright you walking furball, we're sending you packing!" Satriamon shouted, flexing his gauntlet.

Persiamon snorted. "Ha, ha. Nice puns, but I'm not so impressed. See, this place is just a one giant scratching post for me, and I'm intent on digging my claws in it!" As she said that, she flexed her dangerous-looking claws which shone with blood red aura amidst the bright daylight. Her emerald eyes sized up the opponents she was facing. "Where's the whole litter?"

Both Satriamon and Aldiyamon groaned at the feline puns. "It'll take only the two of us to stop you, Catwoman!" Satriamon snarled and leaped to attack the Virago General. _"Dragonforce…"_

"Too slow! _Sekhmet Shadow Sutra!"_ Persiamon spun around once and blasted Satriamon with energy ribbons, forcing the dragon man to retreat.

"Heads up!" Aldiyamon flexed his fist back before thrusting it forward. _"Radiant Faith!"_

The beam of light slammed upon Persiamon and she shuddered; being a dark-based Digimon she wasn't as strong when facing a Digimon of light. However her worry was soon erased with a smirk, because she was still the superior Digimon amongst the three. And she'd show her opponents how strong she was.

Placing her hands on her hips, Persiamon began to sway with very seductive moves – arching her hips back and forth, causing the two Wira Digital to wonder what in the world she was doing. But Aldiyamon was reminded of Persiamon's attack technique as described in the analyzer and folded his metallic wings forward, calling up his Deistic Guard. He then saw Satriamon still somewhat fazed.

"She's about to use her Vampire Dance, Satriamon!" he warned.

"Damn it! You're ruining the surprise!" Persiamon roared as she danced, before halting abruptly as she thrust her arms to her sides. Dark energy rippled from her back as orange vampire bats materialized from the energy ripple. _"Vampire Dance!!"_

Aldiyamon, who was within his protective energy sphere, was pushed back by the bats but Satriamon stood his ground, merely flexing his gauntlet for protection. He glowed with dark red aura as his green eyes shone with black light.

"Dark-based power?" he snorted. "I'm a Wira Digital of fire and darkness! _Dark Rage!!"_ From his eyes, two beams of light shot out and slammed upon Persiamon's belly.

"What the…" Persiamon felt a small portion of her power being drained away. She flexed both her hands and generated spheres of flame and ice, directing the fireball towards Aldiyamon and the ice ball towards Satriamon as the two Wira Digital charged up their attacks. _"Helter Skelter!!"_

"_Shadow Flame Helix!"_

"_Solaris Firebird!"_

To the Wira Digital's surprise, the fiery serpent and dragon from Satriamon's attack were frozen by the white tiger unleashed from Persiamon. Aldiyamon's firebird also suffered the same fate, with it being overwhelmed by the fire cats from Persiamon's fireball. Then she proceeded by advancing towards the Wira Digital, kicking the frozen dragon and serpent into bits of data before landing a sound kick upon the surprised Satriamon. As the dragon man was sent flying, Persiamon looked above at the flying Aldiyamon, cursing momentarily for her lack of flight before flicking her arm towards the royal angel. Crimson energy ribbons shot out and wrapped securely around Aldiyamon before he could summon his protective sphere. With a sinister snarl she tugged Aldiyamon down, causing him to crash onto the ground. For some reason, she didn't let Aldiyamon go just yet.

"Let him go!" Satriamon growled, getting back up on his feet. "Or else…"

Persiamon grinned haughtily. "Or else what?" she challenged, purposely egging Satriamon for a plan she had set in mind.

Satriamon growled angrily and leaped towards the cat woman, gauntlet ready to strike. Raging flames erupted from the weapon in shape of a snarling dragon as he approached the Virago General closer and closer. _"DRAGONFORCE STRIKER!!"_

Everything then happened quickly. Persiamon shimmered in dark red aura as she muttered something. To Satriamon's horror, she vanished in swirls of crimson energy ribbons and in her place stood the transfixed Aldiyamon. Satriamon had channeled all his power into his gauntlet and it was too late for him to pull back. And Aldiyamon, stunned and horrified, acted on automated reflex rather than relying on his fighting skill.

Aldiyamon raised his arm, and the Dragonforce Striker gauntlet struck it mercilessly. A loud sickening crack was heard, followed by a pained cry from the angelic knight as he was forced into devolving as Satriamon stared in horrified disbelief. Amidst Persiamon's triumphant cackle Satriamon stood still, staring at Adam and Patamon's unmoving forms and the widening puddle of blood which began to form underneath the unconscious boy.

"Aren't you supposed to fight me instead of each other?" Persiamon mocked from a distance before a swirling purple portal materialized above her. She leaped up and the portal vanished. "My work here is done. Ta!"

Devolving back into his composite selves, JD didn't even register the presence of Xianamon, Puspamon and Samudramon from the distance, nor the cries from his father and brother as they ran towards him from the mosque. He slumped on his knees right by Adam, ignoring the blood, shivering as he stared at the weird angle of Adam's right arm – it looked like it had been dismembered completely from Adam's body. _'What…what have I done?'_

xxx

xxx

A decent crowd had gathered at the waiting room near the emergency room at Subang Jaya Medical Hospital that afternoon, consisting of Johan, Leeanna and their three children Jade, Jasmine and JD. Alisha, still in wheelchair, was also present, as well as the other three DigiWira Liu Ying, Manny and Gayathri. All of them had been waiting in silence for the past one and a half hour, after Adam was rushed towards the hospital by the three Wira Digital. Out of all of them, JD looked the most distraught. He had his face buried inside his palms almost all the time, but he wasn't crying, merely avoiding everyone's gaze on him. He'd flat out refused to speak to anyone, and all the while tried his best to avoid Alisha, feeling extremely guilty for the condition he had inflicted upon Adam.

The emergency operation theater's alert light dimmed and everyone looked up in anticipation as two doctors in their blue surgical outfits emerged. They removed their surgical hats and masks, and one of them approached the crowd with a grim look upon his face. It was Dr. Abu, the doctor who had treated Gayathri, and was currently monitoring Alisha's recovery.

"Abu, how's my brother?" Alisha quickly asked the black-haired doctor. If the others noticed that Alisha and the doctor were on first-name basis, they didn't give it a second thought. "Is he alright?"

"He's stable, Lisha," Dr. Abu answered. Relieved sighs were heard from the crowd, but the young doctor held his breath. "But it will take some time for Adam to regain functional use of his right arm again."

"What do you mean?" Alisha asked.

Dr. Abu gazed at Alisha for a moment before answering. "His right shoulder is dislocated and usually in this case there's injury in the axillary nerve and artery. There are tears on his arm muscles, and his radial and ulnar bones are fractured. Luckily it wasn't a comminuted fracture so chances of healing are actually very good. We've also managed to reposition his humeral bone right back into the glenohumeral socket and have assigned external splints and casts to immobilize his forearm and arm, in order to promote healing."

"You've said that his axillary nerve and artery are damaged," Jade spoke up. Being a medical student, he understood Dr. Abu the best out of all the people gathering there. "Would there be any impairment in function and sensation then for his arm and possibly chest muscles?"

Dr. Abu looked somewhat surprised but that soon was replaced by a knowing look – the way Jade spoke made it very clear that he was familiar with medical terms and subjects. "Yes, there might be paralysis of the teres minor and deltoid muscles, so you are correct. It's possible that Adam will experience loss of sensation over his lateral upper arm, and abduction of the shoulder is also impaired."

"But, he's going to be ok?" Johan voiced out his concern.

"Are the damages permanent?" Leeanna clarified, worried of her nephew.

"The prognosis is good for Adam," Dr. Abu answered. "The injured nerve, vessel and muscle will heal in time. The fractured bones will also mend. God-willing, he'll be fine."

"I can attest to that," Alisha murmured, looking at her own cast-bound legs and right forearm, injured from a car accident a little more than a month ago. She couldn't walk yet, nor could she use her right arm properly, but she knew they were healing as days passed. She knew first hand that Dr. Abu was telling the truth, and that comforted her. However, she was disconcerted in how JD was handling all of this. The youngest of her three new cousins hadn't spoken a word, but guilt evidently sparked from his hazel eyes. It was as if JD was putting the blame upon himself, and Alisha could not believe JD to be the one at fault. She had seen JD and Adam every time they came to visit her – the two of them were growing closer and closer. Seeing the two of them sometimes gave her the deja-vu; she was reminded of how Adam and their late brother Aizad had been before the fatal accident. Their bond was evident. Alisha knew JD would not hurt her brother. There had to be an explanation; she would have to ask JD about this later. Inwardly she sighed, thinking that time and time again her family was always placed in this kind of situation. Their parents and brother were lost in an accident, she herself had gotten involved in a car accident, and now Adam was injured due to a Digimon battle.

"He is still unconscious but that's most likely due to the general anesthesia we've administered to him prior to the surgery. He's being transferred to his own room now, as per request of Mr. Johan, and then if you want you can see him." Dr. Abu gave them a nod before walking away.

Everyone murmured their relief, but was surprised when JD stood up abruptly. Without a word he left the crowd.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jasmine called out to her younger brother.

JD turned back and everyone could see the flame in his eyes. "Away. I need some air," he muttered and disappeared around the corridor.

"Away? What kind of answer is that? Be specific for goodness sake," Jasmine grumbled.

His family was left dumbfounded of JD's vague statement, but the DigiWira knew better.

"This can't be good," Manny whispered to the girls. "Remember what happened when JD first snapped out of Karatenmon's control?"

"He burned the whole Cave of Solitude…" Gayathri's voice trailed off. Her eyes widened.

"We better go after him before he does something stupid," Liu Ying said.

xxx

xxx

"What…what do you mean he'd gone away?" Liu Ying asked just thirty minutes later, to a very glum-looking Agumon.

At the hospital, the DigiWira had all tried to use their Juara Digivices to detect JD's Digivice signal and hadn't been surprised to see that JD was no longer around. The blonde teen had probably used any computer inside the hospital – and there were a lot of them there – to go to the Digital World. But they didn't know _which_ computer JD had used to get there – each computer would take them to a different location at the Digital World unless the coordinates to the Forest Sanctum were set. The three DigiWira had arrived at a location south from the Forest Sanctum, and they'd reached the sanctum easily with their Digivolved partners. Once there, they were surprised to find Agumon, alone, entering the jungle shrouding their base of operation.

"I mean exactly what I've said; Josh has gone away, what part of away did you not seem to understand?" Agumon asked bitterly, which was so unlike him.

The DigiWira were reminded that it was Satriamon who'd struck Aldiyamon by accident. Thus JD and Agumon shared the guilt. But why would JD leave Agumon?

"Why did he go?" Gayathri asked soothingly.

Agumon sighed and slumped onto the floor. He looked up at the three DigiWira and their partners, TobuCatmon, and the three ladies of the Lost Mountain, with tear-brimmed eyes. "I'm sorry for my attitude. It's just that…" He gulped, trying to reorganize his words. "Josh…he really cares about Adam, and now this happens. He's been trying so hard this past one month to make sure that Adam is at ease and happy with him. And he's promised that he would never hurt Adam the way he did before. And now, I think with us doing just that, he doesn't know how to deal with this…he told me he wanted to be alone."

"TobuCatmon, can't you use the Sun Staff to see where he is?" Manny asked.

Their mentor nodded and everyone gathered by the staff. It showed JD sitting alone by a secluded cove.

"I know where that is. Azure Cove. JD did say that he liked going there whenever he wanted to think about something undisturbed," Manny said.

"We should go there, then," Gayathri said.

"Wait," Ophanimon said gently. The DigiWira turned their attention towards the regal angel. "JD has left even Agumon; I do not think that now is the time for him to have company as he thinks things over."

"But it's not his fault," Agumon said sorrowfully. "Persiamon…she did that…"

"I know, Agumon. We all do. So does JD. But to him, that doesn't change the fact that it had been Satriamon who'd given Aldiyamon the blow. And based from what you have mentioned about JD and Adam, today's incident has just reopened a wound that's healing," Ophanimon said wisely.

"But he is alone, and that's dangerous," Liu Ying said. "What if the Darkshadow Brethren decides to attack him at this time? He's vulnerable to their attack." She shared a look with Labramon and the two of them nodded. "Labramon and I will go and try to make him see that it's not his fault. Agumon, you can come along if you want."

"What about us?" Manny and Gayathri both said.

Liu Ying gave her teammates a slight smile. "I think I know how to talk things through with JD. You two get ready if the Darkshadow Brethren decide to attack our world. We're one member short and until I can convince JD that he shouldn't blame himself, it'll be up to you two to defend our world, or the Digital World."

xxx

xxx

JD sighed as he lied down on the sandy beach of the Azure Cove. The cove was shady and quiet – just the perfect setting he needed to mull things over. He crossed his arms at the back of his head, using them as pillow and kicked off his boots, letting his toes dig into the sands.

He'd been relieved when Dr. Abu told them that Adam would be alright, but now he was afraid of how Adam would react upon this. Worse, how would Adam react when he knew it was _him_ who did this to him? They had gotten off a real bad start before and JD could recall each and every thing he had done to hurt the younger boy, physically and emotionally. He had almost killed Adam _three_ times – twice at the Megalith Coliseum and once at the Stone Valley. He had seized Adam's White DigiSphere, cutting off Adam's access to his digital power. He had kidnapped Adam and imprisoned him inside the prisons within the dark Cave of Solitude. There he had taunted Adam mercilessly, manipulating the boy's fear for his own pleasure. He'd even beaten Adam up while they were at Shadow Realm. And then, after those physical onslaughts he had proceeded by what he'd termed as mind games. He had extended a false hand of friendship towards Adam, knowing that the betrayal would be even worse for Adam once he knew of JD being the Red ShadoWira. And he had seen how Adam responded during the revelation. For a brief moment, anger, hurt and betrayed was reflected from Adam's storm gray eyes before they were concealed with a look of cold indifference.

And after all that – after their misadventures at the Dark Ocean – Adam had forgiven him. The boy had reiterated that again once they realized the family bond they actually shared.

"_You know, I think you and Manny, and Darth Vader, share one common thing." _

Adam had said that once, when they were on a Star Wars movies marathon. He'd commented how the major villain – Darth Vader – was actually a victim of circumstances. He became evil due to other people's manipulation, and Adam, albeit somewhat sleepily, had mentioned that JD's situation as the Red ShadoWira was similar to Darth Vader, with the only difference that JD was very lucky to be able to snap out of it.

"_You've been given a gift of another chance. It's up to you how you're going to use that chance. You can still blame yourself, or you can start over, turn a new leaf. I'm happy that you've chosen the second one…"_

JD always remembered those words, although he doubted that Adam did; the boy had been so sleepy he was barely hanging on once they were at the third, also the last, movie of the series. He had mulled Adam's words over and over again until he realized that Adam was right. So he began looking for ways to make up for his misdeeds towards his cousin.

He sighed again. He wondered what Adam would think of him once he was awakened from his drug-induced sleep? Probably his mind would block him from recalling the event, but JD had seen the whole thing. He saw how Satriamon's Dragonforce Striker gauntlet struck a heavy blow upon Aldiyamon's forearm. The angel had used his arm to shield himself instead of the more potent Deistic Guard. JD had heard the sound of bone breaking, the sickening sound of how the bone of his arm was pulled out from the socket, the muscle tears, and worse of all, how Aldiyamon screamed in pain because of that. Those sounds would never leave him in peace; they echoed in his mind even right now. That and the sight of Adam in a pool of blood – the claws on his gauntlet were so sharp that it tore Aldiyamon's light armor all the way to the skin, letting out blood. It would probably haunt him forever.

"Is this a private party or can I join you?"

The soft, yet strong female voice caused JD to blink. He saw a shapely shadow approaching him from the back, but he didn't have to look at the newcomer to know who she was. "Xianamon."

Xianamon shimmered in yellow light and devolved into Liu Ying and Labramon. Agumon was also with them, and the dino trotted carefully towards his partner.

"You want to talk about it?" Liu Ying asked as she took a seat beside JD's lying body.

"What's to talk about?" JD sighed glumly. "I hurt him. Hell, I almost took his life again."

"You know better than that," Liu Ying said. "Persiamon's the one who you should blame for this, not yourself. And Adam's alright; the doctor has said that."

"You don't understand. I made a vow to myself that I won't hurt him ever again. I tried so hard to make him like me, trust me, and be comfortable with me. I don't know if I'd get that again after this. Adam would remember this day forever – how _I_ almost took his life again."

"Adam would know that this is not your fault," Liu Ying pointed out. "And you won't lose his trust. That much I can say. You two are so close lately, almost like a pair of brothers. Probably when he wakes up, the first person he'd look for is you."

"Kak Lisha is still around, y'know…"

"Ok, maybe after he's seen Kak Lisha, he'd be looking for you."

"I don't know Liu Ying…truth is I'm too ashamed to face him."

"That's too bad, for both of you. You know, Adam's condition is even better than Kak Lisha," Liu Ying said.

JD gave Liu Ying a curious gaze. "And your point is? The way I see it, he's injured, and I did that to him. He might be okay, but he's almost crippled because of me."

"Look at it this way. Since Adam's condition is better than Kak Lisha, he's going to be discharged sooner than her. He'll return to your house. And there, who do you think Adam would need help the most from? Without a functional right hand, he'll need _your_ help to get through some of his daily activity. Homework, for instance," Liu Ying smiled slightly upon seeing JD's disgusted face.

"Somehow you always find a way to include homework in our conversation…" he muttered.

"Of course that's not the only thing. You can help Adam a lot. As far as I know Adam's right-handed, so he'll need help until his right arm is healed. Eating and writing are probably the two things I could think off right now."

JD thought of Liu Ying's suggestion and nodded. "I could do that…if he let me. If he forgives me…"

"Of course he'll forgive you. Who's he going to ask otherwise for help? You're the closest thing to a brother he has right now."

"You make it sound like Adam has no choice but to forgive me in order for him to ask for my help," JD mumbled.

"Okay, let me reiterate that. You're his family, and clearly he holds you in high regard. It's not your fault so he'll say something like there's nothing to forgive. And knowing Adam, he'll be too shy to ask you to help him so you're the one who has to volunteer."

JD gave Liu Ying a long look. "You seem to know him pretty well."

"I do know him longer than you do," Liu Ying agreed. "But what I've said is something I came up from the way Adam acts. Out of all of us, _you_ probably are the only one who knows him well enough to know what he's thinking. Didn't you always manage to out-prank him?"

The blonde teenager chuckled and the long-haired girl was happy to see that she managed to get through him.

"Now think about it…I mean _really_ think about it. Do you really think Adam would blame you?"

JD considered Liu Ying's question for a moment. His first instinct was to say 'yes' but that would be _his_ response, not Adam's. Adam would say… "No. He won't."

The two teens shared a long glance between one another before realizing that each had been staring at the other longer than they should. Liu Ying pulled away her gaze first, averting it towards the soft waves. She heard a soft rustle and saw JD getting up, now sitting as well instead of lying down. But they didn't speak another word, merely enjoying their company with each other for a moment.

Liu Ying then broke the silence. "Are you ready to go back?"

"I think so," JD said and let out a long exhale. "I think I want to be there when Adam wakes up."

The raven-haired girl smiled. "That's the spirit. Come on, I'll give you a ride on Youkomon."

xxx

xxx

"You're still here?"

JD's eyes shot open when he heard the familiar voice of Adam's sister. He was slumped on the sofa chair inside Adam's ward, and for a moment he blinked. Then he saw Alisha wheeled in by Dr. Abu.

"I thought you'd be home by now," Alisha said with a gentle smile. "It's already eight o'clock night. How long have you been here?"

JD stretched. "Since five thirty, I think. And I'm thinking of spending the night here. Tomorrow's no school, after all."

Alisha looked surprised. "But Adam's still sleeping. Won't you get bored?"

"I don't mind. I just want to be here. It's kinda awkward not having him around the house anyway." It was the truth, but not the real truth. JD still hadn't explained to Alisha what had actually happened. In fact, JD doubted that Alisha even knew his and Adam's history.

Alisha somehow sensed that there was more to it than what JD had mentioned. She glanced up towards the doctor. "Abu, I'll be alright here with Josh."

The doctor nodded. "I'll be just at the doctor's counter." He stepped out from the room, closing the door softly, leaving Alisha and JD.

"What's up with you and the doctor?" JD suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" Alisha asked back.

JD shrugged. "Dunno. You guys look chummier than just a doctor-patient kind of relationship."

"If you must know…he was my senior when we were at University Malaya. He was a final year med student when I first enrolled in as a first year. He was my mentor, of sorts, even though I was a computer science student." Alisha then stared at JD. "But we're not going to talk about myself and Abu. I actually wanted to ask you about this accident. The authorities claimed that you two have been caught in the middle of a Digimon battle, but I know better."

JD gulped. Alisha continued. "Did the evil Digimon attack Adam?"

The teen shook his head. "No. It was me."

Alisha let out a small gasp. Then she frowned, looking absolutely unconvinced. "Somehow, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and let you explain even further…"

And so, with his chance given, JD outlined the whole detail of the battle with Persiamon to Alisha. To his relief, Alisha understood his situation and didn't blame him.

"You shouldn't be hard towards yourself," she said, after JD told her about how he'd thought that Adam would hate him when he woke up. "I doubt my little brother would hate you." She gazed at JD for a while, as if seeing JD in a different light. With a melancholic smile, she added,"Truth is, you remind me of Aizad in some ways. Did Adam ever mention to you about him?"

JD wondered whether Alisha knew what had happened between Adam and the Puaka Generals. He shook his head. "No…not really. It was rather a sore topic, after all that happened…" He explained briefly about the Puaka Generals' exploitations, and for a moment Alisha was dumbfounded. The Puaka Generals' deception really was complicated and well-thought off, almost foolproof and unbelievably real.

"He never told me that…"

"You were in a coma, remember?" JD said. "And I think he doesn't want to worry you. You still need a lot of recovering. He wants you to focus on that instead of worrying over him."

"I'm his sister and his remaining direct family. Worrying over him is what I do." Alisha shook her head sadly. "I pity Adam, really. He's forced to grow up so quickly after our parents and Aizad passed away. All these years, I've _never_, not even once, seen him cry. It was really weird because if you know Adam before the accident, he didn't keep his emotions inside of him. You could always hear him whine or cry whenever Aizad's teasing got a little out of hand. But he never shed a single tear when the three of them passed away. I have a feeling that he thinks that he needs to be strong for me."

JD listened silently to his elder cousin, intent on getting to know her and Adam a bit more than how much Adam would willingly tell him. He had never heard a single detail about Adam's past life when his parents and brother were alive, and JD felt like kicking himself on the head for not even thinking of asking Adam about it. He always thought that it was a sore topic for Adam. What if Adam actually wanted someone for him to share this? Even his best friend Hakim didn't seem to know a lot more than JD already did. JD realized of how little actually he knew about Adam.

Alisha yawned once and covered her mouth quickly with her hands. "Great, the antibiotics are making me sleepy again." She wheeled towards the door and JD helped her open the door. Once they were outside, Alisha grasped JD's hand, to the blonde's surprise. "Josh… look out for Adam, okay? He's never been as happy as I've seen him this past one month ever since our parents and brother's passing. Whatever you were doing to him, it's good. He might not know it, nor would he admit to it, but I have a feeling that he needs you a lot more than he knows it. Try to get him to talk about Aizad. He might want to appear strong to me, although it's completely unnecessary…I'm the older sister, but I suspect it's the whole thing about a-brother-must-protect-his-sister kind of thing. But of course, Adam's always closer to Aizad than me, because I was away almost all the time when he was growing up. I went to boarding school at his age, but Aizad grew up together with Adam. They were inseparable. And now…now I'm seeing that bond again with the two of you. Talk with him, ok? I have a feeling that he might open up to you."

JD was stunned of how much Alisha trusted him in looking out for Adam, especially after he'd admitted to his misdeeds. His heart swelled with pride. He nodded once with fierce determination. "I will Kak Lisha. Don't worry."

Alisha smiled and nodded. "I'm happy that you two have met. Do say 'Hi' to him if he wakes up when I'm asleep, ok?"

"Sure thing, Kak Lisha. Do you want me to wheel you back to your room?"

"It's alright. Abu will do that for me." At this, Alisha smiled a bit wider than before. "Between the both of us; Abu and I actually _almost_ became a couple when we were at university…but that was before the accident. I withdrew from the relationship and these past few years I've never kept in touch with him. I kind of have a feeling that he wants to continue where we've left things off."

JD blinked. His own sister had never shared any detail of her relationships with her boyfriends and they have known each other for sixteen years. And Alisha, whom he'd known for the past one month, and had gotten to know better only for the last thirty minutes, was sharing with him something that he was sure that Adam didn't know about. All of a sudden he became fond of the beautiful woman and grinned. "I say go for it."

Alisha smiled and JD watched as Dr. Abu took over the wheel from him. He had to admit that the two of them did appear to have some chemistry. Shaking his head, he went back in, noting that Agumon, Patamon, Salamon and Gatomon were all still asleep despite the fact that JD and Alisha had been talking for the past half an hour. He got settled back on his chair and read the manga he'd brought from home.

Suddenly a groan was heard and JD froze. He glanced sideways slowly and saw that Adam was blinking. His left fingers were slowly tapping the bed, as if trying to ascertain where he was at. The boy saw JD and to the blonde's relief, he smiled warmly at him. Quickly JD got up and went by his side.

"You're awake! Adam, you've just missed Kak Lisha. She was here a few minutes ago but she had to go back because she's sleepy too."

Adam considered what JD had said before gazing at him intently with his doe eyes. He made a motion to move before an odd expression crossed his face. He looked at his right arm, at the splint fixated on it, the bandages and plaster of Paris that were covering it, and for a moment JD saw a look of recognition graced the young boy's face. JD had expected to see the boy flinch fearfully or stare at him with hatred, but none of those appeared at his face. Instead, Adam made a gesture for JD to come closer. Bracingly the teen did as Adam was requested and was surprised when Adam placed his good left arm around his neck in a semi-embrace.

"Don't blame yourself, Josh. I kind of have a feeling that you did so earlier. It's not your fault…"

JD was about to reply when he realized that Adam had dozed off once again. Gently he pulled Adam away from their semi-embrace position and laid him back on his bed. Subconsciously the dark-haired boy grasped his fingers, and JD had a fleeting memory of a baby grasping his fingers when he was young, not really knowing whether it was a figment of his imagination or a real experience which had laid dormant in his mind.

Adam's words gave him the peace he needed for the time being. It was enough for now. But he would _only_ feel completely at peace when he'd given Persiamon her just desserts.

xxx

xxx

_**Author's Notes:**_

This chapter and the next one definitely focus on JD, with glimpses of his relationships with other person around him. Here we get to see how he is with Adam, Liu Ying and Alisha. Some parts of this chapter are an extension of Chapter 35: Silver Lining, with some references being made from that chapter (check it back if you missed the references). Throughout the story you've seen how JD and Adam evolve from fake friends and bitter enemies, to reconciled friends, then cousins, and ultimately best of friends and brothers by the end of Wira Digital. The same is true for JD and Liu Ying, from enemies to friends and for now I think I've placed subtle hints but never really spoken out loud about their status. So the first part is a character-developing chapter – the next part will be all the actions are! So stay tuned.

Check out the blog for an entry about JD.

P/S: For those of you who are waiting to see the Saintly Siblings' role in the story, the next chapter will show the manifestation of their power.

P/S no.2: I've made up two of Persiamon's attacks in order to make her deadlier. Her 'fire cats' and 'ribbons' attacks are inspired from how Quinton Notwen portrayed her in his fic: Genesis of an Adventure.


	43. A DigiWira Catastrophe, Part II

"Remind me not to let you help me eat in future," Adam grumbled.

"Aw, why not?" JD asked and thrust a spoonful of rice and chicken into his mouth. Then he spooned some vegetable soup and gulped it down.

"Because _I'm_ the one who's supposed to eat, not you."

JD raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I thought we've agreed doing the 'taking turns' thing now? There's only one plate of rice and there are two of us." JD smirked and spooned the last portion of rice and chicken on the plate, and held it in front of his cousin's mouth. "And now it's your turn. Open wide!"

Adam grimaced as he ate the rice. "Taking turns as in, one to me and _four_ to you?" He looked at the empty plate of rice, empty plate of bowl which used to have soup, and the half-empty glass of juice that stood at the corner of the tray. His face fell when JD gulped the juice down to the last drop. "Look at what you've done!"

JD looked at the plate and sheepishly grinned. "Oh…heh, heh…" He observed growing irritation gracing Adam's face. "Sorry about that. I haven't eaten since last night, y'know…I was famished."

"Humph."

"Okay…how about I get you something from the cafeteria to make up for it?"

Adam considered his cousin's offer and a small smile appeared on his face. "I want _char kuey teow_ and soya bean drink. And doughnuts for dessert."

"Now that's what I call taking advantage of the situation," JD pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest with a frown. His eyes caught movement from the corner of the room – Agumon, Patamon and the Saintly Siblings had just woken up, probably from the noise their mild bantering was causing. He suppressed a sigh; they were bound to get hungry too. Maybe he had to stretch out all the money in his wallet to get all of them some food.

Adam shrugged. "If you didn't…" He was stopped short when a soft knock was heard from the door. The cousins shifted their eyes towards the door, which was opened tentatively. Adam couldn't see who was at the door but seeing the four Digimon dropping their puppet acts as soon as they'd assumed it, Adam knew that the visitor must be someone who knew about them. He saw JD arching his head back slightly before a sly grin came over his rugged face.

"Well what do you know… come on in," he said and stood up. "Look who's here, Adam."

Footsteps were heard and Adam felt his breath blown away upon seeing a pretty dark-haired girl in light violet chemise and a knee-length white jeans. She was holding a small package of chocolates and was smiling shyly at Adam and JD. She was alone and looked somewhat gauche upon being stared by the two boys. "Umm…hi."

"Dina!" Adam thought out loud, and briefly shot JD an accusing look as he nervously tugged on the medical gown he was wearing. JD shrugged, looking baffled for a briefest time before the sly grin returned.

"I'm gonna get those things you ordered now ok?" JD sprinted out before Adam could protest. He laughed as he closed the door, liking how this day turned out to be.

It had been just an hour ago when he'd contemplated on what he should be doing while waiting for Adam to wake up. After his brief awakening that night before, Adam had slept through the whole night and only awakened around eight that Saturday morning. The brief awkwardness JD thought he'd feel faded when the nurse brought in Adam's breakfast, and the boy had contemplated on eating his meal with his left hand – something he'd never attempted before as it was considered generally improper for their culture. The boy had shrugged it off then and decided to use his left hand anyway, only to find it really awkward. That quickly had reminded JD of what Liu Ying had said the previous day, and he'd offered his help. The stunned look on Adam's face upon hearing the offer was priceless.

He however hadn't counted on Dina visiting Adam that morning. What was up with that? Ever since Gayathri's two friends were made known of the fact of the DigiWira, he'd noticed a consistent change in Adam's daily timetable. He'd spend about an hour or so daily – while JD had his afternoon nap usually – chatting away with someone at the computer. That had struck JD as odd as Adam seldom chatted online, but he'd found out soon enough from Gayathri that the girl had given Adam's Yahoo Messenger ID to Dina, and vice versa. That had instigated the two into chatting, but funnily enough they never really talked much when they were at school. Online however, they appeared to be friendly. JD could attest to that, based on one or two chat conversations he'd managed to glimpse over – the two talked online about pretty much anything, which almost surprised him. How on earth could two people be so tongue-tied face to face yet yakked like there was no tomorrow when hidden within the world of virtual reality?

'_Kinda cute though,'_ JD thought with a grin as he stepped into the hospital's cafeteria. He purposely took his own time buying the food Adam wanted before making his way back. But as he crossed the foyer, a frown crossed his face before a soft growl escaped his mouth. _'What the hell are THEY doing here?'_

xxx

xxx

"What brings you here, Dina?" Adam said, after a brief moment of bashful silence. He beckoned for the single-sitter sofa. "Please, have a seat."

"Gaya told me what happened so the three of us thought of visiting you this morning," Dina explained as she took a seat. She played with the chocolate she'd brought, cheeks tinted slightly. Then she looked up, and as she adjusted a stray dark lock to the back of her ear, she continued, "Actually we've agreed yesterday to meet straightaway at the hospital's foyer at nine. But when I got here none of them are still here."

"Oh…did you try calling them?" Adam asked.

"Bel called me and said that she needed to go to her grandma's house all of a sudden. I called Gaya – she's just woken up. And I thought, since I'm already here I might as well come up and visit you. And…" Dina handed the chocolate to Adam with a smile. "Hope you like Ferrero Roche."

Adam accepted the gift, beaming. "Thanks. This one's my favorite actually…"

"Really? Mine, too." Dina chuckled.

Adam looked at the chocolate contemplatively before untying the small blue ribbon that was tied around the small package. He then opened the package and took out the three chocolates there, handing one of them to Dina. "Here. Why don't we share the chocolate?"

"I'd like that." She took one of the chocolate. "Another one is for you and the other for your cousin."

"Nope. Both are for me. That'll teach him not to eat my breakfast." Without a second thought Adam unwrapped and gulped down both chocolates at once, and Dina giggled.

Suddenly the door sprang open and the two friends saw a black-haired woman dressed in smart red suit with a stylish pair of glasses walked in, along with a wire-haired thin cameraman. Adam frowned; he recognized these two, having met them twice.

"Hello there. We meet again," Rita Kaur greeted him with a sugary tone, remembering Adam quite well. The boy was with that Chang Liu Ying girl and the unknown tall handsome blonde when they'd staked out outside the school to get an exclusive interview with the Chang girl. Something seemed to have set off the blonde boy, and he had punched poor Chia's video-camera. Rita was glad that the blonde boy was currently nowhere in sight. That would leave her free to get her interview with the boy who'd allegedly been caught in the crossfire between Digimon battle just outside the main mosque of USJ Subang Jaya the previous day. "Adam Ariff isn't it?" she asked Adam before her eyes fell on Dina, who fidgeted nervously upon being under her sharp scrutiny. "And who is your friend? Is she your girlfriend? How sweet of her to come and visit you. Chia, get this on tape."

"Right away, Miss Kaur!"

That remark caused both Adam and Dina to blush furiously. Rita took advantage of this and quickly sat on the bed by Adam's foot, despite being uninvited. She eyed Adam's bandaged and immobilized right arm with a spark on her dark eyes. "Did a Digimon inflict that injury on you? You poor thing. Do you suffer broken bones? What did the doctors tell you about your injury?"

The door slammed open again and this time Adam was glad to see who it was.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" JD yelled angrily and stomped in. He was red in the face; not a good sign, Adam thought.

Seeing him, Chia the cameraman yelped and moved out of the boy's way. However JD stopped just by him and saw he was recording the whole thing.

"Got it repaired already?" Without warning he punched the lens, at the same time pushing the smaller-framed cameraman towards the wall from the force of his punch. Sounds of shattered glass echoed the single ward, and everyone sans JD winced.

"You can't do that!" Chia protested, looking as if he was about to cry as he inspected the damage sustained by the videocamera.

JD eyed his slightly bleeding right knuckle and smirked. "Funny. Thought I just did it! Now get the hell out of here!" he barked, causing Rita Kaur to jump from Adam's bed. A scowl appeared on the woman's face but he didn't care. He was getting too irritated with these two. First they'd been pestering Liu Ying about her kidnapping, and now they were going to pursue his cousin? Not a chance.

"Who are you?" Rita Kaur demanded. "Unless you are a family, and I certainly do not see a resemblance, you have no right to order us to get out! Furthermore I do not see or hear Adam protesting."

JD raised his bleeding knuckle and pointed with his thumb towards himself. "Guess what? I AM his family. His cousin, to be precise. And his sister has personally asked me to watch over him right now. So I get to kick your butts outta here if I want to!"

Rita deflated at the declaration, but decided to try to talk things out with this angry teen. Perhaps she could persuade the boy to see her way. If she could get him to agree for an interview, then Adam Ariff certainly wouldn't deny her the privilege. "Why so angry…what is your name again?"

JD snorted. "Look lady, I'm not interested in doing any damn interview. Now take a hint and scram before those glasses of yours suffer the same fate as your friend's camera." He gave the shorter woman a glare, relishing in seeing the alarmed look on the woman's face. The cameraman behind him was still whimpering about his broken camera. To intimidate them even further, JD cracked both knuckles and tried hard not to wince as pain shot out from his injured right knuckle.

The door sprung open again and this time it was Dr. Abu. "What's all the commotion…" His tired face instantly looked alarmed. "Reporters? _Here?"_ A scandalized look crossed his face. "Please step out from the ward right now. You're disturbing my patient and I suggest you to leave, now."

"The people want to know what is going on and I am trying to do my work here!" Rita shot back. She stepped towards the doctor and whipped out her notepad. "Now, as Adam's doctor perhaps you can give some insight of the injuries sustained by the boy, and…"

"Don't make me call security," Dr. Abu deadpanned with a tone of finality. He gave a nod towards a nurse who was passing by, and the nurse darted towards the counter.

Rita Kaur huffed with annoyance. "No need to do that; we will show our own way out. Chia, come!"

Dr. Abu and JD watched the reporters' retreating figures with equal looks of distaste. Then the doctor saw that JD's hand was injured and asked the blonde to follow him to the infirmary to get it looked upon. JD didn't protest, but gave Adam the bag of foods he'd been carrying along with him throughout the whole commotion before he followed the doctor.

"Wow, Adam…" Dina said with admiration when the door was closed before she burst into giggles. "JD….he's really something isn't he? I'd thought that he somehow mellowed down when you two announced that you are cousins, but apparently he only does that with you and the other DigiWira." She giggled. "Those reporters learned their lessons the hard way, I think. Maybe they should've done their homework more; then they'll know that no one messes with your cousin."

Adam nodded with a smile, thinking how great it was for him to have JD as his cousin, despite some of the blonde's quirks. JD entered the room after ten minutes, with a bandaged right knuckle and his trademark lopsided grin.

"Looks like we both gonna have to learn to do things with our left hands for a while," he remarked. "C'mon, let's eat! Dina, join us; I bought food enough for all of us." He turned around and saw hopeful looks from four Digimon. "Yeah, you guys too, c'mon." He took out a large box filled with sugar-raised doughnuts and gave it to Agumon, and the dino scooted over to a table where Patamon, Salamon and Gatomon instantly pounced at him happily.

Dina looked around the room with a small smile, admiring the dynamic shared between Adam and JD, and them with the Digimon. She felt a little left out in this setting, but had to remind herself that she now was included in the DigiWira's strong circle of friends. And didn't JD ask her to join them eat?

"Thanks for inviting me eat," she said and took a doughnut as Adam began eating his char kuey teow, while at the same time swatting JD's hands which attempted to grab on some of the food. She thought that it was a very endearing sight to watch.

Unbeknownst to her, at that very same time, her two best friends were currently sharing a phone conversation.

"Did you do as we planned out yesterday night?"

"Yeah. And Gaya, you owe me! I really was looking forward to go to the hospital!"

"Oh hush! We both know it's not Adam you wanted to visit."

"Yeah. JD Kamaruzaman is going to be there… I could've caught him getting out of the shower once again. You know I've had a couple of dreams about him…"

"Eww Bel, spare me the details. Anyway, that freaky new obsession of yours aside, this time I wanted to make sure that those two – Adam and Dina – get some time of their own. Both are just too shy to ask each other out; it's totally up to us to set them up. They're already chatting online, thanks to me. Maybe this will get them to see that they're meant for each other."

"Oh, like you and Manny?"

"Hmmm…. Anyway, want to go for breakfast? My treat."

"Where?"

"I think McDonalds still have their Mc-Breakfast thingy now. Meet me there in ten minutes okay? After that we can go to the hospital."

"Sure. See you there. Bye."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 43 – A DigiWira Catastrophe, Part II**_

xxx

xxx

"Aldiyamon is down for the count," Persiamon said with a flourish tone as she flexed her gleaming claws repeatedly, enjoying how they glinted amidst the darkness of the main hall of the Onyx Pyramid. "With only four Wira Digital left, perhaps we can win this battle without having to wait for the Puaka Generals to achieve their Ultimate forms."

"I may be able to know your plan without you saying it, but do enlighten our brethren about it," Lucemon noted simply from the stone throne he was sitting on, gesturing towards Doumon, Shawujinmon and Astamon. The Puaka Generals Devidramon and Devimon were notably absent, but that was simply because they were training to regain their Ultimate forms. Lucemon hoped that it would be quick; to make sure that they were able to do so he had to allow them fighting some of the released servants, and more often than not the Puaka Generals ended up deleting them in the process.

"Of course. They _are_ included in my plan, after all, since we're so lacking good Digimon grunts, thanks to the Puaka Generals and those wretched old ladies of that Lost Mountain," Persiamon huffed. "Until Mystimon and Jetsilphymon return with more of the Master's servants, we're pretty much on our own." She paused, seemingly considering her next words. Her emerald eyes met Lucemon's ice blues. "And I think we better save up what servants we have left for your grandeur plan when the Puakas are Mephistomon and Phelesmon once again. Besides…" she returned her gazes towards the other three Darkshadow Brethren. "Without their Light-based leader, the Wira Digital can't defeat us if we attack them together at once."

Astamon and Shawujinmon exchanged glances while Doumon considered Persiamon's words. Each of them had a score to settle with three particular Wira Digital, with them having suffered humiliating defeat against the champions of good. It didn't help that Persiamon had successfully taken on not one, but _two_, Wira Digital at the same time, and ended up having one of them gravely injured. _How_ she managed to do that was another matter that impressed them. Although apparently the human boy and the Patamon that composed Aldiyamon were not destroyed, with them out of the way they only needed to face four Wira Digital. Each Darkshadow Brethren was on par with each Wira Digital; the Wira Digital only won with better luck and better teamwork.

Persiamon's plan was excellent. It was time for _them_ to attack the Wira Digital as a team.

"Explain away, Persiamon dear," Doumon said.

xxx

xxx

That afternoon, Dina had already gone back as she would be going out with her family, but Adam's list of visitors expanded. His sister had dropped in after Dina had stepped out before she went to her physiotherapy sessions. His Uncle Johan and Aunt Leeanna had come as well, bringing some extra sets of clothes for him and JD, before going out to Kuala Lumpur. The other DigiWira and Belinda Foo came to visit him thereafter, and they were with him and his cousin right now.

"You should've been here this morning," Adam noted, grinning at JD before shifting his attention towards Liu Ying. "Remember that reporter Rita Kaur, Liu Ying?"

"How could I forget?" Liu Ying said with an exasperated sigh. "She hounded me for a week after the kidnapping. It's a good thing JD managed to drive them away…wait a minute. JD, why's your hand bandaged, again?"

JD chuckled. "Oops, I did it again," he merely said, before the cousins laughed.

"You mean they came here?" Manny said, understanding what JD had insinuated. "And you…"

"Broke that cameraman's videocam again?" Gayathri saw JD's grin became wider.

"Does your hand hurt?" Belinda asked, observing JD's bandaged hand.

"Nah, don't worry about it. It can't be any worse than Adam's." JD patted Adam's right arm lightly – with him having made peace with the incident that led to Adam's fractured arm, he was now at ease and was able to make comment as such. The other DigiWira were glad to see it, but their smiles faded when they saw Adam frown. The frown intensified as a low grunt escaped Adam's mouth, followed by a soft, pained gasp. The boy was blinking rapidly. Seeing his friends' change of expressions JD looked down and saw Adam looking to be in pain. His eyes widened and inwardly, he swore, thinking that he'd inflicted Adam pain with his light gesture. "Oh no! Adam…sorry 'bout that. Did I…"

"No, it wasn't you…" Adam said through gritted teeth as his good left hand clutched his bandaged arm. He closed his eyes tight and began to shiver. "The pain…I'm beginning to feel it. I haven't felt it before but now…" He was sweating profusely and the other DigiWira, Digimon, and Belinda didn't know what else to do. "It…hurts…"

'_Damnit. Where's that nurse…'_ JD slammed a red button on top of Adam's bed. "Nurse!" he hollered at the intercom.

No sooner than a minute a nurse walked in and saw Adam's condition. "Oh dear. The pain's coming back. Hold on." The nurse rushed towards the infirmary and returned with two medication tablets inside a small plastic cup and a glass of water. "Here, take this. It'll help ease the pain."

Adam took the medicine without question and soon his ragged breath steadied as he felt the pain in his arm slowly diminishing. He took a tissue from Liu Ying and promptly wiped the sweat of his relieved face, seeing the scared looks from his friends' faces vanishing. Even the Digimon – in their puppet modes – were wide-eyed. Patamon and Agumon were actually restraining Salamon and Gatomon, who looked like they were about to pounce on top of his bed – the Saintly Siblings were pretty much as attached to him as Patamon was. He looked up at JD and saw the blonde teen still had that transfixed look in his hazel eyes.

"Don't worry…I feel fine now," Adam assured.

"It will ease up the pain for the next couple of hours," the nurse informed. "It will be like this for the next two to four weeks, depending on how fast your broken bones need to rejoin. The medicines I've just given you are painkillers but it's important for you to know how exactly you need to take these medicine to avoid being dependent on them. Dr. Abu will explain it to you as soon as he's finished with his afternoon rounds, okay?"

Adam nodded. "Alright. Thank you, nurse." The nurse nodded in return and excused herself.

"You gave us quite a scare there," Manny said, after a minute of silence. He sat down at the corner of the bed, beside Adam's left foot. "These pains can be pretty nasty too, especially for the next few weeks. My cousin once fell of his motorbike and he fractured his arm. I remember him sometimes crying out at nights, when the painkillers' effects wore off. But it was a couple of years ago, and now he's alright. He's back on the bike, much to my aunt's displeasure." He smiled comfortingly towards Adam, who looked glad – that meant that he would heal and regain the function of his fractured arm. That set him at ease.

But the story, and the pain incident, didn't bode well with JD. He'd interpreted them in a completely opposite angle. To him, it meant that Adam would feel pain from time to time, because of something _he_ had done. It hadn't crossed his mind that Adam would be experiencing recurrent pain; he'd thought that the surgery would take care of that. He'd just made peace of what he had accidentally done to Adam, but if he would be reminded of it from time to time, how could he really do that? The guilt would just keep on coming back every time the pain returned.

Without a word, JD walked out of the room, leaving the others stunned.

"Was it something I said?" Manny wondered, wincing as he heard the door slammed shut.

Adam sighed, knowing what was on his cousin's mind. "No, it wasn't you," he assured Manny. He felt his head becoming heavy slightly and yawned.

"Looks like the painkiller's side effect is taking over," Manny noted. "Sleepy?"

"Very and suddenly." Adam pressed his temples. He gazed sleepily at his friends. "I'll be ok…but can you guys talk to Josh? He's seeing this in a very glass-half-empty sort of way…" He yawned again.

"Sure, Adam," Liu Ying said. "Don't worry. He'll come around. I suppose seeing you in pain just set off his guilt."

"Guilt? Why?" Belinda asked, confused. The other DigiWira had told her of the accident, but not the nitty-gritty detail of _how_ Adam was injured. She looked at Gayathri with a questioning expression. "It's not like its JD who hurts Adam, right?"

The DigiWira were very glad that JD was not around to hear that. They bid Adam goodbye, collected Agumon with them just in case, and went to look for JD.

xxx

xxx

JD stepped out of the hospital with a frustrated look. At times like this, an old habit he'd thought he had successfully kicked off threatened to rise back. It was lucky that the hospital condemned selling cigarettes or JD might have smoked one right now. Then he shook his head; he'd promised himself and his friends that he wouldn't smoke again. Fists clenched, he now resisted the urge to punch the wall – Dr. Abu had told him to take it easy with his right hand.

He saw several passer-bys giving him strange looks and glared at them. '_What's their problem?' _He thought angrily as he sat down at the stairs, observing the calming garden and the full parking lot.

"JD!"

JD didn't bother turning to look at the voices that were calling him. He heard rushed footsteps approaching the stairs where he was sitting and soon the shadows of four people shrouded him, shielding him from the afternoon sunlight. Still he didn't bother to look up.

"Don't bother telling me what to think. If you've been in my place, and you have to see someone close to you in pain like that because of what you've done, then only talk to me. If not, just shut the hell up."

JD's hostility took everyone by surprise but they soon saw past that, knowing what was eating him.

Suddenly, the ground shook. It wasn't an earthquake but it was enough to cause everyone to panic. People scampered about and cars screeched into a halt, two almost knocked upon each other right in front of the hospital's gate. Some of the medical staffs outside the hospital immediately assisted some patients who were taking the outside air back inside.

"Earthquake?" Belinda wondered.

"Quakes don't happen in Malaysia!" Gayathri gasped as the ground shook again.

A dark blue portal opened and to JD's dismay a familiar feminine figure stepped out from it. She took a moment to assess her surroundings, grinning underneath the veil she wore upon the frightened screams of the people as they rushed towards the hospital. Without much consideration she flicked her hand and released streams of crimson energy ribbons haphazardly. One blasted through a car's windows, shattering them to pieces. One wrapped around a bike and crashed it against a family minivan. Another sliced a tree and it collapsed onto the hospital garden which was fortunately abandoned. Two ribbons wrapped around an electric pole near the guardhouse before yanking it off the ground, causing it to collapse upon the guardhouse. She smirked when her eyes found her target.

"Aha! I was wondering where all of you are!" Persiamon said delightfully. "Oh, still not the whole litter, but understandable."

"Blasted bitch! What the hell are you doing here?!" JD roared furiously.

"Bel, go inside the hospital right now," Gayathri nudged her best friend. Without arguing Belinda ran towards the automatic door and Gayathri kept close watch on her friend, afraid that Persiamon would attack her. She was relieved to see Bel made it inside the hospital safely, with some other people. The hospital compound was completely deserted now except for the DigiWira and the Virago General.

"_Labramon, Agumon, Access!"_

"_Penguinmon, Access!"_

"_Floramon, Access!"_

JD was glad to see that Liu Ying had brought Agumon along with her; it saved him a trip of going back up. Without much thought he took out his own Digivice and roared, _**"Digital Access Digivolution…"**_ By this time the others joined him as they shouted together, _**"HAAA!!!"**_

Satriamon, Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon appeared within showers of bright multicolored lights, ready for battle against what seemed to be their biggest threat yet. With a roar Satriamon charged towards Persiamon, his whole body coated in raging flames and his gauntlet glinted, reflecting the sunlight. He leaped into the air and loomed over the Virago General with the utmost intention to delete her before she could do harm to anyone else. _"Dragonforce Striker!!"_

Before Satriamon's gauntlet managed to make contact with Persiamon, an opaque purple barrier materialized in front of the general and it stunned Satriamon with dark-powered thunderbolts. Satriamon was thrown off effortlessly as the barrier lowered down. Persiamon smirked, and another portal opened above her. From it, Astamon, Shawujinmon and Doumon descended.

"Prepare for your doom, Wira Digital!" Persiamon declared. "Four of us Darkshadow Brethren are here; you won't stand a chance!"

The formerly peaceful hospital compound was instantly transformed into a battlefield as the Darkshadow Brethren began attacking the Wira Digital. Astamon and Shawujinmon started the assault and were immediately countered by Puspamon and Samudramon. Xianamon quickly released her clone; one of them would raise a force-field to prevent the hospital from sustaining damage while the other would battle Doumon. After a brief arguing it was decided for the more reckless clone to be the one battling Doumon as Xianamon didn't think her duplicate would have the patience to stay put for a long time. And finally it was obvious that Satriamon would go for Persiamon once again, with an intention to kill.

Shawujinmon slammed his Demon Quelling Staff onto the road and water pillars burst out from the crack. Samudramon quickly manipulated the pillars so that they would slam upon the Kappa General, but Shawujinmon raised a water field to prevent any attacks from harming him. Exasperated, Samudramon summoned his Divine Rain to weaken the water barrier before charging through it. Angrily the general slammed his metal staff upon the merman but Samudramon blocked it with his own trident which began to crackle with electricity. Underneath his azure helmet his eyes sprout lightning, but Shawujinmon was unaware of it. Samudramon had the advantage against the Kappa General, with him controlling the element of thunder as well as water. With his trident he locked Shawujinmon's staff, instigating a battle of strength between the two evenly-matched Digimon.

"Do you know what will happen to a toad that's struck by lightning?" Samudramon taunted Shawujinmon, quoting from a movie which was one of Manny's favorites.

Shawujinmon grunted at the mockery of his form and pushed further, not bothering to answer the Wira Digital.

"The same thing that'll happen to anything else…" Samudramon murmured and withdrew his trident. Utilizing his Ninjutsu skill and a basic Capoiera move JD had taught him, Samudramon made a midair back flip and slammed his foot onto Shawujinmon's belly. The Kappa General was thrown off balance and Samudramon lowered the water pillar he was using to hoist himself up. The crackles of lightning on his trident intensified as he pointed it towards the falling general. _"Double Edged Thunderblades…Powered Up Mode!!" _

An electric-blue dragon coiled out from Samudramon's trident and for a moment hovered in midair, letting out intense lightning. The sky darkened momentarily, further enhancing the ferocity of the dragon. Then it roared – its roar similar to a booming thunder – and shot towards Shawujinmon. The Kappa General saw the looming dragon and panicked, trying to quench it with his staff. Samudramon willed his hydrokinetic power and showered Shawujinmon with water, which would make his thunder dragon deadlier. The dragon roared again right before it approached Shawujinmon, disorienting the general with the earsplitting sound before it coiled around him. Shawujinmon shrieked as the thunder dragon electrocuted him full-force. He struggled to break free and managed to do so with Doumon's interference.

"_Thousand Curses!!" _Doumon let out scrolls upon the thunder dragon and it roared before diminishing out of sight. Shawujinmon was spared, but he was in no condition to fight anymore. Doumon was about to attack Samudramon before Xianamon II intercepted him.

"Hey old coot! Your battle is with me, not him!" The wayward sorceress in blue pointed her palm towards the priest fox. _"Soul Freezing Needles!!"_

"_Talisman Star!!"_ Doumon's talisman blade knocked away his opponent's poisonous needles.

"_Jade Needles!!"_

Doumon looked up and saw the real Xianamon now above him, showering him with her own brand of poisonous needles. Surprised, he was struck by them and felt bee stings creeping all over his body, which was soon quenched by his own power to nullify spells. He watched warily as Xianamon and Xianamon II hovered beside each other, both letting out their fly whisks simultaneously. With an irate grunt the Shaman General summoned his paintbrush and drew a symbol with rapid ease, intent on defeating his opponents as quickly as possible.

"_Talisman of Night!"_

"Double whammy?" Xianamon II asked with a smirk as the symbol Doumon had created shone with lavender light, permeating dark aura at the same time.

"Whatever that means, you're on. _Diamond World…_"

"_Matrix World…"_

"…_.MANDALA!!!"_

The two Xianamon crossed their fly whisks together and summoned their potent magical finishers. First the Diamond World Mandala was projected behind them and it let out showers of golden and blue energy waves with a rainbow of violet diamond-shaped projectiles. Then the Matrix World Mandala appeared behind the energy-spewing Diamond World Mandala and burst with white energy waves and ruby projectiles. The two magical powers fused and the resulted attack was a myriad burst of power which easily shattered the Talisman of Night before slamming forcefully upon Doumon. The energy carried Doumon all the way towards the sky before an explosion of light took place similar to fireworks. When the light subsided Doumon's lifeless form fell from the sky. In the meantime both Xianamon vanished, replaced by Liu Ying and Labramon who were both balanced on Samudramon's arms.

Similar to how the Final Purification technique would affect Aldiyamon, the Mega-class _Diamond Matrix World Mandala_ also weakened Xianamon, causing her to revert back to her composite forms. But it was worth it; Doumon was very powerful and with him defeated the Wira Digital only had Astamon and Persiamon to worry about. Samudramon, Liu Ying and Labramon then winced upon hearing an earsplitting feminine scream coming from the air above – where an airborne battle took place between Puspamon and Astamon.

"Sweetheart, can't we talk about this?" Astamon taunted as he avoided Puspamon's attempt to slap him over the face. He seized Puspamon's wrist and backhanded her.

Angrily Puspamon summoned her Hibiscus Hurricane, trying to fling the perverted demon away. But the demon's grasp upon her was so strong the hurricane had almost no effect on him. She tried writhing, kicking and screaming, but still Astamon was persistent. Then she gasped upon seeing Astamon placing a knife beside her throat.

"Your friends might have won but I have another way to win this battle, sweetheart," Astamon murmured near her ear, causing her to gag upon the disgusting smell of alcohol which permeated from his breath. "Try anything and it'll be the end of you. As quick as you can summon your power, I doubt it's quick enough to stop my hand from slitting your throat."

Puspamon snorted disgustedly. "You dirty demon…you'll be sorry for this!"

"Sorry? Right now, I'm loving this!" Astamon declared with a cackle. "It's not so often I get a beauty pressed this close to me."

"Savor that feeling as long as you can, pervert," Puspamon seethed, and began soaring upwards, taking Astamon with her. She had a plan but it was too risky. However, Puspamon would do anything to get this smelly demon off her body. She increased her speed and continued flying towards the bright sky, her visor shielding her from the ultraviolet rays of the sun and blocked the glare, enabling her to see where she was going. Astamon stubbornly didn't let go of her still.

"What are you trying to do?!" he demanded. "If you're heading to space you'll kill both of us. The lack of air…"

Puspamon ignored him and continued soaring higher and higher, using her super-speed to aid her flight. Her elemental powers of wind and nature would help her with what she had in mind, she silently hoped. She flew past the clouds, from the thin bottom layer to the darker top layer. Astamon was heard gasping for breath, and Puspamon, now coated with pink aura, smiled. She too was experiencing difficulty breathing, but her power would aid her for the time being. Astamon had no such luck as he was now choking. The fairy sped upwards even more, taking note of how the bright sky darkened into black and blue and for a brief moment, marveled of the cosmos' beauty. Flames erupted from the tips of her high-heeled boots but the aura coating her dutifully shielded her from the atmospheric friction. Nevertheless she halted; if she went farther the flames would burn her. It was time to turn back. _'Get ready for a rollercoaster ride, perv.'_

With lightning speed she hurled her body upside down and sped down back to earth like a fallen rocket. Astamon's grasp around her waist loosened and Puspamon realized that her plan was working. She increased her speed even more and the winds that were blowing against her were also pulling Astamon away from her. _'Good; just as I've thought,' _the beautiful fairy silently thought. Taking a deep breath Puspamon sped through a very thick white cumulonimbus cloud and there she felt Astamon's hands slid away from her slim waist. When she emerged from the cloud, she happily noted that she was alone and could hear Astamon shrieking within the clouds, sweatdropping as she noted how similar it was with the cartoonish scream she'd heard from the character Goofy in any Disney cartoons.

"I better get out of here now." Puspamon then sped back down to earth, and began to see the familiar outline of the town she lived in. As she closed in the hospital building became more and more prominent and with a relieved sigh she slowed down, and touchdowned on top of the hospital's roof. Her knees buckled and there she devolved back into Gayathri and Floramon. They then saw a door leading to the rooftop and used it to get down.

In the meantime, the fiercest battle took place between the rage-fueled Satriamon and the Virago General Persiamon. For the past thirty minutes they had been exchanging physical and power-based attacks. Cuts were evident all over Satriamon's red armor while Persiamon looked pretty much unscathed. She continuously unleashed her crimson energy ribbons towards Satriamon, taking advantage of their nimbleness to fluster the red dragon warrior while countering any of Satriamon's fire-based technique with her ice power. All the time, she was laughing, knowing that she had the upper hand against Satriamon.

But Satriamon would not give up. He was driven with the desire to teach Persiamon a lesson for making him injure Adam. Despite having his attacks countered time and time again by the feline, Satriamon persisted on. Even his powered up form of Dragonforce Striker was nullified with one blast of Persiamon's Sekhmet Shadow Sutra. His only consolation was the fact that he was durable enough to withstand Persiamon's attack upon him; he'd need time to figure out how exactly he could beat the Virago General. He saw Shawujinmon slumped on one corner and Doumon crashed over several cars, causing huge dents on the roofs. Astamon was nowhere in sight, and so was Puspamon. Samudramon was standing by a distance behind him, and Liu Ying and Labramon taking refuge near the hospital already.

"_Flaming Torch!!"_ He enveloped his body with flames and shot towards Persiamon. This technique gave him the ability of limited flight and he used that to sail above the Virago General. With a snarl he grabbed hold on Persiamon's head and yanked her up. Spinning around in midair he went for the metal gates and crashed Persiamon over it repeatedly.

"AAAAAAIIIEEEE!!" Persiamon yelled, shocked and dumbstruck of the sudden physical onslaught. "This is no way to treat a lady!"

"You're no lady, whore!" Satriamon grabbed the general's lustrous red locks tight and spun her once before slamming her onto the tarred road. With a snort he let go of Persiamon, feeling a bit fatigued himself after a drawn-out battle. It proved to be a bad move.

Persiamon spun over her back and hoisted her legs up, twisting them around Satriamon's neck. With a snarl she pulled Satriamon down and delivered a kick on his face, almost pulling out his dragon helmet. She got up quickly and blasted Satriamon with her crimson ribbons, using them as whips as she lashed upon Satriamon, slowly damaging his armor.

"Oh, lookie, what's this? Isn't this the weapon you used against that little white kitten?" Persiamon taunted; blood trickled down her face from her nose and the forehead where gashes marred her attractive face. Using her ribbons she grabbed the shining gauntlet and flung it up before raising her right arm. The gauntlet, aided by the ribbons, slid down her arm nicely. With a vicious glint from her emerald eyes she pointed the Dragonforce Striker gauntlet towards the most private part of all men, and grinned maliciously. "Let's see if I can make a woman out of you, dragon boy…"

Satriamon swore violently but before he could move, Persiamon's ribbons held him in place. He howled in pain as the energy ribbons shot _through_ his shoulder blades and thighs, pinning him on the ground. Red liquid oozed out from them as Persiamon approached him slowly.

xxx

xxx

Worriedly Adam watched the whole battle taking place from the window of his ward. Outside at the corridors, he could hear doctors and nurses issuing safety orders; the hospital was under siege and they needed to ensure the safeties of their patients. He stood by the window, slumped by the wall as he watched his friends battling the Darkshadow Brethren, who appeared to be deadlier now than ever. He wished that he could help, but with his arm injured he'd end up being a liability to his friends.

"Patamon, can you fight?" Adam asked. When Satriamon struck Aldiyamon, Adam was the one who'd sustained the more brutal aspect of the fight while Patamon was only bruised with no severed limbs.

The Rookie nodded. "Digivolve me into Sagittarimon Radiant Mode and I…"

The door flung open and Dr. Abu stepped in. "Adam, come on. We're evacuating this wing to the safer west wing. Your sister is already safe inside the physiotherapy ward, and she's asked me to bring you to him." The young doctor frowned slightly as he saw the orange plush toy Adam always had with him dropped from the air on Adam's left arm, while the puppy and kitten dolls were by the boy's feet. He thought it was weird for Alisha's thirteen year old brother to still have plush toys for comfort, but decided that it was not his business.

His brief plan foiled unknowingly with the doctor's intrusion, Adam was left without a plan. He went to his drawer and took out his Juara Digivice. Clutching it and his three 'plush toys', Adam allowed Dr. Abu to escort him out.

'_Josh… I can't help you with my condition. Please stay safe. I can only think of this…'_

With the location and recipient locked in his mind, Adam teleported his Juara Digivice with the White DigiSphere in it to Satriamon. He didn't know why, but he had a fleeting feeling that it would help Satriamon. It was practically a leap of faith on his part, but he trusted his instincts. Something told him that it was the right thing to do.

xxx

xxx

Persiamon cackled haughtily as she pointed the gauntlet towards Satriamon's crotch, enjoying the look of horror that graced the usually-fearless warrior. "I've wanted to do this since yesterday, just to know how it'd felt when you struck your friend on the arm…"

"_Cosmic Thunderstrike!!"_

A thunderbolt blasted upon Persiamon's raised arm, nearly yanking the gauntlet away. With a snarl she turned sideways and saw Samudramon, the only other Wira Digital left standing. "You meddling fool! _Helter Skelter!!"_

"_Deep Ocean Submerge!!"_ Samudramon had observed the battle, and knew that his water power could easily counter Persiamon's attack of fire and ice. Waters quenched flames and could melt ice; that was Samudramon's strategy. He watched as his water drowned the white tiger and the yowling fire cats from Persiamon's attack, but he didn't count on being attacked from the sides by…

"_Crescent Moon Slash!!"_

_"Talisman of Night!!"_

Samudramon cried loudly as he was struck by a spinning black staff and a shining purple symbol. It flung him towards the guardhouse and in the process devolved him back into his composite selves. Manny and Penguinmon scrambled back up their feet, surprised to see Shawujinmon and Doumon still able to fight.

"But…how?"

"We're the Darkshadow Brethren, boy! We can't be beaten that easily!" Doumon snarled. But despite his words, the Shaman General was _very_ injured; his robes tattered over the edges, his hat gone and part of his body oozed out a violet liquid, apparently blood. He stood supported by his giant paintbrush. Shawujinmon's condition was worse – he looked like a fried toad, nearly black all over. But despite all that they still were able to sneak-attack Samudramon.

Persiamon smirked, liking the odds of the battle. Satriamon now was the only Wira Digital left. She turned to face the dragon man and surprised to see a flash of white light erupted from out of nowhere. From it a silver Digivice materialized and surrounded Satriamon with orbs of light. Satriamon disappeared and reappeared back on his feet, still bleeding but no longer restrained.

'_Adam's Juara Digivice…'_ Satriamon thought, surprised as he made a motion to hold the Digivice. It felt warm in his hands and Satriamon was struck with realization of how much this move meant to him.

When he'd been evil, JD had seized Adam's Digivice and the White DigiSphere, rendering the boy and his partner powerless. That had put Adam and Patamon in danger every time they went into battle, especially with opponents as dangerous as himself.

And now, Adam had willingly given his Digivice and the White DigiSphere within it to him. Did his cousin really trust him that much?

'_Josh…Adam's Juara Digivice! I think…he's asking us to beat Persiamon on his behalf. He knows Persiamon is at fault, and he's asking you to beat her for him.'_

Agumon's assumption echoed in their conjoined minds. He clutched the shining silver Digivice and a burst of pure white light erupted from it, revitalizing Satriamon similar to how it had been when they were at the Dark Ocean. The wave of light erupted from Adam when he was seized by Dragomon had returned JD his strength and supplied Agumon and Sagittarimon with power. Something appeared in his hand, shining, long, pointed and radiated purity and strength at the same time. When the light subsided Satriamon gasped in surprise, seeing Aldiyamon's Heavenstar Gladius sword now in his hand.

'_I'll fight for you, cousin. I'll make Persiamon pay for what she'd made me done to you.'_

Satriamon flared with radiant white and red flames as he fueled power into the sword. Knowledge of how to execute Aldiyamon's powerful finisher came to his mind, and knowing that Persiamon was tough he tried thinking of another way. Perhaps he could combine the sword's power with his own? It worth a shot, Satriamon decided.

Persiamon gasped and tried to seize the sword with her ribbons, but to her surprise the ribbons melted into data particles upon contact with the sword's radiant blade. She unleashed her Vampire Dance but the bats were all drowned with the light erupted from the sword. Not willing to give up Persiamon attacked again with her Helter Skelter, but with one clean slash Satriamon cancelled it out with the sword.

Satriamon's green eyes blazed with determination as he saw a way to attack. Clutching the sword tight he leaped towards Persiamon, who flinched upon the harsh light that radiated from the sword.

"_Heavenstar Gladius… FIRE STORM SLASHER!!"_

With relentless fury he slashed Persiamon vertically, diagonally and horizontally before unleashing a flaming white tornado from the sword's jewel embedded on the hilt. Persiamon's sickening cry echoed all over the hospital compound as the tornado enveloped her, hoisted her up before proceeding to tear her apart, before it dissipated and Persiamon crashed onto the tarred ground face-on, defeated.

'_I did it, Adam. Thanks to you and your sword.'_

However, he'd thought wrong when he assumed that the battle was over. Liu Ying and Manny's warning screams were heard, but before Satriamon could turn around he felt someone leaped onto his back, securing their legs and hands onto his body.

"Nice trick, dragon boy, but I _always _have the last say in a battle." Persiamon's soft snarl unnerved Satriamon as the Virago General ran a hand over his chest. _"Blight of Bastet,"_ she whispered with what sounded like a deadly finality.

Satriamon felt a burning pain on his chest before Persiamon let go of him. He then dropped to his knees, clutching his chest as the pain intensified for a brief few seconds. The pain then gradually disappeared and Satriamon soon was able to breathe normally again. He saw Persiamon staggered towards Shawujinmon and Doumon.

"Until next time, Wira Digital!" she said and beckoned for Doumon with a flick of her arm.

"_Demon Gate Escape!"_ Doumon made a circular wave over the air with his paintbrush, and an oval portal appeared. It sucked all three Darkshadow Brethren in and they vanished, Persiamon's giggles lingered briefly even after the portal had vanished.

Satriamon devolved into JD and Agumon, and JD placed a hand on his chest. "What the hell was that all about?" he wondered. He shrugged; it was painful after Persiamon removed her hand from his chest, but now he didn't feel anything at all. Whatever Persiamon had tried to do to him, apparently it didn't work. He shrugged it off as his eyes trailed to the silver Juara Digivice within his right hand. A smile graced his rugged features. _'Thanks, cousin. Couldn't have done it without you.'_

xxx

xxx

Adam heard about his friends' victory and heaved a relieved breath. Right now the hospital was closed to public as the doctors and nurses worked on restoring order to the hospital. Thanks to the Wira Digital the hospital didn't sustain any damage although its compound would need extensive repair works. Adam went back to his room and settled on his bed, on the doctor's order. He'd taken another medicine and already felt sleepy. Patamon, Salamon and Gatomon, under the pretense of being dolls, were left on the bed with Adam as one nurse had commented on how cute it was for him to still cling on plush toys for comfort.

Right now, he didn't really want to sleep. He wanted to see JD. He wanted to know whether his Digivice had helped JD in any way. It was the biggest battle they had yet and he had to sit it out. But the longer he tried to resist the soporific effect induced by the drug, the weaker he'd gotten. His eyelids soon felt really heavy and soon he was asleep, snoring softly.

"Poor Adam…" Salamon said, stirring up from where he had been placed – on Adam's stomach.

"Poor Adam," Gatomon reiterated and got up from Adam's left-side where the nurse had placed her. Being so young their vocabularies hadn't developed as quickly as Patamon, who as a partner, had his development accelerated and his memory of his previous life intact. But for the Saintly Siblings they had to start anew; it was a wonder why they started out directly in their Rookie forms instead of Baby or In-Training. "Hand hurt," the white kitten said and climbed on Adam's body.

"Hey, careful there. You're going to hurt him," Patamon whispered, but Adam looked pretty much undisturbed.

Salamon and Gatomon shared a look which unnerved Patamon briefly. The two of them were on Adam's belly and they seemed to want to move towards Adam's fractured arm. His suspicion was proven correct when the Saintly Siblings slid down onto Adam's forearm, but Adam was in a very deep sleep and the painkillers he'd taken had suppressed the pain he would be feeling upon having the siblings on his fractured arm.

"Hey, get down from there...woah…" Patamon gasped when he saw Salamon and Gatomon began to emit soft white light.

"Adam help us…we help Adam…" Salamon murmured and closed his eyes.

"Adam gonna be ok again…" Gatomon whispered and closed her eyes.

Patamon's mouth hung open when he saw the white aura from the siblings intensified until they enveloped nearly the whole room. The Rookie partner was nearly blinded by the radiance from the siblings and used his bat ears to cover his eyes. Curious, he peeked through to see what was going on and gasped in awe upon seeing shadows of two angelic figures appearing behind Salamon and Gatomon. Both were garbed in white, one male and one female, both with burnish long blonde hair. Both had shining wings; the male silver and the female white, and their faces were obscured – the male with a violet manteau while the female with a silver gray helmet. Patamon would've identified their clothes but the lights were giving him so much comfort that he ended up feeling so sleepy and closed his eyes, drifting to dreamland.

xxx

xxx

JD arrived at his home with a sigh. He really wanted to see his cousin again and tell him about the details of the battle. He especially wanted to thank Adam because it was his Heavenstar Gladius which had helped him out of a very tight spot and ultimately forced the Darkshadow Brethren into retreating. But when the hospital had ordered the people other than the patients and the medical personnel to leave the hospital, JD was forced to return home. A staff had told him that everything would probably return to normal the next day, so JD would have to wait until then to meet his cousin again.

Entering his room, he freed Agumon from the Juara Digivice and sat on his bed. The room was very still; JD was reminded of how much laughter his cousin had brought during his stay with him. He suspected that it would be another few days before he could have his cousin back with him, and his parents had told him that he'd have to sleep at home during schooldays instead of the hospital.

"This sucks."

The light from Adam's Digivice had pretty much healed all the wounds inflicted on Satriamon, but now JD still felt a bit sore from where Persiamon had pinned him with her ribbons. He took off his shirt and went to the mirror, wanting to see whether there were scars or anything on his shoulders where the ribbons had struck through. What he saw however made him stop dead on his track.

"Josh…your chest!" Agumon gasped.

JD looked down his left chest, where a black cat with crimson eyes and claws was tattooed on. The cat was in a curled position, its claws clutching a space which could be defining JD's heart. It was a menacing sight which sent chill down his spine. He ran a hand on the feline tattoo, but didn't feel anything. He frowned. _'What the hell…?'_

xxx

xxx

"That was rather unexpected," Lucemon commented when his fellow Darkshadow Brethren generals returned from the human world.

Persiamon snorted scornfully. "I hadn't counted on Satriamon being able to use his angel friend's sword to attack me. Apparently what I did yesterday didn't break their bond…but had further strengthened it. Humph. But it was pretty clear that if Satriamon didn't get the help at the last minute, he'd be a goner for sure."

"If," Lucemon reiterated, and an annoyed look crossed the Virago General's face before it turned into a wicked grin.

"But I did have my last say," Persiamon said with an evil smirk. The other generals stirred uncomfortably as she said this and Persiamon laughed. "Oh yes…I _always_ have the last say."

xxx

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_**Author's Notes:**_

Whoever thinks Persiamon is creepy, raise their hands! Yeah, I thought so. She's creeping me out too, and I'm the one writing about her. What is her plan anyway? And as promised, I've showed what the Saintly Siblings could do, although I'm pretty sure it's not what you all have been expecting. Everything will unfold slowly until the big revelation. And I think I've somewhat stretched the limit in this chapter, luckily it's already rated so I'm safe.

Char Kuey Teow is a Chinese/Malaysian dish, similar to fried noodles, and one of the widely accepted dishes in Malaysia well-liked by all races. The noodles used are those wide broad types instead of the longish snaky noodles.


	44. Water You Thinking?

Early Sunday morning, JD saw that reconstruction work was already taking place at the hospital compound. It was barely nine; he wondered whether Adam had gotten up or not from his sleep. The boy could be a deep sleeper if he wanted, and with the painkillers he was taking, maybe it would be a while before JD would be able to talk with him. He shrugged; not that he minded. He had nothing else to do, and didn't feel like doing anything other than keeping his cousin company. The other DigiWira already had plans for the weekend.

Not bothering to knock, he opened the door to Adam's ward and saw that it was quite lively inside. He first saw Alisha in her wheelchair and a glimpse of what looked like a doctor's white coat just by the wall, indicating that Adam's doctor was also there.

"Josh!" Alisha greeted him warmly upon noticing him enter. She looked very happy. "You wouldn't believe what has happened! It's a miracle!"

"Hey, Kak Lisha." Frowning slightly, JD walked inside and his eyes widened upon seeing Adam sitting on the bed. Not that it was a strange sight, but what was odd was the fact that instead of donning the hospital gown, Adam was dressed casually in a white and burgundy T-shirt and a pair of khakis. His eyes ran on the boy's hand as the boy turned to meet him, and he let out a soft gasp upon seeing Adam's right arm.

"You're here!" Adam's excited voice mirrored his sister, his made more radiant with his beaming expression. And JD could see exactly why Adam was so happy.

Adam's right arm was no longer bandaged. In fact, it bore _no trace_ of any injury at all. JD had expected to see a bruise or an ugly stitch mark or a huge scar disfiguring Adam's arm, but there was not even a blemish there. Right now, as he greeted JD Adam was moving his arm as per to Dr. Abu's instructions, flexing and extending it before moving it left and right. JD was speechless before he managed to croak out in disbelief, "Adam, your arm! It…it…it's healed?"

"Isn't it great?" Adam asked grinningly. "I woke up and suddenly I can move my arm again and the plasters and bandages were on the floor. Someone must've removed it when I was sleeping, but that doesn't explain the arm…" He eyed the doctor curiously.

Dr. Abu didn't respond; he merely palpated Adam's arm with a faraway expression on his face. Every now and then he eyed the three plush toys Adam had with him with a curious gaze, but he didn't mention anything. Then he blinked once, noticing Adam's gaze upon him. "Feel any pain?" he asked.

"No…odd, isn't it? But a good odd," Adam said, and there was no hiding the elatedness he was feeling now. "I just wish I know who did this to me. I really owe them."

"You don't know how your arm got healed?" JD asked as he sat by Adam.

Adam shook his head. "No idea whatsoever. But you know what they say…if it's not broken don't fix it." His grin faltered. "Yuck…bad pun, sorry." He then grasped JD's hand and leaned over him. "Now you don't have to feel bad whenever I'm in pain, because I won't be," he whispered, only audible to JD.

JD smiled slightly. "Your arm's the one which got injured and you're worried about me?"

Adam shrugged. "I just don't like seeing you so bummed out like you did yesterday. It made me feel bad…"

Hearing Adam said that made JD ran a hand subconsciously on his left chest. To Adam, it might be interpreted as JD displaying a mock-touched feeling, that with the smile-smirk on his face. But in all actuality JD had been contemplating telling Adam about the tattoo Persiamon had given him. But now, seeing Adam healed and happy JD didn't want to ruin the occasion. He didn't want to worry his cousin and the other DigiWira, despite deeply troubled by this himself. Noticing that Adam would definitely be discharged, JD made a mental note to always keep his shirt on while in his cousin's presence. TobuCatmon and the ladies of the Lost Mountain had promised to try looking for more information about this tattoo, and until he knew more about it he didn't want to worry Adam and the others.

He reflected on what had happened earlier, at the Forest Sanctum.

**(Flashback)**

JD kept a brave front, despite the unnerving feeling he had as TobuCatmon and Ophanimon inspected the black cat tattoo on his chest, with Rosemon and D'Arcmon hovering behind the aforementioned Digimon to get a good look on it. He'd come to the Forest Sanctum upon Agumon's advice – since the tattoo was inflicted by a Digimon perhaps another Digimon would know how to remove it. TobuCatmon was now applying his healing potion on the tattoo, but nothing happened.

"Strange. The wounds the DigiWira have sustained in earlier battles are easily healed with this potion," TobuCatmon murmured, frowning.

JD flexed his right arm. "Yeah, I hear ya. Adam used that potion on me too, to remove the scar I got from him," he said with a small smile, remembering how his cousin had struggled to put the potion while he was apparently sleeping. Pitying his cousin's incessant request for him to get that scar removed, he had pretended to sleep when Adam put the healing ointment on his arm.

"Let me try my healing power." Ophanimon placed her palm on the tattoo and it glimmered with soft green light as the celestial being let out a soft exhale. She began summoning her healing power; all Mega-level angels had healing abilities and a potent one at that. If the tattoo was a sign of an ailment, her power would remove it.

JD felt warm and comforted, before suddenly a sharp pain rose from inside his body. "AGH!!"

Ophanimon gasped as suddenly an invisible force flung her across the sanctum, throwing her against a tree. The tree snapped into half upon the collision; Ophanimon's armors were heavy. Rosemon and D'Arcmon immediately went to their mistress-cum-friend and helped her up.

"Josh!" Agumon quickly scurried beside his DigiWira partner. "Are you ok?"

JD groaned as he clutched his chest, but the pain subsided as instantly as it had appeared. But the pain was sharp, stab-like, and it had caused him to lose his breath for a moment. "Whoa…what the hell was that?" he asked with a hoarse whispery voice, breathing in and out deeply as sweat trickled down his face. He looked down and saw the cat tattoo's eyes glowing blood red before subsiding into their former crimson color. Hearing a whimper, he gave Agumon a slight smile to assure the frightened dino that he was alright. The Rookie didn't look convinced but he nodded in return.

"The tattoo _repelled_ my healing power," Ophanimon said with disbelief as she approached JD and TobuCatmon. "That is… unnerving." She stood still for a moment, as if thinking about something as she stared at the tattoo. "What is its purpose if it can't be removed?" she wondered, and shifted her attention towards D'Arcmon.

The tanned angel nodded, understanding Ophanimon's gesture. She went to JD and tentatively held her hand just an inch away from the tattoo. Her blue eyes met JD's questioning hazels. "I have limited clairvoyance ability which I practice every now and then. Maybe I can see something in the near future about this tattoo, if you will let me."

JD shrugged. The pain had gone but he braced himself in case it returned. He was also curious about the tattoo. "Knock yourself out."

"Excuse me?" D'Arcmon's mouth twitched. "Why would I want to knock myself out?"

"No, that's not what I meant." JD laughed upon seeing the angel's dumbfounded look. "It's a term of expression meaning 'go ahead, do what you want with me'." He stifled his laughter upon the definition, which could easily be misinterpreted although he hadn't thought of it at all. Sure, Ophanimon was ethereally beautiful, D'Arcmon was pretty stunning and Rosemon defined the word babelicious, but he knew his limits. Besides, his mind was totally fixed on the mystery about the cat tattoo.

"Oh." D'Arcmon placed her palm on the tattoo and closed her eyes. Her palm let out a yellow aura as she exhaled softly. She had a serene expression on her face before it suddenly was marred by a twitch of her mouth, followed by a gasp and through her visor JD could see that she was closing her eyes tightly, as if in severe pain. Another sharp gasp ensued and D'Arcmon's hand flung away from JD's chest and she opened her eyes. Everyone in the sanctum could see that she'd gotten visions of the near future, and how much she was bothered about them.

JD crossed his arms and frowned. "What did you see? Looks like it's bothering you a lot."

D'Arcmon returned his gaze. "I saw you…" She lowered her eyes and gathered her breath. Then she raised her eyes up once again. "You're in very severe pain…it was horrible," she finished softly before turning her eyes away. "And I also saw the Virago General, laughing. She sounded satisfied…vicious…and I saw nothing more."

Everyone was stunned, while the confident spark from JD's eyes vanished. He didn't even notice D'Arcmon walking away and Rosemon now stood before him. When he registered the appearance of the very well-endowed female, he felt a mild burn on his cheeks as he vainly tried to remove his eyes away from staring at the flower woman's body. _'Damnit. Why the hell am I blushing?' _

"Looks like someone likes what he's seeing," Rosemon teased with a grin, primarily to assuage the tenseness all over the sanctum due to D'Arcmon's discovery. She had something she needed to do to confirm D'Arcmon's visions and if it proved her suspicions…

"Wanna touch the tattoo too?" JD asked with a challenging tone to dissuade Rosemon's witty remark.

Rosemon shook her head and flicked her palm. A dark pink rose bloomed out of thin air above her palm, and with another flick the rose flew towards the tattoo and attached itself on JD's chest. The pink rose blackened instantly and wilted before dissolving into data particles.

**(End Flashback)**

JD snapped out of his thoughts when Dr. Abu sighed. "There's no medical evidence which could explain Adam's rapid recovery. But…" He eyed Adam and JD, and then the three 'puppets'. His dark eyes lingered particularly at the three Rookies. "I have witnessed a very interesting occurrence taking place in this room the previous night, and I think _that's_ the reason why your arm is healed completely, Adam. Before that, however, I'm going to take a wild guess here."

Adam and JD exchanged glances and Adam gasped when Dr. Abu leaned over him and picked Salamon, who was the closest to him. He brought the 'puppet' to him and momentarily examined the beige puppy Digimon by palpating him all over, just as he had palpated Adam's arm. Not much later, Salamon burst out in a fit of giggles and the two DigiWira sweatdropped. Alisha gasped and looked at the DigiWira with a panicked expression.

"_Digimon_?" Dr. Abu asked the two DigiWira as he held the giggling Salamon.

"Busted," JD said to Adam and Alisha. "I knew the puppet act doesn't work that well." Patamon and Gatomon blinked.

"It had worked well enough," Patamon huffed. "And if Salamon didn't laugh, it would _still_ work."

"Yeah! Salamon sucks…" Gatomon murmured, causing everyone to sweatdrop.

"Am not!" Salamon huffed. "Doctor tickles me!"

Adam elbowed JD lightly. "Your fault, Josh. She's taken _your_ way of speaking."

Dr. Abu stared at the Digimon with a fazed expression. Never in his life had he seen talking kitten, puppy and guinea pig. He massaged his temples with a sigh. "And since Aldiyamon did not appear yesterday, I'm guessing that Adam is Aldiyamon?" He gazed at his patient.

"Patamon and I," Adam amended. "_We_ form Aldiyamon together."

Dr. Abu took a moment to register that fact in. It was difficult to grasp so he decided to take the information in stride. He then took in JD's dirty-blonde hair, deep red T-shirt and black jeans. The same color scheme applied to one Wira Digital. "You're Satriamon, no doubt."

"Bingo." JD didn't feel like commenting much. He'd let his cousins handle this.

The doctor turned to look at Alisha. "You know about this?"

"I also found out by accident. Then I became their mentor, sort of…" Alisha briefed Dr. Abu about the DigiWira and Digimon, keeping her explanation short and to the point.

"I see," Dr. Abu said about five minutes later. "But, Adam…" He looked at the young boy who was going to be discharged, finding it somewhat hard to believe that this innocent-looking boy was actually a warrior. He was still having trouble digesting the load of information he was now getting, but he needed to ask one question to see whether the 'miracle' which had happened to Adam had something to do with the powers he allegedly have. "Do you happen to have any healing power which would have aided you with your rapid recovery?"

Adam shook his head. "Not that I know of. My power is teleportation. Stethoscope." The stethoscope which was hanging from Dr. Abu's shoulder vanished, and reappeared in Adam's hand. The young doctor gave a surprised exclamation and Adam grinned as he returned the stethoscope where he had summoned it from. "Patamon, any idea?"

Patamon frowned. He felt that he _had_ something to tell Adam and the others, but somehow his memory was failing him. He just remembered seeing lights, and then nothing. It was odd; Patamon knew he was not one who would easily forget something, especially something this important. His eyes lingered at Salamon and Gatomon, feeling that they somehow had something to do with this. _'But it can't be them. They don't even speak that well yet.'_ He shook his head.

Dr. Abu sighed and shook his head, trying to ward off the shock he'd felt upon the discovery. "I'll figure out something to tell the other doctors and nurses about your discharge being earlier then scheduled. My best bet for now is that your uncle and aunt want to refer you to another hospital, although that too sounds quite odd, but the doctors and nurses will buy that. Your uncle and aunt do know about your involvement with Digimon?"

"Of course," JD answered on Adam's behalf. "We have four always-hungry Digimon at our houses now; it would be hard to explain where the foods have gone."

Dr. Abu then realized that he was _still_ holding Salamon and balked, releasing the puppy. "Oh God, I've been holding a _dog_…"

"Actually Salamon is a Digimon, not a dog. A Digimon with a puppy form to be precise," Adam explained, remembering his own qualm pertaining to Labramon when he first became DigiWira. He'd gotten over it fairly quickly after realizing the differences. "I think it's perfectly acceptable for us to touch him."

Dr. Abu considered it and took Salamon once again. The Digimon giggled before licking the doctor on his cheek. The doctor grimaced, but looked mildly amused at the same time.

"Will you keep this as a secret, doctor?" Adam requested. "It's really important for us."

"Of course," Dr. Abu nodded. "I understand. Anyway…" He returned Salamon back to Adam and smiled. "I think you're all set to go home now…preferably now, with the nurses going for a lunch break. The fewer questions we rouse because of your early recovery, the better."

"Now that we got _that_ settled…" JD took out a shining silver and gold device from his jeans pocket. He saw Dr. Abu blink and suppressed a grin; the Juara Digivice looked extremely valuable, not to mention expensive with its gold and silver finishing. He gave it to Adam. "I believe this belongs to you."

Adam took it and looked at JD inquiringly. "Did it help you? I thought…"

"I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for this," JD cut in with a soft squeeze on Adam's shoulder. "Thanks, kiddo. I really owe you one."

"Glad to hear that…" Adam murmured. Then a grin lit up his face. "How about you settle it on our way back? I'm thinking….Banana Split with Pralines and Cream, and Cookies and Cream flavors, with caramel and chocolate toppings."

"Deal."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 44 – Water You Thinking?**_

xxx

xxx

With a relieved sigh Gayathri plopped down on a seat at the A&W restaurant, placing the shopping bag she had beside her. She watched with a grin as Dina and Bel sat in front of her and Liu Ying beside her. Inwardly she grinned; her main motive this day was to get Liu Ying to know her two best friends. Of course, Liu Ying already knew Dina as they were classmates and she _had_ been Bel's classmate the previous year. But now, since her two best friends now knew the fact that she and Liu Ying were DigiWira, it would be best for the four of them to become best friends. Liu Ying had previously declined to join them, not wanting to intrude but Gayathri had been _very _insistent. Dina was glad that Liu Ying would be joining them, but Bel had her reservations – particularly because she had been reprimanded by the prefect quite often at school. But seeing as that was her fault and Liu Ying was only doing her job, Bel had relented.

Three hours later, Gayathri now saw that she had made the right decision. The four of them were having fun shopping or window shopping at Sunway Pyramid. They were now at A&W because the fast food restaurant was located beside the cinemas, and that was their next plan after having a quick lunch.

She'd wanted to integrate Liu Ying in her circle of best friends for quite a while, but it would have been awkward when Dina and Bel were in the dark about them being DigiWira. Liu Ying and she had shared quite an adventure as the first two DigiWira and they had grown close despite having their differences when Gayathri first joined the team.

"So you and Gaya are actually the most senior DigiWira?" Dina asked as she pulled an onion-ring and dipped it with ketchup before munching it.

"Uh-huh," Liu Ying said and sipped some rootbeer from the straw. "I became one about eight months ago, and Gayathri joined me three months later, about a couple of weeks before school closed last year."

"So you have the most experience," Dina said with a smile.

"You could say that," Liu Ying confirmed, and turned towards the tomboyish girl beside Dina. "Um, Belinda…I kind of noticed that you seem to have a question for me from the way you're staring at me for the past…I don't know…three hours?"

"Two and a half, actually," Gayathri clarified. "The first half an hour she had spent staring at that one really cute guy working at the Top Shop." She giggled upon being the receiving end of Belinda's glare. "Well, it's true girl. Why don't you just ask her, now that she's with us?"

Liu Ying raised an eyebrow curiously.

"I just want to know what kind of relationship you and JD Kamaruzaman have at this moment," Bel blurted out and shot an annoyed look towards Gayathri.

Liu Ying choked on her rootbeer upon hearing the question. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Okay…that was unexpected," Liu Ying said and propped her chin with her right hand. "Friends and teammates pretty much cover it," she said finally.

Belinda looked unsatisfied. "Rumor has it that you two were enemies. And it was kind of obvious."

"Did it really?" Liu Ying smiled slightly. "Well, it was a totally misunderstanding on my part, actually…but JD wasn't without the blame too." She let her sentence hung, thinking of her and JD's misadventures at Arachnemon's cavern of spiders before the fiasco with the Puaka Generals. They had become friends then, after JD gave her the explanation about what had actually set off their one-sided – on Liu Ying's part – bitter enmity. She hadn't known of JD's true intention then, but when she realized the true meaning behind JD's behavior at her when they first met, her impression towards the rugged blonde had changed.

"You know, JD never really gave that story… the one he'd promised us when he and Adam got out from that Dark Ocean place," Gayathri pondered. She grinned at Liu Ying. "How about _you_ give us the story, right here and right now?"

"Hmm?" Liu Ying considered Gayathri's request, and the curious look Dina had, and the hungry-for-gossip look from Bel before shrugging. "Well…alright."

"That is _so_ SWEET!" Gayathri gushed dreamily after Liu Ying finished the story. "So romantic! Like in the movies…"

"Oh, stop it, you," Liu Ying said with a blush.

"But it's true," Dina said with a smile. "I never thought of JD as _that_ kind of guy. He usually was so dark and brooding at school - and he'd caused troubles quite a lot of times with the school. But all that seemed to stop when…" The demure girl thought of it before continuing, "When news got out that he and Adam are actually cousins. Now _that's_ another surprise that got the school talking. He was so…well…protective, to Adam. He went ballistic when those reporters invaded Adam's ward yesterday."

"That was hilarious," Gayathri agreed. "But it's true; those two really are like a pair of big brother and little brother. And put Manny with them and they become guy versions of us!"

Liu Ying and Dina giggled at that remark, but Belinda had a crestfallen look on her face. "Oh man…I should have known that I have no chance with JD," she said sadly.

"I told you," Dina deadpanned. "He has his eyes on Liu Ying."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Liu Ying flailed her hands. "JD and I are just friends, ok?"

"Are you blind?" Belinda grunted. "Dina's right. His eyes are on you, definitely. Your story confirms it. He _never_ did that with the other girls, not even those he had dated before. Granted…it wasn't him who seek out those girls, they were the ones who threw themselves at him." Bel sighed. "Luckily I never did that. Ah…never mind." The sporty girl grinned again and the others sweatdropped at her rapid change of emotions. She took out her cell phone and sighed dreamily. "Well, at least I have this pic of JD I managed to snap... when we all appeared in his room…"

"You didn't!" Gayathri said, horrified.

"I can't believe you did that!" Dina said.

Bel shrugged. "It was purely an act based on instinct." Gayathri and Dina rolled their eyes.

"What did you do, Belinda?" Liu Ying asked, confused. She had been absent that day when Dina and Bel were made known of the DigiWira's identities. Bel showed her the picture and Liu Ying only looked at it for a second before looking back at Belinda oddly. "You're weird," she deadpanned.

"Oh, come now," Bel said with a sly grin. "You must agree with me that he's the definition of the word 'hunk'. If you want I can always send this to you."

"Ah, no thanks. If _you_ want we can always arrange another trip to Sunway Lagoon. Then you can stare at JD in this state of attire all day," Liu Ying countered calmly.

"_Another?"_ Bel yelped at the revelation. She stared at Liu Ying. "Man, I am so jealous of you now! If you're not a DigiWira or Gaya's friend or my friend now, you'd be my enemy now."

Liu Ying merely shook her head. "JD and I are friends," she insisted again. She was blushing, and she didn't know why. And she wondered why she had to insist to these three girls that she and JD were friends instead of a couple.

"Keep telling that to yourself, girl," Gayathri giggled. "Good girls always seem to attract bad boys."

"Nu-uh," Dina said with a conspiratorial smile, feeling that she should help her classmate now instead of her friends. Liu Ying was pretty much outnumbered here and Dina had just the right thing to say that would even up the odds. "_Manny_ is not a bad boy and heavens forbid you're a bad girl, Gaya." She grinned when Gayathri choked on her burger.

"And speaking of Manny…isn't that him?" Bel pointed outside the restaurant.

"Where?" Gayathri turned around – she and Liu Ying had their backs facing outside the restaurant. Liu Ying followed suit, and the four of them saw Manny walking towards the cinema, hand-in-hand with a shorter girl with long straight and silky light brown hair that almost reached the small of her back. The two of them were chatting animatedly as they headed to the cinema, completely oblivious to the fact that four sets of eyes were watching them. "Who's that girl?" Gayathri wondered, taking in the girl's appearance. The girl had a skin tone almost similar to Manny, and was dressed in a violet top and a jeans-short. She frowned when the girl laughed at something Manny was saying.

"She's quite pretty," Bel remarked. The girl with Manny turned sideways, giving them a good look at her face. "Okay, I take that back. She's totally ravishing! How did she take care of her hair? They're so lovely. But I've never seen her at school before."

"Maybe she goes to other school in Subang Jaya," Dina murmured, eyes never leaving Manny and his female companion. "They look pretty close though. Manny's usually very shy in class and also rather quiet…but whoever that girl is, he is comfortable with her obviously."

Liu Ying snorted and turned back towards her tray of meals. "It does not matter who Manny decides to go out with. I'm sure there's a good explanation and maybe he'll tell us about it if we ask him tomorrow." She proceeded by eating her chicken nuggets, while Bel and Dina stared at her incredulously. "What?"

"Aren't you curious about who that girl is?" Bel asked.

"A bit, but it's not bothering me," Liu Ying said and took another bite of her nugget. She glanced sideways and saw Gayathri still staring outside. "Looks like someone is seeing more green than pink," she remarked and tapped her fellow DigiWira on the shoulder.

That comment pulled Gayathri's attention back to the table. "I'm not jealous!" she huffed indignantly. She decided to prove her point by reaching for an onion ring. But the other girls saw that she was bothered greatly, as she fiddled with the onion ring instead of eating it. Her eyes had a faraway look. "Is that his girlfriend?" she murmured softly. "Manny never told me about going out with anyone."

"Umm…you guys aren't exactly a couple," Dina pointed out. "Look, Gaya, maybe that's only a friend of his."

"Yeah, right. They are _holding hands_," Bel snorted.

Dina elbowed her. "Not helping," she hissed.

Liu Ying rolled her eyes and cast another look outside. She saw Manny and the girl were looking at the TV screens hung by the cinema's entrance, probably scanning on the movies the cinema would air this day. She turned towards Gayathri. "If it's bothering you so much, go ask them."

"I'm not just going to march there and ask them about this! Manny might think I'm following him!" Gayathri said shrilly.

"Ever heard of the word 'coincidence'?" Liu Ying asked back. "It's obviously bothering you so…" She pushed Gayathri from her seat. "Go ask."

Gayathri was about to retort before she shut her mouth again. She looked at her best friends for help, and sweatdropped upon seeing them making shooing gestures at her while nodding vigorously with wide grins on their faces. She sighed and exited slowly from the restaurant.

"Jealous?" Bel asked Dina and Liu Ying and jerked her eyebrows up inquiringly, pointing towards Gayathri.

"_So_ jealous," Dina said and sipped her rootbeer. Liu Ying shook her head and continued eating her burger.

xxx

xxx

Inside the dark hall of Onyx Pyramid, Persiamon and Doumon were sitting in lotus position, with Persiamon having her hands held in a meditative pose. She had her eyes closed and her body radiated crimson aura. Doumon was behind her, and had both hands placed on the feline's back. He was frowning, his icy eyes set as purple aura rippled from his hands. The two auras mixed with each other before Persiamon let out a painful grunt. Doumon grunted too but it was more out of concentration. Then he let out a loud 'HAA!' and gave Persiamon's body a slight push. Persiamon yelled and spat out some blood which spattered on the floor in front of her.

"That's the last of the clogged blood in your system, I hope," the Shaman General remarked as he lowered his hands from his fellow general. "You should stay out from any fight for about three to four days. That combo attack Satriamon had given you proved to be more damaging than the both of us had thought it would. Only a Mega-class attack can injure you this deeply and internally."

Persiamon smirked as she wiped the remains of blood from her mouth, and put on her veil. "Well, I did have my last say so it doesn't matter. I might have lost yesterday, but in the end I'll be the one laughing victoriously."

"Might I inquire, dear Persiamon, of what dastardly plan you have in mind?" Doumon asked as he got up from the floor. He offered a paw towards Persiamon and the Virago General accepted it.

"Patience, Doumon. It's not yet time to let the cat out of the bag," Persiamon said sinisterly.

A bright flash of blue and orange invaded the halls of Onyx Pyramid, drawing the two generals' attentions. They stepped out and saw Lucemon at the bottom of the stairs of the step pyramid, and in front of him were Devidramon, Devimon and a massive mechanical tortoise standing on its hind legs, with cannons as its hands. Lucemon seemed to have sensed their presences before he looked up. "Ah, Persiamon, Doumon…come down here. What do you think of this Mega Digimon?" The Hellion General gestured towards the metallic tortoise, who stared at them with eyes of different color; the left side was blue while the right side orange.

"I don't think I've seen the likes of him before," Persiamon noted.

"Well, me neither," Lucemon said. "This, my fellow Generals, is JumboGamemon. After a huge battle yesterday, it's a perfect opportunity for us to strike them while they are recovering. With a Mega in our hands and Aldiyamon still down for the count, the remaining four Wira Digital will not stand a chance."

"Don't be too sure," Devimon – the Champion form of Phelesmon – snorted.

"We've formed Gulfmon – also a Mega, I might add – but those Wira Digital trashed us. That angel boy especially," Devidramon, formerly Mephistomon, added with distaste. "Those pesky brats can deliver a Mega-class blow when pushed."

"That's exactly why I'm sending a Mega now to battle those snotty children," Lucemon pointed out. "And the five Wira Digital were at full power while you two had been soundly defeated by that 'angel boy' prior to that last battle. And…you're forgetting the fact that thanks to Persiamon, Aldiyamon is now on a _very long_ holiday."

Persiamon smirked at the comment and saw the expressions on the Puaka Generals' faces darkening. "Now, now, boys…I still, until now, admire your efforts in bringing down the boy with the White DigiSphere. That is definitely a classic. I actually was inspired by that when I made Satriamon injure Aldiyamon, so kudos to you two as well. I however take full credit of the inevitable fate Satriamon is going to face." She let her words ended mysteriously, and by now her fellow generals had given up asking her what was on her mind. She would answer it in an evasive fashion and a sinister smile. Whatever she had in mind, it was bad and the other generals knew that her target would not be able to escape it, try as hard as they might.

Doumon looked around. "I don't see Shawujinmon and Astamon anywhere."

"Oh, they're around, closer than you might think," Lucemon said with a sneer. Devidramon and Devimon snorted while Persiamon and Doumon looked confused. "No matter," the half-angel-half-demon said. He clapped his hands and generated black and white aura from them. Then he shot the energies towards a distance in forms of black and white beams of light, watching with mild interest as the two beams collided and caused an explosion. A dimensional rift resulted and they could see faint outlines of a city within the tear.

Lucemon had opened a Digiport between the Digital and the human worlds. "Go," he instructed JumboGamemon. "Take no prisoners."

xxx

xxx

" '_Hi Manny, what a coincidence! I didn't know you would be here. Who's your friend?_' " Gayathri murmured, and shook her head. "No, not good. Too obvious. How about I just bump into him? No, no…that has happened before. Maybe I should just call his cell phone and ask him where he is…." As she murmured that to herself, her steps gradually became slow as she almost approached Manny and his friend. Gayathri stopped and hid herself behind an artificial tree placed nearby, thankful that it was big enough to conceal her as Manny suddenly turned around. She held her breath – they were so close that if Manny just decided to have a look of what behind tree he would see Gayathri there. Luckily, Manny had no reason to do so.

"Come on, Manny; let's go to the cinema now. I've booked tickets for us and its ten minutes before the movie's going to start," Gayathri heard the girl said, and had to suppress a scowl. _'They're watching a movie together?'_ she thought.

"Oh? What movie?" Manny asked with interest.

"_Madagascar_," the girl replied. "A friend of mine recommended it to me last night."

"Aha, you still love watching cartoon…" There was a teasing tone in Manny's voice, which Gayathri rarely heard.

"Oh, come of it!" The girl playfully shoved Manny, and Gayathri suppressed the urge to gag. "You're no better! Debbie told me you yourself like watching cartoon series. Sometimes way too much, she said."

'_This girl knows Debbie too? And from the way she speaks of her, it sounds like Debbie also is used to her,'_ Gayathri thought.

"I watch anime. There's a difference," Manny said defensively.

"As far as I know, anime is Japanese animation. A cartoon is an animation," the girl deadpanned.

"I watch _serious_ anime," Manny insisted stubbornly. Gayathri had _never_ heard Manny spoke that way – it suggested that Manny and this girl were very close. Her suspicion was confirmed – and her eyes bulged in disbelief – when the girl laid her head on Manny's shoulder and giggled. _'Oh, what a flirt!'_ Gayathri thought, and couldn't help but to feel dejected. _'This girl is obviously his girlfriend then.'_

Gayathri quickly stepped back as Manny and the girl stood up and headed towards the cinema, not wanting to be seen by them. At first she thought of going back to the restaurant and sulk, but something drove her towards the cinema instead. She felt her friends' eyes boring towards her and refused to make eye contact with them. She ended up at the ticket counter and without really knowing what she was doing, purchased the ticket to watch Shrek 2 as well. She saw Manny and the girl already had gotten their tickets and they were now buying some caramel popcorns and drinks. Gayathri didn't feel like getting some, having just eaten, and hid behind a burly old man as she went towards the movie theater. She could hear Manny and the girl talking animatedly and giggling, and strained to hear what they were talking about. She must have leaned too close to the old man in front of her, because he suddenly turned around and stared at her curiously.

"Young lady, what do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

Gayathri flushed and bowed her head while trying to think of an excuse. "Sorry, it's just…" However she was stopped short when her Digivice beeped loudly. She was about to thank her lucky stars for the perfect timing, before hearing another beep nearby – obviously from Manny's Digivice. She blushed furiously when Manny whirled around, eyes widened upon seeing her. Embarrassed of having been caught, Gayathri immediately ran off, ignoring Manny calling her name as she ran all the way back to the restaurant where Liu Ying was seen reading something on her D-Terminal with Dina and Bel peering over the device. They looked up and saw Gayathri.

"Gaya! How was it? Did you find out anything about that girl?" Dina asked.

Bel added, "She's not your boyfriend's girlfriend number two, isn't she? Because Manny doesn't strike me as a player…"

"No time for gossips, you two," Liu Ying interrupted the girls. "Evil Digimon is on the loose and it's actually just outside. We better get moving."

Gayathri sighed and nodded. The two DigiWira exited the restaurant, but they were in a rush that they instantly bumped into someone that was just about to enter the restaurant. Hadn't it been for that someone's sturdy figure the three of them would have fell onto the floor. It was also that someone who quickly held Liu Ying and Gayathri on the shoulders, steadying them from falling. The girls saw that this someone was somebody they knew.

It was Manny.

The boy saw the four girls and his face lit up with recognition. He realized that the four of them were here together, probably going shopping. Dina and Bel waved at him, Liu Ying looked like she was in a rush, which was perfectly understandable, but what he was confused about was how disheartened Gayathri looked.

"Manny! Good, you're here too," Liu Ying said. "Come on, there's a Digimon attack outside the Pyramid," she said. And as if in cue, the whole building shook slightly. Shrieks were heard coming from the concourse level, followed by the sound of what seemed like water rushing about. The DigiWira went towards the nearby railing and peered down, gasping upon seeing the concourse level flooded. Some people floated around, as well as various merchandises and chairs and tables that came from the cafes on that floor.

"What's going on here?" Gayathri gasped, eyes widened in shock as she watched several people caught by the pouring water. The lights suddenly died out, blanketing them in darkness, rousing more panic. Several people gasped loudly in horror and gasped again, now in relief, when the generator-powered lamps set in, faintly illuminating the shopping complex. The water now looked black and much more terrifying. Thunders were heard rumbling loudly outside. "Who could've caused this?" she wondered.

"With all these water, I can't think of any other Digimon other than him," Liu Ying said and gave Manny a long look.

"Shawujinmon," Manny caught on instantly. "But we've just beaten him yesterday…"

"Persiamon was the only one who got severely trashed yesterday by Satriamon. The other Darkshadow Brethren generals can recover quickly," Liu Ying pointed out.

"Where's your friend?" Gayathri asked Manny somewhat suddenly and crossly. "Surely you didn't leave her on her own?" She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Umm…I told Kak Maya that I saw someone I know and I'd be back," Manny said, giving Gayathri a perplexed look. She was behaving quite oddly and Manny couldn't place the reason, but somehow he had the feeling that _he_ was the reason. He nervously ran a hand on his spiked hair. But he then saw Gayathri's face changed, as well as the other three girls who had been listening. They seemed visibly surprised.

"_Kak_ Maya?" Gayathri gulped; Manny had referred to the girl he was seen together with the honorific elder sister prefix. If he was going out with this Maya, he wouldn't call her older sister, she thought.

Manny nodded, and a fleeting thought about what this all was about started to dawn upon him. For Gayathri's sake, he fought not to laugh. "Kak Maya used to be my neighbor when I was at Sabah, but she's now a third year student at Multimedia University," he clarified and gave Gayathri a reassuring smile. "Kak Maya used to babysit me when I was younger so she's like an older sister to me and Debbie both. When she heard that I've moved to Subang she called me up and we arranged to meet today. Before today it's been almost four years since I last saw Kak Maya." He gave Gayathri a lengthy explanation just to clear things up with her, not wanting to jeopardize his budding friendship with her because of a small misunderstanding.

Gayathri felt like burying herself. She didn't know what to say. For a while she kept her eyes on the flooding concourse floor, her ears not hearing the panicked shrieks and her eyes not seeing the increasing water and the frightened people. Why had she jumped into a conclusion so quickly? And why had she become so jealous of that girl before? It wasn't that Manny was officially her boyfriend or anything, despite the countless teasing her friends threw at her about that. She was so embarrassed and ashamed she couldn't bear to look at Manny now.

Manny looked around the dark shopping complex. "I'm kinda glad the power's out," he said, changing the subject. "Kak Maya doesn't know about us, so this way I can say that I lost my way in the dark after we take care of the evil Digimon outside." He gave Gayathri a kind look, trying to ease the discomfort she was obviously feeling. The girl was practically avoiding his gaze and even with the scanty amount of light and Gayathri's dark complexion, Manny could see that the girl was blushing.

Liu Ying shook her head, pitying her friend's predicament because of a small misunderstanding. She cleared her throat, attracting both Gayathri's and Manny's attentions. "Manny's right, Gayathri. Come on. I think we better move out now."

xxx

xxx

Outside Sunway Pyramid was a watery chaos. A heavy downpour rained from the dark clouds that hovered above the vicinity for the past one hour but everyone could see that it wasn't a natural occurrence, for the water had rapidly risen to a dangerous level. It was a rainstorm, with strong winds and rumbling thunder. Floating vehicles scattered about and collided with one another. People were seen struggling to get to safety, amidst screams and cries. Some of the more unfortunate ones sunk underwater or collided with the abandoned vehicles while others successfully climbed up the sphinx statue or the monorail tracks, temporarily safe. But apparently with the rain didn't show any sign of stopping, the flood would only worsen; the people would only be safe temporarily. Dark murky water poured out in between buildings around the shopping complex like waterfalls, uprooting nearby trees.

Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon emerged from the shopping complex and they were instantly drenched. Momentarily fazed with the threat they were facing, they quickly snapped out of it and got to work. Samudramon utilized his hydrokinesis ability to its fullest and wielded the waters so that it would transport the people who were currently drowning to safety, as Xianamon and Puspamon flew above the flood, grabbing hold on anyone they managed to spot needing help. When they realized they were getting shorthanded, they utilized their powers of telekinesis and wind to transport the people to safety.

"Help!" cried a weak male voice. The girls turned around and saw a hand thrust up from the water, before slowly falling into the depths.

"I can't swim!" Puspamon said in panic.

"I can. I'll go!" Without wasting time Xianamon jumped into the water. It was lucky that Liu Ying knew how to swim; Xianamon could benefit from this skill now. She searched around for the man underwater, and had found not one or two, but TEN people needing her help. The water was rather deep at nearly two meters tall – people could get drowned easily if they panicked or lost their orientation. She utilized her telekinetic power and raised them up.

Once the victims were over the surface, Puspamon used her wind power to pull them off the water and took them to safety. They continued working like that for the next ten minutes, successfully rescuing almost about twenty more people. Suddenly, pellets in form of water bullets rained their way, and they were forced to deflect those water projectiles instead.

Seeing that, Samudramon increased his water-controlling power and managed to part the raging water, forming a straight path that led to the entrance of the shopping complex. Drenched people plopped onto the path, and after realizing what was going on they got back on their feet and started moving towards safety.

'_No doubt Shawujinmon is behind this,'_ Samudramon thought with gritted teeth as he kept the water parted, watching as the people got to safety while Xianamon and Puspamon warded off some stray vehicles which were about to fall through the path. All of a sudden water pellets rained upon the path once again, seemingly from the sky. They struck Xianamon and Puspamon on the back and threw them into the water. Samudramon gasped. _'I never knew Shawujinmon to have this kind of power. It's terrifying. This is even worse than the attack at Sunway Lagoon. He's gotten powerful so quickly, I doubt I can beat him as I did before,'_ the merman assessed silently and looked around. _'But where is he?'_

A thunderous roar ensued, as if on cue, coming from the back of the shopping complex. The Wira Digital saw a monstrous mechanical tortoise standing on its hind legs, with red body and green extremities. Its 'hands', or front legs, were cannons, and it possessed a long heavy tail. The tortoise was a machine, judging from its metallic body all over. Its eyes were glistening crimson. Towering over the shopping complex, this Digimon truly looked formidable.

"_That's not Shawujinmon!"_ Penguinmon exclaimed in surprise from within Samudramon. _"That's one heck of a mean-machine!"_

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__JumboGamemon__**  
Attributes: **__Mega level, Data type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Megaton Hydro Laser – **__JumboGamemon releases a powerful high-pressurized stream of water from its mouth which can cut through anything._

_**Jumbo Jetter – **__JumboGamemon hides in his shell and lets out cannons in place of its head and extremities before spinning rapidly towards its enemy while firing out multiple assault beams. _

xxx

"A Mega Digimon?" Puspamon gasped, wincing when JumboGamemon roared once again. The shockwave from its shout was enough to cause the earth to tremble. "The only other Mega Digimon we've faced so far is Gulfmon and he was extremely hard to beat!"

"It took all five of us firing our attacks one after another to defeat Gulfmon," Xianamon said, remembering the battle with the DNA Digivolved Puaka Generals more than a month ago. "We've exhausted all our powers then, and Aldiyamon's Final Purification was what that had beaten Gulfmon once and for all. But now with Adam down, the odds do not look too good."

"Did someone mention me?" said a disembodied, yet warmly familiar voice.

Swirls of white light blinded Puspamon and Xianamon momentarily before Aldiyamon emerged within it. The white knight was supporting Satriamon with both hands as he steadied himself in midair, flapping his eight silver wings to keep himself afloat. Seeing the girls' astounded face, he grinned. "Yeah, my arm's healed but no time to explain. We saw the attack while on our way home from the hospital, and here we are."

"Damnit, why does it have to rain?" Satriamon grumbled. "I can't use my fire attacks with these heavy rains!" As a flame-based Digimon, he was at a severe disadvantage. His attacks would easily be nullified with all the waters all around them. "Lower me down, kiddo. The water's only at my waist level at most and I don't want you straining your arm too much." At eight feet tall Satriamon was the largest of all five Wira Digital; the flood waters wouldn't drown him.

JumboGamemon saw that his adversaries were now with him and let out another thunderous roar.

"Do all of the roaring really necessary?" Satriamon cracked. That only caused the metallic Mega to roar again angrily, and the shockwave from that roar broke all glasses in the nearby vicinity and caused the waters to rage. JumboGamemon's eyes flashed blue and five water pillars emerged.

"Uh oh," Aldiyamon said, and summoned his sword. _"Heavenstar Gladius!"_

"_Duo Focus."_ Xianamon let out her clone.

"I'll see what I can do about those water pillars, but I need you guys to distract him," Samudramon said.

"Ok then. Satriamon can cover your back." Aldiyamon then beckoned for Xianamon and Puspamon. "The three of us will attack JumboGamemon."

The flight-capable Wira Digital then charged towards JumboGamemon amidst the pelting rain. JumboGamemon saw them coming and directed the water pillars towards the heroes but they narrowly avoided a couple of water pillars by flying around them. While able to fly, both Aldiyamon and Puspamon had their wings drenched by the rain, restricting their flights. Soon they became too heavy for the two Wira Digital and they were forced to stop, but above them the two Xianamon, being wingless, were still agile – they had also utilized their telekinetic barrier to block the rain as they zipped towards JumboGamemon seemingly without difficulty, staffs pointed towards the offender.

"_Diamond World Mandala!"_

"_Matrix World Mandala!"_

The two magical attacks slammed upon JumboGamemon, but they didn't have any effect on the mechanical Mega other than making him angrier. JumboGamemon waved his arms and the water pillars started moving towards the sorceresses, threatening to consume them. However the pillars suddenly reverted back into splashes of water, saving the Xianamon from being drowned.

"Samudramon did it!" Aldiyamon said to Puspamon. "Come on; let's attack him together!"

"Right!" Puspamon blasted the Mega with her laser tulips, but to her surprise the beams were all deflected away when they collided with his metallic torso. Unwilling to give up yet, Puspamon gathered more power and released a shining pink sprite towards him. The powered up Jelita Shocker only managed to push JumboGamemon back slightly before it too disintegrated. "What? My attacks are useless against him!" she gasped in disbelief.

JumboGamemon's eyes flashed red and he stared for a moment at Puspamon. Then he roared and locked on his cannons upon the sprite. _"Megaton Hydro Laser!"_

Puspamon Sprite-Screamed when two strong blasts of pressurized water were shot towards her, but to no avail; the water blasts were too strong. She tried flying away but JumboGamemon had her locked on – she couldn't escape. Furthermore her semi-translucent wings were very drenched, thus slowing her down. She saw Aldiyamon and the Xianamon tried stopping JumboGamemon but their efforts were in vain as they couldn't match a Mega's power. She released another Jelita Shocker attack but the flowers were drowned by the water beams even before they could let out laser beams of their own. They were approaching her, closer and closer until she could hear their hissings, ready to strike her.

But the attack never came upon her, as a wall of water emerged before her from the flood below. The two water beams slammed upon the barrier and broke through it, but the barrier gave her enough time to escape as it intercepted JumboGamemon's attack. Then she found herself surrounded by orbs of light, and saw an azure thunderbolt struck JumboGamemon from the skies before being teleported to safety by Aldiyamon. _'Samudramon!'_ She realized, and saw the said Wira Digital emerging from the water in a pillar of water.

Samudramon swung his trident and blasted JumboGamemon with a blue dragon of lightning, which shocked the Mega momentarily. Not allowing the Mega to retaliate he proceeded by slamming multiple thunderbolts all over him, knowing that water techniques were useless against the aquatic Mega. He wanted to shock JumboGamemon but somehow his attack wasn't inflicting much damage upon the Mega. He did manage to scratch JumboGamemon's thick metallic armor with his lightning attacks but they did nothing to slow him down. He saw the two Xianamon gliding above the sky, followed by Aldiyamon. They glimmered with intense gold and white radiance and Samudramon realized what they were going to do.

"They're going to unleash their strongest attacks!" Puspamon gasped as she approached the stunned Samudramon. She could hear Satriamon's grunts as the fiery Wira Digital waded through the flood to get to them.

"_Final Purification!"_ Aldiyamon merged all his techniques into one powerful beam of bluish white light and blasted it straight upon JumboGamemon's chest. It pushed JumboGamemon back, but the attack didn't have the desired effect as it had done to Gulfmon and Yatagaramon. _'JumboGamemon isn't a Virus or a dark type; the Final Purification is a normal Mega attack against him! And it looks like I'm losing power soon…'_ JumboGamemon was pushed away from the buildings to avoid damaging them.

"_Diamond Matrix Mandala!" _The two Xianamon fused their most potent magical techniques into a furious wave of rainbow as they blasted JumboGamemon, causing him to lose his balance. The Mega lost his footing and sent a massive tidal wave when he crashed on his back. Several vehicles were flung by the tidal wave towards an apartment close to the battle scene, and Xianamon could only hope that nobody got injured because of that.

But the attacks came with a heavy price, as both Aldiyamon and Xianamon were now out of commission. Their devolved composite forms fell from the sky and were instantly caught by Satriamon. The dragon man growled and released his Dark Rage from his eyes, discharging his energy-destroying lasers upon JumboGamemon when he saw the Mega attempting to get up with much difficulty. It was the only attack he could use that would not be nullified by the rains, and Satriamon hoped that he could weaken JumboGamemon enough for Samudramon and Puspamon to deal with him.

A sharp pain ignited from his chest all of a sudden and Satriamon was forced to stop exerting himself. He felt as if something was clutching his heart and let out a painful moan. Taking a deep breath after another, Satriamon was relieved when the pain gradually disappeared. He brought Adam, Liu Ying and their partners close to his body and waded to safety.

"It's up to us now," Samudramon said to Puspamon. He then cast his eyes towards JumboGamemon, who was attempting to get up once again.

"But what can we do?" Puspamon asked despairingly. "Our power-up attacks don't even lay a dent on his armor. And we don't have Mega-class attacks like Aldiyamon and Xianamon."

"Oy, you two! Quit yakking and do something! That bastard looks super-pissed!" Satriamon roared at them.

Samudramon approached Puspamon and to the fairy's surprise, held her hand. Puspamon whipped her head at the merman and saw him giving her a gentle smile. "Let's do this together." His hand which was holding Puspamon's now emitted azure aura.

Puspamon felt blush creeping up her cheeks, but Samudramon's gesture sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She nodded, and her hand glimmered with pink aura.

Samudramon began to crackle with blue electricity as Puspamon generated pink-shaded winds from her body. The electric bolts spiraled around Samudramon as the winds turned into a tornado around Puspamon. Then the bolts began to radiate towards Puspamon as the hurricane expanded to include Samudramon. Their hands intertwined and their respective weapons appeared within the grasps of their free hands. Guided by pure instinct, they pointed their trident and staff towards JumboGamemon, and the hurricane and the thunderbolts began to merge. Puspamon felt another heartbeat beating in synchrony with her own, and Samudramon experienced the same thing. They sensed their powers combining as the joined hurricane and thunderbolts became bigger and more furious. The two Wira Digital shared a look and smiled as new knowledge filled their minds, telling them what to do.

"With speed of the wind…" Puspamon said. Her staff glittered with pink aura.

"And strength like thunder…" Samudramon continued. His trident crackled with blue thunderbolts.

"Wind and thunder as one," they said together and announced: _"ROLLING THUNDER HURRICANE!!"_

The thunder-hurricane spiraling around their bodies shot up towards the sky, parting the clouds before absorbing them. The wind instigated a tempest as the clouds parted and thunders rumbled ferociously. The rainstorm ceased immediately and sunshine prevailed, and strangely the water began to evaporate in a blink of the eye until the flood was gone. The Rolling Thunder Hurricane then bent down towards JumboGamemon and blasted upon him, along with streams of blue and pink energy beams spewed forth from Puspamon's and Samudramon's weapons. The whirlwind carried him up in the air with the force of the wind and electrocuted him severely with the thunderbolts as the energy beams shot through him in multiple places. Then the winds let out sharp siren-like screams, threatening to rip him apart as the thunderbolts tore through his armor. With a shriek JumboGamemon exploded into data particles.

"We did it!" Puspamon cried happily. "We beat him!" Overwhelmed with happiness she embraced Samudramon, before realizing what she was doing and let him go, blushing furiously.

Samudramon was also red in the face, but he smiled at Puspamon nonetheless. "We did it together," he said. "It's amazing…" And he realized that they were still in their fused forms. _'The Rolling Thunder Hurricane is evidently a Mega-class attack like the Firestorm Slasher, the Final Purification and the Diamond Matrix Mandala, but it doesn't cause us to devolve. Perhaps it's the benefit of combining our powers into one instead of attacking individually?'_

"Hey you guys! Look!" Satriamon pointed towards where JumboGamemon had been.

"Astamon!" Puspamon gasped disbelievingly.

"And Shawujinmon!" Samudramon exclaimed. "But…how…"

In place of JumboGamemon were now Astamon and Shawujinmon, looking severely beaten-up. They were both shivering, gritting their teeth with hands clutching their bodies, obviously suffering bouts of pain. It dawned to the Wira Digital that they were the ones who had formed JumboGamemon. Before the Wira Digital could say anything more or attack the two villains, a portal opened above the Majin and Kappa Generals and pulled them into it. The enemies had fled.

xxx

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Lucemon saw the whole battle with one glance towards Shawujinmon and Astamon, easily scanning their minds with his psychic power. _'The Wira Digital are very resourceful. They rise up to the occasion when needed. I sent a Mega to them and they repelled it by generating yet another Mega-class attack! Who knows what will happen if I send another Mega Digimon to battle them? It's not an option either – we don't have any Mega Digimon at our disposal. Should I really wait for the Puakas to regain their Ultimate forms?'_

"Aldiyamon is there?" Persiamon shrieked in disbelief as Shawujinmon and Astamon recounted their battle with the Wira Digital. "But how? He should be out of commission! His arm was severed by Satriamon!"

"Aldiyamon's arm looked just fine to me," Shawujinmon snorted.

"And what about Satriamon?" Persiamon demanded.

Shawujinmon shrugged and looked at Astamon. The pinstriped-suited demon shrugged. "Not sure. He didn't really take part in the battle. He just stayed there at the sidelines."

"Oh, he did, didn't he?" Persiamon grinned maliciously. She laughed and left the hall for her private chamber, sounding absolutely satisfied. But from where she had gone at, the Puaka Generals stepped in.

"How did our DNA Digivolution ability treat you?" Devidramon asked.

Astamon snorted. "We reached Mega alright…but you never told us the Mega that was formed from the DNA Digivolution would become one mindless brute."

"Didn't want to ruin the fun," Devimon said with a snide smile.

"It was indeed a flawed Digivolution," Devidramon agreed, chuckling at the infuriated Astamon and Shawujinmon. "Gulfmon was strong but he was also a screaming terror."

"We couldn't even speak other than calling out our attacks! And we were so sluggish! I _never_ want to become JumboGamemon again!" Shawujinmon shouted.

'_So noisy!' _Lucemon thought and left the main hall and walked through the narrow corridor until he reached another spacious chamber. The chamber was filled with books, organized in shelves. Lucemon snorted; he'd seen most of the books a lot of times already. Dusts had caked their surfaces as a result of not being used for three centuries. Shaking his head Lucemon flew up towards the topmost shelf right under the ceiling and randomly took out a very thick book. He idly flipped the pages with mild interest before something caught his eyes. He closed the book to look at the title, wiping the cover with his sleeve.

"The _Nine Negations Dark Arts_," he read. "This sounds like Doumon's specialty rather than mine, but this is interesting."

He flipped the book back right at the page which had caught his interest in the first place and studied the cursive black handwriting. "_Doorway to the Past_," he murmured. His ice-blue eyes glinted as a sinister smile formed on his pale face. "Of course…this is perfect!"

xxx

xxx

"Bye, Kak Maya," Gayathri said as she embraced Maya Azrin. She pulled out from the embrace and smiled at the older girl. "It's too bad you have to go right now."

The twenty-year-old woman smiled at Gayathri and Manny. "It's alright. I'm supposed to be back at my university thirty minutes ago, actually. But we can always meet up again later." She gazed at Gayathri with a knowing smile. "Manny's in good hands now, I'd say," she grinned teasingly at Manny. Manny blinked and Maya shook her head as she leaned close to Gayathri. "Be patient," she whispered to Gayathri. "When the time is right, he'll work up the guts to do what I think is long overdue." She stepped into the driver seat of her light red Chevrolet and smiled at Gayathri's blushing face. Closing the door, she waved the two teens goodbye and drove away from the neighborhood as Gayathri and Manny watched the car leave.

"What did she tell you?" Manny asked Gayathri curiously, seeing Gayathri looking embarrassed.

"Um, nothing, really," Gayathri said evasively.

"Oh…" Manny stared at his feet for a moment before looking back at Gayathri. "I'm curious about something."

"What about?"

"Um…Back at the shopping complex, were you following us? The other girls were at the A&W restaurant while you were right behind us." Manny saw Gayathri looking flustered. He smiled. "You were, weren't you?" His tone was gentle, showing that he had no ill feeling about that action.

Gayathri didn't answer, but in her mind thoughts raced as fast as her super-speed ability. _'Don't ask, Manny. Just don't ask…you're embarrassing me. Ask me again and I'll have to bury myself.'_

Manny took a deep breath. "We never get to watch that movie we were planning to watch," he said.

"Madagascar?" Gayathri blurted all of a sudden, and then gasped and clasped her mouth in shock. She had just given away the fact that she _had_ been following them. Her ears burned under the warm late afternoon sun as he felt Manny's gaze over her.

"So I was thinking…maybe…you'd want to watch that movie with me?" Manny asked tentatively. His brave front crumbled instantly as he tapped both his index fingers nervously as sweat trickled at the side of his face. Gayathri blinked and gazed at him, and Manny blushed. _'Just give me any answer…'_

"Are you asking me out?" Gayathri cursed herself mentally. _'Stupid, Gayathri, stupid! You did not just fish out a declaration from him!'_

"Um…" Manny ran a hand over his spiked hair and smiled sheepishly. He could feel himself becoming as red as a tomato, but he decided to be as clear as day. "Yes, I am. That is, if you're free tomorrow after school….actually it was Kak Maya's idea…and the paper showed that the movie is showing at Golden Screen Cinemas at the Summit USJ tomorrow, around three o'clock so it's after school, so I think it's perfectly okay…but of course, of course, you don't have to if you don't want to…"

Gayathri sweatdropped; she had never heard Manny babbling before. "I'd love to, Manny."

"…You probably have homework to do tomorrow afternoon and I….uhh…you do?" Manny blinked.

Gayathri nodded and grinned. Manny returned the grin with a broad smile.

'_Finally!'_ Floramon and Penguinmon thought from within their partners' Juara Digivice.

xxx

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_**Author's Notes:**_

This chapter pays tribute to both Power Rangers Ninja Storm and Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger. Puspamon's '_with speed of the wind'_ and Samudramon's _'and strength like thunder'_ are part of Ninja Storm's theme song, while the _Rolling Thunder Hurricane_ is an attack formation in Hurricanger, called forth by GouraiSenpuujin (Thunderstorm Megazord). JumboGamemon is Shawujinmon's natural Mega form; I thought it would be fun to include him. The mystery behind JD's tattoo should be a bit clearer now. The Puaka Generals have taken a slightly active role here, with them featured in conversations (which could only mean one thing…) And finally, Manny and Gayathri is officially a couple!

Coming up next: _Wira Digital: The Movie _arc. I've planned to make a separate story for this, but decided against it. It's supposedly a special I wanted to feature in conjunction with the 200th review for this story. Now with 191 reviews, it's close enough to my target. Those who read my blog might know the gist of it already, but nothing is spoiled. Lucemon's scene in this chapter has hinted on this already.


	45. Movie Arc I: DigiWira Back in Time

Sailing across the dawn sky of the Digital World, Lucemon silently observed the two figures flying before him as the cold morning winds flapped his hair against his forehead. The sun began to rise across the horizon and he could see several avian Digimon taking flight at a distance away from them. The sun reflected the burnish color of his hair and gave him a good view of where he was going.

"We have been flying for _five_ hours. Are you sure you know exactly where the Wolfsbanes are entombed?" he asked the two figures coldly.

Mystimon and Jetsilphymon halted instantly upon hearing the chilling voice of the Hellion General. "Of…of course, General Lucemon! We have the locations locked on my crystal ball." Mystimon showed Lucemon the glowing sphere he had on his hand. "We're not far from the Wolfsbanes. Grademon had entombed them all at the Macabre Glade which is located just past those mountains."

Lucemon saw that Mystimon was speaking the truth. He could see the horizon lined by sharp-tipped stone mountains in a distance. The three of them increased their speed as they were about to reach their destination. In his mind he processed the plans he had carefully concocted these past few days. The Master has allowed it to take place with only one specific condition that Lucemon would comply. He had then discussed with Doumon the contents of the old _Nine Negations Dark Arts_ manuscript he'd found in the library of the Onyx Pyramid. The Shaman General was a great help in his ultimate plan for the downfall of the Wira Digital.

He already had the method. He also had the power to carry out the task. Now it was only a matter to find the right Digimon to take care of the Wira Digital.

"Halt!"

Three figures zipped past and above Lucemon, Mystimon and Jetsilphymon and hovered before them, ready for battle. The dawn sunlight shone behind them and at first they couldn't see who these newcomers were, for they were seen as dark silhouettes amidst the dawn sunlight. But soon their vision adjusted to the light and they saw three females, armed and ready.

"You are not approaching that place, Lucemon!" Ophanimon said and with a flick of her hand, her golden javelin materialized in her hand. She pointed it towards Lucemon. "When Grademon came to me, he had mentioned about imprisoning three horrendous creatures calling themselves the Wolfsbanes in the hidden valley of Macabre Glade. The Wolfsbanes are terrible beasts and have slain many innocent Digimon in their thirst for data; I won't allow you to release them against the Wira Digital!"

Lucemon shook his head. "Must we go through this again? I have defeated you once, I can do it again."

Rosemon snorted. "Last time, you've had help."

"What makes you think I'm alone?" Lucemon challenged, beckoning towards Mystimon and Jetsilphymon who both readied themselves in fighting stances.

Rosemon didn't answer. With one nod from Ophanimon she zipped past Lucemon and swung her thorny vines towards SkullSatamon's servants. _"Thorn Whip!"_ She lashed towards Jetsilphymon and Mystimon, sending them both plummeting towards the ground. The Mega then descended swiftly and slammed the ground with her vines. _"Ivy Hug!" _Vines sprouted from the ground and soared towards her falling foes, wrapping around them tightly. Her enemies immobilized, Rosemon swirled around them and summoned mightily, _"Forbidden Temptation!"_ An energy-based rose materialized before her as her headdress bloomed. With one quick wave of her arms to the sides the energy flower exploded and showered her bound foes with pink energy windstorm. She watched with satisfaction as Mystimon and Jetsilphymon were both sent flying to the sky until they were merely a speck of star amidst the dawn sky, their echoes marred the silence of the atmosphere. The Mega grinned and cocked her head up towards Lucemon. "You were saying?"

Lucemon wasn't impressed. His eyes narrowed as the three women surrounded him, and they begun to attack simultaneously.

"_Seven Star Union!"_

"_Forbidden Temptation!"_

"_La Pucelle!" _

Seven white energy orbs came towards Lucemon from the front while a pink thunderbolt and a fuchsia energy wave came from his sides. Lucemon's smile didn't falter as he made a brief spin while having his arms extended. Both his hands were emitting black and white aura and he easily intercepted Ophanimon's energy orbs with one hand, holding them in stasis. Glancing towards his right he saw Rosemon's incoming attack, and blocked it with another hand. His ears caught crackling sounds and he raised his left leg up and blocked D'Arcmon's thunderbolt. His eyes glinted and he let out a sinister laugh upon seeing the ladies' confounded expressions.

"What is he doing?" D'Arcmon wondered.

"I have a feeling we're going to find out," Rosemon said forebodingly.

Lucemon grinned. "You're finished now, ladies. _Fatal Chaos!"_

The Hellion General spun around swiftly and let go of the attacks, and observed gleefully as Rosemon's attack slammed upon D'Arcmon, causing the angel to shriek in pain as she was sent plummeting towards the ground. Ophanimon's seven orbs of light blasted upon Rosemon and the flower woman suffered the same fate as her weaker comrade. And finally, the pink thunderbolt from D'Arcmon hit Ophanimon, not harming her due to the vast difference of their power and the fact that Ophanimon was heavily armored.

"It's nice to see three beautiful maidens fighting over me," Lucemon said sarcastically. He saw Ophanimon's mouth set into a fine line and smirked. "I merely used a pinch of my vast power and already your friends have been defeated. Now, do you really think you can defeat me on your own?" His body let out menacing purple aura as he said that and his blue irises vanished, leaving his eyes all white. A demonic apparition appeared behind him with hands ending with green claws.

Ophanimon felt her heart thumping wildly at Lucemon's power display. _"Virtuous Throne!"_ She unleashed Throne the winged unicorn from her shield. The unicorn neighed and flew towards Lucemon, surrounding him while showering Lucemon with golden energy sparks. _'He should be paralyzed with this attack,'_ Ophanimon thought and spun her hands vertically. Seven octagonal crystals generated before her, shining with colors of rainbows. _"Sephirot Crys…" _

"_Hellion Deathstrike!" _

Lucemon however was quicker. Before Ophanimon could unleash her attack, she saw the demonic apparition that glowed behind Lucemon emerged before the general and sped towards her with lightning speed. It slashed its claws upon her crystals, shattering them into data particles before another slash severed her armors. Another demon was sent her way and Ophanimon managed to thrust her javelin upon it, destroying the demon. But before she could gather her stance Lucemon was quick to send another demon which knocked her off balance. Ophanimon retaliated by unleashing pure holy energy beam from her javelin which overpowered the demon as she was falling to the ground.

"You overcame my dark power," Lucemon said with a never-faltering wicked smile and sped towards the falling Ophanimon. "But can you beat my holy power?" He energized his fist with the holy aspects of his being and delivered a forceful blow on Ophanimon's exposed stomach. _"Paradise Lost!"_

Ophanimon shrieked as Lucemon's holy power overpowered hers. She was sent plummeting towards Rosemon and D'Arcmon, who were both knocked out by Lucemon's scheming tactic earlier. She saw Lucemon hovering above her triumphantly and realized that with her outside the Lost Mountain she was only as strong as any average Mega Digimon. Lucemon however was an Ultimate with a power that could eclipse a normal Mega. She would lose.

She had to escape. They had to flee from Lucemon.

Quickly she grabbed on Rosemon and D'Arcmon on each side and propelled herself up towards the sky. Lucemon gave chase, forcing Ophanimon to drop Rosemon momentarily in order to summon her javelin. She then unleashed burst after burst of holy power towards Lucemon, and finished her escape attack by releasing the Seven Star Union. An explosion of light resulted, blinding Lucemon from sight and Ophanimon took this opportunity to lose Lucemon.

Lucemon backed away; the bursts of holy attacks from Ophanimon had no real effect on him but he still couldn't stand the harsh light. He was forced to let them go. When the lights subsided the three women were no longer in sight. _'Ah, never mind,'_ he thought calmly. _'They're no threat. Persiamon and the other Darkshadow Brethren can finish them off later, once I have taken care of those snotty children.'_ The demonic angel then turned back and sailed alone towards the mountains.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL: The Movie – Part I**_

_**Chapter 45 – DigiWira Back in Time**_

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History lesson wasn't usually this interesting, but both Adam and Gayathri thought that Jackie had a knack on making lessons much more pleasing to learn. Their DigiWira mentor was recently assigned by the principal to replace their History teacher who had taken a three-month maternity leave and he would be teaching them History for the rest of the semester. Gone were the usual droning that could usually put three-quarters of the whole class to sleep; the computer instructor had instead assigned them group projects where each group would cover a certain subtopic. They were required to do some chronological charts and mind maps at home, and present the topic for the class. Grades would be given for this group work and the marks would be included in their midterm History exam. If they did well for these class projects they would already secure a quarter of the total mark, which meant that they just need to put in just a bit more effort to pass the paper with flying colors.

"Alright, class! For the next lesson I would like all of you to divide yourselves into five groups," Jackie instructed. "Today we have covered the introductory chapter about the Malaccan Sultanate. Four groups will be assigned to do mind maps of important events that take place in that era for Monday's lesson, while the other one group will be given a special project." The teacher smiled as he eyed the group of seven which was nearest to him, consisting of Adam and Gayathri themselves, the class monitor David Liew, his friend beside him Kevin Shan, and three others. "_Your_ group will be assigned to do some history and background research of famous five Malay warriors of that era. Can you name them?"

"Ooh, I know, I know!" Gayathri practically leaped to answer Jackie's question. "There's Hang Tuah, the most famous of them all."

"And then there's Hang Jebat," David Liew added. "I think he's Hang Tuah's best friend, but I think I've also read somewhere that Hang Tuah is also the one who killed him."

"How can best friends kill each other?" Melissa Yang, a girl with her hair tied in a high ponytail, also in the group, asked. She eyed her best friend, Nurulhuda Hanif. "I think they must be rivals or bitter enemies or something."

"Actually, I remembered my father saying something like David has just said," the headscarf-clad Nurulhuda mentioned. "Supposedly Hang Tuah was ordered by the reigning Sultan at that time to kill Hang Jebat."

"And he actually followed the Sultan's order?" Melissa asked with disbelief. "That was stupid of him. Even though Hang Jebat might did something wrong, Hang Tuah couldn't just take his friend's life away!"

"Well if you watch that new movie _Puteri Gunung Ledang_, you can see that the Sultan was considered as someone with divine powers at that time," Kevin Shan, a boy with mixed Chinese and Indian heritage, pointed out. "If one dared disobey the Sultan, supposedly the Sultan could curse you, like what the Sultan in that movie did."

"Ahem," Jackie cleared his throat smilingly – he actually enjoyed seeing the students debating and what they had brought up were all true. He had done some extensive research himself via various books and online databases after the principal assigned him to take over that class's History lessons when their original teacher took a maternity leave. Besides it would give him the chance to see how two out of five DigiWira performed in class. "What you have brought up are all valid points, but let's save them for your group's presentation next week, okay? Now, I believe you have mentioned two out of the five warriors. Can anyone name the other three?"

Adam raised his hand. "They are Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu and Hang Kasturi."

"Correct," Jackie said, and saw a boy from another group raised his hand. "Yes, Ganesh? Do you have a question?"

"Are they brothers? I noticed they all have 'Hang' in their names," the boy named Ganesh asked.

"Why don't we let David and his group mates tell you that next week?" Jackie said as the bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson and also school day. "Alright everyone! If you look in your History textbooks for this Monday's lesson you can see that there are four subtopics for it, and there are four groups to do the topical presentations. You can discuss amongst yourselves on which topic you want to do. I'll see you all again in Monday."

The students poured out from the class and Adam and Gayathri bid their teacher-cum-mentor farewell before stepping out from the class as well. Outside they were joined by Liu Ying, Dina, Belinda and JD.

"Here are our class's homework assignments for today. I've jotted down the lessons, pages, due dates and some basic instructions to make things easier for Manny." Liu Ying passed a paper to Gayathri. Manny had a flu that day and was absent from school.

"Tell your boyfriend we said hi," JD said as he stepped beside Adam. Four days had passed since the battle with JumboGamemon, and right after the battle Manny had asked Gayathri out. The DigiWira and Gayathri's best friends were immediately made known of this fact.

"Sure will," Gayathri said smilingly. Her large eyes drooped slightly as she thought of her now-official boyfriend. "Poor Manny. First it was Debbie two days ago, and now him. I hope he gets better soon."

The school ground shook wildly as the sunny day darkened. Students stampeded out from the school ground while the DigiWira froze, having their suspicions of what was going on. They cast a look at the school field where winds were blowing from. A thunderbolt struck on the field right where the crater which resulted from the battle with Ardhamon was at. An explosion ensued, pelting soils and stones haphazardly as thick grey smokes bubbled out from the crater. A shadow stepped out from smokes and the DigiWira and friends saw that it was a hulking bipedal wolf beast with light blue fur with indigo stripes. It wore violet pants which clung tight against its sturdy legs. Then, another figure stepped out and it too was a similar being, but with brownish-black fur, wearing an army green trousers. They threw their heads back and let loose bloodcurdling howls, causing major panic from the people of the school.

"Werewolves!" Dina gasped. The DigiWira couldn't agree more with her – the intruders looked like werewolves.

Then a third werewolf emerged from the smokes as the smokes began to clear. Physically it was almost the same as the other two but instead of brown it had blue fur, and wore dark blue jeans. It also had metallic spikes growing up its back and was lightly armored on the torso, arms and legs. The way it carried itself showed that it was the leader – it was walking straight-backed and proud, chest huffed out. All three Digimon looked intelligent and deadly with their sharp crimson claws and blazing green eyes.

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__WereGarurumon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Virus type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Kaiser Nail – **__WereGarurumon's claws can even cause damage to Chrome Digizoid alloy._

_**Baldy Blow – **__WereGarurumon's metallic knuckle spikes charges dark power into his punch. _

_**Circle Moon Kick **__– WereGarurumon generates a full moon by rotating his leg, before delivering a heavy kick on his foe._

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__WereGururumon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Data type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Subzero Kaiser Nail – **__WereGururumon's charges his nails with ice poison and strikes his foe._

_**Frozen Breath – **__WereGururumon sprays his foe with his chilling breath which can freeze the opponent if exposed to this attack for long. _

_**Frost Bite **__– WereGururumon bites his enemy and causes frostbite._

xxx

_**: DIGIMON ANALYZER :**_

_**  
Name: **__ExWereGarurumon__**  
Attributes: **__Ultimate level, Vaccine type_

_**Attacks:**_

_**  
Kaiser Nail Extreme – **__ExWereGarurumon's Chrome Digizoid claws are known to be able to slash mountains._

_**Howling Rage – **__ExWereGarurumon's deafening howls can disorientate his enemies. _

_**Circle Moon Kick **__– ExWereGarurumon generates a full moon by rotating his leg, before delivering a heavy kick on his foe._

xxx

"They're werewolves alright," Adam murmured and released Patamon after making sure that the area was void of other students and teachers.

"They are ExWereGarurumon, virus-type WereGarurumon and WereGururumon, to be exact. All of them are subspecies in the vaccine-type WereGarurumon species," Patamon said after observing the three werewolves, which let out bloodcurdling howls. The darkening sky and the cold chill which suddenly emanated from out of nowhere added to the werewolves' ferocity. "I never thought I'd see them. I've met a vaccine WereGarurumon several years before and he is a good guy despite looking as menacing as those three."

JD smirked and took out his Digivice, releasing Agumon. "Time to go to work."

"_**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!"**_

After Digital Accessing, Aldiyamon transported the other Wira Digital right towards the school's soccer field where the three werewolves were at. They reappeared several meters above ground and Satriamon instantly initiated his Flaming Torch to gain momentary flight ability. He sped towards WereGururumon and slammed his gauntlet towards it. To his surprise WereGururumon didn't budge; instead the werewolf slammed its sharp claws to counter Satriamon's Dragonforce Striker. The momentum from Satriamon's flight however managed to push it away from its comrades as Satriamon forced WereGururumon towards the crater. Then both of them went tumbling down the crater while grappling with each other.

Puspamon and Xianamon double-teamed to tackle the shadowy WereGarurumon. Generating her hurricane Puspamon willed the winds to propel the black werewolf up, where it howled and trashed about helplessly. Xianamon then froze WereGarurumon with her Magical Stasis and Puspamon followed with her Dream Rose Mirage.

"I really, really wish Samudramon's here!" Puspamon said to Xianamon. "I really want to use that Rolling Thunder Hurricane again!"

"Sorry, it looks like you are stuck with me," Xianamon replied, amused.

Puspamon shrugged as she watched her hallucination technique worked its wonder on WereGarurumon. The black werewolf was visibly trashing about; his face was contorted as his head shot back and forth wildly while the rest of his body remained stiff. "I want to visit Manny. Let's get this over with." Puspamon dropped her hallucination and fired her Jelita Shocker, and Xianamon joined her with her Diamond World Mandala.

Seeing its comrades overpowered by the Wira Digital, ExWereGarurumon howled and charged towards Aldiyamon. The ringleader of the three werewolves, ExWereGarurumon surprisingly possessed flight capabilities and once he was close to the angelic knight, he roared, _"Kaiser Nail Extreme!" _His claws however made contact with a semi-opaque barrier and he snarled, realizing that Aldiyamon had raised his Deistic Guard to protect himself from his attack. He slashed his claws back and forth with furious snarls, and upon his fourth attempt the barrier shattered. He growled with satisfaction upon seeing the shocked expression of Aldiyamon and ran a wet tongue on his lips. "Surprised, boy?" he said and grabbed Aldiyamon's arm. "Let's see what other trick you have up your sleeve."

Aldiyamon narrowed his eyes and kicked ExWereGarurumon's gut, forcing the werewolf to let him go. He then delivered a focused Radiant Faith from his fist, pushing the offending Digimon back a few meters. ExWereGarurumon grunted, but was relatively unharmed. He charged towards Aldiyamon, but was stopped by a metal-winged firebird which shrieked as it slashed him. Snorting, ExWereGarurumon made an airborne somersault before releasing his Howling Rage. It destroyed the Solaris Firebird but got itself nullified in the process. In the meantime Aldiyamon managed to summon his Heavenstar Gladius and quickly generated a pillar of golden light which then burst with pure light towards ExWereGarurumon.

"That should take care of him," Aldiyamon decided. But he was proved wrong when he heard a spine-chilling howl, and gasped when ExWereGarurumon tore through the powerful beams from the Heavenstar Gladius. His heart skipped a beat in surprise. "What? How can this be?"

"You've spoken too soon." ExWereGarurumon charged his razor sharp nails and made a leap towards Aldiyamon. The angel quickly folded his metallic wings over his body in defense but ExWereGarurumon shattered those metal wings with one direct thrust of his claws. But before he could finish Aldiyamon once and for all, the angel teleported away and his claws slashed only empty air. Snarling, he cast a look around him for signs of his angelic foe.

In the meantime, it was a stalemate between WereGururumon and Satriamon. The two had exchanged heavy blows when they realized that their powers cancelled each other's out. A deafening clang was heard as Satriamon's gauntlet met WereGururumon's claws, and the force that came with it pushed them back. WereGururumon steadied himself after only one backward jump, but Satriamon took two attempts to do so. The werewolf grinned icily.

"Are we having fun yet?" WereGururumon chuckled at his opponent, intent on spiting him.

"No. But there's always this!" Satriamon charged his flames, creating a flaming dragon around his gauntlet. _"Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode!!"_

"_Frozen Breath!!"_

To Satriamon's surprise his supercharged flaming dragon froze into blocks of ice when the mists surrounded it. It then crashed on the ground and shattered. Satriamon's face contorted; suppressing the urge to curse at his opponent. If he lost his cool WereGururumon would know that he was out of attacks.

"Heh. Knew that was coming!" Satriamon's thoughts raced as he searched his memory banks of a way to attack his foe. "Haven't heard of breath mints now, have ya? Your attack should be called Bad Breath instead of whatever you just called it."

"Sticks and stones might harm me, but words don't." WereGururumon smiled coldly at Satriamon, bearing his fangs. He knew he had the upperhand now.

Nervous sweat trickled down Satriamon's face. He fired his Dark Rage, but WereGururumon easily froze the attack as he did to his powered up Dragonforce Striker. He could unleash the Shadow Flame Helix but what were the odds of having the attack _not_ frozen by the werewolf? He could use his Flaming Torch to get out of the crater and to safety, but he would never back out from a fight. It made his blood boil just thinking about that.

"Heads up!"

Prompted by the familiar voice, Satriamon looked up and saw Aldiyamon floating above him. The angelic knight was holding his Heavenstar Gladius and Satriamon's face lit up. The sword then disappeared from the angel and reappeared on Satriamon's right hand as his gauntlet slid back slightly to allow him to wield the sword. The sword enlarged into twice its original size to accommodate Satriamon. Aldiyamon flashed a thumbs-up and grinned.

"I missed out on how you did that combo attack you told me about, so here's my chance." Satriamon could detect nervousness and rush in his cousin's tone but he decided to deal with his enemy first. He channeled his firepower in the Heavenstar Gladius and the sword changed it into red and white holy flames.

"You're a goner now, fang-face! Let's see if you can freeze this! _Firestorm Slasher!!"_

WereGururumon attempted to counter it, but found the bursts of flames coming from Satriamon's attack were too strong for him to deal with. A fiery explosion ensued and Satriamon charged his Flaming Torch to get out of the crater.

"Good. Now you can help me deal with ExWereGarurumon. I just can't beat him!" Aldiyamon said.

Satriamon smirked as he powered down his flames while descending on the ground. "Let me at 'im. I'll…ARRRGHHHH!!" Satriamon suddenly screamed, clutched his chest and fell on his knees before mysteriously dedigivolving back into JD and Agumon. Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon gasped and went towards them, unaware that ExWereGarurumon was charging his attack towards them until it was too late. They were all struck by a thunderous howl and were blasted into the crater. JD looked up, heaving his breath slowly as the pain subsided, watching as ExWereGarurumon approached them with a defeated WereGarurumon slung on his right shoulder. The wicked werewolf had a wicked grin on him as he stopped right by Satriamon, but his eyes were fixed into the crater.

"You've beaten WereGururumon on your own," ExWereGarurumon said as his gaze turned to JD and Agumon. "I'm impressed." He then kicked JD and Agumon away from the crater. "I've been ordered to spare you from the fate that is about to befall your teammates. You can thank mistress Persiamon for it." The armored werewolf floated above the crater and turned to face JD and Agumon who were both getting up on their feet. "Say goodbye to your friends, for you'll never see them again!"

An energy barrier surrounded the crater and before JD and Agumon could do anything a blinding explosion of light ensued. JD leaped over Agumon and they tumbled away as the shockwave from the explosion pushed them away from the crater. They felt strong wind slapping their bodies, and only when it subsided they dared to open their eyes.

The darkness had gone and once again it was clear as day. JD heard the sound of somebody running towards them and took a look. He saw Dina, Bel and Jackie coming at him with elatedness etched on their faces.

"You did it!" Bel said happily. "And much quicker than last time too! Oh my gosh, you're bleeding! Here." Bel handed JD a tissue, and only then JD realized that he had blood trickling out from the side of his mouth. The pain on his chest was gone and it was then that the pain on his stomach, because of ExWereGarurumon's heavy blow on it, started to register in his mind.

Dina looked around. "But…where are the others?"

JD said nothing as he turned away from them and approached the crater. ExWereGarurumon's last words rang in his ears and he prayed silently as a horrible suspicion crossed his minds. Hearing Dina, Bel and Jackie calling over him, he ignored them until he reached the crater. Looking down, he saw no one there.

No werewolves. No Aldiyamon. No Xianamon. No Puspamon.

It was as if there had not been a battle there.

xxx

xxx

Over the rooftop of the Summit Tower building located not so far from the school, the Darkshadow Brethren generals were all there, sans their ringleader.

"Those mutts took care of them easily!" Astamon exclaimed with disbelief. "My beautiful sweetheart…"

Persiamon rolled her eyes and smacked Astamon on the head. "You dolt! Do you actually think that those Wira Digital can be destroyed that easily? If we couldn't destroy them in the past, there's no way those Wolfsbanes could."

"Are you blind? What do you think we've seen just now? Those Wolfsbanes practically sacrificed themselves to destroy Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon at one go!" Shawujinmon pointed out.

Persiamon shook her heads and glanced at the Puaka Generals. Both Devimon and Devidramon looked uninterested of the battle. She shrugged.

"Aren't you two angry that those mutts destroyed Aldiyamon? I thought you two had a score to settle with him?" Astamon demanded.

"We _were_ pretty miffed at first when Lucemon told us of his plan," Devidramon said. "Then we were reminded that none of us could really destroy Aldiyamon without invoking the Master's wrath. Until he finds another way to escape the Horror Hall, Aldiyamon's teleportation power is his best bet. When the Master is able to do escape without that little goody-two-shoes' power, then only we are allowed to destroy Aldiyamon."

"But _that_ is exactly what those Wolfsbanes have done!" Astamon said exasperatedly. Then he seemed to have caught something as his expression faltered. "Wait a minute. _Plan? _What plan?"

"And how come we don't know about it?" Shawujinmon asked hotly.

"Because when we were told about it, you were both out cold," Persiamon pointed out. "But it doesn't matter now when Lucemon's plan works." She looked at Doumon who sat in a lotus position. The Shaman General had his eyes closed; he was meditating. "Am I right, Doumon?"

Doumon opened his eyes and a small smile escaped his stern face. "Indeed."

xxx

xxx

"DAMN!!"

JD punched one of the trees inside the Forest Sanctum angrily. His knuckles bled from the blow, and fearful gasps could be heard from Dina and Bel who had tagged along with them after the battle. Jackie was there as well, in his white monk-like garb and black cat-suit underneath. Agumon looked like he didn't know what to do. Manny was sitting by the table, sniffling. Penguinmon stood beside him.

"We don't know if they're dead, JD," TobuCatmon said soothingly.

"Then where the hell are they?!" JD shouted. "I've tried tracing them with my Digivice back home. Even the widest scale scan couldn't detect their Digivice signals!" He grunted and flailed his hands up in frustrations. "It's like they've vanished from the faces of the earth!" A sniffle was heard and JD glared at his sick teammate.

"Sorry," Manny said, and sniffed again. His face was red and he periodically ran a tissue under his nose. "But I thought the widest scale range for our Digivices only cover the whole South East Asia from our country? Maybe they just got transported somewhere out of the scanning range?"

"Our _old_ Digivice had that limitation but not the Juara Digivices!" JD countered back. Manny looked at him with wonder, and he snorted. "Ok, Jackie told me that part!"

"But…" Manny sniffled again. "I don't know, JD. It's just…remember when Adam…"

"Of course I do!" JD yelled. "How do you think that makes me feel?"

"Hey, lay off Manny!" Penguinmon snapped. "Can't you see he's sick?!"

"Penguinmon, it's alright," Manny said, eyes still trained at the visibly-frustrated JD. "JD, listen. When Aldiyamon and VenomDevimon exploded into oblivion before us, we felt a part of ourselves die along with Aldiyamon. We saw what happened. We didn't know then that Adam's DigiSphere made it possible for Adam, Patamon and the Saintly Siblings to be reborn, so we thought they were dead for good." Manny sneezed again and wiped his nose. "Sorry."

"Adam did _what_?" Dina and Bel chorused simultaneously, surprised of the revelation.

"It's a long story," Jackie intercepted. "Now's not the time to tell you about it."

"What are you saying, Manny?" Agumon asked.

Manny pondered for a moment, trying to find the right words to say it without it coming out wrong. "What I'm trying to say was that…I don't think they're gone. I just don't feel that way."

"That's because you weren't there!" JD snapped as he leaned over a tree trunk. He saw Manny flinch, but he didn't care. "You didn't see it with your own eyes! And..." JD thought of how the pain on his chest had struck him at the most unfortunate of time. When Satriamon screamed in pain, Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon all rushed to him and ExWereGarurumon had taken that opportunity to blast them into the crater before launching his suicidal attack on the three Wira Digital. "…and because it was my fault they're gone," he finished softly, his tone pained. He looked down, feeling everyone's gaze burning holes on him.

"How is it your fault?" Manny asked curiously.

"I got distracted. The others went to make sure that I'm alright and got caught up by one of those werewolves' attack. They fell into the crater at the school's soccer field and then that bastard ExWereGarurumon suddenly became kamikaze and killed himself, his goons and the guys…"

"Don't blame yourself, DigiWira."

JD, Manny, their partners and TobuCatmon were surprised by the sudden entrance of the three sacred ladies of the Lost Mountain. Rosemon and D'Arcmon looked like they had seen better days, and Ophanimon's armors had lost their luster in some parts. They appeared to be fresh out of a major battle. The voice that had interrupted JD was Ophanimon's.

"We overheard your conversation while on our way here," Ophanimon clarified. "It was never your fault, JD. And to confirm it, there is one way we both know to ascertain that your friends are still alive."

"Say what?" JD frowned.

"What happened to you three?" TobuCatmon asked, noticing the ladies' conditions.

Ophanimon helped her two friends sit down on the rattan mat that covered part of the sanctum's marble floor before taking a seat beside Manny. "We intercepted Lucemon early this morning while he was on his way to Macabre Glade to set free the Wolfsbanes – three ferocious werewolves, the ones that you have battled today. Lucemon overpowered us and we were forced to retreat. It took us quite a while to recuperate, and even now we still need time to fully heal." She nodded at D'Arcmon before looking at JD. "JD, why don't you let D'Arcmon take a look over your mind for her see the future? We'll know Adam and the others are still alive if she sees them in her vision."

JD grunted. "Knock yourself out." Seeing D'Arcmon somewhat injured, he went to her and let the angel place her hands on both sides of his head.

D'Arcmon took a deep breath and utilized her sixth sense which was the base of her clairvoyance skill. After several seconds passed she tensed as images invaded her mind. She tried hard not to gasp; the images came to her intensely and one vivid image enabled her to see JD – writhing in pain. She had seen this before. She saw JD in very severe pain, and the Virago General's laughter echoed the scene she was seeing. She concentrated more; this was not the vision she wanted to see, but she was seeing this as this was the strongest image of the future she could get, probably because of the tattoo on JD's chest. She willed herself to let her visions extend a bit further, and saw what she wanted to see to assure JD, but not in a way she'd wanted to see it. In her vision, she saw Adam and Manny tear-stricken, kneeling beside a lifeless form of JD before it became too much for her to handle. She let the images go and was brought back to reality.

"Well?" JD asked worriedly.

"Your friends are alive," D'Arcmon said breathlessly, but the news didn't bode well with everyone because she sounded frightened as she said that. JD frowned at her, and she was forced to lean close to the blonde. "Did you tell your friends about the vision I told you about before? About your tattoo?"

"No. Nobody other than Agumon, you three, and TobuCatmon know about this. Why?" JD whispered back.

"I saw the same vision," D'Arcmon said intensely, not bothering to keep her voice down anymore. JD's face changed. "And I saw Adam inside it too." The worry on JD's face instantly evaporated, replaced with profound relief. "The vision I have seen just now is something that takes place in not too distant future. I saw Adam in it."

"Which means that in this not to distant future, Adam is still alive," JD deduced with a crooked grin. "And if Adam is alive, so are the others."

Everyone broke into relieved sighs and laughs, but JD saw D'Arcmon still looking shaken. He knew that whatever she had seen, it wasn't as good as it had sounded. JD beckoned for D'Arcmon to go with him at a distance from the crowd when he noticed Agumon, Manny and TobuCatmon giving them curious looks. He jerked his eyebrows up and they looked away instantly. "What exactly did you see? Details," JD asked once they were out of earshot. He stared at the clairvoyant angel. "C'mon, you've told me that in your first vision you saw me in pain. Guess what? Every time when I, as Satriamon, exerted myself, I felt the pain, so it's nothing new. I still am wondering what the hell is up with this stupid tattoo."

"And I might…I might have found the answer," D'Arcmon stuttered. JD thought that this didn't suit the angel; he remembered Adam telling him that D'Arcmon was a tough, no-nonsense type of person. Or Digimon, for that matter.

"Okay…let's hear it."

"JD, you won't like what I saw," D'Arcmon cautioned. JD snorted impatiently, and she continued, "I did see Adam, JD. But I saw him kneeling beside your lifeless form. He was crying. Sometime in not too distant future, the pain you are experiencing periodically now will finally take its toll on you…and from what I saw…" She couldn't bear to continue and her voice suddenly was stuck in her throats.

JD looked as if he was struck by lightning. Color drained from his face and momentarily he looked profoundly shocked. "You guys figured out that my tattoo is some kind of poison. And now I'm starting to feel its effects. But…I've never…never thought that I'll…" He paused, loss of words. D'Arcmon laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry. We are still trying to figure out a way to remove that tattoo," D'Arcmon assured quickly. "Rosemon and TobuCatmon are working together to find new ways of making healing potions, while Lady Ophanimon is meditating on increasing her healing power so that she can cure you. We'll do the best we can to help you."

JD nodded, before shaking his head. He then put up a poker face, for the worried angel's sake if not for his own. "Well, I…I trust you guys will come up with something, so I'm not worried. C'mon. We have a bigger fish to fry!"

D'Arcmon looked unconvinced of JD's sudden change of attitude, but decided to go along with it. She then thought about JD's last statement and found it odd. "What fish?"

"What I meant was we have bigger things to worry about!" JD marched past her and clapped his hands once. "Okay, people. So we know that they're alive now. The question is…where the heck are they?"

xxx

xxx

In the meantime, at a place far removed from the present day…

People went about their daily businesses at the merry town square. Many stalls were set up and the sellers were seen calling out for the people to drop by their stalls to have a look of what they were selling, ranging from local goods such as rice and vegetables to foreign spices and silks and jewelries. The stalls were arranged at the side of the square, leaving the center bare. Here children were running about, laughing and squealing as a young goat chased them around, bleating playfully. The day was bright and sunny, and not to far from the town square by the sea, visages of galleons originating from foreign countries lined the shores.

Suddenly the sky darkened and thunders rumbled as winds blew from the clouds, alarming the people. Lightning struck the ground before an oval purple portal burst open in midair. Screams were heard before four figures emerged from it, landing right smack at the center of the town square in a pile. The portal then vanished with a flash of light, and the sudden strange phenomena all subsided instantly. The townspeople who had witnessed the strange phenomena all looked at the figures that emerged from the portal with apprehension. They gasped when the figures started to move.

"Oooh…my aching head!" Gayathri moaned as she rubbed her forehead. She hoisted her body up and pulled away from the pile. "What just happened?" Looking down, she saw that she was dressed in white shirt under a turquoise pinafore – her school uniform. She also saw Liu Ying, Floramon and Labramon under her – she was at the top of the small pile. Liu Ying too, she noticed, was in her school prefect uniform which consisted of a light green long sleeved shirt tucked inside a knee-length dark green skirt, and a similar-colored tie which had been loosened. Then she became aware of her surrounding and gasped loudly. "Oh…wow…Liu Ying you have got to see this."

"Where are we?" Liu Ying wondered as she too hastily removed herself from the pile – their partners were unfortunately placed at the bottom of the pile and both of them had Xs on their eyes. The willowy girl stood up and had a look around, meeting dozens pair of eyes observing them with wonder. She took in their attires, which looked somewhat strange. Some of the local men wore garbs that looked similar to a Baju Melayu, sans the collars and buttons while some wore only vests, and others had foregone shirts. Some of the local women wore preliminary forms of the Baju Kurung, and among them some covered their hair while some other didn't. Another group of women wore simple loose fitting garments and sarongs. _'Why are they dressed so…oddly?'_

"Wherever we are now, this place is sure lacking shopping malls," Gayathri whispered to Liu Ying. "Haven't they heard of jeans or skirts or…" Her tone faltered when she noticed the ships lining the shores. "Ships with sails…" she said. "No skyscrapers in sight…and that building…" She looked up at the higher ground and noticed two buildings there, overlooking the town square. "They're beautiful, but a bit…antique-looking."

"I think that's the palace," Liu Ying said, and shifted her attention towards the building beside the palace. She didn't recognize the building at first, but her eyes caught the minaret built next to the building, and the crescent emblem planted at the tip of the building's roof. "And that's the mosque." She thought that the mosque looked vastly different from those she had seen before. _'Who build wooden mosques nowadays?'_ Her eyes then took in the people. _'The locals all seem to be Malays…and there are Chinese traders…'_ She saw two men having features almost identical to hers, standing by the stalls selling silk clothes and jewelries. Noticing their gazes fell on her, she shifted her eyes away. _'Indian spice merchants…'_ Her eyes gazed at dark-skinned men by the stalls with sacks of herbs and spices, noticing them looking at Gayathri. _'And also Europeans…'_ She saw men with blonde, brown and red hairs dressed in fancy clothes were also there. _'Where are we?'_

Suddenly a pale man with blue eyes stepped forward. He was a handsome man with a spectacular built, very tall compared to the others and had his burnish yellow long hair tied back, with bangs framing his chiseled face. The way he dressed – in black trousers and shining boots, white ruffled shirt, and a black vest with red linings suggested that he belonged to aristocracy. However his eyes looked icy and dangerous, and seemed to be giving out warnings that this man could be formidable if he chose to.

"Witches!" the man declared and pointed a finger towards the two DigiWira. "Practitioners of black arts, appearing out of nowhere with strange creatures!"

The blonde man's declaration caused uproar amongst the townspeople. Some of them stepped away in fear, children screamed and the DigiWira saw several men armed with lances approaching them. The DigiWira saw the man staring at them with his face contorted with hate.

"Baron Lucifer, what seems to be the matter?" A distinguished-looking man who appeared to be around mid-thirties stepped forward from the guards. Instantly the crowd was silent. The man was garbed in traditional blue Baju Melayu and pants, and had a fancy light blue _songket_ wrapped around his waist and it extended to an inch above his knees. He also wore a light blue _tengkolok_ – a band of cloth wrapped around his head with the front raised to look like a triangle. He sported a moustache and a trimmed beard. His thick eyebrow made him look stern, and his eyes reflected wisdom. All in all, this man radiated an aura of benevolence.

"Honorable Prime Minister Tun Perak," Baron Lucifer addressed the man with utmost respect. He pointed towards the DigiWira and Digimon. "These witches and strange creatures appeared here from out of nowhere. I have heard similar arts practiced from where I come from, and there we brand such practitioners as witches having connections with the devil!"

The man spoke with a flourish way and his deep voice was very convincing. Already many people were looking at the girls fearfully. They were all convinced by what Baron Lucifer had stated and were murmuring _witches_ amongst each other.

The DigiWira were at first scandalized at Baron Lucifer's accusations, but was then startled when they heard the Prime Minister's name. _'Tun Perak?'_ They thought, confused. _'Wasn't he the famous Prime Minister during the era of the Sultanate of Malacca kingdom…back in the sixteenth century?'_

"We do not know that yet, Baron Lucifer," Tun Perak said calmly. "They shall however be detained for questions."

'_Detained?'_ Liu Ying and Gayathri thought with panic.

"What should we do?" Floramon asked fearfully – not realizing that her action would further struck fear amongst the townspeople.

"Look! It speaks!" Baron Lucifer exclaimed loudly. The crowd went wild as Baron Lucifer shook his hand while pointing it towards Floramon. "Plants can't speak! Only black arts can make them act such way, and this proves that these two girls are indeed witches! Do not be fooled by their innocent appearances, for the witches at my country also appeared sweet and innocent, but possessed dangerous skills! They have powers that can demolish villages and possibly the Sultan and the royal family if we don't execute them immediately!"

"Capture them, Prime Minister!" one man decried.

"Witches have no place here!" another man roared.

'_What's their problem?' _Gayathri wondered angrily. "We're not witches!"

"This is all a misunderstanding!" Liu Ying said, and was about to explain herself when Baron Lucifer raised a hand to stop her.

"LIES! All lies, witches!" he snarled. The DigiWira glared at him angrily, as it was this man who had instigated the people's hatred upon them.

"Calm down!" Tun Perak ordered the crowd, but they weren't listening to him as Baron Lucifer still was speaking.

"These witches have eyes on your children and will seize them during the nights! Can you really sleep when your children's lives are at stakes?" Baron Lucifer cried out. The children all became frightened and hid behind the adults, while some of the adults looked at the DigiWira with expressions of anger and fear. "I say we kill the witches and those blasphemous creatures they have with them! Guards! Surely you all have children too? Would you just stand there and risk their lives in those evil women's hands? They know not of mercy! I fear that if you don't take action, tomorrow you might be horrified of the bloodbath these witches had done just to please their master – the devil!" He buried his face in his hands, and choked out, "Such fate have befallen to some children in my family and of my friends' families back home, and I do not wish to see it happen here, in this glorious kingdom of Malaccan Sultanate!"

The girls gasped at the nobleman's horrendous accusations upon them, but were even more surprised at him saying that they were now at the Malaccan Sultanate kingdom – a kingdom existed hundreds of years ago. They were so stricken with the revelations that they didn't notice the guards advancing towards them, or the menacing glint that sparked from Baron Lucifer's eyes.

The armed men, believing Baron Lucifer's words, began advancing towards the DigiWira and Digimon even without the order from the Prime Minister. Liu Ying and Gayathri found themselves surrounded by all sides by the men. They were going to be arrested!

"I don't think so," Liu Ying murmured and looked at Gayathri. "We can't let them capture us Gayathri. We need to find out where we are right now and what in the world is happening to us, and we can't do it inside confinement."

"What do we do?" Gayathri asked nervously.

Liu Ying gave her surroundings a look around and saw a path leading towards a jungle, but they had to cross the town square and the horde of fearful people to get there. It was the only path they could take that would at least ensure escape for them – other paths would lead them to the sea, the palace and several other stalls where they could not escape from the townspeople. "We have no choice. We have to use our powers to go through these men and escape."

"I can't believe you've just said that!" Gayathri said.

"You want to be captured?" Liu Ying countered. Gayathri shook her head. "I thought so. I've been detained by a maniac man once, I'm not about to let us get captured when we've done nothing wrong. What?" she asked, when Gayathri gave her a smile.

"Somehow I think JD's trait has rubbed off on you," the dark-skinned girl stated simply.

Liu Ying rolled her eyes. "You...ugh. Whatever."

"Tell us what to do, Ying," Labramon said, pulling the girls back to their situation.

Liu Ying quickly briefed them of what she had in mind. She narrowed her eyes towards the nearest guard who was about to grab her, and flicked her hand. The man yelped as an invisible force threw him off his feet. He knocked away several guards, and the girls began making their way across the town square. Gayathri unleashed her supersonic scream and blasted several people away, creating a path leading towards the town square's exit. Floramon released pollens, causing a number of people to sneeze uncontrollably. The two Digimon were then confined inside their Digivices as the DigiWira headed to the escape route.

"LOOK! You have seen what they could do!" Baron Lucifer shrieked. "Do not let them escape! They must be executed!"

"STOP THIS!" Tun Perak shouted, but his order fell on deaf ears.

"Sorry! We're really sorry!" Gayathri said and grabbed hold on Liu Ying. She ran as fast as she could and her super speed took over. The two girls sped past the people and reached the beginning of the path. Behind them the people began giving chase and they quickly ran, but Gayathri was unable to use her speed because of the narrowness of the path, which was lined by trees, bushes and some huts used for storing goods. They were about to run when a girl emerged from behind a hut, dressed in loose brown long-sleeved cloak and skirt reaching past her ankle, with a large shawl partially covering her hair. Her face was half hidden by the shadows cast by the shawl, but they soon saw that she had light tan skin and bright olive eyes. The girl now was standing right in front of them, blocking them from running.

"Please, we don't want to hurt you," Liu Ying pleaded. "But we need to get out of here!"

The girl nodded. "You can't outrun the palace guards for long. You have to hide. Follow me."

The DigiWira were stunned, but the mysterious girl had darted in between the storage huts. She stopped and beckoned for them to follow her. "Trust me. They won't be able to find you if you follow me. I know a perfect place to hide." She had a commanding tone laced in her sweet voice, but it wasn't very noticeable. She also sounded sincere. The girls quickly followed her; she looked like she knew the ropes of this place. They went inside a hut and heard the guards and several townspeople approaching. "Wait here," the girl instructed and headed towards the opening.

"Hey, are you going to turn us in?" Gayathri demanded.

"Shh. They'll hear you!" The girl gave them an assuring smile. "I told you to trust me." She stepped out of the hut and adjusted her shawl so that it covered her hair. The DigiWira then heard her greeting the guards.

"Girl, have you seen the witches?" one guard demanded.

"You mean the two girls dressed strangely in blue and green?" Liu Ying and Gayathri held their breaths. "As a matter of fact, I did see them. But then a strange gate appeared just by the edge of the forest, like the one we all saw earlier. Those witches…they had gone right into them and vanished! It was amazing, yet so frightening ass well! I have never seen anything like it! Is it true that they are practitioners of dark arts?" The girl's lies flowed smoothly that if it weren't the fact that they were the ones hunted by the fearful townspeople, they would have believed her as well.

Excited murmurs ensued. "Did they harm you, girl?

"No. They just shoved me aside before they opened this strange thing which sucked them all in."

They heard guards and townspeople murmured amongst each other, hoping that they'd buy the girl's story. Then they heard them dispersing and heaved relieved breaths. Moments later, the girl who had helped them stepped in. She removed her shawl partially so that they could have a good look on her face. Her ragged garments showed that she was poor, but her flawless skin suggested otherwise. Her thick black hair framed her oval face and her olive eyes sparkled with mischief and intelligence.

"There. You're safe, for now," the girl assured.

"Thank you for covering our backs there. We really owed you one, and I'm sorry for doubting your intention earlier," Gayathri said earnestly. Liu Ying nodded her agreement.

"How come you decided to help us when all the others easily accepted that Baron Lucifer's accusations?" Liu Ying questioned.

The girl smiled. "If you are evil witches as that frolic baron claimed, you'd have demolished us with your powers. You wouldn't just stand there and accept his accusations when you have the power to finish him off right there and then. That was my first clue," she pointed out. "And then I noticed that you only used your powers to escape the townspeople. So I decided that there's more to you than meets the eye, and I trust my instinct. So I thought, why not help you two?" Her expression hardened a bit. "But of course, if you really are evil, then I can just scream."

"We're not," Gayathri said quickly. The girl merely chuckled and Gayathri blushed. "Anyway, I'm Gayathri and she's Liu Ying."

"You have Indian and Chinese names," the girl noted. "I'm called Teja."

Liu Ying blinked. She thought that the name was familiar. _'I've heard this name somewhere. First Tun Perak, now a familiar name associated with the same time period. What's next, Hang Tuah?' _She kept her thoughts to herself while Gayathri appeared unaware as she shook Teja's hands. _'Tun Perak is the most famous Prime Minister during the Malaccan Sultanate era. Judging from the town center, the ships, the palace and mosque…are we really in the sixteenth century, during the Malaccan Sultanate era? How did we get here?'_

"Something seems to be bothering you, Liu Ying," Teja said.

Liu Ying sighed. "Teja, I need to ask you something. Are we in the Malaccan Sultanate kingdom?"

"Why, yes," Teja said, as if Liu Ying should know of this fact. "Don't you know?"

Liu Ying exchanged a look with Gayathri. Both of them paled considerably, and they were both thinking the same thing. How did they get here from the twenty-first century? The last thing they remembered was the battle they had with the werewolves at the school. They remembered seeing Satriamon in pain and were about to go to his aid when ExWereGarurumon blasted them all into the crater. Before they could escape the crater something blinding from the sky struck them. And the next thing they knew, they ended up here.

"This is so weird," Gayathri said disbelievingly as she took a seat on a dusty table inside the hut they were currently seeking refuge at.

"What's so weird?" Teja asked. "If you ask me, I think you two look really out of place here. You're not from around here are you?"

"No, not really," Liu Ying said. "I mean, both of us were born here…here being this country." She wondered whether she should be honest with Teja. The girl did help them escape a very sticky situation. She even knew about them having special powers and didn't freak out like the others had. They owed her an explanation. "However, we're born in different _time_."

"Different time?" Teja asked, confused. "I don't get it."

"We're not from this time," Gayathri said quickly. "We're from the future." She made counting gestures with her fingers. "Five centuries in the future."

The DigiWira then held their breath as Teja looked mildly surprised of the revelation. Her expression didn't falter much, retaining the youthfulness commanding aura, but her eyes showed that she was indeed shocked; she just knew how to mask it. She was silent, slowly taking in their appearances with careful scrutiny, circling around them. Then she smiled and nodded. "Well, I think that's pretty much explains it."

"You believe us?" Liu Ying asked, surprised.

Teja chuckled. "Yes, because nobody around here can come up with such an outlandish story. And judging how differently you two carry yourselves, your clothes and overall appearances, and yet you still speak our tongue, albeit with some minor accents and words I don't understand…so I think you are not lying. Besides, Liu Ying is evidently of a Chinese descent, as Gayathri is clearly of Indian heritage.

"In this time, his royal highness the Sultan is promoting people outside the kingdom of Malacca to come here to do business and sell their goods. I have seen merchants from India and China quite a few times, and when I look at you two I can envision that perhaps in time, these merchants will settle down here in our land, bringing their friends and family with them. Time will take its course, and five hundred years later, it's not so hard to believe that the kingdom of Malacca does not consist of just us Malays anymore." She stopped and grinned upon seeing Liu Ying and Gayathri's astonished faces. "Judging from your reaction I take it that I am correct with my deduction."

The DigiWira were very impressed; Teja was definitely not an average girl. She spoke with intelligence, wit and maturity worthy of one older, despite looking no older than them. But her appearances totally contradicted the way she carried herself. Teja didn't look impressive at all when it came to choice of clothes. Her brown loose-fitting clothes and somewhat ragged shawl made her plain, almost poor-like, but that vanished instantly when they heard her speak.

They liked Teja instantly.

"Thank goodness you believe us, Teja," Liu Ying said finally. "We can't even say how relieved we are right now."

"Totally," Gayathri concurred.

"I have one question though." Teja looked at them straight in the eyes. "_Why_ did you come here, to this time?"

Gayathri made a face. "We're wondering about that ourselves. We didn't exactly come here by choice."

"Oh?"

"Someone _sent_ us here," Liu Ying said darkly. "And I have an idea who."

Teja nodded. She rubbed her chin and considered what the DigiWira had said. Then she cast a look around them thoughtfully, her face frowning a little. "Well, it looks like you will have to tell me more about that later. We need to get moving."

"Get moving? Why?" Gayathri asked, panicked. "Aren't we safe here?"

"For the time being, yes," Teja said. "But the guards are not stupid. One or two are bound to come back here and check these huts just to make sure that the 'witches' they are hunting are truly gone. Believe me, I know these guards. It's better if we move to a place where I _know_ you will be safe. Besides I need to look for my friends – they'll be worried if I'm gone for a long time. They are the ones who know of this place where you'll be safe. There we can discuss and plan what we need to do, alright?"

"Oh…" Liu Ying and Gayathri shared a look and sighed. "If that is what you think is best for us," Liu Ying said.

"And Teja…" Gayathri said, and held the girl's hands warmly. "Thank you. For doing this for us."

Teja returned Gayathri's gesture with an affectionate smile. "I'm beginning to think of you as my friends, Gayathri, Liu Ying. There's so much I want to know, and I know you are innocent. We'll figure out a way to clear your names and to get you back home. There has to be a way."

xxx

xxx

While inside what Adam had dubbed as the tunnel of time and space – because of the fact that the 'tunnel' he and the others had ended up at seemed to have no solid surface, only black and green with apparitions of clocks with their pointers spinning counterclockwise – they had been trying to avoid ExWereGarurumon, WereGarurumon and WereGururumon who had also ended up there. They had been keeping those werewolves at bay with their special powers – telekinesis and supersonic scream to ward them away, and super speed and teleportation to transport them further than those wolves. Once Adam was able to teleport those werewolves farther back, causing them to snarl at him and his friends. The six of them grabbed hold on each other while in the tunnel, but when they came across a cloud of storm somewhere along it Adam and Patamon had lost hold on the girls. He saw a portal opening up and sucked the girls in. Before he could do anything, another portal opened up and they were pulled into it.

The portal led them to several meters above what looked like sands. Adam and Patamon flew out of the portal and screamed when gravity pulled them to the ground. Luckily the sands were soft and where they had fallen there was a pile that further reduced the blow. They fell on their backs and groaned in pain; the sands might have reduced the pain, but _not all_ the pain.

"Oy!"

Adam and Patamon blinked as they heard someone calling for them. They saw a boy running towards them as fast as his legs could take him. When the boy got closer Adam saw that the boy looked only a bit older than him – probably a year or two. He wore a simple navy blue vest left open over his body and same-colored pants which extended just below his knees. The bottom sides of his pants were wet. He looked very athletic and energetic. The boy had shaggy dark hair reaching his nape, and tanned skin. His pleasant brown eyes stared at Adam and Patamon with worry before he knelt beside them. He put down beside him what looked like an own-made fishing rod, made out of a long stick with a string attached at the end.

"Are you hurt?" the boy asked. His voice was deep but had a hint of easygoingness in it. Adam thought this boy was definitely older. That or he had hit puberty earlier. "I sure hope not," the boy said before Adam could reply to his question.

Adam had to chuckle on that. He didn't know why, but this boy set him at ease almost instantly despite the fact that he was a stranger. "I think I should be the one answering that. And yes, I'm alright."

The boy grinned and patted Adam on the shoulder. "Friend, if you can joke that means you're alright. And that's good." He frowned when he saw Patamon, who accidentally blinked at him. "What is this strange animal?" he wondered and peered closer to take a closer look at the Digimon. "I've never seen any animal like it, but who am I to say? It's a big world out here, there are bound to be more animals I have not discovered. And this animal, hmm…it looks like a mouse…with bat wings….ah, praise the Almighty, what an adorable creature. Do you know what it is called, friend?"

Adam sweatdropped upon the boy's inquisitive manner, the strange way he was dressed and the fact that he didn't appear to be surprised to see Patamon. The boy, while speaking the same language as Adam, much to his relief, had an accent that Adam couldn't place exactly where it came from. "Patamon," he said.

"A Patamon, huh?" The boy carefully picked the Rookie up and examined him closely. He turned Patamon around and raised him up so he could have a look under the Rookie's body. "Is it a male or a female? I can't see anything that would give me a clue."

"Patamon's a male," Adam said, sweatdropping and resisting the urge to laugh while Patamon turned crimson. Patamon was blushing and looked like he wanted to blast the boy with some Boom Bubbles if the boy didn't stop inspecting him soon. Adam quickly gestured for Tuah to return Patamon to him before Patamon actually attacked him out of embarrassment.

Tuah did as Adam had requested, and was amused when he saw Adam place the peculiar creature on his head. "Is he your pet? What do you call him?"

"Uhh…kind of. I just call him Patamon."

"Friend, that's odd. It's like you have a pet cat and call him cat," the boy pointed out.

"I…never really thought of it that way."

The boy shook his head, before slapping his forehead. "Ah! Where are my manners? Sorry, friend, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Tuah. Hang Tuah," the boy said proudly and thumped his chest once before extending his hand to Adam with a smile.

Adam raised an eyebrow. _'Hang Tuah? Who name their sons Hang Tuah these days?'_ he thought, but took Tuah's hand nevertheless. "I'm Adam."

Hang Tuah beamed. "A good name, friend. The first prophet's name."

"Thanks. Umm…so I guess your parents are a big fan of Hang Tuah, huh?" Adam asked.

Hang Tuah thought about it, and shrugged, looking mildly baffled. "I don't know of anyone named Hang Tuah before me. My father told me he named me Tuah because when my mother was pregnant with me the whole family prospered. So he decided to call me Tuah, which means luck. I am one lucky guy, I like to think." He smiled. "Tell you what, friend. Just call me Tuah; Hang is something Tuk Guru Adiputra added to my name and a fellow disciple's, to make us disciple brothers."

Adam blinked. The famous heroic admiral Hang Tuah was the disciple of a man called Tuk Guru Adiputra, where he learned his Silat skills. _'It couldn't be a coincident now, could it?'_ He decided to press on Tuah for more information. "You haven't heard of Hang Tuah? Everyone should have at least heard of his name. He was a legend. He was a warrior and an admiral during the Malaccan Sultanate era. I have to do a report on him for school."

Tuah looked visibly surprised by the revelation. He also appeared not to understand half of what Adam had mentioned to him. Scratching his head, he said, "The only Hang Tuah I know is me. One and only. I'm one of a kind." He then stared at Adam oddly. "And friend, this _is_ the Malaccan Sultanate. Always has been for the whole fifteen years I have lived."

"Huh?" Adam's mouth hung open. "What do you mean?"

"You have no idea where you are at right now?" Tuah asked. He gave Adam a good look-over, frowning at Adam's white school shirt, the white T-shirt underneath the school shirt and earth green pants. He thought that Adam was dressed rather oddly; he had never seen such garments before. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"What makes you say that? I am from around here," Adam said.

"Really?" Tuah said, unconvinced. "Where is 'here', then?" he challenged.

Adam frowned. "Isn't this place…Malaysia, Subang Jaya?" Inwardly he knew he was dead wrong when Tuah guffawed incredulously.

"You really _aren't_ from around here, friend. Although you speak good Malay, and you do look like one a little, the fact that you don't even know where you are right now proves that you're not from around here. The places you've stated just now…I've never heard of them. Your clothes are also odd – I've never seen anything like them before."

'_How could one live in Malaysia and not know of the standard uniform for government school pupils?' _Adam thought and took a deep breath. He noticed that the air was a lot fresher. The sea looked prettier and the sands appeared purer. There was no trace of pollution at all, not one bit as he had unfortunately grown accustomed with after moving to Subang Jaya. Adam was reminded of the tunnel of time and space he was at previously. He had seen clocks with pointers rotating counterclockwise. Something clicked in his mind and he stared at Tuah. "Tuah…where am I?" he asked, his tone weak as a feeling of dread came to him.

"Where else, but the Sultanate of Malacca kingdom?" Tuah said, shaking his head. "I've just told you that."

Adam balked in surprise. "You must be kidding me! Malaccan Sultanate is like…five hundred years ago!"

"Five hundred years ago? Are you feeling well, friend?" Tuah pressed his palm on Adam's forehead and neck. "You are a bit warm but I don't think it's anything to worry about. I hope the fall didn't cause you to become delirious. Maybe it's the heat, that's why I'm only wearing this." He gestured at his vest which was without buttons.

'_I'm at the Malaccan Sultanate era…'_ Adam realized. _'I'm five hundred years in the past!' _Adam pinched his arm, and winced. '_Not dreaming, definitely. But…how? This is impossible…did we just travel back in time here?'_

"You look really confused. Are you lost?" Tuah asked pitifully, noting Adam's crestfallen look. "Did you come with any of the foreign traders…but then what are you doing here?" When Adam didn't reply, Tuah shook his head. "Tell you what; why don't you follow me back to my Tuk Guru's home? You look like you need some rest and some food. Tomorrow I'm going to the trader's center. Why don't you come along and we can go look for your family or friends or anybody you know. That sounds good to you?" Tuah asked, believing his own assumption that Adam was lost. "Come on, don't look so worried. I'll look out for you and I'll make sure that you're safe until we find your companions."

Adam nodded weakly, still stunned of the revelation. He stared at Tuah and couldn't believe that this easygoing and inquisitive teenage boy would end up becoming a famous warrior. He then thought of the fact that he was stranded at the past. _'How am I going to get back to my time? Where are the girls? They were with me in that time-space tunnel. Could it be because we were separated then, that we're separated now?'_ He took a deep breath and accepted Tuah's hand as the other boy pulled him up with apparent ease. Then Tuah led him to a small cove where Adam saw a set of clothes folded neatly laid on a stone. On top of the clothes was a _keris_ blade kept inside its hilt.

"A keris!" Adam couldn't help but to gasp in awe. He had never seen a keris this up close before.

Tuah smiled proudly and took the keris before handing it to Adam. "You like it? Tuk Guru Adiputra gave it to me last month, when I completed my Silat training. This is why you see me on my own; Tuk Guru always said when I was younger, that after I have completed my training he will allow me to set off venturing the world outside his home on my own. It's really quite an adventure, having to find my own way around and to prepare my own food, but I love every single moment of it."

Adam inspected the keris by taking it out from its hilt. The curved blade looked brand new, like it had never been used in a battle. _'One day this keris will slay many villainous people…'_ Adam thought with awe. _'I've never touched a keris before, and I've never thought that the first one I'd have in my hands is Hang Tuah's keris, of all people.'_

Tuah changed into his other clothes while Adam was kept busy with his keris. When he turned back, Tuah was now garbed in a simple version of a navy blue Baju Melayu and a pair of black pants which extended just an inch below his knees. He slipped on a pair of brown sandals and tied a sash of lighter shade of blue around his waist. Adam returned Tuah his keris and the older boy slid it behind the sash. _'Okay, now he looks like a warrior in the making,'_ Adam thought with an assured smile. He began feeling a bit at ease. _'Josh and Manny will figure out something. I'll just have to pray for them to be able to bring us back home, and that we won't run into any danger here. Until then…I might as well take this opportunity to get to know the legendary Hang Tuah better, and in-person!'_ He shook his head, thinking that just earlier this day he and Gayathri were assigned to do some historical research on Hang Tuah and his friends. _'I wonder if I'll get the chance to meet the others?'_

"Ready to go?" Tuah asked. He noticed that his new friend didn't look confused or stricken anymore. "You know, you look better already, friend."

Adam nodded. "Lead the way…friend."

xxx

xxx

Unbeknownst to the DigiWira, at the same time another portal opened in a middle of a lush jungle. Three bipedal beasts emerged from it, landing on their feet.

"Damn it! The time travel has reduced our powers!" one of them snarled. "We're back in our Rookie forms!"

"The Hellion General did mention about this, but he also has said that he'd arrange for us to regain our power," another biped reminded his comrades.

The third one – relatively different from its comrade in terms of coloring – nodded coolly. "Very well. Now, we split up. You two go search for those girls, while I look for the boy."

xxx

xxx

_**Author's Notes:**_

The first part of the Movie arc is done. I think this chapter might be rather confusing with the history references and I'll try my best to give adequate explanations about them. I have, in all actuality, only the lists of names of the people of that era, and the year when the Malaccan Sultanate era takes place. Hang Tuah, Teja, Tuk Guru Adiputra and Tun Perak are all people that are said to live during the era of Malaccan Sultanate and this story takes place when they are younger, before their prime. That History lesson scene is an actually a way for me to convey some important aspects that have taken place between the characters. I'm stretching my creative license to the limit here as I only have some basic knowledge about this era, thanks to Wikipedia, so I made up some of my own stuffs to serve the plot. Throughout this movie arc I will throw in various references about this era, and I'll try to make them clear for both Malaysians and non-Malaysians.

The Wolfsbanes and the place called Macabre Glade are actually from my other story. I never really have the chance to explore them in Legends, so I thought I'd use them here. **WereGururumon** is a creation of mine, which is an evolution for the canon Gururumon. **ExWereGarurumon** is actually WereGarurumon X; I don't feel like writing his name in its X form so I changed the order of his name. The **WereGarurumon** here is a Shadow WereGarurumon; I wrote it sans the 'shadow' part in his name as it was shorter.

_Fatal Chaos _and _Hellion Deathstrike_ are attacks I've created especially for Lucemon to enhance the fact that he's very powerful.

The idea for Liu Ying and Gayathri being accused as witches were based on the fact that 1400-1500s, as far as I know, is also an era where people catches women they believed to be witches and burned them at stakes, in the west. I might be wrong so feel free to correct me.

I look forward for your feedbacks, and for more information do visit my blog.

EDIT: Adjusted the time frame; the time setting is during the 1500s, which is the 16th century.


	46. Movie Arc II: Legends Unfold

"How can those witches escape?" Ice blue eyes stared upon the royal guards coolly. The eyes' owner felt a tinge of satisfaction when he saw the guards flinch. "Find them. Surely you don't want your children slaughtered by them just to satiate their devil master's thirst for blood?" His voice however harbored no coldness, it instead reflected only disappointment.

"We've tried, Baron Lucifer," one of the guards explained. "But a local girl we have met told us that she saw them vanished just like how they appeared."

Baron Lucifer snorted. "And you believe her, just like that?" He shook his head as the guards nodded, apparently annoyed. "I think, and I feel that I am most probably correct, that those witches have either brainwashed or threatened the girl to say those things to you in order to avoid you all from pursuing them. They are out there somewhere, hiding. It's impossible for them to just let go of all the children this glorious kingdom has to offer for their dark arts!" He narrowed his eyes towards the guards. "You have been tricked, I believe so," said the baron softly.

Scandalized murmurs were heard from the guards. Evidently, they did not like what the nobleman had declared. The captain of the guard, the one who spoke to Baron Lucifer, straightened himself up and looked at the baron over the eyes. "What should we do, Baron Lucifer?"

The nobleman turned away from the guards, and his eyes glimmered briefly with white hue. He closed his eyes for a moment, before a sneer formed on his face and he opened his eyes again before turning back to face the guards. When he did so, the white hues on his eyes were gone.

"Find the girl," he instructed. Despite having no authorities over them – only the royal family and the prime minister did – Baron Lucifer had garnered enough respects from the guards throughout his long tenure at this kingdom. To the guards, he was only acting for the sake of the kingdom. They would have no reason to contradict him. "The witches are with her, as I have predicted. They are using her to escape our eyes. For this kingdom's safety, find them as soon as possible." He watched as they dispersed and a strange smile appeared on his face.

xxx

xxx

In the meantime, the atmosphere was tense in the Forest Sanctum. TobuCatmon and Jackie scoured through several thick books and tried out many ways to conjure up images of the DigiWira on the sun staff, but for the last couple of hours they were unsuccessful. Manny sniffled through his flu, his sneezes occasionally attracted the attentions of others while Penguinmon stood by him, grumbling and complaining but still loyally handed his DigiWira partner tissues when he needed them. JD stood at a corner of the sanctum, leaning against a tree with his expression unreadable, and Agumon fidgeted beside him, torn between wanting to ask JD what was bothering him, and _not_ wanting to bother him. The three sacred ladies of the Lost Mountain had excused themselves to a chamber they had made for themselves within the jungle shrouding the sanctum, wanting to heal themselves from the injuries they sustained from Lucemon. Dina and Bel sat near the fountain, wanting to help but not knowing what to do. They remained there out of worry for Gayathri, Liu Ying and Adam.

"Where could they be?" Jackie said out loud in frustration. "We've tried everything!"

"There has to be a way for us to find them," TobuCatmon insisted. "We have to keep trying. There's bound to be something that we've missed."

TobuCatmon sighed. "If only Aldiyamon or Xianamon were left behind, we could probably use their teleportation or astral projection power to give us a clue. Now we're stumped."

The sun staff flickered all of a sudden, alerting everyone to look at it. Everyone thought that they finally would get to see where their missing friends were, but the sun staff revealed something else instead, much to their disappointment.

"Shit!" JD swore angrily upon taking a look at the sun staff. "Goddamnit! Perfect timing!"

"It looks like all of them are here this time," Manny said worriedly as he peered over JD's shoulder to look at the staff. His nose twitched and he accidentally sneezed, earning him an ugly glare from his teammate. Shrinking back, he quickly apologized and the irritated look on JD softened. Manny then carefully peered over JD's shoulder again once he was sure that he would not sneeze, perfectly aware that JD was watching him warily.

The sun staff revealed the Darkshadow Brethren generals, sans Lucemon and with two creatures in black they did not recognize which looked almost identical – their only difference was one of them humanoid while the other bestial. They were attacking a neighborhood familiar to JD and Manny – it was a residential area near where they were staying. They saw burning houses, wrecked roads and people running about in panic as the generals launched their attacks haphazardly.

"How can we beat them without the others?" Agumon said despairingly. "It was a tough fight when Aldiyamon wasn't around. And now we're without Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon."

"We'll help you." The three sacred ladies stepped in the sanctum. Ophanimon glanced at the sun staff and her mouth was set into a fine line as she observed the damage the Darkshadow Brethren were causing to the real world. "We've recovered and we're ready to help you ward off those villains from your home world," she told them, and the other two ladies nodded. "The Darkshadow Brethren generals are all Ultimates, and those two beings in black are Champions. D'Arcmon can hold her own against the Champions, I'm sure, while you two in your Wira Digital forms, Rosemon, and myself can battle the four generals."

JD nodded. "That feline whore is mine," he snarled when he saw Persiamon displayed on the sun staff. His face contorted with rage as he thought of what Persiamon had inflicted upon him. _'I'll strangle answers out of her neck this time,'_ he thought. His silent fury was only quenched, ever so slightly, when he felt a soft pressure on his shoulder. Calm as the water, Manny's grasp cooled JD down considerably.

"Let's get moving," Manny said finally.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL: The Movie – Part II**_

_**Chapter 46 – Legends Unfold**_

xxx

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"See that highest peak there, Adam?" Tuah asked after they stopped trekking the forest for a break. They were now at an edge of the forest – at a cliff overlooking a breathtaking view of mountains, rivers and lush greenery of the trees that grew on the lower ground. Some of the mountains were partially obscured by fogs and clouds, adding an aura of coolness and mystery to them. Out of all the mountains, the highest stood out with its greenery. Half of it was covered by fogs and clouds obscured the peak, giving the mountain shades of green, blue and purple. It wasn't a very tall mountain, but certainly tall enough to be called as one.

"Wow…" Adam couldn't pull his eyes away from the sight that greeted him. His current predicament momentarily forgotten, he marveled at the sight of the beautiful mountain. "What is it called?" he asked, genuinely interested. He wondered whether he would come across information from this time which he had already known by asking Tuah about the mountain.

"That is Mount Ledang," Tuah informed, and he saw Adam's face lit up. He grinned. "I've scaled Mount Ledang two weeks ago. It's a very beautiful and peaceful place, with a waterfall halfway the journey up and abundant of edible plants." The shaggy-haired teen exhaled softly, casting the mountain a long look. "When I'm old and counting my remaining days, I think I'd like to settle there."

Adam sighed as he was reminded of what would happen to his newfound friend. _'Somehow your fate does intertwine with that mountain, Tuah…unfortunately it's not a happy one,'_ Adam thought wistfully as he gazed on his friend's back.

Tuah turned around and saw the melancholic look on Adam's face. He frowned. "Why look so sad, friend?"

Adam quickly shook his head and forced a smile. "Nothing. It's just…"

"You're missing your home," Tuah assumed quickly.

Adam blinked. It wasn't what he was thinking about, but Tuah wasn't wrong either. He had to pretend that Tuah was right. "Is it that obvious?"

Tuah shrugged. "You look like you have a lot in your mind. And you're pretty quiet too." He grinned again at Adam. "Am I that boring?"

"What? No!" Adam said quickly. "I like hearing your stories."

Tuah narrowed his eyes as he searched Adam's gray irises. "You look like you have experienced some interesting stuffs as well. It's your eyes…tell me if I'm wrong or anything…but I think they don't really suite you." Seeing Adam's confounded response, the older teen raised his hands quickly. "I mean, it's not that they're mismatched or anything, but…you're young, friend, but your eyes look like they belong to someone's older who've experienced a lot."

"How can you tell?" Adam wondered, running his hand subconsciously over his eyes.

Tuah shrugged. "Just a hunch. I could be wrong."

"Not really," Adam said, and began telling his friend about his own history. He only kept the Digimon part out.

"So you've lost both parents and your big brother," Tuah said softly after Adam was finished. He patted Adam's shoulder. "I'm so sorry to hear that. It must be awful for you."

"Thank you. And don't worry about it. I've moved on." Adam told it to himself more than to Tuah, but nowadays he was glad that he actually felt that way, instead of just saying it to keep others from worrying about him. His encounter with Grademon had taught him a lot, and JD and his family made him feel like he was part of a complete family once again. "I've had helps from many people around me," he confessed with a smile. "I couldn't ask for anything more."

"I'm glad to hear that," Tuah said. "It's important to have friends you can count on."

Hearing Tuah mentioning friends gave Adam the opening he was waiting for. "Speaking of friends, do you think I'd get to meet your best friends? Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu and Hang Kasturi?"

"Eh?" Tuah looked at Adam curiously. "Jebat is my best friend and my disciple brother, almost a real brother to me, but I barely know Lekir, Lekiu and Kasturi. And for your information they don't have Hang in their names, because they're not Tuk Guru Adiputra's disciples. They're my Tuk Guru's _brother's_ disciples and I've met the three of them only once, last year. I suppose they are quite alright, but they're more like my acquaintances than my friends."

"Huh?" Adam was very surprised of the revelation. _'I thought the FIVE of them are best friends, training under the same master,'_ he thought, subconsciously rubbing his chin. _'How different the legend is from the actual fact. But then again, this is six centuries in the past,' _he reminded himself. _'Maybe that's it. Tuah is just a teenager now and I bet the others are too. Their legends haven't begun. There are things I still don't know here. If Tuah and Jebat barely know the other three, maybe something will happen soon…something that will make the five of them best friends.'_

"Adam?" Tuah waved in front of Adam's eyes, and stopped when the other boy blinked. He shook his head. "Wow, you're really a thinking person, aren't you?"

Adam realized that he had revealed some stuffs occurring in the future prematurely to Tuah. He had to stop doing that; he had read something about the future changing just because someone tampered with a very small thing in the past. His presence here was already a threat to history. He had to make sure not to interfere with events that would be happening in this era.

"Now that I think of it – you seem to know something about me when I introduced myself," Tuah said, his tone lowered, revealing his suspiciousness. "Something about becoming a legendary admiral and you also know about Jebat and the three others…"

"I think I've picked your names up from somewhere," Adam said hastily. Before Tuah could contradict this, Adam abruptly stood up. He wasn't good in handling interrogations, thus it was best for him to avoid one while he still could. "We've rested long enough, I think. You think we should get moving now?"

Tuah seemed like he wanted to press Adam on for some information, but upon Adam's inquiry he decided against it. "Yes, I think we should." He clapped his hands once, causing Adam to look at him curiously. "In fact, we probably will have to camp out somewhere tonight. I'm thinking of doing so at Mount Ledang if you're up to it."

"How long will it take for us to get there?" Adam asked, gazing up at the late afternoon sky. "It's going to be dark real soon."

"What's the matter? You're not afraid of the dark are you?" Tuah grinned, wanting to coax his new friend in following him.

Adam smiled slightly. _'You might be a warrior in training, Tuah, but I'm the DigiWira of Light!'_ He shook his head. "Darkness doesn't scare me," he declared. "Lead the way."

"Glad to hear that, friend. If we start walking now we'll reach there before midnight."

With that settled Adam and Tuah continued their journey, unaware that a distance away, a pair of eyes was observing their every movement. The silent observer remained inconspicuous from the two teens, using the shadows cast by the trees of the lush jungle to his advantage. When Adam and Tuah were far enough, the observer stepped out from the shadows and tailed them, his intentions shrouded in mystery.

xxx

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"Stay here," Teja instructed Liu Ying and Gayathri, gesturing at the fruit orchard where they were at. It was just outside the town center. "I'll be right back."

"You're going back into the city?" Gayathri asked.

"I have to seek out my friends," Teja explained. "I can't hide you from those guards on my own for long, but my friends can. They know the ways in and out of this kingdom like the back of their hands. We already know that five major exits from Malacca have guards stationed in order to avoid you two from escaping." She shook her head. "That yellow-haired man's declaration that you two are witches is making it difficult for us to escape."

"Will you be alright on your own?" Liu Ying asked worriedly.

Teja smiled. "Don't worry about me." She adjusted her shawl, and her face was once again shadowed by it. "I'll be back soon."

Reluctantly, the DigiWira watched as their new friend darted past the trees towards the village, which would lead her back to the town square. They barely were about to settle down when screaming echoed from the other side of the orchard.

"Let me go!!"

The DigiWira girls recognized the scream instantly. "That's Teja!" Gayathri realized. She heard sounds of men saying something to Teja, but Teja only answered by yelling for them to let her go. "Liu Ying, we have to save her!"

Liu Ying nodded; her face grim. Together they made their way across the orchard and saw four men – guards, from the way they were dressed. One of them was holding Teja by the wrist, seemingly the captain of the guards from an insignia he wore on his shirt which the other men lacked. Teja was struggling but the man who was restraining her was bigger and far stronger. Gayathri wanted to charge at those men right there and then, but Liu Ying stopped her. She indicated for them to hide behind the nearest shrubs where they could see what was going on. If things got out of hand, they would step out instantly to come to Teja's aid.

"I've told you what I know!" Teja said angrily. "Why are you doing this? Let me go!"

"We're ordered to take you back to the town square," the guard who was restraining her answered.

"By _whose_ order?" Teja demanded, tugging at her seized arm to no avail. "The Sultan? The Prime Minister?"

"By Baron Lucifer, miss," the guard captain said. "Now, if you just follow us quietly…"

"By that _foreign man_?!" Teja exclaimed once again, her voice turned frosty all of a sudden. With her free hand she pulled her shawl off her head, and her long dark hair cascaded down her back. Her hair was tied by golden ornaments into a ponytail and upon looking at her, the guards froze. Teja used this opportunity to yank her arm away from the guard, and the guard didn't even resist her this time. "Unhand me, by order of the _princess!"_

"The princess?!" Liu Ying and Gayathri were both shocked at the revelation. They knew Teja's name was familiar, but they didn't know that she was a princess.

But apparently the guards all knew of her. Their demeanors to her instantly changed to reverence as they all bowed at her. "Princess Tun Teja!" This confirmed to Liu Ying and Gayathri that their new friend was indeed no commoner, but one belonged to the royal family. But why in the world was she dressed like a peasant?

"Your highness, I beg for your forgiveness for my rash behavior earlier," the guard who held her earlier apologized quickly, his voice quivering. "But you were attired so differently…you are not in your royal outfit as usual… I honestly did not notice that it was you. Forgive me, your highness. But pardon me asking…what were you doing out of the palace? And…and with street clothes…"

"That's not of your concern!" Teja snapped, her voice condescending. The guard captain, despite being bigger, took a step back as Teja pointed her right index finger at him. "I shall grant pardon for you if you leave me alone promptly!"

"But your highness, your uncle the Sultan is looking for you," another guard said. "You've been missing from the palace for two days now."

Teja rolled her eyes. "I know what to tell my uncle. Now, I _command_ you to stop with this…witch-hunting nonsense and do something more sensible." She looked at the four guards with a superior air, and was quick to intercept when the guard captain was about to say something. "That's all." She flicked her hands in a go-away gesture, and the guards had no choice but to comply with the princess's wish. Disobeying a royal family member would be considered treason – a crime of highest degree – and no one wanted to risk that. Teja knew that, and heaved a relieved breath as the guards were out of sight. "That was close," she murmured, and readjusted her shawl back to her head.

When the guards were gone, Liu Ying and Gayathri were about to step out from the shrubs where they were hiding, before they saw three figures running towards Teja. Quickly they retreated back, thinking that they could be another bunch of guards. But they soon saw that the three figures – males – were not the guards, but it was better for them to know exactly who they were before revealing themselves to Teja. After all, Teja had gone to great lengths to protect them; it would be a waste if the DigiWira acted hastily.

"Princess Tun Teja! Princess!"

Teja looked at them and her expression brightened. "Ah, you three!" Her gaze fell on three male teenagers as they stopped and simultaneously knelt before her; each had their hands joined on their erected palms together – a gesture of reverence from normal people to royals. "Just the ones I'm looking for in times like this," she added and beckoned for them to stand normally.

"Your highness, your uncle the Sultan is wondering of your whereabouts. So was the crown prince Mahmud Shah," the tallest and burliest of the three informed her with a polite voice. He had dark brown hair, wavy and parted in the middle, with a simple light blue cloth tied over the forehead and around his head. He wore light blue long-sleeved shirt and same-colored pants that reached just past his knees. A keris was slipped behind the black sash he'd tied up around his waist, over his shirt. As he addressed the disguised princess he clumsily ran a sleeve over his sweaty face.

"I know, Kasturi. The guards have just informed me," Teja said, frowning at the boy. "And what did I…"

"Prince Mahmud especially was wondering why you've left him all by himself," a thin boy with straight black hair, in a soft yellow outfit similar to Kasturi, interrupted. He and the other boy in light red were about an inch shorter than Kasturi. He grinned at Teja, and his tone suggested that he and the princess was used to a more informal way of speaking.

Teja rolled her eyes. "Well, why don't you accompany him instead, Lekiu? His Silat skills need a _lot_ of improvement; maybe you can impart some of your skills."

Lekiu made a face. "You're cruel, princess," he said, and glanced at a quiet boy beside him who was dressed identically to Lekiu and Kasturi, but his choice of color was pale red. "Am I right, Lekir?" The boy who was referred as Lekir merely smiled at the princess and Lekiu, but didn't nod or shook his head. "I take that as a yes," Lekiu said easily.

'_Kasturi, Lekiu, Lekir?'_ Liu Ying and Gayathri shared surprised looks between themselves._ 'Aren't they part of the famous five Hang brothers?'_ They gazed at the three boys, noting that Kasturi seemed to be the eldest, although that might be because he was the burliest. Lekiu and Lekir shared near-identical features, but while Lekiu had his curly hair grown to his shoulder Lekir adopted a short-hair look with bangs falling over his forehead. They looked to be around thirteen or fourteen.

Teja merely smiled at the three boys before her face adopted a serious expression. "Enough talking, you three. It's good that you're now here, because there are two people that I'd like you to meet," she said, and was about to take them across the orchard when Liu Ying and Gayathri stepped out. "Oh, you're here." She scanned their faces, searching for something in their bewildered faces. It was easy to see that their "I suppose you've seen and heard everything, then?" As usual, she did not sound so surprised.

"You're a _princess_?" Gayathri said in amazement. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Teja smiled sheepishly. "I'd rather not, because I'm getting tired of how people my age treat me differently just because I'm a royal." She gave Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir sharp looks which made them flinch. "I had no choice when the guards was mistreating me back then, and decided to put my princess rank to good use. Now the guards won't be bothering us for a while, unless my uncle or Prime Minister Tun Perak issues the order for your capture. Hopefully by then you'll be long gone from this kingdom, safely hidden or returned."

'_Tun Teja…of course! She's the queen of the Sultan in that Puteri Gunung Ledang movie.'_ Liu Ying's thought was stopped short when the teen known as Lekiu stepped in front of her. She raised an eyebrow upon the boy's curious-grinning expression.

"Are you princesses from China and India?" Lekiu asked the DigiWira girls bluntly. "You seem to be friends of _our_ princess…"

"They're actually the witches that pale-skinned baron hyped about at the town square earlier," Teja said dryly and giggled when Lekiu, Lekir and Kasturi balked in surprise as Liu Ying and Gayathri gave her shocked glances. The princess shrugged. "Which I discovered that they are not," she added, and the three males calmed down.

"That's a relief," Kasturi said and pressed his chest to calm his nerves. "I mean, stories got around that two witches came out of nowhere and started attacking the people with their black magic," he added.

The DigiWira girls both frowned at Kasturi's statement. "That would be us, only that we're not witches and we don't use black magic to attack the people," Gayathri corrected him.

"So what are you then?" Kasturi asked.

Liu Ying and Gayathri shared a look before they glanced at Teja. Teja raised a hand and beckoned to herself. "Kasturi, Lekiu, Lekir…I would like you to meet Liu Ying and Gayathri. They are from a distant future, and they're here by accident." The princess paused as the three males became wide-eyed, gaping in shock. "Six hundred years in the future, exactly," she added and the boys gasped once more. "They're from a time so unlike ours, so do act cordially and try not to unease them with your antiques. Yes, I'm talking about you especially, Lekiu," she finished and gazed sharply at the younger boy.

It took a full minute before the shock wore off from the boys. Then Kasturi stepped in front of the DigiWira girls and bowed his head slightly. He gave them a sincere smile.

"I don't know what else to say but…welcome to our time," he said. "If Princess Tun Teja believes that you're good, then we believe you as well. I am Kasturi, and these two are cousins Lekir and Lekiu. If their near-identical names confuse you, just remember that Lekiu is the chatty one while Lekir acts like he has a gold bar in his mouth." Gesturing to the three of them, Kasturi continued: "The three of us are Princess Tun Teja's personal bodyguards." He sounded proud as he mentioned that.

"And childhood friends," Teja added quickly, frowning at Kasturi. "Really, Kasturi, you should say that first before mentioning about that bodyguards thing! The four of us grew up together!"

"Apologies, princess," Kasturi said with a sheepish smile. "It's just that we're trained to hold you in high regard when your father appointed us as your guards."

"You'll do that in front of other people," Teja said and pulled Kasturi's ear, much to the boy's surprise. He yelped and Teja let go of his ear instantly.

"Well, I have no problems with that, Teja!" Lekiu announced and grinned at the DigiWira girls. "I knew someone as pretty as you two can't be witches," he said suavely, and Lekir giggled at his cousin's remark. Their behaviors instantly reminded the DigiWira girls of a pair of cousins who were their dear friends. One was in their own time, while the other should be somewhere in this past. All the while, they were wondering about Adam, and decided that they would ask their friends about him after they had gotten themselves acquainted.

"It's very nice to meet you all," Liu Ying said. "And we're very grateful that you're going to help us."

"Question," Gayathri said with one hand raised. "Aren't you supposed to come in five instead of three? I mean, where are your other two friends Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat?"

At the mention of those names, Lekiu snorted in displeasure while Lekir frowned. Kasturi had his mouth set thin, as if Gayathri had brought up a taboo subject. The DigiWira girls turned to Teja helplessly.

"Alright, you three…" The princess took charge of the situation. "Liu Ying and Gayathri need to return to their own time, and until their friends from the future can figure out a way to retrieve them, _we_ have to make sure that they are safe," she said. "That Baron Lucifer has ignited rumors about them being witches and no thanks to him now probably the whole kingdom of Malacca is now fearful of them wanting their children's blood for satanic rituals. Liu Ying and Gayathri are vulnerable here; we need to take them out of here to someplace safe. I trust you three know of a perfect place to hide."

Kasturi nodded. "Mount Ledang is a perfect spot." He looked up at the sky. "If we set out there now, we can reach there by tomorrow morning," he deduced.

Liu Ying and Gayathri saw how their four friends sidestepped their question about Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. They appeared uncomfortable in discussing about them. The DigiWira girls wondered why, but realized that it was too early for them to be pressing their new friends about something that was not their business. They shifted their thoughts to what Kasturi had mentioned. "Do we have to walk there?" Gayathri asked slowly.

"Of course. It's a tough journey there otherwise," Kasturi answered. "Mount Ledang is very secluded and the path leading to the mountain is obscured by jungles and misleading trails. The three of us found the mountain by accident." He gazed at the sky. "It's getting late. Let's start walking and along our journey we can trade stories."

The DigiWira girls shared pained looks with each other, both thinking of the same thing. _'Walk?'_

xxx

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Back in the present time, Satriamon and Samudramon saw that the Darkshadow Brethren didn't strike far than their hometown Subang Jaya, but the place was a bit farther than any of them were living at. People were deserting the area, and some exceptions were firemen who were getting some people out from burnt houses. Above the sky, three Velgemon appeared to be in sight. The Wira Digital was about to strike towards the buzzards but a mantled figure blocked their view.

"Allow me! You take care of the burning houses!" Rosemon flew past the Wira Digital and blasted the Velgemon with her Forbidden Temptation and Roses Rapier. No match for her, the buzzards were immediately deleted.

The Wira Digital blinked. "Wow, that was quick," Samudramon commented. Satriamon merely grunted his agreement; his attention was elsewhere as he searched for the one he wanted to fight.

Suddenly a stream of black laser and a symbol of darkness appeared from a distance and slammed upon Rosemon's back. Rosemon whirled around, her breath nearly taken away by the sneak attack. She gritted her teeth angrily upon seeing Astamon and Doumon approaching her. Her luscious lips set thin, she gathered her energy and prepared herself to fight the Majin and Shaman Generals.

"You might be older, but you're still my type, sweet stuff," Astamon said lecherously. "I always love flower-based Digi-women…"

"Let's see if we can't beat you," Doumon said to Rosemon, his giant paintbrush ready to strike. "Rumor has it that while it's true that you're a Mega, but your strength has been reduced to that of a strong Ultimate when you abandoned the Lost Mountain."

Rosemon's confidence faltered. She might be able to beat the Velgemon easily, but these two Ultimates were of a different league. But she soon realized that she was not on her own, when Ophanimon leaped in midair as well and tackled Doumon from the melee, and skillfully knocked away Doumon's paintbrush before the fox shaman could unleash any attack with it. Doumon retaliated with his Thousand Curses but they were destroyed by Ophanimon's seven orbs of light before a blast of crystals slammed upon the monk's chest. In the meantime Rosemon had unleashed flurries of Thorn Whipping upon Astamon, alternated with furious stabs of her Roses Rapier.

The generals were quick in realizing that they were no match for two Mega Digimon, even with the latter's powers compromised. Doumon opened a Demon Gate Escape and with Astamon they retreated to the Digital World.

"That was quick," Samudramon realized. He summoned rains and mists to quench out the flames on the burning houses, and was successful at that. However a tornado of water suddenly slammed upon the houses and destroyed them, much to his horror. The culprit showed himself soon enough and Samudramon gritted his teeth in anger upon witnessing the total destruction the water tornado had caused. "Shawujinmon!"

"This time, I'm not gonna lose to you, Wira Digital!" Shawujinmon summoned his staff and slammed it onto Samudramon.

Samudramon called out his trident and countered his foe's attack. Their weapons locked together with a metallic screech as the two aquatic beings began using their physical strengths to outdo each other. Neither could force the other away for they were pretty much evenly matched when it came to strength and power. Samudramon wanted to electrocute Shawujinmon but with his trident immobilized by his foe's staff, he couldn't summon it. And it seemed that Shawujinmon realized of this, too, as the general persistently kept his staff in a position that'd make it impossible for Samudramon to pull it back.

All of a sudden, Samudramon's nostrils began to itch. He couldn't control it and at once, his prowess was reduced. "Ha…ha…haaaa……CHEEEEWWW!!"

At this, Shawujinmon yelped and without thinking pulled his staff away in disgust and Samudramon, seizing the opportunity, gave the Kappa General away with one direct thrust of his weapon. Shawujinmon clutched his chest, and he snarled angrily at the marine Wira Digital. "Sneeze all over me, ughhh!!" The general shivered in revulsion as he heard Samudramon sniffling. He raised his staff, wanting to attack when a strange sensation crossed over his hidden nostrils above his beak. He lost his concentration, before letting out a loud sneeze which stunned even himself. "What…what's happening to me?" Three rows of sneezing ensued thereafter.

Samudramon blinked. Surely this could not be this easy? "Ha, ha, you've caught my flu! First you'll experience runny nose then your throat becomes dry. You'll feel like sneezing, you'll have a headache and your temperature will increase." He laughed and sniffled again. "Feel any of that now?"

"What's wrong with me?" Shawujinmon moaned as he let out another thunderous sneeze. His body felt warm all over but at the same time he was shivering – something he had never felt before. A strange liquid began trickling out from his nostrils as they twitched. His throat felt sore and ticklish at the same time. Shawujinmon sneezed again and gasped when he saw green gooey liquid sputtered out from his nostrils. The Kappa General shivered in disgust once more. "Ugghh! Yuck! What the hell is that!!?" He decided there and then that he was not fit to fight Samudramon in his sickly form, and decided to retreat too.

"Thank goodness," Samudramon muttered, and sneezed loudly before devolving back into Manny and Penguinmon. "I never thought I'd owe my life to a flu virus," Manny murmured.

"Don't get too used to it, pal!" Penguinmon snapped, and sneezed loudly. He groaned and glared at his DigiWira partner, who gave him a sheepish smile. "NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU HA--HAACHEW!! HAACHEW!! UGGGHH!!"

Over the sky, D'Arcmon was cornered by Devimon and Devidramon who were able to resist her light-based attacks. She could not harm them, being Champion level herself. She was further at a disadvantage because her opponents attacked her together instead of sequentially like cliché villains. Her body was bruised in many parts, courtesy of the villainous duo's dark energy attacks which she could not evade, for when she tried losing Devimon Devidramon would attack her and vice versa. After a while she began feeling a bit fatigued.

"Let's get her!" Devidramon said. "She reminds me of some angels I really would love to have their wings clipped!"

"Ooh, let's," Devimon replied as he brandished his sharp claws. _"Touch of…"_

"Not so fast!" A female voice stopped Devimon and at that instance a whip lashed at his long arms, pushing him away. Surprised, the Puaka Generals saw that the battle was no longer in their favor. Ophanimon and Rosemon hovered before them, pointing their javelin and rapier dangerously at them. Should they attack, the Puakas – now in their Champion forms – would be destroyed.

"What the hell? Two Megas against two Champions?" Devimon said incredulously. "Doumon!!"

"_Eden's Javelin!" _Ophanimon shot the Puaka Generals with a stream of holy energy which blasted them into the portal they had summoned. Their shrieks could be heard gradually diminishing as the portal closed.

Satriamon – the one who remained on the ground – saw that one by one the Darkshadow Brethren generals were forced to retreat. He heard a snide laugh and turned sideways, snarling upon seeing a feminine figure waltzing amidst several destroyed vehicles. She was examining her sharp claws as she walked, but Satriamon realized that she was observing him from the corners of her eyes.

"Hello, Satriamon," Persiamon greeted sweetly. "How's life treating you so far?"

"It sucks, and you're causing it, bitch!" With a roar Satriamon blasted his Shadow Flame Helix upon Persiamon. The Virago General laughed haughtily as she froze his attack without much effort, and still had the audacity to yawn, further infuriating Satriamon.

"Don't strain yourself too much, hon." Persiamon winked at the fiery Wira Digital. "We both know how…unwell…you are right now. And get your fact straight; I am not a bitch, seeing as I am actually a cat. But that pretty sorceress friend of yours…isn't her Digimon a canine? If you think about it, doesn't that make her…?"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!! _Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode!!"_

"_Helter Skelter!"_

The two attacks cancelled each other out before Persiamon swiftly darted towards Satriamon, and with a skillful flick of both her hands she released crimson ribbons from in-between her fingers. Another flick of both hands and the ribbons spun around Satriamon before they bound him tight. "This is so much fun," Persiamon murmured. "You must be dying to know what I'm up to by giving you my Blight of Bastet, right?" she taunted.

'_Blight of Bastet?' _Satriamon didn't need to hear Persiamon's explanation because he already knew it from D'Arcmon's visions of the future. It scared the wits out of him upon realizing that his days were numbered, but he refused to give Persiamon the pleasure in knowing how frightened he was now. "If I'm going down, then you're coming along with me, you slutty whore from hell!" With a roar he unleashed flames that caused the ribbons to disintegrate and smirked upon seeing the alarmed look on Persiamon's eyes. But before he could attack the Virago General, a sharp stabbing pain soared from his chest and he let out a pained howl. Clutching his chest tight, he cursed Persiamon when the Virago General chortled. He wanted to attack, but another bout of pain ensued and he unwillingly devolved back into his composite selves.

JD trashed about on the ground as Agumon looked at him painfully, not knowing what to do. Persiamon laughed and with a flourish flick of her arm a portal opened, and she entered it. Before the portal vanished she glanced over her shoulder at JD, and threw him a wicked smile. "Don't worry. You won't die today. But treasure your limited time, boy, for when the next full moon occurs in this world after tonight, you shall cease to exist! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

When Persiamon vanished, the pain JD was feeling subsided and he was able to breathe normally once again. He took a moment to gather himself, but soon realized that his cover was blown to a fellow DigiWira and cursed inwardly. He didn't want any of his fellow DigiWira, not even Adam, to know about the tattoo and the pain, but it looked like he wouldn't be able to hide from them for long.

"JD…what did Persiamon mean by that?" Manny asked, wide-eyed with shock. "What's happening to you?"

xxx

xxx

It was now night as Adam and Tuah trekked the dark jungle, heading to Mount Ledang with aid of the full moon and the glittering stars, and the sounds of rustling leaves and crickets played in the background, breaking the otherwise silent atmosphere. For Adam, he was slightly panting and was amazed of how Tuah seemed unfazed from the journey. As Tuah had estimated, they were getting nearer to the mountain and Adam couldn't wait to reach there; part of the reason was to rest for the night. Another reason was that he had been made known from his time that some day, his new friend's fate would intertwine with the mountain, and Adam naturally was curious to step foot on the mountain. He had not the chance to do so back in his time; he might as well do it here in the past.

"You're alright, Adam?" Tuah stopped and turned around, noticing that Adam was particularly quiet. He saw Adam stopping as well, taking the opportunity to take a few deep breaths. "Need another break?"

"No, I'm okay," Adam said, his breaths steadying, and readjusted Patamon who was silently perched on his head.

Tuah nodded. "It's a peaceful night, perfect for walking." He glanced up at the full moon, staring at it with wonder. "You know, I've always thought the full moon as beautiful, but tonight it looks kind of eerie." He gave Adam a pointed look, asking for Adam's opinion without actually saying it.

"Huh?" Adam looked up, and saw that Tuah had the point. The moon was in dark orange shade, and spots of clouds obscured some of its surface. Adam shook his head. "It does, but I think it's nothing to be worried about, right?"

Tuah grinned. "I don't know," he said. "I've heard tales from some foreign traders, saying about men who transform into half-man, half-beast beings whenever there's a full moon. Have you heard of it?"

'_I've seen those,'_ Adam thought, thinking about the three werewolves Digimon he and the others had battled before they ended up here. It unnerved him when Tuah mentioned about werewolves, as Adam and his friends had just faced them earlier, but it might just be a coincidence. How could Tuah have known about the battle?

But his thought was quenched when he heard a wolf-like howl echoing the night. He shot an alarmed look at Tuah, and was stunned to see Tuah laughing at him as he clenched his stomach. Adam realized that he had been duped; Tuah was the culprit for making that horrendous howl. He glared at the other boy.

"Sorry, sorry. But you're lost in thoughts again so I thought maybe a howl might jolt you back to reality," Tuah said with a sheepish grin. "Forgive me, will you?"

Adam ran a hand over his nape and arms before nodding slowly. The fine hairs on them had stood up in response to his shock. His glare softened when he realized that Tuah was only joking. "You shouldn't do that, crying like a wolf," he muttered just to calm himself.

"Relax, Adam. It's not as if there are actually wolves around here."

Another chilling howl echoed and Adam glared at Tuah, annoyed that the other boy pulled such trick again, but the other boy had an equally alarmed look this time around. Adam heard another wolf howl and this time he was sure that Tuah wasn't doing it. The howl, compared to Tuah's, was more realistic, echoic and sounded twice as menacing. Tuah held the hilt of his keris as he scanned his surrounding while Adam felt Patamon's grip on his head tightening. They heard the sound of a branch being snapped in half, as if being stepped on, coming from a bush located fifty meters away from them. A pair of blood red eyes appeared in the darker parts of the woods and both boys saw a humanoid figure stepping out from the shadows.

"Oh, my God!" Tuah exclaimed when the figure stepped into the moonlight where they could get a good look at it.

It was a wolf man; a werewolf with a white fluff of hair sprouting out of its chest. It wore leather-tight black trousers and had sharp deep blue claws on its hands and feet. Standing at roughly five-feet-ten, Adam thought that it looked like a miniature WereGarurumon and his fighter instinct kicked in as he stared at the werewolf's scarlet eyes, thinking that this creature could be a cub of a WereGarurumon. Its large eyes reflected the fact that it was not an adult – a child – but that was defied by its height and muscular torso. Amidst the moonlight its hairy body emitted out a silvery sheen, adding to its menace.

"We meet again, DigiWira," the werewolf said coolly. Adam thought that this spine-chilling snarling voice was awfully familiar, but he was sure that he had never met this Digimon before.

"A talking wolf-man!" Tuah exclaimed and took out his keris, pointing it towards the werewolf.

Stunned, Adam realized that he had met this Digimon before. His form might be different, but there was no mistaking the voice. "ExWereGarurumon…"

"You know him, Adam?" Tuah saw that Adam was shivering slightly. To his surprise 'the Patamon' that had been quietly sitting on Adam's head flapped its wings and sailed down so that it flew at Adam's eye level. "He called you a 'wira'…" his voice trailed off, seeing that both Adam and the werewolf were ignoring him as they stared at each other. He could have sworn that the air had grown still. He heard rustling of the leaves from above, and whipped his head up, thinking that another werewolf would ambush them from above. However he saw nothing, before soft winds blew from the sky and caused the lighter branches to sway, causing the leaves to rustle.

"I was," the werewolf replied to Adam's statement. "However, I have unfortunately dedigivolved back into my Rookie form, Strabimon!" Then with a bloodcurdling howl, Strabimon leaped towards them, both claws hoisted forward, ready to strike. "Die, DigiWira!" he screamed and lunged towards Adam.

"Adam, look out!" Tuah shoved Adam out of the way and with lightning reflex he thrust his keris towards the lunging Strabimon. "You die, werewolf!" he said as the keris slashed Strabimon's right-side waist. With a loud cry Tuah launched a flying kick and successfully forced Strabimon to retreat.

Strabimon growled as he clutched his bleeding waist. "I don't know who you are, foolish brat, but you'll pay for your meddling!" He ran towards Tuah and avoided another thrust of Tuah's keris before smacking him on the body, throwing the teen on the ground.

Adam saw that Tuah was in great peril, and it was because the other teen had tried to save him. _'He can't fight Strabimon! I have to…'_ His thought however was interrupted by a loud yell, nearly causing his heart to stop in fear for Strabimon to be joined by his comrades. He gave an uneasy look to Tuah, who met his gaze with his eyes shot wide in shock. Looking up, they saw a humanoid figure shadowed by darkness plummeting towards Strabimon in a spinning motion, before planting a forceful kick on the werewolf's head, throwing him onto a nearby tree trunk. The figure landed on the ground and the moonlight illuminated his figure.

_'Who is that?_' Adam saw that the newcomer was a teenaged male in burgundy shirt and black pants the same style as Tuah's. This male had straight black hair pulled back, held by a band of dark red cloth tied around his forehead and reaching past his shoulders, a somewhat gaunt face with a long nose and high cheekbones. His sharp hawk-like eyes bore into Adam's for a fleeting moment before they shifted to Tuah, and Adam saw the corner of the stranger's mouth twitched a little, as if he was straining not to smile.

"Jebat!" Tuah exclaimed, sounding very happy and relieved. Adam's eyes shot wide upon hearing another familiar name.

"Looks like you need my help after all," Jebat said with a smirk as he helped Tuah got back on his feet. "You're getting rusty, brother. I was tailing you and your new friend since late afternoon and you didn't even notice me." He said that with a triumphant tone, and Tuah only smiled back at his disciple brother in return.

'_So this is Hang Jebat,'_ Adam thought with awe upon seeing Tuah and Jebat stood back to back with their keris unsheathed, ready to battle Strabimon. The two most famous Hang brothers were now before him, protecting him. Adam couldn't shake the majestic feeling he now had, but was snapped back to reality when he was reminded of who their opponent was. Heroes or no heroes, humans couldn't match a Digimon's strength, especially those without special powers. "Patamon," Adam whispered. "Tuah and Jebat can't fight Strabimon on their own. We should Digital Access."

"So the mysterious boy talks to animals now, does he?" Jebat inquired to Adam and gave the boy from the future a lopsided grin – a trait that caused Adam to blink in surprise as it easily reminded him of his cousin. "Leave the fighting to the big boys now, kid. Go hide somewhere."

Adam frowned. Unlike Tuah, Jebat was not instantly likable, but Adam decided to hold his judgment. After all, he and his cousin didn't get off nicely at first but now they were close. Nevertheless he still resented Jebat's arrogant tone; after all he was the DigiWira. But then again, how could Jebat know who he really was? Even Tuah wasn't made aware of the fact that Adam was a DigiWira yet. Looking past Jebat's arrogance tone, Adam realized that Jebat had meant well. To Tuah and Jebat, Adam was just a younger boy who needed their help.

However he couldn't risk them getting injured by Strabimon. He was a DigiWira; it was his responsibility to take care of evil Digimon. Besides he was keen on proving them wrong.

"_**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!"**_

The burst of power was absent. So was the lightshows which usually accompanied the Digivolution sequence. Looking down, Adam saw that he and Patamon hadn't digivolved into Aldiyamon. He shot Patamon an anxious look and Patamon shook his head, appearing shocked as well. Adam saw his Digivice radiating a soft violet glow and a strange symbol materialized on the screen, giving off an aura of malevolence, before they vanished and the glow subsided. _'What's going on? Why can't we Digital Access?'_

"Hey, kid, stop acting ridiculous and get to safety!" Jebat said impatiently.

"Adam, take your Patamon and run straight ahead towards Mount Ledang," Tuah said and beckoned for the mountain. "We'll join you after we take care of this beast, alright?" He gave Adam an assuring smile. "Don't worry about us. Jebat and I make quite a team. We'll be fine."

Still somewhat stunned of his inability to Digital Access, Adam nodded numbly and took off with Patamon. Strabimon attempted to stop him but he was quickly intercepted by both Tuah and Jebat. Adam looked back and halted, seeing Jebat grappling with Strabimon while Tuah struck Strabimon's back with a chopping-style strike.

"Leave Adam alone! Your opponent is us!" Tuah said and attempted to stab Strabimon with his keris. Strabimon snorted and kicked him on his chest. Not going down quickly, Tuah grabbed on Strabimon's leg and swept a kick on the wolf's other leg, causing Strabimon to fall. "Jebat!"

Jebat somersaulted and landed a foot on Strabimon's throat, causing the wolf-man to choke violently. "Looks like we've beaten this man-wolf," he declared.

"Heh. Not quite, fools!" Strabimon's eyes flashed crimson and dark blue mists sprayed out of his mouth, obscuring both Tuah's and Jebat's visions. Taking advantage of his opponents' disadvantages, Strabimon leaped back on his feet and swept a roundhouse kick on both teens, sending them crashing upon a tree. Then he flexed his claws and approached the two teens, a sinister smile fixed on his face as he stood by the two defeated teenaged warriors. "You're not so tough! Who do you think you are, trying to fight a Wolfsbane? I might not be in my Ultimate form, but against you two cretins I need not to in order to defeat you! Now…DIE!!"

Strabimon swept his dangerous claws upon his foes, but was left astounded when both Tuah and Jebat vanished in swirls of bright orbs of light. Swearing loudly he saw them reappearing behind his prime target, now standing several meters before him. The DigiWira boy was glaring at him with his Patamon partner staring at him with slanted eyes.

"They don't have anything to do with this!" Adam said. "Your opponent is me!" He ignored the amazed murmurs from Tuah and Jebat pertaining to his teleportation power.

Strabimon snorted. "Without your ability to become a Wira Digital, you're just writing your own death sentence by challenging me!" Strabimon ran towards Adam, swinging his claws about menacingly.

"Don't be so sure!" Adam readied himself and when Strabimon was near enough he teleported away, and reappeared behind Strabimon along with Patamon. "On three, Patamon! Ok, THREE!!" Employing a skill taught to him by JD, Adam delivered a sound kick on Strabimon's back, while Patamon launched several Boom Bubbles on the same spot. The combined blows caused Strabimon to land on the earth facedown. With a roar Strabimon spun around and sprayed Adam and Patamon with mists, but the DigiWira paired vanished and reappeared several meters away, safe and sound. Infuriated, Strabimon got back up on his feet and charged towards Adam and Patamon. Instead of attacking Adam, he targeted Patamon by slapping him away against a tree before grinning at Adam wickedly.

"Now your partner's down, little boy," he snarled, enjoying seeing Adam's fearful expression. He darted towards Patamon and snatched him before Adam could teleport him away. "Now, let's see whether I can't squeeze the life out of your partner…"

"No! Stop!" Adam shouted, and tried to call upon his partner. However he hadn't refined his teleportation skill; he couldn't teleport Patamon while the Digimon was in Strabimon's grasp.

Tuah and Jebat watched the battle between Adam, Patamon and Strabimon with awe as they got back on their feet, both clutching their chests painfully.

"Tuah, who's your friend, really?" Jebat demanded. "Did you see what he could do? He _vanished_ in swirls of light!"

Tuah shook his head, his mouth partially opened in bewilderment. In just a brief moment he'd been made known that Adam possessed otherworldly powers which he had never revealed. "I don't know, brother. Adam's been pretty quiet all these while. I don't know any of these. I thought he came with the traders, but he neither confirms nor denies it. I'm beginning to think that he isn't with the traders."

"You think?" Jebat snorted. "I _know_ he's not with the traders. And I also know that he can't be trusted. Nobody has that kind of power! We better be careful with that kid, Tuah. He might be up to no good. He's been hiding a pretty major stuff from you all this time."

"If Adam is up to no good, he would've done something horrible to me already. He's had the chances but not once did he try to harm me." Tuah laid a hand on his disciple brother's shoulder. "I think there's more to this then we know. But so far I think he's a good guy. That werewolf called him a 'wira', and in my book all Wira are good guys. And now, he needs our help."

Jebat considered his disciple brother's words and nodded. "Well, if you say so, brother."

Patamon struggled to get out of Strabimon's grasp but the werewolf was too strong for him. He glared at Strabimon who was chuckling evilly as the werewolf slinked towards Adam, who out of fear for Patamon's life, remained unmoving. _'Adam's in danger! I must protect him!' _

Taking a deep breath, he willed his own power to take its course and transformed into Centarumon, his natural Champion form, and was able to break free from Strabimon's grasp. With a neigh he slammed his front hooves on Strabimon's chest, sending the wolf man skidding towards a nearby tree. Centarumon neighed and galloped once more, this time intent on deleting Strabimon. But to his surprise Strabimon leaped back with blood pouring out of his mouth and clawed Centarumon viciously on the chest before smashing his feet on Centarumon's face, causing him to devolve back into Patamon.

"No! Patamon!!" Adam teleported Patamon back to him, and narrowed his eyes at Strabimon.

"What are you going to do now, boy?" Strabimon taunted. "Your friends are down, your partner's down…you're next!"

"Dream on, wretched monster!" Tuah and Jebat roared before Adam could reply, and he saw them somersaulting above him with their keris thrust towards Strabimon. Strabimon saw through their moves and evaded their strikes, but then Tuah and Jebat dispersed and attacked him from two sides. Avoiding Tuah, Strabimon had inadvertently left his back exposed for Jebat to strike with his keris. He snarled painfully as a sharp pain rose from his back, Jebat had viciously slashed him from the right shoulder all the way to the left side of his waist in a diagonal pattern. He turned around to strike Jebat but was halted when his shoulders are slashed by Tuah in one straight line, adding to his agony. Both slashes were deep and Strabimon felt liquid pouring out from them. Jebat leaped and delivered a kick on his butt while Tuah laid a foot on his back. Their combined forces threw Strabimon towards a tree trunk.

"Adam, take this!" Tuah threw his keris and Jebat followed his gesture just seconds later. Adam looked up at the two keris and teleported both blades into his hands. Without thinking, only trusting his instincts, Adam teleported in front of Strabimon and stabbed the werewolf on the right chest and stomach with both keris. Strabimon howled in pain as Adam vanished, reappearing in the middle of Tuah and Jebat, panting hard from the last attack he'd inflicted on the enemy.

Strabimon heaved his breath slowly and painfully and felt his power drained slowly as blood dripped from multiple wounds he had on his body. His vision became hazy, all of a sudden losing their efficiency in enabling him to see clearly in the dark. He realized that he was vulnerable now; there was no way he could fight without risking his life.

He hadn't expected this; these three human boys had managed to injure him so severely. Adam alone couldn't fight him, but backed up by two apparently skillful fighters they were a force to be reckoned with. He decided that he would deal with them later. He'd come back for them when he regained his full-digivolved form. _'I can have my revenge if I survive this night!'_ he thought with gritted teeth, not liking his decision at all. But he had no choice.

"We'll meet again, humans! Next time you won't be so lucky!"

Strabimon leaped onto a tree branch and from there he jumped from one branch to another, until he was gone from Adam's sight.

"Thank God he's gone…" Adam murmured and picked up Patamon from where he'd left him. The Digimon was unconscious. He then saw two shadows looming upon him and looked up at the curious gazes of Tuah and Jebat. "You two…thank you for your help," he said, knowing that he had a lot of explaining to do.

"You owe me a keris, kid," Jebat said with a low tone. "My keris is irreplaceable, and that wolf man creature has taken it away along with him!"

"Not really. Keris!!" Tuah and Jebat stared wide-eyed as on Adam's hands two familiar keris materialized in swirls of white orbs, cleaned and appearing as if they hadn't been used in the battle. Adam returned the keris to their owners and offered them a weak grin. "Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat…" he said and took a deep breath. "Do sit down. I owe you a lot of explanation...and I'm going to tell you everything. I just hope you'll be able to believe me after I'm finished."

xxx

xxx

Meanwhile, at a park close to the battle the DigiWira had with the Darkshadow Brethren, Manny gaped in shock after JD finished recounting the story behind the black cat tattoo on his chest. He didn't know what to say or even how to response. What would one do if a friend told you that he would die soon?

"JD…why didn't you tell us? Did Adam know about this too?" he asked, and struggled to keep his breaths steady. "Did your family know?"

"No, they don't. Nobody does except Agumon, TobuCatmon, those three ladies, and now you. I was careful not to show this tattoo in front of anyone," JD said with an even tone. "And look at you! This is precisely why I chose not to tell anyone!" He snorted and looked away at the night's full moon, Persiamon's last words echoing in his head.

"But JD, this is important. This isn't something you should keep from others!" Manny said with a broken voice. He thought about what JD had said about D'Arcmon's visions – he and Adam were both there when JD would meet his end. He shivered. "Don't…don't you think we deserve to know?"

"Hmm." JD didn't respond. Inward, he was scared, but he didn't need for both of them to be frightened. Manny alone was enough.

"JD, we're your friends. How do you think keeping this away from us makes us feel?" Manny said again. "What would Adam feel? Among all of us, he's closest to you. You're his family. How do you think he'll feel if one day he wakes up and sees you…sees you…"

"I know exactly how he's gonna feel!" JD snapped. The brave front he'd kept on his face faltered, as D'Arcmon's words about her vision crossed his mind. "I know exactly how he's gonna feel," he said again with a softer tone when he saw his friend flinch. His hazel eyes glinted. "I won't let him feel the pain of losing another family member, which is why I'm gonna get to the bottom of this _before_ my time's up!" he said with determination. "Until then, no one will know about this, got it Manny?"

"But…"

"Manny! If words about this got around the others or my folks, I know precisely who's to blame!" JD gave Manny a warning look.

"But, JD," Manny protested. "What if…what if you can't find a solution before the next full moon? What then?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there!" JD said evenly. "Let's hope I won't have to," he added lightly, not wanting to make Manny feel worse. Actually, he was touched by his friend's concern, but he didn't know how much he could handle with Manny now knowing about this. It was easier when nobody knew; he'd be able to go on as if things were normal with the others. But now, whenever the five of them were together he'd always know that Manny could see through his pretense. "Man, this sucks!"

Manny nodded silently before reaching out to place an assuring grasp on his friend's shoulder. "JD, we're in this together. If that's what you want, I won't tell anyone. And JD, if there's anything I can do…"

"Don't act like I'm made out of glass," JD said quickly. "Really man, don't. I can deal with the pain but what I can't deal is people crying over me. I know you meant well, and I appreciate your concern…but I'm just…not that type of person, okay?" He paused and gazed at his younger friend and saw his russet eyes shimmering. He shook his head. "Just act normally with me. This is the reason why I don't want to tell you guys. I know the girls will freak out, and you remember how Adam was when Kak Lisha was in coma? I'd hate to see him becoming like that again. Knowing that you know will make things harder for me. At least when all of you don't know about this I can at least act normally, forget about this damn thing for a while. Now I know that you know, and I'll always know that you'll see through my act. Although in the end, if after one month…you know…you guys might hate me for keeping this all to myself…"

"Don't say that, JD," Manny cut in quickly, not wanting to even think that there was a possibility that JD would die in one month. "We'll figure out a way."

JD kept his gaze affixed to the full moon while quenching his growing anxiety of his apparent doom. Agumon and Penguinmon who were sitting on a seesaw nearby gazed at him; Agumon looking like he was going to cry while Penguinmon – normally sarcastic and loud – looked sympathetic as he patted his dino friend softly. For a moment there was silence.

A beep from their D-Terminals broke the uneasy quietness. JD was the first to take out his D-Terminal and he wildly scanned the entries, hoping that now it was not a false alarm. He was not disappointed this time around.

"C'mon. TobuCatmon's found where Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri are at right now."

xxx

xxx

_**Author's Notes:**_

Plots unfold in this second part of the Movie arc. If you're confused with all the historical references, everything will be made clear on the Movie's finale chapter. As I have mentioned in the previous chapter's author notes, I'm using the lack of information about the characters as a chance to develop them into fuller characters. Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat are both renowned warriors, but for Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu and Hang Kasturi I have to figure out ways to make them as interesting as the other two. Princess Tun Teja is a very minor figure in the history but she's known to exist so I chose her to become the main female figure of the past in this arc.


	47. Movie Arc III: Leap of Faith

"Pitiful," said a looming figure shrouded within shadows cast by the thick trees, towards the kneeling Strabimon. This Strabimon had suffered severe wounds – slashes on his back and nape, and two punctures on his chest with liquid still pouring out of them. "I sent you an easy task to capture a powerless boy, and you come back empty handed. To think that you actually are one of the Wolfsbanes, it's unbelievable that you are trounced severely by three mere boys."

"He's not exactly powerless!" Strabimon said irritably, and groaned as he pressed the wounds on his chest to avoid his digital blood from pouring out. "You told us they would be powerless. You've told us that you have blocked them from being able to digivolve! Well guess what? The boy still retained his own power, and his partner is still able to digivolve!" The wolf man sneered. "Perhaps your power needs fine tuning, Lucemon."

"Ah," Lucemon said as he stepped out from the shadows. "That boy…Adam. A very resourceful little one, from what I have heard. And his partner Patamon is already a Champion Digimon prior to meeting the boy and becoming his partner, thus logically he would retain his power. I thought that being deleted once would wipe the Patamon out of the ability to naturally digivolve…but apparently I have gravely mistaken." Lucemon shook his head, looking untroubled at all. "But no matter – the three DigiWira could not use their Digivices, thus they shouldn't be able to become Wira Digital or aid their partners to digivolve with the powers of the Digivices. I have made sure of that." From his belt, he took out a black gemstone with the shape of a half-arrowhead. He smirked and pointed it towards the injured Strabimon, and the stone glowed with purple aura before it bathed Strabimon with the aura. Slowly, and apparently excruciatingly so, the wounds began to join together and blood stopped pouring out of the werewolf, whose face looked like it was resisting the urge to howl in pain.

"Have rest, Strabimon," the Hellion General said when the Obsidian Gem stopped glowing. He kept the stone inside his belt and turned away. "Tomorrow you'll get to have your fun, although I must warn you, the Master will be seriously displeased if you slay the boy. Adam Ariff is the apple of Master SkullSatamon's eyes; his only way of escaping his confinement and you will do well to remember that. His partner Patamon and his new friends are expendable; you may do as you wish with them. I believe your comrades are now tailing the other DigiWira and unlike you, surely you are envious of them now, they don't have any restrictions."

Strabimon snorted and stood up, the pain he was experiencing was now become bearable as it faded. "_You_ have the powers to eliminate the DigiWira easily, Lucemon. Why do you need us, actually?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously towards the half-angel, half-demon Digimon. "What are you up to?"

Lucemon smiled haughtily and fixed his ice-blue eyes upon the werewolf's yellow ones. "Not need. _Want_," he sneered. "I want you to do my dirty work," he continued with surprising bluntness, "while I explore this era, where the Digital World has not come into being yet. I have to be very careful not to tamper too much with time, for it might lead to serious complications." He smiled slightly. "The time travel spell I have evoked from the Nine Negations Dark Arts is truly unstable, as Doumon has predicted…I have been here for the past five months while I only activated the spell for myself three minutes before Doumon, apparently successfully, sent you three and the three Wira Digital to this time five minutes later."

"I don't understand," Strabimon said.

"Of course, your simple mind cannot understand it. Very well, I shall entertain you," Lucemon said. "You see, Strabimon, I am not interested in barbaric slaughter. A Digimon of caliber and dignity such as I, my work has to be a _masterpiece_. Plain deleting and destroying do not appeal to me, not after three centuries of imprisonment. I believe I must stretch my muscles a bit, before executing the grand plan, which I can not begin until the Puaka Generals regain their former glory." Seeing Strabimon's still-confused face, he chuckled. "Also, I am a competitive 'mon. It seems like everyone who are imprisoned by Grademon has a score to settle with his heirs, with him already out of the picture now. The Puaka Generals have truly outdone themselves in fooling the DigiWira with their dark, horrible lies and disguises – and they have almost succeeded! The Shaman General's work is also good, but the Virago General's current deed to the DigiWira with the Red DigiSphere is better. I, as their leader, the Hellion General…simply _must_ outshine them."

_'That's just plain stupid,'_ Strabimon thought silently. _'I can never understand the minds of these generals. Loons, that's what they are.'_

"How are we all going to go back?" he finally inquired, keeping his thoughts to himself.

"Oh, do not worry," Lucemon said. "Suffice to say; as long as we are loyal to the Master and his cause, we'll be able to go back. I won't go to details to spare you a headache, but bear this in mind, Strabimon…" The Hellion General fixed a sharp glare on the werewolf. "If you don't get the job done, I will leave you here in this time, with the DigiWira."

"But you said as long as we're loyal to the Master…"

"Oh, I know what I have said, Strabimon…but trust me, there's reason why I do not divulge everything to you, other than to not strain your mind…" At this, Lucemon gave Strabimon a cruel smile and Strabimon felt a chill down his spine. "Don't look too worried. If you succeed, there's no reason why I should leave you three here. But if you fail…" With that, Lucemon turned round and walked back into the shadows, his sinister chuckle softly echoed the dark woods before his visage vanished, leaving Strabimon to mull over what he had said.

xxx

xxx

**_WIRA DIGITAL: The Movie – Part III _**

****

**_Chapter 47 – Leap of Faith _**

xxx

xxx

The DigiWira girls and their new friends were now trekking a jungle, following against the river flow which according to the boys, would lead them to their destination as Mount Ledang was the origin of the river. Most of the time, they kept to the river side but occasionally they had to step into the trees. Amidst the darkness of the night, they were aided by the full yellow moon and the stars, as well as torches which each boy was now carrying with them. Kasturi accompanied the princess Tun Teja and led the way, while cousins Lekiu and Lekir flanked the DigiWira girls and their partners.

After the initial shock of introducing Labramon and Floramon to their new friends, Liu Ying and Gayathri felt that they were now warming up to the fact that there were 'talking animals or creatures' from their time – they had tried saying that their partners were digital monsters, but had decided to just go along with their friends' assumptions as it seemed to be easier to accept for them. Now, as they watched with mild amusement as their friends shot questions one after another to the Digimon, and Labramon patiently answered most of them while Floramon just enjoyed being the center of attention.

"So there's another one of you?" Teja asked as they settled by the river to take a small break. They had been walking for the past two hours since their last break.

"Actually there are three more– all guys – and one is stranded here as well," Liu Ying said before her expression turned glum, out of worry for her friend's wellbeing in this era. "But we don't know where he and his partner are at right now, or why they're separated from us. I just hope that Adam and Patamon are alright."

"Let's hope they are," Kasturi said. He caught on the worried look on their friends from the future. "Maybe we can try looking for them tomorrow," he suggested. "We can go to villages and ask around."

"If he has made a grand entrance as you two did, chances are we might hear about it soon," Lekiu pointed out. With a chuckle, he added, "If we go to a village and the villagers are freaked out about a male witch, we'll know that it's him." He laughed, but was silenced instantly by an elbow on the rib from Lekir and pointed looks from Kasturi and Teja.

The DigiWira girls shared a look. "I don't know…Adam's pretty good in hiding himself, with his nifty teleportation power. He can easily avoid the crowd or any detection," Gayathri said. She eyed the tip of Mount Ledang, visible from where they were at despite being mostly hidden within the shadows of the night, and sighed as she rubbed her sore legs. "Times like this, I really wish my ability is teleportation," she said. "I can just say Mount Ledang and then I'll be there!"

"Tele…what?" Lekir asked. He had not spoken much, and when he did it was usually to ask the DigiWira for clarification, as he was doing now. Most of other times, he seemed to let Lekiu and Kasturi do all the talking while he kept silence. But while he did not speak a lot, it was evident that he was very curious of the Digimon. When they had their break, he was the one who asked Labramon and Floramon of what they like to eat – and their answers, being banana fritters and strawberry ice creams (although Floramon could make do with just some soil, water and sunshine), confounded him as he had never heard of them before. Nevertheless, he was thrilled to know of new facts from five hundred centuries in the future.

"The ability to transport oneself to anywhere they like," Liu Ying clarified. "Or objects," she added, remembering that Adam had mastered summoning items as well.

"Wow…" The boys were astounded, and Teja too seemed to be thinking of how the ability would benefit them in times like this.

"So, let me clarify what you've said about your…special powers," Lekiu said. "You have…" he pointed at Liu Ying and grinned at her widely – Liu Ying thought that Lekiu had never ceased smiling at her when he had stopped doing so towards Gayathri a couple of hours back. "Flick-your-hands-and-things-fly-away and invisible shield projection," he said from memory. "And you have…" he turned to look at Gayathri, his wide grin lessened ever-so-slightly to a more respectable one. "Very loud scream and you can run very fast?"

"That's putting it mildly," Gayathri said – they had not divulged the fact that they could merge with their partners, and when they were in their merged forms their abilities evolved as well. Their friends were just getting used of the fact that the DigiWira possessed special powers and were partnered to Digimon; it would be overkill if they revealed that they could merge with their partners to become warriors that were destined to protect their world and the Digital World from evil.

"Those are very useful skills," Lekir noted thoughtfully. "Compared to ours; yours can actually help you get out of some thick situations."

"Huh?" The DigiWira girls were surprised at Lekir's statement. "_Compared to ours?_ Do you mean to say that _you_ have special powers too?" Gayathri asked curiously.

"Well…I don't know whether it's considered as special powers, and they are nowhere as good as what we have heard you two can do," Lekir said with a mysterious smile. He took out his keris from his sash belt, unsheathed it from its scabbard, and closed his eyes. Slowly he breathed out, appearing to be meditating whilst standing. The DigiWira girls gasped when the curved blade of the keris began to emit a soft red hue. It could not be their imagination, for it was night and the only other sources of light were the moon and the stars. From a distance they could see some fireflies, but that still did not rule out the fact that somehow, Lekir had made his keris _glowing_.

"How…how did you do _that_?" Liu Ying and Gayathri both gasped in amazement, as Lekir opened his eyes, and with him doing so the lights glimmering out of his keris dimmed into nothingness once again. They had not expected this, and certainly not from Lekir, the quietest out of the three boys. Seeing Lekiu and Kasturi grinning, Lekiu patting Lekir's back, they assumed that the other two boys could also do what Lekir had done.

"We learned it from our late teacher," Kasturi said, confirming the DigiWira's assumption. The three boys looked wistful at the mention of their late teacher. "Tuk Guru Adiwira, he was our Silat master until he passed away early this year. The three of us learned our Silat skills from him. His specialty leaned more on meditation rather than combat, although his fighting skills were not to be looked down upon either. It was just that he disliked fighting that he had kept on stalling on teaching us the Silat's art of combat. We didn't get to finish our Silat combat lessons because halfway through, Tuk Guru Adiwira fell ill. He had relied on his meditative skills to help him through a difficult sickness until his time came by, so we have spent a lot of time learning and eventually mastering the Silat's meditation art. Our combat skills, however, are…well…"

"Second-rate." Lekiu practically spat the word out. The vehemence in his voice was clear and it surprised the DigiWira girls, but what he revealed next shocked them even more. "This was why those two Hang brothers Tuah and Jebat were able to practically trash us when Tuk Guru Adiwira met his older brother last year. Tuk Guru Adiputra just had to bring along those two show-offs disciples of his, and then he just had to pit us together in a _friendly match_, just because he and his brother were equal in skills and none could beat the other. It wasn't a fair fight at all! Those two Hangs were superb, while we were just learning our combat skills." The yellow-clad teen snorted angrily, pumping his fist in midair. "And that old man didn't even realize that his brother was sick; he was just plain excited to see who would win that blasted friendly match."

Liu Ying and Gayathri shared a look, seemingly agreeing on one thing: they now knew why the three boys seemed offended when the girls brought up the subject about Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat earlier. This revelation did not bode well with them, for as far as they knew there were _five_ Hang brothers and they were supposedly a close-knit group, a brotherhood of fine warriors revered by good and feared by bad. They glanced at Princess Tun Teja, who looked like she was about to intervene.

"Your Silat skills are on par with some of the guards at father's palace. Why do you think my father made you three my personal guards, if you are not skillful enough to protect me?" she said in an attempt to placate the now-furious Lekiu, who looked like he was considering what the princess had said. Teja smiled. "Don't be too hard on yourself."

"Teja is right," Lekir said and laid a soothing grasp on his cousin brother's shoulder. "It's just not meant to be. We should be thankful that we have managed to learn useful skills from Tuk Guru Adiwira. And besides…you're angry not because we were beaten by them, but rather, because of Hang Jebat's final words."

"Hmph." Lekiu did not deny Lekir's accusation. "You call _this_ useful?" He unsheathed his keris and did the same thing Lekir had done earlier. His keris emitted soft yellow radiance, but it was diminished with a grunt from the boy. "What can _possibly_ be useful about this? Guiding our way in the dark?"

Lekir merely shook his head at Lekiu's wry remark. Silence prevailed and the DigiWira – after several coaxing from the others – braved themselves to drink the river's water, for they were quite thirsty and the others assured them that the waters were pure and that they did not exactly have any other choice. They then agreed to reassume their journey to Mount Ledang; their journeys now were aided by three glowing keris daggers, emitting soft yellow, light red and pale blue lights, providing a brief entertainment to the eyes and as extra lights to the torches they were using.

Little did they know that the lights had unfortunately attracted unwanted attentions as well.

xxx

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"We've found them," TobuCatmon said as soon as JD, Manny, Agumon and Penguinmon emerged from the TV set in the Forest Sanctum, not bothering with a greeting like he usually did. The Champion immediately pointed towards the sun-staff, but his face revealed no elatedness and his tone was grim.

They observed as the sun-staff displayed Adam in the company of two unknown boys, seemingly trekking a jungle. Patamon was seen flying above them, and they could see the unknown boys staring at Patamon with wonder. What made JD and Manny surprised was the fact that the boys were carrying weapons – keris, from the looks of it – with them. The boy in burgundy shirt constantly had his hand on his keris while the other boy, in navy blue shirt, looked more relaxed, and seemed to be the one Adam more comfortable with, judging from the way the two of them conversed. The view panned and the observers saw that Adam and his companions were heading towards a mountain where the moon peered behind it. Then the screen shifted to show Liu Ying and Gayathri, and with them were a girl draped in loose-fitting, plain brown gown and skirt, and three boys in identical outfits but of varying colors – soft yellow, light red and sky blue. Similar to Adam's companions, the three boys were also carrying keris with them. The view panned, and the girls' group was seen also heading a mountain. And the view panned even farther, giving a view from the sky and turned into grids, revealing to them white, yellow and pink dots heading towards a same location, and realized that their destination was the very same mountain.

"Where are they?" JD asked tersely, crossing his arms over his chest. He watched as Manny used his Juara Digivice to search for the others' signals.

"No sign of them on the Digivice," Manny said with surprise. "But they're on the screen. How did you find them?" he asked their mentors.

TobuCatmon smiled grimly. "The staff eventually managed to find them on its own," he answered. "It took the staff a while because the other DigiWira are _not _currently here."

"Where. Are. They?" JD reiterated again with gritted teeth. "Just get to the point!"

TobuCatmon sighed. "We don't know for sure," he admitted. "But we have a pretty good idea," he continued, and saw that he now had the two boys' fullest attentions. "When D'Arcmon told us about her vision, that got me thinking. If they are alive but not here…they might have been transported to another dimension. The same thing happened when you were transported to the Dark Ocean," the feline Digimon said to JD, and saw a knowing look passed the blonde teen's face.

"But then…when I tinkered around with the Digivice tracking device I've made for myself, I've found out one strange thing," Jackie said, and beckoned towards the table where a rectangular device was placed. They all went near it, and to their surprise they saw three blinking, but very faint, dots representing the signals from the missing DigiWira's Digivices. "This tracking device is set to scan the Digivice signals on _this_ dimension," he explained. "The tracking signal is stronger than the ones in your Digivices, and with it, I've got this."

"So what does this mean?" Agumon asked.

"It means that they are still in _this_ dimension…" Jackie said slowly, as if unsure of himself. He stared at the viewing screen, and thought that somehow the people who were accompanying the DigiWira were dressed rather oddly; it made him thinking back of the History lesson plans he had for the class he was assigned to teach. While preparing he had done some research and had come across several illustrations pertaining to the lesson plans. The device he had made had pointed out that the missing DigiWira were not in other dimensions, for if they were, the device would not have detected their Digivices' signals. Jackie and TobuCatmon had come to believe of only one possible, no matter how impossible it sounded, theory. "But they are displaced in a different time," he concluded.

The former ShadoWira and their partners froze in shock.

"That…that…that's impossible!" Manny sputtered. "You mean they have been transported to the past or future?"

"The past seems more like it," Jackie said while observing the sun-staff again, thoughtfully. "The lack of buildings made it seems more likely rather than the future. And the fact that those boys who are with the DigiWira…their clothes and choice of weapons just reminded me of an assignment I've given Adam and Gayathri…"

"Never mind those," JD said curtly. "How do we get them back here?"

"By using your DigiSpheres, you two can be transported to them, or them to you," TobuCatmon said as he grabbed hold on an edge of the rattan mat that was laid over the sanctum's marble floor. He yanked it up before pulling it away, revealing to everyone the circular rune underneath. "Grademon's runes," he supplied. "I've once used it to transport Adam to you, JD, when you were stuck in the Dark Ocean dimension." He saw the irritable look on JD's face soften a little. "But there was a flaw in my action. You see, I could transport Adam to you, but I had no means to recover him back," he said glumly. "That time, I hoped and relied solely on his teleportation power to bring him and you and your partners back to this digital plane. Thank goodness you both and your partners made it back."

JD snorted. "So you're saying that you can transport us to them, but you don't know how to bring us back here?" he asked as his frown deepened. "Unless Adam's teleportation power transcends time," he said with a low tone, fixing their mentors a look.

TobuCatmon nodded weakly, and an excruciating silence ensued before the sun-staff let out a buzzing sound, attracting their attentions. They saw two humanoid wolves pursuing Liu Ying's and Gayathri's group without them noticing. The screen flickered and highlighted the two wolves, and semi-transparent images of WereGururumon and WereGarurumon flashed out over the two wolves before they vanished; apparently the sun-staff had analyzed the wolves and had found matches from the earlier battle footages it had. That alerted everyone of the danger their friends were facing.

"It's them!" Penguinmon gasped. "How did they get there as well?"

"Obviously, it's those generals' doing," JD snarled, and thumped his right fist into his left palm. "Damnit!"

"We have to save them!" Manny looked at the screen worriedly, and then at JD.

"That goes without saying," JD muttered and glanced sharply at TobuCatmon and Jackie. "We'll take that risk. I know one way or the other we'll manage to get back here." He turned to look at the screen, frowning as the two wolves were getting nearer and nearer the DigiWira girls and their friends. "Two werewolves…what about that last one? ExWereGarurumon?"

As if answering his question, the sun-staff flickered once before displaying a battle scene which awed them instantly. Adam and his two friends there worked well to fend off the wolf-man that the staff immediately identified as ExWereGarurumon, but both JD and Manny noticed how Adam and Patamon failed in their attempt to Digital Access.

"What's wrong? Why can't Adam and Patamon become Aldiyamon back there?" JD demanded when the sun-staff finished showing the battle, and resumed showing Adam following the two boys as they made their way towards the mysterious-looking mountain.

"I don't know," TobuCatmon said, clearly shocked at this. "It shouldn't be a problem, with you having the Juara Digivices now."

"It could be Lucemon's doing," Ophanimon, who had been silent the whole time, opinioned. She was sitting by the artificial fountain at the left corner of the sanctum, with Rosemon and D'Arcmon standing on each side. Her statement brought everyone's attentions to her. "He released the Wolfsbanes, and I think he too is responsible in sending Adam, Liu Ying, Gayathri and their partners to the past. I don't know why he bothered to send the Wolfsbanes as well to the past, but what I do know is that he has a plan."

"If I may say so…Lucemon can be sadistic and cruel if he wanted to, while retaining his gentlemanly manner, which is very, very irritating," Rosemon pointed out. "Perhaps this is his idea of a sick joke. Send them to the past, and make the Wolfsbanes chase after them. To add to the fun, he might think…why not make the DigiWira powerless too while he's at it?" She wrinkled her mouth when the others sweatdropped. "It's just my opinion, actually," she muttered.

"Actually, I think Rosemon might be right on that," Jackie said and rubbed his chin, thinking of something. "If that's so, then Lucemon might have done something to tamper with the Juara Digivices."

"But how did he do that?" Manny said, frowning as he tried stifling a sneeze; they were not so bad after he had inadvertently infected Shawujinmon with it.

For a while there was silent. Nobody had the answer to that, but not too long after the reigning silence was broken when Ophanimon rose from the fountain's stone and walked by the sun-staff. She waved her hand before it, and the sun staff let out a pale yellow light. The scenes inside of it changed, and revealed a recollection from the grand angel's mind – a memory of her meeting with Adam for the first time. The staff was now showing Adam and his broken D3 Digivice, and how Ophanimon repaired it.

"When Adam came to me for help in repairing his Digivice, I used the power of the Ivory Gem to upgrade the Digivice into Juara Digivice. Subsequently…" The scene on the sun staff shifted to show Aldiyamon restoring the powers of the other Digivices with his Juara Digivice. "The power of the Ivory Gem is used to upgrade the other Digivices, transforming them into Juara Digivices as well. That makes all five Juara Digivices now imbued with the gem's hallowed power," Ophanimon continued to say, before she tensed a little. "The Ivory Gem is a powerful artifact, and according to Grademon only one power can overwhelm it. As far as I know, Lucemon possesses that very power which can, when infused with his own dark power, inhibit the Ivory Gem's power."

"So what can we do to help?" Manny asked.

"Similar to how Aldiyamon has done to restore your Digivices, you can also do the same thing with yours to help restore theirs," Ophanimon deduced, before the sun staff buzzed wildly and returned to displaying Liu Ying and Gayathri's Digivice signals. To their alarm, two dots representing the Wolfsbanes were slowly gaining on them. The staff shifted in showing real images, and they saw two wolf men darting past the jungle, one leaping on tree branches while the other sprinted.

"We have to go, _now_!" JD exclaimed. "They need our help!"

"Remember, DigiWira," TobuCatmon cautioned. "I have told you that I do not know, as of yet, of how to recover you back, should I send you to the others using Grademon's runes." He gulped slightly. "There's a risk of all of you being stuck in the past, even if you are able to beat the Wolfsbanes."

JD and Manny shared an unspoken understanding as with determination, they said, "We'll take that chance."

xxx

xxx

After another hour of walking, the DigiWira girls and their friends had arrived at a higher ground, by the river where the waters were now shallow that even with the moonlight they could see the pebbled base. Their destination was visible, dark and mysterious, with the full moon peeking from behind its cloudy peak. They had no intention to stop for long, but the boys needed to find new firewood to replace their almost used-up torches. While the boys searched for firewood, the girls sat by the shallow river.

"How much longer do we have to walk until we reach Mount Ledang?" Gayathri asked and rubbed her somewhat sore calves.

Teja cast a look at the said mountain. "Two hours, at most, according to the boys," she replied with a small smile. "My legs are aching too. I've never really walked this far, this long," she admitted with a sigh. "Being a princess, that pretty much limits my movement."

"Really?" Liu Ying asked, surprised. "If you ask me, you seem pretty much street-smart. I'd never have thought you were a princess when we first met."

Teja grinned. "Other princesses would be offended to hear your remark, Liu Ying, but I take that as a compliment." She cast a long look at the river, admiring the pale orange moon's reflection on it. "My father is very overprotective of me, especially after my mother passed away when I was ten years old," she began. "I'm all he has. And now, I'm reaching my fifteenth birthday soon and my father has decided that it's time for me to be betrothed to someone, if not married." She made a face before going on, "I personally think that I'm too young for all that. Don't you?" she asked Liu Ying and Gayathri, who both looked somewhat repulsed at the idea of being married too young. "What's the normal age for women in your time to get married, I wonder?"

"Umm….mid twenties?" Gayathri hazarded a guess. "My mother got married to my father when she was twenty five."

"_Twenty five?_" Teja practically yelped, wide-eyed with shock. "Here, I mean now, it's considered too old!"

"My mother married just fresh out of school," Liu Ying supplied. "That's about a bit older than seventeen," she clarified. "Now at thirty three, and I'm your age…some people have commented that we're more like sisters than mother and daughter."

The three girls chuckled, although to Teja that was quite normal. "My mother married when she was my age," she said. "If she's still alive…she and I will be like you and your mother, Liu Ying. Anyway," she said with a grim expression. "My father thinks that I'd be a perfect bride for my second cousin, the crown prince Mahmud Shah." She made a disgusted face.

"I take it you don't like the arrangement?" Labramon asked casually; she and Floramon had been listening to the conversation with curiosity. After all, Digimon did not marry, so this human custom was foreign for them.

Teja gave the canine Digimon a strange look, thinking that it was odd for a dog to be asking a human about marriage. But then she remembered that Labramon possessed pretty much a human's mind. And she was not a dog, but a Digimon with intelligence akin to her partner. She sighed. "I respect my uncle a lot, who is all for the idea because I think he already thinks of me as his daughter. I've been making visits to him and the prince since I was eleven," she said, hinting her displeasure but not exactly opposing the idea. Then a conspiratorial look crossed her face. "You're from the future…" she began. "Tell me, who am I going to end up with?"

Liu Ying and Gayathri sweatdropped, but knew that they could not divulge the future as by doing so they could alter it, which would have serious implications. No matter how small a change was made in the past, the future would probably gain a drastic change. They shook their heads, while actually knowing that Teja would end up becoming a Sultana to the future Sultan of Malacca, which would be her cousin the current crown prince. "It's five hundred years, Teja…" Liu Ying said carefully. "I…I don't think I know."

"Oh," Teja said, clearly noticing the hesitation in her friends from the future. "But, you seem to know about the boys…and also about Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat."

The DigiWira clammed uncomfortably at this; they knew they had blundered when they mentioned about Tuah and Jebat to Teja and the boys. Would it change history in some way, they wondered.

Teja thought about something as she gazed at Liu Ying and Gayathri. "I think you _do_ know something about me, and the others…but I understand if you decide not to mention what you know about us. I think…if I know my future, I might want to change the bad things, significant and non-significant both. This will change the future, and perhaps, your time will be changed." She sighed in acceptance while gazing up at the full orange moon, peeking out from the peak of Mount Ledang. "If I know something about my future and I don't like it, I can never rest easy, knowing that whatever I do will lead me to that, whether I like it or not. So it's better if I'm ignorant about it…so that I can shape my own future."

"Wow, Teja…" Gayathri said with amazement. "You're our age, but you seem so much more mature."

Teja smiled appreciatively at Gayathri's compliment. "When my mother passed away, I think my father wanted to groom me to become queen as soon as he could, fearing that I'd be left all alone without proper knowledge to become queen when he too passed on. He'd called on the best of the knowledgeable scholars to become my teachers. I learned a lot," she admitted. "Perhaps too much, I think…which makes me want to rebel sometimes. That, my friends, explain why you're seeing me here in these ragged clothes and that I'm here, sitting with you, instead of what I'm supposed to do – stay at the palace, and study…hmm…"

"What, Teja?" The DigiWira girls thought that it was strange when Teja suddenly appeared trance-like, as if a thought had crossed her mind and she was seriously thinking about it.

"I've just thought of something, from what I have mentioned earlier…" she murmured. "You know, whenever I rebelled I have the tendency to run away from the palace. Temporarily, not permanently. A year after my mother passed away, my father began hiring scholars to become my teachers. I was ten…I was very young….so I could not take it. So, I ran away without thinking about it." She smiled slightly, reminiscing her past as the DigiWira girls waited patiently for her to continue her story. "Naturally, I got lost. It was my first time alone out of the palace and I did run quite a distance away, until I reached deep in the forest. Even until now, I still don't know how exactly I managed to run that far from my palace…but I'm glad I did it."

"Why?" Gayathri asked curiously.

"When I was lost, and alone inside the forest, I cried because I was scared. My cries attracted the attentions of three boys who happened to roam around the forest, hunting," Teja said with a smile.

"Let me guess – Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir?" Floramon said.

"Obviously," Teja chuckled fondly at the memory. "They were shocked to see me, actually. They didn't know that I was a princess, but figured that I must be from a rich family. It was already night that time, almost like this kind of hour, and they could see that I'm starving and afraid. So they took this mousedeer they had hunted, slaughtered and cooked it for me." She smiled. "That night, I gained three best friends, and since they're younger than me I thought of them as my little brothers too. I'd never seen that coming – who would have thought that a princess would be best friends with three village boys? But that's us." She exhaled a long breath out. "What would have happened when someone from the future told me that time, should I run away I would have gotten myself lost? I wouldn't run away from the palace for I'd be afraid that I would get lost….and if that happened I wouldn't have met Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir. So…good or bad the future is for me, I guess it is better that I just find it out for myself."

The DigiWira were stunned. "So that's how the four of you met," Liu Ying said finally. "It is a wonderful story, Teja."

"And speaking of the boys…here they come now." Gayathri gestured towards the trees, where they could see lights coming from burning torches, held by three boys.

"Did you miss us?" Lekiu said with a grin as they sat near the girls, forming a circle. He took a seat beside Liu Ying, who quickly crept between Labramon and Gayathri, much to his disappointment. Lekir saw this and patted Lekir's shoulder with mock pity, while Kasturi merely shook his head.

"Ready to resume our journey?" Kasturi asked, eyeing the tip of Mount Ledang. "We should be reaching there…."

_ARRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! _

The chilling howl stopped Kasturi, and everyone looked around, alarmed at the howl and thought that a wild animal must be around. The boys stood up quickly and with the aid of their flaming torches they looked around, while Labramon and Floramon both let out nervous growls. Liu Ying and Gayathri saw their partners' reactions and stood up quickly, just as the lights from the torches fell on two figures standing across the river. They were both humanoid standing at equal heights, with furry bodies and heads similar to wolves. One had silver-gray fur while the other dark blue, both wearing brown leather pants. Both looked eerily familiar, but with some differences.

"What in the world are those?!" Lekiu gasped, shocked.

"Digimon!" Labramon and Floramon both said, alarmed. It didn't take them long to figure out who were those wolves, for even though their appearances had changed, for Labramon she could easily catch familiar scents radiating from the humanoid wolves. "They…they're those werewolves! WereGarurumon and WereGururumon! I can recognize their horrid stench everywhere!" Labramon said. Hearing that, both Liu Ying and Gayathri took out their Digivices.

"Right, but not quite!" the werewolf with grey silvery fur said. "We're called Strabimon now! Dedigivolved from our Ultimate forms, but we still pack quite a punch!"

"It took us quite a while to track you while in daytime…" the other Strabimon, with blue fur, said, baring his fangs dangerously. "But we knew that it would be easier during nighttime. You'd need lights to get around," he chuckled, before tapping his nose. "Besides, the nose knows."

"Are they your friends?" Teja asked nervously as she backed away unwillingly – her hand was being pulled by Kasturi. She had never seen creatures like the two 'werewolves' before, and thought that they looked malicious compared to Labramon and Floramon. She looked at the DigiWira girls who tensed as the two werewolves introduced themselves.

"Friends? No way! They're our _enemies_ from the future!" Gayathri said. This revelation startled the others.

"Teja, Kasturi, Lekir, Lekiu…run!" Liu Ying said. "These two are dangerous."

"Floramon, ready!" Gayathri's command overlapped with Liu Ying who was addressing Labramon, and together they initiated their fusion Digivolution sequence.

**_Digital Access Digivolution, HAAA!! _**

****

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"I see no difference," the blue Strabimon said with a laugh, when nothing seemed to be going to take place. "It seems to me that you can't digivolve here, kiddies. All the better for us!"

The DigiWira were startled. "We can't Digital Access!" Gayathri cried. "Why?" Their Digivices let out a soft purple glow as a strange symbol was displayed on the screens. They did not know what to make out of it. "How can this be? Without Puspamon and Xianamon…we can't…"

Liu Ying was surprised too, but was quicker in assuming other strategy. "We're not beaten yet! Let's try normal and DNA Digivolution!"

Again, nothing happened. Labramon and Floramon didn't feel the energy rush, nor did any light came out from the Digivices other than the creepy purple glow and the strange symbol.

The two werewolves laughed. "I've always liked to play with my food," the gray Strabimon commented with a sneer. "Don't you?"

"It's considered bad etiquette," the blue Strabimon said as he brandished his gleaming crimson claws. "Which is why I _love_ doing it!"

"One, two, three, four, five, six…SIX main courses! And two desserts!" the gray Strabimon laughed as he counted his preys. "Oh, this sure is our lucky day! Remind me to thank Lucemon for this!" He rubbed his taut stomach and ran his tongue across his mouth, gazing at his foes hungrily.

"RUN!!" Liu Ying and Gayathri cried. "Run, run, RUN!" Their four friends immediately made way towards the woods, with Kasturi and Teja leading, followed by Lekiu and Lekir, but the DigiWira faltered when their Digimon partners remained at where they were standing.

"Ying, Gayathri, go with the others! We'll hold them off!" Labramon said, and planted her foot firmly on the ground. She narrowed her eyes as the two Strabimon began to leap across the river and opened her snout wide. _"RETRIEVE BARK!!" _she howled, and her voice carried over loudly as if amplified by a megaphone. The two werewolves were blasted with the supersonic waves, but Labramon's attack didn't do much in faltering their movement. They were forced to land into the shallow waters, looking absolutely annoyed, but suffered no other consequences.

_"Rain of Pollens!"_ Floramon sprayed pollens onto the two Strabimon, who immediately leaped out of the pollen's path. They then plummeted and one landed a forceful kick upon Floramon, throwing her into the waters, while the other almost slashed upon Labramon if it weren't for a sudden gust of invisible force pushing him out of the way and he was sent flying into the river.

"Thank you, Ying!" Labramon said gratefully, for it was her partner who had saved her. Liu Ying nodded; from the corner of her eyes she saw Gayathri sprinting with her enhanced speed to retrieve Floramon inside the shallow waters, and prepared herself should the werewolves attack Gayathri while she was distracted. She raised telekinetic barrier to shield herself from the blue Strabimon, who looked at his fallen, drenched comrade with disgust.

"Silly tricks won't stop me!" the blue Strabimon snorted, and charged upon her telekinetic barrier. He clawed the barrier viciously and Liu Ying cried out, slightly feeling the pain. Strabimon saw that his attack was hurting his prey, and his strikes became deadlier. "I wonder, how long you can actually stand this, girly…" he snarled, and with another strike the barrier shattered and he loomed victoriously over Liu Ying, who had lost her balance when her telekinetic barrier was shattered and fell on her backside. "Well, well, well…my first meal of the day!"

Liu Ying was about to flick her hands in defense to throw off the werewolf, but before she could do so screams were heard as two figures jumped over her and tackled the werewolf, pushing it away from her. Labramon skittered to her side and helped her up just in time to see Lekiu and Lekir, keris unsheathed, now grappling with Strabimon. "Get away! He's dangerous!" she cried to the cousins.

"We know! But we can't just leave you to fight this creature!" Lekiu shouted back. "Powers or no powers, we're going to help you anyway!" With a snarl he stabbed his keris at Strabimon's left hip. "Lekir!"

Lekir slid down and swiped his feet upon Strabimon, sending the werewolf falling, and it would have hit the ground before with a roar Lekiu slammed his body upon the bigger Strabimon, elbowing its guts before launching flurries of kicks and punches. But the werewolf remained standing, unaffected for it was bigger than the boys, and with a snarl he clawed on Lekiu over the chest, sending the boy flying. Seeing his cousin fallen, Lekir panicked, and accidentally left himself open for attack, which Strabimon took advantage of quickly. Lekir too was sent flying just a fraction of seconds later, and would have collided with Lekiu midair before both of them hovered in stasis. Bewildered, Lekir and the injured Lekiu heard soft sounds of a bell chime, and saw Liu Ying with her arms thrust towards them. Her hands glimmered with soft yellow aura as her face contorted with concentration. She then let out a loud grunt and the two boys fell on the ground harmlessly.

"Lekiu, Lekir, quickly, move aside," Liu Ying said, and she was glad that the two boys did as they were asked, for it then left her with a clear path against Strabimon. She was touched by the cousins' concern over her, and especially for Lekiu who was now injured for protecting her. Angrily she made a whipping motion with her right arm, and grunted in satisfaction as Strabimon was sent flying into the river, causing a huge splash as he landed. An earsplitting scream was heard, and she saw the gray Strabimon flew towards a large tree close to the riverbank. It slammed upon the trunk, and a streak of pink darted close towards the tree before it reverted into Gayathri and Floramon.

"All together now, Floramon!" Gayathri cued, and once more released her super scream. Floramon joined in with her Rain of Pollens and together the pair of pink attacked the gray Strabimon relentlessly, proving that they were a team to be reckoned with. However, the gray Strabimon also proved that he would not go down easily. Whilst sneezing horribly due to the allergic reaction induced by Floramon's pollens, he resisted Gayathri's scream as he pushed forward. Horrified and feeling that her throat becoming dryer, Gayathri was forced to stop with her scream attack.

"Where's your pretty voice now, DigiWira?" Strabimon jeered, and made a move to clutch Gayathri's throat, but was stopped when…

"Not so fast!" On Gayathri's sides, Kasturi and Teja rushed forward. Teja had taken off her shawl, and lashed it towards the werewolf's face before drawing it back, and then lashed it again. It was not a forceful attack, and it was obvious from the clumsy strikes that Teja was not a trained fighter, but it provided enough time for her to pull Gayathri away to safety. Then, she threw her shawl over Strabimon's head, momentarily blinding the werewolf before Kasturi charged, keris ready on hand. He managed to slash Strabimon over the chest, but was knocked away as Strabimon pulled the shawl off his head and shredded the shawl to pieces.

"I'll teach you for messing with me!" Strabimon opened his snout and sprayed Kasturi, Teja and Gayathri with black mists. In that moment, Teja managed to push Gayathri out of the mists, sending her rolling on the ground, unharmed. The princess and her bodyguard coughed horribly before both of them fell limp onto the ground, unconscious.

"No!!" Gayathri shrieked, but was no longer strong enough to scream, her voice came out hoarse. The gray Strabimon laughed loudly, seeing that it was now victorious.

At the same time, the blue Strabimon leaped out from the waters, made a somersault in midair before landing beside the gray Strabimon. Both of them saw that their foes had fallen; the DigiWira girl with the loud scream could no longer scream, while the one who was attempting her telekinesis power on them was ignorable for she too looked tired. The Labramon and the Floramon, without the ability to digivolve, were not a threat to them. And the strangers – a boy and a girl had fallen prey into their poisonous mists, one boy was injured after being clawed while the other, unharmed, was tending on him.

"Why, I think dinner is served!" the blue Strabimon snickered. "After some hard work, it's pretty rewarding to have fresh meats laid down upon us!"

Gayathri stood up quickly and went to defend the unconscious Teja and Kasturi, while Liu Ying protected Lekiu and Lekir with the last remains of her telekinetic power, forming a barrier. The barrier flickered feebly before it went out. Nevertheless, the DigiWira girls would not give up, for their friends who had fallen in order to protect them from harm.

"We won't let you win!" Liu Ying shouted, her voice strong with determination.

"No matter what, we'll beat you, if it's the last thing we ever do!" Gayathri exclaimed.

Everything else happened rapidly thereafter; yellow and pink lights erupted from the DigiWira girls and bathed their Digimon; Labramon and Floramon became motes of light of yellow and pink before both became green; they swirled around, soaring towards the sky before a flash of light burst in the night sky like a supernova, illuminating the area; a woman emerged, sylphlike and elegant, draped in soft yellow and pink floral dress and tiara, her vine green hair fluttering as her leaf-like wings kept her airborne, her deep green eyes eyed the werewolves with righteous anger and softened upon gazing at the DigiWira and the other humans. Without another word she joined her arms together and a lily bloomed around her hands, before gleaming metallic cannon emerged. A shining green orb materialized before the cannon, hovered momentarily, before it sped towards the two Strabimon, ignoring their desperate howls.

xxx

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"What was that?" Tuah exclaimed, after witnessing a flare-up of greenish white light coming from afar, seemingly erupting from the ground before it soared towards the sky and exploded. They were approaching Mount Ledang, and now they were at a higher ground clearing where the light explosion was clearly visible. It seemed to be coming from the other side of the mountain.

"It can't be a shooting star, for it came from the ground," Jebat muttered, mouth half-opened as the lights subsided. Then he caught himself, snorted, and crossed his arms over his chest, pretending to look unimpressed.

Adam felt the fine hairs on his arms tingle with excitement, as a sense of familiarity coursed through his very being. "It's them!" he said excitedly, practically leaping in joy. Patamon too, confirmed it by squealing happily. "It's my friends!" Adam said to Tuah and Jebat, already having explained about them to his new friends. "I know it's them! We have to get there, please?"

"Well…" Tuah and Jebat shared a look with each other before observing their friend from the future's ecstatic reaction. "It came from the other side of Mount Ledang," Tuah said. "Whoever's out there, be it your friends or someone else, you can be sure that they are also heading towards the mountain. I would know." He laid a comforting hand on Adam's shoulder. "We'll probably meet them on our way up to the mountain anyway," he said. "Come on."

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Even from the town square of Malacca, the explosion of light was visible, and somewhat audible. The strange phenomenon attracted the people, who wondered of what was going on as the light, which had momentarily illuminated the dark sky, eclipsing the moon briefly before it faded. Out of all people, it was unlucky that it had caught the attention of one nobleman, who had been looking for certain someone.

"It's the _witches_!" Baron Lucifer announced, pointing towards the direction where the moon was. "And they're heading to Mount Ledang!" His exclamation attracted the attentions of the royal guards and the people. "Look! They have already escaped us, and now they have displayed their powers, to strike fear in our hearts! That explosion is nothing ordinary, only strong magic could have conjured such light! That is the signal that they will initiate the attacks of your children soon! Be well prepared, my dear friends! Be ready for them, for they will attack at any moment now!" Scandalized murmurs ensued. Fearful whispers passed around. Children crept behind their fathers and mothers, fearful of what the foreign nobleman had just claimed, while their mothers tried to calm them down. The fathers and many young men however, looked livid.

"Be ready for them?" one man shouted incredulously. "Why should we be waiting for them to come to harm our children and destroy our town?!"

"I say we gather all our men and go to Mount Ledang right now!" another man deplored. This was followed by a chorus of agreement from everyone that was gathering at the town square.

"Those witches cannot beat all of us!" another man cried spiritedly.

A smile crept on Baron Lucifer's face. Nobody saw the ominous glint shining from his blue eyes. "Yes! _Yes!_ You are right!" He pumped up his fist to the air. "Let's do it!"

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**__**

**__**

**_Author's Notes:_**

More background stories about the characters, which I've made up pretty much all of them, and some action with what I think an unexpected ending. I didn't want for it to be the same as Adam's fight with Strabimon, hence I decided to go with Lilymon for the surprise element. It's been quite a while since I feature Labramon and Floramon as separate individuals so this chapter gives them their moments, although they ended up being beaten.


	48. Movie Arc IV: The Wira Encounter

Strabimon felt his heart skipped a beat, following the light explosion he was now witnessing which came from afar. He could not comprehend it, nor did he understand it. What had happened? Why were the hairs on his body stood, and why was he feeling a deep sense of loss? Then it occurred to him, wide and clear, of what had actually happened. It should have been obvious, but he had never thought of it as being remotely possible. The Wolfsbanes had been known for being a ferocious trio, being near-unbeatable.

Three centuries ago, they had beaten three Darkshadow Brethren Generals – the Shaman, the Kappa and the Majin, and stood on equal grounds with the Virago General, before the Hellion General trounced them, using their own techniques against them. Lucemon then had offered them an alliance, under SkullSatamon's evil regime, to work with them against Grademon and his band of do-gooders. The Wolfsbanes recognized power when they saw it, and they were not inclined to good anyway, so they might as well join the most evil Digimon in existence to secure their own gains. SkullSatamon had been in sympathy with them, and had offered them a valley whose occupants he had eliminated. The Wolfsbanes had accepted the gift, and as a token of gratitude, had vowed their allegiances to him. They then had used the valley as their base, calling it the Macabre Glade for it had witnessed much digital blood spilt on its ground. Their influences had rise immediately, equivalent to the Generals, until one day Grademon, Wizardmon, and the angelic duo known to the world as the Saintly Siblings, infiltrated their valley in order to bring them down. Even so, the Wolfsbanes had easily dispatched off the angels, and Wizardmon's attempt had been laughable, but Grademon was a formidable duo when he unexpectedly ascended to his Mega stage. One by one, Grademon had beaten them.

But it struck to him as strange when Grademon did not delete them. While the angels immobilized them, he and Wizardmon had summoned a spell, which had turned them into stone statues. They were left acutely aware of their surroundings, but doomed into an eternal imprisonment inside a valley where nobody dared to enter. It was a fate worse than deletion, and for three hundred long years they had tried, and failed, to escape. It was only until early this year, and five hundred years in the future, that Lucemon and two Digimon who called themselves the Master's harbingers, arrived at the Macabre Glade and set them free. Eager for vengeance, the Wolfsbanes wanted revenge, only to be told that Grademon no longer lives and his will was carried by his heirs – five humans and five Digimon. Lucemon offered them a chance for them to exact revenge on Grademon by destroying his heirs, and the Wolfsbanes had all agreed readily.

Lucemon's ridiculous plan aside, it did not matter for the Wolfsbanes when Lucemon told them that the battlefield should be taking place in a setting five hundred years in the real world's past. It also had not occurred to them to ask; the question only rose when the Wolfsbanes, due to their long entombment which had left their powers deteriorating, especially after having battled the Wira Digital previously, had devolved all the way into their Rookie forms. They had been assured that the Wira Digital too had been stripped off their powers to digivolve, so the Wolfsbanes should not have anything to worry about. Oh, how wrong they were. They should not have had underestimated those children and their partners.

He still could not comprehend how the young boy, Adam, and his two friends, were able to beat him. Adam's companions were exceptionally skilled in the arts of fighting, something even he had not seen in the most powerful of Digimon, who usually relied on their powers rather than battle prowess. Yet those boys, without special powers, had been able to trounce him. And then there was Adam, who was not as highly skilled, but clearly resourceful enough to manipulate his teleportation power to his advantage, being the one who had delivered the final blow which had forced him to retreat. A Wolfsbane, retreating from battle! Such was unheard of before, but in the heart of his heart, he thought that he was very lucky to have able to escape his foes.

Clearly, his fellow Wolfsbanes were not so lucky.

The pang in his heart, he realized now, was the result of their rapport being destroyed. The three Wolfsbanes were – _had been_ – bonded by a psychic rapport which enabled them to read each other. Mind, movements, desires, anything. He knew for sure that WereGarurumon and WereGururumon were now dead, for he had felt the rapport beginning to wane when he saw the explosion of light in the sky.

There was no chance for them to be reborn, for they were not in the Digital World. He would have to do it. He did not like it – it did not matter if it was done to other Digimon who was not his kin, but his fellow Wolfsbanes were different. Yet, it would be the only way for him to ensure that their data would not recline to waste in this alien world. He would have to do it now, before the rapport he shared with the others was severed permanently.

Closing his eyes, he summoned their data. He felt warmth all over his body, which was glowing with dark purple and black aura, and felt a familiar sensation. He opened his eyes and there it was – the data particles of his fellow Wolfsbanes, gray and blue, hovering before him. Raising his hand towards them, he willed for their data to enter him, flowing all over the insides of him, before feeling his powers slowly being added, skills enhanced, his senses becoming sharper.

Lucemon's power had healed him, and in time, would restore him to his Ultimate level.

Now with the addition of the other two Wolfsbanes' data inside of him, he would surpass the Ultimate level.

"_**Strabimon, Warp Digivolve to…."**_

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_**WIRA DIGITAL: The Movie – Part IV**_

_**Chapter 48 – The Wira Encounter**_

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Hours passed and it was almost midnight, but Teja, Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir still could not take their eyes off the sylphlike woman fluttering above Liu Ying and Gayathri, all the time wondering what had actually happened earlier. Out of all of them, only Lekiu and Lekir were conscious when everything took place; they had seen how the DigiWira girls glimmered with bright aura of yellow and pink, how their partners seemed to _absorb_ their lights, how they turned into motes of light before merging into the woman, whom according to the DigiWira, was called Lilymon. In a split second, Lilymon had blasted the two werewolves with a single energy sphere coming out from the cannon formed from her hands, and they had seen, to their horror and amazement both, how the evil werewolves' bodies were ripped apart before exploding into sparkling dusts which then evaporated. It was like nothing they had ever seen before, and they were shocked at first of how powerful this Lilymon was, but that soon turned to relief when they realized that to them, the flower woman was completely benign. This was proven when Lilymon showered them with flowers, which seemed to rejuvenate their energies. Teja and Kasturi, poisoned by one of the wolf's mists, had woken up completely before Lilymon tended to Lekiu's injuries. She had then adeptly healed Lekiu by just placing her hand on his body.

They soon realized that their friends from the future actually were in a war, sort of, with forces of evil in their own time that they could not ever imagine. They easily had seen how Liu Ying and Gayathri handled themselves during the fight with the werewolves – these girls, though they did not look like it, were actually very adept and experienced. The only disadvantage they seemed to have against those beast men was that somehow, their prowess seemed to be compromised and what they were left with were not enough to stop those beasts. But their courage and determination persevered and a miracle happened in return.

"We are almost there," Kasturi announced, as they crossed a barren ground with large standing stones scattered all around the area. It was like a forest of stones, all of varying lengths and sizes. Vegetations were scarce, and it was an open area, illuminated by the moonlight. Not too far before them they saw a jungle, leading to higher grounds which were covered by lush and tall trees of various shapes and sizes which were not discernable as they were shrouded by the shadow cast by adjacent hills around them. "See that jungle?" he said while walking past everyone so that he would be in the frontline. "That's the forest which lined the base of Mount Ledang," he informed, to everyone's elatedness. "I suppose we can take another break before we trek up there."

"That's a relief," Gayathri said, quickly choosing a stone to sit down on. She shared it with Teja. "We've been walking for almost three hours after our last stop."

"Let's hope we don't encounter any more otherworldly creatures here," Teja said, as she looked around the standing stones with mild nervousness. "I think I have enough of this…what you call it…_Digimon_ battles, in one day," she murmured and cast a look of wonder on Lilymon, who was silently floating above the stone formation. "Will she become Labramon and Floramon again?" she inquired to Gayathri and Liu Ying.

Gayathri shrugged. "Usually, after a battle, she would revert to her composite forms almost immediately. I'm not sure why they remained in their fused form," she admitted.

"It's quite a comfort though," Liu Ying added, her face etched with mild worry. "There are supposed to be _three_ werewolves, and we've taken cared of two. One of them is bound to show up…"

"Don't say that," Lekiu grunted, rubbing the place on his torso where he had been injured. Lilymon however had healed him, and Lekiu was left with only a lingering phantom pain – a pain that was not there, but he was feeling it because it had been there. "You might jinx us." He said that with a teasing manner.

"I thought you don't believe that kind of thing?" Liu Ying countered back, having warmed up gradually to the warrior boy. After all, he had jumped in harm's way to save her, and had gotten hurt by doing so. Liu Ying supposed that it would not hurt for her to at least be friendly with the boy, where before she ignored him. But she kept her guard up; it was not wise for her to be giving Lekiu some false hope.

"I don't. I'm just saying, that's all," Lekiu said. "It has been a weird day." He sat on the barren, pebbled ground, and leaned easily on his cousin's back. Lekir looked mildly dismayed at this, but he did not say anything – his attention seemed to be fixed solely on Lilymon who remained hovering over them.

Kasturi used their torches to ignite a fire on some woods he had managed to gather, seeing that they would be resting there for a while. He figured that they would be safe there, with Lilymon around. The standing stones provided quite a good cover if they were attacked again, they could seek refuge behind of them. The girls then used the big stone where Gayathri and Teja formerly sat on as a place to lean their backs at, before settling in for the night. The cousins leaned on each other's back, wanting to be close to the fire; the stones farther than the fire were somewhat cold. Seeing as they were all going to be sleeping, Kasturi decided that he now had, without saying, the first guard duty. Not that he minded.

All of sudden, amidst the darkness that blanketed the area around the standing stones, Kasturi could detect a faint source of light. Alarmed, he looked at Lilymon, but the flower woman did not seem to react much, although she too was looking at the direction where the faint light was coming from. Somehow, Kasturi thought that she looked somewhat delighted.

"Do not worry," Lilymon said. "It is not a threat at all. Rather…Ying, Gayathri, wake up. Look who's here."

"Huh?" Not only the DigiWira girls, but everyone responded to Lilymon. They stood up, waiting in anticipation as the figures became clearer. The faint lights washed over the stones, and shadows of at least three people could be seen. They also thought that they could hear an excited yelp coming from the light, before somebody sprinted out from the darkness towards them. Whoever that was running, they were not aided by light so it was difficult to make out their profile. Their shadow – the one who was running – danced on all the stones, and they could hear that person calling out something. Liu Ying and Gayathri gasped when they heard _their_ names being called.

"Liu Ying! Gayathri! Lilymon!!"

"ADAM!" Both DigiWira girls said, their faces broke into grins as they were about to run towards the approaching voice, but Adam was quicker. Before long, his body was washed aglow with the lights and the DigiWira girls ran towards him. Hands joined, the three DigiWira were reunited. From above Adam, Patamon soared towards Lilymon.

"Thank God! I've found you!" Adam's voice was that of joy and relief at the same time. "I was worried that I couldn't find you two, when we got separated in that time tunnel thingy…"

"Time tunnel thingy?" The DigiWira girls asked, confused. "Oh…" they both said, remembering that ever since Adam received the ability to summon things, he would usually call things he did not know as it is, and most of the time he would add 'thingy' behind it. "We're glad to see you, too! What happened?" They saw that Adam had evidently been roughened up.

"I could say the same thing about you girls," Adam said, noting that both Liu Ying and Gayathri looked as if they had just been fighting. "No, let me guess. You met the other two werewolves? I met with ExWereGarurumon…or rather…his rookie form." He grimaced. "Somehow we couldn't digivolve, but luckily, thank God, we managed to drive him away…" His eyes caught Lilymon, who smiled back at him. "Oh, wow! You managed to make Labramon and Floramon digivolve! I couldn't do so with Patamon, he can only digivolve naturally…"

"Adam….who's your friends?" Gayathri interrupted, when two young men – teens, judging from their faces – stepped into the light, both carrying torches. They looked older and were taller than Adam, both dressed almost similarly to Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir; the only difference being that the colors of their outfits. They too were carrying keris daggers with them.

"Yes, Adam…care to introduce us to your friends?" the guy dressed in navy blue shirt and black pants said easily. His dark eyes darted between the two DigiWira girls, and the ones behind them…and they saw his expression froze and his brows furrowed tight. He looked somewhat tensed, and apparently he recognized them. "Oh…"

"Look who's here," the other guy, in burgundy shirt and black pants, sneered. "Long time, no see, kiddies," he called out to the boys.

"You know each other?" Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri asked simultaneously, surprised of seeing hostile looks crossed the faces of Kasturi and Lekiu, while Lekir did not seem to be annoyed much, although he did look a bit disturbed.

"Out of all people we have to cross path, it just _has_ to be you two!" Lekiu said loudly, and somewhat angrily. He looked like he was ready to charge towards them, but was strained by Lekir.

"Easy, Lekiu," Lekir said softly, before turning his attentions towards the two elder figures. "Elder brothers Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat, what brings you two here?" he asked with carefully-laced politeness, although it was somewhat apparent that he disliked them as much as his hot-tempered cousin, he just hid it better.

"Don't call them elder brothers, Lekir!" Lekiu snorted, and shoved Lekir's arm, which was interlinked with his own, away.

'_Lekiu? Lekir? And this must be Kasturi…' _Adam thought as his eyes trailed the three boys who looked to be around his age. _'Oh my God…it's them! The other three Hang brothers…but why are they so angry with Tuah and Jebat?'_

Hang Tuah shook his head at Lekiu's temper, pretty much ignored Kasturi, but offered a small bit of a smile to Lekir and the DigiWira girls. "We're here escorting our friend Adam, who's looking for his friends and a way home to the…future," he said the last bit slowly, as if anticipating shocked reactions from his addressees. "And it looks like he's found them," he added, before his eyes fell on Teja. He frowned, apparently not recognizing the princess, but did not feel like asking.

"So Adam has found his friends, which means that we're not needed anymore, right?" Jebat asked Adam. He patted the boy from the future on a shoulder. "We'll take our leave…"

"Wait, don't go!" Adam said quickly. He was curious of _why_ the two groups of boys seemed so hostile with each other. This was not how he had imagined the five Hang brothers. "You promised that you're going to help me find my way home! You're not backing up now!"

"Well, you're now with your friends," Tuah reasoned.

"Each extra head means one extra mind, which can contribute into something as we figure out how to help our friends from the future," Teja intoned, looking directly at Tuah as she said so. "I certainly do not expect you two, disciples of Adiputra, to go back on your words or to do things half-way," she said with mild sarcasm. "If you have promised the boy that you would help him search for his way home, then stay. We don't mind."

"Humph. Says you," Lekiu snorted. Both Kasturi and Lekir elbowed him, apparently for his lack of courteousness to the princess. Teja however did not seem to mind.

Tuah and Jebat considered Teja's words. "Who might you be?" Tuah asked.

"She's _princess_ Tun Teja from Pahang," Kasturi said with a very formal tone. "Daughter of his majesty Sultan Muhammad, cousin of his royal highness the Sultan of Malacca, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah," he said, and Teja glared at him. Hearing the introduction, both Tuah and Jebat's faces faltered and they were about to bow to her, before Teja stopped them.

"There's no need with all the formalities," she said, although her voice still carried the tone of superiority when she addressed Tuah and Jebat – a tone that was notably absent when she talked with her personal guards or her DigiWira friends.

"Pardon me for asking, honorable princess, but what would a princess be doing with a group of boys in the middle of nowhere?" Tuah asked curiously.

Lekiu snorted again. "For your information, _elder brother Hang Tuah,_ we are her personal guards, appointed by her honorable father!" Tuah clearly was surprised of this revelation – so surprised, actually, that he was left speechless.

Jebat snickered. "With your mediocre skills? I wonder, what does the Sultan of Pahang see in you to make you the princess's guards? Is he not afraid that someone might overpower you three and abduct the princess?" Lekiu snarled at the comment, and Kasturi's brows etched together. Lekir quickly grabbed hold on their shirts to stop them from charging at Jebat, but a signal from Teja told him that she would take care of this, and he relaxed.

"Are you questioning my father's decision, Hang Jebat?" Teja snapped coldly, her voice suddenly carried the tone of highest authority that it even surprised the DigiWira. The way she carried herself was similar to that time when she spoke to the royal guards, earlier this day. There was no doubt that she was a princess although she was dressed like a commoner. "You are clearly forgetting your place – I may have told you that you may skip the formalities, but that does not mean I will allow you to be rude."

Jebat's cocky look faltered; clearly he was suddenly made aware of Teja being a royal. As a royal, though not a Sultan, it was believed that the royals still carried divine mandate, and disobeying them would be treason of the highest degree. He was at a fix here, while Lekiu shot him a triumphant look. "My apologies, princess. I did not mean for it to sound that way," he said with a low voice, while his eyes shot daggers towards Lekiu.

"Good," Teja said, her voice softened. "Then, Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah…do stay with us so that we can figure out how to help our friends from the future. I'm sure that you must want to see your friend Adam here safely returned to his own time along with his friends? Besides," she smiled a little, "we might need your superior Silat skills." This caused unsatisfied murmurs coming from Kasturi and Lekiu, while both Tuah and Jebat looked somewhat stunned before that turned to flattery. Teja smiled, knowing that she was able to get through these two boys. _'Really. Boys and their competitive nature…it's a good thing father has taught me the art of diplomacy!'_ she thought silently. _'And being a princess definitely has its advantage too, in times like this.'_

"Yeah…come on, guys," Adam said, and took Tuah and Jebat's hands. "I really want you two to be here. Please?"

"Well," Tuah began, looking at Jebat, who raised his eyebrows and shrugged. He turned to Adam and smiled. "Promise's a promise. We'll stick around. And…" He turned to look at Teja, and everyone saw how his gaze lingered at the princess's face for a while before he said with a courteous bow, "it will be our pleasure to serve you, princess." Out of Teja's sight, as she was distracted with Tuah, Jebat turned around and made a gagging face, which caused Adam to giggle.

"Then it's settled," Teja decided, blushing a bit before turning away to address her childhood friends. Lekiu gave her a protesting look, Kasturi looked like he was inclined to disagree with her decision but kept his mouth shut, while Lekir seemed to think that Lilymon and Patamon were more worthy of his attention now that the dispute between the two groups had ended.

All of them then decided that it was better for them to spend the night there. They need not climb Mount Ledang anymore, for the DigiWira had been reunited. Later on, the DigiWira noticed that their friends could not seem to get along, but they grudgingly tolerated each other. The only exception in this cold war was Lekir, who was quizzing Patamon and Lilymon animatedly.

"What seems to be their problem?" Adam wondered, as he watched how Lekiu and Jebat practically shot daggers each other, with the way they looked at each other. Kasturi sat by the fire, isolating himself, while Tuah practiced some of his Silat moves a distance away from the fire, within a small clearing. Occasionally Adam caught Tuah looking at them, or more specifically, at the Princess Tun Teja, but turned his gaze away whenever one of the DigiWira caught him staring. Teja did not seem to notice, as she had her back facing Tuah.

"The previous year, their Silat masters pit them against each other, and they lost," Gayathri supplied. "That's pretty much what it's all about, right Teja?"

"As far as I know," Teja nodded. "Adam, why don't you go and ask Tuah or Jebat for their side of the story?"

"Okay." Adam walked past Lekir, Patamon and Lilymon, and sweatdropped upon hearing Patamon explaining to Lekir about television and his favorite soap operas before passing on to Kasturi. He tried catching the boy's attention, but failed, so he entered the area surrounded by the standing stones. Lekiu was standing at one stone, and across of it was Jebat, leaning against another stone. Their eye contacts broke when Adam passed before them, Jebat giving him a curt nod while Lekiu looked indifferent. Feeling nervous, Adam exited the stony area and reached Tuah, who stopped practicing when he saw Adam. "Hi. Umm…" He wondered of what to say, thinking that he could not just blatantly ask Tuah to tell him about it. The conversation had to come with a flow.

"Does Silat exist in your time?" Tuah asked as he wiped the sweat on his face with the sleeves of his shirt.

"Huh?" Adam thanked his luck, for Tuah had provided a perfect opening. "Yes, it does. In fact, my late brother has taught me a few moves."

"Really?" Tuah crossed his arms over his chest, looking genuinely interested. "So you're saying that you have practiced Silat?"

"Not officially," Adam said. "Abang Zad taught me a few moves so that I can defend myself when someone wants to bully me. He was the one who had formal training."

"Alright. How about you show me what you know?" Tuah said, genuinely interested. "It'll be nice to see whether the moves have changed five centuries in the future, or still remain as it is now."

Adam fidgeted with his hands. "Umm…mine's nowhere as good as yours, really. Laughable, even…since you and Jebat are so…well…good."

Tuah looked amused. "If you're interested, maybe I can show you some other moves, to improve your skill."

"That'll be great!" Adam had forgotten his former agenda completely as he took a stance, and began demonstrating what he knew, careful not to mix it with the Ninjutsu moves from Manny and Capoiera from JD. Another hour passed, and all the time Tuah had either stopped him to show him the correct nature of a move Adam had clumsily performed, or to teach him a perfectly new move. They were so engrossed with their training that they neither noticed that it was midnight nor that they had attracted quite a crowd. Jebat and Lekiu had momentarily forgotten their cold war, Kasturi had abandoned the comfort of his fire, the girls had stopped exchanging stories and even Lekir seemed to have deemed the Silat training between Adam and Tuah to be more interesting than talking about stuffs in the future. Patamon was applauding Adam while Lilymon watched over them in silence.

"Looks like we have another 'Hang' in the making," Jebat chuckled as he approached his disciple brother and Adam. "_Hang Adam_, perhaps?"

Adam made a face and blushed at the same time. "That sounds strange…I mean, it doesn't sound half as good as how it is in your names," he added quickly, not wanting to offend his friends. "But thanks for the offer anyway. And Tuah…thank you for sharing and teaching me those moves. I'll be sure to remember them when I get back in my time." Inward, Adam could not help but to squeal gleefully – in his mind, of course. Imagine having a legendary hero teaching you Silat? This certainly was one of the things that would not make it in history books. _'Well, this will definitely be in _my_ history book!'_

With Jebat now standing before him, and Tuah at his side, Adam was reminded of his former intention. He could feel the burning gazes from Liu Ying, Gayathri and the princess, and squirmed uncomfortably. "Hey…I've got one question which I've been wondering about," he said to his friends. "Why are you seemed to be enemies with them?"

Tuah was about to answer, but was interrupted by Jebat's chortles. "Don't worry about it. They're just sore losers, we've beaten them fair and square when our teachers told us to pit our skills last year," he said. "It's not our fault we're more skilled than them."

"Actually," Tuah said, casting Kasturi, Lekir and Lekiu a long drawn look before sighing at Jebat. "That's exactly what this is all about," he continued, gazing directly into Jebat's eyes. "Didn't you remember? You _belittled_ them after the competition, brother, and I think that's what making them so angry at us. They might be resenting what you have said to them."

"What did I say?" Jebat said, scrunching his face as he searched his memory for it.

"You told them... _'Your_ _skills are pathetic. Why don't you just give it up and go back and stay under your mothers' armpits_…' I think that was what you had said," Tuah said.

"So?" Jebat said, shrugging. "I wasn't being serious. They're guys – they should not be offended because of _that!"_

"Normally, they wouldn't." Tuah, Jebat and Adam turned sideways to see Teja, Liu Ying and Gayathri approaching them. The others, now that the Silat show was over between Adam and Tuah, had returned to the things they had been doing previously, with the exception of Lekiu who was heard complaining at Lekir about something, and the latter was comforting him. Teja saw the bewildered looks on Tuah and Jebat, and shook her head, somewhat melancholically. "Obviously you don't know their history," Teja deduced, and sighed. "Your comment have struck a nerve because not only that you have insulted their Silat master, who was suffering a fatal ailment at the time of meeting _your_ Silat master, you have also made fun of their tragic history, whether you knew about it or not."

Tuah and Jebat were evidently taken aback at what Teja had said. Even Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri gasped in surprise. Teja sighed sadly. "Two years ago, there was a mad man running amok at the village where Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir came from," she began. "That man was an extremely skilled Silat practitioner, but was not a good man. He had been known for having committed grave crimes that he was very much wanted by the authorities. He and his son were quite an unbeatable team and together they had killed many good men. Many men tried to stop them, but two men eventually succeeded in putting a temporary stop in the criminals' villainous activities. One of them was Kasturi's father, the other was grandfather to Lekir and Lekiu – they teamed up and were successful in killing the son of that criminal. The criminal escaped, but it was said that due to his grief of losing his son he had lost his mind…

"One night, he returned to the village, overwhelmed with insanity. With a _parang_ he had brutally slain everyone who had crossed his paths – men, women, and children. Kasturi's father and the cousins' grandfather once more teamed up to stop him, but the criminal had somehow gained an edge when he lost his mind. Perhaps it was the notion of him not having anything to lose that caused him to fight to the fullest, and as the result they too had fallen to his parang. Recognizing them as the one who had killed his son, the mad man had…" Teja hiccupped, and her face looked somewhat horrified, "butchered their bodies before proceeding to slay their families, and then the other villagers. No one from the village was spared…except for them…" The princess cast her fellow friends a long, sorrowful look, and feeling her knees buckling she sat down quickly. The DigiWira joined her, but Tuah and Jebat remained standing, mostly because of their respect to the princess.

"How did they manage to survive the massacre?" Liu Ying asked slowly, after recovering from the horror of Teja's tale about the ill-fates of Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir.

Teja sighed. "They were not there when it happened. They were with me," she said softly. "It was one of those days when we would meet up in a nearby jungle and spend the day having fun together, as best friends and foster siblings. It was one of those days when I escaped my teachers, and they knew exactly where to meet me. And when it was night, I wanted to follow them back for their houses were nearer and I would get a severe telling-off from my father if I return to the palace during the night. It wouldn't be the first time I have done so, so I followed them home…only to find a bloodbath greeting us. It…it was horrible. The boys saw their families butchered beyond recognition. And…and…_he_ was there, the mad man, waiting for us."

The DigiWira paled. Tuah and Jebat squirmed uncomfortably, Jebat now realizing his grave folly. Teja took no notice of that, and continued, "The mad man knew that the killers of his son had son and grandsons…so he waited. He saw us…" Teja's voice was losing its calmness and edge. "He advanced towards us… we pleaded for him to have mercy, but he wouldn't have any of it. He said that he wanted to avenge his son…" Teja stopped for a moment in order to gather herself. Liu Ying and Gayathri comforted her, and she gave them a smile of appreciation. "It was then that another Silat master appeared to our rescue. He was Adiwira…the younger brother of your Silat master," she said to Tuah and Jebat grimly, "and a close friend of my father. Worried of my safety, my father had sent him to look for me, and it was very lucky that he had managed to find us. He instantly dueled with the mad man, and after a long drawn fight, he managed to kill the mad man…but not after sustaining a blow from the mad man. It had seemed to be not serious, and he assured us that he would be fine. He took me back to my father…and pitying the fate of Kasturi, Lekiu and Lekir, he took them in as his disciples, offering to teach them whatever he knew, for they had no one else to go to. I wanted to offer them a place in my palace, but they decided that it was better for them to learn ways of defending themselves, so that they would not have to run away when danger comes their way. I respected their decision and that night, we separated….for one long year."

Overwhelming silence prevailed after Teja had recounted her best friends' gory history. Adam was tongue-tied, not knowing how to respond – this was even worse than the fate that had befallen his own parents and brother. Liu Ying's heart went towards the boys – after all, her father too had been murdered. Gayathri looked so sick that she could not speak. They felt sorry for their friends, who were now lurking around the standing stones, staring at them curiously. Tuah and Jebat especially, had sat down, shocked.

"That's not all," Teja mumbled after a drawn-out silence. When she managed to regain everyone's attentions, she exhaled slowly, and this time her attention was on Tuah and Jebat. "A year after our separation, I went out to look for them. It was not hard to find them, as when words got around that I was looking for them, the boys came to fetch me as they usually did, only for me to be told of yet another disturbing news." The princess gulped, and a look of profound sadness graced her face, although she did not cry. "Apparently…when their Silat master dueled with the mad man who had butchered their family, the mad man had managed to leave his mark on Adiwira. Somehow, the blow he had given Adiwira was poisonous, and it was a kind of poison that would not take immediate effect on the one it had poisoned. When Adiwira realized about it, it was already too late. He realized that he was dying just when he was beginning to impart the combative arts of the Silat to the boys. When your Silat master met him last year, he was dying, but he did not tell your Silat master about it, did he?" Teja said, and Tuah and Jebat, profoundly shocked at this revelation, shook their heads. "Only the boys, my father, and I, knew about it. The boys hadn't been able to complete their training, for not long after he had met his brother, Adiwira passed away and once again the boys lost their guardian. It was then that my father decided that since I know them very well, and that we have been friends, and also because their skills have surpassed that of the normal guards, he appointed them as my personal guards so that the four of us could be together, and for the boys to have a home again."

The DigiWira shared one look amongst each other, all three agreeing that this had never been stated in history books. And they probably were the only Malaysians of their time to know about it. If it weren't for the fact that it was too terrible a story, they would have felt honored to bear this knowledge.

"No wonder…" Jebat whispered. "I have no idea…what a jerk I've been…"

"Now you know," Teja said, and got up on her feet. "I think you know what to do."

"An apology is due," Tuah said, clapping Jebat on the back as the latter sighed. "Come, we'll do it together."

"You did not insult them," Jebat pointed out. "I did."

"So? We're brothers, we'll stick with each other," Tuah said loyally. "Besides, _we_ were the ones who had beaten them. Not just you. In fact," he smiled, "I think it will easier if we do this together. We both know how stubborn you are. Should that Lekiu kid refuse your apology, who's to say that you won't end up shouting insults at him again?"

Jebat looked like he was about to protest, before he gritted his teeth. "You know me well, brother."

As Tuah and Jebat turned to head back towards the standing stones, the DigiWira shared knowing looks. Could this be the beginning of a strong friendship between the five of them? However, after witnessing the strong bond Tuah and Jebat had, it pained them into thinking that one day, when they were adults, one would end up killing the other. Adam in particular had a very forlorn look on his face, as he had spent time with the two boys and had gotten to know them. It only made it more difficult for Adam to accept the two disciple-brothers' doomed destinies.

A thunderous bang broke the serene silence of the night before a deep blue energy orb as big as a lorry appeared from a distance, and zoomed rapidly towards the standing stones. Horrified, Adam in reflex summoned his teleportation power and recalled the five boys as Lilymon flew away and Patamon digivolved into Centarumon. An explosion ensued just as the five boys reappearing by their sides, and even so the shock of the collision between the energy orb and the standing stones had sent them all flying for quite a distance. To make things worse, some of the stones had exploded into rubbles, most of them blasted upon the DigiWira and their friends before they collided with the remaining stones. Shrieks and roars were heard from them as they all plopped onto the ground, injured. Liu Ying, Adam and Tuah had blood trickling the sides of their mouths. Teja and Lekir were unconscious, both wounded on the heads. Kasturi was groaning painfully and they soon saw what had happened – his right arm had been dislocated due to the fall. Gayathri, Jebat and Lekiu seemed to be the luckiest; they only suffer scratches on their faces and arms, the gash on Lekiu's forehead was the worst out of the three but they were better off compared to their friends.

Over the sky, Lilymon was seen blasting barrages of Flower Cannons while Centarumon hopped on one of the taller stones and fired his Hunting Cannon. Their target, which lumbered heavily several yards away, was a quadrupled mechanical beast with a massive black cannon perched on its back. It was a blue metallic wolf the size of a battle tank, with green claws, shining scarlet eyes and a robotic snarl. It did not even attempt to evade the attacks from Lilymon and Centarumon, rather it just let the energy spheres slammed upon it and chuckled darkly when it was apparent that the only thing those attacks could achieve was to slightly discolor its armors.

"Nothing you do will be able to lay a dent on me!" the cyborg wolf snorted, when Lilymon and Centarumon attempted to attack again. Its voice was familiar, and Centarumon recognized it instantly.

"ExWereGarurumon?"

"Quite right! But I am called Z'dGarurumon now!" the wolf announced. His eyes glinted menacingly as he took in the sights of his fallen foes, noting that the only obstacles he was facing now were these two Digimon. The DigiWira were injured and their friends even more so. "You have killed my fellow Wolfsbanes, so have a taste of my _Zeed Cannon!!" _Z'dGarurumon locked on his targets and blasted another massive energy sphere out of his cannon with a deafening bang, watching with glee as the cannonball blasted upon Centarumon and Lilymon, forcing them into devolving as they plopped onto the grounds, now in their Rookie forms once again. "Looks like I have been merciful, something you all don't deserve for deleting my fellow Wolfsbanes! But no matter, no matter…you're as good as gone now…"

"Patamon…" Adam tried summoning his partner back, but with him injured his special power was deeply compromised. He could not believe that in a short span of time, the Strabimon he and his friends had beaten just several hours ago had returned, stronger than ever and from the looks of it, in his Mega form. Patamon, who was laying unconscious on his back, was not moving. The only comfort Adam had in knowing that his partner was still alive was the fact that Patamon did not combust into data. "Patamon…hang on…"

"Labramon…" Liu Ying attempted to use her telekinesis to pull Labramon towards her, but her power had done nothing but to flick Labramon's droopy ears. The Rookie let out a groan; she too was nearly unconscious, and was too weak to stand back on her feet. Shivering, she let out a soft grunt before she too became unconscious.

Gayathri sped towards Floramon and helped her up, and to the other DigiWira's relief Jebat and Lekiu both approached Patamon and Labramon, picking them up. However this seemed to have made Z'dGarurumon very annoyed, for he now pointed his black cannon towards the three uninjured people. "Looks like I have missed you three. But no matter, no matter….I can always do it again…. _ZeedACKK!!"_

Before Z'dGarurumon could fully call out his attack, thick thorny vines sprouted from the earth and bound his legs and bodies tight. Shocked of this sudden intrusion, Z'dGarurumon struggled to break free, but the more he moved the tighter the vines wrapped around him. The vines were like snakes, coiling around him tight, even making a faint hissing sound when Z'dGarurumon tried to move. Everyone then heard a seductive snicker close by, before at the edge of the forest leading to Mount Ledang, a woman in red leather outfit stepped out from the shadows. The DigiWira gasped in surprise, for she was very familiar.

"Surprise," Rosemon said with a grin. "The cavalries have arrived."

Z'dGarurumon howled and summoned his lasers to tear the vines away from his body. But before the lasers managed to completely singe the vines, the sky thundered and a blue streak of lightning shot down from the heavens. It struck Z'dGarurumon, resulting in a faint, but audible, sound akin to a malfunctioning computer.

"Not a chance." Samudramon, holding his trident close, stepped out from the forests opposite Mount Ledang. Seeing that his Cosmic Thunderstrike seemed to be effective, Samudramon pointed his trident towards Z'dGarurumon, and roared, _"Double-Edged Thunderblades, Powered Up Mode!!"_ An electric-blue dragon of lightning erupted from the weapon, electrocuting Z'dGarurumon again. But then, somehow the second shocking attack seemed to have restored his system, and Z'dGarurumon managed to summon laser beams to destroy the vines that were immobilizing him.

"More pests!" Z'dGarurumon snarled. _"Zeed…"_

"Not so fast!" A streak of gold sailed beside him and a loud clang was heard, followed by a buzzing sound. Airborne, D'Arcmon smiled in satisfaction as she struck a pose with her twin swords, ready for battle.

Z'dGarurumon grunted in annoyance and was about to attack his new foes when a fiery comet plummeted from the sky and slammed on his back, before streaking away and grazed his sides. Somebody had grabbed hold on his cannon and was lifting him up. He yelped, but whoever that was holding him was also quick to release him, causing him to crash onto the ground. The fire comet zoomed towards the ground and the fires subsided, revealing Satriamon, smirking. "Let the games begin," he said coolly and let out a roar as flames erupted around him, spiraling around him before soaring towards the sky as he raised his golden gauntlet. _"Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode!!"_ A fire dragon was formed and when Satriamon made a punching gesture with his gauntlet, the dragon sped towards Z'dGarurumon, roaring thunderously. Upon the collision, Z'dGarurumon was sent rolling onto the ground before a fiery explosion resulted.

"Who are they?" Jebat said with astounded wonder.

"I don't know…but they are amazing!" Lekiu said, before realizing to whom he was speaking to, and grunted in annoyance. Jebat had not had the chance to apologize yet.

"They're our friends…from the future!" Gayathri said excitedly, as she drew the unconscious Floramon, Labramon and Patamon to her. "Just in time!" Her eyes then caught a movement; someone relatively the size of a normal adult human was seen running towards them from the forests. She braced herself, but relaxed when she noticed that this was a friend, dressed in a monk's robe over a black skintight suit. "Jackie! You're here too?" she said, astounded, and her eyes flickered towards the reinforcements from the future – Satriamon and Samudramon, and Rosemon and D'Arcmon.

'_Lucemon didn't tell me that the others are here too!'_ Z'dGarurumon thought furiously as he got back up to his feet. He eyed Satriamon and Samudramon, and the two women, one he knew was a Mega, but he did not know what level the angel woman was. _'If her friend is a Mega, chances are she is one too. And then there are these two Wira Digital. I must not be rash. The day will come when I can avenge my fellow Wolfsbanes, but for now this is not the day.'_ Two jet propellers emerged on the sides of his body, and when they were activated Z'dGarurumon was propelled up towards the sky. He made a turn, let out a howl before blasted off towards the darkness far away from the area.

"Damnit! He got away!" Satriamon groaned.

"We'll get him next time," Samudramon said and beckoned towards their friends. "Let's power down and tend to our friends. They seem to have gone through some pretty rough time."

xxx

xxx

Z'dGarurumon streaked over the forests; his mechanical nose had detected a familiar scent heading towards a direction from where he had come from. Strangely, this scent was also accompanied by almost fifty other scents, all unfamiliar ones. Thinking that it was strange, and intrigued, Z'dGarurumon decided to head there. He increased power from his jet propellers and blasted off, until he saw flickers of lights coming from one part of the forest; those lights formed one quite long line.

He descended to the ground and shifted into his smaller Ultimate form, ExWereGarurumon, for it was easier for him to walk in that form. Landing on his feet, he smirked upon noticing the shocked reactions of a group of men there. His nose sniffed once more and his eyes fell on a tall nobleman, who was frowning at him.

"A monster!" cried one man in horror; ExWereGarurumon certainly cut an imposing figure.

"A demon!" another man decried. "A wolf demon!"

"Could this be sent by those witches to stop us?" another man implored the nobleman who was leading the crowd.

"Oh, no," Baron Lucifer said with a silky tone, turning around to address the crowd. He was smiling, but it was not a pleasant smile; an evil smile. "Actually, he works for me." Following the revelation, Baron Lucifer glowed with black and white aura and became a foot taller, and his aristocratic outfit transformed into a skintight white suit with black trousers and overcoat. White feathery wings sprouted from the right-side of his back and black leathery wings followed to form the left flank of his wings. Similarly the wings grew out from his head as his burnish blonde hair was untied, framing his pale face. A wild contemptuous look graced his face, milking in the horrified reactions of the Malaccan men who had unsuspectingly followed his command. It was time for him to use them against the Wira Digital; the images he had picked out from ExWereGarurumon's mind had told him enough.


	49. Movie Arc V: Recapturing Digital Access

"We really should have convinced Ophanimon to come here too," JD muttered to Manny who was sitting beside him. His eyes then trailed to two faces that were slumbering peacefully; definitely a rare sight that he was sorely tempted to catch this on camera, if it wasn't for the fact that his camera phone had been destroyed months ago. He was sitting with his arms propped firmly on the grounds to support his body weight, and had his two legs stretched out, his thighs now serving as pillows for two DigiWira – Adam occupying the left, Liu Ying the right. A smirk formed on his face as he wondered what would their reaction be when they wake up, for it was his idea for them to be placed in such positions. After all, he couldn't leave them to lie around the hard jungle grounds, not when they appeared to be injured. Adam probably would not mind much; they were after all cousins, almost brothers. Liu Ying however probably would have something to say about this.

"Why?" Manny asked, shifting his body slightly against the tree he was leaning back on, careful not to drop the sleeping Gayathri's head from his left shoulder. He looked around the small shadowy clearing, which was illuminated by a small campfire made by Jebat earlier. His eyes fell on Teja and Lekir, both still unconscious, although Jackie and Gayathri had tended to the wounds on their heads earlier as best as they could. Kasturi was comforted by Lekiu; his dislocated shoulder now had been bandaged. Tuah, still awake, was chatting with Jebat at the corner of the clearing – Jebat seemed to be suggesting something which Tuah did not seem to like. Rosemon and D'Arcmon were standing alertly not far from the crowd. The five Rookie Digimon huddled close to the fire; Agumon and Penguinmon leaning on each other's backs, Patamon sleeping on Agumon's head, Labramon and Floramon sprawled beside them. Jackie was lying on top of a massive tree branch above them, idly playing with his light-saber's hilt, occasionally forming the blade before making it disappear. The sounds of river flowing was heard, although they could not see the river they knew it was close by.

"She's got healing powers," JD answered. "She could easily heal them." He recollected silently of what had happened just a couple of hours before.

After managing to fend off Z'dGarurumon, Satriamon and Samudramon were about to dedigivolve, but soon decided against it when one of the boys – Hang Tuah – had asked for their helps in moving the unconscious ones to the jungles of Mount Ledang. During the course of the battle with the cybernetic wolf, Adam, Liu Ying and their partners had also fallen unconscious, and the reason became apparent not too long after – both had been knocked by stone rubbles on the back of their heads. Him being the largest, Satriamon easily lifted Adam, Liu Ying, the boy known as Lekir and the princess Tun Teja with his arms and led by Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat, they all scaled the base of the mountain, heading to a place close to the river so that they could clean up the wounds of their fallen friends. There, while resting, JD and Manny were briefed by Gayathri and the locals of what had happened throughout the day. Two hours passed and after the initial shock of having been revealed that they were during the time of the Malaccan Sultanate and that their companies were, in the future, the famous five Hang brothers, had gone off, JD and Manny had settled down somewhat comfortably with the three sleeping DigiWira, the original trio of DigiWira obviously strained to the limit.

Now observing with mild interest as how the shadows of the canopy of leaves fell on the clearing, Manny cleared his throat before replying to JD: "Ophanimon thought that she'd better remain in the future…I mean, in our time, should any of the other Darkshadow Brethren decide to attack our world." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, as something came to his mind. "What about Salamon and Gatomon? They healed Adam's broken arm," he pointed out.

"Somehow they have taken a liking for Kak Lisha and are currently staying with her at the hospital," JD said with a small smile. "Gatomon, especially, seems quite attached to her. Dunno about Salamon though, maybe he sticks around because of Gatomon." He shrugged. "It didn't really come to my mind to bring them."

"We didn't expect this to happen," Manny murmured.

JD nodded, whilst staring at a small wound on his cousin's head. It was not obvious as Adam's dark hair had covered it, but when JD ran a finger on where he knew where the wound was, he could feel it: an accumulation of dried blood with the size of a fifty-cent Malaysian coin. Similarly, on Liu Ying's left temple there was a gash the size of the little finger, but it was not as bad as Adam. And the DigiWira's conditions could not be compared to the wounds on Teja and Lekir's foreheads – Kasturi and Lekiu were forced to tear off a portion of the lower part of their shirts to stop the bleeding on their friends' wounds before wrapping them with the band of cloths they had formerly tied around their foreheads. Jackie had used a portion of his monk robe to make a bandage for Kasturi's dislocated shoulder, but otherwise Kasturi did not suffer any other kind of injuries.

Hang Jebat was now sitting behind Tuah, who was sitting in a meditative, lotus-style position. He then placed his hands on Tuah's back, and all of as sudden both of them _glowed _with crimson and navy aura. This immediately garnered interest from everyone who was still awake, as they watched the dark blue glow from Jebat slowly seeping into Tuah's body. For a while, Tuah's face contorted and he let out gasps in pain, looking like he was going to vomit. Jebat in the meantime, did not appear to be troubled.

With a loud grunt, Jebat suddenly pushed both hands forcefully on Tuah's back, and Tuah shouted, breaking the silence of the night. While at it, he had spat out a thick gooey dark substance out, and it spattered on the ground before him. Tuah then let out a relieved sigh, and was inhaling and exhaling rapidly, sweats profusely pouring out from all over his body. He rubbed his chest, and appeared pained no longer. He gave Jebat a grateful smile, in which the other boy replied with a curt nod, before his eyes fell on Adam and Liu Ying. He looked at them thoughtfully, his expression unreadable, before his attention shifted to JD and Manny, who by then realized that the thing Tuah had spat out was actually _blood_.

"I think Adam and Miss Chang are suffering the same internal injuries like I have had," Tuah said, looking directly towards JD. "I saw, with my own eyes, stones blasting onto their backs when that metallic beast creature caused the standing stones to explode. The same thing has happened to me. And there was blood coming out from their mouths, do you remember?"

JD nodded stiffly, remembering it well, for _he_ had been the one who cleaned up the blood from their mouths. However he did not say anything; everything was happening too fast and too strange for him to comprehend.

"What I'm trying to say is that," Tuah continued, "our Silat master, Tuk Guru Adiputra, has taught us how to channel our spiritual energy into others to aid the other person's recovery process. It can speed up the body's natural healing process, as long as it's not broken bones or anything so severe," he said with a strained smile. "It was how Jebat has healed me. I think you've witnessed it just now? You should probably let us try to heal them, as how Jebat has done to me."

"Don't you have doctors for this kind of thing?" JD asked after a brief moment of hesitation.

"_Doctors?_" Tuah and Jebat looked at each other, then at them, with confusion.

"Medicine men," clarified Lekiu as he stood up from where he was resting; Kasturi was already asleep. "You did mean that now, didn't you?" he asked the two DigiWira, apparently unsure of his previous assumption. JD and Manny noticed that somehow, Lekiu was trying his hardest not to look at either Tuah or Jebat.

"Yes. Medicine men, witchdoctors, whatever…" JD muttered.

"Not anywhere close," Tuah answered. "It would take a day if we're going to Tuk Guru Adiputra's house. Who knows what would happen if we wait that long."

"We're your best bet here," Jebat said, earning a scornful scoff from Lekiu. He ignored it. "Adam and the girl there can't wait that long. They might appear to be sleeping now, but wait any longer and they might not wake up. Do you want that to happen?" he challenged.

"Impossible!" JD and Manny exclaimed, but upon seeing that Jebat and Tuah did not waver from their claims, they realized that the two warriors were speaking the truth. This was further proven when Adam and Liu Ying both let out a soft cough and blood trickled from the sides of their mouths.

"That's it," Tuah said and went towards Adam. "They are definitely injured. I will take Adam. Jebat, you…"

"Not so fast, brother," Jebat countered. "You are still recovering. You cannot channel your energy out just yet. Maybe after an hour or so, but certainly not now." His eyes shifted on Lekiu. "You, however, are not injured. You will do it, to that girl. I will use my energy to heal Adam."

Lekiu was shocked at Jebat's order towards him. The animosity he was feeling for the two older teens was forgotten, he now looked somewhat afraid, for his late Silat master had not taught him and his fellow disciple brothers about how to heal oneself or others after sustaining the injury. Such healing art existed; he had seen Tuk Guru Adiwira trying to purge the poison out of his body with his meditative skill. Was it the same thing? Lekiu did not dare to take that chance; he did not want to toy with another human's life. Especially not to Liu Ying. "But…I don't know how to heal… we were not trained..."

Jebat blinked. He then took out his keris, and with one swift gesture he lit it with glowing deep red aura. "Can you do this?"

"I…yes, I can." _'Is it the same thing?'_ Lekiu wondered silently.

"It's the same thing," Jebat said, confirming Lekiu's thoughts. "The only difference is that you're now channeling your energy to other people instead of your keris. Got it?"

"I…I suppose so." _'I can't believe I'm taking instructions from this arrogant prick. But…for Liu Ying…'_

JD and Manny watched with mounting anxiety as Tuah lifted Adam's sleeping body and maintained it in a sitting position, lotus style. Jebat settled to sit behind Adam and placed both palms on the DigiWira's back. His body burst with crimson aura and he fell into a trance, breathing deeply in and out slowly as he moved his hands around the boy's back. Adam, still unconscious, was groaning softly. In the meantime, JD helped maintaining Liu Ying's body in a sitting position, and Lekiu gulped nervously as he sat behind Liu Ying, hesitating and blushing furiously of the notion of going to touch the girl. He then mirrored Jebat's actions and with an encouragement from Tuah (and a warning glare from JD) Lekiu began calling out his inner energy and channeled them to his hands. He glimmered with yellow aura and placed his hands on Liu Ying's back, transferring his energy to the girl. Before long, Adam let out a pained gasp and spat out a fist-sized coagulated dark blood, and plopped onto Jebat's body lifelessly. Jebat ceased to glow instantly, his concentration broken by the contact.

"He's going to be alright," Jebat said to JD, somewhat out of breath, as Tuah removed Adam from him. "I did my best. Don't look too scared, your cousin-brother is sleeping." He cast a look on Lekiu, who seemed to be facing a slight difficulty in doing the same thing to Liu Ying. Jebat would catch Lekiu frowning, gasping, and at times grunting loudly. _'This is his first time. It's going to strain him…'_ Jebat himself was feeling very strained, after healing Tuah and Adam, but he was properly trained with this. _'I've made a cruel comment towards him and his fellow disciple brothers last year. I owe him this…'_ Ignoring his own fatigue, Jebat crawled silently behind Lekiu, who did not seem to notice him. He placed one palm on Lekiu's back and allowed a portion of his remaining energy to flow inside Lekiu. Lekiu let out a yelp, feeling a burst of power inside of him which then was transferred into Liu Ying's body. As a result, Liu Ying gasped and vomited out coagulated blood. JD quickly lifted Liu Ying, who looked severely weakened, and laid her beside Adam's prone body.

'_He…helped me?'_ Lekiu could not believe that Jebat had actually lent him a part of his own energy to make the final push for Liu Ying to spit out the coagulated blood. He had to admit, without Jebat's help he would not be able to heal Liu Ying – he lacked the training and his inner energy was not as developed, nor as abundant, as Jebat's. Without a word, Jebat slowly got back up to his feet and swayed slightly, before Tuah caught him. Together the two Hang brothers went to the nearest tree and sat down there, not noticing Lekiu staring at them in wonder.

JD took off the outer jacket of his DigiWira uniform and slid it underneath Adam and Liu Ying's heads. Seeing how Jebat and Lekiu had managed to ease the conditions of his friends made him thought of something. He caught Manny looking at him meaningfully; Manny seemed to be thinking what he was thinking, for he gave him an encouraging nod. Placing a hand on his heart, JD looked around. Adam and Liu Ying were unconscious, and Gayathri was still sleeping. Jackie, to his relief, was also sleeping. Rosemon and D'Arcmon had dozed off as well, but he did not worry about them, for they were also in the secret. He made up his mind, seeing this as probably his one shot to get rid of Persiamon's _Blight of Bastet_ curse tattoo.

"Hey…umm…" JD said when he was by Tuah and Jebat. The two warriors-to-be looked up at him inquiringly, Jebat half-dozing while Tuah still alert. He wondered whether he should be bothering them about this, but decided that maybe he would just ask them about it. "Can I talk to you guys? In private?"

Manny watched JD, Tuah and Jebat's retreating backs as they walked off from the clearing, until shadows engulfed their whole profiles, before sighing resolutely, _'JD…'_

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL: The Movie – Part V**_

_**Chapter 49 – Recapturing Digital Access**_

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"A curse tattoo?" Tuah and Jebat stared at the menacing black cat tattoo on JD's chest. They had already settled beside the river, where the winds breezed softly and even without fire, the area was amply illuminated by the moon and the stars. "And it has been causing pain to you?" Tuah inquired further. JD had explained his condition to them, and out of respect for the DigiWira who had saved them from harm earlier, and that this blonde-haired young man before them was a family of Adam's, they felt compelled to help him to the best of their abilities. Besides, their Silat master had told them time and time again, to extend help to anyone who was in need of it, as long as it was not something bad.

"Only when I exert myself too much," JD said, placing his red shirt on his lap. "So far it usually happens when I'm Satriamon…you know, my Wira Digital form you saw earlier?"

Tuah and Jebat nodded. "This reminds me of Teja's story about the other guys…their Silat master was given a poisonous blow by a mad man and after a while he…" Jebat's voice trailed off as he threw JD an apologetic look. JD shook his head unsmilingly. "Apologies, friend," Jebat said, and took a deep breath as he looked at Tuah. "You've rested enough, brother?"

"Yes. Let's do it. You rest, Jebat, I think I can handle it now," Tuah said. Jebat looked like he wanted to counter Tuah, but a look from Tuah made him thought otherwise.

"Fine. Don't overexert yourself." Jebat skulked towards a large stone over the flowing river, and sat there.

"The one's given me this damn thing is pretty powerful," JD cautioned, as Tuah moved to sit behind him.

Tuah placed his hands on JD's back. "Just try to relax, friend. I'm going to let my energy flow inside of you, for me to determine of how severe this tattoo is…"

"I've told you, it's gonna kill me in a month," JD said.

"I know. I'm just explaining what I'm doing. Anyway, when I'm channeling my energy to you, I will sense what you are sensing, _and more_, so it will be much easier for me if you loosen up a bit," Tuah said, and began to meditate. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, before slowly exhaling the air out. His hands began to glimmer with navy blue aura, and then his body too glowed. Foreign sensations swam inside of him and slowly he began to decipher them out. He had purposely neglected to tell JD that while doing this, he would have access to JD's thoughts; something JD might want to keep as private. In short, it would give him a temporary telepathic rapport with the one he was going to heal – something which Jebat and his Silat master lacked. Tuk Guru Adiputra had commented that this was a special ability of Tuah which was unique to only him – it would make him an excellent healer as much as a fighter. JD might not want to proceed with this if he was made known of this fact, but Tuah sensed that this tattoo was nothing ordinary. Sure, he had seen many of the foreign traders bearing strange drawings on their bodies and arms, but this was different. He had sensed something _evil_ radiating from it.

Jebat saw that Tuah was now concentrating deeply in trying to help their new friend. He crept to the river and washed his face, wanting to be fully alert. When Tuah was healing another, he could not be disturbed. That was the downside of Tuah's unique ability; when he was spiritually in-tune with the one he was healing, he was actually jeopardizing not only his life, but the one he was healing, should his concentration be broken abruptly. It could internally injure both of them, which was why when Tuah was healing another, Jebat would always be the one guarding his disciple brother's safety. He hated to admit it, but when it came to healing, Tuah was the better one although they were even in combative skills. It was the main reason why he chose to heal Tuah first – Tuah could then heal the others who needed it.

He heard the sound of a stick cracking and instantly took out his keris as his eyes darted towards the direction of the sound. "You," he said softly, and held his index finger in front of his lips to tell the newcomer to keep quiet. It was the other boy who came with this pale-haired cousin of Adam's. "Don't make any sudden move. Don't startle Tuah. If you want to come here, do it quietly," he instructed as he slid his keris back behind his belt. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Tuah was undisturbed, and heaved a relieved sigh.

Manny was somewhat surprised at Jebat's edginess. "What's going on?"

"Tuah is trying to heal your friend, and he can't have his concentration broken when he's doing this," Jebat said quickly. "Not until the whole thing's done with. What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to know…whether I can be of any help," Manny said. "I know about JD's condition, but there's nothing I can do about it."

Jebat nodded grimly. "Well, you can help me watch out for Tuah and JD. They can't be disturbed, and I have to admit after healing Adam and helping Lekiu heal that girl, I'm feeling weary."

"Alright." Manny slowly walked by Jebat and watched as Tuah's face etched into a deep frown and he hunched slightly, as if wanting to push JD. JD's body flexed outward slightly and he let out a gasp, but still had his eyes closed. He did not seem to notice Manny at all; his face and body were sweating profusely. Occasionally fire ignited out from many corners of JD's body, but the blue aura from Tuah drowned it instantly, so nobody was harmed. Then JD writhed in pain, and roared as he tried pulling his body away, but Tuah's hands were firmly glued on his back. A deep frown was etched in between Tuah's eyebrows and he relaxed, and in turn JD stopped screaming, but he was panting exhaustedly. However, the procedure seemed to be not over yet. Tuah seemed to withdraw his energy for a while, this was evident from the way the aura was diminishing, but with a grunt he once more flared with a myriad of blue aura and let the aura flow into JD's body. This time, JD seemed to be somewhat relaxed, his body no longer as rigid as it had been earlier. Manny's eyes widened when he saw the blue glow from Tuah gradually was transferred to JD, closing in on his heart where the tattoo was as it was diminishing elsewhere. Then the light died down, and the cat tattoo on JD's chest was coated with glimmering blue outline.

JD opened his eyes, feeling cold of a sudden, as the soft breezes of the nearby river came across his sweat-drenched body. He was somewhat disappointed to see the cat tattoo still intact, but wondered about what Tuah had actually had done. He still could feel the tattoo, but there was also something soothing accompanying it. It was like someone had lightly coated the tattoo with a layer of mint.

"I did the best I could, friend," Tuah said, his tone suggested that he was sorry. "I did feel something poisonous inside of you, close to your heart, but unfortunately I couldn't purge it out. However I managed to contain it." He beckoned towards the tattoo. "It will not be causing you pain for the time being, I hope. Perhaps someone with a more potent healing power is able to vanquish the tattoo, or the one who gave you the tattoo in the first place…"

"I doubt that rotten alleycat bitch is going to do that," JD snorted as he pulled on his shirt back. "But thank you, Tuah. At least, I'm not going to suffer during this last one month…" his tone was somewhat bitter. Manny made a protesting sound, but JD ignored him, his attention fully on Tuah and Jebat. "I must ask you two to not tell this to the others."

"I understand, friend," Tuah said softly, vividly recalling several mental images he had managed to get from JD when he was healing him. From the images, he realized that JD, despite his outward uncaring and brash appearances, truly cared for his fellow teammates and family. He did not want anybody to worry, not when they have a bigger battle against the forces of evil to worry about. If he revealed that he was going to die than the other warriors' focus would deteriorate – they would not be able to fight efficiently. And Adam, JD's cousin, would be affected the most; JD was particularly adamant that Adam should not know about this. Tuah had sensed a lingering guilt inside of JD, which was directed towards Adam, although he could not discern exactly why the feeling was there. He also had picked up a strong feeling also directed towards Adam but this he was perfectly familiar with, for it was the same feeling he and Jebat had. _'Brotherly love,'_ Tuah thought. _'And there's also a different kind of love present inside of him, directed…to that Chinese maiden...but he's wondering whether it's reciprocated or not?'_ He shook his head. '_This is why I hate healing people…but it could not be helped,'_ Tuah thought, feeling as if he had invaded JD's privacy without the blonde boy's knowing. He shook those thoughts off, but was able to come into conclusion that he was keeping this a secret to not hurt the ones he cared the most. It was valiant, but how could one live with the knowledge that he was going to die just a month later? It was not fair; his fair-haired friend here was still young, only a year older than him. He was a warrior, and apparently a very strong one, based on how he had attacked the metallic beast earlier. _'Satriamon…a satria is a warrior in Malay. Though JD does not look like us, he truly deserves the title.'_

"You alright, Tuah?" Jebat asked, concerned. He knew exactly what was going on with his disciple-brother. After healing someone, it would take Tuah a while to gather himself as he sorted out the emotions he had picked up and the thoughts he had experienced from the one he had healed.

"He doesn't deserve this," Tuah croaked softly, out of from the DigiWira's earshot.

Jebat nodded grimly. "I know. But you've tried your best. You cannot save everyone, brother." Tuah still looked glum, and Jebat sighed. "Remember what Tuk Guru Adiputra told us? Try our best to heal whoever that needs it, but sometimes there are things which are just simply out of our capability. You have done your absolute best. It's time for you to let the Almighty decides of his fate. And besides," Jebat purposely let his sentence hang, to rouse Tuah's curiosity, "at the very least, you've stopped him from the bouts of pain he was experiencing. That has to count for something, right?" Jebat was rewarded with a weak smile from Tuah, and together they headed back to the camp fire, following Manny and JD closely.

"JD, wait up!" Manny caught by JD's side, noticing the blonde looking troubled. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," JD muttered dismissively. He did not feel like talking. He had his hopes that somehow the cursed tattoo could be removed, and now he was disappointed more than ever. _'The only difference is that I won't feel the pain anymore, until my time is up. How comforting. But I suppose Hang Tuah has done all he could…'_ He let out a frustrated sigh, which to Manny was a cue that he was not in the moods for talking. Silently he settled back at where he was sitting, gently repositioned himself so that once again Adam's and Liu Ying's heads resting on his thighs as he leaned back to the tree trunk. It took him a while before he felt sleep taking over him.

'_I understand why you've chosen to do what you are doing now,' _Manny thought as he sat quietly beside Gayathri, who while sleeping, had seemed to sense a familiar comforting presence as her head plopped down gently at the crook of Manny's neck. He smiled a bit, before forlorn took over him once more. _'I'll try finding out ways to help you,'_ he promised silently. _'That much I can do to help you, my friend.'_ With that, Manny too closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

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Morning came by fairly quick, and the DigiWira and their friends were now awake and were getting themselves acquainted. Tuah and Jebat had managed to catch some fishes from the river, and now everyone was sitting in a circle as they waited eagerly for the fishes to finish cooking. It occurred to all of them that not one of them had a decent meal the previous night, which made their hunger even more prominent. Rosemon had easily distinguished some of the edible wild fruits which so happen grew inside the lush mountain, but everyone (except for her and Floramon) only took several nibbles of the fruits before deciding that the fishes looked to be the tastier of the dishes. So they waited, and to pass up the time they had gotten themselves acquainted with one another.

Out of all the people, Lekiu appeared to be the most tired of all, and he was now leaning weakly against Lekir who looked as he usually did, except a bit paler. Lekiu had spent his energy trying to heal Lekir and Teja, but had overexerted himself in the process. Tuah and Jebat however had assured them that nothing other than a good meal and rest were what Lekiu needed. Kasturi, Lekir and Teja were surprised to see that while Lekiu was the most vocal in voicing his hatred towards Tuah and Jebat, now he seemed to be able to tolerate them the most. It had struck them as strange, and Lekiu did not seem to have bothered in giving full accounts of what had happened the previous night. There still seemed to be awkwardness on Lekiu's behalf, but the two Hang brothers were perfectly genial not only to Lekiu, but to Lekir and Kasturi as well.

In the meantime, the DigiWira had gotten reacquainted after a brief awkward moment between Liu Ying and JD, mostly on the raven-haired girl's part, because she had found herself using JD's thigh as her pillow while she was sleeping. She was now blushing furiously while JD merely snickered, obviously amused of her reaction. Adam, Manny and Gayathri merely observed from the sideways with mild amusement. This exchange however was obviously interesting for their friends of the past, who had obviously never seen five people who were remarkably different from each other getting along as well as the five DigiWira. Out of all five of them, Adam and Manny could easily pass off as local boys, and the girls Liu Ying and Gayathri were distinguishable as they had seen traders from China and India quite a few times, but JD who had Caucasian features was very unique to them, for it was the time when the European traders had just gotten to know about the kingdom of Malacca. What was even more unique to them was when Adam told them that JD was a family of his, related by having the same paternal great-grandparents.

As everyone collected the roasted fishes one by one, the awkwardness between them had slowly broken as they ate their breakfasts. To Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri's delights, the two Hang brothers and the princess's three guards were starting to get along. Although somewhat begrudgingly, but it was a good start. The elder Tuah and Jebat seemed to be the one who had taken the initiative to start the friendship.

"Lekiu, Kasturi, Lekir," Tuah began, calling for the attentions of their younger disciple brothers (them being the disciples of the brother of their Silat master made them almost equivalent as their own fellow disciples, if they had them). "Last year, after we dueled against each other, I suppose we have said some terrible things…"

"_I_ have said some terrible things," Jebat interjected, giving Tuah a sharp knowing look. Tuah nodded, beckoning for him to continue on. Jebat fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable of so many pairs of eyes observing him intently. "I've said some horrible things. I didn't know what I was saying, and about your history, so I guess what I'm trying to say is…I'm sorry." He held out his hand to the younger boy in yellow, feeling that perhaps Lekiu was the more forgiving one, after what had happened the previous night.

Lekiu, Kasturi and Lekir looked at each other. Lekiu was reminded of how Jebat had helped showing the way for him to heal Liu Ying's injury, which eventually made him able to heal Teja's and Lekir's injuries as well. He was grateful for that, and while Jebat's comment to him still stung him rather deeply, there was no point in having grudges. He looked at Lekir, who nodded at him encouragingly, and at Kasturi who after a moment of thinking, also gave him the nod. "You didn't know, how could you have known?" Lekiu said and took Jebat's hand, his tone and action somewhat stiff, but slowly it melted into a smile after a long exhale. "Just…don't let it happen again."

With that said, the disciples of Adiputra and Adiwira shook hands, the animosity which usually clouded around them slowly evaporated just as the morning sunshine poured through the canopies of leaves over them, giving that moment a somewhat majestic feel which awed the DigiWira and their partners.

"You know, I think _we've_ just become a part of a legendary history," Adam whispered excitedly to Liu Ying and Gayathri.

Liu Ying and Gayathri thought about it for a moment, before astounded looks passed their faces. "Wow, I think you're right!" Liu Ying said softly. "I wondered what would happen if we didn't show up here? Would they meet and make up? After all…"

"Don't worry about it, Liu Ying," Gayathri said easily. "You're going to give yourself a headache."

JD and Manny exchanged glances and nodded, smiling slightly although the smiles looked somewhat strained, forced. This however went unnoticed by the others who were unaware of what had happened the previous day. JD was better than Manny in keeping a straight face when the other DigiWira glanced at them. Teja smiled while holding the long sleeves of her peasant robes close to her eyes, glad that the enmity between her friends and their fellow disciples had been resolved.

Jackie went to stand between Adam and Gayathri and placed his hands on their shoulders. He bent down close to their eyes and grinned. "This can't go in your assignment reports, you know," he said, careful to keep his tone out of the others' hearings. "I've done some research, and this event has _never_ been recorded in any literature sources."

"Aww….Jackie!" Adam and Gayathri protested.

Jackie smiled and patted their shoulders before beckoning for the DigiWira to sit around him. Their friends from this era, upon seeing that they were about to discuss something, decided that they had better join their friends from the future. All eleven teenagers and seven Digimon gathered around Jackie, each having their own fish with the exception of Rosemon and Floramon who had declined eating meats.

"Back in the future, we managed to get a visual of you three on the Forest Sanctum's sun staff," Jackie began and fixed his attentions towards Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri, "and it showed that you three could not Digital Access with your partners, or even digivolving your partners."

"Patamon could digivolve independently into Centarumon," Adam supplied. "He's already able to do so before meeting me, I guess that's why he could do so."

"That's strange," Agumon commented. "I thought…with Patamon having been…you know, _deleted once,_" he said the last two words in a very low whisper.

"What about it?" Patamon asked, not bothered the least as he nibbled on his fish. "By the way, Tuah, Jebat, this fish is delicious!" he said, and the two boys grinned at him, although from their faces it was clear that they were both thinking that it was still strange for them to be complimented by a larger-than-life guinea pig.

"I just thought that…well…your data would have been reconfigured in order to enable you to be reborn," Agumon said weakly.

"That's not really too strange," Adam said. "Since Patamon remembers me right after he hatched from his DigiEgg, I suppose he retains all things he had before we got deleted…" Having just realized what he had said, Adam made a face, before shaking it off with a shrug. "I think that's why he still could digivolve to Centarumon whenever he wants to." Patamon nodded, not bothering to add anything as he was thoroughly enjoying his roasted fish.

"But how's that explain Lilymon?" Gayathri asked. "We tried Digital Accessing and normal Digivolution both, but both Labramon and Floramon couldn't digivolve then. Then all of a sudden, they became Lilymon and easily wiped out those horrible werewolves." By this time, nobody missed the confounded looks on the teens from this era, who evidently had very little inkling of what the DigiWira were currently discussing, but it could not be helped. Even if they asked for the DigiWira to clarify about this even further, they would still end up not understanding it, so they might as well just listen and gather what they could.

"Labramon, remember how our partners just _burst_ with lights, and they washed over us, and all of a sudden we became Lilymon?" Floramon countered, and looked at her partner questioningly. "What do you think happened that time, Gayathri?"

Gayathri and Liu Ying exchanged odd looks. "I don't know, really," Gayathri admitted. "But I'm sure glad it happened when it did."

"It was one of those things that we learn not to question about, since it benefited us," Liu Ying muttered slowly.

This revelation however brought back a familiar memory to Adam, JD, Patamon and Agumon. JD nudged Adam on the shoulder before looking at the girls. "Well, I'm not sure whether Adam here remembers it or not, but when we were in the Dark Ocean, fighting and were losing against that octopus-head Dragomon, Adam somehow did this freaky light show," Adam grimaced at this, which did not go unnoticed by JD – he was simply teasing his cousin – and he continued, "which energized Patamon to become Sagittarimon Radiant Mode, and me and Agumon, already so tired, suddenly gained power to become Satriamon again. And…" He gave Adam a long look, as if trying to put two and two together. "When even as Satriamon and Sagittarimon we couldn't beat Dragomon, Adam once again let out more white light, but this time it didn't energize us, but instead powered _them_ up." JD scratched his chin, remembering the ghostly apparition that hovered behind Adam and Sagittarimon that day. "And I think I saw Aldiyamon's shadow somewhere back there…"

Adam scratched his head. "I don't remember that," he said. "Are you sure you were not seeing things, Josh?"

JD returned Adam's query by making a mock-ugly face at him before turning towards the others. "Anyway, this shadow, along with Adam and Sagittarimon, blasted Dragomon with all they got and in the process knocked us out. When we were awake, we were back at the Megalith Coliseum," JD finished. He had not given these details to anyone other than Adam and Patamon, who seemed to not remember it. The more he thought of it, the more it made sense to him. Who else could teleport all of them out from the Dark Ocean other than Aldiyamon? But then…Adam and Patamon had not achieved their Wira Digital mode yet during that time. JD grunted softly; this was all too confusing, he thought.

"Makes sense to me," Patamon chirped, ironically contradicting JD.

"In any case, I'm just glad that it happened when it did," Adam murmured. "Who knows what would happen if it didn't happen?" He shivered upon the thought of Dragomon, who to him was just as bad as SkullSatamon.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Gayathri said, before clapping her hands once and let out an excited shriek. "I've just thought of something. Manny, Liu Ying….remember our fight with that Lilamon? That time Floramon and I still couldn't Digital Access, and it was also that time when JD and Adam were at that Dark Ocean place. We were losing against Lilamon…but then there was this _white_ light shooting down from the sky, and upon us."

"Samudramon and Xianamon were reenergized…" Manny said, beginning to see where Gayathri was heading.

"And you and Floramon were powered enough to become Puspamon for the first time!" Liu Ying continued as she observed Adam thoughtfully. "If JD's sure of what he saw…"

"I _am_ sure of what I saw," JD stressed out.

"…then, it is definitely the same thing….what _we_ did last night to power our partners to become Lilymon," Liu Ying finished.

"The powers within you," Labramon said. "The Digivices did not work yesterday, so it must have come from you."

"Anyway," Jackie said, trying to bring everyone back to their current question, "TobuCatmon suspected that the reason you could not Digital Access, or normally digivolving the partners is because somehow, Lucemon has inhibited the powers of your Juara Digivices."

"Lucemon?" The first three DigiWira asked simultaneously. "But, we haven't seen Lucemon anywhere," Adam said, looking at the girls for confirmation, in which they nodded.

"Lucemon was the one responsible to unleash the Wolfsbanes in the first place," Rosemon informed. "The lady Ophanimon and the two of us managed to intercept Lucemon earlier yesterday morning when he was going to the Macabre Glades where Grademon had them entombed three hundred years ago."

"Unfortunately, we were no match for him and had to retreat," D'Arcmon continued with a low annoyed grunt.

"So you see," Jackie said, "since Lucemon is the one who released the werewolves and has somehow sent them and you guys here in this era, it's logical to think that he's also the one who has inhibited your Juara Digivices, probably with some kind of dark power."

"Really? I thought we can't digivolve simply because here, five hundred years from our time, there's no telecommunication technology yet," Liu Ying said, "because according to Koushirou Izumi, the Digital World is born when our world came up with the first computer. So here, in the 1500s…" Her voice trailed off, having lost of what she had wanted to say earlier, out of interest on hearing what Jackie had wanted to say instead.

"That's a sound theory, Liu Ying," Jackie said. "I did point that out to TobuCatmon, but he believes that the bond between you and your DigiSpheres can stand the test of time. Without anyone's interference, you should be able to Digital Access. That's why he thinks Lucemon's behind this."

"Come to think of it," Gayathri said as she remembered an unusual occurrence taking place when they attempted to Digital Access the previous day, "something odd happened when we tried to Digital Access. Don't you remember it, Liu Ying? Our Digivices let out this strange purple symbol…"

"Hey, the same thing happened to mine when I tried to Digital Access," Adam said. "Strange purple symbol and this kinda dark glow."

"Yes, I do remember that happening to ours yesterday," Liu Ying agreed.

"This proves TobuCatmon's theory to be right," Jackie concluded. "Those, I presume, are not usual occurrences to your Digivices?"

"Yeah, they're not," Adam said.

"So what should we do in order for us to be able to Digital Access again?" Patamon asked worriedly.

Jackie smiled pensively. "Well, there's only one way of proving whether Lucemon's behind this or not. TobuCatmon said that Lucemon possesses the only artifact which can inhibit the Ivory Gem, which power is now imbued in your five Juara Digivices. The Obsidian Gem; the Ivory Gem's dark twin." He paused, allowing a moment for the DigiWira to recover from the surprise. This was a fact that even JD and Manny were not aware of. "If Lucemon has used the Obsidian Gem to inhibit the Ivory Gem's power in three Juara Digivices, then our only hope to lift it is by using the remaining two Digivices which are not touched by the Obsidian Gem's power. JD, Manny, hold out your Digivices. Adam, Liu Ying, Gayathri, point your Digivices towards JD and Manny's."

The DigiWira followed their mentor's advice and soon JD and Manny's Digivices let out red and blue aura, before they sparked brighter and washed over the other three Digivices. As if affected by the lights, the three Digivices shook wildly before simultaneously they released purple aura which reeked with malignancy, before a strange symbol of even a darker shade of purple was released. It hovered over the air before the purple lights completely consumed the red and blue lights, and blasted upon JD and Manny, throwing them onto the ground on their backs.

"JD! Manny!" the three DigiWira gasped in shock, but soon found out that their fellow DigiWira were unharmed.

"What the hell happened?" JD demanded as he got up from his feet. He calmed slightly upon noticing the worried looks on his friends' faces. "I'm ok. Just shocked, that's all. Manny?"

"That was shocking," Manny said as he picked up his Digivice, which had fallen out of his grasp when he was thrown off by the malignant purple light which remained hovering around the three infected Digivices. "No harm done," he assured the DigiWira, while rubbing his sore back. "Just a bit sore in the back," he admitted.

"Should we try again?" JD asked.

"I think…wait," Jackie said, his brows suddenly furrowed in concentration. "Quiet, everyone," he shushed, when the teens were about to ask him of what was going on. Soon, the answer became evident – everyone heard faint sounds of men shouting out something indiscernible, accompanied by sounds of feet thumping the ground, and more cries.

"I'll have a look." Rosemon soared towards the canopies, which with a flick of her hands, opened a way for her to reach to the skies. Not too long after she descended back down. "Men…about fifty of them I think…they're about to enter the forests lining the base of this mountain!" she said in a rush. "They are shouting out 'witches'…"

"Oh, no!" Teja exclaimed. "How…why….I've told those guards to back off! They have deliberately disobeyed my order! Why I ought to…" The princess was about to leave them, intending on giving the intruding locals a piece of her mind, but was immediately stopped by her brother-like friends.

"Teja, don't!" Kasturi said. "There are fifty of them! From the sounds of it they seemed determined to get to us."

"All the more reason for me to go and put a stop to it! They won't dare to disobey me…"

"Umm…I thought they've already did?" Lekir pointed out, when the men's cries became more prominent.

"They are coming for us," Liu Ying said grimly, upon noticing blank looks on the DigiWira boys, their partners, and Jackie, as well as Tuah and Jebat. She quickly recounted their experience with the angered crowd of people at the town square the previous day, and about the nobleman who had instigated the rumor about them being witches. "Rosemon, did you by any chance see a blonde-haired man out there?" she asked, trying to determine whether Baron Lucifer was indeed behind this.

"I see one over there," Rosemon simply said and pointed towards JD, much to everyone's brief amusement. "But, seriously speaking, yes, I think I did see one man…bigger and muscular than the other men, quite handsome actually, and dressed rather….should I say, snobbishly? Like he's an aristocrat or something…"

"That would be him alright," Gayathri said.

"How dare he?" Teja fumed. "You know what, I am going to march to this Baron Lucifer and am going to tell him to stop with this malicious lies about you being witches!"

"If you're going, then I'm with you," Lekiu announced quickly.

"No, Teja, Lekiu," Liu Ying said. "We can't ask you to protect us any more…you've done so much for us already, to the point of endangering your lives."

"You didn't even ask us to protect you, remember?" Teja said. "We did it on our own."

"She's right," Lekiu said, now joined by Kasturi and Lekir on his sides. He took a look at Kasturi and shook his head. "Now, Kasturi, what are you going to do with that dislocated arm of yours? Stay back here, with…umm….elder brothers Tuah and Jebat." Lekir looked at him admiringly, happy to know that Lekiu had indeed let go of his grudge for Tuah and Jebat if he was willing to address them such a way. Kasturi was about to protest, before Tuah and Jebat both laughed.

"What? Lekiu, if you think we're going to just stand here idly while you have fun, then you're seriously mistaken," Tuah said with a grin and jerked his eyebrows at Jebat.

"Of course. Somebody's got to watch your backs, at the very least," Jebat said with humor in his voice. At first, Lekiu looked somewhat affronted – Jebat had seemed to have belittled them once again before the boy in crimson and black raised both hands. "Don't take that personally, you three…Tuah and I always say stuffs like that without really meaning it. Take it easy, alright?"

"Now, wait just a minute, you all!" Gayathri said exasperatedly. "We can't have you fighting your own people!"

"If they're too stubborn to listen to the princess, then they'll deserve some smacking like how we do to exceptionally stubborn mules," Jebat said.

"You know," Rosemon said suddenly, her tone showing that she had gotten some ideas of her own. "I think that all of you should just stay here where it's safe and let _me_ handle this." Sensing that rounds of protest coming, the beautiful womanly Digimon held up her hand, and smiled impishly. "I'm most in tune with nature, and I can manipulate everything in this forest to do my bidding," she explained. "I'll get the message through to them – back off or…" with another grin she whipped a tree with the vines hanging down her arms.

Everyone sweatdropped at her very suggestive comment. "Rosemon, they're not Digimon," Adam reminded the Mega Digimon. "Don't harm them."

Rosemon chuckled. "Oh, don't worry Adam. I'm just gonna have some fun. If my subtle messages fail to discourage them, I'll just do what I did to discourage you, back at the Lost Mountain." Adam turned bright red at this comment, and Rosemon walked away from the crowd. "I'm off now. Wish me luck!"

xxx

xxx

In the meantime, almost fifty men were marching towards the forests lining the base of Mount Ledang. All of them carried some sort of weapons – keris and parang, which were two different forms of daggers, some carried staffs and others had woods of varying shapes and sizes. They were led by an aristocratic man whom they believed to be acting on their best behalf. Little did they know that this man, Baron Lucifer, was a Digimon in disguise, a Digimon from five hundred years in the future known as Lucemon, enemy of their country's protectors.

'_Everything is going on perfectly! I wonder why did I not procure the nine spells of the Nine Negations Dark Arts sooner?'_ Baron Lucifer, or Lucemon, thought with glee. _'So far, I have managed to master four out of nine forbidden arts. The time manipulation spell seems to need more works, but the will-bending spell works beautifully, as well as the glamour spell. The dark psychic spell enhances my own psychic power, which I cannot wait to test against those loathsome heirs of Grademon. Speaking of which…'_

Lucemon wondered how it was possible for the other two DigiWira and their companions managed to time-travel as well. It was practically impossible to invoke another time manipulation spell without using the Nine Negations Dark Arts, unless there was other method which he was alien of. Nevertheless, he needed not to be bothered about it. Had he not already suppressed the Digivolution powers of the three DigiWira's Digivices with the Obsidian Gem? Z'dGarurumon could easily defeat two Wira Digital, a Mega with the power of an Ultimate, and a normal Champion. He had certainly thought out his plan well; upon realizing that Satriamon's and Samudramon's newest finale attacks stemmed from the help of their three teammates, by orchestrating the absence of Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon, Satriamon could not unleash the Mega-class Firestorm Slasher which required Aldiyamon's Heavenstar Gladius for it to be executed, and Samudramon could not perform the Rolling Thunder Hurricane for it necessitated him to be teamed up with Puspamon. And as for Xianamon, he needn't worry about having _two_ magical-powered Digimon who could release another Mega-class attack. Z'dGarurumon would be unstoppable, especially when Lucemon had educated him of the real powers the remaining Wira Digital and their friends had.

He turned around impressively to address the men he had placed under the spell. "My fellow men! We have arrived on Mount Ledang, where the witches have taken sanctuary! Be caution, fellow men, for they are now joined with fellow practitioners of the dark arts to amplify their own threats! We will have to fight at our best!"

"We'll kill those witches!" one man declared with a loud voice which contradicted his vacant expression. The other men roared in response with spirit, and Lucemon, in his human guise as Baron Lucifer, smiled and beckoned for them to enter the forests.

No sooner than they had stepped their feet inside the forest, vines rained down from the canopies above and whacked them wildly, causing an immediate fearful and confused uproar amongst the men. The strikes were harmless, but done repeatedly they inflicted pain towards the men.

"What trickery is this?" a man decried in panic and waved his parang haphazardly. His action effectively cut some of the vines heading his way. Seeing his actions, the other man followed suits and unsheathed their weapons. To their surprise, the vines, as if having minds of their own, began snaking around the outstretched weapons and snatched them away. Wild fruits and nuts rained down and knocked several men over their heads. The men screamed and began to run about, but tree roots were suddenly uplifted from the grounds and the men, not seeing them, had their legs caught on those roots and fell onto the earth.

"It's the witches! They must have known we're here and are trying to make us leave the forests!" one man shouted as he kicked off a root, but yelped when the thick root didn't seem to be affected and he instead was shivering in pain, as fruits and vines rained on him and the men around him. One particularly lively vine spun around the air and struck the butts of five men all at once, causing them to jump before doubling over excruciatingly whilst clutching their sore butts.

"Such devilish power! They are manipulating the nature against us!" another man deplored, and used his lance to prod the roots. In return, the root lashed at him and forced him to drop his lance before it slammed upon the long weapon, snapping it into half. The man panicked and screamed before the root struck him over the guts, sending him flying against two other men, knocking all of them over towards a tree before more wild fruits showered over their heads.

'_This is certainly odd,'_ Lucemon thought as he remained still amidst the running men. His body was letting out an indiscernible aura which repelled any advances made on him by the vines, fruits or roots. _'The DigiWira can't be the one controlling this. I'm betting that the Rosemon's behind this.'_ He grinned wickedly and his eyes flashed with bright white light. All the men who had become prey to the nature's fury instantly stood back up on their feet, their eyes too shining white. Lucemon's grin became wider as he focused his telepathic power to get a reading of any energy signature which did not belong to the men. _'Gotcha,'_ he thought and aimed a hand towards a particularly thick tree a hundred meters away from him, which had wild shrubs growing all around it – anyone could have hid behind the tree trunk and shrubs and nobody would notice. The air rippled before his outstretched hand before with a calm grunt he released invisible energy waves towards the tree.

A feminine scream was heard while the tree remained intact. Rosemon sprawled out from the shrubs, steadying herself by having one hand firmly grasping the barks of the tree trunk as she stared with disbelief towards Lucemon, not recognizing him while in his human guise. "Who…who are you?" she sputtered anxiously, not having a good feeling about what she was about to hear.

Lucemon smirked. "Men, this witch is the one who has been using the forests to attack you earlier," he declared with glee. "Now, what do you suppose we do with her?"

"Witch! You will be stopped, at all cost!" one man exclaimed and advanced towards her.

"Your treachery ends here!" another deplored and grabbed his keris from the ground.

"Yes, men…attack her," Lucemon goaded the men. "Kill her and save your glorious kingdom from her witchery!"

Rosemon noticed how the crowd of men seemed to be obeying the aristocrat and caught the weird, vacant looks on their faces which did not suit the vigor in their voices. Ten men, all nearly as tall as her, advanced, picking back their weapons from the ground as they advanced towards her. Rosemon did not want to hurt them, for they were humans, but they were threatening her. _'What a disadvantage! I can't fight them, my power can easily kill them. I have to let the DigiWira handle this.'_

"I'd love to stay, boys, but I can't. _Roses Rapier!"_ Rosemon slammed her elongated vine-rapier onto the ground, causing stones and soils to explode over the men's faces, momentarily distracting them. Taking advantage of the situation, she leaped towards the canopies, intent on leaving, but in her rush to escape she did not notice the aristocratic man also leaping towards the air with impossible grace and fluidity, before launching a sound kick over her torso. She screamed in surprise, and saw a familiar, wicked grin gracing the nobleman's face. She had seen this grin before, before all of a sudden she saw several identifiable features. Burnish hair, ice blue eyes, pale skin and a wicked grin…it couldn't be _him_ now, could it?

"You're not escaping me again, woman," the nobleman said, and attempted to strike her with his _glowing_ palm.

Not going to be attacked again by this man, Rosemon made an agile back flip and countered Lucemon's palm with her high-heeled sole, and used the force from the palm to propel her away from the man. She detected a malignant dark power lingering over this man, and realized what she could do to confirm her suspicion. She waved one of her arm in a whipping gesture. _'Thorn Whip!'_

The vines spiraled around the nobleman and wrapped tight around him. An energy heart flashed over the man and Rosemon gasped when the man transformed into an angel-demon hybrid that she knew only too well. "Lucemon!" she gasped, and a panicked rush coursed all over her body – Lucemon was too powerful for her. Instantly, she summoned: _"Forbidden Temptation!!"_

The energy blasts slammed upon Lucemon, but did not cause him harm, for he, ironically was the opposite of Rosemon – he was an Ultimate with powers of a Mega. But he soon realized that hurting him was not Rosemon's primary agenda – she had only used the attack for distraction, as when the blast was fully intercepted, Lucemon could not see Rosemon anywhere. He hovered in midair, his disguise now broken, but the men did not seem to take notice of his angel-devil form. He quickly transformed back into his Baron Lucifer guise and descended on the ground.

"Quickly, men. The witches are here. We shall find them soon enough." With a grin, he tracked Z'dGarurumon telepathically. _'I'll have him battle the Wira Digital first. There's no reason why I should get down and dirty, when I have Z'dGarurumon and these unsuspecting fools at my disposal…'_

xxx

xxx

Rosemon burst through the thickets towards the gathered DigiWira, Digimon and the teens from the era, looking absolutely panicked. Behind her, roars of men echoed all over the forest, causing panic to the birds as they flew up through the canopies to avoid the scuffle.

"They're coming!" she gasped, landing directly in front of the DigiWira. "And Lucemon is there, in disguise of this man in noble outfit I've told you about!"

"Baron Lucifer?" Teja, Liu Ying and Gayathri said simultaneously. "_He's_ Lucemon?" Liu Ying and Gayathri chorused in disbelief, while at the same time Teja asked, "_Who_ is Lucemon?"

The cries of men got louder, signaling that they were approaching. The DigiWira and friends had established camp not far from the base, near the river which flowed from top of the mountain.

"Lucemon is one of our enemies back in the future," Liu Ying explained quickly.

"And not just any ordinary enemy…he's supposed to be the leader of our enemies," Adam added. "What's he doing here? The other Darkshadows are already a pain to fight with…and we still can't Digital Access…"

"I blasted him with my Forbidden Temptation, but I don't know whether it'd affect Lucemon," Rosemon said. "When I realized that it was him, I knew immediately that I wasn't his match. I had to come back here to warn you all; my attack might have not been at its best."

"He beat you, D'Arcmon and Ophanimon all at once," JD muttered, hands balled into fists. "I don't think it would be any different if you attack him full-force." He noticed Rosemon scowled at him for his blatant remark, and shrugged. "Well, it's true."

"_WITCHES!!!"_

A couple of Malaccan men had reached their camp, and upon seeing the twelve human and seven Digimon, they shrieked, "The witches are here!!"

"I really hate it when they call us that," Gayathri said angrily, as more and more men showed up from all directions.

"I'll try to talk them out of this. Maybe they will listen to me," Teja said and marched towards one of the nearest men. "By order of the princess, I command you to…" Teja gasped when three men pointed their lances towards her, but a figure in dark blue stepped beside her and kicked off those lances.

"I don't think they are in any negotiation mood now, princess," Tuah muttered, keris unsheathed.

"How dare they?" Teja said, shocked at those men's reactions. "Do they not know who I am?" She got her answers when the men snarled back at her, instead of acts of reverence which she was expecting from them.

"Princess, I think it's best if you let us protect you," Tuah said, his eyes not leaving the men who had threatened the princess's safety. He thought that there was something strange from the way they looked – they had a somewhat dazed expression, but he must not let this fooled him. They had just attempted to hurt the princess, and he wouldn't have that. "Stay with Kasturi, and the four of us will cover you."

Lekiu and Lekir blinked; the way Tuah had just addressed them, it was as if he had considered them as his direct disciple brothers. But neither of the cousins could admit that, now that they had heard it coming from Tuah, that they did not like it. Jebat grinned and patted the shoulders of the cousins. "Come on, you two. Get your keris out. Looks like there's a battle going to happen," he said. Teja saw this, and for a moment had forgotten the situation they were in; she was happy to see the boys getting along, and found herself agreeing to Tuah's suggestion. She went to Kasturi, and the other boys circled around them, providing protection.

Jackie assumed a fighting stance as well, much to the surprise of the DigiWira. Rosemon and D'Arcmon readied themselves with their vine-whips and swords. The five Rookie Digimon tensed – if their opponents were these humans, they would have to fight them as Rookies lest they accidentally inflicted fatal injuries upon them if they were in their higher forms (not that Labramon and Floramon had any other choice). And finally the five DigiWira prepared to execute their special powers as well.

"I don't see him anywhere," Liu Ying said warily, scanning the crowd of almost fifty men around them.

"Be mindful, DigiWira," Rosemon said. "Lucemon could be any of these men."

The Malaccan men, who unbeknownst to the DigiWira were also acting under Lucemon, all took out their weapons – keris, parang, wooden clubs, lances, and one of them shouted: "Attack these heathen witches and their cohorts and their strange otherworldly beasts! Stop them from spreading evil to our kingdom!" They advanced towards the DigiWira and their friends.

"Otherworldly beasts? I resent that!" Floramon said angrily. "They obviously know nothing about beauty," she mumbled.

"We're not witches!" Gayathri shouted. "You've been deceived by that Baron Lucifer! He's not even a human! In fact, if you're looking for otherworldly beast, then _he_ definitely fits the bill!"

"Lies! All lies, witches!" the men screamed back, and charged towards the teens. They dispersed into several groups and began to attack the teens.

"I hate to fight you all," Jebat said, but his simpers betrayed his words, "Oh, who am I kidding? If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you're going to get! Come, brother!"

"I'm right behind you."

Tuah and Jebat double-teamed against four men who had charged towards them. Two men swept their lances towards Tuah, but the teen expertly dodged the lances before tackling one of them by surprise. In the process he seized one lance and used it to knock the other lance off the man's hands. With a smirk he spun the lance and thumped the dull end of the lance against another man's body. Jebat moved forward and delivered a well-aimed punch on the man's face. With two men down, they had another two to go.

Lekiu and Lekir found themselves cornered by four men, all wielding woods as their choice of weapons. Lekiu bent down and joined his hands together and hoisted Lekir towards the air. Lekir stepped on one man's shoulders and exerted a downward force upon them before leaping towards the second man, delivering a sound kick on the face. Lekiu charged by sidestepping the third man, allowing Lekir to kick the man on the chest as he used his keris to counter the fourth man's parang. The two daggers clanged against one another, causing a high-pitched sound, and a battle of strength ensued between Lekiu and the man who was taller than he was. Then somebody had struck the man's arm with firewood, causing him to yell out of pain and anger, before the same firewood was slammed onto his chest, knocking him out cold. Lekiu turned around, and saw Kasturi grinning, the princess behind him.

"Thank you, Kasturi! I owe you one!" Lekiu said.

"Nothing to it," Kasturi said. "Oww…my arm…"

"You should be resting!" Teja said.

"Kasturi, Teja, go hide behind that bushes. Lekiu and I will cover you," Lekir said. The four friends retreated from the battle scenes when after a quick assessment, they saw that the other Malaccan men already had chosen their opponents. Nobody even attacked them as they made a way to safety.

Three men charged towards Jackie, but yelped in shock when their blades were sliced by Jackie's glowing laser rapier almost as if he was tearing papers. "Hiyya!!" Jackie screamed, throwing his laser rapier upwards and demonstrated several kung-fu movements, to the men's horror. When he was done, he caught back the laser rapier and brandished it towards the three men with his face contorting menacingly. His left hand was outstretched towards the men, and he wiggled his fingers in a _come-here _gesture. Jackie chuckled as the men backed away, but let out a semi-translucent energy sphere from his hand at the same time. It knocked out the three men towards a tree, for Jackie feared that if he let them go they would harm the others. He looked around him, counting on how many men had they taken cared off. "Eleven down, thirty-nine to go."

Four men attempted to surround Rosemon, but the flower woman merely laughed. "My, you boys are forward," she smirked, and grabbed two men closest to her firmly on their shoulders. "Oh all right, one dance, and that's it!" Planting the high pointed heels of her boots firmly into the ground, she spun around speedily and carried the men she had grabbed along with it. As she spun, she used the men to knock away the other two before letting them go. All four men sailed across the constricted battlefield and knocked their heads upon a particularly massive tree trunk. "Now that's what I call using your heads," she chuckled, and ceased spinning.

D'Arcmon with her twin swords tackled four armed men at once, easily forcing them to drop their weapons before knocking them away without breaking a sweat. She tilted her head towards Jackie – having heard what Jackie had commented, and perfectly aware of how many men Rosemon and her had knocked out, she said with a proud smile, "Make that nineteen down, thirty-one to go, Jackie." Jackie flashed the golden-winged angel a thumbs-up.

"_Endless Slaps!" _ Penguinmon leaped towards a man and gleefully slapped him with his flippers. The unfortunate man howled in pain, cheeks swollen as he was knocked out. "Okay, who wants more?" he said, eyes darting towards the battlefield to look for Manny. He wanted to get to his DigiWira, but another man with a row of uneven teeth blocked his path.

"You make a fine dinner, birdie," he said and swung his parang menacingly.

Penguinmon snorted. "I think not, buster!" The Rookie Digimon leaped to avoid the man when the man slashed the weapon towards him, and nipped the man on the shoulder with his beak. Penguinmon did not even care that the man was injured by his sharp beak which dug through the man's clothe and skin; he swung away without a care and slapped the man on the butt, causing him to jump in surprise before landing facedown. "Hmph! Dinner my butt!" Penguinmon then trotted away to look for Manny, who was leading four men towards the nearby river when he last saw his partner.

"_Pepper Breath!"_ Agumon's fireball caught on one man's firewood, instantly igniting it with fire. The man yelped in surprise and let it go, and Agumon wondered what he should do next. He stared at the man, and brandished his foreboding claws and displayed his sharp rows of fangs. The man turned blue in fear and ran off for his own dear life, and Agumon shook his head as his eyes fell on JD, who was snarling as he kicked away one man, who was sent flying towards another man who so happened to be standing at the same path. The Rookie dino sighed in admiration; his partner was certainly awesome, in his opinion. Then he saw a shadow loomed over him and quickly turned around – a dark man was about to slice him into half with his formidable parang. Acting out of surprise Agumon blasted a fireball towards the man, and it caught the man's shirt and instantly ignited the shirt to flames. The man shrieked and rolled over the ground, desperately wanting to put off the flames.

"_Retrieve Bark!!!" _Labramon's howl disoriented two men who were charging towards her. Beside her, Floramon made a spin and sprayed three men with her Rain of Pollens technique, causing an unstoppable sneezing fit to ensue. Above them, Patamon sailed the air with a gleeful laugh and delivered a Boom Bubble which hit one man's face. Labramon saw two men incoming behind the unassuming Patamon and was about to warn him before someone grabbed her from the back.

"I'll kill you, filthy mutt of the witches!" her captor snarled. Labramon wiggled to break free, but when it failed she had no choice but to bit her captor's hand, digging her teeth as deep as she could until the man was forced to let go – she was practically dangling down the man's arm as he jumped and shrieked in pain. Floramon pulled her off the man's hand before spraying the man with her allergy-inducing pollens.

"That was too close," Labramon sighed. "Thank you, Floramon."

"Always happy to help!" Floramon said, before she saw Patamon being slammed onto the ground. A row of laughter followed, and they saw a man wielding a sturdy wooden club stepped forward. Another man followed his lead, all raising their wooden clubs to attack Patamon, Floramon and Labramon, who began to feel intimidated by the bigger men.

"Cheap shot," Patamon said angrily, and with a flash he digivolved into Centarumon, with Floramon and Labramon on his horseback. He pointed his cannon towards the men, who cowered at the sight of the impressive half-man half-horse. "This thing's loaded!" Centarumon said. "And I'm going to let you have it!"

The two men screamed and ran off as far as their legs could take them. Centarumon, Floramon and Labramon laughed at the men's reaction.

In the meantime, Adam found himself cornered at three sides by three men, all wielding keris. "Oh dear…there are three of you and one of me," he said sarcastically. "What's a boy to do?" he asked with a despairing tone. The men, upon hearing his defeated statement, charged towards him simultaneously. Adam shook his head and teleported away, causing the three men colliding into each other. He reappeared not to far from them, and laughed upon seeing the men's astounded faces. "Okay, let's see….you, you, and you," he said, teleporting each of his attackers away and raised his arm towards a moderate-sized branch. With a smirk, he flicked his hand, and the three men reappeared on the branch. The branch, obviously not too sturdy to support the weight of three men, began to crack. The men shrieked fearfully, and the branch snapped, causing the men to plummet towards the ground, landing in a pile.

"Nice one, Adam," JD called out as he avoided a man with keris who attempted to slash him. Then he delivered a solid punch on the man's nose, and heard a faint crack. "Broken nose? Hmm…it's been a while since I last broken once," JD said uncaringly as the man howled in pain, blood pouring out of his injured nose. "Now get the hell out of my sight!" he said, warily placing his hand on his chest. _'No pain on the heart, after a fight. Looks like whatever Tuah's done last night, it's working.'_ That invigorated JD's spirit for a while and he attacked another pursuer by punching him on the gut – his stature and strength definitely gave him an edge in physical fighting, especially when _he_ was one of three tallest people around there (the other two being Jackie and Rosemon).

Three men attempted to attack Gayathri, but the girl easily avoided them with her super speed. "Hmm…not quick enough," she said whilst zipping past them, avoiding one man's strike with a lance. "Oopsie, you missed me again," she said while avoiding another of her pursuer's strike. "Heh, heh…annoyed yet?"

"Stand still!" the men bellowed.

"Oh, okay," Gayathri said and ceased running. She thumped her foot lightly on the ground below. "If you say so, I won't budge from this very spot." Seeing her standing still, the three men charged towards her, but then Gayathri let out her supersonic scream, blasting three of them into a wild shrub. Four men were thrown into the same shrub, and Gayathri knew exactly who had caused it; Liu Ying had been fighting those four men not too far from her earlier. It appeared that Liu Ying had opted the easy way and used her telekinetic power to send them flying. Her eyes caught Liu Ying's, and the willowy girl gave her a smile which pretty much told Gayathri that she had got things covered. "Now, where's my boyfriend?" she wondered.

Meanwhile, near the river, the four men who had been pursuing Manny were astounded when thick mists formed around them out of the blue. It was strange, considering that the day was bright and sunny, but around them the temperature seemed to have drop several degrees. Their skin felt damp instantly, and their shirts slowly became drenched. The mists seemed to be very concentrated, and the only thing the men could hear was the sound of the water running. The quietness of their surrounding began to lull them into a false security, which was what one particular DigiWira was hoping for.

"Wave bye-bye!" The men looked around for the voice, but had no chance to do so when they were blasted by a stream of high-pressurized water. They lost their footings and crumpled onto the ground as the mists lifted, and the one they were pursuing was revealed to be standing atop a flat rock. Soaked from head to toe, the men could no longer fight effectively, especially when their weapons had already been thrown off their hands when the powerful water blast hit them.

Manny grinned. "Sorry about that," he said, sounding the least bit sorry as the three men vanished in swirls of white orbs of light. Knowing that Adam had caused that, he wondered what was going on and returned to the place where the others were at. He soon got his answer; Adam was teleporting back all the local men and the ones who had been recalled were now being bound by Rosemon's vines. Those who attempted to resist all stopped when Tuah, Jebat or JD punched them on the faces.

"That's the last of them, I think," Adam said as three men – the one who had ran off from Centarumon – reappeared before him. Seeing them, Centarumon caught them with his arms and brought them to Rosemon, and the flower woman bound them to the other fallen men. "Whew. What a day."

"I don't see Lucemon, or Baron Lucifer, or whoever he is, anywhere," Teja said, scrutinizing the faces of all fifty Malaccan men.

"He's out there, somewhere," Liu Ying said.

"So…what do you suppose we do now?" Jebat asked.

As if on cue, an explosion was heard outside the forests lining the mountain's base. The impact of the explosion caused the ground to shook and a familiar howl was heard before another explosion ensued.

"It's Z'dGarurumon!" Adam gasped. "What do we do now?"

"You and the others stay here," JD said. "We'll take care of that overgrown robotic mutt! Obviously he didn't get the hint yesterday."

_**Digital Access Digivolution! HAAA!!**_

The five Malaccan teens and the princess gasped in awe as JD and Manny merged with their respective Digimon partners, disappeared in pillars of radiant red flames and soothing blue waves of water, before Satriamon and Samudramon emerged, towering over them. Rosemon and D'Arcmon took flight, and Samudramon propelled himself with a pillar of water and manipulated it to bring him out of the mountain's jungle, while Satriamon shifted into his magma form and soared towards the air. The four Digimon blasted off, leaving the local teens unblinking and the other DigiWira disgruntled and worried.

xxx

xxx

"Oh, goody," Z'dGarurumon snarled as Satriamon, Samudramon, Rosemon and D'Arcmon arrived back at the previous night's battlefield, where broken stones scattered haphazardly all around them. He saw them getting ready to fight, and inwardly he mocked them for even _thinking_ that they could beat him. He had thought that Rosemon and D'Arcmon being the largest threat he would have to face; how pleasantly surprised he was when Lucemon told him that Rosemon only possessed a power of an Ultimate Digimon, while D'Arcmon was only a Champion. He had absolutely nothing to be worried about. "Just the pests I was looking for to eradicate, once and for all."

"I'm gonna make you eat your words," Satriamon retorted, and powered up his supercharged Dragonforce Striker. _"Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode!"_

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades, Powered Up Mode!" _ Samudramon followed with his lightning-based technique, and observed as his electric-blue dragon of thunder sailed side by side with Satriamon's fiery dragon. The two dragons roared thunderously and slammed upon Z'dGarurumon. An explosion ensued and smokes erupted. "Did we get him?" he said.

"Let's not wait idly to find out." Rosemon spun around as pink aura radiated around her. Her Tifaret jewel glimmered and an energy rose bloomed before her. _"Forbidden Temptation!"_ The rose exploded into waves of fuchsia with rose petals, slamming towards the thick smokes, further adding to the smokes.

D'Arcmon crossed her twin swords, and they shone with golden energy. She uncrossed the swords and a golden scythe-shaped energy resulted. _"Battement d'Amor!" _The golden scythe slammed upon the smoke-filled Z'dGarurumon, but she gasped when a soft mocking laugh was heard. A sucking sound was heard, similar to a vacuum-cleaner, before the smokes began to dissipate, as if being pulled into a small narrow space which soon was revealed to be Z'dGarurumon's nostrils. "Our attacks…" D'Arcmon gasped, seeing that Z'dGarurumon was unharmed. "They didn't work?"

"Shit!" Satriamon jumped into the air and summoned his Flaming Torch power, zipping towards Z'dGarurumon.

"A fiery one, aren't you?" Z'dGarurumon chuckled and opened his snout. "Cool down a bit. _Blow Back Breath!"_

Subzero burst of blue vapor was sprayed out from Z'dGarurumon's snout and they caught on Satriamon's fiery comet-like form. To Satriamon's horror the vapor froze him almost immediately, and he found himself trapped in a massive ice block. Inside, Satriamon tried to break free but his attempt had failed; the ice block which was imprisoning him had kept him from

"And now, to take care of all of you at once," Z'dGarurumon said, eyes locked on his remaining foes. Various weaponry compartments on his metallic body were unveiled, all loaded with missiles of various shapes and sizes. His metallic nostrils let out a shimmering ice blue glow which grew brighter and brighter. _"Full Metal Blaze!" _ Chilling lasers spewed forth from his nostrils and struck upon Samudramon as missiles burst out from their compartments, heading towards Rosemon and D'Arcmon who tried in vain to block them by counterattacking, only for the missiles to overpower their attempts. More missiles came their way and there was nothing else they could do.

xxx

xxx

"Oh no…" Adam whispered in horror as he peeked through the wild shrubs that lined the forests that enveloped the base of Mount Ledang. In his hand was his Juara Digivice, which he held despite knowing that the Digivice and its power had been inhibited. "Josh, Manny…."

"They…they've been beaten!" Liu Ying gasped. She too was holding her dysfunctional Digivice close to her heart.

"What should we do?" Gayathri said frantically, looking at her Digivice with tear-brimmed eyes. "We can't digivolve our partners, we can't Digital Access…" Two drops of tears fell on the Juara Digivice.

Patamon, Labramon and Floramon looked down sorrowfully, not daring to see what Z'dGarurumon was going to do to their fallen friends. Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri stared at the battle scene, really wanting to go and help their friends. Adam realized that he could help them by recalling them back, and was about to do so, when…

"Adam, Liu Ying, Gayathri, your hands!" Tuah said with an amazed-shocked voice.

"Look, they're glowing!" Teja added, pointing frantically at their hands where the Digivices were.

The DigiWira, bewildered, look down and saw their Digivices now pulsing with red and blue aura alternately. The menacing purple symbols shone from the Digivices, but were countered by the red and blue aura which became more intense, as if trying their best to overpower the purple symbols. A faint hissing noise resulted, followed briefly by a foul smell which soon evaporated. Then the Digivices escaped their masters' hands and hovered in midair, the red and blue glows diminished gradually, being replaced by white, yellow and pink radiances.

"Amazing!" Jackie said. "The Ivory Gem's powers from JD's and Manny's Digivices must have lingered in your Digivices all this while, trying to quench whatever enchantment Lucemon has placed in them."

"And looks like they've succeeded," Gayathri said excitedly, wiping her tears quickly as she took her Juara Digivice.

"You know what this means…" Liu Ying said as she retrieved her Juara Digivice.

Adam grabbed his Digivice, determination etched on the boy's face. "Let's go."


	50. Movie Arc VI: Wira of Two Worlds

Z'dGarurumon chuckled with satisfaction as his mechanical eyes stared upon the sprawled forms of his opponents. Satriamon, Samudramon, Rosemon and D'Arcmon were all defeated and now completely at his mercy. Really, what were they thinking, challenging a Mega level such as him? He had beaten them without having to put much effort. Seeing how Satriamon and Samudramon slowly trying to get up but were too weak to remain on their knees that they again fell on the grounds heads down, Z'dGarurumon decided that he would be merciful to his foes. Yes, merciful, as in he would finish them off with one concentrated killer shot. What was the point in delaying the inevitable anymore? He might as well get this done with once and for all. Bending his legs sideways he raised his massive cannon so that it was pointing down towards his enemies. _"Zeed Cannon!!"_

A giant ice-green orb was unleashed towards his defeated foes, but at the same time Z'dGarurumon's sensors beeped as several readings registered. His eyes immediately caught the four Digimon enveloped in pure orbs of light and they vanished just a fraction of a second before his energy cannonball hit the ground. A deafening explosion ensued and the earth rumbled; Z'dGarurumon's attack was too concentrated that it had caused cracks to form on the dry earth, forming several crevices leading to a giant crater. Smokes hovered over the crater, blocking Z'dGarurumon's primary vision, which made him switched to his thermal sensors in order to get a clearer reading of the statues of his foes. Were they killed, or had they survived?

"Enough!" a boy's voice cried out. "We won't let you harm our friends again!"

As the smokes cleared, Z'dGarurumon nearly laughed out loud when he registered the presences of the other three DigiWira and their partners, all standing in front of their fallen Digimon friends. To him, they did not look imposing at all. What would make him feel scared of one boy, two girls and three helpless Rookies? They could not even digivolve. What were they thinking, stepping up in defense of their fallen friends? The Mega thought that it was highly amusing.

"You guys…" Satriamon said incredulously, with a weak tone. "What are you doing?"

"Don't endanger yourselves," Samudramon said, shocked upon seeing that Adam and Patamon, Liu Ying and Labramon, and Gayathri and Floramon, standing before them, as if attempting to protect them from Z'dGarurumon. "You can't Digital Access. Get back to the forest where it's safe. We…we can handle it."

"Yes, foolish brats, listen to your friends," Z'dGarurumon said mockingly. "I want to finish them off first for interrupting me last night. Then, it will be your turn."

"I don't think so," Liu Ying said with a triumphant grin.

"We're not going to stand around watching you hurt our friends!" Gayathri said spiritedly.

"On second thought, maybe I'll destroy your friends _after_ I'm done with you," Z'dGarurumon said, as if he had not heard the DigiWira, laughing snidely as he added: "since you look so desperate to meet your doom."

"Hmph. You won't lay a finger on any of us again!" Adam said, and took out his shining Juara Digivice. His female teammates followed suit, much to everyone's surprise, because the Digivices were practically shimmering with white, yellow and pink auras. Powers seemed to radiate from the devices, and this did not go unnoticed by Z'dGarurumon.

_'What?'_ Z'dGarurumon sensed that something was about to go wrong.

**_"Digital Access!"_ **Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri shouted simultaneously and slashed the air with their Juara Digivices, causing the devices to spark brighter and brighter as the DigiWira ran their free hands over the Digivices. **_"Digivolution……HAAAA!!!"_ ** White, yellow and pink lights burst out from the Digivices and washed over the three pairs of DigiWira, blinding everybody else in sight.

"Have they…" Satriamon and Samudramon did not dare to believe what they thought was happening. Hadn't their attempt on restoring their friends' Digivices failed?

Three pillars of white, yellow and pink burst forth from the grounds, enveloping the three DigiWira and their partners as the surroundings suddenly darkened, with the only sources of light being the shining pillars of light. Aldiyamon emerged; his light armor glistened with pristine radiance against the dark surroundings as he flexed his silver wings and raised his right hand towards the sky, before the Heavenstar Gladius materialized upon it. Then both Xianamon and Puspamon emerged in swirling energies made out of glittering golden stars and a pink hurricane of fragrant flowers which emphasized the glows from their outfits before ending with the formation of their weapons – Xianamon's Golden Fly Whisk and Puspamon's Black Rose Staff. The three Wira Digital declared their names and hovered impressively over the darkened sky, all three of them radiating with renewed power and vigor.

"They've…Digital Accessed!" Samudramon wheezed in amazement. Satriamon's mouth dropped in shock. Rosemon and D'Arcmon gasped, pleasantly surprised of the sudden turn of event.

Aldiyamon smiled, happy at the success of their evolutions. He beckoned for his female teammates, gesturing with his sword towards Z'dGarurumon. "Let's go everyone!"

Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon blasted off towards Z'dGarurumon without wasting any more time. Aldiyamon sped ahead as Z'dGarurumon charged at him whilst brandishing his deadly claws, which prompted the royal angelic knight to slam his Heavenstar Gladius against Z'dGarurumon's claws. There was a loud clang ensued, but Aldiyamon then disappeared in swirls of bright orbs which momentarily distracted Z'dGarurumon. This was done to break the tension which resulted due to the collisions of the sword and Z'dGarurumon's claws, but it also caused the fazed Z'dGarurumon to be unwittingly left in the open for attack.

_"Diamond World Mandala!" _

Before the Mega Digimon regain his bearing, he was blasted with waves of indigo and golden lights, followed by thousands of jewel shards. Snorting derisively as the attack could not damage his strong armor, Z'dGarurumon charged towards Xianamon, but a speedy flash of pink from a distance distracted him.

_"Jelita Shocker!"_

Z'dGarurumon was forced to stop from pursuing Xianamon when he was blasted with lasers spewing forth from Puspamon's flowers. The pink-clad Wira Digital giggled and sped away before Z'dGarurumon could chase after her, but a blinding flash of light from above forced him to stop and look up, where Aldiyamon was ready to attack with his silver sword.

_"Heavenstar Gladius!" _

The pillar of white light generated by Aldiyamon collided against Z'dGarurumon, sending him tumbling in midair before he managed to shake off the effect from Aldiyamon's attack. Z'dGarurumon snarled in annoyance and charged up his cannon. He unleashed his Zeed Cannon towards Aldiyamon, but to his surprise the energy cannonball vanished in swirls of white light. There was a moment of suspense; Z'dGarurumon was unnerved when he saw Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon all floating above him, not seemingly worried. Then he was blinded by a brilliant flash of light, and his cannonball reappeared just a few meters before him. It slammed upon _him_, and pushed him all the way towards the ground, causing a massive explosion and a burst of smokes.

"Wow…" Satriamon and Samudramon could not conceal their amazement of how quick their three fellow Wira Digital had made quick work of Z'dGarurumon. Seeing their friends winning fueled their own spirits and they forced themselves to get back up on their feet. They might be injured a little, but they were far from being defeated. They saw that Rosemon and D'Arcmon had gotten up as well, both looked in decent conditions.

The smokes cleared and they could see Z'dGarurumon, his gleaming armor chipped off and tarnished in many sites and the cannon perched on his back were broken. But he was not down for the count. He howled in fury as he saw his opponents all getting ready to attack. "Unforgivable! UNFORGIVABLE!"

"Hey guys," Aldiyamon glided above Satriamon and Samudramon. "Let's finish him together!"

The two Wira Digital grinned and nodded. Rosemon and D'Arcmon murmured their agreement before they soared towards the sky, intending to attack Z'dGarurumon first. Rosemon unleashed her Roses Rapier while D'Arcmon released her Beauty Stunner, but both attacks were warded off easily by Z'dGarurumon, who immediately made the two women his target. But he soon found his movement restricted and was forced to float in midair momentarily while struggling to move as faint vapor of golden light enveloped him – Xianamon had used her Magical Stasis against him, but being a Mega Digimon he was able to shake off the immobilizing attack and changed course, aiming to attack the sorceress Wira Digital instead. However, before he could reach Xianamon a pink hurricane of flowers engulfed him from bottoms-up. Puspamon's giggles could be heard from below, which infuriated Z'dGarurumon even more. Exerting more force he shook off Puspamon's Hibiscus Hurricane and loomed towards the fairy Wira Digital, but a stream of high-pressured water sent him off course. Snarling angrily he looked at the perpetrator of the attack, and saw Samudramon, water spiraled about him. The sky thundered as Z'dGarurumon saw two azure thunderbolts streaking towards him, but he was able to intercept it with his claws.

"Attacking me one after another," Z'dGarurumon grunted to himself, crushing Samudramon's thunderbolt with his claws. "I'm much more superior, but they have the advantage in number."

Samudramon, who was airborne with aid of his pillar of water, approached Puspamon. The two Wira Digital both pointed their weapons towards Z'dGarurumon as their free hands intertwined together. A thunderbolt-fueled hurricane was blasted from their trident and staff. The _Rolling Thunder Hurricane_ slammed against Z'dGarurumon and further pushed him away towards the sky, where Xianamon and what appeared to be her doppelganger were waiting, both having one hand thrust forward while the other waving her fly whisk, generating waves of energy with it.

_"Diamond Matrix Mandala!"_

Z'dGarurumon, barely having a moment to recover from the damages he was inflicted previously, was further attacked by myriad of magical waves and gemstone shards which ripped his armor. He was sent tumbling across the air before a burning sensation coursed all over him. His metallic armor heated up; he felt as if the sun was approaching from above. Looking up, he saw the flaming Satriamon looming before him with Aldiyamon's silver sword in his hands. The sword radiated with white flames and Satriamon's roar echoed in Z'dGarurumon ears as the Wira Digital sped forward in form of a fiery comet.

_"Firestorm Slasher!" _

Everything happened in a blink of the eye and a vicious metallic ripping sound was heard, and for a moment silence prevailed as Satriamon sped to the ground. Then Z'dGarurumon let out a weak yelp before his posterior half of body unattached itself from the anterior half and disintegrated into data particles. A look of disbelief crossed Z'dGarurumon's face as the anterior half suffered the same fate next. Everyone watched in a dazed trance as the data particles of the wolf soared higher and higher towards the blue sky before dispersing throughout the area. They then let out a victorious cry; they had won against Z'dGarurumon.

"My God!" Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Lekiu, Lekir, Kasturi and Princess Tun Teja exclaimed in surprise as the five Wira Digital, Rosemon and D'Arcmon descended from the sky, all of them towering over the teens. They had all come out from hiding when Z'dGarurumon was deleted, and were now staring in wonder at the otherworldly warriors from the future. They found it really hard to believe that these warriors were formerly their friends and their Digimon companions. The Wira Digital all looked very imposing; their heights alone were much taller than normal human beings, from the six-foot-five Puspamon, the seven-foot Aldiyamon and Xianamon, the eight-foot Samudramon and the nine-foot Satriamon. Their appearances also were entrancing, it was not everyday they could see a beautiful fairy, an elegant sorceress, an angelic knight and two dragon men warriors.

"_What_ are you?" Teja rasped in surprise. "By the Almighty…you all were amazing!"

The Wira Digital were about to introduce themselves before the sunny sky became cloudy all of a sudden. From behind the mountains, clouds emerged, all purple with green tinges. It was as dark as night and everyone was surprised even more when cold winds blew out from the clouds, and a gentlemanly voice echoed all over the vicinity.

"So you have beaten Z'dGarurumon. Very impressive!"

Everyone saw a rippling motion over the clouds as lightning streaked all over, made more foreboding by the roars of thunderclaps. They held their breaths as the clouds parted, and a figure with great black and white wings descended down slowly. The metallic boots appeared first, followed by golden knee armors, black thigh-padding over a pair of white trousers which seemed to be joined upwards to form a skintight white shirt under a pair of black long-sleeved coats with crimson linings at the end of the sleeves. He had his arms crossed over his chest and a haughty smirk graced his pale face, as his burnish locks blew haphazardly behind his face as the result of the winds. His face, while good-looking, was also very pale and somewhat harsh. His eyes flashed menacingly, reflecting the lights from the lightning.

xxx

**_: DIGIMON ANALYZER : _**

**_  
Name: _**_Lucemon**  
Attributes: **Ultimate level, Virus type_

**_Attacks: _**

**_  
Fatal Chaos – _**_Lucemon easily deals with his enemies by deflecting their attacks against each other. _

**_Hellion Deathstrike _**_– Lucemon's dark power takes form in a demonic apparition which can destroy almost any kind of attack. _

**_Paradise_****_ Lost – _**_Lucemon unleashes flurries of light-energized punches. _

**_Ultimate Sacrifice – _**_Lucemon traps his enemies inside spheres of light before contaminating the spheres with his dark powers which can destroy the enemies within. _

xxx

"Is that…Baron Lucifer?" Teja asked in surprise; the similarities between this creature and the nobleman were striking.

"It's Lucemon, and yes, he's the same person as Baron Lucifer," Rosemon said darkly. "Be careful everyone, he is very powerful. He even defeated Ophanimon and she is a full-fledged Mega Digimon despite having lost the powers the Lost Mountain granted her."

"So that makes Lucemon an Ultimate with the power of a Mega," Aldiyamon said as he stared at Lucemon.

"So what's the problem?" Satriamon said impatiently. "We've defeated Gulfmon, JumboGamemon and Z'dGarurumon by working together. I don't see why we can't beat him."

Lucemon laughed. "You'll find I am much more entertaining than Gulfmon, JumboGamemon and Z'dGarurumon, I assure you," he said with a simper. "In fact, they are _nothing_ against me. Do you think I could earn my Hellion General title – the strongest of all SkullSatamon's generals – if I am just an average Ultimate Digimon?" He glowed with a menacing black and purple aura and grew three times his size, almost reaching half of Mount Ledang in comparison. His fists sparked with black thunder and he let out a wicked smile. "Now, I shall get rid of you once and for all!"

xxx

xxx

**_WIRA DIGITAL: The Movie – Part VI _**

**_Chapter 50 – Wira of Two Worlds _**

xxx

xxx

The fierce battle between Lucemon and the forces of good had begun, and the teenagers from this era and Jackie were currently protected by a dome of telekinetic barrier energized by Xianamon's clone. They tried overwhelming Lucemon the same way they did Z'dGarurumon, by attacking him from many sites, but soon realized that this was not the best strategy, for now Lucemon had gathered _all _of their attacks around him. Streams of pink energy with a deep fuchsia thunderbolt from Rosemon and D'Arcmon now hovered around Lucemon like a ring of energy, with waves of indigo and golden energy above it and a dozen energy-based tulips below the ring; those attacks were Xianamon's Diamond World Mandala and Puspamon's Jelita Shocker. Above the ring of energy was a couple of blue thunderbolts from Samudramon's Cosmic Thunderstrike, and a fiery dragon and serpent from Satriamon's Shadow Flame Helix. Lucemon chuckled menacingly as he eyed Aldiyamon, the only Wira Digital who had yet to attack him, and the one who still yet to be trapped inside the black orbs generated by his Ultimate Sacrifice.

"Aren't you going to attack me?" Lucemon asked sweetly. "Your friends already did."

"You're up to something," Aldiyamon said and had a look around. The others were trapped inside spheres of black orbs and could not break free; Lucemon had trapped them inside his black orbs after gathering their attacks around him. The way he fought was truly astounding; Hellion General had acted as if he had known of what to expect from his foes even before they attacked him. "Let go of them!" he said.

"Oh, how absolutely predictable of you for saying that!" Lucemon snorted. "I already know you would say that even before you've said that. Heh, does that make any sense to you?" He simpered mockingly towards Aldiyamon.

_'He's a psychic?'_ Aldiyamon thought, and saw Lucemon's wicked grin widening.

"That would be right," Lucemon confirmed, tapping one temple gently as his smile grew wider, seeing Aldiyamon looking somewhat aghast of the revelation. "Yes, don't look so surprised. I can read your mind, Aldiyamon. Whatever tricks you are trying to come up with, I will know beforehand. That was what I used against your friends and looked what happened to them. Perhaps you're thinking of a way to outsmart me right now?"

_'That's it,'_ Aldiyamon said, his heart thumping wildly. _'I'm gonna use my most powerful attack – the powered up form of Heavenstar Gladius. I've never used it before. It should work against Lucemon.'_ Aldiyamon summoned his sword and charged towards Lucemon, his sword blazing with sacred white flames as a majestic white firebird emerged before him. His metallic wings flexed to his sides.

"Rule number one, little boy," Lucemon said and with a flick of his hand, all the attacks he had gained from the other Wira Digital and their allies condensed into a sphere of dark power on his hand, as large as a tank. "When fighting me, don't ever _think_ of what you are going to do because I can detect it." He then unleashed the dark sphere towards Aldiyamon. _"Fatal Chaos!" _

Aldiyamon's eyes widened as the dark sphere slammed against his sword. An explosion ensued and Lucemon smiled, knowing that Aldiyamon would be alive still. He would not kill the Wira Digital of Light just yet, not when SkullSatamon had instructed him not to. But then, a melodious shriek was heard and a massive firebird of light emerged from the smokes, shining with purity and radiance, with Aldiyamon hovering within it. Surprised of the sudden turn of event, Lucemon tried reading Aldiyamon's mind, but the firebird shrieked again, disrupting his attempt on doing so. Then he felt his movements hampered slightly, delaying him, as Aldiyamon and the firebird loomed above him.

"Thanks for the lesson, Lucemon, but you know what? I already know that you would say that even before you've said that," Aldiyamon said, mimicking Lucemon's words while swinging his silver sword forward. At the same time, pristine white aura in the form of a firebird of light erupted from his body, with bluish white orbs spiraling around his body. _"FINAL PURIFICATION!"_

Lucemon stared in surprise as streams of holy power burst forth from Aldiyamon, followed by a dragon and a serpent, both made out of fire, a dozen tulips which shot lasers, waves of energy with diamond shards accompanying them, a couple of thunderbolts, a smaller streak of lightning and a wave of energy with flower petals, all shining with ivory radiance as they coalesced into one massive stream of light slamming upon Lucemon. Lucemon let out a scream as he was pushed by the light onto the ground, and another explosion ensued.

The spheres containing the other Wira Digital and the two sacred ladies disappeared and the detainees escaped. They saw Aldiyamon plummeting towards the ground, and Xianamon quickly used her telekinetic power to stop his fall. Everyone saw that the leader of the Wira Digital was weakened. Slowly Xianamon lowered Aldiyamon towards the ground where Satriamon was ready to retrieve him.

"You were amazing!" Satriamon said as Aldiyamon plopped onto his arms.

Aldiyamon gave his cousin a strained smile. "I used too much power…my power, and yours that Lucemon tried to use against me, and combine them into an all-out Final Purification."

Satriamon grinned. "Ah, but you didn't dedigivolve like you used to when you used it right?"

A blank look crossed the white knight, as if he had just realized about the fact that Satriamon had pointed out. "I didn't? Oh, yeah…I didn't!"

Samudramon approached Satriamon and Aldiyamon, as Xianamon, Puspamon, Rosemon and D'Arcmon hovered around them. "How did you manage to resist Lucemon's psychic power? He should have been able to read your thoughts as he did ours."

"I didn't resist him," Aldiyamon said. "I just gave him a false thought. I _wanted_ Lucemon to use your powers against me so that I can purify them and add them to my Final Purification."

Everyone else blinked, before the four Wira Digital remembered that purifying an enemy's attack before using it against them was another manifestation of Aldiyamon's teleportation power. Adam alone could purify the dark-based attacks from the Puaka Generals; now as Aldiyamon the potency of such attack would be heightened to a greater magnitude.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Puspamon wondered with a laugh.

"But still," Xianamon said, her voice sounded confused. "Will Lucemon not detect easily that you are giving him a false though? Like you are intending to make him think of something other than what you are really going to do?"

Aldiyamon thought about it as he beckoned for Satriamon to put him down. As a matter of fact, he did not know how exactly he managed to do that. It just came to him naturally, like he knew how to breathe – he didn't have to think about it, he would just do it without much thought. "I don't know," he said truthfully.

"Yet, it was a very smart move," Lucemon's voice rang out. The Hellion General emerged from the smokes, and other than the fact that his outfit was scorched and torn in many sites, he looked relatively in perfect health. He stretched his arms out and gave the astounded Wira Digital and their friends a wicked smile. "Look at what you've done. You've ruined my clothes," he said, shaking his head, sounding as if he was upset if it was not for the mocking tone which was more obvious. "Alas, my clothes will be the only things you managed to ruin, Aldiyamon…with your powers _combined_ with your friends," he sneered, his voice still sounded like a perfect gentleman. "That should give you a hint of how powerful I am. Now, are you scared yet?"

Aldiyamon gasped in shock and fluttered away from Satriamon's arms, his energy returning. "It can't be! I destroyed the Puaka Generals with the Final Purification!"

Hearing this, Lucemon let out a laugh; the Wira Digital were perfectly unaware of the fact that the Puaka Generals had survived the Wira Digital's relentless attack that fateful night. "Oh, that is a funny one, Aldiyamon!" He then decided to leave his sentence just like that, just to entice the Wira Digital. He pretended to think, his smile never leaving his face. "So, does this mean that my _clothes_ are as strong as the Puaka Generals, hmmm?"

"Man, this freak is really getting on my nerves!" Satriamon charged forward and began unleashing a rapid series of fiery punches towards Lucemon, who countered them with his Paradise Lost punches.

"Deflected again, and again, and again," Lucemon said with a bored tone, "until you have learned how to stop me from reading your mind. And now, get lost, but before that have a taste of my _Paradise__ Lost!"_ Lucemon unleashed a rapid series of punches and kicks which were at first countered by Satriamon, but the angel-demon soon proved to be the quicker assaulter and he soon overwhelmed Satriamon. "Ah, yes, what is this? I seem to have picked up something from your mind, Satriamon," he whispered, stopping his onslaught for a moment. "Why, you've done something to that tattoo of yours. Persiamon isn't going to love hearing about this…heh, heh, heh…"

Hearing this, Satriamon was stunned and this distraction was just what Lucemon needed. He quickly slammed his metallic boot onto Satriamon's chest, sending the fire dragon-man crashing onto the ground. No sooner than that he found himself cornered by Samudramon, Puspamon and Xianamon. They charged up the powered up forms of their signature attacks and soon a glowing pink sprite, an electric-blue dragon and an elegant nine-tailed fox sped towards him. Sneering, Lucemon intercepted the attacks and used them back against the Wira Digital, laughing as the three Wira Digital fell back onto the ground. His grin grew wider as he sensed that the Wira Digital only had enough energy to retain their forms – they had used up their Mega-class powers against Z'dGarurumon, and Aldiyamon's Final Purification had not been able to delete him. He saw Xianamon's doppelganger vanishing into thin air and the force field erected around the friends of the Wira Digital was lifted, making them most vulnerable to attack. _'Now then,'_ he thought. _'The Master doesn't want the others, only Aldiyamon…'_

_"Forbidden Temptation!" _

_"Battement D'Amor!"_

"This is getting tiresome," Lucemon said and slapped away Rosemon and D'Arcmon's attacks without much thought. He focused his attentions on the two women, and flicked his hand where a dark aura was radiating. "Time to find myself some _Ultimate Sacrifice._"

Rosemon and D'Arcmon gasped as all of a sudden they were trapped inside a great black energy orb. Rosemon attempted to tear the orb by launching her Roses Rapier, and D'Arcmon used her swords, but the orb retaliated by electrocuting them severely. They screamed; their powers were failing and soon they felt weak, very weak.

"Stop it! Rosemon! D'Arcmon!" Aldiyamon cried out, attempting to summon the two women back to safety.

"Ah, take them if you want," Lucemon said, and with a flick of his hand the black orb disappeared. Rosemon and D'Arcmon were nowhere in sight, but there were two small Digimon in their place- a pink plant bud with green body and a brown bunny with pink markings and large droopy ears. They disappeared in showers of light orbs and reappeared on Aldiyamon's arms.

"What happened to you?" Aldiyamon asked the two unfamiliar Digimon, knowing that they were once Rosemon and D'Arcmon. "You…changed…"

"We've lost our powers," the pink and green vegetation Digimon said desolately. "I'm Lalamon now. No longer Rosemon…"

"Lopmon," the bunny moaned, her voice equally as sad and weak as Lalamon's. "Lucemon's drained all our powers."

"Oh no…" Aldiyamon said, as Lucemon's laughter rang all over the area. The Hellion General had chosen not to gloat, but instead he seemed to be charging up his power. An apparition of a green demon materialized behind Lucemon, much larger than him that the horns on his head almost reached the clouds. The demon's eyes glowed scarlet as it howled, and red lightning sparked out from its eyes, shooting haphazardly towards the ground which shook with such force that it sent everyone tumbling, before they blasted upon the five Wira Digital. The attack however seemed to be not fatal, for the Wira Digital managed to shake it off after only a brief moment of struggle. Was Lucemon toying with them?

"What do we do now?" Puspamon said, gasping for breath. "We're down to five fighters."

"I don't now how long we can take this anymore," Samudramon said, clutching his abdomen in pain.

"We have to try again," Xianamon said. "For the sake of this time and world, and ours…"

"Right! Let's do it. We'll attack that blasted general over and over again if we have to!" Satriamon roared.

Aldiyamon nodded. "Let's give him all we've got." The white knight passed Lalamon and Lopmon to Teja and Tuah, and raised his sword where sacred flames of light burst forth. Winds burst forth from under him, causing his shining wings and dark hair to flutter as he said with a clear voice, _"Heavenstar Gladius…" _

Xianamon stepped forward to Aldiyamon's right side and raised her fly whisk, and crossed it over Aldiyamon's sword. Glittering golden stars erupted from it and spiraled around it and the sword and the winds from Aldiyamon caught on her too, causing her long black hair and flowing robes to flutter._ "Diamond World Mandala…" _

Puspamon followed suit, standing on Aldiyamon's left and positioned her staff over the sword and the fly whisk. Pink flower petals erupted from the staff and spiraled around the three interlinked weapons, blowing her dark red hair and the edges of her dress about her. _"Jelita Shocker…" _

Lucemon stared at what the Wira Digital were doing with interest, but that soon turned into bafflement when he could not detect anything from their minds. _'They're not thinking about this! They're just doing it, and I can't recall having seen this kind of attack before!' _

The taller Samudramon and Satriamon approached their smaller teammates from behind, and placed their metallic trident and golden gauntlet at the sides of the three interlinked weapons, both bursting with crackling thunderbolts and raging flames.

_"Double-Edged Thunderblades…" _

_"Dragonforce Striker…" _

The five interlinked weapons shook wildly as the powers of all five Wira Digital merged. Five energy-based creatures burst forth from the weapons: white firebird, golden kitsune, pink sprite, and blue and red dragons, all of them shot towards Lucemon in kaleidoscopic streams of rainbow as the Wira Digital cried out, "**_"…POWERED UP MODE! FIRE!!" _**

A powerful explosion resulted from the collision of the Wira Digital's combined attacks and Lucemon, and everybody was blinded by a magnificent flash of light which ensued. Silence prevailed as the smokes which erupted after the explosion began to clear up. Everyone waited in anticipation, wondering whether the Wira Digital had done it. But then, one by one, the Wira Digital fell on their knees; they had used up almost all of their powers, and it was a miracle that they could still maintain their Digital Accessed forms, whereas in their previous battles, using a Mega-class attack alone would strip them out of their Ultimate forms for they required an excessive amount of energy in their part.

"Oh, my God! Look…" Teja's panicked voice caused everyone to look up, as a shadow took form within the clearing smokes. A loud grunt was heard and the smokes dispersed, revealing Lucemon.

"How did he…?" Aldiyamon said with disbelief.

The Hellion General had definitely seen better days. The attacks he had been inflicted upon had ripped apart his clothes; the only thing remained was his trousers with the edges torn held by bands of gold around his waist. His body and arms suffered multiple bruises and cuts, blood trickling down. His burnish hair frazzled, no longer sleek like it used to, and had trails of soot and dust on it. Angrily he shook off his boots and flexed his wings, his chest heaved up and down as he eyed the drained Wira Digital, before to their horror, the wicked calm smile which usually graced the angelic demon's face returned.

"Heh, heh, heh…" Lucemon chuckled and wiped the blood from his mouth, and his voice still remained as perfect and gentlemanly as it was. He did not seem to be affected much, despite having just been attacked by the most powerful attack combination the Wira Digital could have mustered. "So this is the powers from the heirs of Grademon. Very impressive. Very, very impressive. Not even Grademon can inflict such injury on me, and look at what you five have done! Give yourselves pats on the backs for your wonderful achievement, why don't you?" However, Lucemon's calm tone was only for show; inwardly he could sense how much injury he had gotten, and it infuriated him. It was lucky for him that the Wira Digital too seemed to have suffered a serious loss of powers due to their attacks on him. Then with a flick of his hand he generated five black orbs and blasted them towards the Wira Digital. The five warriors countered them with their weapons, and to their horror they were electrocuted by the orbs.

"Say goodbye to your precious power weapons," Lucemon smirked as he let out a cough and spat out blood from his mouth, but he wiped it out immediately, enjoying the sight of the horrified Wira Digital as the orbs _destroyed_ their five main weapons. For a moment he had forgotten about his own injury as the five Wira Digital fell on their faces onto the ground, and could not care less that blood kept trickling out from the corners of his mouth.

"He is lying," Tuah said under his breath, towards the teens around him. Jebat, Lekiu, Lekir and Kasturi gawked at him in surprise, but Tuah looked adamant. "That Lucemon guy is lying! See how blood keeps trailing out of his mouth?" he whispered, and beckoned for everyone to look at Lucemon. With a grunt he took out his keris, holding it firmly in his hand. "We're going to help our friends! We have to!"

"What in the world…" Jebat stopped, and grinned as he took out his keris. "You're right, brother. Better to face death bravely rather than wait for it to come for us, right?"

Tuah and Jebat's fiery determinations fueled the spirits of Lekiu, Lekir and even the injured Kasturi, as they too took out their keris. Teja gasped, but was rendered speechless by a reason she could not comprehend. There was _something _grand about seeing these five ordinary-looking boys working together as a team, and she involuntarily let out a nod. A hand was placed on a shoulder, and looking up she saw Jackie smiling at her while giving her a discreet signal not to interrupt, as the boys closed their eyes and let out a long exhale as they fell into meditative stances, channeling their inner powers into their keris.

Not long thereafter, with loud grunts coming from their mouths as they opened their eyes again, one by one, the five keris radiated with navy blue, crimson red, yellow, light red and sky blue auras – the color signatures worn by the five boys. As if guided by an unseen force, they raised their keris towards the heavens and let out a simultaneous battle cry. "HAAAAA!!!"

"This is interesting…" Lucemon said sneeringly, "even these peasant boys have the intentions to fight me? What a nuisance." With a flick of his hand he caused the black orbs to rain upon the five boys, but when the spheres were about to reach the boys, the five keris vibrated and the orbs were suddenly steered off course and landed a few yards behind the boys, causing an explosion.

"HAAAAA!!!" The boys exclaimed, unaffected by Lucemon's attempt on their lives as well as the shockwave resulted from the explosion – somehow the smokes seemed to deviate away from them. The glowing auras from their keris concentrated into the blades, coating them all over with a thin layer of glimmering radiance, making them appear as beckons in the dark. The keris vibrated again, now as if wanting to break free from their masters' grasps. The five boys released their keris into the air and the five weapons immediately shot in a straight motion towards Lucemon with lightning speed, before piercing through his great wings and left glaring holes on them.

"Curse it!" Lucemon winced in pain. Five holes were burned on his wings, each was large enough for Lucemon to fit in his fist. He turned around in surprise and saw the blades making a perfect turn and dispersed, now aiming for his unprotected body. They seemed to possess minds of their own and Lucemon's attempt on avoiding them failed, for they were too quick for the Hellion General. They grazed his arms, body, shoulders and legs, before plummeting towards the Wira Digital. "What is going on here? How did those powerless, snot-ridden brats able to do this?" He shot black energy orbs towards the keris, wanting to destroy them, but to his annoyance the orbs were steered away when they got closer to the five keris.

The Wira Digital got back up on their feet as the five keris hovered before them, pulsing several times as if communicating with them. They seemed to be _encouraging_ the Wira Digital to take them in their hands, to be their wielders. As if possessing minds of their own, the keris floated close to the Wira Digital when they opened up their hands. And when the blades were firmly grasped in their hands, the lights from the weapons washed over the Wira Digital, invigorating them greatly. Waves of light erupted from the Wira Digital's bodies and concentrated on the five keris, before…

"Whoa…" Aldiyamon said as all of sudden, the keris he was holding elongated and transformed into a sword with a curved blade – a _saber _– white in color with navy blue linings and hilt. The edges of the interior side of the blade were smooth while the outer edges were jagged. The size and contour of the blade seemed to be made just for him; it fitted nicely in his grasp similar to the Heavenstar Gladius. Awed and mystified, Aldiyamon turned to look at his friends, and saw that the same thing happened to them as well. Each Wira Digital was now holding the same sword as he; each sword seemed to be perfectly sized for each Wira Digital; Aldiyamon, Xianamon and Puspamon's sabers were relatively smaller than the ones wielded by Satriamon and Samudramon, for the latter two were bigger in size than their three friends. They marveled at their new weapons, and a name crossed their minds, as if it was second nature. _"Legendary Blades…"_

"Amazing…" Samudramon said, inspecting his ultramarine and azure saber, looking very pleased with it.

"A new power," Xianamon said, running her fingers over the smooth edge of her golden-chartreuse saber.

"Wow, it's pink! This seems to be custom made just for me," Puspamon giggled, admiring her rosy pink and pale red saber.

"I've always wanted one of these," Satriamon smirked, testing the red and burgundy saber by swishing it from one side to another.

The Wira Digital were not the only ones amazed with the sudden manifestation of the Legendary Blades. Jackie, Lalamon and Lopmon were rendered speechless due to this unexpected awakening of power. Having seen so many things before, and having mentored several DigiDestined teams before the DigiWira, Jackie had never expected these five boys to be able to contribute something for the Wira Digital to use in the nick of time. He had a feeling that the new weapons could aid the Wira Digital to victory. _'How fitting; the heroes of the past helping the heroes from the future,'_ he thought with a smile.

The five boys from the Malaccan Sultanate era were also astounded, as well as the princess.

"Would you look at that?" Teja said excitedly. "It's a miracle!"

"Our keris…" Lekiu, Lekir and Kasturi said in awe.

"Became their weapons!" Tuah and Jebat exclaimed, fists hoisted up, proud of what they had achieved for their friends. "There's no way we're going to lose now, with the forces from now and the future combined!"

Lucemon, startled of what was happening to his foes, flicked his hand, causing the black spheres he had generated to rain down upon the Wira Digital. However he was surprised when the Wira Digital were able, no thanks to their new Legendary Blades, to practically _destroy_ the orbs into data particles; they just slammed their sabers upon the spheres and the spheres degenerated into bits of data. Lucemon waited for the Wira Digital to attack, wanting to use their attacks against them, but the Wira Digital did not attack. They remained on the ground, not even flying towards him. Lucemon wondered what they could be up to, before he heard Aldiyamon spoke up.

"Lucemon, you're so high up," he said with a chuckle. "How about joining us on the grounds?" With that said, Lucemon found himself enveloped inside light orbs. Realizing what would be taking place, he struggled to nullify the attack, but since the Wira Digital's powers had just been restored and he was still injured, he did not stand a chance. He reappeared in the middle of the circle formed by the five Wira Digital, all ready to strike with their Legendary Blades which were glowing with power from their _ten_ wielders – the Wira Digital, and the five soon-to-be heroic warriors of their era.

**_"Legendary Blades, Final Strike!"_**

Lucemon snarled, ready to manipulate the Wira Digital's attacks, but to his surprise he found himself unable to do so. There was a certain limit of how much energy he could control at one time, and that was when he was at full power. And now he was not at his best, weakened after the Wira Digital's relentless assaults. There was no way for him to escape. He closed his eyes, refusing to show any sign of weakness as five powerful energy torrents blasted him from five different sides. Various sensations of pain erupted all over his body, as if he had been burned, drowned, pricked, poisoned and ripped apart all over, all at the same time; the pain he was feeling was unimaginable. For the first time in a very long while, Lucemon let out a scream as a blinding explosion of light ensued. He shrank to his normal size and plummeted onto the ground, defeated, but yet to be destroyed – a faint black aura coated him from head to toe, and that was what had protected him from being deleted by the powerful finisher attack. Smokes crawled out from the sides of his body, legs, arms; his whole body was covered with dirt, bruises and blood, his handsome face tarnished with wounds and dirt and his wings ripped apart in many places. For the first time, Lucemon realized that, impossible it might sound to him, that he had been beaten. _Beaten._ The Hellion General, SkullSatamon's strongest general, beaten. Not even Grademon had brutally and humiliatingly defeated him like this.

"One battle," Lucemon said venomously as he stood back up on his feet, and spat out blood derisively, before continuing, "does not win a war, Wira Digital!" Then he silently summoned the mantra to return him to present time and vanished before the Wira Digital's very eyes.

xxx

xxx

With the defeat of Lucemon, the spell he had placed on the Malaccan men had been lifted. They had no recollections of what had happened to them and only found themselves in the middle of the forest. From afar, well-hidden from sight, the DigiWira and their friends observed as the men returned to Malacca before making their journey towards the beach where Adam encountered Tuah, for it was also the place where JD, Manny, Jackie and the Digimon accompanying them had arrived from the year 2005. Throughout the journey, the teens from the Malaccan Sultanate era made good use of their remaining time with the DigiWira, asking them several questions in order to get to know of them better, both realizing that the closer they were getting to the beach, the less time they had with each other.

And finally, when it was nearing sunset, they had reached the beach. By this time, the girls could no longer contain their emotions. Teja and Gayathri were both crying as they hugged each other, and even the strong-willed Liu Ying was red-eyed as she talked to Lekiu, Lekir and Kasturi.

"Take good care of yourselves," Liu Ying said somberly towards the boys, mostly towards Lekiu. "I'll always remember you guys. You especially, Lekiu, for trying to save me from Strabimon."

Lekiu blushed slightly as he scratched the back of his head, as Lekir poked him on the back and Kasturi giving him knowing look. "Well, uh…you too, Liu Ying. It's been great, these two days," he said, as his cheeks grew as crimson as the dusk sky. He cast a look towards Lekir and Kasturi, who seemed to understand as they backed off, Lekir requesting to talk with Labramon. He fidgeted shyly towards Liu Ying. "You know, I think you must have noticed, and you must be thinking, how silly of me…" Lekiu frowned, trying to find the right words, his cheeks now burning. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that…uh…umm…." He faltered for a moment before rapidly saying, "we're wearing the same colors!" From the background, Kasturi, Lekir, and Labramon slapped their foreheads.

"The same color?" Liu Ying raised an eyebrow before smiling gently towards Lekiu, knowing what exactly the boy was trying to say. Lekiu looked alarmed, but Liu Ying halted him. "I know what you're trying to say, Lekiu…and you weren't really being too discreet about it. But, I guess…" she cast a long look towards her fellow guy friends, and smiled wistfully as she returned her attention back towards Lekiu, thinking of what to say exactly, since she did not feel the same way towards the boy, although she did admire him for his bravery. She had to be tactful on this. "I guess it's not meant to be."

"I suppose," Lekiu said glumly and kicked the sands softly. "Take care."

"You too, Lekiu."

From afar, Labramon shook her head as she glanced towards Lekir. "That didn't go really well, did it?" Labramon asked him.

"Oh, I don't know. It could be worse," Lekir said with a small smile. "Don't worry too much about it, Labramon. Lekiu will get over his feelings over Liu Ying after some time."

"Yeah. Lekiu is tough," Kasturi said.

Not too far from them, Gayathri and Teja let go of their tearful embrace as Floramon watched them from a stone by the beach. "I wish I could say that we could keep in touch, but even that's not possible," Gayathri said amidst her sobs.

"I know," Teja said, wiping her tears with the sleeves of her robes. "But I'll never forget you and Liu Ying and your other friends. You and Liu Ying have proven to me that even girls can be as strong as boys. I wish you good luck in protecting your world against the bad guys," she said. Then, she cast a swift look on the DigiWira guys and the Hang brothers. "One last thing, Gayathri," Teja said. "Are you sure you can't tell me who I'll end up marrying?"

"Sorry, I can't do that, Teja," Gayathri said.

Teja pursed her lips glumly. "Well, between you and me, I hope it's Hang Tuah," she whispered and cast her glace away from the Hang brothers when Tuah looked up and caught her eyes. Gayathri merely smiled at the remark, while making a mental note to check any available resources back in the future for Tun Teja's history. They saw Liu Ying, Labramon and Lekiu, as well as Kasturi and Lekir, coming towards them, wanting to exchange goodbyes with them as well.

"We're going to miss you all," Liu Ying said, blinking slightly as a tear escaped her eyes. "We won't forget you. Thank you…for everything."

"If we have another chance in doing it all again…" Kasturi said, longing evidence in his voice.

"We'll do it again," Lekiu said with vigor and sadness at the same time.

"In a heartbeat," Lekir affirmed, his voice quivering.

"Take care, all of you," Teja said as she hugged Liu Ying, and again to Gayathri. She then patted Labramon and Floramon and eyed another group of people who was exchanging their own farewells.

"So…what are you going to do after this, Tuah, Jebat?" Adam asked the two boys whom had helped him a lot for the past two days. "More adventures?"

"Nothing we're going to face in the future will be the same as the ones we have faced with the mighty DigiWira," Tuah said with a grin and patted Adam's shoulders. His eyes darted to Teja momentarily, before moving on towards her three personal guards. "I think, if the three of them agree about this, I'd like to bring them to see Tuk Guru Adiputra. It's a pity their Silat master has passed away; maybe Jebat and I can convince Tuk Guru Adiputra to take Lekiu, Lekir and Kasturi in as students and impart whatever skills they haven't…had…." A knowing grin suddenly crossed Tuah's face as he stared at Adam. His dark eyes lit up, reflecting the setting sun's light. "Hey, wait a minute. I just remembered something," he grinned impishly, wiggling his index finger towards Adam. "Didn't _you_ mention something about _five_ Hang brothers when we first met? Famous warriors and all?"

Adam gulped as Tuah and Jebat looked ready to drill him with some questions. "Umm…" He glanced at JD and Manny who were standing side by side away from the three of them, silently imploring for them to intervene, but to his annoyance they just shrugged. Adam thought that even the two former ShadoWira looked somewhat strained on their faces, and assumed that they must be dealing with the separation their own way. Or perhaps they hadn't gotten to know the teens from this era close enough, not as close as he and the girls had.

Jebat chuckled. "Well, you don't have to tell us that, kid, so don't look too worried. Although, judging from how things had been going, were going, and _will_ be going….you probably will get your five famous Hang brothers," he said and ruffled Adam's hair. "You know, it's just too bad that you can't stay longer, _Hang_ Adam… both of us has grown rather fond of you these two days." He grinned upon looking at Adam's annoyed look. "Well, it's been fun, and _an honor_, to fight alongside you and your friends. If you're going to stay here…perhaps in your time the people will hear of six Hang brothers."

"Ever thought about it?" Tuah grinned.

Adam blinked. He couldn't tell whether Tuah and Jebat were only joking or that they were serious. They looked like they were both serious and joking, in Adam's opinion, so Adam decided to just respond with the truth. "I…I…" He took a deep breath and looked at the setting sun. "I can't," he said, as politely, yet also as firmly. "Lucemon was right," he said, turning his attentions back to the two older boys. "One battle doesn't win a war. And my world, my time…is still in great danger. I'm needed back there," he said empathically, before breaking the seriousness of his statement with a soft smile, his gray eyes twinkling. "I may be gone back to my own time, but there'll be Hang Lekiu, Hang Lekir and Hang Kasturi for you to…uhh…"

"To bully!" Tuah and Jebat exchanged conspiratorial grins and Adam sweatdropped. Suddenly, his heart ached with sorrow upon seeing how close these two disciple brothers were with each other, when in the future when they were full-fledged warriors; something would made them turn against each other. He knew perfectly well about Tuah and Jebat and what would happen to them, and it was a battle of wills within him – one screaming loudly from the insides to just tell the two disciple brothers of what was in store for them so that they could avoid it from happening, the other straining him from divulging things prematurely as not to change the course of history. Finally the latter side of Adam won, against his wishes, and this was reflected by a trickle of tear that escaped his eyes. This did not go unnoticed by Tuah and Jebat.

"Hey…why are you crying?" Tuah said. Alarmed, Adam quickly wiped his tears.

"Aww…you're jealous that it's not going to be you we're going to bully?" Jebat teased.

"It's not that," Adam said with a broken voice. He had to divert their attention quickly before they guessed what was causing him to be sad. "It's just…I hate partings."

"I've heard from some elderly people that for every meeting there's a parting, and that parting is such a sweet sorrow," Tuah said with a wistful tone. "We're sad that you have to go too, Adam. We're just hiding it better. Come on, one last embrace." Adam and Tuah embraced, and Tuah pulled the somewhat-unwilling Jebat along with it.

"Oh…isn't anyone gonna miss me?" Patamon said, wiping tears from his eyes too as he floated close to Adam, Tuah and Jebat. "I might appear as a flying guinea pig to you two," he said to Tuah and Jebat, "but I'm as human as they come, deep down."

Tuah laughed and pulled Patamon in the embrace too. "Of course, Patamon. You take care of Adam here alright? These two days, we're beginning to think of him as a little brother of ours. It's been great meeting you two." Patamon happily chirped out his response – _always will, always will. _Then Tuah's eyes caught JD's and he whispered to Adam. "And Adam, take care of your cousin brother too, alright? He needs you more than you think. You and your friends." That much Tuah could give to Adam for him to still honor JD's request.

Adam blinked at Tuah in confusion as they let go of their embrace. He was about to ask about Tuah's cryptic words, before Tuah beat him to it. "I think I'll have a few words with JD and Manny," Tuah said and quickly went towards JD and Manny. Adam was going to ask Tuah what exactly he had meant with his request – of course he would care for JD, JD was his family and they were very close after knowing that they were related. But perhaps he was thinking too much about it. Maybe Tuah too was overcome with emotion things he said did not come out as he had wanted. _'Maybe that's it,'_ Adam thought as he watched Tuah approaching JD and Manny, who along with their partners were staying a distance away from the others. They looked somewhat tensed; Adam wondered again why, before Jebat caught him and Patamon in another quick conversation.

"I hope you didn't break your promise," JD said when Tuah approached him and Manny.

Tuah nodded, his face grim. "Don't worry, I didn't. Although I think you really should tell…"

"Out of the question. They're better off not knowing," JD said quickly, casting a long look on Adam's back as the boy was talking to Jebat.

Tuah sighed. "I hope you'll find a cure for that curse mark, JD."

"I hope so too," JD said slowly.

"We'll do our best to find it," Manny said, his low voice intense with determination.

"I'll pray for your safeties, my friends," Tuah said and shook their hands before turning away.

"Tuah, wait," JD said, seemingly struggling to find words to say. "I'm not good at saying goodbyes, Tuah, but I guess this is it. Thanks, you know, for looking out for Adam and Patamon, and… for trying to cure me last night," he said finally, and held out his hand again. Tuah nodded and clasped it.

As the DigiWira and the teens exchanged their final farewells, Jackie looked from a distance, away from the waters, with a pensive look on his face. Lalamon was hovering beside him, and Lopmon was perched on his shoulder. Beneath him was a circular rune he had drawn with a stick over the sandy beach. In his hand was a semi-transparent pouch full of golden dusts from TobuCatmon. He waited patiently, knowing that Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri were especially attached to the teens of this era, having been trapped longer here than JD and Manny.

"It's time," Jackie murmured as the sun vanished from the horizon – it was now night and the moon had peaked out from behind the peak of Mount Ledang, well visible from the beach. The air grew colder, now to the point of chilling. It was time to get back to their time – the enchantment TobuCatmon had used on the runes to take them to this era could only sustain them in this time for another hour. He knew the risk, Lalamon and Lopmon knew the risk, and JD and Manny, and Agumon and Penguinmon, were aware of it too. It was just lucky of them that they had managed to beat Lucemon and Z'dGarurumon as quickly as they had done this day. TobuCatmon had warned them that should they not appear at the same spot where they had been brought to within twenty four hours after they had arrived, they would remain there forever. _'It's an hour before the time-travel enchantment stops working, but there's no point in delaying the inevitable,'_ he thought as the DigiWira exchanged final goodbyes with their friends.

With heavy hearts the DigiWira went to gather at the runes Jackie had drawn, while the six teenagers from this era looked on, all solemn and the princess teary-eyed. Jackie opened the pouch as a gust of wind from the sea blew gently towards their direction, and the golden dusts flew out from the pouch. The golden dusts swirled around the runes as multicolored orbs of lights and stars erupted from the runes. The winds grew more intense as the runes shone with greenish-white hue and a faint pillar of light emerged from the runes and soared all the way to the dark heavens, engulfing the DigiWira and their allies within it. The DigiWira waved their final goodbyes towards their friends before the runes' lights fully enveloped them.

"Well…goodbye." And they were gone.

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"Wow," Persiamon whistled as Lucemon stomped inside the main hall of the Onyx Pyramid, looking at him from up and down. "Get a load of you. You're injured all over, I hardly recognized your usual handsome self."

Doumon, Shawujinmon and Astamon all kept their opinions to themselves, despite the sight of the Hellion General severely injured was very strange to them. In fact, none of them ever remembered seeing him in such condition. The four Darkshadow Brethren seemed to think along the same lines; the Wira Digital were definitely powerful if they could inflict such injury on Lucemon. They watched as Lucemon, completely disregarding his tattered wings and wounded body and messy hair, sat on the stone throne that was his usual spot, and much to their surprise, laughed.

"Such irony!" he said amidst his laughter. "I sent them back in time to render them powerless, and the opposite thing happened!" He laughed again, shrill and echoic, as the others watched on, not knowing what to expect from their team leader, who was usually so calm and poised in every situation. Lucemon continued to laugh and laugh, ignoring the baffled looks on his fellow generals' faces, and their equally confused thoughts he had picked up telepathically. He took out from the pocket of his trousers the Obsidian Gem, watching it with fascination as the gemstone glowed with black aura. _'If it weren't for this gem, I might not be here,'_ he thought. _'Those blasted Wira Digital…just wait until the time for my master plan arrives!'_ He guffawed again upon thinking of the prospect of his master plan would have on the Darkshadow Brethren and the Wira Digital.

"That's it, he's gone cuckoo," Astamon whispered to Shawujinmon. "Poor guy got beaten so badly for the first time that he's gone mad."

"Watch what you're saying, Astamon," Shawujinmon whispered back urgently. "Doumon just told me that Lucemon can read minds."

"Uh oh…" Astamon sweated nervously when Lucemon's icy blue eyes landed upon him, but heaved in relief when they darted away, as footsteps from the doorway to the inner chambers were heard, heavy and steady.

"Looks like someone has lost his mind due to his terrible defeat by the hands of the mighty Wira Digital," said a deep voice sarcastically. The other four Darkshadow Brethren gasped upon the audacity of the remark and looked at the doorway. A great winged satyr and a scarlet demon stood there side by side.

Lucemon's laughter halted abruptly, but his grin never faltered. "Ah, finally…you two have regained your Ultimate forms. This is indeed good news. Gather round, my brethren, gather round," he beckoned for the other six Darkshadow Brethren and let the Obsidian Gem hover away from his hands. The half-arrowhead-shaped gemstone hung in the middle of the circle formed by seven Darkshadow Brethren, blinking out black lights which washed upon each general. "Let's forget about my failure, and focus on the master plan I have been concocting for a long time already…"

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"Here goes…" With a heavy sigh, Adam opened a thick book he had taken from the History section of the National Library, with Gayathri sitting beside him, holding a notebook. The other three DigiWira sat across their table, ready to listen to what Adam was going to read out.

_"Hang Tuah and his friends were first noticed by the Bendahara – Prime Minister – Tun Perak, when a band of pirates invaded and wrecked havoc in a local village. Tun Perak and a group of royal guards attempted to stop the unrest caused by the pirates, but the pirates proved to be too strong for them to handle. The guards were forced to flee while the pirates had the Bendahara cornered. It was then that Hang Tuah and his friends charged, and successfully killed the pirates as well as saving the Bendahara's life. Impressed by their skills and courage, the Bendahara recruited them to serve the Sultan and the palace, and it was there that these five friends rose in ranks until they eventually became the most respected and feared royal guards of the Sultan." _

"So that's how they got noticed," Gayathri said, jotting what Adam had read in her pink notebook, for their presentations the next day at school.

Adam scanned the following entries, tracing them with his finger. "There's not much about the others; only Tuah is featured most prominently. Okay, Gayathri, take this down."

_"Hang Tuah was well-known for his unfaltering loyalty to the Sultan. Due to this he became the Sultan's most trusted and constant aide, sometimes even acting as his ambassador to travel to other countries on the Sultan's behalf. One visit to the kingdom of Majapahit Hang Tuah was challenged to a duel against a famous Majapahit warrior called Taming Sari. An arduous battle ensued and Hang Tuah emerged as the winner. This entitled him to Taming Sari's keris, named after the original owner. It was said that this keris was mystical which could give its wielder supernatural powers, such as invincibility. Some said that the keris was the source of Hang Tuah's alleged abilities."_

"Supernatural, huh?" JD said as he idly flipped the pages of another history book which the DigiWira had brought to their table. "Well, we know better." He was reminded of how Tuah had managed to contain the poisonous tattoo with his power – that was a feat that amazed even TobuCatmon when JD had gotten around in showing the mentor about the tattoo. Two days had passed since their journey to the past, and JD had tried straining himself by a series of advanced workouts which he rarely attempted, and the pain never came. But the fact that it still remained there reminded JD that the curse had not been lifted yet. A cure still needed to be found, and he knew that TobuCatmon, Ophanimon, Lalamon and Lopmon were working on it right now.

"How they helped us in that last battle against Lucemon….it's amazing isn't it?" Manny said softly. "It's too bad that they needed their keris – we could use the Legendary Blades in our future battles with the Darkshadow Brethren."

"Yeah," JD grinned. "We could kick those Darkshadows' butts with those awesome sabers."

"TobuCatmon says that we'd get back our weapons when we Digital Access again," Liu Ying, who was also taking notes for her own purposes, reminded, before looking at Adam and Gayathri with earnest. "Any entries about Teja?" she asked.

Gayathri scanned the entries in the book Adam was holding and saw Teja's name. "Ooh, here it is. Read it, Adam."

"There's not much about her; Teja is only mentioned in this particular paragraph," Adam said and took a deep breath before reading again.

_"One such profound loyalty demonstrated by Hang Tuah involved his visit to Pahang for the Sultan. The Sultan sent him there with the task of persuading Tun Teja, the princess of Pahang, to become the Sultan's queen despite the fact that she was already engaged. Tun Teja however fell under the impression that Hang Tuah had wanted her to marry him, and agreed to elope with him to Malacca. It was when they were reaching Malacca that Hang Tuah revealed to Tun Teja his deception. It was not known whether Hang Tuah and Tun Teja had a relationship prior to this, but Tun Teja did eventually marry the Sultan of Malacca." _

"Oh dear," Gayathri said sadly. "Before we got back, Teja did confide in me that she likes Tuah. How come…how _dare_…how dare Tuah deceived her like that. She didn't even like her cousin…who I presume, was the Sultan who wanted her."

The group was silence before Liu Ying reached out to pat Gayathri's hand. "Perhaps he had no choice," she said consolingly. "Remember; they believed that the royals carry divine mandate and if they dared disobey the Sultan, the Sultan could place a curse on them."

"But still," Gayathri said, "it's not fair."

Adam's face darkened as he read the next entry: _"Another example of Hang Tuah's unwavering loyalty to the Sultan, which is also the most memorable, related to the ultimate duel between Hang Tuah and his closest childhood friend, Hang Jebat. Due to his popularity in the palace and with the Sultan, his jealous rivals had spread rumors around saying that Hang Tuah was involved in an affair with one of the Sultan's companions…" _

The pen Gayathri was using to jot down what Adam was saying slipped, forming a long line of scribble past her previous notes. "Was it with Teja?" she asked breathlessly, eyes widened.

Adam scanned the entry. "It doesn't say with whom. I sure hope not…but from how they're making this…" He cleared his throat and continued. _"Upon hearing the false allegations, the Sultan ordered Hang Tuah to be killed without first investigating about it and ordered Bendahara Tun Perak to be Hang Tuah's executioner. However, perhaps out of profound gratitude towards Hang Tuah for saving him, the Bendahara secretly spared Hang Tuah and told him to run away in hiding and informed the Sultan that Hang Tuah had been killed. The news reached Hang Jebat, who out of loyalty and support for his close friend, revolted against the Sultan, believing that Hang Tuah was innocent and unjustly punished. He infiltrated the royal court and wrecked havoc there, deeply affected by Hang Tuah's alleged death. Nobody, not even the other royal guards or the other three friends of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat managed to restrain the more skilled and ferocious Hang Jebat. It was at this time that the Bendahara revealed to the Sultan that Hang Tuah was still alive, and that he was the only one who could match Hang Jebat's skills. Hang Tuah was immediately recalled and the Sultan bestowed him amnesty. However the Sultan then ordered Hang Tuah to kill Hang Jebat for being a traitor. And…after seven days of gruesome fighting, Hang Tuah managed to kill Hang Jebat." _

Adam's voice wavered as he uttered the last sentence, still finding it hard to believe that the two disciple brothers he had encountered and spent time with had such terrible fate. He could still hear Jebat's voice, teasingly calling him 'Hang Adam', echoing in his mind.

"Man, that seriously sucks," JD muttered, clenching his hand tight, picturing Hang Jebat's keris which he, as Satriamon, had used as his Legendary Blade. He then let out a derisive snort and leaned his back against the chair. "That Sultan doesn't sound like a competent one; why in the world would Tuah and the others obeyed him blindly like that? If it were me, I'd do what that Tun Perak do. What happened to the Bendahara anyway? Didn't he directly disobey the Sultan when he spared Tuah, and seems to me that nothing happened to him?"

"Perhaps he was given amnesty as well," Liu Ying reasoned.

"I can't imagine how Teja can live with a husband like that Sultan," Gayathri said sadly. "She deserved someone better. I for one, hoped that somehow after the whole thing, she'd elope with Tuah."

"I don't think that ever happened," Manny said with a low tone. "And JD, according to a reading I've made, the Sultan had been an incompetent one, although he did change for the better later on. The kingdom of Malacca thrived only because the Bendahara, Tun Perak, was excellent. And another interesting discovery I've made was about Tun Fatimah, the younger wife of the same Sultan who married Teja, maybe somewhere towards the end of the Malaccan Sultanate as it was stated that the Portuguese even feared her than her Sultan husband. And we all know that the Portuguese was the force which invaded and conquered Malacca, and Sultan Mahmud Shah was the last one to rule Malacca."

Manny's revelations did so little to appease JD's dissatisfaction of how Jebat had died.

"Where was Tuah and the other remaining Hang brothers when the Portuguese invasion on Malacca occurred?" Liu Ying asked.

"We're getting there," Adam said as he scanned another paragraph. "This seems to be the last one, all others after this one are references and several cultural stuffs which were inspired by Hang Tuah."

_"After the death of Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah continued to serve the Sultan. Later in his years, he was ordered by the Sultan to court a legendary princess on the Sultan's behalf. The princess was called the Princess of Mount Ledang (Puteri Gunung Ledang) for she resided on Mount Ledang. According to legend, the Princess had agreed to marry the Sultan if the Sultan successfully fulfilled a list of impossible requirements as pre-wedding gifts, such as golden and silver bridges connecting Malacca with the top of Mount Ledang, seven trays of mosquito livers, seven jars of tears from virgins and a bowl of the blood taken from the Sultan's first-born prince. Hang Tuah realized that this was the Princess's indirect way of refusing to marry the Sultan. He was said to be overwhelmed by the prospect of not being able to fulfill what the Sultan had assigned to him that he flung his Taming Sari keris into a river and vowed to only return to Malacca if it resurfaced, which it never did. And thus, Hang Tuah never returned, and nothing was recorded after this moment."_

"The movie _Puteri Gunung Ledang_ has a romantic way of retelling the whole story though," Gayathri said. "In it, it's Hang Tuah who falls for the princess, and the princess to him, but they can't marry because of the Sultan wanting her as well. When the princess refuses the Sultan's proposal, the humiliated Sultan curses her so that whoever sees the princess's face starting from the following day's daybreak would end up with a horrible death. Tuah, out of love for the princess, pursues the princess but can't find her…although at the end of the movie it seems to me that the princess does reveal herself to Tuah, but what happens after that remains a mystery."

"I was just thinking of renting the DVD before you go and spoil the whole story," JD pointed out with a wry smile. Gayathri looked alarmed.

"I did? Sorry."

This earned soft chuckles from the other DigiWira, and the solemn mood that formerly dominated their table seemed to have lifted. Adam closed the history book, looking pensive, while Gayathri jotted down some extra notes in her notebook before she was done. JD stretched his arms, Liu Ying propped her head on her hand with a thoughtful expression on her face, and Manny took the time to double-check what Gayathri had written.

"It's too bad that they can't remember anything about us," Adam said finally. According to Jackie, when the runes he had drawn transported them back to present time it would also magically erased the memories of the locals of Malacca so that whatever damage Lucemon had done to the kingdom of the past would not be remembered, and thus, would not affect or disrupt history. But Jackie had told them that while his memory charm would work on practically everyone, he also suspected that the five Hang brothers and Teja would retain some lingering memory about the DigiWira and the Digimon battles because of their close friendship with the DigiWira; Jackie's memory-alteration spell would not work as efficiently because of it.

"It can't be avoided," Liu Ying said consolingly, knowing that Adam was feeling down because of the fate of Tuah and Jebat. "Maybe it's for the best too."

"Maybe…it's just that, I can't help thinking, what if…" Adam paused, all of a sudden remembering what Grademon had mentioned to him during their encounter in his minds. _'It's unwise to dwell in what-ifs and if-only…'_ He looked at Liu Ying and gave her a slight smile. "You're right, Liu Ying. Perhaps it's for the best."

They knew that there was nothing they could do to change the course of history; they did have their chance but who knows what would happen if they did. Thus, they chose to remember their friends as how they had seen them, not as how legends had portrayed them. Though their paths had crossed only briefly, it was a memory of an adventure and friendship that they would treasure for a lifetime.

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**_Author's Notes:_**

Firstly, the _legal disclaimer_ for this arc: While some of the characters and events depicted in this **Wira Digital: the Movie Arc** are inspired by well-known historical figures and events, the portrayal of such characters and the depiction of such events surrounding them in this arc are fictional. The explanation in italic given in the final scene of this chapter relates to events that have been said to take place in legends, and I credit Wikipedia for the main source of reference, since I live outside of Malaysia and can't get my hand on books or any kind of sources that might be more informative.

There you go, the final chapter of the Movie arc, closing in Wira Digital's 50th chapter. Hopefully it closes the arc adequately. More explanation about this chapter is given in my blog. The brief scene with the Darkshadow Brethren should give you an inkling of what's going to happen next.


	51. After Sunset

SkullSatamon hummed as he listened to Mystimon and Jetsilphymon, watching them with his lifeless eyes across the thin barrier which separated him from the rest of the Digital World. He could see them clearly, he could listen to them well, but he could not pass through the barrier. This was the curse Grademon had evoked upon him three hundred years ago, and until this time there was yet a solution for him to break free. The barrier however, was not indestructible, but a greater power than the evoker would be required in order to shatter the barrier. And unfortunately, during the battle Grademon had been at his highest-achieved level of Digivolution; finding a Digimon who would be on par with Grademon would be a problem.

Or so it had seemed, until today, when his two harbingers had arrived with their weekly report. SkullSatamon had instructed them to stay close to the seven Darkshadow Brethren generals, and report whatever the generals were planning to him. He had been surprised upon hearing Lucemon's latest exploit involved transporting three DigiWira and their partners to the past, and had been angry when he realized that one of the DigiWira had been Adam. What was the Hellion General thinking, transporting Adam to the past where SkullSatamon would not be able to get to him? However, Lucemon had been instructed to not kill Adam, SkullSatamon trusted that the angelic demon would know well to heed his order. In fact, he was actually glad that Lucemon had been trounced, and the DigiWira were brought back to the present time by their mentor's own brand of magic.

So far, one of _two_ ways out he had to escape the imprisonment was by Adam's teleportation power. During their first, and by far the only encounter, Adam was not able to teleport SkullSatamon out of the barrier, but SkullSatamon believed that this was more because of the fact that Adam was inexperienced with his power. Should the boy become more powerful, his teleportation power would also evolve, a fact once proven during the brief appearance of Aldiyamon Fury Mode – the darker form of the regular Aldiyamon. This dark-digivolved Wira Digital proved to be terrifyingly powerful, with his teleportation power evolved to a level where it could actually combust anything, or anyone, that dared to cross him. It was rather unfortunate that this form had never been called upon again; if Aldiyamon Fury Mode was reawakened the angel would be even stronger than he had been before. SkullSatamon could not even recall himself or Grademon being that powerful when they first digivolved into Ultimate levels – Aldiyamon Fury Mode was already as strong as a Mega Digimon during his first, and only, appearance. The skeletal dark master could not fathom what kind of power the dark angel would be able to have if he was given more time to polish his skills.

None of his Generals, not even Lucemon who was the leader of all his generals, were strong enough to break the barrier Grademon had placed around his Horror Hall. Grademon had been a level _beyond_ Mega when he evoked the barrier charm, a power greater than a Mega would be required to break it. And the barrier had been cast with a very intricate spell; only _one_ power stronger than a Mega could break the barrier, not several joined powers. The Darkshadow Brethren, sans the Puaka Generals, had tried combining their powers to break it, but their attempts had failed.

"Wait," SkullSatamon said, stopping Mystimon and Jetsilphymon instantly just by uttering that one single word. "You mentioned that the Hellion General is finally ready to call upon the power of seven evils that have once taken over the Digital World several millennia ago?"

"Well, what we know is that Lucemon is going to use that Obsidian Gem of his to make the other Darkshadow Brethren generals Mega Digivolve," Mystimon supplied breathlessly, his head lowered, not daring to meet the gaze of his master. However he could feel his master twitched slightly; apparently SkullSatamon too was taken aback by this news. Then he felt as if a pair of eyeless sockets peering over him, and the fine hairs on his neck stood up. He dared not to meet his master's gaze, especially when all he had left to say was, "I regretfully do not know of what forms they are going to take when they have digivolved."

"You don't know, or you have not been staying there long enough to know?" There was nothing malevolent in this statement; it sounded more like a chiding rather than a complete scolding. "No matter," SkullSatamon said, sounding somewhat pleasantly surprised at the same time. He, in fact, was grinning, showing his set of decaying teeth. The sight of it caused Jetsilphymon to flinch, but SkullSatamon ignored it. To react to such a trivial reaction was far beneath a dark master of his caliber. "This is, in fact, _excellent_ news you've brought me," he reiterated, and his left decaying hand went over his rotting ribcage, where inside it was a deep jet black orb, with about one fifth of it filled with yellow light. He hummed again softly, before placing the hand right by his sides. "Excellent news indeed."

His servants were left dumbfounded even more by his sudden change of mood. SkullSatamon however was not in the mood to explain further. After all, what evil overlord would take the time to explain what he was going to do to mere servants? He would keep what he had in mind at where it should be – in his mind. Nobody else needed to know. So far, only Grademon had realized what he was up to all these times, and Grademon was no longer walking the grounds of the Digital World, nor was he flying the air or swim in the depths of the Digital World. He could rest easy, knowing that his secret was safe.

'_If the seven Darkshadow Brethren generals are all going to become Mega Digimon, then I might not need Adam anymore,'_ he mused silently. _'Then again, does this mean I have to root for the Wira Digital instead of my own generals?' _He chuckled softly and turned away from his servants, heading back to his Horror Hall. "That's all," he said dismissively, gesturing for the two astounded Ultimates to leave the grounds of the Shadow Realm. "Come back whenever you have something big to report."

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 51 – After Sunset**_

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Adam smiled to no one in particular, his eyes set on two figures that were just several meters before him, with their backs facing him. Along the tarred walkways within the park located before the majestic Petronas Twin Towers – buildings hailed as the tallest twin towers in the world – Adam observed the man in black work shirt and khakis pushing a wheelchair where a woman in pale green was sitting on. Their conversations were muffled, Adam could not hear what they were talking about, but that could be attributed to the sounds of kids yelling ecstatically from the playground nearby, or the sounds of fountains ready for their nightly display. It was approaching evening, and elsewhere the mild traffic sounds were almost ignorable. The sun was peeking behind several skyscrapers around the Kuala Lumpur City Center park, its light reflected by the glassy surfaces of some buildings and more prominently the windows of the eighty-eight storey Twin Towers. The sky was now a tint of blue and magenta, with thin clouds stretched all across the heavens, with dots of black moving about – birds, ready to return to their nests for the day.

Looking at his watch briefly, Adam realized that by this time, his Uncle and Aunt, and JD, would be on their way here to the shopping complex built at the base of the Twin Towers, placed strategically in the middle of the two towers. On Saturday night, the Suria KLCC mall was bound to be very busy. Smiling again, Adam could not shake off the elatedness he was feeling as he reflected the events taking place just this morning.

When he had dropped in to visit his sister at the hospital in the morning, he was instead greeted with good news. Alisha was set to be released, after almost two months of intensive therapy at the hospital. She was not able to walk much yet, but the broken bones on her legs were healing nicely and in another month or so she would be able to start walking again. The bones of her ribs had healed, and her arms which were the least injured, were able to work again. The IT Corporation where Alisha worked had offered her the position where she could do her work from home until she was ready to go back to the office, and Dr. Abu had arranged for a physical therapist to work with her at the comfort of her house. For Adam, he could not be happier; his sister would come home, and Adam would be able to stay with her again, after almost two months staying with his relatives. While he enjoyed staying with his uncle, aunt and especially with his cousin brother JD, Alisha was his remaining direct family and only sibling, and he loved her dearly. He could foresee that it would not be as easy a time he had had with his relatives, but he was eager nonetheless.

The only thing that was faltering his excitement was, _'I wonder how Josh is going to take this?'_

It had been a week since their return from the 1500s, and throughout it Adam had noticed that there was a slight change in his cousin brother. JD seemed to look somewhat troubled whenever he thought that nobody would notice. At times during school, Adam would find JD brooding about at the isolated corners of the school grounds. However that did not change his attitude towards the other DigiWira; he still liked to tease them a lot, effectively annoying Gayathri and Liu Ying at times or sometimes even Dina and Belinda when they joined the DigiWira. However, Adam noticed that there seemed to be a strain between JD and Manny. It didn't however looked like they were fighting – JD and Manny would simply exchange quiet looks, and JD's expression would falter and Manny would look like someone had just shouted at him for not getting a job done, almost to the point of sadness, at times. When they talked to each other, the two boys sounded fine, but for Adam he thought that their exchanges seemed somewhat…fake? He did not know what to make out of this. He had not confided this to Liu Ying or Gayathri yet; perhaps he would, if by the following week the two former ShadoWira still acted the same way.

He couldn't, however, shake off the feeling that JD was hiding something from him. After all, he had spent quite a long time doing so himself, so Adam thought that he was experienced enough to detect easily when other people were hiding problems from him. He had tried coaxing JD about this a couple of times, but at both attempts his cousin would just brush off what Adam was thinking as silly or that Adam had quite an imagination, sometimes at the point of relentlessly teasing him again that Adam would just decide that it would be best to drop the subject altogether, as it would be the only way for JD to stop with what he had said to be his favorite pastime – playfully torturing Adam. And without the Saintly Siblings – both seemed to have taken a liking for Alisha and Dr. Abu that they had opted to stay at Alisha's ward instead of with Adam – Adam no longer had the advantage of escaping JD as he had done once before. He would drop the subject whenever JD insisted that Adam was only imagining things, but Adam knew better. Something was off, and JD was doing a spectacular job hiding it. _'I don't know what it is,'_ Adam thought pensively; he didn't like the notion of having his cousin brother being so secretive to him. _'But I'm going to find out.'_

"Adam."

The soft call from his sister snapped Adam out of his reverie. He saw that Alisha and Dr. Abu now were looking at him, and their expressions were mirrored by the kitten and puppy sitting on Alisha's lap. "Yeah?" he said, approaching them somewhat awkwardly. Throughout the whole afternoon, he was beginning to suspect that there was more to his sister and the doctor other than just a patient and her doctor. For instance, a doctor would not be taking his patient out for a date now, would he? The two adults had been rather ambiguous when they told Adam to come along with them to KLCC with them this morning, and right now he felt like he was _chaperoning_ the two older ones, which was, to him, pretty strange. He gave them a smile, and wondered what they would want to talk about with him.

"Why don't we sit down over there?" Dr. Abu beckoned for an empty bench not far from them, and pushed Alisha's wheelchair towards it. Adam nodded and followed them, before he and the doctor sat down, facing Alisha who remained on her wheelchair.

For a while, Adam waited, but neither his sister nor the doctor spoke up, but they were giving each other looks which reminded Adam of how Manny and Gayathri would be doing from time to time since they became an item. He blinked, realizing suddenly what was going on with the two adults. _'Oh! Oh…so that's what going on here…'_ He strained himself from smiling, instead asking with a solemn voice, "Uh…is there anything you want to ask me?" Adam readied himself for a declaration, and couldn't help but to feel happy for his sister.

"Adam, I don't know whether you know about this or not, but Dr. Abu and I actually go way back," Alisha began with a smile. She had told JD about this, but as she had also asked him to keep this to himself, perhaps Adam did not know about this just yet. "From university, actually – both of us attended University Malaya. When I entered my first year there, he was already a final year student of the medical faculty." She paused, watching her younger brother's expression carefully.

"Okay…" Adam nodded, wondering when they would just get to the point. It was not as if he was not expecting it already. Nobody had told him; he had seen all the signs by himself whenever he dropped by the hospital to visit his sister.

Alisha smiled again, this time at Dr. Abu. "We met at the university library. It was my first time, and the library was so big and expansive, I got lost. Then I bumped into him," she said with a small laugh, which was shared by both Dr. Abu and the somewhat-impatient-for-declaration Adam, although he hid it well. "He showed me around the library and we became friends. The next day he took me around the university compound to familiarize myself with the faculties, and the day after that…" She chuckled again, and Dr. Abu blushed. "I discovered that Abang Abu flunked a test…he was supposed to be studying for those two days, but instead he helped me out."

"It wasn't a big test and I managed to get a re-sit for it," Dr. Abu quickly said with a sheepish grin. "Luckily the professor knew me well and he was pretty lenient to not let the flunk grade affect my records."

"Of course. He wouldn't want a Dean's List student to have a bad record," Alisha pointed out with another chuckle.

Adam however was not really listening. He had caught a slight slip-up from his sister. Hadn't she been calling the doctor as Dr. Abu previously, and Adam then heard her shifting to the more affectionate Abang Abu. Could it be because of their five-year age gap, or something else altogether? Inwardly he grinned; this was perhaps the beginning of the declaration he was waiting for.

"We continued to become friends," this time it was Dr. Abu who continued the story. "For almost two months, until I was ready to ask your sister out. But then…"

"The accident took place." Alisha cast a long look at the setting sun. "I lost all desire to pursue any relationship, or anything that I thought would distract me from getting my degree. So I declined, without even telling why," she said, and something told Adam that she sounded somewhat regretful about it. "I ended up graduating one semester early, with double degrees, and with my professors' recommendations I managed to get a spot as an IT system analyst at the company I was working for now," she said. "Too set on finishing my studies I totally ignored Abang Abu and eventually lost touch with him after he graduated."

"I was busy with my housemanship training, but now I've passed that and advanced to a medical officer before I crossed path with you and your sister again." Dr. Abu placed a hand on Adam's shoulder, and his words reminded Adam of that fateful day when his sister was involved with a serious car accident. "From you I learned the real reason why Lisha cut off my attempt on asking her out. Before that day when I met you at the hospital, I really had no idea why, until you told me everything, Adam."

Adam nodded, remembering that day well. It was perhaps his second worst nightmare – the first being the day he had lost his parents and brother. He gave them a wistful smile, urging them to continue by saying, "And now…?" He couldn't stand it anymore – out with the declaration already, he thought.

"And now…" Dr. Abu gave Adam a long look. "I would like to ask your permission, Adam, for me to marry your sister."

"HUH?" Adam froze, before doing a double-take. He had seriously _not_ been expecting that! Relationship, yes. Marriage? Talk about fast. Quickly gathering himself back, he stared at the young man's face in disbelief, shifting it back and forth between him and his sister. "M-m-marry? _Now_?"

"Uhh, not now," Dr. Abu said, blinking back his surprise at Adam's response. He shared a look with Alisha, who added, "We're thinking maybe two or three months from now, when I can at least stand properly and walk without wheelchair." Alisha's face grew solemn as she looked deep into Adam's gray irises. "But of course, I'll only agree to this if you're okay with this too, Adam."

"Huh? I mean…of course!" Adam sputtered. "I'm just surprised that you're asking for my permission, that's all."

"Of course we'll have to ask for _your_ permission," Alisha said, grasping her brother's hands fondly. "You're the only direct male family member I have, and by right, you're the one who can give me away in hands of marriage. Our father's passed away, Zad has passed away too, and so have our grandfathers. We still have Pak Long but he's back at our kampong, and Uncle Johan is not really directly-related to us, although he is family."

"Oh…" Adam didn't know what to think or say. His eyes darted to the doctor and he assessed the man up and down with scrutiny. Instantly reminded of Dr. Abu's kindness to him when he was distressed about his sister's condition, Adam saw no reason of objecting to this. He liked Dr. Abu and thought that Dr. Abu would definitely be a perfect match for his sister. They looked like a match made in heaven. His sister would be in good hands. But if they were to marry… "Where would this leave me?" Adam found himself asking, out of insecurity.

"What do you mean?" Alisha and Dr. Abu both asked sharply, evidently surprised at the inquiry.

"I would have thought…since you're going to marry and become newlyweds…and they say two's a company, three's a…" Adam could not finish his words, for Dr. Abu's chuckles had interrupted him. Some of the passersby glanced their way due to the doctor's laugh, and Adam pouted, without the intention of wanting to do so. Why was the doctor laughing? It wasn't funny at all.

"Adam, Adam…" Dr. Abu said finally. "When I'm asking your sister's hand in marriage, I know perfectly well that she won't agree to this if I were to choose only her and not you as well. And believe me, I'm perfectly happy to have you too. There's no reason for you to worry at all. In fact…do you know that I am an only child?" he added with a smile, giving Adam a long look. "It'll be great to have a little brother who can double-up as a free live-in babysitter for our children…_ouch!"_ Alisha had turned red at the last comment and had pinched his arm, while Adam sweatdropped. But then the three of them shared a laugh; it was the first time Adam saw the doctor joking. Then the doctor's face turned solemn as he said, "But I meant what I've said, you don't have anything to worry about. You strike me as a good lad, who wouldn't want you to be their brother?"

Adam was stunned at the doctor's words, and surges of emotion began to well up, but he controlled it so well that all he had let out was a blush, and a warm smile. His voice however, seemed to have been kept locked deep inside his throat.

"_I think Congratulations is due!"_ Patamon's voice rang out from Adam's Digivice.

"What is marriage?" Salamon pondered, looking at Dr. Abu, then at Alisha, his gaze then shifted to Adam before finally landing his twin sister Gatomon. "Won't anybody tell me?"

"You silly puppy," Gatomon huffed. "Didn't you watch enough TV already to know what marriage is? It's….well….uhh…." The white Egyptian kitten scrunched her adorable face as she searched for a correct definition. "It's a way to legalize mating between humans!" she declared, and instantly all three humans sweatdropped, while Dr. Abu and Alisha turned deep crimson at Gatomon's comment.

"Oh…" Salamon said in wonder. "Wow Gatomon, you're so smart!"

"Don't I know it?" Gatomon returned proudly, her tail swishing back and forth, happy to hear her twin brother's compliment.

"That's one way to put it…" Alisha muttered.

"I'll say," Abu said, before looking back at Adam. "So, Adam….what do you say?"

"Of course," Adam said ecstatically as he grinned at his sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law. He was happy to see that his sister had found the man she wanted to be with – it would mean that they would have a family once again. It would definitely be great, Adam thought, to have Dr. Abu as a brother-in-law to him, and a husband to his sister – the doctor looked like someone who could guide them with many things in life. For Adam and Alisha both, having lost their parents and brother, Dr. Abu's inclusion in their small family would be an invaluable addition for them to have a new start in their life again – after the accident. "Sure. Definitely. Without a doubt. But…" Adam scratched his hand as he looked at the two adults. "I thought that there's a special kind of traditional ceremony for this kind of thing, where…I dunno…the guy's family members or relatives would come to meet the girl's family and….well, talk things out, before the two families agreed and the guy and the girl are considered engaged? Umm…_this_ is considered as an engagement, right?"

"Well…" Alisha said, smilingly. "It's kind of an unofficial engagement, and yes, there's a special kind of ceremony for this, but then…with my condition, and you're being the only direct family I have…"

"Actually, we've talked about it too," Abu said as he rubbed his nape, grinning at Adam somewhat sheepishly. "We've decided…the engagement part will be this one, unofficially done, in front of you. The marriage part will be done ceremoniously, of course. I take it you don't have anything against this?"

Adam smiled, shook his head, and shrugged. "No problems with that. _When_ exactly do you want to get married?" he asked.

"Well…why don't _you_ pick a date, Adam?" Alisha said with a tender smile. "You get to take part in this too, so you get to choose the wedding date."

"Would immediately be too soon?" Abu asked jokingly, again showing a side of him which he so rarely showed, given his serious profession. "I'll have to take you two back at my parents' house some time. They have been badgering me to get married before I reach thirty, and I'll turn twenty-eight in a couple of months. They'll be so ecstatic when they know about this for sure."

Adam took the information in, already making mental calculations. "If Kak Lisha's going to be fully healed in a couple of months, and Dr. Abu…"

"Ahem," Abu interrupted Adam, his grin never faltered. "If I'm going to marry your Kak Lisha, it's only appropriate if you call me big brother."

Adam blinked. "Oh…ok. If Abang Abu is going to have his birthday also in two months time…" Adam's voice trailed off as his eyes widened, as another important date crossed his mind. "Kak Lisha's going to turn twenty-three in two months as well! Why not…choose a time between your birthdays? That way you can have three occasions to celebrate every year in July."

"July does sound good," Alisha murmured. It was now the seventh day of May; they would have roughly two months to prepare. "Of course, if it's going to be a simple wedding…"

"Simple is what I'd like," Abu said, but then he let out a grin which indicated that he was having doubts, "but my folks are always telling me that since I'm an only child, my wedding is going to be huge."

"So that means I'll have to be fully healed," Alisha decided, staring at her long skirt, which obscured the plastered-and-bandaged legs of hers.

"How about…"

Adam didn't have the chance to finish what he was going to say, as suddenly, the earth rumbled as sparks of black lights burst forth from the air all around the large park. This caused uproar from the other people, as the sparks hovered close to the Twin Towers, concentrating towards the middle before they became a circular doorway of blackness.

"What's going on?" Adam gasped, and immediately looked out for his sister and her boyfriend. Abu was steadying himself as well as the wheelchair where Alisha was sitting, but the quakes suddenly ceased. Salamon and Gatomon looked thoroughly disturbed; Gatomon's eyes were slanted as her furs stood up, similar to a cat's way of responding when it encountered a threat. Salamon too, reacted with a way akin to a dog; he was growling softly. The two Digimon's eyes were staring towards the black gateway.

"_Digimon, Adam!"_ Patamon said in panic. _"I can sense it…lots of them…"_

For a moment nothing came forth; but then avian shrieks were heard as a flock of Velgemon flew out from the portal, one after another. The buzzards wasted no time in circling the skyscrapers around the park, their shrieks induced panic from the hundreds of people in the park. Adam counted that there were at least twenty Velgemon flying around, and quickly looked around him. Nobody but his sister and soon-to-be brother in law were around, and they knew of his secret. Immediately Adam took out his Digivice, allowed Patamon out, and began their transformation sequence.

_**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAAA!! **_

"Whoa…." Abu and Alisha stared as Adam and Patamon transformed into motes of white radiance, coalesced together in midair before joining as one bigger orb of light. The orb spun and a man in a fetal position appeared within it, before he flexed his body up and eight shining wings spread out from his back. White armor enveloped his body, followed by steel plates over the torso, steel boots around the foot, and thin guards coating his arms. Metallic wings were mounted on his shoulder as a silver-white visor materialized over his face. Dark sleek hair fluttered against the wind as a silver sword appeared on his right hand; the man then raised the sword towards the sky and let out a shower of bright white orbs of light which completed the intricate details of his newly-digivolved form, before he called out his name.

_**Aldiyamon!**_

"Yaay! Go Aldiyamon!" Gatomon and Salamon cheered.

"Adam…" This was the first time Alisha witnessed her younger brother's transformation into the Wira Digital of Light, and she couldn't help but feel very proud of him. A smile graced her beautiful face; she knew there and then, watching the angelic knight before her, that everything would be fine. She had heard of the Wira Digital's exploits, and all had been good except for one incident which led Adam to be hospitalized, but then again, the two Rookies sitting on her thighs had somehow healed him back to perfect health.

Abu in the meantime was perplexed beyond belief; while he knew of Adam and the other four DigiWira being the famous heroes of their country and the Digital World, he had just taken the information with stride, not really wanting to think much about it for it was beyond unbelievable. Now, staring at the knight floating before them, taller than most humans with his seven-foot stature, with twinkles of light shimmering from his very being, armed with an impressive-looking sword, shielded by the metallic wings, and with wings that looked formidable yet graceful at the same time, he felt a swell in his heart. _'This is my future brother-in-law…?'_ he thought with awe and amazement. _'Looking at him this up-close…he is amazing!' _

"Kak Lisha, Abang Abu, stay safe," Aldiyamon said with his resonance, slightly echoic, voice which sounded like a matured version of Adam's still-boyish voice. The shrieks of the Velgemon grew wilder; they had obviously seen him, with the lights radiating about him. He had no doubt that other people too had seen him, but hoped that they had not seen his preliminary forms.

"No, Adam…it's you who should stay safe," Alisha said softly. "Take care."

Aldiyamon nodded and shot towards the sky, hearing the people gasping at the sight of him. The Wira Digital, by this time, were quite well-known figures and some were starting to cheer for him. The angelic knight however ignored the cheers, and sailed as fast as he could towards the nearest flock of Velgemon. The buzzards caught sight of the radiant hero and circled around him. Charging his Radiant Faith quickly, Aldiyamon punched a stream of white light towards one Velgemon, deleting it with ease. Five Velgemon retaliated by firing lasers upon him, but Aldiyamon teleported out of the lasers' paths, causing the lasers to burn through the Velgemon instead. The dark saurian buzzards however were not deleted – their lasers had singed only their wings and they were durable enough to withstand their own attacks.

Aldiyamon reappeared behind the five Velgemon, and with his sword in tow he charged towards them. The blade of his Heavenstar Gladius glimmered bright silver as Aldiyamon slashed it against one incoming Velgemon, and again towards the Velgemon who tried clawing his wings. Three Velgemon had been deleted, but seventeen remained and three were currently charging at him. Quickly the Wira Digital of Light created a pillar of light by slashing his sword in midair, and it slammed against the buzzards, destroying them. The cheers grew louder and Aldiyamon raised his sword as fifteen Velgemon all simultaneously fired their lasers upon him. Quickly he generated his Deistic Guard, but realized the folly of his plan quickly when the defensive sphere reflected the lasers haphazardly everywhere. Sounds of glass shattering were heard as several lasers shot towards the windows of the Twin Towers. Rumbling was heard; several other lasers had slammed upon the telecommunications tower right beside the Twin Towers. Vaporized sounds hinted Aldiyamon that some lasers had harmlessly connected with the waters from the fountain in front of the Suria KLCC shopping mall's entrance. People shrieked as some lasers missed them by an inch or nearly sliced their bodies into half, and Aldiyamon quickly teleported them away, locking in the shopping mall as the point of refuge. He lowered his shield and his sword was the first to catch on the lasers, and out of surprise Aldiyamon had let go of it, and it was flung towards a place near where Aldiyamon had came from.

"Oh no," Aldiyamon gasped softly. His eyes trailed up, seeing that some of the buildings around them had caught fire due to the Velgemon's lasers. Blares of police cars and fire-engines echoed from the roads – he saw the police barricading the park from the people, some of them ushering the people who were still inside the park to safety. For a while he wondered of Alisha and Abu, hoping that they were safe. "I have to end this quickly," he decided.

Seeing that Aldiyamon was now without his sword, the Velgemon's shrieks became louder as they all plummeted towards the knight, murderous intent glinted from their shining crimson eyes. Not wanting to endanger the lives of the innocent citizens or damaging the buildings any more than the battle had caused, Aldiyamon soared towards the sky as fast as he could, luring the Velgemon to follow him. When they reached the level where no other buildings except the top-most level of the Twin Towers were visible, Aldiyamon halted, spun around and called out the Final Purification, blasting the incoming Velgemon with streams of white light generated from his very being, with bluish white orbs and feathers coalescing around the lasers. Aldiyamon focused the Mega-class technique on a group of three Velgemon first, successfully destroying them before moving towards a second group of three, deleting them without much difficulty, and moved on towards the remaining nine Velgemon. Intent on finishing the battle as soon as possible, Aldiyamon roared and exerted even more power, and the beams of light he was generating burst forth with renewed vigor, slamming against the Velgemon forcefully, one by one ripping them apart into data particles.

"What's going on here?" Aldiyamon panted heavily, beginning to feel fatigued after destroying fifteen Ultimates. His eyes darted towards the circular portal, which remained where it was, hovering silently. His breaths began to steady, Aldiyamon however felt that the worse had yet to come. _'Do the others know about this?' _He soon realized that even if the others had been made known about this, it would take them a while to reach the battle site. He was on his own for now.

A simper was heard, coming from the black portal. A second chuckle, dark and menacing as the first, soon followed. Aldiyamon could not see anybody else, but realized that he was right; the worse had yet to come. He could not help but to feel that these laughs sounded familiar.

"A Wira Digital, alone?" a silky voice, the one Aldiyamon had heard first, asked. There was a mocking tone laced underneath the calm way the addresser was talking, and hearing it Aldiyamon gasped softly.

'_Impossible…'_

"Good," the second voice added, a crotchety voice far contrasting the first speaker. Compared to the first one, this voice sounded somewhat ill-tempered. "Perfect timing!"

Aldiyamon recognized the voices now – how could he forget about them? Adam's life was once terrorized by them, in the cruelest deception ever. He thought that they were done for. How is this possible, he thought silently, his heart thumping so wildly that he could almost feel them probing through the steel breastplate protecting his torso.

"Surprise, angel-boy." With the calm remark, two figures stepped out from the portal. A great dark satyr and a scarlet demon wielding a pitchfork – they were the Wira Digital of Light's greatest enemies. Upon the sight of the two demonic creatures, petrified shrieks were heard and about three people, those with weaker spirits, had fainted. Some screamed out all sorts of proclamations damning the two creatures, which Mephistomon and Phelesmon paid no heed. They could just finish those ignorant, annoying mortals anytime they wanted, but for now, they were saving all their powers on Aldiyamon. They had been beaten once by Aldiyamon and the other Wira Digital; they would not take any chances.

"YOU?!" Aldiyamon shouted, his whole body shivering as his suspicion was proven true. "Puaka Generals! How did you…?"

"In the flesh," Mephistomon said coolly. His whole body was coated with a black aura, made prominent once the black portal moved towards the sky, right above the tips of the Twin Towers. The same was true for Phelesmon, and the black aura coating him was even more apparent due to his blazing red complexion. The Puaka Generals stood side by side, their faces reflecting the mirth they were feeling upon observing Aldiyamon's surprised reaction. "As for your inquiry, let's just say," Mephistomon said, as he flexed and extended his fingers, sounding somewhat bored, but his eyes glinted with feverish dark aura, "you're just not that strong enough to beat us."

"Why ask? Did you miss us?" Phelesmon said mockingly. He then pointed his pitchfork towards Aldiyamon, growling, "Because we sure don't miss you! _Black Statue!"_

Shocked of the suddenness of the attack, but at the same time knowing that he couldn't raise his Deistic Guard in fear of having Phelesmon's attack reflected upon the buildings around them again, Aldiyamon quickly teleported the black thunderbolt out from his path, purified it with his power of light, and deflected it back towards Phelesmon. The white thunderbolt slammed upon the red devil, but to his surprise the white bolt shattered upon contact while Phelesmon was unharmed. For a while Phelesmon was blanketed with black aura before it reverted back to its original form, layering the edges of his body with a thin coat of black light.

"That attack won't work against us anymore," Phelesmon said, and fired again his Black Statue. "On the other hand, I wonder how much of my attacks you could take before your power wears out, hmm?"

"Let's test him altogether," Mephistomon said, and raised his hand forward. _"Death Cloud!" _

The thunderous black cloud and the black thunderbolt merged together to form a surge of black energy heading towards the radiant knight. Aldiyamon was not fast enough, and was blasted by it so thoroughly that he let out a scream of pain. It sent him plummeting towards the park and the Puaka Generals' victorious laugh ensued.

"Revenge is indeed a best dish served _cold_," Mephistomon said, emphasizing on his last word as his voice too became far chilling than before. "You've caused us much grief, Aldiyamon, and now you're going to pay for it, in multifold. _Death Cloud!"_

"What about the grief you've caused _me_?" Aldiyamon screamed, and while still prone on the ground he cried out in retaliation, _"Final Purification!" _

The blast of holy light instantly drowned the black clouds and slammed against Mephistomon soundly; the dark Ultimate had barely able to cross his arms against his chest to protect himself. The stream of white radiance pushed him back and Mephistomon tried his best to resist it. Then, with a loud guttural roar he shook off the attack completely, and smirked at Aldiyamon's shocked face. The black aura coating his body did the same thing which Phelesmon's had demonstrated earlier; Mephistomon was far protected from the power of light with it than he had been during their previous battle with Aldiyamon. He then wiped both hands, as if removing dirt from them and let out a sinister chuckle.

"Oh, but this is deliciously marvelous!" Mephistomon said. "Even your Mega-class attack doesn't work against us! What luck! What _good _luck! We have hoped that the protection Lucemon bestowed upon us would protect us against some of your weaker attacks that correspond to your level, but we've apparently underestimated the Hellion General's prowess."

Aldiyamon drew his breath in sharply as Mephistomon and Phelesmon both held out their hands simultaneously. Black electricity crackled around their hands as they charged an attack which seemed like a final one, in order to finish him off once and for all. For a moment, Aldiyamon did not know what he could do. He had lost his sword and his Final Purification – his strongest attack – did not work.

"Hope you'll rot at wherever you're going to end up at, Aldiyamon!" Phelesmon roared.

A whooshing sound was heard from a distance and the Puaka Generals cried in shock as something silver and sharp slammed upon their hands from out of nowhere. A deafening clang ensued as the intrusive object – a familiar sword – made contact with the metallic bracelets they wore around their wrists. The shining blade had successfully sliced a portion of their skins before heading back to where it had came from, and by glancing sideways the demons saw two diminutive creatures – a white kitten and a beige puppy – leaped towards the air and caught the spinning sword together, the kitten by grabbing the blunt edges of the sword with its front paws and the puppy by biting the sword's hilt.

"What is this?" Mephistomon said incredulously. "More Digimon? How ridiculous….ahh, I know of you two. The Saintly Siblings. The stench from your lights is still recognizable." The satyr said it all with an extreme distaste in his mouth, evidence from the way his mouth quirked and his eyes flashed in hatred.

"Hmm," Phelesmon said, and pointed his pitchfork towards the two Rookies. "So they have survived too? No matter, they will not see the light of day again! _Black…"_

Salamon and Gatomon did not reply to the Puaka Generals. Instead, they were now rushing towards where Aldiyamon was lying as fast as their legs could take them, the Heavenstar Gladius now balanced by Gatomon's paws with Salamon still having the sword's hilt in his mouth for he was running on all fours. They did not seem to realize that Phelesmon was now targeting them – they still had quite a distance to go before they could reach the weakened Aldiyamon.

"Oh no!" Aldiyamon saw what Phelesmon was about to do, and attempted to teleport the Saintly Siblings out of harm's way before he was struck by black stream of light. The attack electrocuted Aldiyamon severely – the steel armor he wore further conducted the electrical bolts. Any normal human would not survive the attack, but Aldiyamon was able to shake it off with his power of light before successfully grounding the thunderbolt towards the soft soil where he was lying on. Blood trickled out from the corner of his mouth, indicating that he was internally injured.

"Oh no, you don't!" Mephistomon said with glee, and nodded towards Phelesmon. "Do it."

"…_STATUES!"_

Two great black thunderbolts shot towards Gatomon and Salamon, approaching them with lightning speed. Aldiyamon gasped in horror as the thunderbolts made contact with the two Rookies and an explosion soon ensued. Smokes, stones and debris went flying everywhere, and the Heavenstar Gladius landed on the grassy ground, its blade sunk halfway into the earth, but Aldiyamon did not care for it. A tear streaked down his cheek; the two Rookies had sacrificed their lives to get his sword back to him. If only he had been quick enough to save them, he thought sorrowfully. Memories pertaining to the two Rookies crossed his mind in a flash – they were hatched right before Adam and had stayed with him, and had helped ease his sorrow when his sister was still in her comatose state. They were like Adam and Patamon's younger siblings in more than one way, and now they were gone, just so that Aldiyamon could continue fighting.

Watching the smokes still not subsiding, Aldiyamon's sorrow began to turn to anger, especially with the Puaka Generals' laughter emanating from the background, made more terrible by the fact that their laughter was the only thing Aldiyamon could hear in his mind right now. But then, from within the smokes, Aldiyamon saw shadows of two figures, both bigger and taller than the two siblings had been. Then the Puaka Generals' laughter died down in a blink of the eye, as if somebody had pressed a mute button on a remote controller, when the silhouettes became more prominent. Aldiyamon blinked; he could have sworn that he had caught blinks of light violet and pink lights from the smokes, but it was hard to tell. Then a flash of white light erupted, washing out the smokes completely, and Aldiyamon _and_ the Puaka Generals were left speechless of the figures that were within the smokes.

The two figures were the complete antithesis for the Puaka Generals, and resembled Aldiyamon in many ways. One of them, clearly male, was a strapping man with burnish blonde hair wearing a white suit under black steel chest armor. His left arm was flexed up, and a purple shield was affixed on it – the shield was currently radiating with the purple light Aldiyamon thought he had seen earlier. This man was also an angelic knight, proven easily with the four pair of silver wings which grew out of his back which resembled Aldiyamon's wings, and the similarities ended with his manteau shaped the same way as Aldiyamon's, but his was a shade of lavender while Aldiyamon's was silver-white. Golden-colored ribbon with ancient digital runes inscriptions was crisscrossed over his body and formed an arch over his head. He lowered his shield and cast a look at Aldiyamon, offering him a gracious smile.

Beside the male angel was his slimmer female counterpart, dressed somewhat scantily in white leather suit which covered her left leg while leaving the right one bare, also exposing her shoulders and toned abdomen. Golden wing-shaped clasps were worn over her bosom and her gloved left hand held a white bow. Her face was masked by a steel mask with jewels studded over it and white wings decorating the sides of the steel mask. Her long shining blonde hair fluttered against the wind, and so were her eight pure white wings and her pink ribbons. Similar to the male angel, the ribbons also formed an arch above her head and the feathery lower ends billowed softly over the grounds – something seemed to be keeping the ribbons from touching the grounds. She was radiating with soft pink light and her mouth was quirked in a haughty-like smile as she met Aldiyamon's gaze.

"We're back…" the male angel said, inspecting his form. His voice was courteous, yet laced with nobleness and power.

"…to our Ultimate forms!" the female angel finished, her voice glossy, strong and feminine at the same time.

"And I remembered everything…" the male said, sounding a little confused, but it was hard to tell for his expression did not falter. "Angewomon, what about you?"

The one referred to as Angewomon nodded curtly. "I remember," she said; now shooting a glare towards the Puaka Generals. Though her eyes were obscured by her mask, the glare was made apparent from the way her lips were set thin. "Three centuries ago, they've beaten us, and changed us into those dreaded fallen angels LadyDevimon and NeoDevimon, and made us their decoys against the heirs of Grademon. Unforgivable. Come, MagnaAngemon, talk and reminiscing later, we have work to do."

Angewomon soared towards the sky and generated an arrow of light from her left hand, and affixed it on the string of her white bow. "Hear this, Puaka Generals! You'll be judged for your dark and heinous crimes today! _Celestial Arrow!"_ The arrow of light streaked towards Mephistomon and Phelesmon, and pierced their shoulders. Dark liquid oozed out from their shoulders, and Angewomon smirked as she threw her head back towards MagnaAngemon, who had soared above her. "Do it, brother!"

MagnaAngemon nodded and a purple blade was extended out from the bracelet he wore on his right wrist. _"Gate of Destiny!" _Using the blade, MagnaAngemon drew a circle of light and instantly a gateway was formed. A world of nothingness appeared within the gateway as a gust of wind blew out from it and towards the two Puaka Generals, wrapping their invisible hands around the generals before pulling them it like vacuum. The nearby trees swayed towards the gateway as well, the wind from the gate seemed to be pulling them in as well. Mephistomon and Phelesmon struggled their hardest to avoid being pulled in by the gate, but the angel did not look bothered at all. With a wave of his bladed hand the Gate of Destiny was instead pushed nearer to the Puaka Generals. "You should know by now," MagnaAngemon proclaimed, his voice gentle but forceful at the same time as he continued, "if dear Aldiyamon is not able to beat you two today, _we_, the Saintly Siblings, will do the task for him! Never will the Real World and the Digital World be tarnished by your malignant presences again!"

"Try as you might, you can't make us surrender that easily!" Phelesmon roared.

"Wanna bet?" Angewomon said, fluttering behind the Puaka Generals, her words etched with venom. She then emitted sparkles of pink glitters which washed upon the two Puaka Generals, and smirked upon seeing them froze in place as she clasped her hands together. A cross made out of pink light materialized before her hands, and with a loud grunt she threw her arms sideways. The cross of light remained, and Angewomon exclaimed grandly, _"Heaven's Charm!" _

The blast of holy energy slammed upon Mephistomon and Phelesmon and had actually lifted them off their feet, and they were sent sailing towards the gaping gateway that MagnaAngemon had generated. From a quite safe distance, Aldiyamon watched with absolute awe for the Saintly Siblings. Never had he thought that Salamon and Gatomon were _this_ powerful, how fluidly and effortlessly they were making the Puaka Generals fall under their power. He struggled to stand up, and had actually needed his sword to balance himself, for he was feeling rather weak. This day was the first day ever he had exerted the Final Purification more than he had done before, and he was very surprised to see that he still retaining his Wira Digital form. He shook those thoughts off, his eyes now watching as the Puaka Generals slowly floating towards the wide-open gateway, his heart thumping in wild anticipation. However, he did not anticipate Mephistomon's laughter to come, and was perplexed. What kind of person would laugh upon meeting death?

"Sorry to say, I have no intention of getting myself killed so easily!" Mephistomon announced, as his eyes glowed red. The black glow which was coating his body emanated even darker, and at that very same time Phelesmon too reacted the same way. A soft sound of a shattering glass was heard and once more the Puaka Generals were able to move. Then with a slick gesture of his hand Mephistomon shot out ribbons of black energy towards MagnaAngemon's gate. The ribbons clasped the corners of the gate, and with another forceful flick of his arm the ribbons constricted the gate, before it was destroyed in showers of data particles. "See what I mean?" he asked silkily.

MagnaAngemon threw back his fist, before pushing it forward, exclaiming heatedly, _"Hand of Fate!"_

Mephistomon actually held his hand forward as the stream of silver-lavender light from MagnaAngemon's fist was pushed against it. He let out a simper before crushing the stream of light effortlessly, no longer bearing the pain of having to counter an attack based of light. Another stream of light came his way and struck his chest, but still Mephistomon was not fazed. He merely rubbed the part of his chest slammed by the attack, and chuckled, "That actually feels a bit sore," he commented lightly, as if remarking about the weather, "but ignorable, at best. However I have to give you credit, for it is on par with Aldiyamon's Radiant Faith fist attack, I have to say. Fortunately though, were he to strike me with it I can ignore it as I have done with yours."

"Let's see if you can take this on again. It injured you before; it'll do so again no doubt!" Angewomon exclaimed, her voice more erratic than her twin as she fired her Celestial Arrow.

With a guttural growl Phelesmon charged towards the incoming arrow and struck it with his pitchfork. For a while it looked like the two attacks were evenly matched, before the pitchfork emitted a black thunderbolt which destroyed the arrow of light. "We were just taken off-guard that time around," Phelesmon said. "Don't think too highly of yourselves." He pointed his pitchfork towards the female saint, and shot out two black thunderbolts towards her, watching with a sadistic grin as the thunderbolts circled Angewomon, confusing her while neutralizing her attempt of countering them before they shot upon her, electrocuting her so severely that Angewomon was sent plummeting towards a tree, crashing upon it.

"Angewomon!" MagnaAngemon's voice became dangerously high as he pointed his blade towards the Puaka Generals. "You…if you harm her…"

"Oh, why don't you join your precious sister instead? _Black Sabbath!!" _Mephistomon generated a pool of pale blue substance, which looked like mercury from the way it was reflecting the lights. Eerie haunting moans were heard as several dark spirits rose from the pool and hovered around Mephistomon, before with a whip-like gesture by the satyr the spirits charged towards MagnaAngemon, moaning as they approached the grand angel. One of them destroyed by MagnaAngemon's blade strike, the other spirits were quick to seize his arms, body, legs and even wings, pulling him towards the sky, not stopping with their chilling moans at all. A glint sparked from Mephistomon's dark eyes, and the spirits all exploded, injuring MagnaAngemon along with them. The angel was thrown towards the ground, right next to Angewomon who was just beginning to get back up on her feet.

"I wonder…" Mephistomon said, lowering himself down so that he floated not too far from where Aldiyamon, MagnaAngemon and Angewomon were at. His gaze was fixed on the Saintly Siblings. "How did you manage to regain your true forms so quickly? And your memories too? Aldiyamon's return, I can understand….but you…oh, can this be true?" A grin formed on the dark demon's face. "Reformatted regular Digimon don't gain the memory of their previous lives as easily as reformatted _partner_ Digimon…so the perfectly suitable explanation is…"

Mephistomon left his sentence hanging as he flew towards a distance, and shortly later, a terrified feminine scream was heard, followed by a gasp from a man. Mephistomon returned, and to Aldiyamon and the Saintly Siblings' shock he returned with Alisha and Abu, each held by one hand. The two humans were obviously struggling, but with Mephistomon being bigger they had no chance to escape his grasps. His hand alone was big enough to enclose their entire body. The general laughed loudly, and this was followed by Phelesmon.

Angewomon looked like she was going to strike at the Puaka Generals, but MagnaAngemon restrained her hand; there was no telling what the evil duo would do to Alisha and Abu if they acted brashly.

"They've become partners!" Phelesmon said. "Partners to these two, no doubt! They're the only humans foolish enough not to run from this park." A grin spread from his face as he shot a look at Aldiyamon. "And…isn't this the woman who is the elder sister to the guy you impersonated, Mephistomon? What was his name again? Aizad?" Phelesmon roared in laughter.

"Let them go!" Aldiyamon shouted angrily and charged towards Mephistomon, sword ready to strike.

"Ah, ah, ah….not so fast, angel-boy," Mephistomon said calmly. "Can't you see that I have two human shields with me now? They are the most potent shield I have against you three. And come to think of it…" Aldiyamon halted in midair, unsure of what to do. The great satyr chuckled as he turned his right fist around slightly and examined Alisha's face. "Yes, Phelesmon, I believe this is her. You wouldn't by any chance…" There was a dark inviting tone in Mephistomon's voice, before to everyone's surprise his face shifted to that of a human male; tanned, dark-haired, brown eyes. "Recognize me?" He smirked, and the handsome face he was donning contorted evilly as he saw the colors on Alisha's face drained, and Aldiyamon's roar could be heard echoing.

"You leave her out of this!" Aldiyamon shouted, not daring to move at the same time in fear of causing Mephistomon to do the unthinkable. "Don't you dare wear Abang Zad's face! You…you're not worthy!" His voice began to waver; he knew that it was Mephistomon who was donning the expression of Adam's late brother, but he could not help in feeling weakened by it as well.

As for Alisha, she was momentarily mesmerized by the face of her deceased brother, but upon hearing Aldiyamon's enraged scream she snapped out of it, having heard of the story about the Puaka Generals' vicious deceptions on Adam. She had made peace with her brother and parents' deaths long ago, but seeing Aizad's face had awakened the sorrow she had felt when coming to terms of their departure two years before. She was rendered speechless, and a tear escaped her right eye. The imitation Mephistomon had made was uncannily precise.

Abu stared at the face, not recognizing it, but he knew of Alisha and Adam's history and felt angry as well. These demons…they had stepped so low in breaking Alisha and Aldiyamon. His heart ached when he saw Alisha crying, but knew that there was nothing he could do while being restrained by Mephistomon.

Mephistomon, donning the face of Aizad Ariff, cackled spitefully towards his enemies. The human face he wore contorted horribly as he laughed, before he reverted back to his original look. "What are you going to do now, weaklings? Aldiyamon, surely you are not thinking of invoking your Dark Digital Accessed form once again?" The way Mephistomon said it; it was as if he was actually _luring_ Aldiyamon to do just that. "You are now a being of light, you can't harm us for we are now immune with all that is holy, sacred and pure. Why not let your anger take over you, and become the dark Aldiyamon, fueled with fury. Only that way can you beat us, I think," he added with a confident grin.

Aldiyamon however knew better than to heed Mephistomon's advice. He had done that mistake once; he would not do so again. Aldiyamon Fury Mode was a treacherous being and must never be unleashed ever again.

"Don't listen to him, Aldiyamon!" MagnaAngemon urged and flew up towards the Wira Digital. His memory of Aldiyamon Fury Mode had returned, and having faced it himself while he was NeoDevimon, he knew well how dangerous the darkened Aldiyamon could be. "You are better as you are right now. Don't let his words fool you." MagnaAngemon's voice was comforting; even if Aldiyamon had decided to pursue his darker form again, he might be swayed by the other angel's persuasion.

Angewomon silently followed her twin brother. "We still have another trick up our sleeves, we're not beaten yet," she said, shooting a venomous glare towards the Puaka Generals. "I'm warning you, Puaka Generals. Let go of our human partners right now, or…"

"Or what?" Phelesmon demanded. "Nothing you can come up with will be able to stop us!"

"Oh, I won't bet on that," Angewomon retorted. "Don't you remember that our fallen angel forms could DNA Digivolve into one Mega Digimon? Who's to say that they developed that ability on their own?"

The confident looks on Mephistomon and Phelesmon faltered a little. Seeing this was enough to convince the Saintly Siblings to pursue with what Angewomon had in mind.

"That is right," MagnaAngemon said, and laid a comforting hand on Aldiyamon's arm. "Aldiyamon, we'll save Kak Lisha and Abang Abu, don't worry. Leave those Puaka Generals to us."

"It's high time we settle a debt that is long due between them and us," Angewomon said, her voice intense. The female angel began glowing with myriad of silver and pink lights, and similarly her twin brother glimmered in hues of silver and lavender. The glows became brighter, more concentrated, before transforming into two motes of pink and lavender, soaring towards the air while emitting a buzzing sound, their voices echoed over the dusk sky as they initiated their DNA Digivolution sequence.

"_**Angewomon…"**_

"_**MagnaAngemon…"**_

"…_**DNA Digivolve to…"**_

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_**Author's Notes:**_

Finally we get to see the Saintly Siblings in action, and with the hints I have dropped all over the chapter you might know what's going to happen next. Sorry if the siblings' appearance is so sudden; a few scenes with them in any previous chapters were all cut out from the final releases, although I did try at least include some snippets of them from time to time. I had JD mentioning to Manny that the siblings are staying with Alisha during the Movie arc, and now their roles have evolved into something bigger.


	52. Demonic Uprising

Strong winds rushed past the armored figure as she opened her eyes, revealing a pair of ethereally blue eyes. _'There was it again! That face…who is he?'_

Ophanimon slowly steadied her breaths and closed her eyes, trying to resume her interrupted meditation by the waterfalls not far from the Forest Sanctum. She was alone; Lalamon and Lopmon were both with TobuCatmon at the sanctum. The sounds of the waterfall was the only thing she was hearing, and it didn't bother her – back at the Lost Mountain she used to spend almost every late afternoon meditating by its waterfall. It gave her peace, and she was glad to find a home in the Forest Sanctum now, for it reminded her of the tranquility of the mountain where she had resided for hundreds of years.

However, for the past one week something seemed to bother her. She couldn't fathom what it was; the image of a boy just appeared in her mind. At first it only appeared in her dreams, and Ophanimon could shake it off simply because she often saw the DigiWira ever since she had made a home at the Forest Sanctum. He appeared merely as a glimpse; Ophanimon could not make out his appearance then. However, for the past one week the boy appeared in her mind almost every day, and day by day his profiles became clearer for her to take in. She hadn't met any other humans other than the five DigiWira and the two female friends of theirs, but the boy was not one of them. When she thought of it, the boy could be said to resemble Adam in a way, but that was simply because he was far too different from the other two DigiWira boys, JD and Manny. The boy had dark hair, similar to Adam, rather than JD's dirty blonde hair or Manny's dark russet hair. The eyes were warm brown, but there was no resemblance to that from any three boys. He appeared however to be of their age, perhaps slightly older than Adam but no older than JD.

Truth be told, it was disturbing her. Not because she was dreaming of the boy, but the mere fact that she was having this feeling, as if she should know of him.

But she didn't. She hadn't even been to the human's world before. There was no way she had seen this boy before.

Sighing, she closed her eyes, trying to push away the boy's image from her mind. Her breaths eased and Ophanimon began to relax, before suddenly a wave of emotions so strong invaded her that she gasped loudly, her eyes fluttered open again. There was the boy again. But then…two other images appeared. One male, one female. The female was older than the male, who was having his back facing Ophanimon's view. The woman looked like she was in a desperate situation, her pretty face etched with worry. And then the boy turned his head to look at Ophanimon, and she gasped.

_This_ boy, she recognized so well. Dark hair, light peach skin, storm gray eyes…

"Milady! Lady Ophanimon!"

Lalamon and Lopmon sailed past some trees, sounding panicked as they called out for her name. She sighed again; it appeared that she wouldn't be able to complete her meditation this day.

"What is the matter?" she inquired, as the two Rookies, formerly Rosemon and D'Arcmon, landed on their feet before her. Well, Lopmon did anyway, Lalamon was hovering an inch over the soil.

"The DigiWira!" Lalamon exclaimed breathlessly. "The Puaka Generals! They've returned, milady!"

"What?" Ophanimon was shocked; hadn't the Wira Digital destroyed the Puaka Generals? Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her helmet and wore it, letting it cover her face as all other angels had. She pulled her shield from the tree where she had left it, and picked up her javelin which had been laid beside the shield. Then she stood up, and brushed the dirt off her skirt.

She needed this distraction, and the Wira Digital would need her help. Besides, this would keep her mind off from that mysterious boy, at least, for the time being.

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It was not unusual for traffic jams to happen at the roads leading to and from Kuala Lumpur, but seldom had the nation seen the roads to be this congested. The roads leading to Kuala Lumpur was especially packed with vehicles, all at a near stasis, while the roads from Kuala Lumpur had vehicles moving at a steady slow pace. Policemen announced via megaphones that the roads to the nation's capital were currently blocked, due to a battle taking place at the park of Kuala Lumpur City Center. For everyone's safety, it was announced that until the Wira Digital managed to take care of the current threats, everybody was advised to steer away from the metropolitan that Saturday evening. The Twin Towers were visible from the roads, and people all stepped out from their vehicles to witness as flashes of light seen coming from the park before the towers, wondering what was going on. Helicopters hovered over the roads; the television and radio networks were currently making live reports of the situation.

All of a sudden, there was excited cries and murmurs heard from the people, as from a distance, seemingly coming from the town of Subang Jaya, specks of gold, pink and blue were seen streaking out at an amazing pace. The specks grew clearer and the people went wild upon seeing Xianamon, Puspamon and Samudramon flying at top speed towards the Twin Towers – Xianamon and Puspamon were both flight capable, and Samudramon generated waters to propel him, thus giving him a similar 'flight' capability. The only downside of this method was that he would leave a trail of drenched peoples, vehicles and roads as he streaked over them, careful not to let the water destroy vehicles or drown the people. Every now and then, he would apologize to the crowd, but most of them seemed not to mind at all, despite ending up soaking wet.

"Where were you?" Xianamon asked Samudramon as they crossed a fly-over. "I have been trying to get a hold on you three times, not counting the one you have responded."

"Sorry about that," Samudramon said, his voice sounded somewhat exhausted. "It's just…something I needed to do."

Puspamon watched the exchange silently, not offering her input. Gayathri had gone to Manny's house to get a hold of her boyfriend when her calls went unanswered, but according to Debbie Manny had always been in his room. Yet when they went into Manny's room, the boy was not there and his computer was left on. Gayathri suspected immediately that Manny had gone to the Digital World, but she didn't know why. Manny then appeared out of the computer with Penguinmon, looking somewhat drenched and tired, but otherwise in perfect health. Gayathri had then informed Manny about the latest emergency on television, thinking that she could get her boyfriend to tell her why he was at the Digital World later.

The three Wira Digital crossed past a big screen stationed somewhere along the roads, where a familiar anchorwoman was delivering her report on the current situation. Rita Kaur seemed to be dangerously close to the park, for the cameraman was able to capture the battle at a seemingly close range. They were shocked to see that their new enemies were in fact, old ones. Mephistomon and Phelesmon seemed to have been brought back from the dead. They paid no heed to the anchorwoman, who was mentioning that this was a battle between angels and demons, and quickly increased their speed.

"I'm going to use my super speed to get ahead!" Puspamon blasted off with her amazing speed, leaving trails of pink sparkles behind her. Xianamon and Samudramon trailed her with their regular pace.

The fairy speeded towards the towers and saw that a distance away, over the Light Railway Transit railways, a burning meteor was streaking over it at an amazing velocity. She was actually struggling to catch up with it, but once she was close enough she could see clearly within the meteor was a human magma. Satriamon cocked his head towards her and the ever familiar smirk crossed his magma-fied face. No words were exchanged; only an affirmative nod from Satriamon and a gesture towards the Twin Towers, and the two Wira Digital sped towards the battlefield, intent on getting there as soon as possible. If Aldiyamon was facing the Puaka Generals again, then he would need all the help he could get.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 52 – Demonic Uprising **_

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"_**Angewomon…"**_

"_**MagnaAngemon…"**_

"…_**DNA Digivolve to…."**_

The two motes of silver coalesced with each other as they slammed towards the surprised Puaka Generals. The blows were surprisingly forceful; it had caused Mephistomon to let go of Alisha and Abu, and in swirls of white orbs of light the two adults were teleported away, reappearing behind the kneeling Aldiyamon. Abu quickly scooped Alisha up in his arms; the latter was not able to walk yet. Aldiyamon exhaled softly in relief, but he then saw swirls of light above the two adults, before it changed into two devices, colored mainly silver, with one having lavender accents and the other pink.

"Those are Digivices!" Aldiyamon gasped, as the devices landed gently on Alisha's hands – Abu had his hands full cradling her. The devices were somewhat different than the DigiWira's Juara Digivices though, but closely resembled the usual D3 Digivices with some mild pattern differences – there was a small black button located beside the LCD screen. Aldiyamon realized then that these must be the new upgraded D4 Digivices that Jackie had told them about. '_Can it be…Kak Lisha and Abang Abu…they're DigiWira too?'_

Alisha and Abu did not know what to make out of the D4 Digivices' appearances. For Alisha she was familiar with the Digivice, having seen her brother's Digivice a few times. But for Abu this was a totally new experience for him, and it was mind-boggling, to say the least; he still had enough trouble trying to adjust of the facts that Aldiyamon was actually Adam and Patamon and that somehow Salamon and Gatomon had managed to _digivolve_ into two heavenly beings akin to Aldiyamon.

The two devices were shining as the Puaka Generals' screams were heard – the orbs of light were forcing them farther and farther away from Aldiyamon and the two adults before they soared towards the sky side by side, gradually joining into one. Then a burst of light exploded in the air and for a while everyone was blinded by it, before a swooshing noise, similar to how Aldiyamon produced when he stretched his wings the widest ensued, followed closely by the sounds of metal rustling against each other. A big humanoid shadow appeared within the bright lights, and as the lights subsided the profiles of the merged form of the Saintly Siblings became clearer.

"Oh my God…" Alisha gasped in surprise, once the lights subsided and the resulted mergence between the Saintly Siblings could be seen.

"Magnificent," Abu breathed out, his eyes widened in awe. The figure he was now seeing was more impressive than Aldiyamon, MagnaAngemon or Angewomon, towering over the shocked Puaka Generals greatly at approximately 10-foot tall.

Steel seemed to be the choice of armory for this angelic saint, who clearly was a male. The feathers of his single pair of wings were long, blade-shaped and sharp, all of them made out of glistening steel. The plate armor he wore over his torso was also made out of steel, contoured to perfection for his body. Black leather belts wrapped around the lower half of his abdomen with the buckles lining the center, the same was true for his bulging arms, although his forearms were left protected with only a thin layer of armor. The pair of pants of his choice was baggy, light gray, almost silver in color from the way it reflected the light. Royal cerulean cloth hanging down over the pants both in front and back, which was the same shade as his spiked hair which escaped the back of the steel helmet he wore, covering his face as much as any other angel Digimon, leaving only the lower half of his face visible. A horn-shaped blade topped the helmet, and below it a narrow slit was patented, seemingly for visual purposes.

"…_**GuardiAngemon!"**_ The steel saint exclaimed his name, his voice dual-like with the glossy womanly voice of Angewomon's and the nobleness and kindness from MagnaAngemon's.

Silence prevailed momentarily, and Aldiyamon, Alisha and Abu watched with anticipation as GuardiAngemon and the Puaka Generals stared towards each other. From the looks of it, GuardiAngemon looked like he would emerge as the victor of the battle, simply because he was a Mega Digimon, and that he now was looming over the Puaka Generals.

Nobody expected that, out of all things, the Puaka Generals would laugh. Their laughs emanated all around the now-deserted KLCC grounds, echoing against the tall skyscrapers which lined the edges of the park. The sun was setting at the horizon and darkness began to prevail, and eerily enough the darkness seemed to becoming more and more apparent with every second passing. The swiftness of the switching was unfeasible to the mind.

"So you've become a Mega," Mephistomon said finally. There was no indication that he was disturbed with his enemies advancing into the Mega level. Instead, he looked as if he didn't care. His eyes glinted as he looked up, unimpressed made very plain from his eyes, proved only by his next two words. "So what?"

"You're not the only Digimon around here that can attain Mega form," Phelesmon said, his voice spiteful.

GuardiAngemon snorted. "I know of your trickeries. Go ahead, DNA Digivolve into Gulfmon if you must."

Once again the Puaka Generals chortled, as if what GuardiAngemon had just said was extremely funny. The dark aura which was resonating from their body suddenly rippled around them, forming swirls of black, gray and dark purple around the two demons before slowly they began to become bigger and bigger, and much to everyone's surprise they surpassed GuardiAngemon's height, and did not stop there.

"We have no plans to become that cumbersome centaur anymore," Mephistomon boomed, his voice echoed all around the park. Thunders clashed at the sky, increasing the forbiddingness aura of the situation.

"That Mega form was flawed, which was precisely why those five brats were able to beat us before," Phelesmon said with a glower.

Mephistomon simpered. "You should have finished us when you have the chance…but now, you won't be able to. _**Mephistomon… Dark Mega Digivolve to…!"**_

"_**Phelesmon… Dark Mega Digivolve to…!"**_

"What?" Aldiyamon gasped, his surprised reaction mirrored GuardiAngemon's. His heart thumped wildly again; for the briefest of moment he had thought that they would win against the Puaka Generals, but now the Puaka Generals had unveiled what they were having in mind. They were stronger than before in their regular forms; Aldiyamon hated to think how they would be when they were _both_ Megas. The temperature around them grew cooler and unholy green thunderbolts struck the ground behind the Puaka Generals, illuminating briefly their transformations.

Mephistomon's body swelled as the hairs on his body and extremities died away, revealing smooth muscular torso, arms and legs underneath, all the color of the darkest mud. A scarlet bat-like pattern was tattooed over his bulging chest as three pairs of leathery, demonic wings expanded from his former single pair of wings; the inner sides were violet while the outer parts were similar to the rest of his body. His ivory goat-like face transformed into a cross of a demon and a bull, and his horns curved up and elongated backwards all the way to the small of his back. His eyes were void of pupils, both the insane shade of red, as he extended his arms forward, when copper-colored gauntlets appeared over his massive paws and chains wrapped around his elbow joints, shoulders and right thigh before going through the inner edges of his wings, joining all three pairs together without actually constricting their movements. With a deep growl the chains blazed with unholy green flames as a pair of brown belts buckled over his left thigh. Then with a sinister growl he looked directly towards his surprised foes, taking deep pleasure in announcing his new name, _**"…Belphemon!"**_

Phelesmon spun around twice as he threw his pitchfork up. The pitchfork sailed towards the sky before turning downwards, with its three-pointed tips blasting crimson lightning over its master. Instantly Phelesmon morphed; dark burgundy hairs sprouted out from his thick arms, body and thighs as his face, sinisterly demonic before, turned even more gruesome, looking like a cross between a demon, a skull and an ape all at the same time. His eyes became the cruelest shade of blue, and this was also reflected by his horns which elongated upwards, adorned with dark stripes. His black hair grew twice as long and was spiked as they grew down his spine and all over his back. His scarlet wings became tattered as with a forceful flap they turned dark purple with black outer linings. His forearms and lower legs were skeletal thin and a sickly cyanotic shade of gray. Using his claws this demonic being tore off the hairs from his chest, revealing smooth pale chest with orange pattern of fire at the sternum radiating towards the chests. Copper belt was clasped around his waist before he let out an earsplitting roar, revealing his demonic name, _**"…Daemon!"**_

Underneath his steel helmet, GuardiAngemon was shocked. He had not expected the Puaka Generals to be able to advance into proper Mega forms. He realized that even before battling, he was already outclassed. But that did not mean that he would be giving up without a fight. With a low growl, he stretched his arms wide, and with a golden burst of light his forearms were transformed into heavy silver blades made out of Chrome-Digizoid. Soaring upwards he raised one bladed arm backwards and upwards while the other pointed forward. A burst of golden light emanated from his body, forming a cross of power.

"_Heaven's Ripper!"_ GuardiAngemon shouted boldly, and the cross of light plummeted towards the Puaka Generals, while at the same time his bladed wings unleashed hundreds of sharp steel projectiles to go with the golden cross, further adding to the potency of the attack.

Daemon snorted, and launched his claws up. _"Flame Inferno!"_ A burst of red and black flames sprayed out from his claws, and slammed upon GuardiAngemon's golden cross. After just a brief moment of resistance from the golden cross, the unholy flames drowned it before the flames evaporated into data particles. But the stream of blade projectiles remained and they zoomed towards the Puaka Generals.

Seeing this, Belphemon chuckled and with a wave of his paw, he willed the chains that were wrapped around his arms to streak towards the incoming blade projectiles. _"Lampranthus," _he said calmly, and with precise movements the chains snapped the projectiles, destroying them before they could reach him and his demonic brethren. The chains continued to snake towards GuardiAngemon, but the steel saint retaliated by cutting off the chains with his invincible blades. "Interesting," Belphemon commented, his voice remained silky as it had sounded when he was Mephistomon. "I shall have to do better. _Lampranthus!"_ Using the same chain attacks again Belphemon attempted to overwhelm GuardiAngemon.

"_Holy Espada!" _

GuardiAngemon joined his two bladed arms together and with a flash of golden light the blades became a heavy sword and GuardiAngemon's hands and forearms returned. Grasping the heavy sword with two hands and with a battle roar GuardiAngemon slammed the Holy Espada upon the incoming chains, cutting them off with relative ease. But more chains erupted towards him; the shocked GuardiAngemon realized that Belphemon's chains had the ability to self-regenerate. He destroyed the chains with the blades, but Belphemon did not seem to be perturbed – the bull demon merely sent out more chains to overwhelm him from many sides. Distracted by the incoming chains GuardiAngemon was not quick enough to avoid one chain which had successfully wrapped around his sword, and struggled to resist Belphemon who was attempting to tug the sword away from him.

"_Final Purification!" _

A silver wave of lights slammed upon the offending chains, destroying them a fraction of a second later. GuardiAngemon looked beside him and saw that Aldiyamon had rejoined the battle, despite looking somewhat tired still. The smaller angel gave GuardiAngemon a slight nod before he froze momentarily; Belphemon and Daemon were both looming upon them, and their shadows drowned them of lights despite the pristine silver hues radiating from the both of them. Aldiyamon charged up his sword and released a blazing white firebird towards the Puaka Generals but it was thoroughly overwhelmed by Daemon's flames. Refusing to give up Aldiyamon released another blast of Final Purification while GuardiAngemon followed with another Heaven's Ripper, the two waves of holy energies coalesced and charged upon the Puaka Generals, and successfully pushed them back a bit, before to their surprise the Puaka Generals laughed.

"Play time's over," Belphemon said, and opened his snout. A concentrated ball of energy was formed inside of it, and without hesitating he released it towards the two angels. Aldiyamon teleported away along with GuardiAngemon and the energy ball struck the ground, blowing up the playgrounds, the nearby fountains and most of the trees and walkways. The angels reappeared, horrified, and at their moment of surprise Belphemon struck again by releasing waves of ultrasonic scream which blasted both angels away.

"I'm loving this," Daemon chortled and unleashed torrents of dark flames all over the ground, burning everything in sight.

"Stop it!" Aldiyamon screamed, teleporting away an energy ball released by Belphemon before attempting to purify it. Belphemon however took this brief moment where Aldiyamon was concentrating his power and lambasted him with his regenerated chains, causing Aldiyamon to lost control over the sphere. The sphere connected with a nearby building, a hotel, and to Aldiyamon's horror a portion of the hotel was blown up by the attack. Shrieks were heard and the debris from the explosion seemed to have caused more destruction, but Aldiyamon could not see what was happening. He however had a pretty good idea; crazed vehicle alarm sounds blared from the distance, coming from the destroyed hotel. "Stop it now! _Final Purification!"_

"Why stop now?" Belphemon mocked, and with his chains he destroyed the remaining portion of the once-grandiose hotel which had stood proud beside the Twin Towers while at the same time countering Aldiyamon's attack with ease. He glanced sideways and smirked; Daemon and GuardiAngemon looked to be evenly matched, but he could see that GuardiAngemon was giving all he had while Daemon simply looked like he was bored, countering the steel saint's attack while at the same time burning everything which still remained intact. Daemon's dark flames had spread rapidly to all over the park, smokes rose towards the sky. Then he looked at Aldiyamon, and smirked, his red eyes shifted towards the Twin Towers as a nasty grin spread on his face. "Ah, the proud hallmark of this nation. If I destroy this…"

"_Jelita Shocker!" _

"_Dragonforce Striker!" _

Belphemon hadn't seen them coming; the two streaks of pink and fiery red appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Before he knew it he was showered with dozens of energy tulips which orbited him once before they all bloomed and shot jets of warm magenta lasers all over his body. He remembered this attack belonging to another Wira Digital, and while it was powerful it could no longer harm him much. Then from the back he was struck by a burning weapon which ignited flames on his wings, and with it being a physical attack Belphemon could actually sense the burning pain from the strike – which made him annoyed. Snorting, he wielded his chains and slapped the intruders, watching with glee as Satriamon and Puspamon fell onto the ground.

"Ah…more pests," he grinned wildly, and raised one foot, attempting to stomp the two Wira Digital. Yet, somewhat expectedly Belphemon watched as the two vanished in swirls of light orbs and reappeared close to Aldiyamon. He chuckled and stomped the ground anyway, generating a temporary rumble around the park.

"You guys came," Aldiyamon said gratefully.

"Mom, Dad and me got stuck in the traffic jam and we saw the news. I came as soon as I could," Satriamon replied, nodding his thanks towards his cousin. His eyes darted towards Belphemon, Daemon and GuardiAngemon, pausing at the angel before turning back to Aldiyamon. "Who's your friend?" he asked.

"GuardiAngemon…he's Salamon and Gatomon, DNA Digivolved, Mega form," Aldiyamon answered quickly, and saw Satriamon blink in surprise. "No time to explain. Xianamon and Samudramon…are they…?"

"They're on their way," Puspamon said affirmatively as she looked somewhat perturbed by the demons. "Who are they? The bull and the monkey demons…I thought you were fighting the Puaka Generals? It was all over the news."

"They _are_ the Puaka Generals, in their Mega forms," Aldiyamon said with gritted teeth. His fellow Wira Digital gasped in surprise.

"Sons of the bitches…" Satriamon muttered. "If they've digivolved then it's gonna take all of our newest attacks. Give me your sword."

Without question, Aldiyamon handed Satriamon the Heavenstar Gladius and watched as with a roar the dragon man charged towards Belphemon. The sword burst with flames and Satriamon assumed his magma form to get close to Belphemon. Belphemon was going to strike Satriamon with one massive paw, but the paw was diverted by Puspamon's Hibiscus Hurricane, which gave Satriamon the opportunity to be propelled to even greater heights, with his fires ignited even more from the winds. He slashed Belphemon's shoulder using the Firestorm Slasher, but other than inflicting a bright bleeding red scar the attack seemed to be ineffective. Belphemon roared with laughter before slamming his gauntlet upon Satriamon, who quickly countered it with his own Dragonforce Striker. A deafening clang ensued and Satriamon was thrown away by the sheer force of Belphemon's strike.

Puspamon gasped upon seeing Satriamon, physically the strongest out of all five Wira Digital, got beaten by Belphemon so easily. "If hard attacks won't work against him, then perhaps soft ones will," she decided, and flew towards Belphemon's eye level. "Look at me, Toro," she said, and once she had the demon's attention Puspamon instantly launched the Dream Rose Mirage, generating psychic images of a massive black rose with thorny vines which snaked towards Belphemon, wrapping around his neck and arm…

"Simple witchery tricks won't work on me, little girl!" Belphemon exclaimed, and opened his snout. "But for your effort, here, have a _Gift of Darkness!"_

A stream of magenta energy beam was unleashed from Belphemon's mouth, point-blanc towards Puspamon who froze in fear. However, all of a sudden the stream of energy froze in midair right before it could devour the pretty fairy, and a stream of golden and indigo energy waves along with shards of diamond projectiles destroyed the frozen attack. Looking up, Puspamon saw Xianamon swooping down from the sky, waving her feather duster which soon released hundreds of poisonous jade needles upon Belphemon's face. Some of the needles pierced Belphemon's right eye, and the bull demon screamed in mad frenzy. In retaliation, Belphemon shot energy orbs from his mouth haphazardly in all directions, not caring whether he would hit his foes or not. Several buildings were blasted by the orbs and exploded into data particles, but Belphemon was stopped when azure lightning bolts streaked down from the sky, electrocuting him – the copper gauntlets he was wearing further added to the severity of the attack, and rains showered upon him, slow at first before becoming a rainstorm, followed by lightning. From the distance Samudramon could be seen, manipulating both his Cosmic Thunderstrike and Divine Rain at the same time, to weaken and electrocute Belphemon – two effective ways of sapping out the power from Belphemon. This was a combo Samudramon had never demonstrated before, and it looked very strong for Belphemon was shrieking due to the merged techniques.

"Good!" GuardiAngemon announced as he battled Daemon. "Wira Digital, band together and bring Belphemon down! Leave Daemon to me!"

"Don't look down on me!" Daemon snorted and clawed GuardiAngemon severely on the chest. "I've more power than you could have ever imagined! _Chaos Flare!"_

A corona of black fire was formed in front of Daemon, before it unleashed a massive torrent of dark flames upon GuardiAngemon. GuardiAngemon attempted to counter the dark flames by summoning his Heaven's Ripper. For a moment there seemed to be a stalemate between the dark and light Digimon. It was a battle of sheer strength between Daemon and GuardiAngemon, and they looked to be at equal prowess. But soon the superior fighter became apparent; his sheer size vastly providing him with more physical strength, Daemon manipulated it to his advantage and with a loud grunt he pushed forward. The raging black flames roared with ferocity as they blazed even bigger than before, licking the hands of the one who tried to stop them. GuardiAngemon's attack died down as the flames coiled around him, and with a loud gloating laughter, Daemon attacked again, with another Chaos Flare, watching as the flames slammed upon GuardiAngemon even before the earlier flames were gone, and snickered when the angel screamed loudly in agony; the steel armor the angel wore grew hotter and hotter, it practically reddened due to the heat and Daemon knew that his flames were hotter than any other flames.

Then, as the cries from GuardiAngemon intensified his body let out a silver glow, and he separated back into MagnaAngemon and Angewomon. Daemon grinned sadistically and ceased fire, eyeing the fallen forms of the Saintly Siblings before from his eyes two beams of black lasers shot out towards the angels. The beams pierced through both angels' shoulders, and Daemon relished in hearing them screaming in pain. Their screams invigorated him; Daemon however didn't need to be invigorated any more for he was powerful enough as he was now. He held out both arms, ready to deliver the finishing blow which would destroy the Saintly Siblings once and for all.

xxx

xxx

"Such power," Astamon said with wonder as he observed the battle; the scene projected by Mystimon. "Their Mega levels are really powerful."

The five other Darkshadow Brethren generals were now watching the battle from the safety of their haven, with aid from Mystimon's crystal ball. The Puaka Generals had insisted that they would take care of this battle themselves, and with the added power given by Lucemon's Obsidian Gem they had no doubt that they would be able to beat the Wira Digital.

"Belphemon and Daemon…" Persiamon considered, one finger held below her chin with the arm resting on the other which was pressed against her body. "I've heard of them," she said finally, after several seconds of reckoning, and shot Lucemon a look. "Aren't they two out of Seven Evils?" Despite her tone, the smirk she flashed the Hellion General indicated that it wasn't a question; more like a statement taken from the mind.

"And judging by the fact that there are five of us…" Shawujinmon looked around him, considering their numbers. "It seems to me that we're going to become the other five."

When Lucemon used the Obsidian Gem to supercharge their powers, they only knew that they were given the ability to Mega Digivolve. What forms they would take upon, none except for Lucemon seemed to know, and upon witnessing the forms the Puaka Generals had taken understanding dawned upon them. Needless to say, they were astounded.

Doumon looked at Lucemon, who was smiling with satisfaction. "Of course, Lucemon has had it all planned out," the Shaman General said with a forced calm aura, whereas in actuality he was refraining from showing the surprise he now was having. The Hellion General might be able to read his mind, but Doumon had no desire to show the other generals that he too was flustered with the situation.

Lucemon grinned at his brethrens. "Precisely. It's a plan three hundred years in the making," he answered, his tone boastful. "I actually planned for us to digivolve during that great battle, if it weren't for the Puaka Generals to diverge from us when they've attained that Gulfmon form of theirs. I had considered both Karatenmon and Lilamon to fill in their places, but had not the chance when Lilamon became the first general imprisoned by Grademon. Karatenmon soon followed, and my plan was put to a halt."

"I must ask though, _how_ did you unlock the powers of the Seven Evils for us to use?" Doumon inquired. "As far as I know, all the Seven Evils were deleted in that great ancient battle hundreds of centuries ago, back during the days where the four Guardian Beasts were said to be young. They themselves couldn't counter the Seven Evils, but with the help of the Grand Angels, the Royal Knights and the Olympus Twelve they were able to take down the Seven Evils."

"Simple," Lucemon stated, pausing slightly for dramatic effect. Seeing four of eyes boring upon him as well as catching glimpses of what their minds were saying, Lucemon chuckled, "But first, let me tell you that the name Seven Evils were the name the Guardian Beasts coined to soften the effect the _actual_ name had upon the populace of the Digital World. It was said that these seven Digimon were so treacherously evil than even speaking their names had been a taboo. Thus, instead of the Seven Great Demon Lords, they were known only by the degrading name the Seven Evils. And as for your question," Lucemon nodded towards Doumon, his smile grew, as if he could not wait to reveal the information, yet at the same time wanting to refrain it for just another moment, simply because he was enjoying the eager looks on his comrades no matter how hard they tried to conceal it. Finally he relented and continued, "It takes one particular Demon Lord to unlock the Digivolution for the other Demon Lords."

"What?" Persiamon said, jerking an eyebrow up in confusion. "I don't understand. I know you're a Demon Lord type, but what you've just said… I don't."

"Not just a Demon Lord," Lucemon said, gesturing to his chest, "a _Great_ Demon Lord type. There are others who belonged to the Demon Lord groups, but only seven are hailed as the Great Demon Lords. It was said that during the ancient battle, a Lucemon not only belonged to the Seven Great Demon Lords, but he also led the team despite being only an Ultimate Digimon. Thus a Lucemon is required to unlock the Digivolution of another six Great Demon Lords; this fact I have been made known three hundred years ago by the Master SkullSatamon. He suggested for me to assemble all of you into a team of seven and told me of my potential." He stopped, his ice blue eyes observing his fellow brethren one by one. "Do you see the connection now? Seven Great Demon Lords, seven Darkshadow Brethren generals."

There was an awed silence succeeding Lucemon's revelation; the four others were astounded upon learning that they had the ability to take the form of the greatest evils ever known to the Digital World several hundred millennia ago. It was simply unfathomable, and they now had a renewed respect for their master, whom according to Lucemon, had thought about all these.

"So, since you're a Lucemon, that means you have the ability to make us Mega Digivolve into the other six Demon Lords?" Persiamon asked, for clarification.

"Naturally," Lucemon replied.

"Whoa…Are you the same Lucemon that led the Seven Evils…oh, what the hell…the Seven Great Demon Lords?" Astamon asked.

"I'd love to say yes, but no, I am not Lucemon of Pride. I am just a Lucemon, but it seems to me that all Lucemon are blessed with powers rivaling Mega Digimon," Lucemon stated.

"Yet you were beaten by the Wira Digital and their human friends," Shawujinmon muttered. The other Darkshadows looked at him, but not due to the audacity of his remark towards the Hellion General. They thought that the Kappa General sounded rather tired, which was strange. All the marine Digimon did was going off for a moment, but he returned somewhat frazzled, as if he had been attacked. Yet Shawujinmon did not say anything, and everybody else was more interested in the Puaka Generals' newest forms.

"Ah, but the Wira Digital were only extraordinarily powerful with those Legendary Blades evoked from the powers of their snotty friends from that era," Lucemon said, shooting the marine Digimon an irritated look, for he hated to be reminded of his sound defeat. Nevertheless, he took great pride of knowing that it took the power of five Wira Digital combined with their friends from the past to create a force strong enough to defeat him. It was a special occurrence for the Wira Digital, not their own effort. "With those sabers their powers have been temporarily elevated to rival Megas, and with five of them attacking together I'd say that any of you would have been destroyed there and then. Yet I survived to tell the tale, and to get my revenge later on," he added with well-masked venom, relishing in seeing the other four Darkshadows squirming at the prospect of being killed off by the mighty sabers. _'Good,'_ he thought with satisfaction. _'Let them squirm…'_

Persiamon cleared her throat. "Will our Mega forms be as strong as the Seven Evils' had been, then?" she said.

Lucemon considered the question, before realizing that he had no definite answer for it. Would they be as strong as the legendary Seven Great Demon Lords, he didn't know for sure. Sure, the Darkshadow Brethren were a powerful team, but they were not unbeatable. While the Seven Evils were not unbeatable as well, their defeat had come with an extremely heavy price for the side of light. Legends had it that all thirteen members of the Royal Knights and the twelve members of the Olympus Twelve were eliminated just to take down _four_ members of the Seven Great Demon Lords; that fact proved easily how profound the power the seven demons had wielded. Two others were beaten by the four Guardian Beasts, and one was deleted by the three Grand Angels.

The Darkshadow Brethren had a _long_ way to go before they could reach the same height of power the Seven Great Demon Lords had, even though they now had the same Mega forms as the legendary evil clan. But there was no point in telling the Generals that, Lucemon thought, as it would only decrease their drive in fighting against the Wira Digital. Besides, the Wira Digital were all Ultimates with some Mega-class attacks. From the previous battles Lucemon had seen that it would take a lot out of the five do-gooders to bring down just one decent Mega, as proven when they battled the menaces of Z'dGarurumon, JumboGamemon and Gulfmon.

If the Darkshadow Brethren digivolved into their Mega forms, their victory was as good as secured. The Obsidian Gem had aided them with the digivolution and with Lucemon's influence and SkullSatamon controlling the digivolution – by making it a _dark _digivolution process – the six other Darkshadows were now able to attain the Mega forms similar to the Seven Great Demon Lords. Mephistomon and Phelesmon had proven that the dark digivolution worked, by becoming Belphemon and Daemon.

"For that," Lucemon finally said, "we shall have to wait and see."

xxx

xxx

"_Eden's Javelin!"_

Before the ring of fire around Daemon could unleash another torrent of fire, a stream of golden power zapped onto his chest which instantly threw him off his feet. With a flap of his great wings Daemon managed to regain his bearing, but the shock of the sudden attack was lasting. His chest was singed by the attack – obviously it was a holy attack, for only a holy attack could injure him with such a way that left him feeling the same way his lesser form would have felt when exposed to concentrated amount of pure, sacred, _holy_ energy. Clutching his burning chest he looked up, and saw a figure in green armor and golden wings, but her light was far more radiant than the Saintly Siblings. Recognizing her, Daemon snarled angrily. "That light diva!"

Ophanimon fluttered close to MagnaAngemon and Angewomon, holding her shield in one hand and her golden javelin on the other. On her shoulders sat Lopmon on the left and Lalamon on the right. She regarded the Saintly Siblings with a solemn nod, and the Saintly Siblings stared at her with wonder.

"Lalamon, Lopmon, stay with them," she instructed. Lalamon lifted her feet up from Ophanimon's shoulder and went to Lopmon to catch the brown bunny's outstretched hands. Then Ophanimon, battle-ready, raised her javelin up, her very being emitting soothing golden aura. "I should have done this three hundred years ago when you tried to foul the Lost Mountain's pureness with your dark influences!" She sounded furious, which somewhat unbefitting her status as a grand angel. "Both worlds will benefit if you are deleted this very day. _Seven Star Union!"_

Seven golden orbs of light materialized around Ophanimon and with a forward gesture of his javelin the seven orbs shot towards Daemon. Seeing the incoming attack, Daemon roared and leaped back up on his feet, countering the attack with his black flames. The flames overpowered the orbs, which surprised Ophanimon, but Daemon was in for a surprise as well as when the orbs of light were gone his flames too evaporated into thin air. Evidently, Daemon and Ophanimon were evenly matched.

"Let's help her!" Angewomon exclaimed, shaking off the pain from her burned shoulder, the site where Daemon's scorching laser had grazed upon. She summoned her bow and arrow and fluttered beside Ophanimon.

"I'm one step ahead of you," MagnaAngemon murmured, and the purple blade from his right bracelet sparked with golden power as he flanked Ophanimon's other side.

Daemon stared at his angelic foes; three angels versus the reincarnation of Daemon of Wrath, a member of the gloriously evil Seven Great Demon Lords. The odds certainly seemed to be in _his_ favor.

In the meantime, the five Wira Digital were having quite a tough time with the semi-blinded Belphemon, whose rage knew no bounds when Xianamon had pierced his right eye. Nothing they had come up with could stop Belphemon; it was like trying to strain a raging bull. Xianamon's Magical Stasis had no effect on him, and so seemed Samudramon's power-sapping Divine Rain; Belphemon's energy seemed to be without limit. Satriamon was relentlessly blasting torrents of flames upon Belphemon, and beside him Aldiyamon too used his Final Purification and Puspamon continuously showered the bull demon with her Jelita Shocker flowers. Yet Belphemon, being a full-fledged Mega Digimon, seemed to be unaffected by the attacks. With a deafening roar he shook off the attacks, and unleashed a shockwave of power from his mouth, throwing off the five Wira Digital away.

"Nothing we're doing seems to be working on this damned bull!" Satriamon snarled angrily.

"What else could we do? We've given him all we've got," Puspamon whimpered, moving her arms about, trying to shake off the soreness she was now feeling.

Samudramon didn't say anything; his chest heaved up and down, evidently he was the most exhausted out of the five Wira Digital. His grip on his trident tightened, he looked up at his fellow comrades and spoke, "We have to try again. Something must work against him, we just haven't figured out what."

"You're right." Aldiyamon looked up as Belphemon loomed upon them, drawing up a long breath to ease up the pain shooting up from his body due to a long draining battle. He glanced away towards Daemon, who was now fighting Ophanimon and the Saintly Siblings; he hadn't even noticed Ophanimon coming. And judging from the way they were fighting, it appeared that when Ophanimon and the siblings joined forces they were able to slowly, but surely, overwhelm Daemon. "If only we can do that…" he said softly.

"It is time to change the strategy," Xianamon said softly. _"Duo Focus!"_

Her blue-clad doppelganger emerged from her body just as Xianamon finished uttering the attack's name, and without wasting time the two sorceresses sailed above Belphemon. Xianamon's needles had partially blinded the demon bull before; perhaps she could do so again. Together they targeted Belphemon's uninjured eyes and struck simultaneously with the Jade Needles and the Soul Freezing Needles. The poisonous needles rained upon Belphemon, who defended himself by raising his gauntlet over his face, which deflected the needles without difficulty. They then retaliated with the Diamond Matrix Mandala; a rainbow of magical energy waves as well as shards of diamonds and rubies showered upon Belphemon, and the two Xianamon relentlessly continued their assaults as Belphemon blocked them.

"Now!" Aldiyamon said, seeing an opening to launch an attack. Busy fending off the Xianamon's attacks Belphemon had left his chest unprotected. _"Final Purification!"_

Samudramon and Puspamon joined hands and pointed their weapons towards Belphemon's chest where Aldiyamon's burnish white beam of light slammed upon. _"Rolling Thunder Hurricane!"_

Aldiyamon's attack was joined by spirals of thunderous typhoon, and Satriamon smirked as he charged up his gauntlet. He roared loudly and his body burst with red hot flames. He struck his gauntlet forward and unleashed a blazing dragon fire towards the combined attacks. _"Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode!"_

Assaulted with four Mega-class techniques, Belphemon snarled as pain crept up from his chest. With a grunt he wielded his chains so that they struck upon the Wira Digital. The Xianamon managed to block his chains with their telekinetic barriers, but the others were not as lucky as they were whip-lashed severely by the chains. And when the Xianamon gasped in surprise, Belphemon seized the chance and slammed her with the chains as well. The doppelganger was deleted and Xianamon was on her own once again. And for severing his eye, Belphemon opened his snout and released shockwaves upon the sorceress, further adding to the already-brutal assault he had inflicted.

"This power…this body… I cannot be trounced!" Belphemon roared with laughter as the dusk turned into nights. Buildings around them were broken, ravaged from the attacks. The park had been laid wasted; Samudramon's waters did little to ease the putrid flames Daemon had set upon it. The power was cut off; no buildings close to the vicinity bore indications of lights. The grandiose Petronas Twin Tower stood silently in darkness, windows shattered and some bore holes. The Wira Digital had been very careful not to let their attacks destroy any building, but Belphemon had no such reservations.

"Don't be so sure!"

Before Belphemon could decipher the identity of the one who had retorted to him, an echoic neigh of a horse emanated out of the still darkness and he was washed upon with golden energy waves which took form of a winged unicorn. The unicorn ran through him and Belphemon gasped, feeling his body partially paralyzed from head to toe. The unicorn made a turn, he could feel its radiance approaching him from the back and again streaking through him, further adding to the paralyzing effect, now his body was close to being still. He couldn't even look up, but saw that the assaulter was coming towards him.

"You shall not harm the Wira Digital!" Ophanimon proclaimed and pointed her javelin towards Belphemon. "Not when I'm around. _Eden's Javelin!"_

A burst of golden energy shot upon Belphemon's chest, further adding insult to the mild injury he had sustained from the Wira Digital earlier. He thought that it was strange that Ophanimon was able to attack him; hadn't she been fighting Daemon? His answer came when roars from Daemon was heard.

"I've had enough of you two weaklings! Now…DIE!!" Daemon folded his arms in front of himself before swung them out with such brute force, expelling out a torrent of roaring black flames upon Angewomon and MagnaAngemon, completely drowning what effort the angels could come out with. Their excruciated screams were heard and there was the familiar sound of dedigivolution ensued. Gatomon and Salamon, both battered and black, plummeted towards the ground, landing there with silent thuds. "Now, you diva! Where were we before you left me to deal with those weaklings?" Daemon swung one free arm and expelled a burst of flames towards Ophanimon.

Ophanimon skillfully spun her javelin in front of herself, which was radiating with golden aura, and the flames were torn apart by the javelin's sharp tip. Then she grabbed hold on the javelin's holder and blasted Daemon with seven orbs of light, resuming her fight with Daemon now that she had frozen Belphemon in stasis. Yet, she actually wanted to confront Belphemon more than Daemon, and it was not just because Belphemon was winning against the Wira Digital.

When she had arrived at the human world, with aid from Jackie, she was careful not to let her presence be known. The element of surprise would always favor one who initiated it, and so Ophanimon opted to wait. Her presence was known to the locals, for she had appeared near them, but the Wira Digital and the Puaka Generals were unaware of her presence then. She'd then crept silently, dispelling any stray attack from the demons from causing damage. She witnessed the battle, and marveled at the Saintly Siblings' sudden digivolution into MagnaAngemon and Angewomon. The outcome seemed to favor Aldiyamon and the saints as they battled Mephistomon and Phelesmon, but when the demons caught hold on the saints' alleged partners, her heart skipped a beat. What Mephistomon had done to spite Aldiyamon and that woman whom he was holding in his grasp…

She saw _his_ face. Mephistomon's face had transformed into _his_ face, the very face that had been haunting her. She saw Aldiyamon screaming angrily towards Mephistomon, and she saw how the woman froze in shock upon seeing _his_ face, how she then cried. Yet Ophanimon still was in the dark about the boy's identity, only knowing that whoever the boy was he must be important to Adam and that woman, who by then Ophanimon remembered, had appeared in her mind as well. Intrigued, she tried making connections between Adam, the woman, and the boy whose face Mephistomon had worn. The battle that ensued thereafter went unnoticed, until Lalamon and Lopmon snapped her out of her mild trance, both confused of her behavior. Ophanimon realized that the only way for her to know this was to ask Aldiyamon directly, and went to join the fight just as GuardiAngemon was forced by Daemon's flames in dedigivolving back into their composite forms. She was forced to help the Saintly Siblings first, but her attention was fixed on Belphemon.

"_Virtuous Throne!"_ Once again she released the paralyzing winged unicorn, this time upon Daemon who was yet to be immobilized.

"_Flame Inferno!"_ Daemon retaliated with his flames, but the flames were frozen by the unicorn, which then sailed upon him. A warm rush invaded his body from front, and then back, as the unicorn burst through him, and instantly his legs, arms, wings, body…all failed him. His attempt on trying to move met with failure.

Ophanimon could have finished the Puaka Generals now, but she was too disturbed by the mysterious boy's visage in her mind. Her focus was reduced. She quickly made her way towards Aldiyamon, who looked at her with wonder before giving her a strained smile.

"Ophanimon…thank goodness you're here, who knows what would've…"

"Aldiyamon, I must ask you something," Ophanimon interrupted quickly, her curiosity piqued. The other Wira Digital looked at her curiously, then at the frozen Belphemon and Daemon.

"Okay…" Aldiyamon glanced around, eager to finish off the battle, but out of respect for the grand angel, he agreed to her. "What is it, Ophanimon?"

Ophanimon took a deep breath and asked, "I saw Mephistomon impersonating someone when I arrived here," she said, watching as Aldiyamon's fair face darkened and his lips pressed together, showing how tensed Aldiyamon was feeling, but she persisted on. "Who is the one he impersonated? I can't help thinking…he must be someone who is dear to you. You responded somewhat…strongly, towards him when he took the boy's form…I must know, please. Who is he?"

Aldiyamon and the other Wira Digital were surprised of her question. None of them had seen it coming, especially from Ophanimon.

"Mephistomon took the form of my late older brother's face, or rather, _Adam's_ brother," Aldiyamon said, and Ophanimon's mouth quivered slightly as she let out a soft gasp. Inward, Patamon let Adam gain the control of their joined bodies, and the voice which came out next was Adam's instead of Aldiyamon's resonating mature voice. "Mephistomon had impersonated my brother not too long ago, somehow making me believe that he wasn't dead, giving me hope…" His voice became sorrowful as he threw a hateful look towards Belphemon. The bull demon didn't look like he cared; his expression was frozen along with the rest of his body. Aldiyamon sighed, "only for me to find out that it was his ploy to get to me all along. He wanted to destroy me emotionally and gain my friends' DigiSpheres…"

"Your…your brother?" Ophanimon looked astounded. "And he is dead?"

"Yes, for almost three years now," Aldiyamon said, his voice calm again, for he had made peace with his brother and parents' deaths. He gazed at Ophanimon, who didn't look like her usual self. The grand angel appeared to be deeply confused.

"What does this mean?" Ophanimon wondered, sounding completely lost. "Why am I having visions of your brother who has long since passed?"

Aldiyamon gasped softly, taken aback. "What?" he croaked. "Why?"

"I don't know…" Ophanimon admitted, looking around her for answers. The other four Wira Digital looked amongst them, not having the answer she was seeking. Then, they saw the Saintly Siblings slowly approaching Ophanimon; the puppy and the kitten were both injured, but the shine from their eyes showed that they had not given up yet. Above them, Lopmon and Lalamon hovered, while looking at her curiously.

"We know why," Gatomon said. "Salamon and I saw images of specific people in our minds too, for days, weeks even …"

Salamon nodded. "I kept seeing Abang Abu in my mind, despite having not met him before. Then I saw him at the hospital….Gatomon too, she saw Kak Lisha, who turned out to be Adam' sister. That's why we chose to stay with Kak Lisha at the hospital," he said, looking directly at Aldiyamon and Satriamon. "We didn't know why then, it just felt right, like we _belonged _there with them…but now we do." He seemed to have become more eloquent in speaking after his digivolution into MagnaAngemon, with his memories of his past life restored.

"They're our partners," Gatomon said. "That's why we kept seeing them in our minds. It was confusing, but now we understand why."

Everyone was stumped in hearing the Saintly Siblings' confessions. The Wira Digital all gazed at Ophanimon, who looked even more confused than ever. Aldiyamon especially, had a shocked look frozen on his face, his mouth partially opened but no sounds came out from it.

Nobody noticed Belphemon and Daemon stirring slightly. They blinked, taking in the conversations their foes were having, before exchanging evil grins. Their eyes, both scarlet and bloodthirsty, glinted.

"But…what does this mean?" Ophanimon finally said. "I saw images of _my partner_ in my mind, but…only to find out that he is dead?"

"My brother has passed away," Aldiyamon said clearly, "that much I do know. But…you…"

"Can it be," Lalamon voiced out her opinion, and everyone's attentions were fixed on her as she continued, "that while it's true Adam's brother is no longer around, but Lady Ophanimon is made his partner so that she could have the strength to defend his family during their times of need? Kind of a way that…Adam's brother would have done, if he's still around?" Lalamon looked down, as if fearing that her opinion was deemed too farfetched and worthless. "The Puaka Generals have always targeted Adam, and today they went as far to attack Adam's sister and the man who was with her…"

"Can it be true?" Aldiyamon said breathlessly, gazing at Ophanimon in wonder. He tried picturing Aizad in his mind, what he would have said in this mater, how he would have acted in this kind of situation…All of these was too much for him to digest – he couldn't help but to think why couldn't fate leave his brother as how he was now, a memory? Yet, having known Ophanimon being his late brother's partner, despite the fact that the two of them had never met, despite the fact that his brother was dead, Aldiyamon thought that it was a good thing too. He liked Ophanimon; the grand angel was the one who had restored his powers, and subsequently Aldiyamon used that power to replenish his friends' sapped powers. They were able to be here now, battling evil, because of this angelic woman. Aldiyamon couldn't think of a better Digimon suited to be with his late brother. Apparently, a partnership between a human and a Digimon transcended even life and death…

Sounds of blazing fires suddenly erupted, followed by swift clanging sounds of chains. It was so sudden that nobody had seen it coming. The four Wira Digital quickly got out of the chains' way, but neither Aldiyamon nor Ophanimon were that alert. Aldiyamon gasped, and Ophanimon glanced behind, saw the blazing chains snaking rapidly upon them, like a deadly serpent set on its prey, and out of instinct more than logic she pushed Aldiyamon away, sending the angel flying before the chains caught up to her. Her agonized screams echoed the night, and for a moment everything was still.

A loud clang was heard, followed by a sick squashing echo and a bursting metallic sound, and everyone saw how the blazing chains from Belphemon and Daemon went _through_ Ophanimon's chest. For a moment the grand angel hung by the chains in stasis, unable to break free from the chains which had pierced through her metallic wings, her armor, her body, her _heart_… The chains then was set ablaze and Ophanimon screamed weakly, digital blood poured out from her wounds but evaporated when came into contact with the unholy flames released by the chains. Then the flames died down, the chain was retracted and Ophanimon crashed onto the ground, her armors cracking all over before they lay open, revealing a bloodied white dress Ophanimon wore underneath her heavy emerald armors. A prominent circular hole was there at the center of her chest, slightly more inclined towards her heart.

"Ophanimon!!"

"Lady Ophanimon!!"

"NOOO!!!"

Aldiyamon zoomed past the other Wira Digital, nearly knocking them away with the ferocity of his speed as he went to Ophanimon's side. He knelt by the angel just as Lalamon and Lopmon both went by her head, weeping upon seeing their lady's state. Salamon and Gatomon were both frozen in shock, their eyes set wide. Ophanimon coughed, spitting out blood on her already soiled dress, and her helmet slid away revealing a blue-eyed beauty with orange-yellow hair.

"I...I'm…hurt…" she wheezed softly, and more blood was coughed out. The edges of her wings began to break into data particles, and so were her feet.

"Ophanimon…why did you do that?" Aldiyamon said, tears streaked down his cheeks. His white visor slid down, revealing a human face very much like Adam's – dark haired, light peach skin, storm gray eyes. He was crying. "I could have teleported us both out of harm's way….there's no reason why you should do that…"

"I suppose…you're right…" Ophanimon coughed weakly, and with the last of her strength, she grabbed Aldiyamon's hand. A strained, weak, yet genuine smile, graced her pained face. "Perhaps…this is what your brother…would've done…?"

Hearing that only aggravated the pain Aldiyamon was feeling in his heart. He choked out a sob, not able to reply, feeling frightened, for Ophanimon's grasp grew weak as her thighs were decomposing into data particles. "You…you can heal yourself, Ophanimon. Quick, before you…before you…"

"It's no use, Aldiyamon," Ophanimon said, shaking her head weakly, her tone gentle. "The damage…is too great. How…how unfortunate…"

"Lady Ophanimon…" Lalamon and Lopmon cried. "Don't…don't go…don't die…"

Ophanimon turned her head sideways, and gave her two friends a soft smile. "Lalamon…Lopmon…take care….and thank you…thank you for being…my friends…for accompanying me all…all these times. I hope…I hope you'll find partners…where you belonged with." Her legs were both gone, and now her waist was decomposing.

"Such a pity!" Belphemon and Daemon roared in laughter, their tones sarcastic. "What drama! The all powerful miss diva of light trounced finally, because she was confused of having a dead guy for a partner!" Daemon laughed audaciously.

"So it's only fitting if she is dead as well," Belphemon mused. "Maybe you'll get to be together in wherever you'll end up at. Say hello to Aizad for me, ask whether he likes my impersonation of him!"

Aldiyamon froze, and his eyes slanted angrily upon the remark. But it was Satriamon who responded to the bull demon's words.

"Bastards!" Satriamon shifted into his magma form and soared towards the sky, before he set himself ablaze and let loose a roaring dragon of flames. _"Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode!"_

Samudramon soon followed, hoisting himself with a pillar of water before spinning his body about, causing the pillar of water to spin around him as his trident crackled with electricity. Then a blue lightning based dragon was generated around him, and with a forward thrust of his trident Samudramon unleashed it so that it flew side by side with Satriamon's fiery dragon. _"Double-Edged Thunderblades, Powered Up Mode!"_

"_Diamond World Mandala, Powered Up Mode!"_

"_Jelita Shocker, Powered Up Mode!"_

A glowing golden fox with nine tails and diamonds orbiting around it and a shining pink sprite appeared before Xianamon and Puspamon upon the summoning of the attacks. The kitsune and the sprite sailed past their masters and streaked along with the dragons, before all four attacks joined together in a giant stream of bronze light, slamming with such ferocity upon the Puaka Generals that the resulting explosion was inaudible, too high for hearing range. The earth shook for a while, the shockwave of the combined attack caused the unbroken windows of the buildings around them to shatter into pieces before smokes, thick and dusty, burst out. The Wira Digital waited in anticipation, before to their utmost dismay the Puaka Generals emerged from the smokes, simpering mockingly. What ticked them off even more was the fact that they were not badly injured.

"I have an idea," Belphemon said, as a purple orb crackled inside his snout. "Why don't you all perish together? Then this will all be over. No more pain. This will my final gift. _Gift of Darkness!"_

"_Chaos Flare!" _

The massive violet orb and the raging flames shot towards Aldiyamon and the dying Ophanimon, but quickly the four Wira Digital intercepted the attacks with their powered up techniques, releasing all they got from their bodies until one could see streaks of fiery red, ocean blue, flowery pink and sparkling yellow – like a rainbow – slamming against the flaming energy orb, pushing it away with all the power they could muster, trying their best to protect the grieving Aldiyamon and the dying Ophanimon, as well as the four helpless Rookies. The four Wira Digital were slowly pushed back, the attacks were too strong for them but still they persevered. They were solely driven with the desire to protect their fellow teammate, who they knew, was grieving on a death committed right before his eyes.

Aldiyamon looked up, his face damp with tears. "Satriamon…Samudramon…Puspamon…Xianamon…"

"We got this," Satriamon said, his gruff voice strained as he gave Aldiyamon his patented lopsided grin. The dragon-shaped helmet he wore shattered, revealing a very familiar face of JD Kamaruzaman; the green-blue eyes and the shaggy, dirty blonde hair were unmistakable.

"Don't worry. We'll pull through this," Samudramon said calmly, yet at the same time his blue helmet broke into half, revealing a face very much like Manny's, despite the pale skin and long straight blue hair, unlike Manny's brown-tanned complexion and russet hair. The eyes however remained the same; the irises that were gazing upon Aldiyamon now were the familiar rusty shade of brown.

"What the Puaka Generals have done is unforgivable," Puspamon said and her pink visor combusted into data particles, revealing Gayathri's face and eyes, the only difference that her hair was reddish pink instead of the usual brown, and her complexion was lighter.

Xianamon gazed at Aldiyamon the longest before her fox face mask was blown off her face by the strong winds. It slammed on the paved ground and broke into half, and Liu Ying's face smiled upon Aldiyamon. Her two-ponytail hair had been untied, resulting in a long wave of shining raven hair, the shade was similar to her eyes. "We are a team," she said softly. "He harmed you….he harmed all of us. Has it not always been like that?" She turned away, and screamed out, "_Diamond World Mandala!!"_

"_Jelita Shocker!!"_

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!!"_

"_Dragonforce Striker!!" _

The Wira Digital's renewed blasts of attacks pushed the Puaka Generals' attacks back on them before an explosion ensued. Yet the force from the explosion also had thrown all four of them onto the ground, and while still in their digivolved forms none was strong enough to fight. Satriamon, Samudramon, Puspamon and Xianamon were struggling just to heave themselves up from the ground, and they fell again weakly. Unfortunately, the Puaka Generals remained standing.

"Aldiyamon…it was…an honor to…. fight along with you," Ophanimon said quickly, as her belly was beginning to vanish; the decomposition process waited for no one. "I have…no regrets…of leaving…Lost Mountain…"

At this, Lalamon's cries grew louder. "Lady Ophanimon…forgive me…forgive me! If it weren't for me tricking you…in stepping out from the mountain…you won't…you wouldn't be…"

"No apologies, Rosemon," Ophanimon said serenely, the decomposition process was now devouring the glaring hole where Belphemon's chains had impaled her. Lalamon's cries grew harder when Ophanimon referred her in her Mega form's name. "I have…no…regrets. Always remember that…don't blame…yourself." Her eyes looked up, landing on Lopmon who was weeping silently. "D'Arcmon…you're so…quiet…"

"I don't know…what to say…" the bunny said, before she burst into unrestrained tears. Lopmon and Lalamon huddled together, depending on each other for support.

"Aldiyamon…Adam…" Ophanimon turned back to look at the crying angelic knight. "My only…regret…was not…being able…to get to know…your brother. I am…sure…he was…as…_charming_…as you…am I…right?"

"You'd love him…" Aldiyamon croaked, as the decomposition process sped up, now leaving only Ophanimon's head intact as her arms and wings were devoured. He was now grasping a phantom image of Ophanimon's hand – the hand was gone, yet his hand still remained frozen as if he was grasping her hand, afraid that if he moved his finger for just a fraction, the fact that Ophanimon was dying would become more real, more real than it was right then. He wasn't willing to let Ophanimon go, but…what could he do? "And...and Abang Zad, he'd love you too. I know it."

"Good…I'm glad…" Ophanimon said, closing her eyes, a tranquil smile graced her face before she said softly, "Goodbye…"

"Ophanimon…" Aldiyamon's voice broke, as the last bits of Ophanimon floated over the air before vanishing within the darkness of the night. Lalamon and Lopmon's cries grew harder, and Aldiyamon found himself crying heavily too; he had just witnessed somebody died before him. It reopened a wound in his heart; the pain was unbearable. "Ophanimon…OPHANIMON!!"

His scream echoed all around the darkened city, and a burst of light erupted from his body like flames, extending to form a pillar of light which tore the darkness away as it soared towards the sky, parting the clouds with a sharp sound. The flames coalesced around Aldiyamon as he stood up, his slanted eyes stared venomously towards the Puaka Generals as he shrieked again, his shout gradually sounded like a firebird's screech as the bird of flames materialized, spreading its wings wide yet not causing anything to burn. The light was harsh, like the warmest day of sunlight, and the other four Wira Digital froze, fearing the worst as within the flames, they saw Aldiyamon changing.


	53. Juara Ascension

A crowd gathered at about one kilometer away from the KLCC park, watching the battle from afar. They couldn't make out much of the Wira Digital as they had hoped they would, but the two demons were very well visible; the five renowned heroes could only be seen as moving orbs of lights when compared to the demons, and from the way it had been going on for the past one hour, it appeared that while the Wira Digital were able to keep the battle at bay, they weren't able to stop the demons from destroying the famous park as well as the Twin Towers and the buildings around it. The hotel and the telecommunications tower flanking the Twin Towers seemed to have suffered the worst out of the battle; the same applied for the convention center next to the hotel, and the mosque at the edge of the park, and many other hotels and office buildings lining the park. The skies weren't visible above the park, covered by smokes which resulted from the flames emitted by the demons. Firemen worked hard to keep the flames at bay, but they were having a hard time doing it. Ambulances parked closely against each other, with doctors, nurses and paramedics treating people who got injured during the battle. Policemen set up banisters around the park to stop some of the more adventurous people from going in the park, most of them reporters who seemed to place a higher value on a breaking-news rather than their lives.

One example was a pair of a well-known anchorwoman dressed sharply in red business suit and her cameraman sidekick.

"Look, don't you know who I am?" Rita Kaur huffed towards one policeman, when he tried to stop her from going in the park. "I have a duty to attend to; the people must know what's going on."

"And they've already know about the situation, and yes I do know who you are, Miss Kaur," the policeman said deftly, his face looked wry. "And I too, Miss Kaur, have a duty to attend to, and that is to stop people from going into the park. If you two consider yourselves people, kindly step away from the banisters, you can make your live-report over there." The policeman gestured towards the crowd of people, and to make sure that he'd gotten his point across his hand darted to the baton by his belt. With mild exasperation the policeman glanced towards his colleagues, who were also restraining some other reporters. He sighed and walked away, thinking that Rita would know better than to disobey the order of a policeman.

"Humph. The nerve," Rita Kaur snorted, and narrowed her eyes towards Chia the cameraman. "_Don't_ record this!"

"Uhh…we're on air, Miss Kaur, sorry…not anymore." Chia immediately switched off the videocamera and gave the anchorwoman a sheepish smile.

Rita merely snorted and turned away, but she saw two figures appearing from the park, looking as if they had been directly involved in the battle. It was a black-haired man in a black work shirt and tanned khakis, cradling a woman in light green baju kurung and a matching headscarf, but the outfit was marred by dirt and soot. They seemed to be running away from the battle. "Quick, Chia, switch on the videocam now!" She glanced towards the policeman, grinning sneakily when she saw that he had his back facing them, and silently gestured for Chia to follow her. They strode past the banisters and quickly approached the couple.

"Greetings! I'm Rita Kaur, and you two seem to be coming from the park," Rita began loudly and with false sweetness, hoping to catch the attention of Abu and Alisha. "First, do tell us your names, then we're hoping that you'll be able to tell us what exactly were you doing in the park, and what you have seen…"

Abu seemed to be not listening; his legs were beginning to fail him, he had been running away at record speed from the battlefield with Alisha on his arms. Normally, he wouldn't mind doing so, but when their lives were placed at stake it was a different matter altogether. He still didn't mind, but right now his arms and legs were sore, and if he didn't put his future wife-to-be down soon he feared that both of them were going to fall. Thus, when the famous anchorwoman approached them along with her sidekick cameraman, Abu was flustered as Alisha gasped. He swayed, momentarily losing his balance and Alisha's feet accidentally knocked over the videocamera Chia was holding, and it was smashed onto the ground.

"Not again…." Chia whimpered. "The boss is sure going to fire me this time."

"No, he won't," Rita said sharply. "Get the backup videocam from the van, now! If we get their story the boss will be so impressed and we'll get our promotions! Get your butt moving!" As Chia skittered away Rita laughed nervously as she turned back to face Abu and Alisha. "Heh, heh, don't worry about it, okay? Just an accident, I completely understand! Hey…wait a minute…" She blinked, staring at Abu and Alisha before her large eyes widened in surprise. "I know you two! You…you're that doctor who treated the boy…Adam Ariff…the one who got attacked by the evil Digimon….Dr. Abu Ubaidah, am I right? And you, you…" She stared in wonder at Alisha, who looked back at her with disbelief. "You're the boy' sister…Alisha Ariff! Ooh, but this is just _superb_!"

"Excuse me," Abu said incredulously, sounding super-annoyed. He remembered the anchorwoman well, having chased her and her cameraman out from Adam's ward not too long ago. He also knew by reputation that Rita Kaur was nothing but persistent. "Do you mind? I need to get to the paramedics!"

"Why, of course not! Let me help you, and in return you'll grant me an interview, okay? Right…come along." Rita pushed away the banisters, and the noise they made alerted the policemen and some other reporters, who began clamoring towards her, Abu and Alisha. "Hey! Back off, I saw them first, and they've agreed to give me an exclusive interview!" The other reporters murmured their disappointment, but some of the more persistent ones began snapping shots of Abu and Alisha, much to her annoyance. But she couldn't show how much she was annoyed by their actions; so instead, she threw the others a big toothy smile and waved her hand in the most endearing way she could muster, placing herself before the couple so that the photographers could only get her picture instead of Abu and Alisha. "Yes, that's right! Snap to your hearts' content, fellas!" The other reporters snorted in disgust and walked away, and Rita grinned in satisfaction. "I can picture it now…love surviving a battle…" she mumbled to herself, and both Abu and Alisha looked like they wanted to smack the woman.

"_OPHANIMON!!!!" _

The pained, anguished scream echoed the park and everyone froze, especially Abu and Alisha, for they recognized the one who was screaming. Then a blinding explosion of light ensued as the screaming voice shifted into screeches of a bird, and just a few seconds later a massive white flaming bird burst forth from the explosion of light, like a firebird. Rita turned to look at the flaming bird, wide-eyed, and saw that Chia was already recording the supernatural phenomena. She grasped her microphone tight and began to walk towards Chia, ready to make a live coverage, momentarily forgotten about Abu and Alisha.

"Adam…everyone…please be alright," Alisha said softly as she gazed towards the screeching firebird, its screech sounded pained and sorrowful. Both she and Abu wondered what could be going on at the battle site. Something terrible must have happened to make Aldiyamon scream like that. The firebird was Aldiyamon's trademark; its screech somehow caused sorrow to fill in their hearts all of a sudden. They really wanted to go back there to make sure that everything was okay, but by being there they became a liability for the Puaka Generals to use against the Wira Digital, as they had done. It was better that they remained out of sight, with everyone else, blending in with the crowd.

"They'll be alright, Lisha," Abu said soothingly, his voice equally as soft as his fiancée's.

Rita froze, hearing what Alisha and Abu had just said. Her experience as a reporter and an anchorwoman had trained her to sharpen all her senses; her eyes, her ears, even her nose and touches. They had spoken very softly, but their words didn't escape her sharp ears. She'd heard clearly what Alisha had said. _'Adam? Her brother? Why would she hope that he'll be alright? Unless…'_ Suspicions rose as Rita stared at the screeching bird of light, remembering that a firebird was Aldiyamon's trademark. Her eyes shot up wide when she made the connection, as a sly smile formed on her face. _'Forget the interview. This is even bigger.'_

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 53 – Juara Ascension **_

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Satriamon, Samudramon, Puspamon and Xianamon watched in fearful anticipation as the firebird of light bursting out from Aldiyamon continued to screech as it flapped its wings in rage, sending showers of bluish white orbs all over the park. The ground rumbled due to the shockwave of both the screams and the explosion of light, and the grounds where Aldiyamon was on actually cracked, causing fissures to radiate from all directions. Smokes burst out from the fissures, as well as pebbles and leaves, before light orbs followed, illuminating the already bright area.

The four Rookies Lalamon, Lopmon, Salamon and Gatomon rushed towards the four Wira Digital to evade being devoured by the smokes, leaping as the grounds shook while at the same time avoiding the orbs, pebbles and leaves, all the while their concentrations already disrupted by the wild screech from the bird of light.

"Aldiyamon…" The Wira Digital gasped when the firebird intensified in density and morphed into a pillar of extremely bright radiance, so bright that they had to cover their eyes with their arms, their faces no longer protected by their helmets or visors. The Rookies went to hide behind their feet, fearful of what to become of Aldiyamon. Everyone stared at the pillar as it seemed to pulsate, lightning crackling all over the pillar from the ground all the way up towards the sky. The sky thundered once, twice, thrice, before slowly the pillar calmed, the lights slowly subsiding but never extinguished. A shadow appeared within the radiance, tall, impressive and with great wings.

Belphemon and Daemon grunted in annoyance, the smoke blocking their view. They felt a burning sensation coursing all over their bodies, and were flustered by it. Lucemon's Obsidian Gem had granted them protection from the light, the very thing that could weaken them, yet now even with the protection they were feeling the harshness of the light coming from the giant pillar. Then they saw the smokes parting, and the pillar of light slowly dying down along with the shrieks. The shadow became apparent, and they gasped upon seeing who was there.

The figure within the pillar was still Aldiyamon, but with vast differences. He had grown about a couple of feet tall, now standing at equal heights with Satriamon. His armors remained as they were, polished white to perfection but the edges became sharper. The metallic wings guards on his shoulder were gone. His eight wings had undergone a vast transformation, no longer silver but feathery white, and there were now ten wings. Tied around his waist, along the upper rims of his belt was a silver sash with both ends fluttering at his sides. His face was still without the manteau he usually wore, and everyone could see the tears streaking down his fiercely slanted stormy eyes, his dark eyebrows set so closely together, his now bluish-white hair was arranged in spikes in multiple directions, but most of them facing backwards save for one collected strands of hair that formed a thick pointed bang which fell to the side of his face, fluttering against the wind generated from under the ground. Bluish white orbs seemed to be permanently radiating about him, their lights reflected by his shining armor, his white wings and equally bluish white hair, making him look even more impressive than his previous form.

The tears then dried, Aldiyamon was no longer crying. He lowered his head slightly, eyes glinting with determination and mouth set thin. His silver-white manteau reappeared and covered the upper half of his face before the white wings decoration sprouted from the sides of the manteau. His transformation complete, Aldiyamon soared towards the air and emitted a bright blink of light before the smokes vanished completely.

"He's…digivolved!" Salamon and Gatomon said simultaneously.

"Digivolved?" Satriamon said in disbelief, looking at the new form of Aldiyamon. Drawing his breath in, he realized that the Saintly Siblings must be right. This angelic knight couldn't be the same Aldiyamon; he was radiating even more power than his previous form, not to mention looked way different than before. _'I wonder if he has healing powers…'_ Satriamon thought silently, remembering about the fatal cat tattoo imprinted on JD's chest, which would take effect in about three weeks from now.

"He looks…amazing," Samudramon whispered.

"Way beyond amazing…" Puspamon said.

"Who is he now?" Xianamon wondered.

As if he had heard his comrades' queries, Aldiyamon glanced sideways, meeting their gazes. "I'm still Aldiyamon," he answered, his voice maintaining the same echoic quality and the tone befitting of a teenage male that his lesser form possessed. "Yet, I'm not the same Aldiyamon," he said with a tone that suggested that he too was processing the news, as he was evidently unsure of what to make out of the situation as well. "I'm now Aldiyamon Juara Mode, and I'm now a Mega level Digimon," he finally declared, before his mouth was set thin. "The Puaka Generals will pay for what they've done to Ophanimon, to this place, to you guys….to me…"

Hearing Aldiyamon Juara Mode's declaration, Belphemon snorted. "What a disappointment. I thought you'd succumb to sorrow like last time, and go for your Fury Mode." 

"Instead, you've become this…this loathsome Juara Mode of yours," Daemon said with distaste. "Well, at least we have nothing to worry about; your Fury Mode was truly deadly, but since you didn't go with that, then it's your lost."

Aldiyamon Juara Mode didn't reply, but extended his left hand forward, and opened his palm. White concentrated aura was emitted from it and the singsong shriek of a firebird was heard as white flames coalesced around his hand, the flames transformed into a firebird as its wings extended upward and downward, and the firebird solidified to form a pristine white bow, designed to look like it was made from feathers where actually it was crafted by metal, with silver linings and five studded red gemstones lining the bow. Yet the bow was also very peculiar for it did not possess a string to secure an arrow on. Then Aldiyamon flicked his right hand and the same white aura burst forth from it. He placed his glowing right hand upon the bow before a string made out of pure light materialized, as well as an arrow made out of pure light from his shining right hand. Now the angel was wielding a bow and an arrow of light, and he stared at Belphemon and Daemon as he positioned the light arrow on the string, pulling it back, before announcing: _"Radiant Star Hunter!" _

He fired the first arrow which zoomed towards the Puaka Generals, but without waiting for the arrow to strike he repeated the same action over and over again with rapid dexterity and speed. Deploying Sagittarimon's archery expertise as well as manipulating his Radiant Faith technique to generate the arrows; that attack had evolved into the more ferocious Radiant Star Hunter and with his boundless supply of light Aldiyamon could never run out of arrows. Soon volleys of light arrows streaked towards Belphemon and Daemon, providing no way for the demons to escape. And the good thing about these light arrows were the fact that when they came into contact with the buildings, the grounds, or any other sites other than their intended target, they would just dissolve into data particles, for lights wouldn't harm inanimate objects. Yet when they grazed the darkness manifest Puaka Generals, their deadliness were made apparent; the arrows pierced through their wings and grazed the sides of their bodies, as the demons actually _struggled_ to protect themselves by shielding their bodies, while Aldiyamon kept firing the arrows without mercy.

"Damn it!" Belphemon roared, and struck the arrows that attempted to slash his body. Without wasting time he willed his chains to nullify the arrows, and for a moment his attempt worked; the chains knocked off the arrows as they snaked towards Aldiyamon, causing them to combust upon contact.

"Hmm…" His mouth pursed in mild surprise, Aldiyamon pointed the bow and arrow towards the sky and focused more power into his next light arrow. _"Radiant Star Shower!"_

The arrow that resulted was even more concentrated than the previous one, and Aldiyamon shot it towards the sky. The arrow soared higher and higher, forming an arch of light before it exploded, sending showers of light down towards the ground. The light shower slammed upon the chains and destroyed them with ease, and some singed the Puaka Generals from above. They merely dissolved into data when they hit the ground or the buildings, but let out a buzzing electrocuting sound when came into contact with either the Puaka Generals or the chains.

"Wow!" Satriamon said, impressed. "Nice fireworks!"

"I wish I could do that," Gatomon said in awe; as Angewomon she was also an expert archer, but her arrow took a while to form.

"Curse it!" The Puaka Generals winced; the dark shield they were using to protect themselves didn't seem to work against the magnificent light showers. They then saw Aldiyamon spinning his white bow with expert skills, before holding it horizontally. The bow, when held that way, now resembled a crossbow. Then he placed his right hand onto the crossbow, and charged the weapon with his power of light.

"_Radiant Star Blaster!" _ Upon calling out the command, a thin stream of concentrated white light burst out from the crossbow, transformed into a burning white firebird which pierced through the darkness with a shriek, sailing at an amazing speed before slamming onto the Puaka Generals, throwing them both off their feet with a loud explosion. "Evil has no place here," Aldiyamon Juara Mode said, sighing sadly; his heart was still overwhelmed with sadness due to Ophanimon's sudden demise, _murdered_ at the hands of the Puaka Generals, for protecting him. He'd fight the Puaka Generals now until he was sure that they were both deleted before his eyes.

"Awesome triple combo…" Samudramon said with awe.

"He actually overpowered both Puaka Generals with those three attacks," Xianamon said.

"Good," Puspamon said, her hand on her chest, as she breathed out in relief. "I need the break."

Aldiyamon flew closer to get a good look of the fallen generals. It was dark where they had fallen, but as Aldiyamon was approaching the area the radiant light he was emitting shone through the area, illuminating the darkness like a beacon. Everything was so quiet. But all of a sudden, chains sprouted from the area where it was too dark, and coiled around him, wrapping against his body tight. Another chain plucked his white bow out from his grasp. Aldiyamon gasped, before sinister laughter was heard, slow at first before gradually become louder. Belphemon stepped out from the darkness, followed by Daemon. Daemon placed his claws on the chains and summoned his Flame Inferno, fusing it with Belphemon's Lampranthus; the two attacks burned against him and Aldiyamon screamed in pain.

Belphemon laughed viciously, and snapped Aldiyamon's bow into half before throwing it away. The destroyed bow combusted into data particles and Belphemon snickered as his tightened his chains around the struggling angel. "You're only one Digimon, and I've destroyed your magic weapon, how do you expect to escape from us now!"

As if on cue, streams of red flames, blue thunderbolt, pink flowers and yellow magical energy waves struck the chains, causing them to explode into bits of data. Aldiyamon was freed, and found himself flanked on all sides by his fellow Wira Digital.

"He's never alone," Satriamon snarled angrily.

"He's got us!" Puspamon shouted.

Samudramon and Xianamon, while not saying anything, showed their support with a low grunt.

"Everyone…thanks," Aldiyamon Juara Mode said, touched deeply. His friends didn't look like they were up for another fight; their face masks and helmets had all combusted, reflecting just how much power they had exerted to protect him earlier. Yet their courage persevered and it fueled him with power again; his pain seemed to be evaporating, and he felt stronger with his teammates by him. With them by his side, how could he lose? He didn't need his Fury Mode to beat the Puaka Generals, for he now had his Juara Mode, and his four friends' support.

Aldiyamon flicked his right hand and the Heavenstar Gladius formed in it. Then by just waving his sword horizontally, a stream of silver wave shot out from it and slammed onto Belphemon and Daemon, pushing them backward slightly. He did this again, without even calling the prerequisite attack name, and the Puaka Generals were pushed even farther back that they almost knocked over the convention center building behind them. Quickly he teleported them away, making them reappear at the sky, right at the center of the ravaged park. Then he generated a pristine, pearly white energy sphere before him, as swirls of bluish white orbs from his wings and body concentrated at the energy sphere. His whole body glimmered with silver white aura as seven silver orbs materialized in a circle around the first sphere he had generated. "This is for Ophanimon…"

Aldiyamon brought his hands which were holding the energy sphere to his sides, before forcing them upwards towards the Puaka Generals. _"Transcendent Purification!!" _

The Transcendent Purification was an evolved form of the Final Purification, and the latter was already a Mega-class technique. Aldiyamon had crafted this technique in tribute for Ophanimon, and now he watched the fruits of his effort as the white orb he had created exploded into torrents of holy energy with the seven orbs launched side by side with the attack. The burst of sacred energy slammed upon Belphemon and Daemon and sent them crashing back down onto the park, causing the earth to rumble due to their heavy weights.

"Did it work…?" Aldiyamon wondered, the white glow on him began to fade. He scowled upon seeing the Puaka Generals laughing as they got back up on their feet. "What?"

"That was marvelously done…" Belphemon spoke out with a simper. His chains coiled around his thick arms, his red eyes locked on Aldiyamon.

"But not good enough!" Daemon said, snarling as he formed a corona of black flames, but didn't release it just yet.

"Play time's over," Belphemon said, and called out: _"Lampranthus!!" _ The chains snaked out in a flowery formation in five different directions, hung in midair, before they zoomed towards Aldiyamon.

"It's over alright…for you!" Aldiyamon spat, and prepared to attack back. But to his surprise the chains swiftly bypassed him and he gasped in horror, realizing Belphemon's true intentions. He turned around and saw the chains lashing onto the four other Wira Digital; they barely managed to evade the chains. Their screams dominated the battlefield, and already weak enough from the drawn-out battle previously, the four Wira Digital were reduced into their composite forms. "Oh no! Guys…"

Daemon snickered. "Worry about yourself, foolish boy! _Chaos Flare!"_

Distracted, Aldiyamon didn't see the giant black flames coming towards him. He could have teleported away, but behind him his friends and their partners were too weak to move around.

"Why don't you teleport away, Aldiyamon?" Daemon's egging question caused Aldiyamon to become more suspicious. There was no reason for Daemon to suggest it, unless it would work on his favor. "You can't have both ways; my flames are _locked _on you. No matter where you go, they'll get you. You teleport away, your friends will burn, teleport altogether and _all _of you will burn together when you reappeared." The demonic ape cackled maniacally. "What's it gonna be?"

There was only one way to do then, Aldiyamon thought. He remained where he was and teleported his friends to safety. By doing so he couldn't come up with a counter attack, and screamed as Daemon's flames devoured him thoroughly, sending him crashing onto the ground. His armor had protected him from being burned, but apparently the Puaka Generals had no intention to let him get away with it. Belphemon unleashed a gigantic violet orb from his snout and it slammed onto Aldiyamon's back before he could move away, causing him to fall again onto the ground. Thin wisps of smoke trailed out from his armors, which was soiled with the attacks inflicted upon him by the two demons. The lustrous glow from his armors began to wane, and his wings too lost their shine.

Sparkles of bluish white orbs were seen emanating not too far from Aldiyamon, and the four DigiWira and their partners reappeared there; in his desperation to send them away Aldiyamon hadn't the time to lock in a specific place, and as a result they were only transported far enough from the attacks' path but not too far for them to be safe. They had reappeared where Salamon, Gatomon, Lalamon and Lopmon had taken refuge earlier.

Unfortunately, the Puaka Generals had seen them too, and now all of them were in grave danger.

"_Gift of Darkness!"_

"_Chaos Flare!"_

Fearful for his friends' fate Aldiyamon reacted without thinking; he teleported towards his friends and shielded them with his body, letting Belphemon and Daemon's attacks slam onto his back. The scream he let out was drowned by the explosion that followed the collision between him and the demons' attacks. The brute force that came along with the attack was too strong; Aldiyamon and the other DigiWira and partners were all thrown away onto the ground. Aldiyamon was not moving, lying facedown on the ground, his wings burnt and his white armor cracked. The other DigiWira were safe, except for some scrapes on their skins and clothes, they were otherwise alright. The same applied for the Digimon, all eight of them.

"That was…very close…" Aldiyamon said weakly as the earth rumbled a little; the Puaka Generals were approaching them slowly. He raised his face up, seeing his friends getting back up on their feet. His power was failing him fast, he had no energy to teleport them away. Panicked, he whispered, "Everyone…run…"

"What are you talking about?" JD demanded, standing up straight quickly. His face contorted with determination. "You can't expect us to leave you here. You can't give up now. Stand up, Aldiyamon!"

Aldiyamon blinked and looked up at JD; his cousin brother had never sounded that harsh when he was talking to him. Not after Karatenmon's spell was broken. It shocked him, yet he knew that JD meant well. The blonde teen was extending out his hand towards him, and soon he was joined by Manny, Liu Ying and Gayathri. He took their hands, and the DigiWira began pushing him back up. His eight-foot stature didn't seem to deter them; and soon even Agumon, Penguinmon, Labramon, Floramon, Salamon, Gatomon, Lalamon and Lopmon were helping him to stand back up. By right, he was already too weakened by the multiple assaults against him, but seeing his comrades not losing their spirits, he knew that he was the only hope they all had now to bring down the demonic duo.

"They killed Ophanimon," Lalamon said, her black button eyes tearful. "They killed her with cold blood; you can't just let them get away with it."

"You're the only one who can do it now," Liu Ying said encouragingly. "Only you, Aldiyamon. So don't give up just yet."

"We're right behind you," Manny asserted, grunting as he and JD supported Aldiyamon's weight on their shoulders for they were currently the physically-strongest of them all.

"We'll help in any way we can!" Salamon and Gatomon declared.

"C'mon, cuz. You didn't digivolve to Mega to lose the fight," JD said. "You have a couple of demons' asses to kick, so stand back up now!"

Then, something miraculous happened. Everyone there, human and Digimon, began to glow with their respective colors – the four DigiWira and their partners let out crimson red, navy blue, golden yellow and rosy pink glimmers, and the other four Digimon in magenta, orange, lavender and pink auras, and the auras went into Aldiyamon's body. Aldiyamon gasped and looked up, and thought that he was seeing thing, for he saw visages of Satriamon, Samudramon, Xianamon and Puspamon, as well as Rosemon, D'Arcmon, MagnaAngemon and Angewomon, all of them shadowy and spirit-like behind the DigiWira and the Rookies, but their strengths seemed to have multiplied as they managed to pull Aldiyamon up, supporting him while he was on his knees, before Aldiyamon's own strength returned. Knees buckled, he stood up back on his feet.

"That's right…I can still fight," Aldiyamon Juara Mode said softly, looking up at the two demons who were now only a mere hundred meters away from them.

"Still standing?" Belphemon said incredulously. "What a nuisance!"

"Let's finish them off in one go!" Daemon snarled, and called upon his Chaos Flare again. Belphemon followed suit with his Gift of Darkness, and the two attacks merged into one destructive purple sphere with black flames spiraling around it.

"_Eternal Damnation!!" _

The resulted attack was a torrent of jet black energy waves, drowning every light that came across their path. The black stream of power also destroyed everything in its path and was now looming upon Aldiyamon and the other DigiWira and Digimon.

"_Transcendent…"_ Aldiyamon generated a silver white energy sphere, now also coalescing with the power he had gotten from his friends. Eight orbs spiraled around Aldiyamon in eight different colors; crimson red and normal red, navy blue and lavender, golden yellow and orange, rosy pink and light pink before they all were absorbed by the primary silver sphere, which grew bigger that it alone became the beacon of light amidst the darkness resulting from the Puaka Generals' Eternal Damnation. _"…PURIFICATION!! HAAAA!!"_

He swiftly brought his hands forward and the sphere sprayed out a rainbow wave of energy which slammed upon the Eternal Damnation just as the latter attack was about to drown the heroes. The angelic knight grunted in pain as the Eternal Damnation pushed his Transcendent Purification back, and his grunts turned into a scream as he pushed back his attack, forcing the Eternal Damnation away.

'_I can't lose…'_ Aldiyamon thought desperately, his teeth gritted tight, and blood trickled out from his nose, marking just how strained he was now, being pushed to his utmost limit. The ground shook horribly due to the collision of two mighty forces; earthquake ensued and the grounds were ripped apart, fissures growing wider and wider. Chunks of earth poured out as the Eternal Damnation pushed Aldiyamon deeper into the ground. Both his feet sunk into the ground, Aldiyamon couldn't move. All of his muscles screamed in pain, the nerves all in overdrive, shooting out pain, but Aldiyamon didn't care.

"I can't lose! I can't let you take any more lives this day, not now and not ever!!" And in his mind, he silently pleaded, _'Anyone…give me more power…give me more strength…help me…'_

Suddenly his hands felt warm as a golden presence appeared beside him. A gentle hand touched his joined hands and Aldiyamon looked sideways, gasping in shock upon seeing the ghostly form of Ophanimon, without her helmet, smiling at him, her blue eyes twinkling at him. No words were exchanged; Ophanimon's touch caused the Transcendent Purification to shift into a radiant gold color, which gained momentum and began pushing the Eternal Damnation back with renewed power and might that it washed upon the two Puaka Generals, drowning them in the harshest light, and an explosion bigger and louder than ever ensued, followed by the Puaka Generals' defeated cries.

The earthquake ceased. The park was wrecked to the point of beyond repair. Smokes rose from the fissures, clouding the sight as Aldiyamon heaved his breaths silently, fatigued. He looked around for Ophanimon, but she was already gone. He looked back, and saw his fellow teammates gaping at him with awe, before the gapes turned into grins and grins turned into victorious cries. They all clamored around Aldiyamon, congratulating him, acting as if they hadn't seen Ophanimon. Aldiyamon decided that perhaps this was another one of those special encounters, like the one he'd had with Grademon, and smiled down towards his friends. Yet, something was telling him that it wasn't over yet.

"Curse…it…"

Aldiyamon gasped and everyone else froze in shock, for the voice belonged to Mephistomon. The smokes cleared and the visages of Mephistomon and Phelesmon could be seen within them. They were hurt really badly, blood was pouring out their wounded bodies and they were clutching their chests in pain. Their eyes were both bloodshot, staring angrily at Aldiyamon before the anger turned into disbelief, apparently because Aldiyamon was still in his Juara Mode, a Mega level Digimon, while they had been reduced back into Ultimates.

"One day…one day…" Mephistomon wheezed, and flapped his great wings. Phelesmon followed him, both generals soaring towards the night sky where an oval portal had suddenly appeared.

"No! No more!" Aldiyamon shouted angrily, and stomped towards their retreating backs. "No more! I've had enough!"

On his left hand his white bow appeared, and on his right hand the Heavenstar Gladius materialized in swirls of bluish white orbs. "You won't escape, Puaka Generals!" He charged his sword with glorious white light before positioning the sword at the bow, then locking targets towards the retreating Puaka Generals. "There won't be a next time for you two! This ends here, right here, and RIGHT NOW! _Radiant Heavenstar Hunter!!"_

He released the sword, and watched as the sword soared higher and higher towards the Puaka Generals before it was enveloped by a typhoon of white light, itself energized to take form of a blazing white firebird with the beak shaped like the tip of an arrow. The speed of the soaring Radiant Heavenstar Hunter was unbelievable as it gained on the Puaka Generals, getting closer and closer, the Puaka Generals' dire attempt to outrun it seemed futile, before a sharp stabbing sound was heard followed by defeated, agonized gasps from the Puaka Generals. The supercharged sword had _pierced through_ their bodies, right by their hearts, before causing the opened gateway to explode into data particles when the firebird collided with it. The firebird died down and the sword plummeted towards the ravaged park, landing by its blade which then got stuck into the ground.

As for the Puaka Generals, both of them hung in midair momentarily, holes gaped from where the hearts should be, if they possessed them. With another pained, defeated, final shriek, the Puaka Generals who had caused so much grief on Aldiyamon combusted into data particles, their data vanished into the night. It happened right before Aldiyamon and the others; this time, it was certain.

The Puaka Generals were no more. Aldiyamon had finally won.

And somehow, there was a poetic justice behind the Puaka Generals' deaths. The Puaka Generals had killed Ophanimon by running Belphemon's chains through her heart; and they suffered the same fate when Aldiyamon's sword pierced through their hearts.

Aldiyamon Juara Mode sighed, and devolved back into Adam and Patamon. Adam lowered his head, the lingering sad feeling he had contained throughout the battle returned and a tear escaped his eyes. "It's finally over," he said softly, and Patamon gently rubbed the back of his head to soothe his pain. They were victorious, but as Adam looked around the park, he realized that their victory came with a heavy price. It would take a lot of effort to restore the parks and the buildings, some of them partially destroyed while others remained standing but bearing evidences of surviving a battle between good and evil.

Liu Ying and Gayathri both walked towards Adam, partners in tow, and placed their hands on their leaders' shoulders. They smiled comfortingly at the saddened boy, and were glad to see him returning it.

JD too was about to join them, wanting to comfort his cousin, before Manny said softly, "JD, wait."

The blonde teen turned to his teammate, arching an eyebrow questioningly. He watched as Manny bit his lips, looking very anxious. "Yeah?"

"It's…about your tattoo," Manny said with a low tone, and JD's face turned sharp, his hazel-eyed gaze piercing at him. "I…I've found something about it, and I think you should know." He cast a nervous look at the other three DigiWira, the girls guiding Adam towards them, before turning back to look at JD's surprised face. "Midnight, Digital World, Azure Cove," he said quickly. "I'll tell you everything."

xxx

xxx

"The Puaka Generals…destroyed?"

"It can't be!"

"Impossible! Absolutely preposterous!"

The Darkshadow Brethren Generals were astounded. Shocked beyond belief. Even Lucemon, one who was always so calm and poised, looked rattled. As the Virago, Shaman, Kappa and Majin Generals debated among themselves of the sudden turn of event, the Hellion General sat on his stone throne, his face had a faraway look, knowing that he had gravely miscalculated. The legendary Seven Great Demon Lords were very powerful and nearly unbeatable, but this was unique only to them, the firsts to have attained those forms. The Darkshadow Brethren, powered to digivolve into the Demon Lords by the Obsidian Gem, were still on par with the Wira Digital who no doubt were wielding the power of the Ivory Gem. One of them had already ascended to Mega level; it would be only a matter of time before the other four did.

The Obsidian and Ivory Gems were equal in power. Thus the ones who received their powers would be at even footing.

They were back to square one.

"We're not beaten yet," Lucemon said calmly, silencing the other generals. "Gather our remaining minions and we'll make them digivolve into Mega as well. We'll pit them against the Wira Digital to drain their energy, and crush them when they're weakened."

"Speaking about being weakened, I think we should wait a bit, for about three more weeks," Persiamon said, her tone now readopting its sly, sleek voice. She chuckled. "By then, the Wira Digital team will be down one member, thanks to my Blight of Bastet. We can then easily overwhelm the remaining four, whether they're in their Mega forms or not!"

"I don't think I can wait that long," Shawujinmon growled. "I have a score to settle with that Samudramon. He's made me for a fool for the last time! With the Demon Lord's power I can easily crush him with my Mega form's massive snouts!"

"My Mega form is so good looking, perhaps my sweetheart will agree to be my life partner after you've finished off her boyfriend," Astamon told Shawujinmon, not bothering to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Fools," Doumon spat silently towards Astamon and Shawujinmon. "Absolutely no refined plan whatsoever."

"You're the one with all the elaborate plans, involving humans, even!" Astamon shot back. "And your defeat is by far the most humiliating. At least I didn't come back _naked_."

The wizard fox snorted in indignation before walking back to his private chamber to think deeply of a plan for thwarting his mortal enemy, the sorceress Xianamon. Astamon chuckled in satisfaction and elbowed Shawujinmon lightly. The Kappa General looked at his Majin comrade questioningly.

"Touchy old coot," Astamon said, shaking his head. His expression turned serious as he gazed at the only general he considered more than just a teammate, but also a comrade. "Here's a plan, Shawujinmon. I'll help you destroy Samudramon, and then you'll help me win over my sweetheart. What do you say?"

"Sounds like a plan," Shawujinmon grunted. The two generals sauntered off outside the dark hall of the Onyx Pyramid to discuss more about their plan.

"I'll wait until the next full Earth moon," Persiamon said, playing with some of her hair while flexing her crimson claws. She looked at Lucemon and yawned. "Until Satriamon's nothing more than a mere memory. It's an automatic victory for me then. Well, I'm leaving; it's time for my catnap now." She grinned upon seeing how moody the Hellion General was. "You're welcome to join anytime."

"No thank you," Lucemon said flatly. "Not this time," he added, thinking that he might have offended the Virago General.

Persiamon shrugged. "Your loss. Ta!"

Lucemon leaned against the stone-cold throne, his wings carefully folded behind his back as he stared at Persiamon's retreating back. He had lost two generals. But at least they had served their purposes, Lucemon thought. To unlock the Dark Mega Digivolution into the Seven Great Demon Lords had required him six Ultimate Digimon as well as himself. But he wondered how the Master would take the news. Two more generals were now deleted, that was _four_ generals in total. Karatenmon and Lilamon, and now Mephistomon and Phelesmon. The Master had seemed to _want_ them to digivolve to battle the Wira Digital; Lucemon couldn't imagine his wrath upon knowing that two had been taken down. He sighed and stared into nothingness.

xxx

xxx

"I win…."

SkullSatamon cackled, alone in the darkness inside the Horror Hall. He raised his staff; the yellow orb attached on it glowed with menacing yellow light, illuminating the hall which was chock-full of skulls piled on every corner. Even his throne was made out of decayed bones, with brown skulls forming the armrests. Gargoyles perched on four corners of the square hall, from their mouths dark liquid poured out into the drain lining the walls of the hall. The whole hall reeked of blood and the smell of decomposing corpses.

He had just gotten the news from his heralds Mystimon and Jetsilphymon about the Puaka Generals' defeat against the newly-digivolved Aldiyamon Juara Mode. Upon learning that he'd quickly dismissed them, much to their surprise, for he didn't want them to be suspicious of him. He told them to go towards the location where the Lost Mountain would usually appear every century, and report back to him whatever they would see there. If his two harbingers had found the task to be odd, they didn't mention anything to him.

He hadn't need them to relay the news about the Puaka Generals' defeat, for the moment the demonic duo got themselves deleted by Aldiyamon, he had already known about it. He'd felt great power returning to him, filling the black orb rested within his ribcage into near-full capacity. The black orb wasn't even black anymore; it was glowing with dark yellow hue. The yellow hue irradiated all over SkullSatamon as he laughed even louder, his body undergone a transformation in a flash of yellow which poured out through the windows of the Horror Hall.

"_**SkullSatamon, Dark Mega Digivolve to… Diablomon!"**_

"No matter who wins the fight, I'll win in the end," Diablomon rasped, and with a nasty grin he devolved back into SkullSatamon. The orb within his ribcage was now black again. "The powers of Karatenmon, Lilamon, Mephistomon and Phelesmon have restored me back to my Mega form…" he continued, pacing back and forth in his dark hall. "The Puaka Generals attacked the Wira Digital when they had yet to fully gain control of their Mega forms. The other Darkshadow Brethren won't be as foolish…which is exactly what I want."

He stopped pacing and began humming, making his way towards the throne. "If this goes on, then I definitely won't need Aldiyamon to free me from my imprisonment. Oh, Grademon…" He cackled again, now more loudly than before, "you should have left your heirs with proper instructions on how to really trounce me. Yet, how can you now, for you're no longer here, and I'm still up and about, biding my time?"

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Mystimon and Jetsilphymon had arrived at the location where their Master had sent them. They looked around in anticipation, trying to see what exactly their master wanted them to find on this barren land. There was nothing but dry grounds, and they'd have to wait a hundred years for the Lost Mountain to appear. Dead, leafless trees were scattered here and there, made to look menacing by the sparse amount of moonlights and the cloudiness of the sky.

"That's odd," Mystimon commented, observing the dark clouds. "I thought tonight is supposed to be a clear night?"

Jetsilphymon stared at the clouds, shivering. Her scanty amount of clothing didn't really help her with the situation. The dark clouds seemed to act most peculiarly, she thought, for they were swirling ever so slowly, noiselessly. Then thunderclaps roared, causing both Digimon to jump in surprise. A streak of green lightning blasted onto the ground, causing an explosion that threw both Digimon off balance.

"What was that?" Jetsilphymon said, surprised. The smokes that followed the explosion began to clear, and the duo saw a considerably large crack on the ground, something they didn't see before. The crack was emitting blinking lavender lights, followed by purple smokes moving out of the cracks. Someone as slim as Jetsilphymon could fit her way through the crack, but she wasn't going to do that!

"Listen…" Mystimon said, eyes widened. Groans, not so audible but clear enough to be heard, were heard coming from the cracks. The two Ultimates went closer to the fissures and peered down, trying to determine of the source of the groans. What they saw made their jaws dropped, in fear and in shock. Trembling, they backed away, both looking terribly pale, as if they had seen ghosts, which was perfectly an understatement. They saw their master, who was definitely ghostly, countless times, but they were used to him already. This time, it was different.

"I say we get out here!" Jetsilphymon said breathlessly.

"I second that!" Mystimon concurred. The two of them then sped away as fast as their flight could take them.

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_**Author's Notes:**_

Aldiyamon Juara Mode, despite retaining the same name as his Ultimate form, is a Mega Digimon. This is pretty much similar to Lucemon, who shares the same name between all his forms. As for his general appearance I kind of having Gallantmon Crimson Mode in mind, and his whole digivolution sequence is inspired from Son Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transformation during the battle with Cell. The same goes for the part when Ophanimon comes in to lend a final helping hand, based on how Goku comes to help Gohan finish Cell off. And the way Aldiyamon holds off the attacks from the Puaka Generals is based on how Rosemon holds off Bio Spinomon's attack in Digimon Savers. Also, his ability to manipulate the power of light to create three versions of attack using the bow and arrow is inspired from ShineGreymon Burst Mode's ability to manipulate flames to create sword or shield in battle.

Belphemon in this story is no way as powerful as the Belphemon in Digimon Savers, since he is powered by the Obsidian Gem and Aldiyamon by the Ivory Gem, that puts them at equal standing.

The phrase Juara Mode is definitely given because the DigiWira now possess Juara Digivices, the same way the Digimon in Savers gain the name Burst Mode. Besides it will save me the arduous task of thinking of five more names for their Mega levels – coming up with _Aldiya_mon, _Xiana_mon, _Puspa_mon, _Samudra_mon and _Satria_mon had been hard enough.

SkullSatamon's Mega form is Diablomon, or Diaboromon, I just preferred the original name better.

What did Mystimon and Jetsilphymon see that could scare them like that? There's a hint _somewhere_ in one of the previous chapters.

Edit: I've taken down the Digimon Analyzer part, I think it's disrupting the flow of the story...


	54. The Wild Wipeout, Part I

'_It's…about your tattoo. I…I've found something about it, and I think you should know.'_

'_Midnight, Digital World, Azure Cove. I'll tell you everything.'_

Manny's mysterious words kept replaying themselves in JD's mind while he pretended to be busy playing computer games. He didn't want to let Adam or Patamon see how worried he was; he could keep his game face on for only so long. The burden of keeping the cursed tattoo as a secret got to him sometimes, and his cousin had always seemed to be an easy target, although JD had never snapped at him. Throughout the whole week since their return from the 1500s, he usually would vent his pent-up anger by a series of rigorous workouts and long showers afterward, and it usually worked. The fact that the pain was no longer plaguing him, thanks to Hang Tuah's mysterious powers, was also a plus, although he knew well that Tuah's power only blocked the pain out – the curse remained etched on his chest, serving as a painful reminder every time he caught sight of it. And every now and then, Adam's inquiries of whether he was alright didn't make things better for him. Yet, he persistently kept this out from his younger cousin brother. Agumon was against the decision, and Manny and Penguinmon too opposed of him keeping this as a secret, but JD could not be deterred. He didn't want to make Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri worried too much about him period, plain and simple.

'_If Adam knows about this, who knows how he'd fare against those Puaka Generals,'_ JD thought silently, his hands moved fluidly across the keyboard and his eyes kept burned onto the monitor. _'Knowing the lil' guy…he'll be distracted, like how Ophanimon did when she found out about her being Aizad's partner. Man…'_

He glanced back towards his bed, where Adam was sitting with a glum expression on his face. The dark-haired boy was watching the news on the television, wanting to know about the aftermath of the titanic battle the Wira Digital had against Belphemon and Daemon. The reports all claimed that the losses were astoundingly high in terms of damages, and there were casualties, some of them fatal. JD shook his head; Adam was still coping with Ophanimon's death and now he was watching the news that was telling him of more death. Depressed was an understatement; Adam looked like he was going to launch a full-scale bereavement.

JD wondered where could Adam's skill in suppressing his emotions be right now; the boy was so adept in concealing his emotions before, there was not even a hint that Adam was silently grieving for his parents and brother's deaths for years, before Aldiyamon's first appearance. He had fooled everyone; even Alisha didn't realize that Adam had never moved on.

Now, however, he thought that Adam was becoming more and more like Gayathri – both of them wore their feelings on their sleeves, although Adam also seemed to show some restraints as well, perhaps influenced by Liu Ying and Manny's calmer personalities. Yet, when he brought this up to the others, all three DigiWira had adamantly pointed out that Adam was actually projecting _his_ persona, though made a great deal milder, but all four of them agreed that their young leader was no longer keeping his emotions hidden. JD remembered Adam telling him about Grademon; how the warrior had advised him to not keep secrets from those who were close to him. In a way, he was glad for the change, for this enabled him to read Adam like an open book.

Ironically, it was now JD who was keeping secrets about his ill fate from his friends, despite him wanting Adam to open up to him. The four DigiWira were the ones who had managed to get through him, and thus he treasured their friendships greatly and deep down, while he never showed it so obviously, he cared about them, perhaps a lot more than he was willing to admit. As the eldest in the team he had felt that it was his responsibility to look out for the younger ones, and how ironic could the situation get when it was the leader who was the youngest, and also it was the leader who was his family? He didn't want the situation reversed – where people would look out for him instead. It didn't bode well for him. For all the troubles he had caused them, the last thing he wanted was for them to worry about him, when they already got bigger worries to attend to – saving two worlds from evil.

It was clear to him that Adam didn't need to hear about more deaths tonight, if not ever. Sadly, he thought of how Adam and the others would react if he couldn't find the cure; when the Blight of Bastet would take full effect on him. JD hated the possibility of having to leave his family and friends so soon, and in such an awful way, but Persiamon had made it painfully clear that he was going to die. D'Arcmon had confirmed this when she told him about her visions while Rosemon had told him that the tattoo was a fatal poison.

He brushed the thoughts off quickly. His fate was not set to stone yet; he didn't want to make them fret unnecessarily. Within three weeks, he might be able to find a cure for the curse and rid it off his body, and he would be alright. He wouldn't die. The others wouldn't even realize his predicament, and he'd be able to casually mention it when all of them were old.

If he were to die in three weeks, then it would be because it was his time. Not because of the curse.

Grunting, he got up, went to the TV and switched it off.

"Go to bed," he instructed firmly, watching as Adam blinked in confusion. His eyes trailed towards the clock; it was twenty minutes to midnight. Manny had told him to meet him at the Digital World at midnight. _'Oh well, he'll have to wait. I can't go to the Digital World when Adam's still up.'_

"But, I wanted to know about…" Adam's protested was immediately interrupted by JD, much to his annoyance.

"What for? They're depressing, and you've gone through enough today. You'll know about them tomorrow, after a good night sleep, and you'll be able to cope better. Don't argue with me. _Sleep. Now._"

Adam contemplated on JD's words, and decided that there was no use arguing. Throughout his time staying with his cousin, he had come to know that there were times when JD would shift into his big-brother mode – apparently enjoying it since he was the youngest in his family, and now he had someone younger to command – and when that moment came there would be no use trying to reason with him. Besides, JD meant well – there was no reason why Adam should not follow his instruction. Nodding, while also barely containing the urge to sulk, Adam slipped off JD's bed and climbed on his own. Patamon was already sleeping since they had gotten back from the battle – Adam had teleported everyone out of the ravaged KLCC park right after the reporters and rescue teams starting to swarm in, getting all of them back to their respective houses with his now-refined teleportation power, thanks to his advancement to Juara Mode.

And as if trying to show how tired he was, Adam involuntarily let out a yawn as he felt fatigue seizing him just as his hands brushed upon the pillows. That only earned him a smirk from his cousin.

"See what I mean?" JD crossed his arms over his chest and jerked up an eyebrow. He switched off the light and went back to his computer. "Night, cuz."

No reply came back to him, but he heard ruffling sounds of the pillows and the comforters. Then the reply came, soft and somewhat muffled from under the comforters. "G'night Josh."

JD knew that he would not have to wait long before Adam would be out like the lights. Adam was more tired than he appeared; the strain from battling the Puaka Generals earlier was showing itself in many ways. The clock struck midnight, and JD waited. Agumon, who had been lying on the big cushion in front of the TV, quietly got back up on his feet and went to JD, knowing what the blonde boy had in mind.

"Josh?" Agumon's inquiry was barely a whisper.

JD nodded and clutched his Juara Digivice from the computer desk. He closed the game he had been playing, and softly said, "Digiport Open!"

The pair ended up at a dark secluded cove, the darkness washed over them due to the looming stone walls around the cove. The night was slightly chilly at Azure Cove, the sea winds blew softly against them, causing JD's hair to flutter a little. Sounds of soft waters pouring over the sands could be heard, and JD generated a flickering flame with a mere twist of his hand, using the orange light to guide him around the dark beach. Instantly he saw two shadows standing near the beach, gazing at the three-quarter-full moons. He cleared his throat, and the humanoid shadow turned around.

"You're here." Manny's tone was grim, as well as exhausted. His eyes however looked alert. When JD got close enough to the other tall boy, his nose detected a strong coffee smell from the younger teen.

"You look like you need sleep," JD remarked.

Manny shook his head. "I can't sleep until I tell you what I know."

JD nodded. "Waited long already? We're a bit late, since I've got to wait for Adam to sleep first. I had to force him to get to bed actually; he was busy distressing himself with the news."

Manny's smile only added to the grimness he was projecting. "It's okay. I haven't been here long enough as well. How's Adam anyway?"

His question indicated JD that he was stalling the inevitable, but JD didn't mind too much. He had a feeling that he didn't want to know of what Manny was going to say. If it was good news, Manny would be jumping of joy, or probably smile widely which was what he was more likely to do – jumping of joy was more of Gayathri and Adam's thing. Manny's grimness only indicated that he had bad news, and bad news was the last thing JD wanted to hear.

"Quite well, actually, considering what he's been through previously. His eyes were horribly red when he got out of the showers, but otherwise he seemed to be doing okay."

"Oh…"

JD cleared his throat again. "You wanted to see me," he stated matter-of-factly. "Something about the tattoo?" His hand subconsciously went to his chest, where the tattoo had been inflicted.

Manny nodded and indicated for JD to sit on the sands. JD blasted a few dry wood sticks with flames for warmth before sitting by the flames, across the other boy. Agumon and Penguinmon got settled beside their respective partners, both were silent. Penguinmon kept shooting looks at Manny, as if to tell his partner to just go ahead and spill the news, while Agumon nervously played with his claws.

Then Manny looked directly at JD's face, looking ready to begin what JD suspected to be a long tale.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 54 – The Wild Wipeout, Part I **_

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Manny sighed as he observed the calm waves of the Digital World's ocean from a tall cliff. It was Saturday morning, and Manny had decided to come here to clear his minds.

'_One week's passed, and still no clues of how to get rid off the cursed tattoo from JD.'_

Since returning from the 1500s, he had tried his hardest to look for a cure for JD's curse tattoo, but was stumped in many ways. It didn't help matters that he was the only DigiWira who knew about this, while the other three DigiWira were blissfully unaware of the dark burden carried by JD. It was the blonde's wish for them to not know about it, and while Manny wanted to question JD's logic in keeping this as a secret, he knew well of the reason why JD wanted it to be a secret.

Of course, a tattoo could be removed by laser nowadays, but Manny doubted that it would work with the curse tattoo. One time, he had casually asked his father whether he would know of a way to get rid of a tattoo – Mr. Abah didn't take it well, thinking that Manny was considering getting a tattoo. Manny had to profusely assure his father that there was no way he would be getting one, and that the question was asked by another friend. In a way, it was the truth.

He had also tried quizzing TobuCatmon about it – together they had tried searching for a way inside TobuCatmon's many books. He'd come to know about Ophanimon's inability to alleviate the curse tattoo from the grand angel herself, as well as the fact that the tattoo was severely poisonous by Rosemon, and the fact that it would kill JD from D'Arcmon. TobuCatmon's healing potions, which had worked wonders on curing the injuries sustained by the DigiWira during their past battles, also did not work.

'_What should I do?'_ Manny thought sadly, as the winds blew against his short spiked hair, hardly moving them for they were hardened by the amount of gel he'd used on them. He could see various avian Digimon flying about over the sea, chirping merrily, and wished that he could enjoy himself. But with the task of finding a cure in his hands, how could he? It wouldn't be right for him to enjoy himself while JD was counting his days. _'It's not fair. JD should've told the others too – that way all five of us could work together to look for the cure.'_

Penguinmon watched his gloomy human partner silently, not knowing what to say to ease up Manny's worry. While the two of them occasionally enjoyed bantering against each other, Penguinmon's loud nature was the total opposite to Manny's more reserved demeanor, now was not the time to do it. Through Manny, Penguinmon had learned to be more considerate, knowing when to express himself and when to keep silence, thus enabling him to get along better with the other DigiWira partners. He sighed as well; what would one do when they learned about a friend's going to meet his doom, and not be able to do anything about it?

Suddenly, a strange phenomenon happened right before their eyes. The waters, formerly calm, began to rage. Winds picked up and caused waves to fluctuate. The sky grew dark and thunderclaps ensued as pillars of waters emerged from the sea's surface.

"What's going on?" Manny quickly got up on his feet, scanning the sea for any possible culprit. "This isn't normal…"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Penguinmon muttered.

Over the sky, the avian Digimon cawed fearfully as the water pillars blocked their paths, making escape difficult. One pillar of water was about to collide with a flock of Hawkmon, and Manny quickly raised his hand up. His hydrokinesis power worked in stalling the water pillar, enabling the Hawkmon to escape before his power faltered and the water pillars continued pursuing the fearful Hawkmon. There was only one way left to do; Manny took out his Digivice and together they transformed into Samudramon.

Eyeing the frightened Hawkmon, who were screaming as the water pillar threatened to consume them, their lives depended on how fast their small wings could take them, Samudramon said softly, "Hang on, help is on the way."

Samudramon jumped into the sea and summoned his enhanced hydrokinesis power, and instead of stopping the water pillar he managed to calm it, causing it to splash back onto the sea. The Hawkmon fluttered away safely, followed by the other birds as Samudramon nullified the other water pillars.

'_Yeah, you're welcome!'_ Penguinmon snorted, as the Hawkmon had left without saying thanks.

Samudramon chuckled. "It's quite alright, but what was that all about?" the merman wondered, beginning to relax as he headed for the shore.

"Don't leave yet, as that was only for warm up!"

Surprised upon hearing the familiar voice, Samudramon turned around as a tornado of water erupted from the waters' surface. A humanoid shadow could be seen within it, before the tornado subsided and the glowering form of Shawujinmon, the Kappa General of the Darkshadow Brethren, stared upon him. His black Demon Quelling Staff was held closely in his grasp.

"You!" Samudramon growled. With a flick of his hand, his Atlantic Trident materialized before him, and Samudramon quickly grabbed it.

Shawujinmon snickered as he spun his staff, which was emitting dark purple aura. "Not in the mood yet for a fight, Samudramon, but here's a trick I learned from Lucemon's Nine Negations Dark Arts!" He shot several purple beams towards Samudramon, none of them actually hit the Wira Digital, but Shawujinmon didn't look too bothered about it. He kept on firing purple beams around Samudramon, and soon the waters where Samudramon was at began to bubble. The bubbles multiplied as a circular purple ring was formed around Samudramon.

'_What is that toad-face up too?'_ Penguinmon snarled.

'_I don't like this either,'_ Manny replied in his mind.

Samudramon looked down as the bubbles began to engulf him. He tried moving, but was horrified to find himself unable to move. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Shawujinmon laughed and backed away. "Let's just say, I won't have to worry about one meddling aquatic Wira Digital anymore, from this day on!"

The ring of purple aura then morphed into a pillar which contained Samudramon within it as it shot all the way towards the sky, cutting through the clouds. Samudramon felt his body becoming lighter. It felt almost like being teleported by Adam, but there was no warmth that Adam's light orbs usually provided. Instead, everything about the purple pillar of light screamed something sinister towards him. Samudramon soared higher and higher towards the sky, all the way towards the dark clouds before an earsplitting thunderclap erupted. The close proximity between him and the thunderous sky nearly made the experience extremely deafening. Several thunderbolts struck the purple pillar, causing it to explode, along with Samudramon within it. He was forced into dedigivolving back into his composite forms before the thunderclaps subsided. Manny and Penguinmon, both unconscious, plummeted back towards the still-raging sea.

Manny's eyes snapped open when he felt waters rushing all around him. Instantly the saltiness of the seawaters caused his eyes to burn, and he was forced to close them again. He flailed around helplessly; the memory of himself nearly drowned inside the sea when he was ten invaded his mind. All these years, despite having taken various swimming lessons until he emerged as a swimming champion back at his old school, Manny had never perfectly able to conquer that horrid memory, especially when he couldn't see where he was at underwater. Swimming at the pools was a different matter; he had goggles and the waters weren't too harsh on the eyes as the seawaters. Having to close his eyes he instantly lost his sense of direction while underwater, and the memory began to overpower him once again.

'_Help…'_

Something plump and feathery suddenly appeared under his body, supporting his body from below as both of them made their way towards where it was calmer. Manny could feel his rescuer struggling with his weight, and soon snapped out of his fear. He regained his senses and soon with his champion-level swimming skill both he and Penguinmon made their way towards the shores. By the time they arrived, the sea had already calmed down back to the way before Shawujinmon had appeared.

Manny crawled out of the beach and plopped down weakly where the sands were dry. Penguinmon sat beside him, heaving his breath.

"I thought….you are a… champion…swimmer!" Penguinmon demanded in between his gasps.

"Sorry…" Manny said, heaving for breaths as well. He didn't need to explain; Penguinmon knew of his past, as they had shared their thoughts when they were Samudramon. "Thanks, Penguinmon."

Penguinmon shook his head. "Don't mention it." He looked around him warily, as if expecting Shawujinmon to appear any time soon. "I wonder what that toad-face was up to."

"Other than making us dedigivolve, we weren't even hurt that much," Manny said, inspecting his body. Indeed, other than being drenched from head to toe, Manny wasn't injured at all. The same was true for Penguinmon. Then Manny sneezed loudly and flinched. The waters might have calmed down, but the winds were steadily picking up. He was chilled to the bone. "Okay…other than going to give me a nasty flu or pneumonia if I don't get changed soon," he amended.

Penguinmon clucked his beak in distaste. "Let's head back to the Forest Sanctum then."

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Along their journey back to the Forest Sanctum, both Manny and Penguinmon noticed that there was a vast difference between the Green Meadow they was familiar with and the Green Meadow where they were at right now. For starters, the barren, blackened land with dead obsidian trees did not fit to be called Green Meadow. All around them there was no hint of vegetation; save for a black forest located at a place where Manny remembered housed the Forest Sanctum. A strong suffocating stench of wet grass burning emanated all around them. The air was nauseous both to the smell and sight senses. The sky above them was not clear blue as it usually was, but rusty red with fumes hovering, blocking out a major portion of the sunlight. The lake not far from the forest was severely polluted; there was a layer of what seemed to look like petrol coating the lake, and occasionally bubbles of fumes plopped on the surface.

"What happened here?" Penguinmon wondered, wide-eyed.

"This _can't_ be the Green Meadow," Manny whispered in shocked disbelief, halting himself from walking any further. He looked around him.

"But we followed the same way we've used to go to the beach," Penguinmon pointed out, equally astounded of the bleak atmosphere of the once-beautiful and lush Green Meadow. He blinked his eyes repeatedly, trying to see whether he was dreaming. His beak hung open. "We knew this place by heart now. No way could we have taken a wrong way back."

"If that's so, how do you explain all these?" Manny gestured towards their surroundings. "Changes these big can't happen in such short period. We've only been at the beach for two hours – three hours tops. Not more than that."

"Maybe the Darkshadows attacked? I wouldn't put past them to be able to put a waste on this place in a blink of the eye," Penguinmon suggested, sounding unsure at the same time. He looked around him, remembering very well that this must be the correct place. _He_ had been here countless times, way before he became Manny's partner. They hadn't taken a wrong way back, but Penguinmon hated to think that a beautiful paddock such as the Green Meadow could be reduced into this hellish ground, almost similar to the Shadow Realm where SkullSatamon dwelled.

"Let's find out," Manny decided. They stepped into the forest cautiously, navigating their way inside, where they could hear noises. "It's the other guys!"

"Manny, wait," Penguinmon said sharply, grabbing Manny's jacket. The noises were very unfitting for the Forest Sanctum. "Listen carefully."

The duo halted and perked their ears. Indeed there were noises, as well as laughter – male and female – but there was something remarkably odd about them. There was loud music echoing the sanctum with various musical instruments played so severely together that they did not form a coherent song, those kinds of song that could give Manny a migraine despite him not having one. Manny had _never_ heard any kind of music being played inside the Forest Sanctum. While TobuCatmon didn't actually disallow them to do so, the DigiWira had always thought of the sanctum as a serious place, their base of operation, so having music there would be very inappropriate. Yet, now he was hearing trash music echoing all around the forest, so loudly that it could give Gayathri's supersonic scream a major competition.

"Freaky…" Manny said with a frown. This was too odd.

"Way, _way_ freaky," Penguinmon concurred with a click of his beak.

Closing their ears, they resumed their journey slowly towards the sanctum. When they reached the heart of the forest, where the marbled sanctum was constructed, their jaws nearly fell all the way to the ground, for the sight that greeted them was severely sore and strange. They had enough sense to keep their presences from being known and hid behind a tree as they watched the other DigiWira. His eyes first fell on Gayathri, and immediately he blushed before looking away in embarrassment.

'_What in the world is she thinking?'_ Manny thought, for the Gayathri he had just seen was _not_ the Gayathri he was familiar with, and adored. And so were Liu Ying, Adam and JD, whom all looked so different from how he remembered them, and he had just seen them the previous day! _'What are they DOING?'_

Both Gayathri and Liu Ying were wearing tight leather bustier and black leather pants and boots that clasped tightly around their legs, their outfits accentuated their figures. The bustier they wore was dark pink for Gayathri, and brownish yellow for Liu Ying. Gayathri's hair was no longer curly brown, but was dyed shocking pink, super-straightened and cut into a stylish side-swept bob. She was a lot slimmer than Manny had remembered; her face was actually somewhat gaunt. Willowy Liu Ying's hair was still straight and in the deepest shade of purple streaked with bleached blonde, and tied into a chic ponytail. Both wore dark makeup around the eyes, and their lips painted black.

Their new images astounded Manny to no ends. They did look entrancing, but all the more terrible as well. They didn't act like themselves at all, laughing so loudly that their laughs could be heard against the blaring noise. And that wasn't the only difference; Manny would know, for the two girls would never _clamor_ against the two male DigiWira like that.

Speaking of the guys, Manny saw that they too were starkly different. Mild-mannered, sweet Adam looked terribly dangerous in his all-black gothic outfit – black sleeveless top showing off a pair of toned arms and black leather trousers. His hair was dyed so black that nothing could be blacker than it, vastly contrasting his very pale skin which looked so bloodless that he could pass off as a vampire. Black eye-shadow was painted over his eyelids, enhancing the gothic image even more. His hair was also longer than how Adam would usually have, the ends brushing past his nape; the hairs were impossibly spiked in various directions that they had defied gravity. This boy looked way older than the Adam Manny knew, despite having the same youthful body size. To his anger however, this Adam had his hand around Gayathri, but he restrained himself. He took a glance at JD, and had to admit that while the others looked odd, JD was by far the strangest of all.

Manny had always known that JD loved his hair to be long, so it was very weird to see JD as a skinhead. Thick silver stud earrings were worn on both ears, and the devil-may-care lopsided smirk that usually made the JD he knew looked ruggedly handsome only made _this_ JD appeared like a crook. A spiked black choker was worn around his neck, and a deep crimson leather vest hung on his body, he wore nothing else underneath, showing off his lean, muscular body. Similar to the others he also wore black leather pants. Manny couldn't see the dreaded cat tattoo on JD's chest, but rather, across his chest was tattooed a fiery black dragon, and this JD looked extremely proud of showing this tattoo off. A simple thin ring was pierced at the lower left side of his lower lips, enhancing the thug image he was carrying. Contrasting the vampire-like Adam, JD was more tanned than the JD he remembered. And what was more surprising to Manny was the fact that this JD was so casually giving Liu Ying kisses as he grabbed her from behind, and Liu Ying seemed to be _enjoying_ it, shrieking in a banshee-like laughter as JD kissed her neck.

Similarly, Adam and Gayathri acted the same way, but it was Gayathri who initiated the bolder actions while Adam went along with it, looking somewhat bored but not actually resisting her.

The Liu Ying he knew would have slapped JD hard for doing so, which made Manny even more confused than ever. Gayathri would never do so either – Manny had seen her reacting so violently when Garudamon called her a trollop during the battle at Batu Caves, and when the criminal Riley Lau addressed her the same way – but this Gayathri was acting just like one. Manny was willing to bet a million Malaysian Ringgit that Adam would rather hide himself away from actually going along with what this Gayathri was doing to him; that he knew from the other DigiWira in regards to how Adam and Dina acted when meeting each other face to face. As for JD, Manny felt guilty for thinking that there was a chance that JD _could_ act this way, given his reputation at school, but he also knew that the JD he was familiar with treated his fellow DigiWira with respect.

"I thought that the kids are odd, but check out the 'mon!" Penguinmon muttered, gesturing towards a group of Digimon.

Manny forced his eyes away from the four delinquent DigiWira and stared at the Digimon in wonder.

Patamon was dark purple instead of orange – Manny remembered this species as Tsukaimon, a viral cousin to the data type Patamon. Phelesmon had disguised himself as Tsukaimon when he and Mephistomon were playing that horribly cruel trick on Adam two months ago.

Agumon was black all over with crimson claws – Penguinmon mentioned that there was a subspecies of Agumon known as BlackAgumon, the viral cousins to the Agumon family.

Labramon, originally beige with pink accents, was now dark brown with purple accents with more defined claws.

Floramon, familiar for her green scales and pretty flowers, now looked disgusting with muddy-green-scaled with wilting orange flowers, mud dripping down her scales.

The Digimon Analyzer identified the latter two as ChaosLabramon and Manuramon, corrupted viral forms of Labramon and Floramon.

The four Rookies were sparring against each other as opposed to their partners, who were dirty-dancing against the blares of the speakers hung on four corners of the sanctum. TobuCatmon or the three sacred ladies were nowhere to be seen. The sun staff wasn't around as well, and the television where the DigiWira used as a gateway between the Digital World and their home world was broken.

"They're going to kill each other!" Penguinmon gasped, seeing how severely the four Digimon fought against each other. Tsukaimon was launching volleys of energy spheres from his mouth towards BlackAgumon, who countered with black fireballs. ChaosLabramon launched a bark so loud towards Manuramon, who countered with her black pollens. After using their special attacks they launched against each other, fighting physically with claws, kicks and vines, as if they were out for a kill. "What the _hell_ are they doing?" Penguinmon almost shouted.

"It's time to put a stop on this, right now," Manny said, his tanned face blushing crimson upon witnessing the actions of his four teammates. They were still dancing, as if they didn't care that their partners were tearing each other apart. "Hey!" His exclamation remained unheard despite him stepping out of his hiding, which began to annoy him. "HEY! CUT IT OUT, ALL OF YOU!"

Still, his shouts remained unheard, drowned by the blaring noises. Seething silently, Manny aimed both hands towards the speakers and blasted jets of water upon them. The speakers fell from the branches and combusted upon hitting the marbled floor. The noise died down, and loud protests were heard from the _occupied_ misfits-DigiWira before one by one their attention fell on Manny. The four of them looked terribly surprised at first; Gayathri let out a shriek after spitting out some curse words that Manny wouldn't ever expected to come out from her mouth. Liu Ying looked at him appraisingly, her face etched in doubt. The gothic Adam didn't look so surprised at all; his face remained emotionless, bloodless even. JD mimicked Gayathri's reaction, as if mocking her from the way he imitated her, exaggerating on her squeals before shooting Manny a suspicious glare.

Manny didn't pay attention to how they reacted; he was terribly disappointed with how they – his friends – were acting, that he didn't want to do anything else but scream at their faces. But he had never lost his temper to them, so what he finally managed to get out from his mouth was a shivering hiss: "What in the world are you all doing?Have you no shame?"

JD whistled. "Look who's back from the dead," he snickered.

Manny and Penguinmon blinked in confusion. "Dead?"

Liu Ying laughed as she twiddled with her fingers. "Yeah, aren't you like, killed, by that Kappa General yesterday?" Her nonchalance while speaking those words unnerved Manny – she sounded like she didn't care whether Manny was alive or dead.

"What do you mean?" Manny asked, as the four 'DigiWira' approached him slowly.

"Looks like that goody-two-shoes toad didn't make sure that he's dead," Adam muttered, his eyes flashing dangerously. His hand went to his back, and Manny gasped when he saw Adam holding a jagged blade when he brought back his hand to the front. The vampire-like Adam twirled his obsidian keris, his eyes never leaving Manny's before a dangerous smile graced his pallid face. "Damn that Shawujinmon, always too _righteous_ to even kill his mortal enemies. Looks like I'm gonna have to do it myself."

"Ooh, do it Adam. I've told you last night, I was so glad that he's out of the picture," Gayathri cackled, shooting Manny a mock-sympathetic look. "What's with the weird goody-goody fashion? How did you grow your hair so quickly? You had that Mohawk do yesterday."

'_Mohawk? Me?'_ Manny was confused now more than ever. He did have an encounter with Shawujinmon a few hours ago, but why were they saying that they had thought that Shawujinmon had killed him yesterday? He and Penguinmon had survived from the freak storm Shawujinmon had created, and it wasn't actually so deadly for them since as Samudramon they had thunder and water elements at their sides.

Did the other DigiWira think that he and Penguinmon _died_ because of the accident? Was that why they had changed overnight?

But this was all so strange. He could have sworn that he had encountered Shawujinmon just _hours_ ago. Yesterday he'd spent the afternoon with Gayathri for tea, and she looked fine then. This Gayathri however, with her femme-fatale image and shocking pink hair, was totally a different person. The warmness was absent in this girl's eyes. The sincere smile that he liked so much about her wasn't there, replaced with an ominous grin instead. Her words were all laced with venom.

"Since when did Manny have a Mohawk?" Penguinmon blurted out.

"Oh, look…the fat bird's turned into a vaccine version of himself," Manuramon spat – the horrible remake of Floramon hooted with laughter.

"Fat bird? Why you…" Penguinmon didn't like being called fat, and was about to charge towards Manuramon when Tsukaimon, BlackAgumon and ChaosLabramon flanked Manuramon, staring daggers towards Penguinmon, as if daring him to take another step. They might have torn each other apart not too long before, but now they looked ready to join forces with Manuramon against Penguinmon. The blue avian Rookie gulped and took a few steps back.

"Why, Emman… you looked so squeaky clean…" JD's taunting voice invaded Manny's ears. He approached Manny and walked around him, his eyes sizing Manny up and down, an unreadable sneer crossed his face.

'_Emman?'_ Manny wondered incredulously – since when did he use _that_ shortened name? It was always either Emmanuel or Manny; he had never been called Emman before. He shivered nervously upon meeting JD's sharp leering eyes – why was he looking at him like _that_? He had seen JD using that same gaze towards Liu Ying just moments ago.

"I think I heard the bird calling him as _Manny_ now, what a babyish name," Liu Ying said with a mocking simper. The girl didn't sound like her usual collected self at all – since when did Liu Ying mock other people? Manny had been her classmates for months and had never heard her belittling other people. It didn't bode well with her personality, but not _this_ Liu Ying. She was the exact opposite of the Liu Ying Manny knew and somewhat looked up to.

"Enough," Adam said, his voice cold. JD smirked and backed away from Manny, back to hugging the forever-giggling Liu Ying. The vampire-like boy played with his keris before approaching Manny again, his pale face looked pure evil hidden underneath a calm exterior – Manny had seen this expression only from Lucemon. "All the talking is getting on my nerves. Let's just kill him and be done with it!"

With that said, Adam yelled and plunged the keris towards Manny, aiming straight towards the heart. Surprised, Manny activated his hydrokinesis power and blasted Adam away with a stream of high-pressurized water, throwing Adam against a marble pillar. Realizing what he had done, Manny quickly willed the water to stop, but the damage had been done. It wouldn't be able to kill, but it would definitely injure Adam, from the way he collided with the sturdy pillar. The boy was writhing in pain, muttering curses while rubbing his back.

"What the hell?" JD snarled, the leering gaze he'd fixed on Manny was gone, replaced by a shocked look. He backed away from Manny, back to Liu Ying. "When…how the hell did you learn to do _that_?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Liu Ying calmly ran her hand up and down JD's body, easing the furious teen. She then shot Manny a chillingly malevolent look. The giggles were gone. "My suspicions are correct all along," she said slowly, retracting her hand from JD and crossing her arms over her chest, leaning her back against the boy in a very sensual manner. "Emman and his partner did betray us for the Brightmoon Brethren. That rotten toad, Shawujinmon…he must have taught Emman that water skill. Where else could he learn water-based techniques?"

Manny was further dumbfounded; what in the world were they talking about? They were calling him with the wrong name, and they were surprised of his hydrokinesis, as if not knowing that he possessed the skill at all. And they were accusing him of allying with the Brightmoon Brethren. He didn't even know what the Brightmoon Brethren was, but since Shawujinmon the Kappa General was said to be associated with it, Manny suspected that the Brightmoon Brethren was in fact the Darkshadow Brethren guising under a different name.

Gayathri's shrieks snapped him out of his reverie, and to his surprise the girl had launched a sharp kick on his belly, sending him flying. The fact that she wore very high-heeled boots added more force to the blow. Then to his surprise, Gayathri took out a black whip from her back and smacked the marbled ground once with it, her expression deadly.

"Gayathri's pissed off now," JD observed with a cackle, he was back to hugging Liu Ying from behind. "I've always thought that there's an interesting love triangle between the three of them. What about you?" he asked Liu Ying as he rested his chin on the corner of the girl's neck.

"Doesn't really concern me," Liu Ying stated simply.

Gayathri's eyes flashed as she struck Manny with the whip, but was stopped half-way when Penguinmon jumped in to protect Manny, ending up getting whipped himself instead. The penguin was thrown towards a tree, a red gash evident on the white tufts on his chest. To Manny's horror Penguinmon was barely moving; Gayathri's assault on the Rookie avian was severely ruthless.

"Gayathri, what are you doing?!" Manny screamed. It began to dawn into him that something was terribly wrong here. His friends weren't acting like themselves.

"What am I doing?" Gayathri swirled her hand, her black whip glinted when it caught the light, all the more making her look menacing. "Sending you two back to your maker, that's what I'm doing."

"You…you can't be serious!" Manny sputtered and backed away as Gayathri advanced closer, whip ready to strike.

"Well, they say seeing is believing, so watch me." Gayathri raised her hand, ready to deliver another lashing. An ugly sneer graced her heavily made-up face. She looked _dead serious_. "You can either stand there and cower, or fight back with that water magic of yours. I don't care. But if you don't fight back, you'll end up as chubby over there." She laughed evilly. "So what's it gonna be?"

"I don't want to do this, but you leave me no choice," Manny said sadly, and blasted Gayathri with pressurized water before she could attack him, throwing her off her feet.

Seeing their comrade fallen, JD took out a black and red metallic nunchucks and Liu Ying a deadly-looking purple metallic Chinese fan, both of them advancing towards him. With a grunt Liu Ying threw the fan towards Manny like a boomerang, and unfortunately Manny's water-based counterattack didn't work on it – the fan simply cut through the waters towards him. He quickly scrambled back to his feet and flexed his body backward just as the fan sailed above him, nearly grazing him – missing him barely as the fan cut the upper strands of his already short hair. The fan spun towards the trees and sliced through a couple of branches cleanly before heading back towards its mistress, who caught it without difficulty.

Manny was just about to recover his bearing before JD advanced at him, slashing his nunchucks towards him while letting out a growl. He quickly raised an arm to protect himself, and yelped when the red stick of the nunchucks struck his wrist soundly. Many jumped away, rubbing his throbbing wrist. JD snickered and withdrew his nunchucks, before pointing the black stick of the nunchucks towards Manny.

"Dance for me, Emman," he sneered, and black laser shot out from the black stick.

Manny gasped and leaped away from the black laser, the beam hit the ground and caused the tile to explode. JD laughed and thrust out the red stick of the nunchucks, and fiery torrents were unleashed from it. Manny avoided the flames by back-flipping away, before letting out a blast of water to counter the flames. For a moment there was a standstill as Manny's waters and the fires pushed each other back, before Manny exerted more strength and the waters began overpowering the flames, much to the punk JD's shock. The waters successfully quenched the flames before they slammed upon the nunchucks, throwing the weapon off JD's hand. JD swore vehemently and leaped towards Manny, fist ready to strike, but the latter was quicker in shooting another jet of water straight onto JD's chest, throwing him a good deal away from himself and Penguinmon. Then, seeing that Liu Ying was going to attack again with her deadly fan he quickly showered her with more of his water power, catching her in surprise. The girl however was able to resist him. Looking down, Manny saw a weak spot and changed his tactic. Targeting the pointed heels of her boot Manny shot a jet of water towards them, causing the girl to lose her balance and slipped onto the wet floor.

"We have to get out of here," Manny wheezed nervously. If the four fallen DigiWira decided to attack him simultaneously, there would be no way for him to escape. They might not have their special powers, but they seemed to be much deadlier opponents, especially with their weapons. The way they attacked Manny showed that they didn't care that they would kill him. In fact, they looked like they _wanted_ to get rid of him thoroughly. Saddened, he wondered what he had done to earn such hatred from them.

From the corner of his eyes he saw the four Digimon charging towards them with the intention to kill. He showered them with water torrents once again, successfully pushing them back as he made way towards the injured Penguinmon. Picking the plump bird up and securing him under his armpit, Manny began retreating into the forests, before breaking into a run. Angered shouts were heard; the DigiWira and Digimon were giving chase and Manny ran as fast as he could until he reached out of the black forest. But Penguinmon's weight was deterring him; he lost his balance and fell onto the ground by the polluted lake.

Ungodly roars were heard all of a sudden and the forest erupted with concentrated black lights, before four great giants emerged out from the canopies of the forests. Manny gasped in shock; he didn't recognize any of them, but realized that these must be the digivolved forms of the DigiWira's partners. One was a black-armored humanoid with long ears, making it look like a rabbit. Another was a horrible creature with mismatched body parts – a chimera was how Manny would describe it. The other two were identical serpentine creatures, one looked organic and the other cybernetic. He hadn't the time to use the Digivice to analyze these Digimon – he couldn't even get back up on his feet, paralyzed with fear upon seeing the four monstrosities hovering above him.

All of a sudden an earthquake took place. The ground cracked, and pillars of fresh blue water erupted from the fissures, blasting the four evil Digimon away from Manny and Penguinmon. Manny didn't have time to comprehend what was going on, before a familiar figure in white garb and green hide, with blue hair and wielding a black staff streaked towards him.

"You!"

Manny gaped upon seeing his rescuer, but the figure wordlessly grabbed him and slung him over his shoulders before picking up Penguinmon. Then the rescuer flew away at top speed, while from the corner of his eyes Manny could make out another three familiar figures ready to strike at any moment notice; they seemed to be covering for his rescuer. Manny wanted to protest, but soon found himself fatigued by his rescuers' rapid flight and succumbed to unconsciousness as the roars of the four giants faded away, his vision slowly drowned in inky blackness.

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_**Author's Notes:**_

First thing's first: this chapter is basically based from an episode from Power Rangers Ninja Storm, with the same episode title; where the Blue Ranger is accidentally sent to an alternate dimension where her fellow rangers are evil and the evil space ninjas are actually the good guys. In this chapter and the next, the alternate DigiWira are made so _different_ from their counterparts, they actually scared the heck out of me when I imagined them in my mind. Probably a bit risqué as well, yet I do have fun writing them as villains and might have gone over the top with their descriptions. Adam donning a gothic vampire-like image, JD as a skinhead thug, and Liu Ying and Gayathri as two sexy badass chicks – creepy are they not?

As for their Digimon – you know Tsukaimon, and BlackAgumon is a canon Digimon, but **ChaosLabramon** and **Manuramon** are my creations as corrupted forms of Labramon and Floramon. The name Manuramon is derived from manure and flora merged into one. The four digivolved forms they have taken are all canon ones, and I think they are all easy to guess, and according to Wikimon all of them are also canon evolutionary forms for Tsukaimon, Agumon, Labramon and Floramon.

The post-opening part of this chapter takes place _before_ the battle with the Puaka Generals; this is Manny's recollection to JD, but I've typed it out in a regular chapter format.


	55. The Wild Wipeout, Part II

Manny found himself surrounded from all sides by the other four DigiWira, all of them ready to strike with their deadly weapons.

"Please, don't do this," he pleaded, as the other DigiWira advanced at him slowly. He glanced sideways and saw Penguinmon, horribly beaten up, strained by the other four Digimon.

"Oh, you mean this?" Adam said, and from his black keris a beam of grayish purple laser shot out, slamming squarely onto Manny's chest.

Manny let out a pained shriek as the impact threw him off his feet, before JD followed with his nunchucks, firing both a black energy beam and several fireballs from the weapon. The beam and the fireballs surrounded Manny's falling form before grazing him brutally. A vicious crack followed; Manny's shirt tore upon contact with Gayathri's severe whip, before a buzzing metallic sound rang close to his ears, and his thighs were slashed by Liu Ying's deadly metallic fan.

"AAAGGHH!!"

Manny shot up, screaming as phantom pain shot out from all over his body. Then the pain vanished, and Manny heaved his breaths slowly. He looked down and saw that he was sweating profusely. The dream had been very real; he could imagine the wounds he had gotten, which were not actually there on his body. He was uninjured. Beside the mattress he was sitting on, his blue shirt and black jacket were folded neatly, placed above a flat stone which seemed to be a stool. Both clothes seemed to have dried. He still wore his pants, which was still somewhat damp but no longer drenched. Penguinmon was nowhere in sight, and Manny began to wonder where he was at right now.

"Where am I…?" he wondered, taking in his surroundings.

He seemed to be inside a very large blue and white tent with the roof arching upwards. Torches illuminated the inside of the tent, hung on five sturdy wooden pillars which were used to keep the tent up. The ground was carpeted by natural lush green grass which looked comfortable to lie on. There was a simple table and chair beside the mattress, their sizes a bit too large for his size. The entrance of the tent fluttered open as winds blew in, and Manny shivered as the winds blew against him, drying the sweat of his body.

Then he heard footsteps and subconsciously pulled the blanket up. A stout avian Digimon hopped inside the tent, and Manny's face broke into a grin. "Penguinmon!"

"Manny!" Penguinmon exclaimed happily and quickly tottered towards him. Manny saw that the bird was bandaged over his chest, otherwise he appeared to be in the pink of health. "You're finally up! I was wondering when you're gonna get up!"

Another figure, tall and lanky, stepped inside the tent, and Manny screamed in terror. Without even thinking it he let out a blast of water towards the humanoid.

"Whoa! Steady there, kid!" Shawujinmon waved his hand and Manny's waters coalesced around his palm in a form of a blue sphere before it harmlessly fell onto the ground. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Manny, wait!" Penguinmon cried as Manny shot back up to his feet, his hands pointed towards Shawujinmon. "It's not what it looks like!"

Manny's hands scrambled around his belt, trying to locate his Juara Digivice so that he could combat the Kappa General. To his horror he couldn't find it.

"I believe you're looking for this?" Shawujinmon inquired, and took out the missing Digivice from his belt. "What an interesting contraption, very different from the DigiWira's…"

Manny couldn't believe his bad luck. First he'd found out that his friends were now against him, up to the point of actually wanting to kill him. Now Shawujinmon had his Digivice, rendering him powerless.

"Give it back, Shawujinmon!" Manny blasted Shawujinmon angrily with another wave of water, before he swayed slightly, fatigued.

Shawujinmon merely shrugged off the attack, shaking his head. "You shouldn't do that, kid. You've exerted a lot of your powers, from what I've heard from Penguinmon."

Manny fell on his knees, sighing. There was no way for him to escape the Kappa General. Penguinmon went to his side and Manny leaned against his partner for support. They were doomed.

"Manny, it's not what it seems," Penguinmon assured as he helped Manny to sit down on the mattress. "Shawujinmon is a friend."

"_Friend?_ Are you nuts?" Manny said hysterically, backing away as Shawujinmon approached him. "How many times has he tried to kill us before?"

"Not _this_ Shawujinmon," Penguinmon said firmly, placing a wing on Manny's knee. "He's the one who has saved us from those _evil_ DigiWira," he said bitterly.

"Evil? The DigiWira?" Manny was confused. He glared at Shawujinmon, pointing a finger at him while looking back at his partner incredulously. "He's the one who's evil, Penguinmon!"

Shawujinmon sighed. "You can't believe that; haven't you seen the way those delinquents treat people? Oh…yeah, I forgot…you just got here."

"I've seen _you_ destroying houses, buildings, the town where I live!" Manny snapped. A painful memory of how Shawujinmon wrecked his fourteenth birthday began to resurface, and his chest heaved rapidly as he barely able to contain his anger. "You even trashed the wonderful birthday party my friends planned out for me."

Shawujinmon looked totally flabbergasted upon the accusations thrown at him, but didn't say anything.

"Relax, Manny, take a deep breath," Penguinmon instructed. "_This_ Shawujinmon is a different one, and a friend. Trust me. You'd see me freaking out even more than you are if he's an enemy. He's the one who fixed me up. See?" The Rookie pointed at the bandage around his body. "Just listen to what he has to say, Manny. It's unbelievable, but it's also true."

Penguinmon, usually one who'd come up with sarcastic retorts and wry remarks, now sounded so earnest that Manny couldn't help but wonder about the change, amidst his doubt. Penguinmon nodded at him encouragingly, and he slowly analyzed what his partner had told him. He stared at Shawujinmon in wonder.

The humanoid aquatic creature didn't look any different from the Shawujinmon he had fought before, until Manny looked into his eyes. There was something missing in them. Manny couldn't point out exactly what was amiss, but he felt that there was no threat in those pair of orange orbs. In fact, those eyes looked somewhat warm, the way they twinkled from the light of the torches. He still had his suspicion as Shawujinmon took a seat on the wooden stool, cringing slightly as the shadow of the Ultimate washed upon him. The Kappa General then bent down and placed Manny's Juara Digivice on his folded jacket and shirt.

"This is just too weird…" Manny muttered, quickly taking the Digivice, as if afraid that Shawujinmon would take it away again. He felt slightly better with the silver and blue Digivice in his grasp.

"I understand your confusion, Manny, after hearing Penguinmon's story," Shawujinmon began.

"But…"

"Manny, hear him out at least. You owe him that," Penguinmon said, patting his partner's back. "He did save your life," the bird reminded with a dead-set tone.

Shawujinmon smiled and stood up. "Come, Manny. Put on your shirt, and let's step out. I'll explain everything as I show you around. The others are eager to meet you."

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 55 – The Wild Wipeout, Part II **_

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As Manny stepped out from the tent with Penguinmon and Shawujinmon, the sight that greeted him made him gape in shock. _'What in the world…?'_

It was night, but at the same time the surrounding, while not noisy, was at the same time lively and merry. A large campfire was seen not too far from them, illuminating tents of various shapes, sizes and colors set up in two lines. A large walkway was created by the space between the two lines of tents. Manny looked back and saw that the lines of tent stretched all the way towards the rock mountains, and scattered elsewhere all around the big flat land. Manny thought that he had been at this place before, but couldn't place exactly where. His eyes then fell on a semi-opaque dome not too far from the camps, and his eyes widened upon seeing the skull-shaped bastion inside the dome. He gasped – the bastion was the Horror Hall, which meant that they were now at the Shadow Realm.

"Welcome Manny, and to you too again, Penguinmon, to the main camp of the Brightmoon Brethren," Shawujinmon said as he beckoned towards the skull bastion. "That's the Horror Hall, the stronghold of our benevolent leader, SkullSatamon. Unfortunately he is trapped inside it by a dirty trick of his evil nemesis Grademon three hundred years ago, and nothing could be done to ensure his escape. Nevertheless, his will never falter and from inside his imprisonment he relays his wise teachings and orders to us, his five remaining generals – the Brightmoon Brethren."

Manny restrained the desire to snort out loud at the ridiculousness of what Shawujinmon was telling him, but he'd promised Penguinmon that he'd hear Shawujinmon out, so he kept silence.

"SkullSatamon is generous to allow us and many innocent Digimon to seek protection here in his Shadow Realm after our stronghold – the Onyx Pyramid – as well as the villages and cities where these innocents resided were destroyed by the evil DigiWira," Shawujinmon said. "Here we are protected from them, and here we are able to protect the innocents. All victims of the DigiWira are welcomed to make Shadow Realm their home, and so far we are safe from the DigiWira, for they dare not infiltrate this place. SkullSatamon's soldiers, the MetalPhantomon, the Bakemon, the Soulmon and the Phantomon, guarded the borders of the Shadow Realm and they'd destroy the DigiWira should they even appear before their sights."

That at least had a ring of truth to it, Manny thought silently. "This is just too absurd for me to take in," he muttered.

"I take it things were the opposite back at your own dimension?" Shawujinmon inquired, and Manny reeled in shock.

"My own dimension?"

"Well, of course. Penguinmon's told me all about it," Shawujinmon said, as if it was the most obvious thing. "You come from a Digital World where you humans are the heroes, and _we_ are the villains. For me, _that_ is just absurd, but you don't hear me say it out loud now do you? But, I understand. Penguinmon also has told me that it was me…or rather, the alternate form of myself, who caused you two to end up here where everything is the exact opposites."

Manny's head hung down. "Great. First time travel, now alternate dimensions?" He realized that he had said it out loud and quickly gritted his teeth together.

To his surprise, Shawujinmon merely chuckled. "Come, Manny, Penguinmon. I'll prove it to you that here, the Brightmoon Brethren are the champions of good."

They walked along the path, where many Digimon paused to give them a second look, particularly towards Manny. They then arrived at a clearing after making a left turn from the walkway. There, with lanterns hanging down the branches of a Cherrymon, sitting on a rock was Doumon, the Shaman General. The priest fox was surrounded by a group of small Digimon of various shapes and sizes, all seemed to be listening to what the fox was telling them, not at all threatened by him. The Ultimate wizard seemed to be recounting a story to the eager In-Trainings, Babies and Rookies, his wizened laugh could be heard amidst the little ones' applauds.

"This is Doumon, the wisest amongst all of us generals, although Lucemon is the smartest," Shawujinmon said. "He's also the gentlest soul amongst us, but fight him and he'll show that he can hold himself decently, despite his age. Due to his age however, we seldom see him fight."

They then went back to the pathway and resumed their walk, and Manny began to believe what Shawujinmon was saying. The Digimon didn't seem at all threatened with Shawujinmon or Doumon, but rather they all seemed to respect them. They soon arrived at a crowd of Digimon who were whistling and clapping in admiration. Wondering what the commotion was about, Manny curiously tried to take a look, amidst the crowd.

"Ah, we might as well stop here for a while," Shawujinmon agreed. His voice seemed to have attracted the attention of everyone, and the crowd parted way so that they could see a small podium where a group of feminine Digimon was dancing beautifully. Manny gaped, he couldn't believe his eyes, upon seeing the center of attraction being the Virago General Persiamon, merrily dancing and singing along with the Floramon, the Lalamon and the Palmon. The groups that were gathering by the stage were cheering them as the dancing girls finished their number, before clapping loudly. Persiamon saw them, and threw a kiss towards their direction perkily, earning a round of _oooh_ from the other Digimon, and Shawujinmon merely waved a hand back at her.

"Beautiful, nurturing Persiamon is always the most talented too and she is very compassionate, but her powers are the most dangerous amongst us," Shawujinmon noted. "Ironically, she hates fighting and only joins in when it is necessary, preferring to entertain the crowd, making them forgot momentarily of their gloomy situation. I think it's noble of her – all the Digimon here have lost their homes, as well as family members and friends, so they need Persiamon's marvelous talent to alleviate their worries, even if it's only temporary."

A tall figure suddenly zipped past them, and Manny and Penguinmon both sweatdropped upon seeing Astamon being chased by a horde of giggling Rookies and In-Trainings. The Majin General was screaming dramatically, as if pretending to be afraid of the younglings before he halted, and the younglings tackled him onto the ground. They all scrambled upon the ground, laughing, all seemed to be enjoying themselves. The In-Trainings yelled victoriously as they hopped above Astamon's chest.

"Tag! You're it!" a Bearmon yelled and scampered away along with another Rookies, leaving the In-Trainings (who obviously were oblivious to the rules of the game) with Astamon.

"Though he appears demonic, but never let it fool you. Astamon possesses a child's heart and prefers playing with the little ones here, although if needs be, he is a powerful fighter," Shawujinmon said, clearly amused of the situation as one particularly determined Nyaromon decided to pull Astamon's long hair by biting on the hair, causing the Majin General to yelp in pain, but at the same time made no attempt to stop the little feline In-Training.

The sights of the generals and the Digimon getting along made Manny smile; he now believed that Shawujinmon was telling the truth. Besides, the DigiWira had attacked him while the generals were the ones who had saved him. As Shawujinmon led him away from the crowd where it was quieter, Manny couldn't help but wonder about one thing.

Didn't the DigiWira mention about Manny, or rather, _Emman_, getting killed by Shawujinmon? Shouldn't Shawujinmon be wary of him then, instead of being so cordial to him and Penguinmon?

"You are very different from Emman," Shawujinmon said suddenly as he stopped by in front of an ivory tent decorated with gold linings. All of a sudden, Shawujinmon looked uncomfortable.

"The DigiWira thought that you've failed to kill him," Manny said, not wanting to associate himself with Emman. If the other DigiWira were villainous, Emman must be as well. He and Emman were two different people, and that way he began to dissociate the evil DigiWira and the good ones back at his home dimension.

Shawujinmon gave Manny and Penguinmon a long look. "I didn't kill Emman," he said quietly. "I only deleted his partner, WaruSeadramon, while saving a bayside village from their onslaught. I managed to corner Emman at a cliff and he fell, but he managed to grab hold on some of the protruded stones. The waves were raging under the cliff; WaruSeadramon had created a maelstrom prior to his departing, and it did not subside when he was deleted." Shawujinmon sighed. "I offered to help Emman. I extended my hand to help him up…but Emman refused to let me help him. Instead he let go of the stones, falling into the raging waves. He didn't survive the fall."

"He let go?" Manny's voice was hoarse. "Instead of letting you help him?"

"Unfortunately," Shawujinmon said, his eyes downcast.

Manny was stunned. He'd never thought that he'd commit suicide. _'No…that's not me. Emman and I are two different people,'_ he reminded himself.

"If this Emman guy is also a DigiWira, what makes the other DigiWira want to kill him off?" Penguinmon inquired curiously.

Shawujinmon thought about it before shaking his head. "I don't usually make it my business to know of their sordid affairs, but," Shawujinmon stopped, and beckoned towards the entrance of the white tent, smiling slightly, "if you want to know the details, I suggest you meet our leader, Lucemon."

xxx

xxx

"Ninety-nine bottles of slime on the walls, ninety-nine bottles of slime," sang a boyish voice, as Manny, Penguinmon and Shawujinmon stepped inside the white tent. They saw a large swinging white hammock set up so high, the occupant remained unseen. "You take one down, you pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of slime on the wall."

"Ahem," Shawujinmon cleared his throat, gazing up at the hammock. The hammock stopped swinging abruptly. "Lucemon?"

"Ah! If it isn't my dear friend Shawujinmon!"

Manny and Penguinmon couldn't imagine the Hellion General to be this carefree, or that he sounded so youthful by the way he sang (or the fact that he _actually_ sang), and were both taken aback when a boy with a cherubic face peered from the hammock – his eyes blue as the sky, and his curly hair so blonde that they could almost become white. The boy looked delighted upon seeing Manny and Penguinmon, and to their surprise twelve pairs of pristine white wings flapped out from the boy's back as he leaped away from the hammock, making a graceful flip while falling, and with a flap of his wings he was suspended in midair, the white toga he wore caught some air and he floated down slowly like one with a parachute. All the while, the smile never left his face.

"I've heard about you two," the angel said excitedly, caught Manny's hand and Penguinmon's wing simultaneously, and shook both limbs. "Travelers from an alternate dimension! I thought that those things are only stuffs out from books and lore. But, here you are!"

His overzealousness reminded Manny of his little sister Debbie. Height-wise, the angelic boy was around her height too, at his chest level, though his wings added to his height a little more than Manny's shoulders. Manny couldn't believe that this boy was Lucemon.

"Er…Lucemon?" Manny looked at Shawujinmon for confirmation.

"One and only," Shawujinmon said, and frowned. "You look surprised, Manny. Surely there's a Lucemon back at your home world too?"

"There is, but…" Manny searched for the right words as he looked down at the adorable face of the boy.

"It's a different Lucemon," Penguinmon finished, equally amazed as well. "Back home, it was an adult Lucemon, half-angel, half-demon."

"Ah, phooey!" the boy Lucemon said, waving his hands airily. "I know of that; that's my Ultimate form. Too much _black_ to my liking, I rather stick in my Rookie form in all these pristine white glory," he continued in a haughty tone that was akin to a proud child. "SkullSatamon says I should remain in my Ultimate form permanently if I want to be at equal level of power with my fellow generals or those DigiWira's partners, but the old man obviously didn't see me making a fool out of BlackRapidmon and Kimeramon that day." Lucemon giggled, and Manny sweatdropped. "If it weren't for Megadramon and Gigadramon's interferences, I'd have beaten those two sluts." As angelic and as small as he was, Lucemon didn't seem to care for his choice of words too.

"Huh?" Manny wondered what Lucemon was talking about.

"Those four monsters that the DigiWira sent to kill you and Penguinmon," Lucemon clarified. "I saw everything from here." He tapped his temple and gave a cheeky smile, before a small frown appeared on his face. "If it weren't for the fact that I was injured from that particular fight, I'd have joined the rescue team to retrieve you today," he explained to Manny, and gestured at a bandage across his chest.

Manny and Penguinmon didn't notice the bandage beforehand; they thought that it was part of Lucemon's outfit, for the bandages were also as white as his toga.

"So," Lucemon said, clicking his tongue as his eyes twinkled. "You're here to know the full gist of everything?" Manny and Penguinmon nodded, looking amazed, and Lucemon laughed. "Don't look so surprised. I know what I want to know, and maybe some that I don't, but can't help knowing…the ups of having psychic power." He giggled again childishly, and sat down on the grassy ground leisurely while gesturing for his guests to do the same. "So…hmm, about these punks, I can say that your alternate self, Emman, was probably the evilest out of the five, but it was kinda hard to be sure though, as _all_ of them have their own bad qualities."

Lucemon became silent for a moment, his blue eyes boring into Manny's russet irises. All of a sudden Manny felt that the small-boy image Lucemon had now was only a cover; his eyes, they told him of knowledge beyond his physical appearance. The Rookie angel's voice became somewhat grim as he inquired, "Ever heard about the seven deadly sins, Manny?"

"Yes," Manny nodded, slightly taken aback of the inquiry. "I've read about them," he clarified.

"Good," Lucemon said grimly. "Then you'll know what I'm going to say here. The five DigiWira partners, as well as their two partners-in-crime the Satanic Siblings, made up a team of seven deadly Digimon who have been bestowed the seven great sins from the Seven Great Demon Lords who have once terrorized the Digital World. They were the ones who give those who bear demonic physical features such a bad name; SkullSatamon and Astamon, as well as myself when I'm in my Ultimate form, and also many others, suffer a lot at first due to this prejudice."

Lucemon paused, his face reddened a little. He appeared to be somewhat furious, but with a sigh the redness began to dissipate.

"Anyhow, those seven deadly sins are pride, wrath, envy, sloth, gluttony, lust and greed – these traits are gained by their deceased lord Grademon, and these traits manifest themselves in form of weapons. I believe you have seen the DigiWira wielding them during your unfortunate encounter with them. You two are extremely lucky to be able to escape them with not so much insult to your body, for those weapons are their favorite items to torture any innocent that crosses their way. Many have fallen, including some of our own."

Lucemon looked away at a distance, where a framed picture was hung on one of the pillars that supported the tent. It showed all nine generals – and flanking Lucemon's sides, to Manny's now-not-so-surprise, were Karatenmon and Lilamon, the Mage and Dryad Generals. In the picture, Lilamon was seen ruffling Lucemon's hair while Karatenmon had one arm slung around the angel's shoulder while the other was making the universal victory sign. The others – the six Brightmoons – made up the rest of the people in the picture.

"Karatenmon and Lilamon, our fellow generals, have been brutally assaulted by these weapons, tortured into their deaths," Lucemon continued, his eyes twinkling. Manny thought that the boy angel looked profoundly grieved.

"The Satanic Siblings, hypocrites those two are, bearing forms of holy angels while actually having hearts of the devils, if they have any heart at all, they got the traits of Wrath and Sloth. But we don't have to worry about them any longer," Lucemon said slowly, his voice adapting a slight growl-ish quality in it. The sadness he displayed earlier was replaced by anger. "Two of our fellow Brightmoons, Mephistomon and Phelesmon, fought the Satanic Siblings to their last breaths, successfully killing them, but at the cost of their own lives. Their sacrifices brought us a key knowledge: the weapons were powering up their partners, all the way to Ultimate levels and probably Mega too, but we have yet to see a Mega from them."

'_The Satanic Siblings?'_ Manny wondered. _'Could they be the same as the Saintly Siblings back home? Man, this is really weird.'_

"The other five DigiWira gain the power of the five remaining sins. Adam gains a trait which is associated with _my_ digivolved form – the Pride. This makes him the leader of the team, and the wielder of the Blade of Lucifer." Lucemon made a face upon mentioning the weapon's name.

"Liu Ying receives the trait of Greed, and her weapon is called the War Fan of Barbatos."

"Gayathri, the other girl, receives the power of Gluttony, and the vicious Lash of Beelzebub as her arsenal."

"JD gets the trait of Lust, and wields the fiery Nunchucks of Lilith."

"And Emman receives the trait of Envy, wielding the electrifying Trident of Leviathan."

Manny frowned; all of these weapons were named after demons in various beliefs, mostly in Christian and Jewish mythologies. He had read a bit about them from online encyclopedias, but hadn't the chance to fully divulge more on them.

"The DigiWira team itself seems to be cursed with the power of the sins, but they have at least maintained a respectable relationship in order to rule the Digital World. For Adam, the sin he had inherited made him extremely prideful, arrogant and uncaring to others, and these traits manifest themselves to his current physical appearances – scary as hell, if you ask me," Lucemon said with a shiver. "They say that out of the five, Adam is the most heartless, totally aloof and holds little regard to others' lives."

Manny pictured the Adam he knew, his innocent youthfulness clear in many ways that sometimes made Manny thought that the leader was a lot younger than he was, despite both of them born in the same year. Then he compared the Adam he knew, and the gothic-looking Adam he had encountered, who was the first to try killing him. Aside from sharing the same name, there was _nothing_ else similar about the two boys.

"For the girls, their sins are more or less the same thing – Greed and Gluttony both fall along the same line, and thus their personalities became more or less, the same. They recognized the benefit of them working as a team and together they are fairly powerful, able to overpower their male counterparts should they get on their bad sides. I've heard less-than-honorable achievements which they have gained in their home world, earning successes via underhanded means, doing _whatever it takes_ to get what they wanted. I'd rather not explain all of them to you, lest your views on _your_ friends are affected, which I hope won't be the case, for they are different peoples."

Both Liu Ying and Gayathri that Manny knew could never act like the two deadly nymphets that he had met at the Forest Sanctum. Liu Ying was a girl who, to him, carried an aura of elegance wherever she go, dealing with situations with the maturity of an adult which made Manny admired her. And Gayathri, vivacious and sincere, not to mention very pretty in his opinion, was probably the sweetest girl he had ever met, and also captured his heart.

"For JD, the sin of Lust which he's gained has made him…" Lucemon looked extremely uncomfortable, and took a moment to gather himself before continuing, "well, it makes him view anyone who strikes him fancy as objects to…uhh….well….satiate his needs. And he'll stop at nothing to get whatever he wants, although he has enough sense not to pursue his fellow teammates should they don't return his desires. I won't go any further; I'm just a kid, I can't be describing all the stuffs _he_ had done, and I have heard a lot of his evil deeds at the human world."

Manny nodded, blushing himself, easily interpreted the underlying meaning of what Lucemon had said. Pushing that notion aside, he thought that the JD he had encountered in this dimension, while having the same aggressive temperament that the JD he knew had, severely lacked the hidden caring personality that the blonde boy had towards those he really cared about. This was what made the two JDs remarkably different – one was purely evil, and the other was just misunderstood by his peers.

"And what about Emman?" Manny asked the little cherubim, curious about his evil, alternate self. "And his…Envy?"

"I thought you'd ask that," Lucemon said knowingly, gazing at Manny, as if trying to differentiate him from Emman. "Emman's sin is Envy, and true to this it's made him extremely jealous and envious of others' achievements. Words have it that there was a falling out between Adam, Gayathri and Emman several days before Emman met his doom. I'm not sure why, but it had turned both Adam and Gayathri against him, and he didn't exactly have a good rapport with the other two DigiWira, for his jealousy nature had continuously annoyed every other member of the team to no ends. For instance, he'd get jealous if Adam appeared to have more power than he was, or if JD managed to easily tackle some unknowing human preys for his needs, or if Gayathri – the one he'd got involved with at a much personal level – showed any sign of interest to the other two guys in the team. Truth be told, he was wholly consumed by the sin of Envy that he barely has hold on his true self any more. Adam and Gayathri became the receiving ends of his relentless jealousy most of the time, and at one time, several days ago, things got out of proportion. I heard they were actually plotting to kill off Emman – their sins made them less than caring about their fellow teammate."

"But I thought Shawujinmon's the one who deleted WaruSeadramon…and Emman killed himself afterwards?" Manny asked in bewilderment.

"Yes…but it was Adam and Gayathri who drew Emman to Blue Bay Village, setting up a trap for Emman and WaruSeadramon to wreck havoc at the village to draw the attentions of the Brightmoons," Shawujinmon said slowly. "I heard of the news, and by the time I got there were only Emman and WaruSeadramon."

Lucemon nodded. "When Shawujinmon and the others managed to destroy the Trident of Leviathan and delete WaruSeadramon, it seems to me that Emman realized that he was doomed. Without his power weapon and his partner, he was helpless against the other DigiWira. I believe this was the actual reason driving him to kill himself, instead of accepting Shawujinmon's help."

The three of them became quiet, and Manny processed the information in his mind. It wasn't so hard now that he was able to distinguish Emman as a totally different person, and Lucemon's boyish appearance made it easier for he was not reminded of the cruel Hellion General he and his friends had faced just a week before.

Ruffles were heard, before three tall figures stepped inside the tent. Manny softly gasped as Persiamon, Astamon and Doumon looked at him and Penguinmon questioningly. Their expressions unreadable, Manny wondered what was on their minds. He remembered seeing them covering for Shawujinmon when the latter rescued him and Penguinmon earlier this day.

"Golly!" Persiamon squealed in delight and grabbed Manny's hand, shaking it happily. "You're much better-looking than your dead evil twin, I have to say! You actually look very presentable!" she gushed as she inspected Manny's face. This Persiamon sounded very much like a giddy schoolgirl, completely different from the vicious Virago General from his home dimension. "Nice hair, nice outfit," she hummed happily before taking a step back, and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry if I invaded your personal space or anything, it's just that…wow, it's just unbelievable! Let me be the first to tell you that your evil twin is one insane guy!"

Manny managed to let out a small smile as he replied, "Actually they've just told me about him."

"Really?" Persiamon didn't sound perturbed at all. She cocked her head sideways, letting her lustrous red hair cascading down her shoulder, giving Manny a very adorable feline-like expression. "Then I guess I'm the second one who has told you that!"

"Now, now, Persiamon, keep that up and I'll sic those Rookies and In-Trainings at you," Astamon said with a laugh.

"Oh, why's that?" Persiamon challenged, her tone playful.

Astamon grinned back. "For being excessively cute," he said evenly, before both of them broke into a hearty laugh. Manny and Penguinmon sweatdropped at their exchange, before realizing that these two generals must be an item, when they held out their hands and clasped each others' affectionately.

Doumon went to the good DigiWira and placed his fox paw on Manny's shoulder. "Don't mind them," he said with a wizened voice. "They are always like that, once they've found companionship in each other. I heard that a DigiEgg is on the way for both of them, if you get what I mean." Old as he was, Doumon surprised Manny by giving him a wink.

"Oh…" Manny and Penguinmon looked at each other, obviously having quite a time to digest everything.

"Something on your mind?" Shawujinmon asked Manny. "Perhaps it's a bit too confusing for you to take in all at once? Since our counterparts are the villains in your home world."

"Villains are an understatement," Penguinmon muttered. Then he laughed. "All this cuteness you have is downright scary, though! You'll probably frighten all of them away with all your love and caring."

"I wish it could be that simple here," Doumon said, taking in Penguinmon's sarcasm at face value. "That way we won't have lost our dear fellow generals. SkullSatamon is especially depressed of their premature departures, he's been keeping himself solitude inside his castle, mourning for their deletion. He felt that it was his fault that the four generals were deleted; he could have protected them, but he had failed, and it's getting to him until now, especially when all he could do is watch as events unfold here from the confinement of his stronghold."

Roused by curiousness, Manny asked the one thing he had been wondering about ever since he escaped the SkullSatamon in his world's evil influence. "Maybe if you find a way to get rid off the barrier surrounding his castle, SkullSatamon can escape and lead you to victory?"

"We're working on that," Lucemon deadpanned. "So far, we're half-successful."

"What do you mean?" Manny asked.

"Three centuries ago, the evil Grademon used the power of the seven sinful weapons to erect the barrier around SkullSatamon's Horror Hall. To destroy the barrier we need to destroy the source, which is the weapons. So far we have destroyed the Trident of Leviathan, the Demon Crossbow and the Shield of Belphegor," Lucemon explained, mirth sparked from his eyes. He held up seven fingers, and brought down three with a grin. "Three down, four to go."

Horrible primordial roars suddenly echoed from outside, followed by terrified shrieks. The earth seemed to rumble as rapid movements were detected coming from outside the tent. Immediately Manny and Penguinmon, as well as the Brightmoon Brethrens rushed out from the tent, seeing explosions coming from a distance at the mountains. Two airborne dragons were engaged in a battle with various ghostly guards stationed to protect the border of the Shadow Realm. From another end of the mountains, a black-armored humanoid and a grotesque creature with various mismatched body parts were blasting volleys of energy towards incoming Bakemon and Soulmon, successfully deleting them, before the MetalPhantomon engaged them in a fight.

"It's them!" Shawujinmon said in disbelief, as the four evil DigiWira appeared from a distance, walking side by side, weapons in their hands. They blasted everything and everyone in sight, watching with mirth as many Digimon weaker than their sin weapons disintegrated into data particles. The flames from JD's nunchucks caught some of the tents, setting them ablaze. Liu Ying's war fan zipped past many others, tearing them apart as well as some of the fleeing Digimon. Gayathri leaped forward and lashed out at any Digimon that stood her way; they were no match for her whip. And Adam, looking as if he was bored with the whole ordeal, sent out bladed energy projectiles from his keris as he slashed through the air, his attack destroyed anything they came into contact with – tents, trees, Digimon, all of them.

"How violent," Persiamon whimpered.

"I was afraid that this would happen soon," Doumon stated in disbelief. "It would be only a matter of time before they gain enough power to outclass our defense." He winced as Megadramon and Gigadramon destroyed many Phantomon and MetalPhantomon with their combined attacks.

"What should we do…?" Astamon asked, nervous evidence in his voice.

"This is too bold, even for them," Lucemon said grimly. "My friends, we have no choice. We have to fight them."

"Fight?" Persiamon sounded so afraid. "What do you mean…fight? They are the ones who killed our fellow generals. How can we hope to best them?"

"We have no choice," Lucemon said. "They've come this far, we can no longer hide from them. And this time, I won't take any chances too." With a bright glow, Lucemon morphed into a taller adult, with half of his wings angelic and the others demonic. He was now in his Ultimate form, wielding greater power than his Rookie self.

"You…you digivolved!" Astamon said in disbelief. "You hated this form…this can only mean…"

"You're dead serious," Persiamon finished.

Manny and Penguinmon looked at each other, reaching a silent agreement. In this world, these Digimon were the defenders of good, and Manny and Penguinmon were at the side of good. In this world the DigiWira were the enemies, and Manny would never align himself with enemies again.

"We have a friend who might be of some help," he said, his eyes raptly assessing the situation.

"Manny," Shawujinmon said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Can you make sure that the refugees are protected from the DigiWira? The five of us will fight off the partners, but we'll need you to protect the defenseless Digimon around here. They don't know how to fight; they'll need you more than we do."

"But…" Manny wanted to protest; Samudramon would definitely be an asset to the fight.

"Don't worry," Lucemon said, his voice hadn't lost its warmth displayed by his Rookie mode, which made Manny relieved. His eyes might look icy, but Manny could also detect compassion behind those eyes. The iciness was directed towards the enemies. "Come, Brightmoons. Let's finish this off once and for all," he said determinedly, before his eyes softened as he added, "then we all can live in peace."

The angel-demon's word seemed to have wiped out the fear from his comrades, and the five Brightmoons charged towards the assaulting Black Rapidmon, Kimeramon, Megadramon and Gigadramon. Manny watched them with awe, never thought even once that he'd be rooting for them when he was back home. He watched as Lucemon tackled Megadramon while Shawujinmon battled Gigadramon. Persiamon, Astamon and Doumon banded together to fight off Kimeramon and Black Rapidmon.

"Hey, stop daydreaming and start fighting!" Penguinmon exclaimed as he slapped Manny's legs urgently. "Look who's coming!"

Manny blinked as he saw the four evil DigiWira approaching him, with their sin weapons at their disposal. _'Lucemon says that these weapons are the source of SkullSatamon's imprisonment. Never thought that I'd be working on freeing SkullSatamon…'_

JD smirked at Manny, the strange wild look he had given Manny back at the sanctum now glazed upon his hazel irises. "Hide and seek is over," he said.

Adam stepped forward and gave Manny a superior look. "See the deaths around you?" he asked with a chilling calm voice. Explosions were heard; from the background a blast from Megadramon collided with Lucemon's beam of energy. At the same time, combined blasts from Persiamon, Doumon and Astamon had struck Kimeramon. Gigadramon was fighting a winning battle against Shawujinmon, who was trying his best to stop the dark cybernetic dragon from approaching the Horror Hall, where the innocent Digimon were taking refuge.

The bloodlessly pale Adam chuckled. "If you're not here, then all of these wouldn't have happened." His note was especially nonchalant as he continued, while twirling that twisted blade of his: "Those deleted Digimon, their blood's on your hands, _Manny_."

Manny blinked; these evil DigiWira knew who he was, finally differentiating himself from Emman. But then again, he had told them that during their first encounter.

"You still owe me that dance…" JD's voice was sickeningly twisted as he pointed the red stick of his nunchucks towards Manny. "So…DANCE!"

Flames shot out from the nunchucks and Manny quickly countered it with a stream of high-pressurized water blast, pushing the flames back. Instantly, taking advantage of his current situation, Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri quickly launched their own attacks towards Manny, but Penguinmon leaped up and a cool azure energy beam erupted from Manny's Digivice, quickly digivolving Penguinmon into his Armored Champion form of Depthmon. The armor Digimon shot energy pods made out of water which threw off Liu Ying's fan and Gayathri's whip, but he was struck by the bladed energy projectiles from Adam's keris. Depthmon growled and fired his Bubble Bombs towards both Adam and his keris, determined to get rid off the leader first.

"We've destroyed_ Ultimates_ with our weapons," Adam said softly as he countered the bubble bombs with his bladed projectiles, nullifying Depthmon's attacks. "What makes you _think_ that you can beat us, with your pathetic Armor form?" Suddenly the boy's face broke into a sinister smile. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Look behind you…oops, too late."

Depthmon felt a sharp strike on his back; the girls had struck him with their weapons. Gayathri leaped and sent her whip towards him, and to Depthmon's surprise she attacked exactly the same way he had seen Rosemon used her Roses Rapier technique. Her profound skills confounded him; he had forgotten to defend himself. The whip elongated, straightened and emitted pink energy spirals that struck him squarely on his chest, sending him flying with a sharp cracking sound.

"What are you doing, floating there and taking in my attack like that?" Gayathri snorted. "You hoped that your armor could resist it? Fat chance, fish face."

Liu Ying chortled and raised her hand towards the sky. Her flying fan returned to her, floating and spinning rapidly above her raised arm. "Time to break that armor," she said, and with a loud grunt she made a slashing motion, and the fan flew at top speed towards the falling Depthmon. It connected with Depthmon's armor, and broke it into data particles.

Depthmon cried out in pain as Gayathri's whip slammed on his unprotected body again, and the force of the attack was enough to dedigivolve him back into Penguinmon. The Rookie was slammed onto the ground right beside Manny, causing the boy to gasp.

JD saw an opening and pointed the black stick of his weapon towards Manny. "Y'know, I feel bad for going to finish you off, since I've other plans in mind," he said with a smirk. "But then again, I'm already bad to the bones, so…see ya!" The nunchucks' black stick fired a stream of black laser which coalesced with the flames, providing an even greater attack from JD's side.

Manny was pushed back; his waters alone couldn't resist the combined attack from JD. He glanced sideways; Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri slowly approaching them. Penguinmon rose back to his feet, a bright gash evident from the white tufts of his body, the bandage Shawujinmon had put on him soiled with blood. Fury shook him; and to his surprise crackles of electricity began to form around his outstretched hands. Blue thunder became wilder, before from his hands where the waters continuously being fired out, one shining blue thunderbolt struck straight towards JD's nunchucks, electro-shocking it since the weapon was purely made out of metal, and also the one who was holding the metallic weapon.

JD roared in pain as electricity shocked him, throwing him into the ground, writhing wildly in pain. His hands were blackened entirely, and he was lucky enough that Manny's lightning bolt didn't outright kill him. He looked up and gasped as his nunchucks combusted into data particles. "What the f---"

He couldn't finish his words, for streams of water blasted onto his face, as Manny stepped forward, heaving his breath. The focused blast of water had knocked JD out, possibly drowning him at the same time, but Manny was careful not to let it kill JD. The evil DigiWira probably deserved it, but Manny was no murderer.

He was also overwhelmed with surprise of the sudden appearance of his ability to project lightning from his bare hands. He had thought that his ability was only limited to water-bending capabilities.

Then, realization hit him. Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri – the ones from his home dimension – all had two sets of abilities at their disposal. Adam could teleport and purify attacks sent his way to use them to his advantage. Liu Ying was able to move things with her mind, and project energy barrier to shield herself and others from harm. Gayathri could run at top speed, and let out a supersonic scream.

'_Super-cool,'_ he thought, confidence growing within him as the remaining evil DigiWira looked flabbergasted at JD's sound defeat.

"That…was impressive, Manny!" Penguinmon said, staring at him admiringly. The avian Rookie let out a smile. "I knew you had it in you!"

From the distance, there was a loud combusting sound. Following his partner's defeat and the destruction of the Nunchucks of Lilithmon, Gigadramon had lost his power and had devolved just as Lucemon's volleys of dark and light energy orbs were sent his way. Devolved into his Champion form of DarkLizamon, he was no longer a match for Lucemon, and was deleted. Megadramon roared in shock and backed away from Shawujinmon, staring at his decomposing comrade with his yellow eyes.

The Brightmoon Brethren were surprised themselves, but Shawujinmon cheered loudly when he saw what had happened – Manny had successfully destroyed JD's power weapon.

"That's four down, three to go!" he said laughingly at Lucemon, who grinned back.

The battle between the Brightmoon Brethren and the remaining three partners of the DigiWira ensued, while on the grounds of the Shadow Realm Manny found himself being attacked by Adam, Liu Ying and Gayathri simultaneously. The bladed projectiles, the glowing fan and the deadly whip struck the place where he and Penguinmon stood just as they barely leaped away, causing an explosion of smokes to follow.

"Is he gone?" Gayathri wondered, withdrawing her black whip.

"I think so," Liu Ying said, calling back her spinning war fan.

Adam smirked, watching the thick smokes. "Let's be sure." He resumed firing out bladed projectiles from his keris, wanting to be on the safe side. To his disdain however, he heard clanging sounds from within the smokes – his bladed projectiles seemed to have come into contact with something metallic. The smokes gradually subsided, and an impressive figure in blue appeared within it, surrounded by cool blue aura, wielding a metallic trident. The figure's lower extremities were surrounded by a watery tornado which subsided, and a sleek fishtail was revealed before it morphed into a pair of sturdy legs in dark blue light armor.

"_Deep Ocean Submerge!"_

Samudramon sent waves of water towards the three shocked DigiWira. They didn't have time to counter back; their bodies were drowned immediately by the large splash of water. The sudden burst of water had also caused them to let go of their weapons, which was exactly what Samudramon had in mind. He quickly detected one of the weapons – the whip – lighter than the other two, and used his water-bending skill to call upon the whip. The waters brought the whip to him, and Samudramon generated a pillar of water to propel the whip towards the sky. Another flick of his arm, and the waters rained back onto the flooding ground, the whip hovering in midair.

"_Cosmic Thunderstrike!"_

Two streaks of lightning shot from the heavens and struck the black whip, destroying it into data particles. Samudramon looked up and saw Black Rapidmon devolving into a smaller black bunny in brown trousers with guns as arms. Persiamon's crimson energy ribbons struck through it, and with a loud shriek the bunny – Black Gargomon – combusted into data particles. A loud roar came from Kimeramon as she slashed the air with her multiple arms, haphazardly striking Doumon away before seizing his paintbrush. The chimera seemed to be glowing with the residual data from the deleted Black Gargomon, and Samudramon realized what she was going to do.

"Look out!!" Samudramon yelled, wanting to warn the Brightmoons. "The monster…Kimeramon…she's going to…"

But it was too late. Kimeramon had consumed the data of her fallen comrade, and with it she grew twice as large before a golden glow enveloped her very being. An avian screech was heard and Kimeramon had mega-digivolved into a great bird Digimon covered in golden armor. The bird was also surprisingly quick; with a mere kick she had struck both Astamon and Persiamon away, before generating a golden orb of power from her beak. Another screech, and the orb was blasted towards the fallen forms of Astamon and Persiamon.

'_No!'_ Samudramon's heart skipped a beat; a thought crossed his mind. He couldn't let this bird destroy the Brightmoons, and more importantly, he couldn't let Persiamon be deleted. He didn't know why he hadn't thought about it before, but at this moment of emergency the inspiration was practically shoved into his mind.

He could ask _her_ about the cursed tattoo, the Blight of Bastet. The Persiamon from this dimension was a champion for good. She would surely know about it, and she would be willing to share it with him.

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades, Powered Up Mode!"_

His thunder-based dragon shot towards the attack generated by the giant bird, snarling all the way. It collided with the golden orb from the bird, now identified as Eaglemon, and the explosion ensued sent huge shockwaves all over the Shadow Realm. The force of the collision between two Mega-class techniques was very powerful; it had actually forced Eaglemon back as Samudramon, acting purely through instinct, generated water pillars to catch Persiamon, Astamon and Doumon's fall.

"You should have destroyed our weapons when you have the chance, boy," said a cool feminine voice, and a sharp ripping pain coursed through Samudramon's back.

"AAAAGGHH!!"

Crying out painfully, Samudramon caught a glimpse of a very drenched Liu Ying, who was smiling cruelly as she fanned herself with her weapon, streaks of blood that remained on the fan didn't seem to bother her at all. Samudramon didn't even register when the girl had appeared behind him – he was too focused on dealing with Eaglemon. The pain was brutal; it was a powerful strike and due to it Samudramon lost his control over his humanoid form, reverting back to his merman form. He limped onto the ground and saw Adam approaching him with a chillingly calm face, despite being soaked all over. His keris was in his hand, and Adam looked like he was going for the kill, again.

"Karatenmon and Lilamon made the same foolish mistake," Adam stated, in a tone that was used to remark a dull weather, watching as Liu Ying's fan grazed Samudramon from many sides, inflicting injuries which, while superficial, were still excruciating. He relished upon hearing the painful cry let out by Samudramon, the smile never left his face. "And they both fall due to the might of this keris _only_. Oh yes, the other weapons played a role in weakening them, our partners were instrumental as well, but it was this keris which had the ultimate power to destroy Digimon, by corrupting their data wholly beyond repair…well, I suppose it's easier to just show you how it's done."

Adam laughed, for the first time Samudramon had heard him doing so, as he slashed the air in multiple directions, forming a black energy star from the trails of power left by his keris. The star was no ordinary star – it was the symbol of a demon. It blazed with unholy fire, its dark glow washed over Adam, illuminating his face in a dark, twisted way.

"Goodbye," Adam said softly. "Say hi to Emman for me."

Samudramon, unable to move, his fish tail was horribly injured by Liu Ying's blade, froze in terror, but he let out a gasp as a white blur crossed in front of him, intercepting the attack while roaring something indiscernible. A sickly sound of tearing flesh was heard, followed by a sharp blazing sound of the fiery star Adam had generated. Then a shriek from Liu Ying was heard as she backed away, as comprehension dawned upon Samudramon of what had just happened.

"No!" Samudramon cried out. "Shawujinmon!"

Everything had taken place so quickly. He watched in shock as Shawujinmon slowly decomposed into data particles, the crescent end of his black staff was thrust into Adam's stomach. Adam's face was contorted in a look of pained disbelief; it was clear that he was no longer alive. Shawujinmon turned around as the flames set his body ablaze, his expression remained calm. His beaky mouth seemed to smile at Samudramon.

"Thank you for everything, Manny, Penguinmon," Shawujinmon said with a pained voice. The flames had subsided but the damage had been done.

"Shawujinmon…why…?" Samudramon croaked. "Why sacrifice yourself?"

The good Kappa General smiled again. "You've helped us a great deal. My death is a small price to pay for your safety…good luck, and may you find your way home…" With that said he burst into data particles, along with his staff that had ended Adam's life.

Silent tears flowed down Samudramon's face as he watched Adam's body limped down, blood pooling under his body as Liu Ying's shrieks echoed the entire area. He was saddened by the fact that Shawujinmon had died protecting him, and also a small part of him – the conflicting part inside of him – thought that though this Adam was evil, he reminded Samudramon too much of the good Adam, despite the distinction he had made between the two.

With Adam gone, Megadramon too burst into data particles, leaving the generals with only Eaglemon to take care off.

Samudramon crawled towards Adam, silently turning him around and closed the boy's eyes – this boy bore too much resemblance to the Adam he knew and Samudramon couldn't help but to give the boy the final act of respect. He was after all, still a human, and the human half of Samudramon wanted to do this, even though the boy was his enemy here. The waters on his hand washed away the dark eye-makeup around Adam's eyes and for once, Samudramon thought that finally he could see the real Adam's face on this pale, cold boy.

With a deep sigh, he took Adam's keris, threw it towards the air, and destroyed it with the Cosmic Thunderstrike. Now there was only one sin weapon left, and the wielder was running away from him.

"Eaglemon!" Liu Ying called, her expression glazed with fear. She was attempting to flee. Her comrades had fallen, one had died, and she was the remaining one standing.

Eaglemon broke free from the generals' assault and zoomed towards her partner. The generals, enraged upon seeing the fall of their fellow general, all blasted Eaglemon's retreating back with all they got, not holding back one bit. The combined assaults from the four Brightmoons broke Eaglemon's golden armor, ripped her wings, and finally dedigivolved her back into ChaosLabramon. Liu Ying went to retrieve her partner as the generals descended around her, trapping her from any way of escaping.

"Don't hurt me…" Liu Ying pleaded. Seeing Adam being killed in front of her had caused her to lose her battle prowess, overwhelmed with fear. JD and Gayathri were both unconscious, drowned by Samudramon's waves. She and ChaosLabramon could not fight.

Doumon, Persiamon and Astamon observed Lucemon, him being their leader so he would be the one to pass the final judgment. Lucemon stared at the evil DigiWira and her partner, blazing fury reflected from his eyes before with a sigh he regressed back into his boy-angel form.

"As long as you surrender your sin weapon, the War Fan of Barbatos, for us to destroy, we won't harm you," Lucemon deadpanned.

The evil nymphet looked stricken. She and ChaosLabramon shared a glance.

"If you don't, I will not guarantee what my brethren will do to you," Lucemon warned.

"Fine," Liu Ying sighed, defeated. She threw the fan onto the ground, and Persiamon seized it with her energy ribbons quickly, lest the evil nymphet changed her mind. She flicked it towards the air, and Doumon destroyed it with his magical scrolls. "You destroyed all of the weapons, happy?" she muttered.

Lucemon's eyes narrowed. "You don't even feel guilty of your heinous crime," he said coldly, the fury returned in his eyes. "You and your friends shall be imprisoned inside the dungeons under SkullSatamon's Horror Hall. With the destruction of the sin weapons the spell around the Horror Hall will be lifted and SkullSatamon will be freed. I'm sure our benevolent lord will be more than willing to accommodate you." He nodded at the other generals. "Seize them."

"What? But you said…" Liu Ying struggled as Persiamon bound her and ChaosLabramon together with her crimson ribbons, and Astamon clutched her wrists so tight that she flinched horribly.

"I won't harm you, yes, but I didn't say that I won't imprison you, girl," Lucemon replied.

"Some good guy you are!" Liu Ying spat.

"Tough," Lucemon simply said, uncaring of the villainess' opinion. He made a shooing motion, and Astamon dragged her away.

Samudramon watched everything with mixed feelings, as he devolved back into Manny and Penguinmon. He didn't know what to feel, actually. This had been one very strange day, and he was so tired, physically and mentally. His body ached all over – both he and Penguinmon suffered grave injuries from Liu Ying's fan. He became fatigued while watching Astamon dragging the kicking and screaming Liu Ying and ChaosLabramon away, while Doumon picked up the unconscious JD and Gayathri. He could hear panicked gasp from Persiamon when once again his vision became blurry.

xxx

xxx

"How long was I out?" Manny asked the first thing after he woke up. He looked down at his body and hands; somebody had done a clumsy, but a good job nonetheless, in fixing him back up. The bandages didn't look as neat as the one Shawujinmon had done, but they did what they were supposed to do. Then he looked beside him, by the wall – Penguinmon was still sleeping. Then he gazed at the one he'd asked the question, who was standing by the entrance of the tent he was in.

"One whole day," Persiamon replied, a tray of food in her hands. She set the tray by the bed and sat down at the edge of the bed. "Healing is never my specialty, but Shawujinmon had taught me some basic parts of this." She smiled fondly at the memory of the deceased general.

"One day?" Manny couldn't believe he had passed out for one day. But then, his throat was dry and his stomach was growling softly. He blushed when Persiamon giggled.

"I can assure you, though my healing skill is less than spectacular, my cooking skill is not as bad." She rose from the bed and smiled. "I'll leave you alone so that you can enjoy your meal."

"Persiamon, wait," Manny said, immediately reminded of the idea that had come up to him during the previous day's battle. He must ask Persiamon about this right now, before he forgot about it. "I've got something that I must ask you."

Persiamon raised a curious eyebrow and gave Manny a nod. "Sure. If I can answer it, I'll do so to the best of my knowledge and ability."

Slightly assured of Persiamon's promise, Manny decided to go straight to the point. "What do you know about the Blight of Bastet?"

Instantly, the feline woman's expression froze in horrified shock. Her green eyes widened and she actually flinched, somewhat horribly, as if thunder had just roared upon her. Slowly she sat down again, her eyes gazing at Manny curiously. "How…how do…" She cleared her throat – her stammering showed Manny that she was very nervous. "How do you know about _that_? I've never told anyone but Astamon…and I doubt he told you about it. It's a terrible curse that I have in my hands and I wish no one would know about it. I suspect Lucemon also knows, but…" She stopped, realizing that she was rambling.

Manny shook his head. "No…it's just that…"

"Oh, no!" Persiamon gasped. "It's the evil Persiamon from your world, am I right? She…she attacked you with it?" She was actually trembling as she said all these, and Manny felt sorry for her. How different this Persiamon was compared to the viciously cruel Virago General from his home dimension.

"Not me, but a close friend of mine. JD, from my world. He now has only three weeks left to survive…"

Persiamon's eyes became tearful. "Oh, my stars!" she cried, genuinely disturbed by the news. "How could she…how could she…"

Manny took in a deep breath and decided that now would be a good time to press for some answers. "It's indeed horrible, and we found nothing that could cure JD from it," he said, his own voice sorrowful as he gazed at Persiamon. "You must know something, Persiamon. I need to know the answer, please," he pleaded.

Persiamon looked at Manny, a tear trickled down her eyes. Manny's heart went to her – she wasn't responsible for what her alternate self had done, but still she was disturbed by the news as if she was the one who had inflicted the curse on JD. She began trembling again, before with a heavy voice, she whispered, "There is a way, but…I don't know whether you or your friend JD will like it."

"We'll do anything!" Manny said, barely able to contain his excitement. Finally, he'd get the answer he was looking for. JD would be so happy.

"Don't…don't look too happy," Persiamon said sadly. "There is a way to save JD's life. In fact, it's the _only_ way….but I'm afraid….the cure itself is as cruel as the curse…"

xxx

xxx

With a heavy heart Manny walked his way down the beach where he had arrived the day before, Penguinmon trailing him from behind, and the Brightmoon Brethren and their master SkullSatamon behind them. He stopped just by the edge of the sea waters, letting the water touch his boots, before turning back to face the crowd that was sending him off.

"Are you sure it will work?" Manny said to SkullSatamon, feeling weird for talking towards the being who was the DigiWira's hidden arch-nemesis back in his home world.

"Of course it will," SkullSatamon said with a wheezy voice. "I know of the Nine Negations Dark Arts like I know the back of my hand. The question is, are you absolutely positive that you heard your enemy right? Did he really mention of the Nine Negations as the source of his ability to send you here?"

Manny nodded stiffly.

"Then, we have nothing to worry about. If he used the Nine Negations to get you here, then the Nine Negations will be your ticket way home," SkullSatamon said.

Manny was reassured of his chance of going home, and took the time to bid his friends goodbye. He exchanged handshakes with Lucemon, Doumon and Astamon, before pausing in front of Persiamon. Without warning, Persiamon pulled him into a heartfelt embrace and her eyes became moist.

"I'm so sorry for your friend JD," she whispered tearfully and pulled back from the embrace. "And I'm sorry for my evil twin's action too. I really don't know of any other way – all the Persiamon species are conditioned with a warning before using the Blight of Bastet, for the cure is, as I've said…as cruel as the curse. I'd _never _use it, not even to my greatest enemies. It's the cruelest thing any of us could have done to anyone. I'm…I'm sorry."

Manny sighed. "It's not your fault, Persiamon. Don't apologize. I just wish I have good news to tell JD instead of this."

"Remember the other thing I've told you about, Manny?" Persiamon asked. "It's the next best thing I could offer."

Manny nodded. "It must've been hard for you, giving away such private information about yourself," he stated with a low voice.

"It's not like you're gonna use it on _me_," Persiamon replied with a small smile. "I wish you the best of luck, Manny, you and your friends."

He forced a smile towards the friends he had made in this dimension, thinking that how ironic it would be that these band of Digimon were evil in his dimension. He and Penguinmon then assumed their Wira Digital form of Samudramon, and went into the sea as SkullSatamon lowered the tip of his bone staff into the waters. The sky thundered as Samudramon swam inside the sea, feeling the currents picking up before the waters burst towards the heavens in form of a maelstrom, Samudramon trapped within it.

He felt dizzy from all the spinning and he didn't know when the maelstrom would stop. Thunders continuously rumbled, before Samudramon detected that the waters began to subside. He was pulled back into the sea, and his heart throbbed in anticipation as he emerged upon the surface. Looking around, he saw that everything was the same. But the Brightmoons were gone. Nobody was around.

"What in the world?!!" a voice screamed at Samudramon in frustration. "Why didn't it work?"

Samudramon could barely contain his smile, he recognized the voice. Looking up he saw Shawujinmon, and realized that he was back. SkullSatamon – the good SkullSatamon – his plan worked. The Brightmoons had successfully sent him back.

"What didn't work?" he asked Shawujinmon, thinking that the Kappa General must be frustrated. SkullSatamon had also told him, as they made their way towards the beach earlier, that he could also send them back home just seconds after they were sent to the alternate dimension in the first place. That way, nobody would miss them. He had spent one day at the alternate Digital World, but he had only left his own world for less than a minute.

"You…you…"

Samudramon quickly recalled his trident, wanting to finish Shawujinmon off once and for all. For a brief moment he was reminded of the good Shawujinmon, the one who had sacrificed himself to save him, and the memory fueled him of strength. He rose his trident towards the sky, and called out, _"Divine Rain!"_

Showers of energy-leeching rain poured upon Shawujinmon, causing the general to groan in frustration. He had been at the receiving end of this attack for a few times already.

With a smirk, Samudramon continued, _"Cosmic Thunderstrike!"_

This came off towards Shawujinmon unexpectedly. He hadn't expected Samudramon to be able to strike him with a different attack while unleashing another. His wet body only caused the lightning to electrocute him more heavily than it would have done when his body was dry. As he was weakened from the lightning, his power was rapidly sapped away, and he knew that he would be finished if he stayed around any longer. Quickly he called out the gateway to escape and fled the sea.

xxx

xxx

"Damn…" JD said, after Manny had finished recounting his adventures. "Damn, damn, damn!!" He thrust a fist into the sands, sending some flying Manny's way.

Manny lowered his head sadly. He knew this would happen. JD wouldn't be happy with the revelation he'd brought from the alternate Digital World.

"That bloody bitch!!" JD yelled angrily, finally stopping his assaults towards the sands. His chest heaved up and down slowly, and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He was kneeling, his head hung down, before his whole body trembled. When he looked up, Manny gasped softly; JD's eyes were moist. Even Agumon and Penguinmon let out whimpers.

"JD…" It broke his heart upon seeing his strong friend like this.

"So this is it, then?" JD said bitterly, a tear trickled down his cheek. He would never display any sign of weakness before anyone, but now, he didn't care. "There's no way I'd ask anyone to do that for me…Persiamon's one damn smart bitch. She knew that her plan's flawless from the start. That's why she's been gloating about it every time I saw her blasted face."

"There has to be another way, JD," Manny said quickly. "We'll look for other possible ways. We still have three weeks."

"_I_ still have three weeks, you have your life ahead of you," JD said, staring hard at his younger friend's face. "What's the use, Manny? You've asked the source herself for the cure, and if even she doesn't know of other way than _that_, then…I guess I'm doomed. Really, Manny, I'm screwed." His tone hardened as he wiped the tears away. He stood back up on his feet and gazed up towards the moons.

"Do you want to tell the others about it?" Manny asked softly.

JD didn't reply – his thoughts were in disarray. Manny was right; the cure was as cruel as the curse itself. No way he'd ask anyone to do it for him, and to make sure of that, nobody must know about it.

"No. Don't tell anyone," he said. "We'll do as what that good Persiamon has told you. It's the best we could make out of this mess." His eyes glinted; Manny saw the same burning anger that he'd always seen in JD while the latter was under Karatenmon's spell. JD clenched his fist tight, so tight that Manny thought that his fingernails would pierce through the flesh of his palm. JD didn't seem to care, though, as he vowed, "If I'm gonna go down, I'll take her along with me!"

xxx

xxx

_**Author's Notes:**_

Sorry for being so cryptic about the whole thing with the cure. If I reveal everything flat out, there's no more mystery to it. I've also added foreshadowing to things that will come the Wira Digital's way soon enough with the whole 'seven deadly sins' thing. This chapter might be too graphic to some people's liking, with the deaths and all. By this time, I think the story has now adapted a darker feel to it. We can only wait and find out of what will happen to JD, but seriously speaking, the outcome to the whole thing isn't going to be pretty…

How do you all like the good versions of Darkshadows? I couldn't focus on everybody in one chapter, so I chose only Shawujinmon and Lucemon, with Persiamon being a close third. More about this in my blog.


	56. The Red Dilemma

Sundays were days where the DigiWira stuck to their usual routines if there was nothing else that demanded their attentions.

Manny would spend the morning with his family attending the church at the city of Kuala Lumpur, as they would do every Sunday.

Liu Ying would help his mother out at their family's hair salon, for weekends were when business was the busiest and any extra hand there would be a great deal of help for her mother. When things were slow, she would use the time to either do her homework or studying for the upcoming topics that would be taught at school the next day.

Gayathri usually would spend the day with her girlfriends Dina and Belinda. It had been hard at first when they were not aware of her being DigiWira, but it got easier after the inadvertent revelation of truth when Astamon kidnapped all three of them, and brought them to the Digital World. This day however, the girls would come to her house instead, for she had two other guests staying at her house, both of them being grieving Digimon that she had welcomed to her house after the previous day's battle.

As for the cousins Adam and JD, their Sunday activities usually varied, but the mornings would always be spent visiting Alisha at the hospital, which was what they were doing at the moment as they walked the sterile aisles of the hospital corridors. Their presence was a normal occurrence to the regular staffs that had grown used to the pair of boys, but as for the boys the usual Sunday morning passed by with a slight blur, for both had their minds preoccupied.

For Adam, he was distracted mainly by the death statistics shown by the news pertaining to the previous day's battle at the KLCC Park against the Puaka Generals. He and the other Wira Digital might have won the battle, but not without loss. Apart from Ophanimon's death, Adam learned that there were a total death toll of fifty-five last night – the victims were mostly those who hadn't been able to escape the buildings quick enough. He was at first terrified, remembering that_ Aldiyamon_ had accidentally deflected the blasts from the Velgemon towards the buildings, but soon found out that the wreckage was fairly minimal at the time; nobody was killed then, though there were injuries, based on interviews conducted with the survivors of the battle. The deaths took place when the Puaka Generals sent various attacks towards the buildings, killing those who remained in the buildings which had caught the demons' attacks.

What hurt Adam the most was a statement from several civilians saying that hadn't the Wira Digital _efficient_ enough to stop the demons, the deaths would not have happened. The fact that there were probably three times more people backing the Wira Digital up in ratio of the ones condemning them didn't make any different to him – until JD pulled the plugs for all the televisions, radios and computers in the house, as well as burning that day's newspapers.

"There'll be no more news for you today," JD had said. Adam didn't object to it at all – feeling depressed enough with Ophanimon's death, he didn't need to hear negative opinions thrown at the Wira Digital.

As for JD, he was also deeply disturbed, but not because of the deaths of the civilians or the wreckage the KLCC park had suffered from the battle. To him, they had done their best, and it would be a whole lot worse if they didn't stop the Puaka Generals when they did. He couldn't care less of what other people think about him and his friends, but unfortunately Adam was not like that. He had tried to make Adam view the aftermath from his perspective, but apparently Adam was still easily affected by deaths. JD understood the reason, and decided to give his cousin some space, which in turn gave him some time to think about the disturbing news Manny had relayed to him just the previous night, after the battle.

'_The cure is as cruel as the curse...'_

JD watched his cousin's back as they made the exit from the elevator to the floor where Alisha was warded. It was the only thing he could think about since the previous night. He even had nightmares about it; it was just lucky for him that he didn't say anything out loud for his cousin to hear.

'_Three weeks left.'_

He was reminded about it as they passed the ward's reception, where his eyes landed on the digital calendar there. That only made him glummer, but he kept his game face on, just as he intended to do. A plan was already formulated in his mind, but he had to make sure that there would be no interruption on behalf of the other DigiWira.

"Adam! Josh!"

The cousins whirled around, looking at Dr. Abu as he stepped out from a room. The doctor gave them a grin and beckoned them to come closer, and when the cousins were by him he immediately held Adam's arm, leaning down to the boy's ear as they walked towards Alisha's ward.

"Remember how your injured arm healing instantly?" the doctor asked, evidently excited.

"Yeah…" Adam nodded as the doctor opened the door, his other hand was pushing Adam to go in. "I don't know how that happened, though. At least, I'm not sure, although I have my suspicions…"

"Well, we know the answer for sure now." Dr. Abu gestured towards Alisha, who was sitting on the bed. He held the doctor open for JD, who stepped in with a nod, before entering the room himself and closed the door behind him.

Adam and JD both gaped; Alisha, upon seeing them, quickly stood up without much effort. She beamed at them; still sitting on the bed were Gatomon and Salamon, both looking extremely pleased with themselves. Alisha was dressed in a periwinkle blouse and a pair of white soft pants, her headscarf was also white. No traces of bandages. No awkward movements. It was as if she didn't get involved in an accident at all.

"Adam, Josh, surprise," Alisha grinned, and spun around slowly once, showing that she could perfectly orient herself. The grin nearly split her face in half when she took in her brother and cousin's astounded expressions.

"What…what happened…?" Wide-eyed Adam sputtered as he went to hug his sister. "You're healed completely!"

"I had the same miraculous experience as you did," Alisha answered with a warm smile, embracing her little brother. She then let go of her brother and looked at his inquiring face. "I woke up this morning and found all my injuries healed. It'd have taken another month or two for the broken bones in my legs to mend fully, but I suppose that's not the case now. With me at the time was these two," she ruffled both Gatomon and Salamon's heads.

Adam followed her sister's gaze towards the Rookies. "You two…?"

"We healed Kak Lisha completely!" Gatomon said proudly. "Thanks to my Holy Ring and Salamon's Holy Choker."

"We just remembered they have healing properties," Salamon clarified, and smiled at Adam. "It wasn't the first time we use it, apparently, but yesterday night was the first time we used it consciously."

Adam's mouth now formed a disbelieved 'o'; he still had trouble accepting how eloquent Salamon now sounded compared to the time before he regained his memory as MagnaAngemon. Now, he was made known that these two siblings had been the ones who had healed his injuries not too long ago. While still processing his thoughts, he glanced at JD, and his cousin gave him a casual shrug, but there was something in JD's eyes that seemed to be drifting elsewhere. For the briefest moment, he thought that they looked…sad? Distant? He wasn't sure, but before he could delve on this further…

"_I knew it!"_ Patamon's voice rang out from Adam's Juara Digivice. A flash of light, and the Rookie bat-winged guinea pig was out of the Digivice. "I thought I was dreaming it that time."

Adam grinned happily, flexing and un-flexing his right arm which had been injured some time ago by accident caused by Persiamon. "So _that's_ how it's healed. Thank you so much!"

"Our pleasure," Salamon nodded, while Gatomon – the prouder of the siblings – smiled in a haughty way, as if it wasn't a big deal at all.

"You two keep this up and I'll be out of work," Dr. Abu said with a mock-glum tone, yet a smile tugged the corner of his lips as he directed his next statement to Adam. "Then how am I supposed to marry your sister?"

A roundhouse of laughter emanated from the small family, which wasn't joined by JD.

The tall blonde was in deep thought. What Salamon and Gatomon had done to his cousins – could they do it to _him_ to?

'_Not even Ophanimon could heal me back then, and she's a Mega,'_ he thought ruefully. _'But I have to try everything. But again…how am I gonna get them to do it without alerting Adam or Kak Lisha? I can't let anyone else know about this curse…I can't let anyone else suffer because of this in my place.'_ What Alisha said next snapped him out of his reverie.

"So I suppose you'll come back to our apartment with me?" Alisha asked Adam tentatively, knowing how close his brother and their cousin had become these two months. Watching them together made her hesitate to break up the bond; she always had this deja-vu feeling whenever she looked at them – it was like watching Adam and the late Aizad again.

The inquiry surprised JD, and what was more surprising for the blonde was the fact that his heart felt heavy all of a sudden. He didn't say anything, merely looking at his cousin's back, waiting for his answer. As much as he liked and enjoyed having Adam over with him these past two months, the decision would be Adam's, not his.

"Of course!" Adam said gleefully without a moment of hesitation. "I really miss you! When are you going to be discharged?"

JD's silent sigh was unheard to everybody else. _'Perhaps it's for the best too…that way I won't have to worry of him accidentally finding out about the tattoo,'_ he thought resolutely, careful to throw Adam his patented lopsided grin when the boy gave him a fleeting glance. He saw how happy his cousin looked, and was immediately reassured, despite not liking it.

"Today," Dr. Abu answered Adam's query. "There's no reason to hold your sister back any longer, when she's already fully-healed. There's also no need for us to hire a physiotherapist to aid with the healing, which is actually good since we can cut back the whole total cost of the operation." He rubbed his mildly-bearded chin thoughtfully as his eyes fell on the wheelchair beside the bed. "The only thing that we should do is to pretend that you're still recovering as not to rouse suspicions from the other staffs; I've had quite a hard time explaining to them about Adam's unnatural immediate recovery."

"See? I told you this is a very good idea in the first place!" Gatomon said to Salamon. "You were the one hesitating last night; _I _was the one who was all over the idea!"

"I just don't think Abang Abu would like it – it's like we're stealing his job," Salamon countered his twin sister with a huff.

"Now, now, you two," Alisha said, amused. Having the Saintly Siblings as her and her beau's _partners_ was like having two extra younger siblings to attend to, and she found out how much she enjoyed it.

Jackie had met up with both her and Abu the previous night to explain the concept of partners for the newly elected DigiDestined, or in Alisha's term, the _Honorary DigiWira_, for the codename DigiWira applied to the five core Malaysian DigiDestined wielding the DigiSpheres. Thus a new codename was coined that night, and the two adults became the first two Malaysians to be bestowed upon the codename.

For Alisha, having already known a good deal about Digimon due to her prior involvement in mentoring the team before her accident, she was already preconditioned to accept her new role. Her fiancé however required just a little bit more persuasion – it wasn't that he didn't want to become one, but rather, he barely knew anything about Digimon despite already knowing about the Digimon earlier. His initial hesitation however was quenched immediately when he was reminded of the damages inflicted by the Puaka Generals upon the Kuala Lumpur City Center. Jackie told them that the time would come when the five Wira Digital would need help, and the digital man had believed that the _Honoraries_ would be a great help to the_Cores_.

With Abu and Alisha's help, the Wira Digital would gain a powerful Mega Digimon ally in form of GuardiAngemon to strengthen their arsenal against the evils of the Darkshadow Brethren, especially when the Wira Digital had just lost a Mega ally called Ophanimon, purportedly more powerful than any Wira Digital or GuardiAngemon. Knowing this, Abu finally agreed – his only misgiving was the fact that he was a busy medical officer, how on earth could he manage saving the people with his job and the world with his new duty.

The Saintly Siblings had then assured their partners that they could pretty much fight independently; they would just be drawing their power from them via their partners D4 Digivices. Abu and Alisha need not have to take part in a battle directly if they were unable to do so.

"Anyway," Alisha said with a leveled tone towards her fiancé, "how long would it take to get everything settled before I can be discharge?"

"Well…" Abu made some mental calculations, before smiling at his fiancée with assurance. "Probably until evening."

_Beep, Beep, Beep-beep, Beep, Beep_

"A message in my D-Terminal." Adam took out the said device, flipped open the cover, and trained his eyes on the screen. "It's from TobuCatmon."

_**Greetings, Adam.**_

_**First of all, and again, my most cordial welcome to your sister and her friend for joining the team. I have sent them a message each earlier this morning, but did not receive reply from them, so I thought I'd send another through you. It's quite alright though. I just hope that the messages have reached them. **_

_**Anyway, Manny has informed me earlier this morning that he would like to seek audience with all of the other DigiWira at the Forest Sanctum this afternoon, after his church. I have sent similar messages to Liu Ying, JD and Gayathri. Manny has said that it is important, and the battle with the Puaka Generals yesterday has only confirmed his 'suspicions'. Do ask your sister and her friend whether they would like to join you, but it is not as pertinent to them for the time being as it is to you five as I believe as adults they have other duties to attend to. But they are most welcomed to come. **_

_**Sincerely, TobuCatmon**_

"I don't think we're able to make it," Abu said to Adam, his tone somewhat regretful. "There are lots of paperwork to be done, one of them concerning your sister's release from the hospital."

"It's ok," Adam said with a smile. "TobuCatmon says that this only requires the five of us."

JD looked up from his own D-Terminal, his forehead creasing. Manny obviously wanted to talk about his adventures at the alternate Digital World, which JD had been made known about just the previous night. While his adventures had hinted something ominous – Belphemon and Daemon's appearances yesterday proved it – JD hoped that Manny would hold on to his promise and would omit out everything about JD's current condition. He trusted Manny would do this – after all, Manny had promised – but hadn't Manny also disagreed with him from the start about keeping this a secret?

'_I can't risk them knowing,'_ JD thought with worry, observing his cousin without really actually looking at him. _'Who knows what they'd do. I don't want to risk their lives just for me.'_

"Josh?" Adam thought he saw his cousin spacing out, and wondered what could be wrong. "We should get going?" he continued in an inquiring-like manner, when JD seemed to have risen from his stupor.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure, sure," JD quickly said, mentally cursing himself for his blunder. He flashed his grin again. "And, uh…I'll tell Mom and Dad later about your recovery, Kak Lisha," he said and waved towards his elder cousin and the doctor, before they exited the room.

"If no one's there at my office, feel free to use my computer," Abu called out before the door closed completely.

The door was pushed back open, and Adam's and Patamon's heads poked through the opening. "Thanks!" The door was then closed.

The cousins walked in brisk pace towards Abu's office, before Adam halted abruptly. Patamon, who was cradled in his arms, looked up in wonder. JD looked back and saw Adam frowning at him, and wondered what could be wrong.

"Josh, is something wrong?" Adam asked slowly.

"Huh?" This caught JD off-guard. "Nope, nothing's wrong." He then realized that he had spoken this a little _too_ quickly; anyone would know that what he had said was contrary to what he was actually feeling. It wouldn't take a genius to figure that out. "Why'd you think something's wrong?"

Adam tilted his head slightly, observing his tall cousin with wonder. "I don't know…but you looked a bit off. You're quieter too."

JD thought of a cover story quickly, before Adam could delve further in his suspicion. It wasn't the real truth, but a truth nonetheless. "Nah…" he said, looking directly into Adam's eyes. One couldn't doubt that he was speaking the truth if he looked at them in the eyes while talking. "I'm just wondering how it'll be when you're back home with your sis. It'll get lonely for me, I think." He smiled wistfully at the last comment, hoping that his cousin would buy it – but at the same time, he was also surprised that he'd actually meant what he had said. In a blink of the eye he cultivated a carefully-masked expression, and waited for Adam to response to the comment.

Adam blinked, realization dawned into him instantly. He too had thought about it since the previous day, when Dr. Abu declared that his sister was already fit to stay at home. He didn't know what to feel – he was so happy that his sister had recovered, thanks to the treatments as well as the Saintly Siblings' intervention. But he also realized that the happiness was slightly daunted by the fact that he'd have to move out from JD's house. They had grown so close these past two months, Adam had to admit that he had now become somewhat attached to his cousin.

"How time flies," he finally said softly.

"Hey, don't look so sad," JD said teasingly, feeling slightly guilty for bringing the topic up, but knowing at the same time that it was inevitable. "You should be happy now that Kak Lisha's up and about again. Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"Yeah, but…I really like staying with you too. You're like a brother I have lost," Adam confessed slowly, looking down at the carpeted floor as his ears reddened.

The straightforwardness in Adam's statement caught JD off-guard, and his mind raced, thinking of the repercussion of the cursed tattoo when it would take effect on him in three weeks time. How would Adam feel then, when he'd lost a person whom he had thought as a brother? _'It's gonna be traumatizing for him,'_ JD thought, suddenly finding himself losing the ability to come up with a response. He then heard Adam chuckling.

"I suppose I'm being silly," Adam said with a smile, shrugging off his initial hesitance of having to part with his cousin. He rolled his eyes, thinking that he was being rather foolish about the matter. "It's not that you're staying that far from our apartment. I can always drop by in evenings, or you can do so, once Kak Lisha and I managed to get things settled at our home." He giggled again, the excited spark returned in his eyes. "Or better still, I can always teleport in and out, right?" he added with a lower tone, though nobody else was around.

"We should get going," JD said, changing the topic abruptly, gesturing towards Dr. Abu's office. His face suddenly looked moody. He resumed his walk towards it, no longer waiting for Adam.

Adam blinked again in surprise, noticing JD's moodiness, before deciding that his cousin was right. Quickly he leaped a few paces to catch up with JD. "Hey, wait for me!"

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 56 – The Red Dilemma**_

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Persiamon watched the images conjured by Doumon's crystal ball carefully, wondering what the Shaman General had deemed as pertinent when he'd requested for her attention earlier. They were both watching the battle between the Puaka Generals and the Wira Digital, and all these while Persiamon had her eyes on Satriamon, watching the fire dragon man battled alongside his comrades. Something was definitely off, she decided, and it roused her curiosity. The way Satriamon fought…

"Why didn't my Blight of Bastet hinder his prowess?" she finally demanded after the crystal ball showed Aldiyamon Juara Mode destroying the Puaka Generals.

"That is what I'm wondering about," Doumon intoned. "I thought you've taken cared of him?"

Persiamon didn't seem to be listening to the priest fox. She leaped down from her divan and paced about in her room. "He couldn't have removed the tattoo. He certainly couldn't do it on his own…" Her eyes glinted amidst the scanty lighting of her private chamber as she turned to look at Doumon. "And who'd _love_ him enough to stand in his stead? I certainly didn't see anyone dying on him!"

"I take it that_that's_ the way for the Blight of Bastet to be nullified?" Doumon inquired with interest. Nobody other than Persiamon knew of the cure for the curse tattoo. Persiamon was rather cryptic with her statements, but Doumon could just as easily picked up the hints and worked on them to come up with the answer.

"That's the _only_ way for it to be cured," Persiamon said in a deadly tone. "The human boy could find the greatest of healers, man and Digimon alike, and the tattoo would still remain etched on his body."

"Ah, but perhaps that's the answer," Doumon pointed out. "Who's to say that these greatest of healers, man and Digimon, could not _inhibit_ the tattoo? You only said that the tattoo would remain etched on the body…but perhaps the human boy has found a way to at least eliminate the pain?"

Persiamon stopped pacing the room, standing very still at the center of the chamber. "Inhibit it?" She slowly turned around, and waltzed back to the divan she was previously lying on. "That's an idea. His days are still numbered, but he could have tried something that would not eliminate his usefulness for the rest of his remaining days." She sat down on the divan again. "How resilient the boy is…well, that's simply won't do. I can't have him be useful to the others, so…" She eyed a small cat statue which stood by the armrest of her divan, and smirked. "Ah…purr-fect!"

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Manny watched the expressions of his teammates with growing anticipation. He had just concluded recounting his adventures at the alternate Digital World, careful not to get too detailed with his descriptions about the evil DigiWira, knowing that his friends would be extremely disgusted should he told them everything about their evil counterparts. He'd focused more on the _goodness_ of the Brightmoon Brethren, having felt that it was easier.

"I can't believe that there's a world where we're evil and the generals are good," Gayathri finally broke the silence.

Manny smiled, blinking back the mild fatigue he was having. He still hadn't got enough rest – it was almost three in the morning when he, JD and their partners decided to go back home, and it was a few minutes shy from seven in the morning when his mother came to wake him up to get ready to go to church. For a fourteen-year-old, four hours of sleep wasn't enough, especially after not one, but _two_ titanic battles with the forces of evil, and not to mention inter-dimensional adventures too.

Still, he didn't mind meeting his friends. As long as he didn't have to battle rogue Digimon this day, he'd be fine.

"That was what the good Shawujinmon mentioned when I told him that," he told Gayathri.

"How evil exactly are we there?" Adam asked curiously.

Manny gazed at the youngest DigiWira, remembering how coldly vicious the gothic Adam was, and how he was killed by Shawujinmon at the expense of the Digimon's life. He had moderately summarized the evil DigiWira's appearances, but realized that his descriptions might have made them sounded rather…tame. Regardless, he didn't really feel like explaining more; he was actually trying to shake off their villainous personae from his mind.

"You…don't really want to know," he said. Adam looked like he was going to protest, and Manny quickly cut in, "Trust me. You _don't_."

"How would you know?" Adam insisted. "Just…try me."

Manny sized Adam up. It appeared that the boy was undaunted. Perhaps it was the fact that he and Patamon had unlocked the Juara Mode, now wielding the power of a full-fledged Mega Digimon? Or was it because of the fact that Adam looked somewhat happy this morning? He didn't know why yet; Adam and JD had arrived last, and the moment they both came to the sanctum Gayathri and Liu Ying had been ready to hear his story.

"Okay then," Manny said, smiling challengingly towards the leader. "I remember _Lucemon_ there mentioning that you are, in his own words and I quote, _scary as hell_."

Adam blinked, before his cheeks reddened. The other DigiWira saw the humor to that and laughed.

"Imagine _Lucemon_ saying that!" JD cackled and squeezed his cousin's shoulders. "Oh, come on Manny, tell us more about it."

Manny glanced at JD – the only person who knew the details. JD, once he had calmed down the previous night, had made an offhanded remark that he didn't have the same _preference_ as the alternate JD, just so that Manny was clear on that. Right now, he was laughing, but Manny caught the look in his eyes, and saw that they were without the usual haughty, cocky spark. The burden of knowing about the so-called cure of the curse must have been hard for JD, and Manny was compelled to humor JD, just so that the blonde boy would not have to think of his numbered days.

But he had to be careful too in not letting whatever he was going to say to disturb their young leader.

"One look at the evil Adam," he began, and everyone paid attention to him, "and you'd immediately think of a…vampire."

"A vampire?" Adam's eyes widened so much that they looked almost like perfect circles. "_Me?_ How's that possible?"

"Well…the evil Adam was very pale…almost white-skinned, and he had dyed his hair in a shade so black that it was even blacker than Liu Ying's hair right now. And he was dressed in black completely." Manny decided to stop there – he didn't need to explain how the evil Adam behaved. And he wondered whether anyone would notice his use of past tense when describing Adam – he hoped that no one would, or if one noticed, then they would not ask him about it. The real Adam also had several near-death experiences himself, he didn't want to instigate the bad memories. He also wisely kept out the fact that the evil Adam was partnered to Tsukaimon – something told him that both Adam and Patamon wouldn't like hearing it.

"If that's how the evil Adam was," Liu Ying said, making a face, "I don't think I want to know how the evil me was like."

"Me too," Gayathri murmured.

JD caught Manny's eyes and gave him a terse nod, imperceptible to the others. Having heard Manny's detailed description of the girls' evil counterparts the night before, he was trying hard not to grin. All he could imagine was them in Rosemon's outfits, and it was enough to make him slightly red on the face.

"So," Liu Ying said, her tone prim, "what did you actually find out there that you think might help us? You mentioned that it was important."

It wasn't that Liu Ying was not curious at all with how her counterpart was like, but if Manny was uncomfortable in divulging the whole nitty-gritty of the matter than she supposed that she was better off not knowing.

'_Uh oh. This could get tricky.' _ JD waited for Manny to come up with an answer. Trust Liu Ying to come up with a challenging question.

"It's the evil DigiWira's weapons," Manny said, and everyone paid attention instantly, even JD. "It's their names that struck me as suspicious. You see, the weapons are called the Shield of Belphegor, the Demon Crossbow, the Trident of Leviathan, the Blade of Lucifer, the Lash of Beelzebub, the War Fan of Barbatos, and the Nunchucks of Lilith."

"And," TobuCatmon said, his tone adapting a really grave sound, "you have just faced_ Belphemon_ and _Daemon_ yesterday. Belphemon – Shield of Belphegor. Daemon – Demon Crossbow." He looked nervous now. "Do you see what I'm trying to point out?"

"The names of the weapons the evil DigiWira have corresponded to the names of the Darkshadow Brethren's Mega form?" Adam inquired, seeing the connection.

"Correct." TobuCatmon nodded. "Belphemon and Daemon are two of the seven demonic Digimon that have once terrorized the Digital World – centuries before SkullSatamon came to power. They were known as the Seven Evils, or in the name they had coined for themselves – the Seven Great Demon Lords. Led by a Lucemon – not the same Lucemon, but a Lucemon nonetheless – the other Demon Lords included Belphemon and Daemon, as well as four others, known as Leviamon, Beelzemon, Barbamon and Lilithmon."

"Seven Great Demon Lords?" Manny was surprised of this revelation. He hadn't heard about this group of Digimon, but immediately saw the connection between the names of the Demon Lords and the weapons of the evil DigiWira. The names were all derived from demons from Christian and Jewish mythologies, and the fact that those demons had somehow manifested into Digimon forms disturbed him.

"What's so big about these names anyway?" JD asked, probably on behalf of the other DigiWira as well, since none of them looked that much disturbed. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against a marble pillar of the sanctum. "I get it that they sound so creepy and all, but what are they all about?"

Of course, the other DigiWira's beliefs didn't mention about the demons, Manny thought. It was the reason why they didn't seem to have a clue of what they were going to face.

"Belphegor, Demon, Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub, Barbatos and Lilith – all of them are names of demons from Christian and Jewish myths," Manny explained, having just made some research on them earlier that day. He'd felt that it was better for him to know the facts. "I've crosschecked them with Wikipedia just this morning. I was tempted to ask anybody at the church about it, because maybe they know something about this, but decided against it. It would look odd if I were there asking about demons."

The other DigiWira, and their partners, all silently processed the information.

"And here I thought Lucifer is a name for that horrible cat in Disney's Cinderella," Gayathri finally said.

"Oh yeah, the evil stepmother's cat, right?" Adam piped up. "I love cats, but that one deserves to get kicked."

"Not to mention, he's one ugly cat too," Gayathri enthused.

The other three DigiWira sweatdropped upon hearing the exchange, while the Digimon had no clues at all to what Adam and Gayathri were talking about. However, it worked on diffusing the tenseness of the situation more or less, and soon it grew funnier too when Adam and Gayathri became more and more engrossed about the fictional cat while Manny, Liu Ying and JD, as well as the Digimon, looked on, not bothering to interrupt.

The brief moment of relaxation didn't last long though. The sun staff suddenly buzzed, signaling trouble which earned a few groans from the DigiWira and the Digimon, while also effectively stopped Adam and Gayathri's discussion. They gathered round the staff and saw trouble in form of one massive serpentine being, with pink furs, fearsome fangs lining its maw and long goat horns.

"A pink furry dragon?" Adam wondered. "Looks like that creature from _The Neverending Story_. I forgot the name…it's an old movie I saw when I was younger."

"You and your movie references," JD chuckled, frowning at the same time as he studied the dragon with some interest.

"That dragon is called Magnadramon, a Mega-level Digimon," TobuCatmon supplied.

"We just can't seem to take a break," Penguinmon muttered. He sounded tired, which was understandable since both he and Manny hadn't got the chance to really unwind after their adventures at the alternate dimension and the battle with the Puaka Generals, both had taken place the previous day. "I'm so tired that my wings aren't gonna make me fly."

"I thought you _can't_ fly?" Labramon wondered, earning a loud _hmmph _from the avian Rookie.

"Mega Digimon…" Adam and Patamon exchanged looks. "Looks like its Juara Mode time again for us."

TobuCatmon looked very worried as he studied the furry dragon, before intoning, "The Magnadramon species are very powerful, with flame and holy based affinities. They are hailed as one of the four great dragons of the Digital World. All of you should be careful; Magnadramon can be stronger than an average Mega."

JD raised a fist, and flashed his trademark lopsided grin. With his current grave situation, he was _really_ in the mood of doing some pounding, just to vent off some steam. It had kept him sane, in check; how many people who knew that they were going to die, and still able to pretend as if nothing was going on? In the movies, perhaps, but this was in real life. "Flame and holy, eh?" He shot a look at his cousin. "Sounds like our kind of thing, eh cuz?"

Adam smiled back.

"Can I just sit this one out?" Penguinmon said, and slumped onto the floor. "I'm really _dead_ tired! I'd have gotten enough rest if we didn't come…OWWW!"

Agumon had quickly elbowed Penguinmon on the gut to stop the bird from talking; Penguinmon was about to reveal stuffs that JD was so intent on keeping. Although he didn't agree on it, Agumon didn't want to disobey his partner. Penguinmon almost cried out at the dinosaur before catching on Agumon's intention.

"Don't worry about it. We'll handle it!" JD instantly said before anyone else could question Agumon's action. He shot a grateful look at his partner and looked round to his fellow DigiWira. "Manny can come when we really need his help, right guys?"

Liu Ying and Gayathri looked at each other; both seemed to have no objection to it. They would have disagreed hadn't Adam and Patamon couldn't become Mega, but one Mega Digimon against a Mega and three Ultimates sounded good enough for them. Besides, Manny and Penguinmon did evidently look tired, further proved when Manny let out a yawn which he quickly tried to stifle, but to no avail.

"Then it's settled."

xxx

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The other four DigiWira and partners stepped out from the sanctum and into the Green Meadow, where they saw Magnadramon approaching from the distance. Against the clear sky, it was absolutely a sight to behold. The dragon, radiating with light pink aura with small angelic wings jutting out from its back, didn't appear to be evil at all. But of course, looks could be misleading.

And to prove that it was indeed dangerous, Magnadramon let out a thunderous roar as it increased its speed.

"Do all that roaring really necessary?" Adam grumbled as he took out his Digivice.

_**Juara Access Digivolution, HAAA!!**_

The new call of evolution propelled Adam and Patamon into a large shining white sphere of light, before it burst forth and Aldiyamon first emerged. Then with a spun he was coated by another ray of light which transformed his light armor into battle armors. His dark hair glimmered with white radiance before they stood up in spikes; one thick bang stylishly fell over the side of his face. White feathers spiraled around his silver wings, transforming them into heavenly white wings as he grew two feet higher. Finally, with a slash of his sword, Aldiyamon Juara Mode declared his name, armed and ready.

JD whistled. The girls blinked in awe. They then took out their own Digivices and called out their regular evolution cries.

_**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAA!! **_

In a spectrum of crimson, yellow and pink, Satriamon, Xianamon and Puspamon joined their Mega-level leader. Satriamon and Aldiyamon now stood in equal heights, and the slightly smaller Xianamon and Puspamon hovered by their male counterparts. Everyone had their primary weapons ready at their disposal.

"Mishtress Pershiamon shaysh to attack the red one…" Magnadramon lisped, its voice indicating that it was actually a she.

"Persiamon, huh?" Satriamon snarled, flexing his gauntlet. The name didn't bode well with him. His temper rose to a volcanic level instantly. "Bring it on, then!"

"No, wait," Aldiyamon said, but Satriamon had already blasted off towards the pink dragon, ready to strike with his signature attack.

"_Dragonforce Striker!" _

Magnadramon retreated several meters backward before opening her lion-like muzzle, a flaming ball was formed within it. _"Fire Tornado!"_

Spiraling orange flames was unleashed towards the incoming Satriamon, who thrust his fiery gauntlet forward to stop the fiery attack with his own fire technique. The flames from the Mega Digimon were evidently more powerful as they engulfed Satriamon wholly. In a split second, Satriamon was drowned with the flames while Magnadramon relentlessly fired her attack.

Waves of magical energy with diamond projectiles and laser-spewing tulips shot against Magnadramon's muzzle, causing the dragon to divert a little. The stream of flames deviated from Satriamon, who was relatively unharmed due to his flame affinity; Magnadramon's attack had only made him angrier. But before he could attack Magnadramon, a shining wave of light slammed upon Magnadramon, steadily pushing her away – Aldiyamon's Transcendent Purification looked potent enough against the Mega Digimon, before the sky thundered and lightning bolts struck Aldiyamon, forcing the angelic knight to stop his attack.

"Mishtressh shaysh to only attack Shatriamon…give him back what he should have!" Magnadramon moved forward to strike Satriamon with her claws.

The dragon's words caused Satriamon to halt in midair. His flames died out and he lost his flight momentum, forced to fall back onto the ground. "What the hell does that mean, goat face?"

Magnadramon merely replied by spraying Satriamon with green mist from her maw. _"Hermit Fog!" _

Satriamon attempted to protect himself by crossing his arms over his face. His gauntlet could double-up as a shield when needed. He felt nothing as the green mists were blasted upon him, and only moved his arms down when he sensed that Magnadramon had stopped attacking, particularly because Xianamon and Puspamon were already engaging her in a fight. He snorted as the green mists seemed to have formed a thin coat on his red armor. "That the best you can do, goatie? I'd have thought…AAAGH!"

The thin green coat of mist began to let out green vapor and small bubbles began to appear all over the armor, and worse, the black suit Satriamon wore underneath the armors. The dragon-man began to realize the deadliness of Magnadramon's mists – those were actually _acidic mists_, and they were now corroding his armors and gauntlet.

"Satriamon!" Xianamon stopped attacking Magnadramon, seeing what was going on. Her dark eyes widened and she quickly rushed towards her comrade. "Hang on! _Diamond World Mandala!"_

The magical waves engulfed Satriamon, but the Ultimate-level attack couldn't match the strength of the Mega-level technique. The healing factor in the attack did so little, only able to wipe out some of the mists, but not all. Satriamon trashed about on the ground, agonized as the mists began to reach his skin.

"_Transcendent Purification!" _

Aldiyamon Juara Mode's light technique bathed Satriamon in pure white light, and only then did the dragon-man stopped trashing about. But his armors had been damaged; corroded marks were visible all over, and where he was unarmored the mists had totaled the black outfit he wore underneath – ugly lacerations were seen on his abdomen. Satriamon clutched his stomach in pain and staggered back up on his feet, swearing vehemently towards the dragon.

Seeing her primary target up, Magnadramon roared and shrugged Puspamon away by whipping the fairy with her tail, and knocked away Aldiyamon by her claws before spitting spiraling flames towards Xianamon. The dragon seemed to be driven by something as she loomed upon Satriamon. Yet when she struck out with her claws, Satriamon was teleported away, causing Magnadramon to slash the air.

Satriamon reappeared right beside Aldiyamon; the angelic knight's arm was draped around his waist for support, and his own arm was slung on the angel's shoulder, secured with Aldiyamon's own hand which held on to him tight. The light sparkles from the angel soothed his pain a little, but didn't actually cure it.

"You alright?" Aldiyamon asked, concerned.

"Seen better days," Satriamon grunted, wincing at the pain on his abdomen. "Can you do something about this wound? The pain's _killing_ me!"

"I'm sorry…I don't have healing powers."

Satriamon made a rude comment not directed towards Aldiyamon, before sighing, "I'll live."

Xianamon withdrew from the battle after sending out her doppelganger to battle in her stead alongside Puspamon, while she went towards Satriamon and Aldiyamon. She saw that Satriamon was still hurt, and gestured for Aldiyamon to join the battle. With her telekinetic power she balanced Satriamon in midair, and after Aldiyamon rushed away to assist Puspamon and the Xianamon clone she lowered the dragon-man towards the ground and knelt beside him.

"_Diamond World Mandala."_

Slowly, but surely, the laceration began to vanish. Satriamon saw this and contemplated something; could Xianamon heal the cursed tattoo too with her power? He waited until the lacerations were completely healed, before stopping Xianamon from withdrawing her hands. This earned him a suspicious look from the sorceress, as he was clutching her hands close to his chest.

"Wait. There's…pain, on my chest," he managed to blurt out. He moved Xianamon's hands slowly over his heart, over the curse tattoo, thankful that his armor wasn't completely destroyed. "Right here."

Despite the golden fox mask she was wearing, from the way she looked at him, Satriamon could have sworn that Xianamon was raising an eyebrow skeptically. At the same time he also detected rosy tints on her pale cheeks, and suppressed the urge to smirk at this.

If Xianamon suspected anything from this gesture, she didn't say it. With a stiff nod, she uttered the magical incantations and watched as golden and indigo magical waves with golden stars radiated from her hand, now placed on Satriamon's chest and held there by Satriamon's own hand. Amidst the battle in the background, the two didn't move at all – Xianamon continued to transfer her magical healing power as long as Satriamon kept her hand glued on his chest.

"Aww…look at that," Puspamon said, gesturing towards the two Wira Digital. "Is that not the most romantic thing you've ever seen, Aldiyamon?"

"Hmm…" Aldiyamon smiled, and summoned his bow and arrow, aiming for the sky. _"Radiant Star Shower!"_

The resulting attack was brilliant fireworks of pure white light, which while injuring Magnadramon despite her attempts to retreat, also proved to enhance the setting for Xianamon and Satriamon, both seemingly oblivious to the Juara Digital's stunt.

Then…something unexpected happened.

A loud feline snarl appeared from out of nowhere before an apparition of a black cat materialized, and struck Xianamon's hands with its claws, snarling viciously. The claws, while made out of energy, were so solid and sharp that they actually scratched Xianamon's hands, causing the sorceress to yelp in pain.

"Xianamon!" Satriamon immediately shot up in a sitting position as Xianamon recoiled in surprised pain. He swore inwardly, seeing that the black cat apparition was now spiraling around him before dissipating into black data particles. The data bytes coalesced into one concentrated black orb and slammed onto Satriamon's chest, on the heart. Immediately Satriamon felt a burning, clutching pain on his heart, one that he hadn't felt for a week thanks to Hang Tuah's intervention. The pain was so intense and unexpected that Satriamon clutched on his chest, let out a piercing yell before trashing about once again.

"Satriamon!" Xianamon rushed towards Satriamon to see what was happening to the dragon-man. Was it something that _she_ had caused, she wondered.

From the sky, everyone saw what was happening to Satriamon. Magnadramon let out a triumphant laugh.

"Magnadramon hash shuccesshfully done what her mishtresh ordered her to do!" she declared, swiping away poisonous needles shot by the Xianamon clone with one clean swipe of her claws.

"What did you do to him?!" Aldiyamon demanded, brandishing his sword towards the dragon. To prove his point, he made one slash of the sword horizontally, and a white bladed wave of light was conjured by the trails of the sword, slamming towards Magnadramon who grunted in pain upon being blasted by the attack. "Speak!" Aldiyamon demanded harshly, the intensity of his voice surprised Puspamon who was by him. "I'm warning you! If you know what's best for you…"

"Can't shay! Mishtresh doeshn't want Magnadramon to shay anything! _Fire Tornado!"_

"_Heavenstar Slasher!" _

Another bladed energy wave was released by Aldiyamon, and it actually cut through the flaming firestorm and struck Magnadramon's wide-opened maw, causing the dragon to yelp in pain. The flames that were approaching Aldiyamon were nullified by a strong blast of the Transcendent Purification; the attack subsequently slammed against the dragon as well, further flustering her.

"I'm warning you, Magnadramon! If you hurt my cousin…!" Aldiyamon sent another bladed energy wave, striking the dragon on its serpentine body.

"Magnadramon can't shay!" the dragon insisted angrily, her eyes turned crimson. She made an attempt to flee, but was intercepted by the Xianamon clone.

"_Soul Freezing Needles!"_ The needles rained upon Magnadramon's head, two of then piercing her eyes as the sorceress had intended. This caused Magnadramon to shriek in agony, and she was further struck by Aldiyamon's Heavenstar Slasher – the upgraded form of the Heavenstar Gladius technique – and Puspamon's Jelita Shocker.

The three attacks pushed the great dragon away, and Magnadramon retaliated by unleashing her Dragon Fire technique, which in spite of its name was actually a thunder-based attack. Thunderbolts rained upon the Wira Digital, striking the Xianamon clone first, deleting her, before moving on Aldiyamon and Puspamon. Puspamon shrieked, but Aldiyamon held his Heavenstar Gladius diagonally as one raging thunderbolt made its way towards them. The thunderbolt struck the blade of Aldiyamon's sword, and was _deflected_ towards Magnadramon.

The dragon didn't see it coming – she was severely electrocuted by her own attack. Her Mega form was the only reason why she could withstand the attack, but she had left herself open for her foes to strike. A glowing pink sprite coursed through her body, causing her body to burn with hot pink lasers. A white firebird then struck at her squarely on her muzzle, and another slammed on her chest, pushing her away.

"This is the last time I'm gonna say it, Magnadramon!" Aldiyamon said, while securing his sword at his light-generated bow. "What did you do to Satriamon?"

Magnadramon snorted. "Magnadramon hash done what her mishtresh told her to do! Magnadramon hash brought back…AAGHHH!!"

Aldiyamon and Puspamon blinked in surprise; thrust through Magnadramon's chest was Satriamon's golden gauntlet, engulfed with raging flames. A fiery dragon clawed all over the dragon and they heard Satriamon's roar of _Dragonforce Striker, Powered Up Mode _echoing the afternoon sky. With a defeated cry Magnadramon combusted into data particles, and Satriamon zoomed towards the ground, landing with one knee down touching the ground. He was still clutching his chest in pain before devolving back into JD and Agumon.

"Josh!" In a shower of light orbs, Aldiyamon vanished from the sky and reappeared before JD back in his composite forms.

"Heh. You took too long to take care of goat-face," JD said, his face sweaty and contorted.

"Josh…what did she do to you?" Adam asked worriedly, trying to look at the place where JD was clutching. "You were in pain…"

"_Nothing." _ JD's tone was convincingly condescending enough, and he managed to stand up and smirk down at his shorter cousin. "She just caught me off-guard, that's all. Blasted dragon bitch…"

"Are you sure?" Adam didn't look like he was buying the story. "Magnadramon kept on telling something about her mistress telling her to do, apparently to you."

"And she said that she was successful," Patamon added, frowning as he observed Agumon. The dino Rookie looked like he was scared of something.

"That too, I…"

Adam was silenced effectively when JD loomed forward and pressed a couple of fingers on his mouth. "Just shut up, and stop worrying," JD said in a tone that had made him garner quite a dangerous reputation at school. Adam winced slightly at this before the fingers were let go. "I'm okay. Hell, I'm talking to you now, am I?" He wiped the sweat off his face; the pain from his heart was disappearing. "Let's…just go back, okay Adam? You have some packing to do."

Before Adam could protest anymore, JD effortlessly spun the smaller boy around, and gave him a slight shove on the back as they walked back towards the Forest Sanctum.

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Any of Adam's effort to make JD say something was pointedly ignored the rest of that Sunday, and the earlier half of the following Monday. By that time, Adam had given up on asking, which gave JD some space to think of the repercussion of Magnadramon's assault on him.

He had felt the pain again. And he had seen the tattoo; the protective barrier Hang Tuah had conjured to block the tattoo's effect was gone. Whatever Magnadramon had done, it had destroyed the only thing that was stopping JD from feeling the pain. Persiamon had obviously found out about him getting a temporary way to block out the pain.

'_God, can't that bitch be any nastier? She's already winning; the tattoo will kill me in less than three weeks now. Can't she at least give me some peace while I wait for my own doomsday?'_

He watched from his bed as Adam moved from one side of the room to another, trying to figure out what he had yet packed into his bulging traveler's luggage. Alisha was already discharged this morning and had returned to their apartment, and Adam, ecstatic that his sister had recovered, immediately wanted to join her. He felt a little tinge of regret for his behavior towards Adam – the boy was merely concerned of his wellbeing, but JD didn't receive it well. That, he suspected, had caused Adam to feel somewhat underappreciated. Though the boy didn't show it, JD knew Adam long enough to know what the boy was feeling.

"I think that's about it."

"Huh…what?" JD was snapped out of his thoughts, not even realizing that Adam was standing by his bed, looking at him strangely. "The packing, you mean?" He eyed the small paper bag Aldiyamon was holding, recognizing the name of a brand-clothing shop from Suria KLCC.

Adam nodded. "I…want you to have this. I bought it on Saturday, and had it customized, just before the whole fiasco with the Puaka Generals." He handed JD the paper bag.

Curious, JD took the bag and turned it upside down. A shirt fell out from the bag, made from smooth glistening material – it was a jersey. It was a crimson-colored sleeveless jersey to be precise, with lighter red patterns decorating the front side, black trimmings on the edges, and it sported the name of a sports brand that JD favored. On the back, to JD's surprise, was emblazoned in bold capitalized white letterings with gold trimmings – the letter J and D, in capital letters. It would be a perfect jersey for JD to wear for any kind of sport.

"Adam…"

"I figured," Adam immediately cut in, "since I'm going to move back with Kak Lisha, I'd get you something as…uhh….a parting gift, and to show how…" Adam lowered his gaze a bit, his ears reddening – a sign that he was somewhat embarrassed – as he continued, "how grateful I am, for what you've done when I'm here." He looked back up, the reddening lessened as a smile appeared. "That, and I haven't actually gotten you a proper birthday present. It's one of a kind, with the customized letterings…" He pointed at the white letterings on the back of the jersey. "I hope you like it."

"Like it? I love it!" In rapid succession of movement that caused Adam to blink in surprise, he stood up, turned around, took off the shirt he was wearing and pulled the jersey on before turning back around to meet Adam's astounded gaze. This way, he had easily avoided showing Adam the cursed tattoo on his chest and not rouse the boy's suspicion by not trying it on.

"Wow. It's a perfect fit!" he grinned, looking at his reflection at the mirror. Indeed, the jersey looked like it was made just for him. "Thanks, Adam. But…you didn't have to get me this."

Adam smiled back. "I know. But I wanted to."

JD's face turned wistful all of a sudden. Receiving the gift reminded him of his eventual fate, and it made him sad. But he quickly brushed it off, not wanting to ruin the occasion.

He brought his hands behind his neck and fiddled with the dog-tag pendant's lock before successfully unclasping it. Drawing the pendant out from the jersey, he let the rectangular tag touched the palm of his hand and slowly let the thin pendant chains fell on top of the tag. "Parting gift, eh? Then, Adam…I'd like you to keep this."

Adam's eyes widened, surprised. "But, I thought you loved this pendant? You bought it before you moved here…moved to Malaysia. And you told me you've never taken it off before."

"Until now," JD agreed. He decided to tease his cousin again so that he could coax Adam into keeping it. "Admit it, cuz. You're so gonna miss me once you're back at your apartment. Who's gonna tease you everyday? I doubt Kak Lisha or Patamon would." He chuckled mirthfully and placed the pendant on his cousin's palm (after forcing it open). "I know you don't wear this kind of thing, but keep it nonetheless. Something personal from your newfound cousin." He winked. "And don't forget your bike too, custom-modified by me."

"…Thanks…"

JD gave his cousin a long look, thinking of what Manny had said about the curse. "Adam, promise me something, will ya?"

Adam blinked; it was a rather odd request, coming from JD. "Sure, Josh."

After expelling a long breath, JD placed both hands firmly on Adam's shoulders. "Don't do anything foolish because of me, okay?" Thinking that it didn't come out right, JD decided to reiterate. "What I meant to say was… take good care of yourself, alright?"

Adam made a face. "Josh…I'm just gonna move practically next door," he pointed out.

"Just humor me." The promise was important for JD because he knew his cousin _too_ well. When the time would come, he wanted Adam to hold on to this promise.

Adam didn't see any harm in agreeing, and nodded. "Okay, Josh. If you insist, I promise to do as you've told me." Then he gave his tall cousin a smile. "Haven't I always taken good care of myself?"

JD snorted. "Outwardly, yeah, maybe….but in here…" He tapped the dark-haired boy's temple gently. "Hate to say this, cuz, but you were a _mess_."

Adam chuckled. "I suppose I was. That's why," his face became solemn, "I have you to thank for. You helped a lot, you know, in ways that you might not have noticed." He sighed. "I don't know how I'd turn out if I were to live on my own before Kak Lisha recovered these past two months. I might have moved on, but…" He grew silent, searching for words as he gave the room a look-around, as if going to leave it forever. "But you've made the whole process a _lot_ easier…and not to mention, enjoyable too. And I've been thinking…"

"Of what?"

"I don't know whether this'll come out right…but this has been in my mind a lot lately. I kept thinking, God might have taken away my older brother, but in return, I get you."

The comment made Adam's face reddened, and he saw that JD looked a bit stunned. This flustered the dark-haired boy and with a nervous chuckle he let himself go from his cousin and took his bag.

"Hang on. I'll help you carry the bigger bags down," JD finally said, feeling somewhat warm as well as forlorn. He stared at Adam's back for a moment, knowing that he should at least mention something about the comment Adam had just admitted. Adam had been so sincere when he said that, it touched him. _'You're not making this any easier, Adam, but…'_

"Hey, cuz." Adam turned around, and JD grinned. "For what's worth, the feeling is mutual, _lil' bro_." The delighted look on the younger boy's face, to him, was priceless.

A couple of hours later, he waved goodbye as Dr. Abu's car drove away from his house. His parents had gone upstairs to get prepared for dinner, while JD remained at the door, mulling over the conversation he had with Adam, as well as what would happen in the not-so-distant future.

Truthfully, he was getting more scared. The _conditions_ to cure the curse were becoming clearer and clearer to him now, more than ever. Despite being able to make Adam promise of not going to do anything _for_ him, Adam's comments afterward made him thought of the possibility of Adam _breaking_ the promise. Some parts in him did worry for Manny, Gayathri and Liu Ying, and of his own family members, but Adam had done something like this before – something stated in the conditions to alleviate the tattoo from him. And Adam's sincere admittance had fulfilled another requirement to get the tattoo removed from him…

"Something in your mind, Josh?"

JD turned to his side, finding the middle-aged Bibik standing beside him. He shrugged noncommittally, offering the woman a small smile.

"I think it's somewhat ironic," Bibik continued, "that you two eventually did think of each other as brothers."

"Oh, why's that?"

Bibik's wizened eyes gazed upon JD's hazel irises. "I doubt you remember this, Josh, but when you and your parents got back from your first visit to Malaysia _years _ago, when you were three…you couldn't seem to stop talking about one baby boy you've met there. For weeks, you kept on asking your parents whether you'd get a baby brother like the baby you've met."

JD looked amused at this revelation. "I did that?"

"Until something else caught your interest, at least. You were a growing boy; it was natural that you eventually forgot about the baby Adam after not meeting him again for weeks. That's why…it is somewhat fateful that you did eventually reunite with this baby, now a grown boy, and look on each other as real siblings. You've always wanted a younger sibling; it's just too bad that after having you, your mother can no longer become pregnant. And Adam, having lost his older brother in a dreadful accident, needs someone that he can look up as an older brother from time to time, someone that can become his rock in his time of need."

Bibik then left JD to ponder on his thoughts. JD exchanged looks with Agumon and sighed softly, watching as the sun set behind the houses. The moon would soon come, serving as a painful reminder for JD of his numbered days.

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_**Author's Notes:**_

This chapter serves as an intermission between the next intense saga which will focus on Gayathri and Manny. I couldn't just start it without making sure that the DigiWira know what they're up against, as well as Persiamon making sure that the curse she has bestowed upon JD would work 'properly'. Also, another three weeks is such a long period for JD to keep the tattoo as a secret from Adam, who's staying with him. I'll have to break them up, and by making Alisha healed instantaneously by the Saintly Siblings pave the way for this separation.

Clear hints have been thrown about the curse, this time from Persiamon. That particular hint shapes up the whole chapter in a way. I'm not really satisfied with the way this chapter turns out, but it has been quite a heavy week for me, and I really want to proceed with the next exciting sub-arc. My super-diluted mind can't seem to think of a way to redo this chapter, for it does convey what I've wanted to convey. I just have this kind of feeling – like you know something is missing from your meal but can't actually think of what is it. Ah, never mind…

The last bits of this chapter contain reference to Chapter 35: Silver Lining, if you're wondering.


	57. Storm Descending

It was definitely a good idea to invite them to stay with her, Gayathri thought, on one Wednesday afternoon.

They had been devastated after Ophanimon's death, and acting on impulse, Gayathri had offered them to stay at her house after the battle with the Puaka Generals. They didn't know what to do, with their mistress gone, having spent thousands of years with her. The magnificent female angel was their mistress, and at the same time, their friend. Though all deleted Digimon had the chance to be reconfigured, but there was no telling when Ophanimon would be reborn as a DigiEgg. That, and the fact that her deletion took place in the human world, made reconfiguration process a lot harder.

Gayathri couldn't say that she knew how Lalamon and Lopmon were feeling, because she had no such experience. And for that, she was thankful. She didn't know what she'd do if she would lose someone dear to her. She'd even cry – though she made attempts to hide it – when her grandparents returned back to their home towns after paying her a visit. This was why she really admired Adam and Liu Ying – how did they cope with losing those who were so important to them? At least, Liu Ying had lost only her father; Adam had lost both parents and an older brother. They had coped well, or so she thought. Adam had an ugly experience when the Puaka Generals assumed the guise of his dead brother, thus reopening old wounds when they revealed their deceptions. The result was disastrous; Gayathri still had the shivers whenever she thought about it. Liu Ying too, had been hurt, when she was kidnapped by the brother of the man who had killed her father. Fortunately, the former leader of the DigiWira team coped rather well – with help from her fellow teammates.

"Tag! You're it! You're it!"

Floramon's voice broke her thoughts. She blinked, and looked at the three Rookie Digimon. Floramon was grinningly patting Lalamon, and then Lopmon, before quickly moving away from them. Lalamon and Lopmon exchanged glances, before looking at Floramon strangely.

Gayathri had to stifle a smile. It wasn't a too-sunny afternoon, somewhat cloudy and breezy, perfect for lounging at the garden. Floramon had obviously decided that a game of tag was due, and had been coaxing the two other Rookies in playing with her. Unfortunately, the flowery Rookie had forgotten to take account of a certain fact.

"_Helloooo_?" Floramon scooted back towards Lalamon and Lopmon. "You run, I tag. Get it?" She studied the blank looks the other two Digimon had. "What's the matter; don't you know how to play?"

Their indifference didn't faze Floramon, who proceeded to explain the rules of the game. Gayathri smiled to herself as she sipped on the orange juice she had with her, thinking that her partner was wonderful in trying to get Lalamon and Lopmon to talk about their feelings. While they had stopped looking so grieved after Sunday, they hadn't even begun becoming friendly either. But despite that, they weren't being cold as well, and Floramon had taken that as a good sign. Gayathri wondered at their reaction, but thought instantly, that it might have something to do with _her own_ friends.

On Sunday, curious to know about the battle against the Puaka Generals from her own mouth, Bel and Dina had paid her a visit, right after Gayathri and the other DigiWira had taken cared of the Magnadramon menace. Gayathri couldn't explain it, but it seemed that the grieving Rookies had brightened considerably when the girls came, and the girls themselves were pretty smitten with the Digimon.

For instance, she knew too well how fond Dina was for anything that was flower-themed, and roses were her favorite flowers. The demure girl was totally a romantic at heart; Gayathri made a mental note to make a fleeting mention about this to a certain DigiWira she knew. This trait wasn't shared by Dina alone, apparently, for Gayathri had been to Dina's house numerous times, and she couldn't recall what colors of roses that they did _not_ have in their garden. It wasn't so surprising to her when Dina seemed to get along well with Lalamon, whose Mega form was Rosemon.

Similarly, Bel and Lopmon had struck a friendship. It wasn't an all-out bond, but it was a start. Bel had expressed interest in becoming a DigiWira as well, primarily because JD Kamaruzaman was one of the five core members, seeing this as a way for her to get closer to their school's bad-boy heartthrob. Now, Gayathri thought, perhaps that wasn't too farfetched a dream – Adam's sister and future brother-in-law had both become Honorary DigiWira, partners to the Saintly Siblings.

'_It'll be great if Dina and Bel also become Honorary DigiWira,'_ Gayathri mused silently, now watching as Lalamon and Lopmon hesitantly moved away from Floramon, who was counting in a sing-song voice. She had to smile upon the ridiculed looks on their faces. _'It'll be good for Lalamon and Lopmon too, after losing Ophanimon.'_

The doorbell rang. Gayathri whipped her head back, towards the direction of the house gate; her brown hair sent cascading down her back. The automatic gate was opened from the insides, letting in the girls Bel and Dina. She smiled, especially when upon the sights of the two girls, Lalamon and Lopmon stopped paying attention to Floramon instantly.

'_It does look like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'_

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"So, despite the fact that I already know of your plan," said Lucemon in a condescending manner, in the darkness of the main hall of the Onyx Pyramid, "do explain for the benefit of the others."

"We decided to work together in this one," Shawujinmon explained, glancing sideways to his fellow comrade Astamon. "But, we're going to do this by separating the team up. Divide and conquer. I will attack one faction of the group, Astamon will attack the other half. We've also acquired the help of two Megas for this one, particularly against the Mega-level angels to keep them out of the way."

"You might remember the Avian Shines," Astamon supplied, sounding proud of himself.

"The Avian Shines are_Ultimates_, may I remind you," Doumon stated. "They are indeed strong, but against Aldiyamon Juara Mode and GuardiAngemon, not to mention the other four regular Wira Digital, they won't stand a chance."

"Aldiyamon alone will be able to trash them, despite being in the same element," Persiamon agreed.

"The Avian Shines are Megas now," Shawujinmon said, sounding as if he resented being questioned. "After freeing them, we've used a portion of our power earlier to make them ascend to Mega."

"That changes things a bit now, doesn't it," Lucemon said approvingly, boring holes against the Kappa and Majin Generals' minds with his piercing ice-blue eyes. "And indeed, their Mega forms retain the same element they have had. They will be a match against Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon."

"Ha!" Astamon cast the Virago and Shaman Generals a triumphant look. "We _did_ think this plan through."

"What plan?" Persiamon retorted with a haughty tone. "You've only got the Avian Shines. I haven't heard of any _guarantee_ that this plan would be a success." She chuckled snidely, twirling her crimson claws which emitted a red sheen amidst the darkness. "I'm willing to bet that anything you've come up with, it won't have the same effect as mine. One DigiWira will _die_ in two and a half weeks from now. When he goes, the partner also goes. From five, they'll become four."

"If you're so great, you'd kill him instantly," Shawujinmon returned. "But of course you wouldn't…or rather, _couldn't_. Satriamon trashed you the second time you fought."

"You've said it!" Astamon clapped Shawujinmon's back.

Persiamon shook her head. "If you think I'm going to resort to the ways of you alpha-males," she said, giving them a cold glare, "then you're seriously mistaken." The Virago General shot them a superior grin. "Satriamon and I were rather _evenly-matched_ the last time we fought, I'll give him that. But when it's the mind that's concerned, _I_ am the superior and as the result, the Wira Digital will be one member short soon. Now, does _anybody_ else have come up with such a brilliant plan? Hah! I think not!"

She saw Doumon's face darkened at this comment, and could even sense Lucemon's slight_twitch_ of facial muscles upon her scathing comment. Nevertheless, it had served to get her point across. Her plan was indeed brilliant, and she was willing to wait to see the fruits of her result. Satriamon, or rather, the human that consisted the flaming dragon warrior, would die soon, and with him gone his partner would follow, and Persiamon wouldn't have to even lift a finger on that matter.

"Hmph," Astamon snorted. "While you wait for that flame boy to die, we're gonna finish off the others in no time. Then we'll see who's gonna have the last laugh!"

Persiamon waved at Astamon and Shawujinmon airily. "Whatever. In any case, I wish you the best of luck." She yawned. "Alright, I'm leaving. Time for my catnap."

She sauntered away with a small giggle, leaving Astamon and Shawujinmon seething.

"Calm down. You should know that she's not called the _Virago_ General for nothing," Lucemon said. "It's high time that you prove her wrong, eh?"

The comment caused the Majin and Kappa Generals to blink in confusion. Lucemon usually favored Persiamon, but now he was voicing his support for _them_?

"Shouldn't you also know by now that I can read your thoughts?"

"Yikes," Astamon flustered. "But, that's like saying that we shouldn't think when you're nearby!" he protested.

"It shouldn't be so difficult, for you," Lucemon said so calmly, that it was hard to discern whether he was intending to insult, or merely stating a fact, "But prove me wrong. I've read your thoughts, and I know of your plan. I must say that you've exceeded my expectations." He stood up and stepped down from his throne. "Go. I must be off, Mystimon and Jetsilphymon have just informed me of something that I need to see it with my own eyes in order to believe it."

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 57 – Storm Descending **_

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Liu Ying pondered upon Sunday's battle as she watched for her brother playing by the seesaws with some other group of kids at the playground. It had plagued her mind constantly and the only one who could give her the answer was uncooperative. Yet, in retrospect, she knew something was up, no matter how hard one particular blond boy tried to hide it.

For the past three days, she had tried cornering JD every chance she had got, wanting to ask JD about the strange cat-apparition that had struck Xianamon when she attempted to heal Satriamon, as well as JD's sudden return to his brooding habit. Liu Ying had occasionally seen JD brood about at school, but at that time she couldn't care less of what JD was doing. She had disliked the boy so intensely, and the dislike was toned down a little when JD joined the DigiWira team, until the misunderstanding they had was finally resolved in that cave of spiders. They became friends…no, friends would be an understatement. _Good friends,_ she decided, would be a better term.

Good friends that exchanged text messages practically every night and not actually once every night. Her mother had wondered why her phone's prepaid credit seemed to have run low so quickly. But she soon suspected that her daughter had found herself a boyfriend, and despite Liu Ying denying it, her mother didn't pursue the matter further.

Yet, the messages stopped, approximately after their return from the 1500s. Liu Ying wondered why; JD was the one who would instigate the chains of SMS, and she would just go along. It was always like that. She wouldn't send a message first, simply because she didn't want to humor the blonde boy into thinking that she had fallen to his charms, as he had once pointed out. Nowadays, she was actually tempted to text him, but that was hampered by his somewhat bland attitude towards her after Sunday's battle. He wasn't hostile, but Liu Ying thought that he'd lost his usual luster too.

Gone was the usual flirty remarks from his side, his conversation with her had sounded somewhat forced, or rather, _guarded._

It was as if he had something to hide.

---

"So," she said conversationally, managing to catch JD by the fountain – the place where he usually brooded when he was at school. "How are you doing?"

JD looked at her strangely. "What do you mean?"

"Come on." Liu Ying thought that her inquiry was rather obvious. "Adam moved out yesterday, right? I was just wondering how you feel about that?"

JD shifted uncomfortably. A frown appeared on his face. "Could get a bit used to. _Why?_"

Liu Ying was taken aback slightly; the last bit of the sentence had come out as a demand rather than a normal query. But she shrugged it off; perhaps she was reading all these too closely. JD did have a rather intimidating persona.

"It's just that, you two are so close. I think it's rather strange for you to be here, brooding about." JD merely raised his eyebrow, which Liu Ying didn't exactly find to be encouraging. But if she wanted to ask him about what was troubling him, she supposed she'd have to ignore his attitude for the time being. "Adam was looking for you actually, when I met him at the canteen."

"I'll meet him later. Or maybe when we're heading back to our homes." He shrugged.

The dismissal tone in JD's voice unnerved Liu Ying. It wasn't like JD to sound so offhand when it came to Adam. Something was definitely off. She couldn't take it anymore.

"JD, is something wrong?" She allowed a tone of exasperation to escape her voice. JD's attitude had struck her as very odd. She knew JD doted on his cousin a lot since they were made known of this fact. She even remembered how JD had shadowed Adam's every movement the first few days after the discovery; it was rather humorous for her and the other DigiWira, but they knew why – hadn't they all thought that Adam had _died_? So naturally, when he was revealed to be still alive, the family would be the first to become so overprotective of him. In Adam's case – JD was that said overprotective family.

It didn't seem to be because JD and Adam had fought – she couldn't think of any reason why the cousins would fight. Or maybe, she'd thought wrong. Better make sure. "Did you and Adam have a fight before Adam left your house?"

JD started. "What the hell? Why would I fight Adam?"

His response was vehement; Liu Ying knew that it was true. So they didn't fight. But JD didn't answer her question. "I don't know. You tell me."

"We didn't fight. Whatever gave you that idea?"

Liu Ying shrugged. JD grumbled, glaring at her. She thought he seemed to be contemplating his words.

"We didn't fight, okay! You can ask Adam that if you don't believe me. In fact, we parted on good terms."

"But you don't like it." Liu Ying was treading on thin ice now. JD had, in his annoyance, also let out a tone that sounded somewhat upset. Or dissatisfaction. Or maybe both.

JD scoffed, but didn't answer. The bell rang, signing the end of the recess period. "Shouldn't you get going?" he asked, before standing up and left without a word.

---

The conversation had taken place on Tuesday, the day after Adam returned to his sister. Liu Ying hadn't got the chance to even ask the blonde teen about the mysterious cat apparition. She had immediately made a mental note to wrestle the information out from JD when school let out, but both JD and Adam were gone before she could find them. Times like that, she totally resented having to be on prefect duty, but then decided that perhaps she would be luckier the next day…which was this morning.

---

"This is getting old," JD remarked, when Liu Ying found him not by his usual brooding spot, but a place more common – the basketball court. The boy had traded his school shirt for a black T-shirt, and was currently alone at the court, shooting some basketballs. He was alone; apparently he had made it clear that he didn't want to be disturbed prior to the solitary game. Liu Ying knew this simply because she had overheard a group of boys grumbling about JD wanting to be alone at the court, and if they knew what was good for them, they'd leave.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to drill you about whether you and Adam have fought."

"How comforting." JD shot the basketball, causing it to go through the loop impressively.

"Nice shot." Liu Ying decided that perhaps a little warm-up conversation wouldn't hurt. It would perhaps benefit, even.

JD shrugged. "Okay, what do you want to know? Or are you simply here to stare at me, like those girls over there?"

Liu Ying blinked; she hadn't realized that there were others around the empty court. She soon saw them retreating from the corner of the school's Block A, their giggles so faint that she would have missed them if JD didn't point them out for her.

"Very funny," she said, rolling her eyes. At least JD was warmer today. _Well, here goes_. "Remember Sunday? When I tried to heal you…this cat thing suddenly appeared? I was wondering what was that all about. It was kind of spooky."

"Never thought you're one who's easily spooked." JD made another perfect throw, somewhat effortlessly.

"Don't change the subject."

He shrugged. "I don't know." He proceeded to retrieve the ball and began doing some dribbles. Seeing that Liu Ying was giving him a skeptical look, he snorted. "What?"

"Why do I find that so hard to believe?"

"Why don't you want to believe me?" he countered, throwing the ball again towards the loop. But this time, he missed – the ball made a huge racket when it came into contact with the metallic loop instead of going through it. He cursed colorfully under his breaths.

Liu Ying saw that something had disrupted JD's attention – it shouldn't be too hard for him to make another perfect throw.

"You made me heal you longer than I should have that day," she pointed out. "You moved my hands over your chest, though I didn't recall seeing any injury there. You said that you felt pain there so I thought that perhaps it was an internal injury. Then this creepy cat appeared, and struck me, and became a ball of black light before going back into your chest…" She heaved a deep breath, watching carefully as a disturbed look crossed JD's face. "It was weird, that's all. You can't blame me for asking you all these. And don't even say that nothing is wrong."

"Look," JD said, not bothering to get the ball that he had missed. He was gazing towards her piercingly, though not menacing. "Mind your own business, okay?"

Liu Ying didn't expect this hostility. She was only concerned, and JD had pushed her away so rudely. She'd thought that the blond would open up to her; he did it without prompting during that time when he had accidentally injured Adam.

"Fine." She turned around and was about to leave, before turning her head back, looking at JD across her shoulders. "I'll ask the others then. Maybe they know something."

She was about to walk away, when her wrist was grabbed so suddenly and so forcefully. She was pulled back with such strength that it almost pulled her off the cemented ground. JD loomed over her, and the look on his face made her blood ran cold. She didn't know why, but _this_ was the JD that nobody dared to mess around with. And it occurred to her, that even during their period of enmity, JD had _never_ given her such forbidding look. The look JD was giving her now was akin to how he looked when he was the Red ShadoWira.

"_Don't._" That was all he said, before he let go of her wrist. The forbidding look on his face vanished. He looked at her with an unreadable expression, somewhat apologetic as his gaze trailed towards the wrist where he had grabbed her so tightly just seconds ago. Then with a grunt he walked away, leaving Liu Ying bewildered.

---

She totally didn't expect JD to act so brashly towards her that way. It wasn't like him; well, at least, not to the team. JD didn't actually hurt her, but the intensity of that single word he had uttered before letting go of her wrist really went inside her heart. It wasn't an order, nor was it a threat. Underneath the growl-like voice JD had used, Liu Ying had also caught a hint of _plea_ within, masked by roughness. The fact that Liu Ying knew that JD wouldn't hurt her made her able to hear past the growl.

_So it has to be something connected to that strange cat thing,_ Liu Ying deduced._And JD's afraid that I'll go to the others about this. But…what's he so afraid about? Everyone, sans Manny, saw how he was in pain after Magnadramon attacked him. And he expected us not to ask about it? Who does he think we are? _

She sighed resolutely. She hadn't approached anybody about this – JD had _asked_ her not to, she wanted to think it as that. But who didn't JD want her to approach? Their teammates? The Digimon?

_JD, what are you hiding?_

The winds suddenly picked up, and she was snapped out of her thoughts. Her long black hair was pulled up by the winds with such a force that her head felt like it was yanked up by an unseen force. Tingling sounds were heard from the sky, and she looked up, eyes widened to witness an oval gateway opening. Her Digivice blinked, Labramon had detected another Digimon's presence. Quickly she looked for Liu Meng, as the other women there gathered their children. She could hear a loud avian screech coming from the gateway, and as she pulled her dumbstruck brother from the seesaw he was on, she looked up and saw a great white bird emerging.

xxx

xxx

JD heaved his breaths slowly, clutching his heart as he leaned towards a tree. Sweat trailed down his face and arms as a mild pain erupted from his heart. It forced him to control his breathing. Breathe too hard, and the pain became more acute. But after a few seconds, the pain began to dissipate and he was able to breathe again.

"Damn it…" he growled. It was the accursed tattoo again, always making its presence known when he strained himself too hard. _'Goddamn it, it's only a simple jogging!' _

Manny caught up with him; he and JD were jogging together that afternoon, but JD would always attempt to lose him by picking up speed. Manny had sensed that the older boy wasn't in the mood to talk, having just mentioned about his conversation with Liu Ying earlier before Manny could say anything. He offered his hand, but JD slapped it away.

"Damnit, I'm not helpless!"

"I've never said you were," Manny returned quietly. "I just want to help."

JD muttered something before pushing himself back up. His breathings became even, he no longer looked pained. "I'm alright," he panted.

"Maybe we should stop." Manny could clearly see that the blond was far from alright.

"No, really, I'm fine." JD jogged away, and this forced Manny to follow him.

The reason Manny had asked JD for a round of jogging together that afternoon was of course, to ask him about the tattoo. Gayathri had told him of Magnadramon inducing some heart pain for JD, and she didn't know how to ask JD about it herself, so she had asked him to ask for her. Manny's alarm was instantly set off; he knew that Magnadramon wasn't the real cause of the tattoo, but somehow the dragon had managed to lift the protection Hang Tuah had given JD back in the 1500s. He'd wanted to talk to JD since Sunday, but JD had been preoccupied on both Sunday and Monday, helping Adam pack as well as spending time with his cousin before he moved out. Tuesday, Manny had promised to take Debbie out to the playground, so that left him with this day. Since he was the only other DigiWira who knew about the cursed tattoo, Manny had expected that JD would be willing to tell him about the tattoo.

He had thought wrong. Despite agreeing to his offer, JD refused to talk about anything that concerned the tattoo. Liu Ying had tipped him off earlier, saying that the blonde wasn't in the mood to talk about his cousin's departure either. The reason JD accepted the offer to jog together, Manny soon realized, was to test how far he could go with physical strains until the tattoo induced the pain.

The clear sky suddenly thundered, causing the two teens to halt in alarm. Bolts of thunder coalesced in the sky, colliding against each other before forming a gateway. JD cursed, and Manny's eyes widened as a humanoid in white emerged from the gateway. It was a magnificent sight; the humanoid bore avian qualities, judging from his white helmet that was patterned to look like a white falcon. This humanoid, clearly male, had a golden shield on one arm and a long sword brandished with his right hand. A golden metal falcon orbited around him as he looked down towards the two DigiWira.

xxx

xxx

"Now?" asked Astamon impatiently. "I'm so itching to see my sweetheart already!"

"Not yet," said Shawujinmon, scanning the ground from the safety of the skies. He saw one of the Avian Shines – Valdurmon – emerging at a distance, where they had previously seen one of the DigiWira girl, and had quickly ordered the majestic bird to go there. Then, noticing the former villainous ShadoWira together, he had decided to pinpoint Valkyrimon, the humanoid Avian Shine, towards their locations. Valdurmon and Valkyrimon would be too strong for Xianamon, Satriamon and Samudramon, and soon, Shawujinmon expected, that Aldiyamon Juara Mode would be called in for battle. His plan would work beautifully if GuardiAngemon appeared too.

"There!" With glee, the Kappa and Majin Generals watched as Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon appeared from a complex of buildings, speeding towards the threats of the day. Aldiyamon made a swerve towards the location where Satriamon and Samudramon were seen battling Valkyrimon, while GuardiAngemon sped ahead towards Valdurmon and Xianamon. "Right. Now Astamon, remember the plan."

"Of course I do," Astamon huffed. "What I'm curious about is – why you're going with me instead of that fishtailed Wira Digital?"

Shawujinmon gave a sinister beaked smile. "When we're done with the flower girl, Samudramon is as good as destroyed too. It's like killing two Birdramon with one stone."

Astamon sighed. "I wish we wouldn't have to eliminate my sweetheart…she and I look so good together."

Shawujinmon looked like he wanted to gag. "You know too well that she won't want to be with you, no matter how hard you try. Stop dreaming already. And besides," the Kappa General observed his two hands, "we've invested a lot in making sure that this plan is fruitful. We _will_ have to work together."

"I still don't get much of it," Astamon said. "Why do we really need the Avian Shines? We could have just attack the Wira Digital together in _our_ Mega forms."

"You're forgetting one thing," Shawujinmon pointed out. "All of us Darkshadows have the element of darkness powering us, although not as concentrated as the Puaka Generals'. Due to this, we're not strong enough, one on one, against a Mega Digimon empowered by light. I still have my doubts should I go up against Aldiyamon Juara Mode."

"So? There are _two_ of us, in case you're forgetting. Angel boy can't beat us both," Astamon said vehemently.

"_You're_ forgetting that the Saintly Siblings now side with Aldiyamon. Aldiyamon Juara Mode and GuardiAngemon, as well as four other Wira Digital, will be more than we can handle. Just look at what happened to the Puaka Generals," explained Shawujinmon. "The Puaka Generals as Belphemon and Daemon were both powerful, but Aldiyamon was able to garner the powers from everyone and delivered the most concentrated form of his light attack against them. And might I remind you that the Puaka Generals were both superior than us in terms of power, in case you forgot."

"Oh…"

"Now you know why we need the Avian Shines, who are both creatures of light," Shawujinmon concluded. "They serve as decoys so that Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon won't interfere with our plan. I've seen how Aldiyamon Juara Mode was against Magnadramon, also a creature of light; they were at an even footing. None was more powerful than the other."

Astamon grinned, clasping both hands together. "And with the angels battling the Avian Shines, we – even in our Ultimate forms – will be able to take down one Wira Digital."

Shawujinmon smiled back, eyes glinting. "Precisely."

xxx

xxx

"Something's up," Gayathri said, as an explosion was heard coming from a direction quite far from where she was. She winced, watching the sky as flocks of birds scampered away from the direction where the explosion had come from. There was a hint of burning smell as well, though she couldn't be sure. Shrieks and sounds of car horns blaring however were proofs that something indeed was awry.

"Digimon!" Floramon gasped, looking around her. No Digimon other than her, Lalamon and Lopmon were around, but what else could it be? There was this tingling feeling that she couldn't explain, but being a Digimon she could, in a way, sense any Digimon nearby. Though her senses were not as acute as Labramon's, she was more in tune with the winds and nature, and they enhanced her senses. She didn't see it, or them, but through the winds and nature, she could tell that there were other Digimon close by. And dangerous ones, at that.

"Oh, no," Dina gasped softly as the girls stood up from the stools at Gayathri's garden.

The automatic gate suddenly opened and the family's Mercedes Benz swerved in at top speed. Gayathri flinched as the car came to a complete stop, and the driver seat's door flung open, admitting Anding out. The man looked visibly flustered as his eyes met Gayathri's.

"I saw a giant bird attacking near your school, Xianamon and someone who looks remarkably like her are fighting it," he informed breathlessly. "And a man in white is battling Satriamon and Samudramon at the area where I think that JD kid stays at. And when I'm on my way back here I saw the angels – Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon – coming from Adam's place. Aldiyamon's gonna help Satriamon and Samudramon from the looks of it, and GuardiAngemon was headed towards Xianamon and the giant bird."

"I should go," Gayathri said to her friends and Anding, gesturing for Floramon to follow her. "They need my help."

"Good luck, girl," Bel said and gave her best friend a thumb-up for encouragement.

"Be careful," Dina whispered, eyes shining with worry.

"I will. Floramon, c'mon."

They were just about to step out from the house, when a foreboding sight greeted them. Pillars of waters burst from the roads which had just been repaired from the earlier fight the neighborhood had suffered. Sounds of machinegun blared all around. Gayathri let out a gasp; she knew exactly who could have caused this. The perpetrators weren't exactly making the effort to not let their presences to be known. She took out her Digivice with shivering hand, and called out the Digital Access command.

Puspamon flew amidst the chaos and reached the municipal center, where Shawujinmon and Astamon stood in midair, back to back. _Great. Just great. It just have to be them, again! _She channeled her powers into her hands. Against the generals, she'd have to be prepared for anything.

"Ah, sweetheart, you're here!" Astamon leered at her, looking ecstatic of her appearance. "I've been wondering when you're gonna show up!"

"Get lost from my world, you two!" Puspamon summoned her power to launch an attack._"Hibiscus Hurricane!"_

With a snort, Shawujinmon moved in front of Astamon and spun his black staff, countering Puspamon's energy hurricane easily. He then unleashed a blast of cold water upon the sprite, drenching her from top to bottom in just a matter of seconds. Without wasting time he launched himself towards the distracted Wira Digital, his glowing Demon Quelling Staff raised high to knock down Puspamon.

"Not a chance!" Puspamon summoned her own Black Rose Staff and countered the villain's weapon. A clang ensued as their weapons came into contact. However, strength-wise she couldn't match her bigger foe, and was pushed away instantly; Shawujinmon was bigger than her, and thus stronger. With a low growl that was so uncharacteristic of her, she whipped her head up and launched her Sprite Scream, catching her foe off guard. She watched with satisfaction as the Kappa General was blasted away by the intensity of her supersonic scream, launched at point-blanc range. But her victory was short-lived; her back was grazed by flames, causing her to scream.

"It'll be easier if you just agree to be my life partner." Astamon gazed at Puspamon as she turned around.

"Can't you just take a hint?" Puspamon's body glimmered with pink light. She grunted, and a pink apparition of her soared out from her body, surrounded by flower petals. _"Jelita Shocker, Powered Up Mode!"_

"_Hellfire!" _ Astamon's flames were intense, but Puspamon's sprite streaked through them before slamming against Astamon. The demon in the suit was pushed towards a lamp pole, denting it in a weird angle in the process.

She was going to attack again, but a powerful blast of water struck her from the back. Puspamon whirled around and saw Shawujinmon. She turned her head back front and Astamon leered at her. She could overpower one general, but then the other would stop her. Her friends were distracted with other threats at two other locations. A suspicion dawned upon her; somehow she felt that this time around, _she_ was the main target of the Darkshadow Brethren, as Aldiyamon had been just last weekend. They were focusing their forces on her, and had sent other Digimon to stop her friends from helping her.

It was up to her to protect her neighborhood from these two villains. From the distance she could see flashes of lights dancing in the air. Her friends couldn't help her even if they wanted to.

"Your friends won't come." Astamon snickered, and with a flick of his hand a blade appeared in his hand. He grabbed hold on it and grinned. "They have other pressing matters to attend to."

Shawujinmon pointed his staff towards Puspamon, and instead of talking he just released a high-pressurized jet of water upon Puspamon. Puspamon tried evading the attack but the water followed, drenching her translucent fairy wings. Then a series of blades were sent her way, and she was forced to soar upward, but by doing so she was hit by another stream of water. The laughs of the two generals echoed as they closed in on her, ready to strike at their fullest.

xxx

xxx

"Oh no…Gaya…" Dina whispered, witnessing the battle from Gayathri's house.

"Where are the others when you need them?" Belinda could feel her heart palpating heavily against her chest. She was worried for her friend. While she knew Puspamon was strong, could she match the power of the two creatures that were now battling her? She gazed at Lopmon. "Can't you help her?"

"I wish we could," Lopmon sighed, her large ears drooped down. "But without an external power source to recharge us, we're stuck in our Rookie forms."

"Lucemon's made sure of that," Lalamon added, her eyes narrowed. Puspamon's scream could be heard as the attacks from Shawujinmon and Astamon slammed upon her. "But," she gazed at Lopmon, "Gayathri and Floramon have been so kind to us. Powers or not, we should help them." The vegetation Digimon's voice was hard, despite being squeaky as well. Her determination was apparent.

Lopmon was the more hesitant of the two. "But…" She gazed at the two human girls, and her heart suddenly felt their worry. Puspamon was in grave danger. She couldn't imagine how these girls would feel if the generals were able to delete her. Reminded of their own pain of losing Ophanimon, she knew that she couldn't let these generals win. Ophanimon had _raised_ her; the pain she was feeling was too much to be put to words. The murderers had been deleted, but these were their cohorts, and they must be deleted too, to ensure that no one else suffered the same fate Ophanimon had. She'd make sure of it. "Yes. Let's do it, Lalamon."

Lopmon flapped her ears, using them as wings to soar towards the sky. Lalamon followed close by, having the ability to levitate.

"Wait!" Dina cried out. "It's dangerous for you to go out there! Stay here where it's safe."

Lalamon turned around. "Not even this house is safe if the Darkshadows aren't stopped. We can't do much, but we'll do what we can."

Bel merely let out a gasp; Puspamon was flung towards their direction, and crashed upon a car parked just outside their house. Sounds of broken glass prevailed, before the car's alarm went off. Puspamon groaned as she struggled to move, but her body was bruised and battered all over – the generals had relentlessly assaulted her. The girls looked up and saw them descending towards Puspamon. One had his crescent-tipped staff ready, the pointed end glinted dangerously, and the other had unleashed his machinegun.

"Goodbye, sweetheart," the more demonic of the two said. "I wish you'd agree, but since you don't return my feelings, I'm just making a fool of myself. I'll have to rid you once and for all!"

"And nobody should interfere," the white-garbed villain said, looking at the incoming Lalamon and Lopmon with a sneer. He headed towards the two Rookies, weapon ready to strike as his comrade cocked his machinegun, the sounds of bullet being loaded was heard.

"No!! Puspamon!"

"Lalamon! Lopmon!"

Dina and Belinda's cries suddenly unleashed waves of dark red and orange aura from their very beings. The lights washed upon Lalamon and Lopmon, and they froze in stasis in midair, while also pushing the villain away. Empowered screams were heard from the Rookies, and when the lights subsided they were no longer there. In their place, miraculously, were the lithe figures of Rosemon and D'Arcmon. The women marveled at their sudden digivolutions, before both of them launched their assaults towards the generals.

"_Roses Rapier!" _ Rosemon's vines elongated into a pointed rapier, coated with spiraling pink energy, and slapped away Shawujinmon. The demon was sent crashing against a tree.

"_Beauty Stunner!"_ From her scepter D'Arcmon fired a pink thunderbolt towards Astamon's machinegun, but it was deflected by the metallic weapon, much to her dismay.

"More wenches!" Shawujinmon's snarl was drowned by a massive stream of water he unleashed from his staff. He attempted to hit Rosemon with the water stream, but the nimble fairy evaded the waters by flying around the stream with quickness that couldn't be matched by his attack. Snarling again, he slammed the staff into the ground and caused pillars of water to burst out from the cracks. That effectively slammed Rosemon, sending her crashing towards the ground. "You're a Mega, but you have powers similar to an Ultimate! You can't beat me! _Crescent Moon Slash!"_

A diagonal slash was made, forming a crescent energy projectile which plummeted towards Rosemon, who had just crashed onto the road. She glowed with pink light and counterattacked with her Forbidden Temptation, canceling out Shawujinmon's attack. But she wasn't ready for a second attack; another crescent projectile sliced through the energy wave she was emitting, and struck her squarely on the abdomen. She let out a scream, and the wave she was projecting died down.

"Huh. Just like a woman," Shawujinmon grunted.

"You'll regret saying that," Rosemon growled, trying to get up, but was too weak to do so.

Meanwhile, D'Arcmon summoned her swordsmanship skill to give Astamon a decent fight. Wielding two swords at once, she slashed them alternately against Astamon, wielding the force of her Battement d'Amor technique. In terms of power, she wasn't Astamon's match, being only a Champion, but her profound swordsmanship more than made up for her lack of power. She slashed and thrust her swords with rapid vehemence, not giving Astamon any chance to retaliate. Yet, Astamon was revealed to be equally skillful, parrying the swords with his metallic machinegun which served as his shield. Every strike launched by the golden-winged angel was countered by his gun, but he could do nothing else.

"Excellent skills," Astamon commented with a leer, and sneaked a look by delivering an upward kick which lifted the navy blue tunic she had in between her legs. He whistled.

"PERVERT!" D'Arcmon slashed her long sword at Astamon's feet, causing the general to reel in pain.

With a loud cry, D'Arcmon called for more power, abandoned her long swords as she took out a broad sword which was slung on her back. The sword was heavier, but far greater than her long swords. The broad sword allowed for her only to thrust it forward, but the force that came with it – the La Pucelle – was as forceful as an Ultimate's attack. With it, Astamon's machinegun was threatened to split – a glaring hole was now visible at the center of the machinegun.

"You're quite powerful for a Champion," grunted Astamon as D'Arcmon pushed her heavy sword further. "But now I'll show you my real power._ Maverick!"_

D'Arcmon gasped upon noticing a very bizarre phenomenon happening to Astamon. The general let out a growl as all over his body, bulges took form. The fabric of his pressed suit began to rip, revealing tips of blades that emerged from all over his body – his chest, abdomen, shoulders, arms, lower thighs; all had blades jutting out from them. The rips on his clothes became wider as the blades grew longer, and Astamon writhed in what looked like a combination of pain and ecstasy. In her bewilderment, D'Arcmon had inadvertently decreased the force of her thrust, and gasped when Astamon laughed. His clothes exploded, save for parts that covered his modesty, and D'Arcmon was blasted with hundreds of blades that flew out from Astamon's body. The pain was unimaginable – it was like being thrust into a pit with spikes – that was how the angel felt when the blades flew _through_ her body in various sites.

A low gasp of pain, and D'Arcmon exploded into data particles. With a laugh, Astamon extended his hand forward and absorbed the orange data particles. He ran his tongue over his lips. "Yum…"

"NOOO!!!"

Rosemon got back up on her feet; her anguished cry was downright fearsome, her tiredness forgotten entirely. She was just recovering from the death of Ophanimon, and now she had witnessed the death of D'Arcmon. The pain in her heart was unbearable. Her whole body shivered in grief, tears cascaded down her cheeks. With a roar of fury, she lashed out her vines towards the Majin General.

"_Thorn Whip!" _

The whip wrapped around Astamon, but Shawujinmon cut it with the bladed edge of his staff. Angrily Rosemon lashed out again, this time wrapping the vines around the staff. Unfortunately, Shawujinmon had used this as a way to seize her whip, by forcefully pulling the vines that was wrapped around her body. She was flung towards the ground, laceration marks evident on her upper arms and body resulted from the thorny vines as they were removed from her body.

"So you like whipping others up. How about I give you a taste of your own medicine?" Shawujinmon lambasted the thorny vines upon Rosemon, whipping her without mercy. The flower woman's screams were like music to his ears.

"Stop it!"

Laser-spewing tulips destroyed the vines, and Shawujinmon saw that Puspamon had gotten back up. The sprite was injured, but she had persevered, ready to face them off again. She stood before Rosemon defensively. D'Arcmon was deleted before her mercilessly; she wasn't about to let Rosemon suffer the same fate.

"Sweetheart, you've seen what I can do…" Astamon began, grinning at her wickedly. "How about you reconsider-"

"Shove it!" Puspamon snarled. Her body shook in fury. "You vicious demon! You killed D'Arcmon just like that! How could you?"

"Sweetheart, I'm the bad guy. It's what I do."

"Stop calling me sweetheart! And _enough_ with your offers! Not interested, never will be! _Jelita Shocker!"_

Astamon shook his head and used his knives to tear the flowers launched towards him. "You broke my heart, sweetheart. Now," he said casually, pointing his gun towards – to Puspamon's horror – _her _house. His target was her best friends and her driver who was also there. Astamon saw her reaction and laughed out loud, "I can kill them all just as easily as I deleted D'Arcmon. Humans are a lot more fragile than Champion-level Digimon."

The sound of bullets being loaded was chillingly obvious against the sudden stillness of the surrounding. Then without waiting for her answer, Astamon shot several concentrated energy bullets towards the gate. The gate was blown up into data particles when the bullets slammed upon it, exposing Dina, Bel and Anding. They were now in grave danger, without the gate to protect them.

"STOP!" Puspamon shouted desperately, launching herself towards Astamon. She attempted to initiate her Sprite Scream, but a strong blast of water from Shawujinmon forced her back.

Rosemon flew up and attempted to release her Forbidden Temptation – the only attack she was left with, after her vines were seized – but failed as well when Shawujinmon slammed a jet of water upon her. She was blasted towards the girls and Anding, and dedigivolved back into Lalamon.

"Fine, I get it. You're not interested, so I won't offer you any chances anymore," said Astamon, sounding as if he was disappointed. "You broke my heart, sweetheart. A heartbroken Astamon isn't one you'd like to see…it makes me want to go for a killing spree, as I've done three hundred years ago, before Grademon cornered and sealed me! Now, I'll start with the three humans! Who's first?" With a crazed cackle he pointed his gun towards Dina. "_Eeny…_"

Dina screamed, and Lalamon quickly moved to protect her. Astamon snorted, and moved his gun to point towards Bel.

"_Meeny…_"

"STOP! _Jelita Shocker…Powered Up…AGGHH!!" _

Shawujinmon had launched another blast of high-pressurized water against Puspamon, nullifying her attempt to attack Astamon. Puspamon quickly shook off the water, and summoned more power, but was once again showered by waters. Shawujinmon was chuckling, and Astamon had even stopped from taunting the humans to look at his comrade toying around with the fairy Wira Digital. Then, with a deadly laugh, the Majin General whipped around, cocked his gun, and blasted an energy bullet towards Anding. _"MOE!" _

Screaming in horror, Puspamon immediately utilized her super speed and raced towards Anding, appearing before the terrified man just in time to intercept Astamon's attack. The energy bullet slammed upon her back – but she was an Ultimate Digimon, and a strong one at that – the bullet did nothing more than singing her wings and perhaps exerting a terrible force on her back. She was injured; blood trickled out of her mouth as her head slumped into Anding's body. But she was alive, and she'd saved Anding from Astamon's attack.

"Thank…goodness…"

"Oh, damn…I've forgotten to say _Miny!" _

Puspamon heard another sound of cocking gun, and the next blast of energy bullet was so unexpectedly quick that she had no time to react. She saw the bullet heading towards Dina and Bel. Quickly she went towards the two girls, wanting to save them, but Shawujinmon's heavy staff slammed upon her with such sheer force that Puspamon could hear a cracking sound from her right shoulder. She screamed in agony as the heavy staff pushed her away, causing her to collide with her family car. The car was dented and Puspamon crashed through the car's rear window, trapped within it. She screamed, struggling to break free but to no avail. She lifted her head and screamed in horror, seeing how Bel moved over to protect Dina, and…

"NOOO!!"


	58. With a Little Help From Your Friends

Thunders rumbled softly. Rain drizzled against the glass window, but Gayathri paid no heed to it. Her wet eyes were solely fixed on a framed picture of her and her two best friends.

It was by far her favorite photo of the three of them. Hiccupping, she realized that no other picture of the three of them could beat the one that was framed and placed on her study table. Especially, she sobbed, when _they_ were no longer three.

She picked up the picture and found her own tears dripping on the glass surface of the photo. The drops came in solitary drop at first, but soon more ensued and a wave of sorrow invaded her whole being once again, as it had been for the past three days. She clutched the photo against her chest and slumped down, back sliding down the wall, not caring that the fabric of her dress would be ruined by her action, and tearfully crying again. Her formerly subdued sobs became louder and more frequent, her hiccups intensified.

The door creaked open, and another tearful face appeared by the opening. "Gaya…?"

The voice caused her to look up, and Gayathri gazed at Dina's face as the other girl allowed herself to enter Gayathri's room. Similar to Gayathri, Dina was also in dark colors, her choice of dress was a plain dark gray pair of baju kurung, and a semi-transparent black scarf hung loosely on her shoulders. Her hair was left hanging down an inch past her shoulders. Her eyes were puffy and red, pretty much the same as Gayathri's.

Seeing her in her breakdown, again, Dina quickly rushed towards Gayathri. No words were exchanged – both knew exactly what the other was feeling. The rumbling thunder didn't faze them as they stared towards the picture – mainly towards a short-haired girl standing towards the left side of the picture's profile. The said girl had a playful grin etched on her boyish, yet pretty, face. What saddened them the most was that there was no other face of Belinda Foo in real life for them to compare with now. The thought instantly ignited a chain reaction; memories of their happy times soon were made apparent and the emotions that they had barely kept in check for today's occasion crumbled once again. Tears flowed freely once more, despite having flowed so much. Their throats were sore, yet they couldn't stop.

"I should've been able to stop Astamon," Gayathri choked out, finally, when her sobs lessened. "It's my fault…"

Dina's expression was forlorn. "It's not your fault, Gaya. You did what you could've done," she whispered, and gazed at the picture. "It was _me_ the monster targeted….but Bel jumped in the way, to save me…" This made her shiver so violently that she hugged her best friend, crying again. "Oh, Gaya…what are we going to do? We lost her…we lost Bel…"

Floramon walked in, and stopped by the doorway. Lalamon floated above her, and a soft sigh escaped her mouth as a tear escaped her eyes again as she watched her new human partner – Dina Fadlullah – huddled against Gayathri, as they cried mournfully for the tragic loss of their best friend. Her anguish returned, remembering that her own friend had been killed by the same monster that had taken away the life of the human girl partnered to D'Arcmon. _'Partner…'_ she thought sadly, her eyes went to her own partner.

A partnership with a human was perhaps the most fulfilling role a Digimon could ever have, but Lalamon sadly thought that perhaps she would never experience that happiness, for that day was marred horribly. She had mourned the loss of D'Arcmon properly, her heart pained upon thinking that until the Majin General – the one who had deleted her – was _destroyed_, there was no chance that D'Arcmon would be reconfigured. Astamon had absorbed D'Arcmon's data particles, rendering reconfiguration impossible. Although reconfigured Digimon would lose their memories, but she had seen cases where this theory would prove to be otherwise. Patamon, Adam's partner, had been one. The Saintly Siblings too regained their memories after they found their human partners.

'_I'll avenge you, my friend…' _Lalamon vowed.

The door was pushed wider and Liu Ying walked in, stopping short when her eyes took in the mournful girls. She was dressed in a white blouse and long black pants. The three boys behind her all donned dark colors as well – this would be the day Bel would be buried at the closest Christian cemetery to the town, after the postmortem diagnosis and some cleaning up on her body these past two days. The DigiWira and the honoraries would all go, although Manny would be the only one who would enter while the others, having different religious beliefs, would wait outside the cemetery's courtyard where they could watch the burial ceremony from afar.

"Gayathri, Dina…" Liu Ying entered the room and knelt by the two girls, placing a hand on each girl's shoulder gently. "The car is outside, waiting. You two should go first. We'll come along with Dr. Abu and Jackie's cars." Understanding their grief, she helped both girls up and took out a tissue to wipe their tears before guiding them towards the door. The girls walked past Adam, Manny and JD who stood by the banister, all identically dressed in gray or white button-down shirts and black pants. For a very long one second, their eyes met, and memories of what had taken place three days ago came to their minds.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 58 – With a Little Help from Your Friends **_

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**(Flashback)**

The battle between Satriamon and Samudramon against Valkyrimon didn't seem to favor their side. The warrior in white was extremely strong, and he wielded the elements of light, wind, thunder and ice against them, rendering their flames and waters useless. A mere slash of his sword would freeze everything that was upon his path. Their powered up attacks couldn't match the avian warrior's prowess, and that showed by chunks of ice that littered the battlefield – Valkyrimon had easily encased their flames and waters with his ice power. Several houses and the park below had also suffered the same fate, transformed into what seemed to look like ice statues of houses and trees. Such was the power wielded by his Feral Sword, which according to the analyzer they had, could even freeze the heaviest of waters and the focused of flames. Thunder attacks didn't work on him as well – if he didn't defend himself with the simple, yet potent shield of his, he would ward of the thunderbolts easily with his Lightning Arrows.

"Damn it!" Satriamon shouted in frustration. His hand was clutched on his chest; the beginnings of the pain induced by the tattoo began to take effect. "How the hell are we going to take him down?!"

Samudramon saw that his flaming friend was beginning to be fatigued. It had dawned upon him that while in Ultimate forms, they couldn't beat this avian warrior. He would have to come up with a combined attack, and hope for the best. If this didn't work, he didn't know what else could.

"_Divine Rain!"_ A draining rain showered over Valkyrimon, who snorted in annoyance. Samudramon waved his trident, and called out, _"Cosmic Thunderstrike!"_

Azure thunderbolts shot down from the sky, but with a laugh Valkyrimon raised one hand to intercept the attack while the other hand took out his black crossbow. His hand crackled with white lightning and he aimed the crossbow towards the two Wira Digital, smirking. Crackles of electricity became more intense as it began to reshape itself into a raging arrow of light, the size almost twice as big as the crossbow. He didn't say a word at all towards the Wira Digital, merely declaring his attack as he let go of the arrow. _"Lightning Arrow!"_

"_Radiant Star Hunter!" _

From the sides, another silvery white arrow intercepted Valkyrimon's Lightning Arrow and sent it off-course, both arrows pierced through several trees, leaving gaping holes with white flames dancing around the borders. Both arrows combusted into data particles soon after, and a fourth battle-player stepped in. "Sorry I'm late…" The angelic knight flew towards Satriamon first and gave him a thorough one look before his attention went to Samudramon.

"Better late than never," Satriamon said with his patented lopsided smirk, his hand shot back towards his side.

"A Mega Digimon…" Valkyrimon muttered, and his sword reappeared within his hand. He made a slash towards the air, sending a freezing ice blue wave of energy. _"_Finally, the one I've been instructed to beat! This should be interesting. _Feral Sword!" _

Aldiyamon Juara Mode spun around and retaliated, _"Heavenstar Slasher!"_

The two attacks collided and exploded into data particles. Smokes erupted, and when it ceased it became evident that both Aldiyamon Juara Mode and Valkyrimon were hovering in midair, unmoved from their spot, unscathed by their attacks. The sword attacks they exchanged had ended with a stalemate.

"You're stronger than I've expected," said Valkyrimon with a grim tone. "The generals definitely weren't joking."

"Oh, I pack quite a few punches myself," Aldiyamon returned, unsmiling as he readied for another attack.

Satriamon and Samudramon exchanged glances. So seldom they had heard Aldiyamon, or Adam, speaking in such a confident tone. Samudramon thought that due to being with JD, some of the blonde's qualities had rubbed off on Adam. Satriamon knew better; Adam was at his happiest with his sister recovered, and the unofficial engagement of Alisha and Abu had just made things better. Despite feeling a bit let down of being parted with his cousin, Satriamon smiled.

Aldiyamon attacked again, with his Radiant Star triple combo – the Hunter, the Shower and the Blaster attacks – with rapid ease, now in-tune with his Mega level power. Streaks of light arrows were fired towards Valkyrimon, and when the avian warrior attempted to counter the arrows he was lambasted by the showers of light from the fireworks of the second attack. And as Valkyrimon became flustered a thin stream of focused light pushed him away. He cursed angrily and looked up, barely recovering. The light attacks didn't injure him severely – were he a creature of darkness he would have suffered, but since he was a being of light the attacks didn't harm him so much. Still, that didn't mean that he wasn't hurt.

"Definitely not joking, indeed," Valkyrimon said offhandedly. Just because he was hurt, didn't mean that Aldiyamon needed to know about it. Sometimes, mind games worked just as efficiently, if not more, than battle prowess. By showing his adversary that he didn't care much of their attacks on him, it would make them wonder.

Aldiyamon frowned. _My attacks didn't faze him…?_

"Now it's time for me to take things up a notch," said Valkyrimon, sword ready in his right hand, while his shielded left arm was drawn close to his body. "Your friends weren't worth my time, but you, Aldiyamon, are a worthy challenger!"

"Bastard," Satriamon swore from the ground. His fist was clenched tight, trembling in fury because of Valkyrimon's offhanded remark.

"He's distracting Aldiyamon," said Samudramon, seeing through Valkyrimon's tactic instantly. "Look at how he's having his shield close to his body. He didn't do this when he was battling us. He's wary of Aldiyamon – Aldiyamon's attacks _did_ hurt him, but he's feigning not being hurt."

Satriamon followed Samudramon's gaze, and a small grin appeared. "Well, what do you know…"

With a smirk, Valkyrimon slashed the air before him again. The freezing wave was nullified by Aldiyamon's sword technique again, but Valkyrimon didn't stop there. He continued firing off the subzero waves from his sword, and waited. Soon Aldiyamon would be too fatigued to fight him and he would be able to destroy the angelic knight. Fending off his Feral Sword was a daunting task for Aldiyamon now; Valkyrimon was sure that he would eventually be able to overpower him. His sharp sense soon saw that Aldiyamon, despite wielding great powers, was less battle-experienced than he, an Avian Shine who had been around during the great battle between SkullSatamon and Grademon. He wondered how the angelic knight would fare in close combat.

_High time to find out! _He streaked down towards Aldiyamon, who was taken aback at the suddenness of the change of attack. Grinning, he slashed his sword, and as expected Aldiyamon countered it with his silver sword. The two of them, standing almost at equal height, began pushing each other off, pitting their strength against each other.

Satriamon swore and charged towards the dueling warriors, but the golden falcon that was constantly orbiting around Valkyrimon fired two streams of icy beams against Satriamon's chest, causing the warrior of flames to stumble on his back. The armor on his chest was now encased in ice, which caused his chest to turn numb. He swore again, but at the very least, the pain from the tattoo was numbed too, but he was now at the risk of getting a severe frostbite if he didn't melt this ice soon. Deploying his flames he melted the ice quickly and stood up, wanting to charge again but was hampered by more lasers generated by the golden falcon.

"Excellent, Freja!" Valkyrimon said loudly, and delivered a surprise kick towards Aldiyamon as he said that, gutting the other warrior of light.

A loud thud ensued, but Aldiyamon looked at his abdomen, then at Valkyrimon. "Seriously….I'm armored over there too! If you're thinking of a surprise attack, then here! _Transcendent Purification!"_ The blast of pure light sent Valkyrimon stumbling onto the ice-coated road, but did little to harm the light-affinity villain, much to Aldiyamon's dismay.

"That's just for starters! _Laser Javelin!"_ Valkyrimon pointed the arm where his golden shield was latched on, and a long streak of blue light blasted out from the pointed tip of the shield.

Aldiyamon brought the Heavenstar Gladius before him just in time as the laser was deflected by his blade, and to his surprise, struck the golden falcon. With a defeated screech, the falcon was instantly destroyed, to everyone's surprise.

"Freja!" Valkyrimon gasped, watching the falcon's data particles swept away by the winds. He growled. "You'll pay for that, Aldiyamon!"

"Your attack destroyed that falcon, not mine!" Aldiyamon shot back.

Valkyrimon screamed as he shot towards Aldiyamon, murderous glint sparked from the falcon helmet he donned. He lashed out his sword, which was countered by Aldiyamon's silver sword. He attempted to gut Aldiyamon again, but this time around Aldiyamon's leg shot up to intercept his incoming leg, before from the angel's very being a blast of pure white light was shot towards him. It wasn't an entirely focused attack, but it was enough to push Valkyrimon away.

With the falcon gone, nothing was going to keep Satriamon and Samudramon from interfering. Seeing that Aldiyamon couldn't beat an opponent of his own element, Satriamon realized that perhaps he could utilize Aldiyamon's power to charge up his own attack. He'd require something more powerful than the Dragonforce Striker, and one particular silver sword was all he needed for it. He'd even destroyed Z'dGarurumon – an iced-based Digimon – with it. A wild grin graced his face, offsetting the mild pain shooting up from his heart – Satriamon knew that his plan would work.

"Cuz, let me use your sword! I have a score to settle with this birdbrain!"

"Got it!" Aldiyamon threw the sword towards Satriamon, who caught it with ease as he advanced towards Valkyrimon. The Heavenstar Gladius emitted reddish orange and white flames simultaneously as Satriamon roared. A pillar of red light engulfed the fire dragon warrior and Valkyrimon quickly attempted to raise his shield, but a bolt of thunder struck his arm and throwing the shield off his arm. Samudramon pointed his trident, ready to attack as well.

_Curse it! I have to flee! _Valkyrimon soared quickly, but his path was blocked by Aldiyamon. He cursed quietly; how did the angel move so fast? _Teleportation… _He was instantly reminded, his face turned sour as Aldiyamon produced a bow and arrow of light from out of nowhere.

"_FIRESTORM SLASHER!"_

A blazing heat grazed his back and Valkyrimon shrieked as he was engulfed by the furious waves of flames. He summoned the power to freeze the flames, but to his shock the ice melted against the supercharged flames which snaked around him viciously. He saw Aldiyamon teleporting out of his way, presumably to get out of the _flames' _way. He quickly took towards the skies but water pillars hampered his escape, the heat gaining upon him from the back. He heard a crackling sound and looked up. Samudramon was approaching, his trident spun with electricity crackling about them.

"_Double-Edged Thunderblades!"_

Valkyrimon coughed out blood. The Firestorm Slasher was surprisingly powerful, even for him. What could this merman do to him now? He didn't want to find out. "Out of my way!"

Using his sword Valkyrimon warded off Samudramon by slashing at his spinning weapon, causing a deafening clang as the force of the collision caused Samudramon to attain internal injuries, evident when the merman spat out blood. With a sound flying kick, Valkyrimon sent Samudramon plummeting down, paving way for him to escape. Yet, his victory against Samudramon was short-lived, as his momentary pause in order to attack Samudramon caused the fires to gain back on him. He was blasted by the sheer ferocity of the flames and once more regurgitated blood out of his mouth. Another blast of power struck him from the back, affecting him lesser than the Firestorm Purification, but adding to his injury nonetheless.

"Satriamon, attack him again," said Aldiyamon hurriedly. "He's weak against fire!"

Satriamon smirked, his eyes murderous. "With pleasure. _FIRESTORM SLASHER!"_

Aldiyamon made a circular motion in front of him by his hands, creating a sphere of silvery white light. He brought it sideways, the sphere shone brilliantly as he thrust it forward, where it exploded upon the command of _"Transcendent Purification!"_

The Wira Digital watched the combined attacks from Aldiyamon and Satriamon pushed Valkyrimon away towards the sky before an explosion of flames and light ensued. They heard Valkyrimon screamed in agony as smoke erupted from the explosion. The scream died down and the smokes subsided.

"Well, that takes care of him," Aldiyamon said, and Satriamon nodded.

"Hey, you okay?" The dragon knight observed the merman, whose mouth was trickling out with blood.

"I don't know…but I think I'm injured a bit," Samudramon informed. "But it's nothing to worry about, I'm sure. I hope."

"Well, we better get you looked up when GuardiAngemon's back from helping Xianamon," Aldiyamon said as he inspected the bruise on Samudramon's abdomen, resulted from the kick he'd gotten from Valkyrimon. "Just to be safe. The siblings cured me and Kak Lisha easily."

Samudramon blinked. "There's another attack also?"

Aldiyamon nodded. Satriamon cursed irritably. Aldiyamon laid a placating hand on his fiery comrade's shoulder. "At least we've taken cared of one threat. Maybe we ought to go to Xianamon to see whether she needs our help?"

"Sure," Satriamon agreed. "Let's…"

They were interrupted by a loud, piercing feminine scream that echoed all over the neighborhood. It had come from a distance quite far from where they were at, but the intensity of the sound made it seemed as if the screamer was only nearby. It was an anguished scream, a sorrowful one too. Then a flash of pink light exploded from the same direction where the scream had originated, intense and bright, and Aldiyamon let out a gasp as he recognized this power. He had experienced the same thing before. His skin tingled in anticipation as he felt a wave of sorrow in his mind. He looked around wildly, unable to discern this powerful emotion, but he could pinpoint who exactly was feeling this…

"Gayathri!" Samudramon exclaimed worriedly. "And that light…looks like it comes from the places where we're staying. Something's up!"

"If it's at your place, then hang on." Aldiyamon held on to Satriamon and Samudramon, using the sorrowful emotion that he now was able to discern as Gayathri's to pinpoint the location. In a shower of white and gold orbs of light, the three of them vanished.

---

Alone, she was nowhere a challenge for Valdurmon, but now with her clone at her side the two sorceresses could at least stand a chance. They double-teamed against the giant six-winged Mega, firing magical waves of energy one after another, alternately and simultaneously, yet the attacks didn't do much harm against the Mega. Changing strategy, they fired their poisonous needles, but with a mere flap of his wings Valdurmon generated streams of fiery light that combusted the needles upon contact, as well as blasting them squarely, pushing both sorceresses away from him as he let out a victorious squawk. Such was the power of his Purge Shine; Xianamon felt as if her windpipe had tightened and pain coursed through her veins.

Against Doumon, they were powerful. And against many other enemies they could very well stand their ground. But Valdurmon was clearly superior to any, or _both_ of them. Briefly Xianamon wondered how on earth the Darkshadow Brethren, Ultimates level all, could have garnered the alliance of this powerful bird. But then again, the Darkshadows also had the ability to digivolve into Mega, thus having Mega-level allies wasn't really that strange.

"_Diamond Matrix Mandala!"_

Observing the incoming waves of magical power, in golden, sapphire and violet energy waves intertwined together flanked by streams of diamond and ruby shards, Valdurmon snorted. "This attack is indeed powerful, but pitifully, not as powerful as what I can create!" His six wings glowed with pinkish-white light, looking as if he was going to deploy his Purge Shine technique again. However, there was a difference when the pink lights turned gold as with a deafening squawk, Valdurmon flapped all his wings once, firing a gigantic wave of white and gold, with a cry of _"Aurora Undulation!" _

Valdurmon's kill-technique drowned the Diamond Matrix Mandala and even blasted the sorceresses towards the nearby row of houses, against the roofs. It was merely because of the sorceresses' flight and telekinetic abilities that they managed to halt their plunge. Valdurmon fired again with the Purge Shine, and the Xianamon immediately raised a telekinetic barrier to protect the houses from being leveled by the powerful bird's attack. The first wave of the attack was resisted, but then Valdurmon attacked again and again, unrelenting. The barrier began to shook, the Xianamon gasped in horror as the light attacks began to penetrate the barrier…

…before GuardiAngemon entered the scene, and swung his metallic sword towards Valdurmon. A beam of light was projected by the broad sword and it slammed upon Valdurmon's helmeted head, causing the avian to squawk in anger.

"Ah," Valdurmon said, satisfied upon seeing the intruder. "The generals have mentioned you. You're the one I'm here to fight!"

"Is that so?" replied the dual voices of the Saintly Siblings, laced with venom. Without wasting time he sprung forward and held his sword up. "So let's not waste time. _Heaven's Ripper!"_

The light-metal projectiles rained upon Valdurmon, who shook the attacks off by flapping his wings, releasing rays of light to counter GuardiAngemon's attacks. The lights destroyed the Mega angel's projectiles, to his surprise. A dual growl escaped his mouth before he charged again, joining his bladed arms together to recreate the metallic Chrome Digizoid broadsword which he had used in his grand entrance against Valdurmon.

"Using that sword again?" inquired Valdurmon, sounding uninterested.

GuardiAngemon smirked, and slashed the sword forward. "My favorite technique, actually. _Holy Espada!"_

"Really? Well, here's _my _favorite_. Aurora Undulation!" _

The showers of bright light slammed upon the broadsword and were strong enough to cause GuardiAngemon to drop it. Seeing GuardiAngemon gasped in shock of losing what he'd claimed as his favorite technique, Valdurmon squawked and he flew towards GuardiAngemon, intending to strike the steel saint with his talons. But, to his surprise GuardiAngemon was wholly protected by Chrome Digizoid steel, his talons couldn't injure the angel.

"That actually tickles," mocked the DNA Digivolved Mega. Raising his wings, he wielded them so that they slashed the bird's talons, effectively removing the talons from his body. Mercury-like liquid flowed out from the wounds on Valdurmon's talons, and GuardiAngemon smirked in satisfaction. He spread his arms wide, taking in the power of light from around him before a pillar of rainbow erupted about him. The power focused in his hands, concentrated, as he brought them together in front of him. "Here's Angewomon's favorite – _Heaven's Charm!"_

Valdurmon looked up and saw a glowing bladed energy wave coming at him. It slammed upon his body and shook him for a while. Then, summoning his own power of light, he shook it off by launching his Purge Shine, and the Heaven's Charm combusted into data particles.

GuardiAngemon raised one hand up, index finger extended towards the sky while the others closed in his palm. _"Soul Banishment!"_

White lightning bolt shot down from the sky and zapped Valdurmon. Yet, by launching his Aurora Undulation he managed to shake off the attack as well, but the attack GuardiAngemon had just used on him was something he hadn't expected. But soon he found that GuardiAngemon was joined by the two Xianamon, who began launching attacks on him one after another.

From a distance, an explosion suddenly took place, attracting Valdurmon's attention. He stared towards a distance, his eyes shot up upon seeing streams of firestorm and a shining white energy beam dissipating slowly. _Flames, _Valdurmon thought uneasily. _Those are intense flames, one that he might not able to resist. He's always the weaker Avian Shine…_ His thought was rudely cut in by a shriek, long and sorrowful, before another explosion ensued from another site, and this time around it was followed by a flash of pink light. _The generals…they've left the human world!_

Valdurmon stared towards GuardiAngemon and the two Xianamon. _There'll be time to settle this_._ If the generals have left, the plan obviously has failed. No point in sticking around. For now, I have to ascertain of Valkyrimon's fate. Either he's deleted or… _With that, he turned away and with amazing speed he streaked off to a distance unknown.

**(End Flashback)**

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Nobody knew what exactly had happened that day prior to the explosion of pink lights, but what they could gather from Anding was that Astamon had delivered a fatal shot towards Belinda, who had moved to protect Dina who was the one Astamon intended to shoot. This had caused Puspamon to snap in sorrow, and Anding claimed that there was a _ghostly_ apparition who hovered over Puspamon as she screamed, and it was _it_ that had attacked Astamon and Shawujinmon to a point where they were forced to retreat. Neither Gayathri nor Dina was able to give the others the real story, too overwhelmed by sorrow.

It took a great effort on Jackie's part to alter the memory of many people in regards to Gayathri's involvement with the battle, and while people knew that the accident took place at the household it had been established that Gayathri and Puspamon were two different people. The memory-altering charm had been very potent; it had worked for all the people within a 500-meter radius from Gayathri's house at the time the charm was cast. That was one problem that managed to be taken care of, but one far greater remained, and it was something that would scar the DigiWira team, Gayathri and Dina in particular.

Casualties had been high during the battle at the KLCC Park, but it was people the DigiWira didn't know or involved with personally. And it had been concluded that it wasn't their fault that those people died, they had done their best. They did feel sorry for the losses; it was just that they weren't too affected by them.

However this time, the loss was too great for Gayathri and Dina, for Bel was their best friend. They had watched their friend died in front of their eyes.

And on that rainy Saturday afternoon, the two best friends shared an umbrella as they watched from the distance, the black long casket with the body of Bel being lowered into the ground. The weather that day only mirrored their grievances for the death of their friend. A group of people had gathered there, most of them were Bel's family members and friends of the family. Manny and his mother were inside as well while his father stayed home to take care of Debbie. Beside them, Liu Ying stood guardedly, and behind her the cousins Adam and JD shared one umbrella, looking on towards the mourning girls. By the cars parked along the road near them, three adults stood – the couple Alisha and Abu sharing one umbrella, and Gayathri's driver Anding, alone.

"Everything's going to be so different from now on," Dina said brokenly, as the casket with Bel's body was finally placed inside the hole that would be her grave. The memory of Bel jumping in her way to block Astamon's attack only caused her to sob harder. It had given her nightmares ever since, and that had taken the toll on her. Her eyes were puffy, dark eye-bags were visible under her reddening eyes. She hadn't eaten well, and it showed too, for she looked so weak and frail. In her mind, five words continued to echo, never leaving her alone. _Bel's dead to save me…_

"I don't know how we'll go on without Bel," Gayathri whispered, tears flowing freely, as people attending the burial started to walk out of the cemetery. Some remained to offer condolences to Bel's family, and Gayathri could see Manny and his mom talking with Bel's mother, who looked utterly devastated. Bel's older sister was comforted by her father, who was no better off than his wife and remaining daughter. Seeing that, she choked a sob and cried again. _It's my fault…I should've been able to stop Astamon. _

The rain became harder, and people poured out from the gate. They saw the girls and offered their sympathy, assuming that they too were there for the burial as well, fully understanding when the girls merely continued to cry as they rushed towards their cars to escape the heavy rain. Manny and his mother reached the place where they were standing, and a brief word between them was exchanged before Manny's mother walked away towards their car, while Manny quickly went under the umbrella Liu Ying was holding up for him.

"They're still crying," he noted.

Liu Ying sighed. She knew, from experience, that no words could be said to calm the grieving people. She had learned from past experience – when her father was shot in line of duty – that the wound would take time to heal. It was a terrible time for her, but she was able to persevere, thanks to the support she had from her mother and grandfather, as well as many friends. She'd moved on. How long it would take depended on the one who was affected. _She_ had taken almost a month to finally readjust to the fact that she was now without a father.

"It's going to be hard for them from now on," she replied to Manny. "The only thing we can do is to lend our support to them…the same way how you all comforted me when I was about to trash that Riley Lau…"

"And how we all were there for Adam," Manny added, casting a look towards the cousins.

Adam looked down on the ground, sorely reminded of his own losses, yet he was now better in dealing with it. JD squeezed his shoulder, and he looked up at his cousin's face. The blond wasn't smiling, and it was so rare to see that he looked that serious, for Adam was always accustomed to see the devil-may-care expression on his cousin's face. Yet, he was comforted still, when JD gave him a small, gentle smile.

"You should talk to them," JD said softly, eyes beckoning towards Dina and Gayathri. The rains had drowned some of his voice. Adam could hear him, but the girls couldn't.

"Talk?"

JD nodded. "You're the best man for the job. You have the experience. They didn't. It's hard for them, but maybe…if you talk to them, maybe it'll be easier for them."

Adam thought about it, and realized that JD was right. He nodded. "This is all scaring me," he said. "First Ophanimon…then Bel and D'Arcmon…"

"Yeah, me too," said JD, patting his cousin's shoulder absently.

"I don't know what I'd do if we lose another one of us…"

JD's hand froze on Adam's shoulder. The soft remark instantly jolted him back to the fact that he now had only _two weeks_ left, before Persiamon's tattoo would take effect on him. The only clues he had about the tattoo was the ones Manny had told him, and that didn't help him at all. D'Arcmon's premonition mentioned about Manny _and_ Adam being by his side when the tattoo would kill him, and that was the only other thing that he managed to know about the Blight of Bastet – not exactly helpful either.

"You'll move on," he said intensely, before realizing it a bit too late. Adam tilted his head up to gaze at him curiously, and he jerked his eyebrows up. "As you've done before, right?"

"I…I suppose…" Adam said, noticing JD acting strange. But then he was distracted by the sounds of the crowd that was pulling out, missing the relieved look on his cousin's face.

Bel's parents and older sister stopped by them, and a long look was exchanged between the Bel's family and Bel's best friends. Gayathri and Dina looked up at Bel's family, before Bel's mother – a stout woman with curly hair, reached out and embraced the two girls. The action only caused Gayathri and Dina to cry even harder.

"Aunty, uncle…I'm so sorry," Gayathri choked out tearfully. "I should…"

"We don't blame you, Gayathri, Dina," Bel's father, a tall bespectacled man with a receding hairline, said softly. He gazed at the two girls with pity; being best friends with his daughter, he knew that their devastation upon Bel's death matched his and his family. "You three have been best friends for so long. Bel wouldn't want us to alienate her best friends in times like this."

Jackie had offered to alter the memories of Bel's family as well – but out of respect for her deceased best friend, Gayathri had strongly resisted this idea. Instead, she had chosen to reveal the truth, even though that had meant that she had to disclose her dual identity. She didn't care about the risk. She couldn't bear with the thought of having to lie to Bel's parents about Bel's death. It wouldn't be right. They deserved to know the truth about their daughter's death; Gayathri didn't want them to be in the dark about Bel's untimely passing.

"Gayathri, Dina…" Bel's mother said, and kissed them both on the cheeks. "Even though that Bel…Bel's gone, don't stop visiting us like you've done all these times. When…when we've managed to sort some things out, we'll call you…for an afternoon tea, like you three used to do." Having uttered the last three words, Bel's mother cried again, and her husband quickly comforted her as they bid the two girls farewell.

Bel's older sister remained. Her expression was tearful but otherwise unreadable. Her mouth was set thin. She was _glaring_ at them, or more specifically, towards Gayathri.

"How come you've granted the power to protect the innocents, but you couldn't save Bel?" she hissed. "Some best friend you are!"

Gayathri and Dina froze. Liu Ying immediately stepped in.

"That was uncalled for, Miss Foo. She did her best to save Bel."

Miranda Foo snorted. "Right. Tell me if I'm wrong, but according to the news I've read earlier, Puspamon was able to beat her demonic enemy back during the attack at the hospital. Why couldn't she do it three days ago?" Her tone became higher, and Gayathri and Dina both cowered. Tears poured out, and the young woman shivered in anger as she pointed a finger towards them. "If you've done these vigilante works of yours properly, we wouldn't all be here! It's all YOUR FAULT!"

"What the hell?" JD barked, as Gayathri's sobs intensified. "Don't go blaming Gayathri for this!"

Miranda Foo glared towards JD. "And where were you all when those monsters attacked my sister?"

"Some bastards attacked us at other places! If we didn't stop 'em, more people would be killed!" JD returned the young woman's glare, and his taller stature made him look even more impressive than the young woman. He didn't care that the woman was older than him. "We've told your folks that, they took it. They trusted us. Why can't you trust us that we've done what we could?"

"Oh, it's easy for you to say!" Miranda shouted, her eyes watered. Her tone attracted her parents, who whirled around, shocked upon seeing their eldest, now only, daughter's outburst.

"MIRANDA! Don't make a scene here!" Mrs. Foo said. Some people had stopped out of curiosity to look at the verbal fight, but one glare from Mrs. Foo had sent them away.

Miranda ignored her mother. She pointed her wavering index finger towards them. "How easy for you to say, because you don't know what I'm feeling! How many of you have lost your family member like me!"

"I have," answered Adam's soft, solemn voice. Everyone turned at him, Miranda's eyes widened in shock. "I've lost my older brother and my parents in a car accident three years ago. It was horrible. I understand completely what you're feeling. And she…" Adam beckoned towards Liu Ying. "She's lost her father in line of duty; her father stood in line for the Deputy Prime Minister, when a criminal attempted to murder him. That was also three years ago." He gave the woman an empathic look. "We do know how you feel, and we're very sorry for your loss, which is also our loss. Had Bel still be alive right now, she'd be fighting the bad guys with us, as an Honorary DigiWira. Her untimely death…" Adam lowered his gaze, staring at Bel's grave from the distance, continuing softly, "is very unfortunate, and a terrible loss. May she rest in peace."

Hearing such empathic words coming from a boy who looked so young struck the older Miranda Foo. She didn't know about her sister's destiny as an Honorary DigiWira, if she was given the chance to live after the unfortunate encounter with the demons. Her anger evaporated, but the sorrow remained. Sobs and hiccups began to prevail, and not knowing what to do, she quickly turned and ran as fast as she could towards her mother, crying all the way. She cried so hard that her father had to support her back towards their car.

Mrs. Foo returned towards the DigiWira, and gave them a sad look, "I'm sorry for Miranda's outburst. She and Bel aren't really the closest of sisters, but really she dotes on Bel. It hurts her that she didn't have the chance to show Bel how much she really adores her."

"We understand," said Adam, offering the older woman a pained smile. Hearing Mrs. Foo's explanation reminded Adam about the fight he and his brother had prior to the fatal accident.

"I'm sorry for your loss," said Mrs. Foo, and her gaze fell on Liu Ying. "You too, dear. I've read about it in the papers."

"Thank you," Liu Ying said softly. A sorrowful feeling grew within her, having reminded verbally of her father, but with long deep breaths she managed to keep her feelings in check.

Mrs. Foo gazed at Gayathri and Dina, before hugging them one by one briefly. "Take care, dears." She then walked away, joining her husband and her remaining daughter.

With the family of the deceased gone and no one else remained, the other DigiWira saw how Gayathri and Dina cast a long, forlorn look towards the grave that now housed the body of their best friend. Their cries subsided as the drizzle stopped. The clouds remained, but traces of sunlight began to peek out from them as soft winds blew against their hairs. Sounds of umbrellas being closed ensued, before Adam appeared before Gayathri and Dina, eyeing the flower held on each of their hands. With a nod, white orbs spiraled around the flowers, soared towards the sky briefly before they vanished.

And from the distance they could see the flowers reappeared, right by the tombstone. A tulip from Gayathri, and a rose from Dina.

Hand-in-hand, the two girls gazed at the grave again, looked at each other as tears flowed down their faces.

"Bel…rest in peace."

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Doumon walked past the private chamber of Astamon's, and knocked on the brass door. Seconds later, a bandage-laden Astamon opened the door, seemingly in a somewhat drunken haze. The priest fox saw that Astamon and Shawujinmon were both in the chamber, and smiled stiffly.

"Good, you're both here," he said, allowing himself to enter the room. A strong stench caught his nose and his face wrinkled. "I suppose you're _still_ celebrating?"

"Nothing goes past you eh old fox?" Astamon slurred. "Tell me again, how _impressed_ are you when I came back with news that I've killed both a human and a partner."

Doumon snorted. "The ones you have killed were not actual DigiWira, might I remind you. This leaves us nothing much to celebrate upon. The Wira Digital are still five, and still a threat."

Astamon merely laughed and slung an arm around the priest, much to the latter's dismay. "Ah, no worries. Their deaths have pretty much destroyed Puspamon. I killed the girl's best friend."

Disgustedly, Doumon pushed Astamon's arm away. "But…"

"We'll get to it, after you've finished healing us," Shawujinmon interrupted curtly. Compared to Astamon, he sounded a whole lot sober, and much more miffed. "That Puspamon had somehow become so strong after Astamon dealt with that human girl…though she didn't actually become Mega, she's a great threat. We'll focus our next attack on her, without relying on the remaining Avian Shine."

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He was lost.

That much he knew when he woke up. He'd found himself in a bush, and what woke him up was the rains from the sky and the sound of thunder. The first thing he noticed was how sore his whole body was. Pain erupted with every move he made. He was very much wounded, and very weak. The weirdest thing was, he couldn't recall how he'd ended up with such conditions.

Everything looked a lot bigger now, he realized. The rows of building fazed him – he'd never seen anything like it. The creatures that dwelled in this world scared him – he'd come to realize that he was now at the human's world. How did he end up here?

Come to think of it, he realized that he didn't remember anything much either. How did he get these wounds? How did he end up in this strange world? Who is he, or who _was_ he? These questions echoed in his mind continuously as he observed this strange, raining world. It was cold, and he was drenched. Being feathery didn't help him much in this situation – it made his body heavier, and it was harder to walk. He was already stout enough, he noticed, yet that didn't seem to match the pang of hunger he was experiencing.

He'd been awake for hours, exploring this new world. He'd stayed away from sight, avoiding humans and the various moving machines.

His vision blurred. Something funny was happening in his head, he noticed. It made the whole world spinning. His stomach rumbled even louder and his short legs grew weak as the pain from the wounds intensified. He collapsed, and the last thing he saw was a small human girl running towards him, with a taller man following from behind.

Everything went black.

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Ever since their return from Bel's grave, Gayathri hadn't stopped crying, and she had kept herself locked inside her room, keeping even Floramon out. Her parents, her house maid, even her driver, had tried coaxing her to come out from her room, but to no avail. Though they had the key to the room, but none wanted to use it, knowing how grieved she was.

Immediately after returning from the burial, she did something that she hadn't thought of doing for the past three days. She'd dug out all the photos she had of the three of them, and spent hours looking through the albums, showing the pictures of Bel, Dina and herself from their earliest day of friendship – when they were ten – up to the point of Bel's untimely demise. Sometimes she'd smile wistfully as she came across some of the funnier photos, but most of the times she'd cry again as she reminisced the memories she had with her best friend.

She had first met Bel during her earliest week of Standard Four, after moving from the heart of Kuala Lumpur to a more suburban place of Subang Jaya. She was constantly being made fun of for being plump and for coming from a very rich family. And those were the times when she constantly donned her hair in plaits, and some of the meaner kids would sometimes pull them. Then one day, a girl had stepped in when two boys were teasing her relentlessly – she'd been crying then, and this girl had come from out of nowhere. The girl, short-haired, athletic – totally the opposite of her – had warned the boys to leave her alone. The boys had laughed her attempt, until this boyish girl proved what she'd said, by delivering one mean kick on one boy's gut before proceeding to slap the second boy twice. The boys had run off, and Gayathri found a new friend at this new school, who had made school seemed more enjoyable with her antics. They were a total opposite, but they got along just fine. Thru Bel, the girl who had saved her, Gayathri had come to know another good friend of Bel's, a demure sweet girl – Dina. They clicked instantly, and became best friends not long thereafter.

A soft knock invaded her thoughts. "Gayathri…?"

_Liu Ying?_ Gayathri thought strangely, wiping her tears. _What's she doing here?_

"I'm not going anywhere until you open this door." It sounded like a threat, but it lacked malice. Liu Ying's tone was somewhat pleading, even. "Gayathri, take it from someone who's _been there_. You're doing no good in keeping yourself in like that. Believe me, I _know._"

Liu Ying's words melted Gayathri's former intention of keeping herself locked up in her room. Liu Ying had lost her father; surely her fellow DigiWira understood what she was now feeling? She forced herself to get up from her bed, wiping her tears again before moving on to open her bedroom door.

Liu Ying looked very relieved when Gayathri opened her door. She also seemed concerned, after taking in Gayathri's tearful face. "Can I come in?"

Nodding, the curly-haired girl moved from the door, allowing her friend to enter her room. Her eyes fell on an old-looking journal which Liu Ying was holding.

"Remember when Adam was so grieved when Kak Lisha was involved in an accident, after the whole ordeal with the Puaka Generals?" Liu Ying began, deciding to get straight to the point. "That battle with Gulfmon," she amended.

Gayathri was surprised; most people would start by asking her whether she was alright. She'd feel like screaming every time people asked her that; of course she was _not_ alright. Her best friend had died. Bel had left her forever, never returning. Liu Ying's approach was entirely different. She nodded quietly.

"We all knew that night, after the battle, that Adam had trouble moving on," Liu Ying continued. "For three years, he'd never moved on completely. He just kept it buried, and for a while…it seemed to work." She gazed at Gayathri's eyes, knowing that the girl might be wondering of where she was getting at. "But then, as you know…it backfired completely. The Puaka Generals' trick had caused him to be fully consumed by grief, sadness…anger, hate…and, the dark Aldiyamon was born."

"I remember," Gayathri said softly.

"We just…don't want it to happen to you, too," Liu Ying said. "Let us help you. Isn't that what you've told Adam that night?"

Gayathri broke down again. "Every time, for the past three days, when I open my eyes from sleep, I kept hoping that it was all a bad dream. A nightmare. That Bel's still alive. I always hope…that somehow, this is all not real."

"I used to feel the same way when my Papa died," Liu Ying admitted softly.

"Was it…hard…for you?" Gayathri knew it was hard for Liu Ying, having seen her uncharacteristic reaction towards Riley Lau, the one who'd kidnapped her. That night, _she_ had been the one who'd comforted Liu Ying. Now, it seemed that the situation had been reversed.

"Very hard," said Liu Ying. "It still is, actually. But, in time, it gets easier. Trust me."

Gayathri nodded. "I miss her so much…" She hugged Liu Ying, and sobbed on her shoulders, words failed her instantly.

"Shhh…let it out," Liu Ying said comfortingly, patting her friend's back. "Let it out."

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Adam pulled his knees close to his body as he leaned against the sofa, idly watching the television. Patamon was engrossed with another episode of the soap opera he used to be following, and Salamon and Gatomon both kept shooting him the evil-eye upon having to watch the soap opera – Patamon had won the remote for the television, hence soap opera instead of Cartoon Network.

At the two-sitter sofa adjacent to the three-sitter where Adam was occupying, Abu was reading the newspaper. The doctor's presence in their household was becoming rather commonplace nowadays since Alisha was healed and Adam was back, although by nine or ten o'clock at night he'd take his leave back to the house he shared with his friends, but Salamon would stay with Adam and Alisha since Abu's housemates were in the dark about Abu's involvement with the Digimon.

An aromatic smell came from the kitchen, followed by the sound of something being fried inside the cooking wok. That Saturday's late lunch would be Alisha's homemade _nasi lemak_, and it was the only meal, Alisha had claimed, that she'd managed to perfect. Adam thought that the prospect of getting married had gotten his sister to improve her culinary skills, starting from the all-around favorite meal of the nation, before proceeding to other dishes. Besides, it had been a rather sad day, and Alisha had thought that they would need some good meal for comfort.

The doorbell rang, and Adam curiously gazed at the door. Abu put his newspaper down.

"Expecting anyone else?" he asked.

Adam shook his head. "No…" Nevertheless, he stood up and walked towards the door and peeked through the peek-hole. What he saw made him open the door promptly – it was Dina, still clad in the dark gray baju kurung she'd worn at Bel's burial earlier that morning. He gazed at the girl questioningly; his senses seemed to have frozen momentarily.

"Who is it?" Alisha came by the door. A knowing look crossed her face. "Oh…"

"I'm sorry for coming unannounced. Is this a bad time?" Dina asked with a small, shy voice. Her eyes were no longer red, but still as puffy as Adam had seen earlier this morning. Yet it was evident that she was still mourning.

The inquiry snapped Adam instantly out of his stupor. "No, not at all!" He then looked at his sister for confirmation.

"Of course not. Please, come in. I'm just about done cooking; I hope you'll stay over for lunch. There's plenty for everybody," Alisha said kindly, and guided the confused Dina in. Adam blinked once, before closing the door and following them back inside. "Your partner's with you, I presume?"

Dina nodded, and released Lalamon from her D4 Digivice, which was soft pink with crimson lining.

"Good," Alisha nodded. "Meal's ready in ten to fifteen minutes, I think. Make yourself at home, Dina." She then proceeded by going to the two-sitter sofa, peeled Abu from it and pulled him towards the kitchen. Getting the hint, the doctor scooped both Salamon and Gatomon, who didn't seem to mind at all since they couldn't watch their favorite shows. All of them then disappeared into the kitchen, and Alisha's voice could be heard instructing Abu and the Digimon of what to do.

Adam sweatdropped. _Oh, that's so smooth…_ he thought sarcastically.

"I was just thinking," she said, her tone so quiet that it was hard to make out what she was saying, but as the whole apartment had become quiet it was still discernable. Dina looked up, and gazed at Adam, "what you mentioned to Bel's sister this morning…." Her voice trailed off.

Thinking of what JD had just told him this morning; Adam instantly got what Dina was trying to say. "Do you want to talk about it? About Bel's de--…about Bel?" he amended, thinking that Dina might not want to hear the word _death_ or _passing_. He didn't like it either when mentioning about his late brother and parents. "Why don't we sit?" He gestured towards the sofa.

Dina nodded slowly, and sadly as she followed Adam, Lalamon hovered behind her. "I just," she said, and sat down, "want to know…how did you move on?"

Adam absently took the remote from Patamon and switched the TV off, much to the Digimon's dismay. Patamon huffed and decided to join the others at the kitchen, and flew away before pausing to meet Lalamon's gaze. A brief silence ensued, before Patamon beckoned Lalamon towards the kitchen. Out of curiosity, the vegetation Digimon complied.

_Super smooth…_ Adam thought again, before meeting Dina's questioning eyes once more. He thought about her question, remembering how the DigiWira were there for him when he was grieving for his fate. A warm, comforting feeling emanated from him, it was a day Adam was so fond of remembering, and he realized now that he now had a friend in need of the same warmth and comfort.

"With a little help from my friends," Adam answered, smiling softly. And for the first time since Bel's death, Adam noted, that Dina smiled again.

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_**Author's Notes:**_

A somewhat sad chapter at the beginning, but towards the end we know that it's going to be okay with the team. I think the title is too long, but I kind of like it, and Adam's last words in this chapter seems so appropriate to end this chapter, so I decided to leave it as it is.


	59. Things Not Said

Slowly, his visions became clearer, though he was having a hard time moving his body. Something seemed to be compressed around his body, and the pain he had felt before was subsiding. It was there still, but no longer hurting him. Somebody had treated him, he realized.

"Where…where am I?"

He was unable to raise his body up. Apparently he was too stout that he wouldn't be able to lift his own body up unless assisted by someone.

He saw his puffy white feathery body, bandaged and gauzed. Pain still came from underneath the bandages, but they were relatively milder compared to how he'd felt when he first woke up, seemingly some time ago. He tried looking around, and took in his surroundings.

He was lying on a soft cushiony surface, and at the moment was staring at a white ceiling with soft yellow lights emanating from the four corners of the ceiling. The place – room, he'd gathered – where he was in was somewhat cool, comfortably. He was not out in the rains anymore, though from the soft spatters of waters against hard surfaces he knew that it was still raining, outside the place where he was at right now.

Footsteps approached him, dancing with excitement. An excited squeal followed, and he saw a human girl's face looming over him. She had expressive russet-brown eyes, and dark brown hair tied in pigtails. He thought that she looked familiar; hadn't he seen her before?

"Yay! You're awake!" The girl's eyes shone with relief and happiness. "I was wondering when you'd get up!"

He blinked at her exuberance. "Where…am…I?"

The girl tilted his head adorably. "My house," she said. "You fell down in front of our house. I saw you, and managed to convince daddy to take you in. You might catch pne…pne…umm…" The girl frowned, rubbing her chin, seemingly trying to recall on something before shrugging her attempt to remember what she was trying to say. "You might get sick under the rains…and besides I think you really look like Penguinmon. Maybe you're his brother or sister or something? I think you're a guy. You sound like a guy…"

Amidst the girl's excited chattering, memory clicked inside his mind. He had seen this girl just before he was unconscious. For once, he was glad that he was able to recall _something._ Anything he could recall was valuable to him, for he couldn't remember anything else prior his first awakening. His name, his identity, about his injuries – he hadn't a single clue of those. But he did remember waking up in the rains, in the human world, and being so hungry.

Speaking of which… a loud growl came from his stomach. He saw the girl giggling, before a man appeared behind the girl, holding a bowl of something he couldn't see, but his mouth watered upon catching the smell of whatever that was inside the bowl. The aroma indicated something hot, pleasant and delicious.

"Did you disturb that Penguinmon look-alike from his sleep, Debbie?" asked the man. He sounded affectionate instead of angry, despite his question.

"No I didn't, daddy, honest! He woke up by himself!" the girl – Debbie – said instantly. "And I heard his stomach growling, he must be really hungry!"

The man looked amused. "Well, it's a good thing that I've prepared this then. Until mommy and _Abang_ come back from the funeral, looks like all of us are going to have cream mushroom soup for lunch." With that said, he placed the bowl beside the bed where he'd placed the orange-feathered Penguinmon, and gazed at the confused bird. "Are you alright, little guy? Here, let me help you get up. Penguinmon always have trouble getting up whenever he's lying down on his back."

"Thank you…" the orange Penguinmon said softly, allowing the man to lift him up, and placed him in a sitting position. A sharp pain suddenly rose from his chest, and he yelped. "OWW!!"

"Whoa…sorry there, little guy." The man gazed at the Digimon with alarm and pity at the same time. "Where does it hurt?"

"It's alright…" the Digimon said, rubbing his chest. He was touched of this man's concern. "It's not so bad…"

"Good to hear that. So," the man said, gazing at the Digimon. "What should we call you, little guy?"

The orange Penguinmon looked down, his eyes downcast. "I…don't know. I don't remember." He looked up sadly. "I can't remember anything. My name. Who I am. Who I was. How do I get these injuries…I can't remember anything. The only thing I remember is waking up under the rains, somewhere not too far from here. Then I fell down, and the next thing I know, I'm here."

The man and his daughter exchanged a look. "Amnesia," the man said finally. "Loss of memory," he explained to his young daughter, as well as to the avian Digimon before him.

Debbie took a moment to register what her father had told her, before she gazed at the bird with pity. "Oh, poor you! Maybe Abang or Penguinmon know your name; we can ask them when they got back home." She grinned at the Digimon, her eyes shining with wonder. "I'm gonna call you _Opie_ until then."

"Opie?" the man, and the Digimon, both asked simultaneously.

"Yup! O.P.," said Debbie, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Stands for Orange Penguinmon. It's like Abang's friend, Abang J.D. Don't remember his full name, but he calls himself JD. Until we know Opie's real name, I'm gonna call him as that."

The man – Mr. Abah Jintoni – smiled. "Shouldn't you ask him first whether he likes that name?"

The Digimon, just christened Opie by the two humans, thought about it as his eyes lingered on the bowl of soup. He had no names, no identity. This father and daughter had taken him in, nursed his wounds and were now feeding him. He liked them, and he liked the girl's upbeat, adorable attitude. If she wanted to call him Opie…why not? At least, he had a name now.

"I like it," he said. "Opie…" he repeated to himself, making sure that he wouldn't forget this important information.

"Yay! He likes it!" Debbie enthused. She proceeded by shaking the Digimon's wing. "I hope we can be best friends, like Abang and Penguinmon. Can we, Opie?"

Opie blinked. His cheeks, despite his orange coloration, blushed. The girl wanted to be his friend? _Best_ friend? He couldn't remember having one before. "Sure," he said finally. _Why not?_ He added mentally. He now had an identity, and someone offering to be his friend. Perhaps he could start a new life here, with them. "I'd be honored."

"Debbie and Opie…Debbie and Opie…" Debbie said in a singsong voice, while Opie observed her with growing interest. "Boy, won't Abang and Penguinmon be so surprised!"

"It does have a nice ring to it," said Abah Jintoni, grinning at his daughter and at Opie, before standing up just as the sound of a car being driven into the driveway was heard. "And speaking of your Abang and Penguinmon, they're back now. Hopefully with lunch as well," he added to himself before the sound of an opening door was heard.

"We're back," a woman's voice called out. She gave her husband a brief peck on the cheek, having to actually stand on her toes to do so, before her eyes fell on Opie. They widened in surprise. "Penguinmon? What happened to you? You're all…" She searched for an adjective to describe Opie, but couldn't find the right word, and said, "…orange."

"Penguinmon?" Manny stepped in the house, nodding at his father. "He's still inside my Digivice, I haven't…oh…"

Abah Jintoni grinned. "Kim, Manny, meet Opie. The orange Penguinmon, or as Debbie calls him…O.P."

Manny blinked in confusion as his six-year-old sister took his hand.

"He's gonna be my best friend, like Penguinmon's best friend to you, Abang!" Debbie declared happily. "Isn't it super?"

"Whoa…" Not knowing what else to say, Manny immediately took out his Juara Digivice from his trousers pocket. "Penguinmon, Access."

"What the…" Penguinmon blinked twice as he materialized before Opie. Opie clearly looked shocked as he saw Penguinmon, as Penguinmon was upon seeing him. He raised one wing, Opie did the same thing. He tilted his head, Opie followed with the same action. He blinked, Opie blinked as well.

"I know you," Penguinmon said finally. "You're a Muchomon!"

"Muchomon?" Opie repeated. The name sounded so foreign to him, yet at the same time, he couldn't shake off a sense of familiarity upon seeing Penguinmon and Manny. _Something_ about them was familiar to him…and his heart thumped faster. He realized that for some reason, he was _scared_ at them. He backed away slightly, not understanding why his whole body was shivering all of a sudden.

"Muchomon?" Debbie made a face. "I like Opie better. And don't go scaring Opie like that, Penguinmon. He's not feeling well."

"Opie? Sounds more like _dopey_ to me." Penguinmon snorted. "Where did _that_ come from?"

"Orange Penguinmon," Debbie said simply.

Penguinmon's jaw slacked.

Manny shot his partner an amused look before looking at his sister.

"That's pretty creative, Debbie. Where did you find him?"

Debbie beamed upon hearing the compliment from her big brother, while Penguinmon rolled his eyes. She proceeded to answer her brother, as Manny and Penguinmon listened.

Penguinmon shot the alarmed Opie strange looks, wondering why the Muchomon seemed to be frightened of them. It was somewhat strange, the DigiWira pair noted, of how Opie appeared with injuries and amnesia, right by their footstep. Something sounded amiss here, but they didn't know exactly what. Penguinmon had a feeling that he shouldn't trust this Muchomon just yet. Injured Digimon didn't appear out of nowhere – he must have been involved with a fight of some sort. But for a Rookie Digimon to be this injured, Penguinmon estimated that nobody stronger than a Champion could have caused it – Opie would have been deleted if the one who'd wounded him was an Ultimate or a Mega.

For Manny, he had thought that it was strange as well for Opie to turn up at their doorstep with grave wounds and amnesia, but he soon grew sorry for the Muchomon. While Penguinmon looked somewhat suspicious of the Muchomon, Manny couldn't help feeling worried for his sister.

What if this Muchomon ended up being Debbie's partner? Recent events in his neighborhood and involving his girlfriend had made him grew increasingly worried.

The late Belinda Foo had been partnered to D'Arcmon, and both ended up being killed by Astamon just last Wednesday. Manny now feared for his sister's safety, and prayed that Debbie would be spared from being partnered with this Muchomon. Yet he also knew that the partnership between a Digimon and a human was destiny – it was why the partner humans were called _DigiDestined_ in the first place.

And it didn't really help that Opie greatly resembled Penguinmon. With the exception of his orange coloring, he was a dead-ringer for Manny's own partner. They could pass off as siblings easily, which made his heart squirmy in dread. He and Debbie were siblings – and now Penguinmon's carbon copy had appeared, and had apparently struck a friendship with Debbie, making the path for them being partners even more defined.

_What should I do?_ Manny thought silently, watching as his sister affectionately began to feed Opie with the soup from the bowl that had been by the sofa where he was lying on. Gazing at Penguinmon, he found the blue penguin staring at the orange penguin with an unreadable expression.

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 59 – Things Not Said **_

xxx

xxx

Manny sighed as he opened the gate of his house that Sunday morning. He had mixed feelings about having Opie in the house, and they stemmed from the nightmare he had the previous night.

He'd dreamt about Debbie and Opie becoming partners, and they'd been used as leverage by Shawujinmon against Samudramon in a battle. This was what Manny had been so afraid about since the previous day. Penguinmon strangely didn't seem too keen with Opie as well, although he'd reserved the reason to himself. Manny simply didn't know why he was having a foreboding feeling when Opie was concerned; the Digimon was polite and cordial once he was used to the family, which made him a rather pleasant addition to the family.

He pushed back those thoughts upon seeing Gayathri stepping out from her house. Immediately he straightened up; his girlfriend was heading towards his house. He thought that she looked better than the previous day. Granted, she still appeared forlorn, which was understandable. But she wasn't crying either. _Whatever Liu Ying managed to do or say to her yesterday, it must have worked_.

He noted that Gayathri was dressed as if she was going away for a while. For a mere stroll to his house, he'd usually seen her in T-shirts and shorts or skirts, but so seldom in a blouse and long jeans, as well as a jeans jacket over her blouse. She had also chosen dark tones for her outfit – the jeans were both dark blue, and her blouse was gray. They were a far cry from her usual tendency to dress in pink tones, but Manny supposed she was still grieving. Moving on wasn't easy, but Manny was glad to see that Gayathri was beginning to cope. She hardly speak to anybody for the past few days, even to him or her family, so he was surprised to see her walking towards his house, regardless it was still too early for a Sunday.

"Hi," Gayathri said, softly. Her voice lacked her usual exuberance, but it was to be expected. At least, she wasn't crying anymore. Manny took it as a good sign.

"Hey, Gayathri." He took in her appearance once more, despite having done so earlier. "Going out somewhere?"

Gayathri gave him a gloomy look, followed by a sigh and a nod. "My parents think I might need some time away from…everything, after all that have happened recently. We're going to Cameron Highlands for a few days, along with Mak Mirah and Anding as well. I suppose that means I'm not going to school either for the next few days."

"I think that's a great idea, Gayathri. After all that has happened to you, you need some time away to sort things out. And a peaceful place like Cameron Highlands, away from the hustle and bustle of the city is something the doctor's ordered." Manny smiled at his attempt for humor, wondering whether Gayathri would smile at it. Usually it was her who'd spew out amusing quotes while he listened, adoringly, but a change of role wasn't a bad idea, he thought.

Gayathri considered it, before nodding. No smile, however. "I think so too. I'm just worried, if…"

"Don't worry about a thing, Gayathri," Manny said, taking both of his girlfriend's hands, grasping them softly. He saw that she looked a little flustered at his somewhat bold move, but she didn't exactly pull away. Perhaps it was a good thing – it would show her that people around her really cared for her. "You _need_ this. Whatever that will happen, we'll manage, okay? So don't worry."

Gayathri looked down, particularly at their intertwined fingers, studying them as if they were the most interesting sight in the world. A dark gray Jeep slowed down before his house, and Manny saw Gayathri's family inside of it. Anding was driving, his mother in the passenger seat, while Gayathri's own parents were seating behind. It was a car Gayathri's family had rented, until the damage on their own car was fixed. The tinted window on the back seat slid down, and Gayathri's mother's face was seen by it. She smiled at Manny, and gave her own daughter a perceptible nod.

Again flustered, she let go of their hands, but gave her boyfriend an apologetic look. A glimmer of a smile soon followed. "I'll call you when I reach there."

Manny smiled back. "I'll wait for it."

He thought that he'd heard a hint of elatedness in her voice. _Was that a smile I see on her?_ He wasn't sure, especially when Gayathri was quick to turn around as her mother opened the backseat's door for her from the inside. She climbed in and closed the door, waving at him through the open window as the Jeep drove off. It made a turn towards the main road before disappearing out of sight. Manny sighed to himself, hoping that Gayathri would find peace of mind, in order to really move on.

He also hoped that nothing would wreck Gayathri's trip, which was why he'd kept Opie's presence in his household a secret from Gayathri. That would only remind her of the friend she had lost, who was also for a very brief period, an Honorary DigiWira. Debbie being an Honorary was not confirmed yet, but from the way she clung to Opie, it would seem very likely. He remembered Gayathri mentioning that both Lalamon and Lopmon had taken a liking on Dina and Bel, respectively, several days prior to the accident. The Saintly Siblings both wanted to be with Alisha and Abu for _weeks_ before they regained their latent memories and officially became partnered to the affianced couple.

_Same patterns,_ Manny thought with unease.

xxx

xxx

Astamon powered up as Shawujinmon watched on. The Majin General was glowing with black and purple aura which rippled about him as he slowly rose towards the sky. The dark aura soon consumed the general before a digivolution sphere surrounded him wholly. Shawujinmon saw something new, despite having seen this advancement before. Usually, the digivolved form of Astamon would emerge as a dark leathered, wingless demon lord, but this time there were several remarkable differences.

A single pair of black, feathery wings first erupted from the digivolution sphere this time around, before the sphere dissipated and the digivolved Astamon, or rather, _Beelzemon_, appeared. Besides the wings that gave him the appearance of a fallen angel rather than just a biker demon, Beelzemon also possessed a new weapon embedded on his right arm. Another notable difference was his eyes; Shawujinmon thought that Beelzemon possessed three red eyes, but this time they were green with evil.

"I did it!" Beelzemon proclaimed proudly. "I've managed to siphon the data I absorbed from that angel bitch, and the results are these babies."

Beelzemon flapped his large wings once, and several feathers escaped the wings and flew amidst the winds. He raised his powerful blaster, eyeing them with interest. His long reptilian tail swished in excitement as he realized the degree of power he now possessed with this new weapon, and the regained flight ability. His previous mode had lacked the wings and the weapon, and though he was fairly a powerful demon lord, Lucemon had been able to beat him. Now, however, he wasn't so sure. D'Arcmon's powers were surprisingly vast for a mere Champion.

"Admit it, they're wicked!" he said upon descending over his comrade. A smug grin escaped his mouth.

"It is quite an advancement," Shawujinmon agreed, sounding as he usually was –_ bored._ Or apparently sounded like that; Shawujinmon knew that while Beelzemon would take the comment as it was, he couldn't fool himself into thinking that he wasn't the least impressed with Beelzemon's new power up. Beelzemon had complained a lot when he lost his wings upon digivolving to Mega, thus losing his ability to fly, but so what? At least he didn't have to be a giant crocodile. Not that Shawujinmon was complaining; Leviamon packed even more power than his current form or JumboGamemon, the form he and his comrade had shared once via DNA digivolving together.

"With these power ups, I can handle all the Wira Digital by myself!" Beelzemon declared. He pointed his blaster towards an oval structure that was barely visible from the distance. "Watch me destroy the Megalith Coliseum, which I'd say is about… forty to fifty miles from here._ Death Slinger!"_

The blaster on Beelzemon's right arm generated a purple energy sphere, and with one inclined gesture of his arm, the sphere was launched at top speed towards the Megalith Coliseum. A few seconds went by, before the sphere made contact with the building. The sky seemed to blacken just a fraction of second before the whole coliseum exploded.

"Ha! Love this baby," Beelzemon said, laughing heartily.

At this, Shawujinmon frowned. "Don't get cocky. Your power might have elevated to a real demon lord's status, but Belphemon and Daemon had both been powerful. I reckon your power now stands at equal ground with any of them."

"Ah, I don't intend to fight them anyway. Just Puspamon, seeing that she's managed to gather that much power to blast us away that day," said Beelzemon. Suddenly his body convulsed, and his wings vanished, followed by his blaster. His green eyes turned blood red. "Crap! Blasted bitch," he muttered, as a woman's voice echoed in his head.

'_Don't even think that I'm going to let you use my power so freely!'_

His body started again, and he devolved back into Astamon. "Why don't you just act dead like you're supposed to?!" he yelled.

'_Oh, but I'm not dead! Far from it. You'll be sorry you did this to me!'_

Shawujinmon clucked his beak. "Looks like until you've got her under full control, we're going to have to stay back."

"I'll get it right soon," growled Astamon. He winced, as the voice in his mind practically screamed at him.

'_Don't be too sure. You've killed my partner, demon! I might not be alive anymore, but by doing this you've given me an opportunity to thwart your evil attempt against the Wira Digital!'_

Noting Astamon's struggle, Shawujinmon frowned again. Astamon had confided to him earlier about D'Arcmon's will lingering within him, at times restricting his own resolve.

"Maybe you should seek Lucemon's help for that," he suggested. "He does have psychic power, and your problem seems to be related with the mind. I've always thought of it being too troublesome, absorbing deleted Digimon's data – it's like a problematic DNA digivolution, only much worse."

"Don't remind me," grumbled Astamon. He inclined his chin up slightly, away from Shawujinmon's gaze. "Ya hear that?" No reply; he'd spoken to the voice in his head. He relished upon the sudden silence of the voice in his mind. Turning his eyes back to his friend, he grinned. "I might do just that, Shawujinmon. Thanks for the idea."

xxx

xxx

Valdurmon watched as the Megalith Coliseum exploded. Smokes and debris ensued, but he was at a safe distance high up over the sky. Turning his head back he observed the retreating Majin and Kappa Generals, narrowing his eyes.

_Four days have passed, _Valdurmon thought, watching as the smokes underneath clearing,_ and no sign of Valkyrimon anywhere. Is he really dead?_

It couldn't be, he concluded. Valkyrimon was strong, even when he was an Ultimate. It would take more than one Mega and two Ultimates to take him down. _But not a fire-based Digimon, and that explosion I saw the other day was no Ultimate's attack. But Aldiyamon doesn't have fire-based power, or have we been misinformed? Yet, his signal… _

He had picked up a very faint trace from his comrade that day, after the explosion. It was an ability they both shared – the ability to sense each other's presence. Valkyrimon's signal was weak after the explosion, so weak that Valdurmon had almost missed it, after the explosion. He'd thought that Valkyrimon had simply chosen to retreat to the Digital World, but upon arriving here the signal had vanished completely. He had searched high and low for Valkyrimon, but without a link to the humanoid Avian Shine, his search was fruitless. He hadn't had the chance to return to the human's world just yet, but after four days of failed searching, he was willing to give it another go.

"I suppose you've searched enough," said a wizened voice, which made Valdurmon turned around in surprise. He hadn't expected, nor had he heard, the other Digimon's presence behind him.

"Shaman General," he acknowledged, bowing slightly at the smaller being before him. It might look ridiculous, but Valdurmon had seen Doumon's truest Mega form, and it was a form that would be able to bring his fall without much effort. "I've searched high and low for Valkyrimon, but couldn't find him yet," he admitted, feeling more at ease. Doumon gave him the impression of being willing to listen, as opposed to Astamon and Shawujinmon who were more interested in what the Avian Shines had to offer.

"Maybe he has indeed passed on," suggested Doumon.

"I don't believe he is gone," said Valdurmon. "I knew I've sensed him that day. Back at the human's world, the signal was faint, but it was there. Here, it's gone completely."

"So, you're saying that you want to return to the human's world?"

"I…" Valdurmon narrowed his eyes. Doumon sounded as if he wanted to assist, which made him suspicious. What would this general want in return? He had to know. "What's the catch?"

"Simple," said Doumon. "The Avian Shines have always held my interest, even from way back to three hundred years ago. It amazes me still of how those buffoons were able to locate you, and they were also able – foolishly, I suppose, but able nonetheless – to empower you to Mega form, at the risk of their own powers which have by now recovered. My end of this simple bargain is in fact, very simple." He eyed Valdurmon knowingly. "Need I speak of this out loud?"

_That's all? Well, better he than those two. _Valdurmon got the message. "You want us to serve you instead of them?"

"I've always known the Avian Shines to be as smart as they are powerful," answered Doumon cryptically, as with a wave of his hand, a giant paintbrush jutted out from within his long sleeves. He grasped the shaft of the brush tight, and with one elegant gesture and a call of _"Demon Gate Escape!"_ an oval portal was created. "Go now, and return as my servants."

It didn't take Valdurmon long to consider the offer. He flapped his wings, and flew into the portal, thus sealing the deal.

xxx

xxx

"Wait, let me get this straight," said JD, as he leaned across the back of the chair. He gazed at Manny who was sitting opposite of him with incredulity and amusement both at the same time, "your sister actually named him based from _me?_ From orange Penguinmon she got _Opie?_"

"She says it herself," Manny answered, tearing a piece of flatbread – the _roti canai_ – in his plate, dipped it in the small bowl of dhal curry which accompanied the dish, before placing it in his mouth.

He had called the other DigiWira for a small meeting after coming back from church, wanting to discuss about Opie's sudden arrival at his household the previous day. They had chosen to meet at a famous modernized mamak café which was situated rather close by Liu Ying's family's hair salon, so that the girl would be able to join them for the meet, having helping her mother at the busy salon on every Sunday. When he'd arrived there Liu Ying was already waiting for him. JD arrived just ten minutes after he'd arrived, while Adam couldn't make it, having agreed to follow his sister and future brother-in-law for a lunch meeting with Abu's family at one restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

Both Manny and Liu Ying saw that JD was in quite a good mood this afternoon. Quite a good mood meant that he wasn't dark and brooding as they had always seen him at school lately. Manny knew perfectly the reason why, but Liu Ying was still in the dark. And JD must have noticed them wondering, before gesturing at his crimson jersey, remarking that it was a parting gift from Adam when he moved out from his house, adding that wearing it placated his dark mannerism. If the other two DigiWira thought that it was odd reasoning, they didn't question it.

"What I don't get is why you sounded so worried about this Opie joining your family," said JD. "Since he's a dead ringer for Penguinmon, who knows, maybe your sister will end up being partnered to him."

Manny swallowed his food before answering JD. A troubled look crossed his face. "That's what I'm afraid of. It's not that I don't like Opie, although Penguinmon seems to hate him…but after what's happened with Bel and D'Arcmon…" It was then that he was glad that neither Gayathri nor Dina was here with them; the remark he'd made would accidentally set them off – they'd be crying again.

"And…?" Liu Ying asked, and sipped her iced lemon tea while tilting her head slightly, having seated beside Manny.

"I'm just worried that the same thing might happen to Debbie."

The girl raised her eyebrow. "Why did you come up with such conclusion?"

"Yeah," said JD. "Isn't it too early for that?"

"It's not just because of that," admitted Manny. "Debbie's still so young. She's only six. I can't have her joining Digimon battles like us."

"Point number one," JD agreed. "But you're forgetting one thing – your sister isn't even chosen, yet. She hasn't got a Digivice, which means she's not a DigiWira. For all we know, that Opie guy might just like to stick around at your house, free food and all. Heard your mom's a good cook?"

"Not the point," Liu Ying cut in. "But, JD's right about the first thing he's said. Debbie _hasn't_ been chosen."

"Isn't there any way I can be sure that they won't be partnered, instead of waiting for it to happen?"

Silence, with the exception of the various conversations from the café's other patrons, which couldn't account for their current moment to be silence.

"Well," said JD, finishing up his first roti canai and now was tearing a piece from his second one, "you can always murder Opie. Then it's a done deal," he remarked casually.

"JD!" Liu Ying practically gasped in shock. "What a morbid idea!"

The blonde shrugged. "Chill. I'm just saying, okay. Still, that's one way to confirm it."

"Not gonna happen, though," said Manny glumly. "Debbie's fond of Opie. I can't do that to her. Not that I want to, either. Opie's quite okay…"

"So stop worrying," snapped JD, beginning to sound impatient. "What's so hard about it? If she's partnered to that Opie, you can always look out for 'em. Just cross the bridge when you get there." While saying that, his face had darkened considerably. He saw Liu Ying staring at him, and grunted before focusing his attention back on his meal.

Manny however got the message. JD wasn't only talking about Debbie and Opie. Manny could practically feel the frustration that was beginning to radiate from JD.

It was then he noticed that JD wasn't in a good mood at all – he had cleverly masked it, and had diverted their attention by making Manny talk about Opie. The slow-burning anger that he could see from the way JD's chest heaved up and down, as well as the way his eyes were contorted, sorely reminded him that by now JD only have two weeks left before the cursed tattoo would take its effect.

_JD's worried about the death curse on him, and I'm dumping him my worries over a decent visitor to our house,_ Manny thought, feeling awful. _No wonder he's irked. _

"Am I missing something here?" asked Liu Ying, shifting her gazes between the two boys. She rolled her eyes when none replied to her.

The girl had clearly seen JD's shift of mood, and how Manny seemed as if he understood what was going on. It was obvious that something was bothering JD, and her attempts to make JD tell her of his problem was always being brushed off. She recalled how JD had told her _not_ to ask any other DigiWira about what could be troubling him. She'd thought that perhaps Adam knew about it, but from the way Manny reacted, it was clear to her now.

_Manny knows something, _she decided,_ no doubt about that._

"Nothing." JD stood up, and looked down upon his two teammates. "If there's nothing else, I'm leaving. Manny…" He merely glared down at the spike-haired boy, watching the boy squirmed slightly. His one word was enough to convey what he really wanted to say, without having to say it. Then, with a grunt he walked towards the counter to pay for his tab.

Liu Ying looked at Manny, clearly confused. "What was that all about?"

"You…you tell me." Manny didn't dare look directly into Liu Ying's eyes, fearing that the girl might know that he was lying.

Liu Ying regarded him for a moment, seeing through his lie but chose not to call for it. She didn't have the chance to, however, when a familiar squawk echoed the sky outside. That instantly caused people to shot up from their seats, no longer relaxed, and those who were sitting outside scrambled in, panicked.

_That sounds awfully familiar,_ Liu Ying thought, having heard the same squawk just days before.

A couple of panicking people bumped into JD, earning a rude remark from the blonde. While other people ran inside the café, he pushed past them to get outside. The other two DigiWira abandoned their unfinished meals to join JD outside, while the café owner was too terrified to ask them to come inside, fearing for her own life. A few workers called out for them to come inside, but they paid no heed for them. Then the café was closed – the rails were pulled from above, blocking the entrance before they slammed onto the floor. This was echoed by the nearby shops.

The people of this town had perhaps grown accustomed to Digimon attack; there was barely anyone outside save for the three DigiWira. But to be safe, they made their way towards an isolated path in-between two blocks of building, glancing up as a huge shadow passed over them.

With no one around the nearby vicinity, the DigiWira released their Digimon partners.

"Valdurmon doesn't seem to be attacking," Labramon noted, observing as the Avian Shine flew over the buildings peculiarly. He was flying away from the buildings and circled over houses. Cars skidded to a halt and people screamed, but Valdurmon didn't attack them.

"It looks like he is searching for something," said Agumon, watching the bird's action curiously. "I wonder what?"

JD snorted. "Who cares what he's doing! He's a threat, and we need to stop 'em!"

They quickly Digital Accessed into their Wira Digital forms, and chased after Valdurmon, with Xianamon in the lead for she was the flight-capable one. She managed to slow down Valdurmon by deploying her Magical Stasis, but the Avian Shine shook it off quite easily before screeching in anger.

"You!" He glared at his three opponents, and flapped his wings which glowed with white light. _"Purge Shine!"_

xxx

xxx

"It's a good thing you decided to come to me," said Lucemon, eyeing the somewhat strained Astamon. A cold smirk crossed his face as he folded his arms over his chest. "I've sensed dual presences in your mind since you got back that day, but you never told any of us of the reason. I thought you've got it under control."

There was sarcasm masked under those words, but Astamon paid no heed to it. At least, now he wasn't going to be bothered with D'Arcmon's essence inside of his mind. It had been one hour since he'd come to Lucemon for assistance, and whatever Lucemon had done to him, it had left him thoroughly wiped out.

"What did you do, actually?"

"Simple," said Lucemon. "I've erected a series of psychic barriers in your mind to block D'Arcmon. That should stop her from…_haunting_ you."

"Can't you just destroy her? That'll be a surefire way to get rid of her for good."

"The only way for you to be rid of her permanently is by releasing her data out, so that she could be reconfigured. That's the messy part of data absorption, especially when it was done unwillingly. Just be grateful that you're at a level higher than her; should a Rookie absorbed her," Lucemon's eyes flashed, "she would dominate its mind, and it would lose its sanity."

"Release her data? Not a chance. She's a strong one, and pretty compatible. I've got wings and a cool blaster because of her!"

"Then just be thankful that I've done what I've done to you," Lucemon returned coldly. "The psychic barriers would stop her from harassing you verbally, but with her inside of you, you'll still be able to channel her powers. It's the best deal you could've got. And now, leave me be. I've got other pressing matters to attend to."

Astamon was about to pay heed to Lucemon's advice, when he noticed that inside the large underground chamber of the Onyx Pyramid where they were at right now, they weren't alone. He was sure that Doumon, Shawujinmon and Persiamon weren't there with them – he had encountered them while on his way to look for Lucemon down there. He felt several other presences inside the dark hall, and could have sworn that he saw four pairs of chillingly dark eyes staring at him from within the shadows. Hardly anyone than the master could make him squirm, but Astamon soon found some other exceptions.

Shivering, he left the underground hall as quickly as he could. Whatever Lucemon was up to, he felt that it was better off for him not knowing.

xxx

xxx

Valdurmon observed his foes fell towards the ground upon being slammed with the force of his Aurora Undulation. Really, he thought. How could these three weaklings hope that they could defeat him? They might have the advantage in numbers, but he wielded powers greater than any of them. He watched as the sole female enemy of his replicated herself, forming a blue-clad twin, and charged together towards him. Remembering them being a force to be reckoned with while together, he struck them with a heavy blow of Aurora Undulation once again, enjoying in seeing the blue-clad female vanished in burst of data, while the golden one was pushed back towards the ground. The less-armored male in blue then charged, forming water pillars which did no harm against him for he could easily avoid them, but when two azure thunderbolts charged upon him Valdurmon counter-struck with a blast of focused light. The thunder powers didn't stand a chance. Squawking in anger, his concentration on finding his comrade disrupted, Valdurmon decided to make quick work out of this merman.

"_Aurora Undulation!"_ The blast slammed upon the merman's chest, and he fell towards the ground. He didn't crash-land; the sorceress had managed to slow down his fall.

_The signal is close,_ Valdurmon thought, finally locking in the signal he was searching for. It was faint, but it was there. Wherever he was, Valkyrimon was certainly close by. Valdurmon didn't, and couldn't, understand why the signal was very weak. _He must be gravely injured._

A ferocious snarl as well as the increasing temperature alerted him that he was not yet done with the Wira Digital. He saw a fiery red dragon and a blazing black serpent coiling towards him, coming from the ground below. He flared with multicolored radiance before charging towards the dragon and serpent, slashing them with his talons before blasting the warrior in red with another Aurora Undulation.

He didn't expect however, when Satriamon pushed through the blast of light, body fully ignited with raw flames. From the flames a dragon unlike the one he'd seen before – larger, more ferocious, more powerful – snaked past the fiery Wira Digital and clawed upon him squarely on his chest. The Avian Shine let out a shriek in pain, the pristine white feathers on his chest scorched to black, before it was torn by three sharp daggers – the claws of Satriamon's gauntlet. Snarling, he aimed to kick Satriamon, before another thought crossed his mind. Instead, he grabbed hold on the fire warrior with his talons, and watched as Satriamon screamed in rage, while he charged up his Aurora Undulation.

_A focused, point-blank Aurora Undulation will strip him off his power for sure,_ he thought evilly, and unleashed his attack.

xxx

xxx

Samudramon and Xianamon saw what was about to happen to Satriamon, and let out a unified scream in fear of their friend. They were both injured, but none had been at a point-blank range of Valdurmon's most powerful technique. Satriamon was in grave danger. A blinding ensued and Satriamon's howl echoed.

It was at that time, that both of them snapped. They quickly rose back to their feet, and without thinking they called up every bit of strength they had left. Blue and golden aura coalesced around them as they felt something pulling them away from the ground. They hovered a few meters from it, and saw two shadows, bigger and more impressive, flew past their bodies. Thunders like Samudramon had never seen before was unleashed by the shadow wrapped in blue aura, while a storm of magical power with thousands of jewelry-based projectiles was released from the long-haired, lithe shadow that was hidden within the golden aura; Xianamon thought that this attack was even more potent than the Diamond Matrix Mandala.

The attacks streamed together side-by-side before blasting Valdurmon away towards the sky, pushing him higher and higher towards the heavens before a deafening explosion ensued.

The shadows vanished. Xianamon rushed past Samudramon upon noticing two figures falling from the sky. Generating her telekinetic power she balanced both the unconscious JD and Agumon, and grabbed hold on them. The two of them were evidently injured, but it was nothing that she couldn't fix. She headed towards an abandoned playground, where the trees and shrubs were able to conceal them from others. Samudramon propelled himself with his waters, following her.

As she laid them on the ground, her eyes landed on a mysterious tattoo on JD's chest – his shirt was half-ripped, body wounded in blisters, all fortunately were superficial. Yet the tattoo intrigued her; she hadn't seen it before. JD stirred, and winced in pain as Xianamon saw the eyes of the cat tattoo flared in crimson. She saw JD writhing in pain, and shot up, eyes wild and terrified both. She was about to assure JD that he was alright, but was dumbstruck when JD's writhing only grew worse.

"Oh, no…" She looked behind, and saw Samudramon mouth-opened, staring fearfully at JD.

"_Diamond World Mandala,"_ she whispered, placing a firm hand on JD's chest, over the tattoo. To her surprise, while the wounds on JD's body healed, a sharp feline yowl was heard and a ghostly apparition of a cat took form, and slashed her hand, forcing her to draw it away. As she did that the cat dissolved into smokes, and the tattoo glowed crimson as it absorbed the smokes. Her magical healing power managed to heal the scratch mark on her hand, as well as the rest of the wound on JD's body, but the tattoo remained intact. JD's writhing stopped, and his breaths evened as sweat poured out from his face and body profusely. To Xianamon's relief, he opened his eyes again.

JD saw Xianamon looking at him with concern, and Samudramon standing behind the kneeling sorceress. _Shit…she saw everything!_

"JD, what's _that_?" Xianamon asked, her voice quivering. _This is it,_ she thought, her heart racing as she put two and two together,_ this is the thing that's been causing him pain. I'm sure of it. But…what is it?_

JD pulled away from Xianamon, and realized that his secret was out. He then looked down at his ripped jersey. His face hardened, darkening into slow-burning fury. "Ah, crap! Adam gave me this jersey! What the hell am I going to say to him now that it's ripped! Blasted birdbrain…"

"Don't change the subject, JD. Out with it. What is that tattoo doing on your body?"

JD considered the question, and looked at Samudramon. "She saw everything," the merman said quietly as he devolved into Manny and Penguinmon. Manny hesitated, before telling him, "I think…maybe you should tell her." The last bit of his words sounded like he was pleading.

"No kidding." There was no escaping Xianamon's question this time, he thought. "Fine," he said. "It's a cursed tattoo that Persiamon gave me."

Xianamon let out a soft gasp. "Cursed? What…what does it do?"

"And I thought you're observant," muttered JD. Xianamon scowled. JD would have smiled, if it weren't for his current situation. "It causes me pain whenever I exert myself too much."

Everything clicked together to Xianamon, as she devolved into her composite selves. They remembered the bouts of pain JD displayed whenever the fight got too intense for him. "When did you get it?" Liu Ying croaked. In her surprise, she couldn't recall the first time she'd seen JD in pain.

"After the fight at the hospital, when Adam was admitted there after that bitch made me injure him." JD practically snarled the answer out. That was still a sore spot in his mind, having hurt his cousin-cum-sworn little brother. It was why Karatenmon and Persiamon were both at the top of his hate-list – they had made him injure Adam. Karatenmon had been killed, and he'd make sure that Persiamon would suffer as well. _If it's the last thing I ever do._

"That long ago? Why didn't you tell us?" Liu Ying then realized that Manny knew about it. Did anyone else know about it too? Was she the only one who'd been in the dark about this? "How come Manny knows about it?"

Manny looked surprised at this inquiry, especially when JD shot him a deadly look. "I didn't tell anyone, despite how much I want to," he said. JD considered it, before looking back at Liu Ying.

"Don't feel too special about it. Knowing this would be a burden to you. This is precisely why I didn't tell anybody else, except TobuCatmon and the three ladies. And Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat."

"That doesn't sound like 'not telling anybody' to me!" Liu Ying shot Manny a look. "How come he knows?"

"By accident, just like you did," said JD evenly. "That was when you, Gayathri and Adam were sent back to the 1500s."

"Why did you choose to tell TobuCatmon, the ladies, and Tuah and Jebat…but not us?" She glared at JD, her eyes glazed with what looked like hurt.

JD scowled. "I told TobuCatmon because I thought that his usual healing potion would take the tattoo off my chest! I told the ladies because Ophanimon had healing powers far greater than you when you're Xianamon, and still she _failed_ to take this thing off me! Rosemon confirmed that it was a deadly poison, and D'Arcmon predicted its outcome via her premonition power! I went to Tuah and Jebat because they had that weird meditative healing skill, and Tuah managed to inhibit the tattoo from causing me pain…until that goat-dragon freak took that away, hence the pains again!"

"So…so you're saying that you're cursed with this permanently?" Liu Ying gazed at JD's eyes – she saw them anguished more than angry. "Forever?"

JD gave them a hollow laugh. "Forever? I'd give _anything_ for forever, even in pain!" His laugh turned bitter that it was scaring Liu Ying and Manny. Abruptly, his laughs stopped, and he looked forlorn again. "Forever doesn't last longer than two weeks," he said in a defeated voice.

Liu Ying's eyes widened. "What? What did you mean by that?"

"It means that in two week's time, when the full moon appears again," he paused, gazing at the now-clear sky, "I'll be _dead_."

"What? No…" Liu Ying blinked back tears as the deadliness of JD's condition struck her hard. "How come…how could you say that knowing this would be a burden to us, JD?" she demanded. "You're our friend. I know you personally think of Adam as your own brother, but…all of us, we've been through a lot, we're practically a family…like siblings..."

"You're the last person I want to consider as my sibling," JD said flatly.

Liu Ying was taken aback by that harsh comment, but soon saw the hidden meaning of it. For a moment, she was at loss of words. She took a deep breath, trying to alleviate her rapidly-beating heart, and persisted, "Still, don't you think we deserved to know about it?"

JD looked away. "I stand by what I've said – I don't want to burden you."

"He means the cure for the curse…." Manny stopped when JD shot him a deadly glare. Liu Ying however looked at him questioningly.

"Manny, enough."

"Cure? There's a cure for the curse?"

Manny didn't see the point of concealing the secret about the tattoo anymore. He'd felt long ago that every DigiWira should be made known about JD's condition. It was a heavy weight on his shoulders, having to carry this secret alone. He'd longed for the time when he could discuss the curse with the others.

He ignored JD's glare. "I found out about it when I traveled to the alternate dimension. There I asked the good Persiamon about it, and she said…"

"The only way to cure this curse is by making another receive it, thus dying in my place!" JD interrupted harshly.

Silence prevailed. Liu Ying paled upon hearing it. She looked down for a moment, her thoughts racing.

"I…maybe I can talk to…the Deputy Prime Minister about it," she stuttered. She didn't like suggesting this, but she wanted to save JD. She couldn't let JD die like this. "We can get a convict facing death sentence…to take your place. We'll tell him we're the Wira Digital…he'll help us, surely…"

At this, JD's face turned wistful. "You don't want to do that, Liu Ying."

"I want to save you!"

"It's not that simple. That won't work."

"But…you've said…."

"The receiver must be_ willing_ to take the curse. If there's just one bit of hesitance in him or her, the curse won't be transferred," said Manny, reciting what the alternate Persiamon had said. Then he sighed, looking at JD. The blonde resignedly nodded, seeing that there was no use in keeping this hidden any more. "And…it must be done out of love so unconditional, that the person's ready to take the curse for the one that's cursed, despite knowing what the curse would do to him or her. Another part to seal the deal is that…the one who agrees to do it must know about it. It won't work in accidental attempts."

"Now you see why I don't want to tell anyone about it?" JD said softly at both Manny and Liu Ying. "Now you know…it's a heavy burden to know about this. The curse's practically unbreakable."

A tear escaped Liu Ying's eyes. "Isn't there any other way to…?"

"Believe me, if there is another way, I'll be the first who'll go chase it down."

"Won't…won't killing Persiamon lift the curse? It always works like that…"

"In fairytales, yes," JD said grimly, inclining his head towards Manny.

Manny's eyes were glistening as well. "I've asked good Persiamon that, too. She said it would probably only give the cursed person a sense of peace before he died. Nothing more. She knows of no other way to lift the curse completely, without inflicting death on the cursed or the one who'd take his place."

"It's not fair…" A sob escaped Liu Ying's throat.

"Life's not fair sometimes, I've come to know that personally," said JD, his tone low. Then he gazed at both Liu Ying and Manny, his intense eyes burning into theirs. "Secrets seem to have ways to get leaked, but I beg of you, spare Adam and my family from this info. They're the direct people I could think off that would fit the curse-transfer's requirement – the only thing that's keeping them off from doing so is by not knowing about it. _Please._"

JD's head hung down. Manny and Liu Ying gasped softly when the blond looked back up; a tear escaped his own eyes. Their brash, cocky friend…was shedding a tear? This showed how much JD was affected by this. Liu Ying's quiet sobs increased, yet remained soft as she'd clasped her hand before her mouth. Manny drew a deep breath and looked down. Agumon was slumped on the ground, shedding a tear as well for his partner's predicament. The other Digimon watched in silence.

"I love them," said JD quietly. "I don't want them to die because of me." He then regarded his two friends and his Digimon partner closely, eyeing them with intent. "And I don't want _any_ of you to die for me as well. Can you promise me that?"

"Promises can be broken," Liu Ying choked out.

"You're not making this any easier," said JD, sounding almost affectionate.

The only time Manny or Liu Ying had ever heard JD using that tone was when he conversed with Adam. That only broke their hearts even more. They had both seen how JD reformed, from being a recluse, near-delinquent, to a more stable, somewhat-likable guy though still annoying at times. The thought of losing him soon pained them.

"I'm not giving up on you," said Liu Ying, wiping her tears.

"_We're_ not giving up," Manny concurred. "There must be something we've missed. It's too early to give up."

JD nodded. "I know you won't. That means a lot to me. But, should things don't go our way, remember this…" He squeezed their shoulders. His green-blue eyes twinkled. "I don't blame you."

xxx

xxx

"Josh?" asked Agumon as his partner closed the door of his room, locking it after doing so.

JD turned around. "Yeah, Agumon?"

Agumon gazed at his human partner as he sat down on his cushion by the bed. "I've been thinking of what you've said, back at the park, with the others." He swallowed some saliva nervously. "I'll do it, if no cure's found for you. I'll take your place, so that you can live."

JD's heart skipped a beat. Did he hear the dino right? "Agumon…"

"Wait, Josh. Please listen to me."

JD sat down at the edge of his bed, pulling off his tattered jersey in the process. He saw Agumon winced upon looking at the tattoo, but at the same time, couldn't take his eyes off it. He waited, but the dino showed no sign of talking. JD supposed that he needed some prompting, and cleared his throat.

"Something you want to say, Agumon?"

Agumon blinked, before gazing at his partner's face. "Josh, do you know that wild Digimon are practically immortals?"

"Yeah. So?"

"They can live a long life, and when they got deleted, they'll be reconfigured back into DigiEggs. And the cycle goes on. The reconfigured Digimon, if they're lucky, might regain memories of their previous life," said Agumon, not pulling his eyes off his partner's. "The same however, doesn't apply to us partners."

JD frowned. "What do you mean?"

"All Digimon partners live only as long as their human partners. When the humans die, we also cease to exist," said Agumon, inhaling deeply. "So you see, Josh, should things don't go the way we want…when you die, I'll die too. That's why…if you agree to this, I'll take the curse tattoo in your behalf."

"What? No!" JD gazed at his Digimon partner. "You can't do that."

"Either way, I'll die, Josh," Agumon reiterated. "But my death will be more meaningful, if it's for saving your life."

"But...it needs love, unconditional love, and you..."

Agumon smiled. "That actually is the easy part. You see, Josh; not only your parents, your siblings, Adam, even Bibik when you think about it, love you so much. I too, have unconditional love for you, as all Digimon partners have for their humans. Becoming a partner Digimon is something that many Digimon would say as their true purpose of life. In exchange for the shortened lifespan, our lives will become much more meaningful with a human partner at our side. We'll do _anything_ for our partners, even if it means putting our lives on the line."

"Agumon…"

"I fit the bill, Josh," said Agumon, "probably even better than your family and loved ones. Because unlike humans, we Digimon have a chance to be reconfigured."

The Rookie Digimon stopped, searching for a reaction from his partner. JD seemed interested – he was listening. Agumon continued, "So even if I die, with you still alive there's a glimmer of hope that I'll be reconfigured. Patamon and the Saintly Siblings have been reconfigured, and they regained their past memories." At this, the dino smiled. "Who's to say that I won't get the same chance? I believe, if you want me to come back for you, then I will be back. Maybe not immediately, maybe it'll take years…but we'll be reunited for sure."

JD had never thought about it that way. What Agumon said made perfect sense. Yet, Agumon gave him the impression that this was not a hundred-percent surety. He didn't believe in hopes and dreams, not that much, so it troubled him when his partner was so positive that he'd get reconfigured.

Nonetheless, he was touched that his Digimon partner would put his life in line, just for him. He'd always known Agumon to be so loyal to him, despite his many flaws. Sometimes he wondered why the Digimon stuck with him. He treated his Digimon decently, but he never paid much attention to him. Not as much as Adam doted on Patamon. To him, Agumon was his Digimon partner. To a certain extent, a friend, and a way for him to become Satriamon, but he never really considered Agumon much more than that.

Bending down, he lifted Agumon from his customary spot and placed him at his side, at the edge of the bed. Then, somewhat awkwardly, he embraced his partner, ignoring the dino's surprised gasp, and the fact that his shoulders became damp all of a sudden. The dino was so touched to a point that he was actually crying. He then pulled away, gazing into the dino's green eyes.

"I don't want to lose you, Agumon. I can't lose you. You're important to me. I'll think about what you've said."

"I want to do this, Josh. For you. If there's no other way…" Agumon's snout was gently closed by JD, who smiled at him.

"_If_ there's no other way," JD repeated; his tone final.

xxx

xxx

She watched as the two partners embraced, and smirked in a way that a cat would do. They didn't notice her, but she'd been following them since from the park. She'd relished upon hearing how depressed the boy was about the curse she'd bestowed upon him, and was elated even more when his friends were as affected as he was.

_So I'll have to take care of this Agumon and that white kitten Adam. Not a problem,_ she thought while jumping from the rails, landing on her feet on the driveway of JD's house.

In her guise as a black cat, Persiamon knew she blended well in this human world. She crossed the road, and went behind a tree before transforming back to her true self. Long red hair flowed down her back, yellow trousers resembling an Arabian dancer's appeared and a skimpy leotard wrapped around her torso. She stretched, her tails twitched, causing the rings adorning them to jingle.

"If I take Agumon away from him, then I won't have to worry about anything." She sneered to no one in particular. "Especially when he's so afraid of hurting his dear little cousin…"

She snapped her finger, and an oval gateway formed behind her. With a snicker, she stepped inside the portal.

_I'll be back._

xxx

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_**Author's Notes:**_

This chapter goes way off from the way I intended for it to be. I didn't expect the explanations to lengthen, but seeing as the word count has passed ten thousand already, I feel that I probably should stop here. Lots of things however have been covered; now you know the full gist about the cursed tattoo. And I manage to feature all five Darkshadow generals, as well as foreshadowing a few things that will come later. And it's confirmed; Astamon will become Beelzemon, and Shawujinmon's mega form is Leviamon. I don't know whether this ruins the surprise or not, but most people have guessed their mega forms right. As for that thing with 'Opie'…I think you'll be able to guess of who he really is.

Of course, more explanation in my blog.

As this chapter doesn't work out the way I originally intended it to be, I had to look for a new chapter title. _Things Not Said_ is an episode of Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, as well as related to some other sayings. The PR episode showcases a secret that's been kept from the protagonists for a long time. This chapter deals with some secrets, so I suppose it's quite a fitting chapter title.

Edit: I changed the retreat place from Fraser's Hill to Cameron Highlands. The reason? It's because I can recall more details about Cameron than Fraser's and I don't want to risk wrong information about these famous Malaysian holiday retreat! It's also for a scene for next chapter.


	60. Reflections

Gayathri gazed down the slopes of greenery before her, observing the tea plantation which seemed to stretch over many hills. It was a vast change from the city where she lived in; the greeneries were so soothing to the eyes, complimented only by the breezes that caught her long curly hair. Workers could be seen plucking tea leaves, filling them in the basket they had on their backs. They worked in a relaxed pace, not rushing into anything. A tea-processing factory was within eyesight, humming distinctly.

Her eyes shifted towards the kiosk set up just a few meters by the edge of the slope, where souvenirs and light foods and fruits were sold, though their specialty was fresh-brewed tea. The kiosk also operated as a small café, with several circular cemented tables set up near it. At the table beside her, a Caucasian couple were enjoying their teas and strawberries while enjoying the scenic view; their teenaged son, she presumed, could be seen somewhere within the tea gardens snapping photos. She'd seen them before – they were staying at the apartment hotel where they were, for she'd ran across them during breakfast the previous day and today.

The other table occupied was their own – that consisted of her, Mak Mirah, and Anding who was by the kiosk right now, talking with the young woman who worked there.

She took a sip of her tea, enjoying its warmness as it was a rather chilly afternoon. The sun shone its light upon the lush greenery, but it was pleasant instead of warm as it was at the city. It was however, to be expected of Cameron Highlands, where she was at, and had been, for the past two days.

"How was the tea, dear?" asked Mak Mirah.

"It's fine," said Gayathri absently. "Thanks."

Mak Mirah gave her a perceptive gaze, but didn't say anything else. It was obvious that the girl was not in the mood to talk. Mak Mirah could only wonder when the mood would return.

Away from the city where the tragedy that had taken Bel's life, Gayathri was slowly moving on. It was difficult, but her family was there for her. At times, she was moody and her parents let her to be alone to sort things out, but not without having Anding or Mak Mirah, or both of them altogether, to watch over her from afar. Such example was this day, when her father wanted to go golfing, and her mother wanted to look for some souvenirs. Anding had suggested for him to take his mother and Gayathri for a drive towards the tea plantation sites simply to enjoy the scenery before they'd have lunch together, and her parents had agreed.

_I wonder how's everything back home,_ Gayathri thought as she plucked one fresh strawberry out from the plastic container on the table. So far nothing had gone wrong. She didn't have a chance to watch the news – her parents had insisted that this would be a stress-free vacation for them. They didn't even buy newspapers, but Gayathri had gotten the gist of what was going on from Manny.

Her boyfriend had merely told her that there was trouble, but they had taken cared of it. She thought that there was more to it, from the way he spoke on the phone the previous night he'd called her, but she'd decided to take his word for it for the time being. She'd know eventually when she went back home in another two days.

Dina had messaged her just a few minutes back, wishing her well and that she'd missed her already. They had spoken the previous night as well, before Manny called her. Gayathri was glad that at least one of them was able to move on better than she was. She still sounded sad whenever they talked about Bel – usually it would be a three-way phone conversation between the three of them. Now it had become a regular two-person call. However, Dina didn't cry anymore when Bel was brought up. She suspected that a certain DigiWira leader played a crucial role in this.

Adam in the meantime, had brought the best news she had that day – they had no homework from school. At least, she'd have less homework to complete when she got back. Adam had promised to lend her his notes and _corrected _homework so that she could breeze through them without difficulty.

She supposed she shouldn't worry too much. Her friends had assured her that they'd call her if they really would need her help. She was however, concerned still; though Puspamon was able to inflict serious damages against both Astamon and Shawujinmon that day, they had escaped. Gayathri had no doubt that they would be back later for revenge. She didn't want history to repeat itself – Bel had died, and she was just beginning to come to terms with it.

_Oh, Bel,_ she thought, watching the teen who had been snapping pictures returning to where his parents were seating. She however wasn't actually looking at the boy. Her mind was only on Bel, and how much she was missing her best friend. She was getting better at controlling her emotions, perhaps attributed to the peacefulness of the highland. Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling it, the pain slowly dulled.

The boy saw her gazing at him, and gave her a courteous nod and a smile before taking his seat, his back facing her.

Gayathri was amused._ Bel would've teased me about that now, if she's still around…_

Thinking about her deceased friend now made a small smile appear on her face. _Liu Ying's right,_ she thought, watching as the teen who had been snapping pictures returned to where his parents were seating. _The pain remains…but life has to go on. She can do it, Adam can do it, and Dina is doing her best too. _

"Almost a week has passed since Bel's death," Mak Mirah said with a gentle motherly tone, placing a hand on Gayathri's own hand. "Perhaps it's time for you to resume your normal life, dear. Bel wouldn't want to see you like this."

"I know you're right, Mak Mirah," Gayathri replied softly. She saw the Caucasian boy turning his head back, right when Mak Mirah spoke to her. However upon meeting her gaze, the boy turned away back front, resuming to drink his tea. She decided to ignore it; perhaps the boy was just curious of what they were speaking about. "I'm feeling better now, actually," she told the cook.

"That's good to hear."

The elderly woman studied the girl, one whom she had thought as her own after the years she had spent looking after her in her parents' stead. Gayathri was only a small toddler when she came to work with the Nadarajah family – her maternal grandmother, the one who had taken care of her, had passed away and the busy Nadarajah couple needed someone who could take care of their daughter as well as their house. She took the job after losing her husband in order to support her son, and it was a job she had not regretted to take. She had grown attached to the family, and to the young girl before her. Seeing her looking so subdued made her sad as well.

"I'll be alright," reiterated Gayathri, noticing the long look Mak Mirah was giving her. She was feeling better, but the words didn't come out right from her mouth. It was so easy to see that she was still depressed about it, though it wasn't as bad as before. She stood up and cast a glance towards Anding, who was still by the kiosk. "I'm going to see what's keeping Anding there."

She sauntered off, partly to avoid Mak Mirah questioning her. She noticed the blond boy giving her another look again and frowned.

This time, the boy didn't look away. He was looking at her and directly into her eyes too, as if trying to discern what she was thinking. His expression was of curious wonder. It made her uncomfortable, since the boy was a stranger.

_What's his problem?_ Gayathri grumbled inwardly, and turned away.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 60 – Reflections **_

xxx

xxx

"Hey, I knew it. We do live in the same hotel."

Gayathri looked up from the magazine she was reading, and saw the same boy who had been staring at her back at the tea plantations. He was grinning at her so widely that she thought that his face would split in half if he remained grinning for another minute. Then, without even asking he took a seat on the chair beside her, much to her annoyance.

It was only natural for him to turn up at the same place where she was at this time of the day. It was warm enough at the hotel's indoor swimming pool for people to swim. The pool had mainly attracted children and teens her age, but Gayathri didn't feel like swimming. She didn't however feel like staying in her room. Her parents had gone antiquing, and Anding and Mak Mirah had gone out to buy dinner from other restaurants – her father had said that he'd gotten tired of the hotel's foods and wanted to try other things.

Taking note of his very blond hair and cerulean eyes, Gayathri relaxed. Perhaps the boy - a foreigner - was lonely and just wanted to strike up a conversation with her, seeing that they had met before.

Apparently, judging by the boy's attire – which consisted of a long-sleeved gray shirt under a red sweater vest, and a pair of dark gray khakis shorts – he wasn't going to swim either. Her eyes stopped short, and narrowed when they saw a familiar-looking device clipped on his belt.

_A D-4 Digivice?_ Instantly, her annoyance evaporated. If this foreigner had a Digivice, then that must mean that he was a DigiDestined too.

"Sorry," said the boy, extending his hand towards her. "I'm Willis. Willis J. Johnson, from Colorado, America. Friends call me Willis, or Will."

Gayathri took his hand, and shook it once before letting go. "Gayathri. I'm from…Kuala Lumpur." Thinking that this foreign DigiDestined wouldn't have any idea of her hometown's name, she decided to just say that she was from the nation's capital.

Willis nodded, grinning. "Pleasure to meet you, Gayathri."

"Same here," said Gayathri politely. She wondered whether to reveal her identity to Willis. The DigiWira were very well-known in Malaysia. If Willis is a DigiDestined, then he might already know of her. He might reveal her to the public, who was in the dark. She wasn't looking forward to that – this retreat was the thing she needed to recuperate from her recent emotional trauma.

Willis leaned in closer to her, and she was at first inclined to pull away, before he whispered, "Hey…I know about you. My Digimon partner tells me that there's another DigiDestined staying here."

Gayathri froze. Then she shot Willis a suspicious look.

The boy in return gave her an assuring smile. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna rat you out to everyone. If I were you I'd like some privacy too." He contemplated on what to say next, before clearing his throat, and said, "How about we get some sandwiches from the hotel café and step out to the secluded part of the hotel garden near that fountain?"

Gayathri scowled. Willis raised his hands in a surrender-like gesture.

"Hey, relax. I'm not gonna do anything to you. Do I look like a jerk to you?"

_If you are, then I have no qualms in blasting you with my supersonic scream,_ thought Gayathri. She actually gave Willis a look-over once again, now noticing that he was tall, slightly on the thin side and was somewhat good-looking. _Not as handsome as JD_, she thought wryly, _but definitely quite an attention-grabber himself._ _Bel would've loved to get to know you._

Willis lowered his hands. He looked at her hopefully. "I just want to talk with a fellow DigiDestined, and we can introduce our partners to each other. We can't do it here, and Terriermon's been dying to get out from the Digivice. He doesn't like it in there."

"Terriermon?"

"My partner. So…how about it?"

"Hmm…"

"Come on. I admit,_ I'm_ dying to talk with someone my age. My mom and step-dad are both out exploring the town and I didn't feel like joining them, because I planned to look for you. From what I heard at the tea garden this afternoon…" Willis gazed into Gayathri's eyes. "You sound like you need someone to talk with, too."

"Oh, so you were eavesdropping!"

"Hey, chill!" Willis raised his hands in the surrender-gesture again. "I just caught some bits of it. Didn't know what you and your…umm…aunt?"

"No. Try cook and caregiver."

"Cook and caregiver, huh? You must be pretty rich," commented Willis. Gayathri scowled again. "Hey, I'm just saying. Me and my folks live in a farm back at Colorado. My step-dad's involved in agricultural stuffs, but I won't bore you with the details." He smiled again. "Anyway, how 'bout it?"

Gayathri considered Willis's offer. The magazine she was reading was an old one, and pretty boring anyway. She supposed that a company of one her age might be the thing she needed. And it was a plus that Willis was a DigiDestined too; she could talk more freely with him, and she had the feeling that Willis might want to grind a lot of information from her about the Malaysian DigiDestined.

"Alright."

"Really? Cool. Hey, tell you what? The sandwiches are my treat."

Gayathri smiled. "Be my guest."

Ten minutes later, they walked along the flower bushes which trailed towards a lush forest behind the hotel, following the tracks provided. Willis had been right – there was no one else. It wasn't a holiday season, and it was also a usual tourist season when she thought of it. The air was fresh outside; the late afternoon was a bit warmer and they had about one and a half hour before dusk.

Gayathri released Floramon. Willis whistled. "Pretty. Like her partner, I have to say."

She scowled at him; Willis turned out to be quite a charmer. And she didn't like it.

"It's a compliment, Gayathri," said Willis and reached out for his Digivice. He released his partner, and suddenly heard Gayathri and Floramon gasps. His arm was clutched tight, and he saw Gayathri looking somewhat shocked.

Seeing Terriermon reminded her greatly of Lopmon, and that triggered a chain reaction of bad memories once more. She wasn't aware that she'd been clutching Willis's arm, nor did she realize that tears were trickling down her eyes. Her knees grew weak.

"What's wrong with her, Willis?" asked Terriermon.

Willis shrugged. Gayathri let go of his arm, and was wiping her tears. He frowned. "Is everything okay, Gayathri?"

Gayathri sighed as she managed to calm down. She thought she was able to control her emotions now, but seeing Terriermon – who resembled Lopmon a great deal, except for his cream fur and light green linings, as well as one horn – had crumbled the wall of defense she'd been constructing in her mind. Looking at Willis and Terriermon, she supposed she owed them an explanation.

Willis gestured towards a nearby bench. They sat there, and Gayathri told him about what happened and the reason for her sudden emotional outburst. All the while, Willis listened without interrupting, though his face had darkened considerably as well. What Gayathri had gone through reminded him of what _he'd_ gone through.

"Hey, listen," said Willis, after Gayathri had done telling him the story. "I'm sorry for your loss. I didn't know. But I can say that now that I know, I can relate with you."

"Really?"

"Uh huh. Actually, Terriermon here once got a twin. Had he digivolved normally, he'd have become Lopmon, just like your late friend's partner."

Gayathri's curiosity was piqued. "What happened?"

Willis cast a faraway look towards the hills visible from in between the trees. "He got infected with a virus, and was driven mad. It was quite a mess that it required me and the Japanese team teaming up to stop him, who by then had digivolved to his Mega form. We managed to take him down…but unfortunately at the same time we were forced to delete him too."

Gayathri gasped. Willis was forced to kill his own partner. Terriermon was forced to delete his own twin. They must've felt terrible. "I'm sorry."

Willis smiled. "It's for the best, I think. I kept hoping that we'll be reunited again one day." Then his eyes widened in alarm. "Gayathri, I'm sorry. About…"

"It's ok. Actually, I'm beginning to move on, too. That's the whole purpose of my family and I being here. I suppose I'm not doing quite a good job still, but I'm trying my best."

"It takes time." Willis looked at her. "It took me a while to get myself together when my dad died when I was little. But eventually, I managed. Luckily my mom married a decent guy. My step-dad now is as good as a real dad to me. At first, I felt guilty for trying to replace my dad with my step-dad, but later I found out that it's not so. My step-dad, Ryan, wasn't really taking my dad's place. And he told me he wasn't planning too. My dad and Ryan were good friends. My dad will always be special to me, but Ryan's special too in his own ways. I'm happy to have him as my step-dad."

Gayathri took in what Willis was saying, and saw that he was giving her a message. She'd been scared, all this while, that she'd find someone to take Bel's place. Now that she thought of it, it became clearer to her.

Her mind drifted back to a conversation she and Liu Ying had that day after Bel's burial.

---

"Listen, Gayathri." Liu Ying grasped both her hands as they looked at the picture with her, Dina and Bel together. "I know I'm not Bel, or that I'm gonna be as good as her to you, but if you need a friend to talk too, or maybe a third person to go to places…I'm just a phone call away."

"You want to replace Bel?" asked Gayathri, amidst her subdued sobs.

"No, I'm not planning to," said Liu Ying softly. "Bel will always be special to you. I'm just saying, if you need another friend…."

"You're a good friend, Liu Ying." Gayathri cried again. "But you're just not Bel."

---

"You're right, Willis," said Gayathri. She was beginning to feel a lot better. "What you've just said opened my eyes. I'm glad that I've met you."

"Always happy to help," said Willis. "You're the second person actually who I've told this in detail."

"Oh? Who's the first?"

"A kid, Blake, back home. He lost his mom a year ago. Cancer. It was horrible. I happened to volunteer in a big-brother program somewhere near home, to help those who are like me," explained Willis with a wistful smile. "Took me a lot longer to get through him, but he was eight that time. That was a year ago. Now," he grinned toothily, "we're like a pair of brothers."

Gayathri smiled back. "Sounds like a pair of friends I know."

"Y'know," said Willis. "Now that I've met you, I'm kinda bummed that we're leaving tomorrow morning. We still haven't got to the part where you tell me about your experiences as a DigiDestined, or as you call it here DigiWira, and I haven't told you my other adventures."

"You're leaving? So soon?"

"Actually, I've been here longer than you. My folks are doing this tour around Malaysia thing – kinda like their second honeymoon, only they chose to drag me and Terriermon along. We've been in this country for a couple of months already. I'm home-schooled, if you're wondering - that's why I get to come here when other kids my age have to go to school. So far, we've visited some of the major attractions around here. We're heading to Sabah next, my step-dad wants to trek up the mountain…what's it called…"

"Kinabalu Mountain: Malaysia's highest peak, tallest mountain," supplied Gayathri. "My boyfriend's from the city around there."

"Boyfriend, huh?" Willis smiled good-naturedly; perhaps this local girl had misinterpreted his friendliness. "We still can keep in touch, right? I mean, your boyfriend, he's not the jealous sort of guy?"

Gayathri laughed at Willis's apprehension. It was the first time she had laughed after Bel's death. She had to admit that it was a refreshing change. "Manny? No, I don't think so. And of course we can keep in touch. I'd like to stay in touch with the guy who has opened my eyes a bit." Her expression became more sober. "Thanks, Willis. I really owe you on this one."

"Cool. Hmm…" Willis took out a camera-phone from his pocket and grinned at Gayathri. "How about a picture?"

"Sure, Willis."

"Great! Hey, Terriermon, take one photo of me and Gayathri, will ya?"

They ended up taking _lots_ of photos together, before deciding that it was getting dark and they had better return to the hotel before their families tried to look for them. Gayathri had found a way to really move on, and had gained a new friend as well. An international, American DigiDestined – not someone she could meet in any day.

She was beginning to feel more than ready to return home in two days time.

"Hey…umm…" Willis looked at her, grinningly. "How about we tell our experiences over dinner? My treat. As new friends who're parting tomorrow? What do you say?"

Gayathri smiled back. "That's a great idea. But it'll be _my _treat. You helped me a lot today. It's only fair if I treat you to a thank-you dinner in return."

"Awesome!"

xxx

xxx

Opie watched curiously as Debbie arranged a set of pink plastic kitchen utensils before her, wondering what she was doing. Everything was smaller than the ones he'd seen on the house kitchen, when Debbie's mother was cooking. Next, he saw Debbie taking out two slender dolls in bright pink and purple dresses and long blonde hair, making them seat by them, joining the company of a fluffy white teddy bear, a dark green alligator miniature, and an adorable, wide-eyed tiger cub. Everything looked so bizarre to him, but he kept silence.

Debbie poured imaginary tea out from a small plastic teapot. "It's tea time, Opie."

Opie wrinkled his face. "I don't see any tea," he pointed out, confused, staring at the empty small cup Debbie was handing towards him.

"It's make-believe. You're supposed to _think_ that there's tea."

"Oh…"

From the corner of the living room, Manny and Penguinmon were both watching the exchange. For Manny, it was slightly amusing to see his sister treating the Muchomon the same way she'd treat the plush toys she had whenever she conducted her tea party. At least, with Opie around, he and Penguinmon wouldn't be coerced into joining the tea party, which they had done at times when Debbie got bored of the silent company of her plush toys. Yet, while his eyes were on his sister, his minds were far away.

He'd been thinking about JD a lot lately, of how his time was running out. Now that Liu Ying knew about it too, he'd found other person to discuss about it. Penguinmon was and had been a good company, but he'd spent weeks talking about the cursed tattoo to the Digimon, and he'd longed for a human company to discuss about it. Other than that, his mind also constantly wondered to his girlfriend who was recuperating at the Cameron Highlands.

When he thought about JD, he ended up pretty stressed out. No cure had yet to be found for JD's curse tattoo, and he had no doubt that Liu Ying was stumped as well. Seeing the way she was at school these two days – she hadn't been concentrating and dark bags could be seen under her eyes – Manny knew that she was trying her best to look for the cure as well.

JD in the meantime, maintained his stoic demeanor while Adam appeared to be suspicious of something, but still was left in the dark. The same was true for Gayathri. He thought that he'd spare Gayathri the knowledge while she was recuperating, but it made him sad whenever he saw Adam trying to coax JD in telling him what was wrong, and how JD avoided telling his cousin the truth. He couldn't imagine how Adam would react when he realize about the dire condition his cousin was in. He saw the pain in JD's eyes whenever he was around the cousins, and he doubted that Adam had missed it, but JD had insisted that Adam was spared from knowing about the curse.

_Is JD right in trying to keep Adam from knowing?_ The curse would only spare JD when it was transferred to another person, by an act of unconditional love, and said person must be aware of the risk they were taking while undergoing the transfer. If these three conditions were fulfilled, JD would be spared, but the one who'd take his place would die. The good Persiamon was right; the cure is as cruel as the curse. The curse was practically unbreakable. Manny doubted that JD was willing to let any other person die in his stead.

Something told him that telling Adam was a good idea, for all these times Adam was the one who'd managed to pull miracles out of his hat. The DigiWira leader had survived several near-death experiences, one of them had been thought as actually fatal. While trapped in the Dark Ocean dimension, he had released enough power of light which not only driven the lord of the ocean away, but the power also crossed dimensions and ended up powering the losing Wira Digital who were up against Lilamon. The power boost was even enough to initiate Puspamon's digivolution for the first time.

_But I suppose JD's right about one thing,_ Manny thought sadly. JD had told him his reason for keeping Adam out of this. _He'd killed both VenomDevimon and himself that night. It's only a miracle that the White DigiSphere and the Digivice managed to reconstitute their scattered data particles back into one being, thanks to his power of teleportation. That night, Adam has shown them what he's truly capable of, in times of crisis. If it means that his friends are safe, he won't hesitate to put himself in line of danger, even fatal ones. _

_Agumon's idea fits the bill as well, _he was reminded. The previous day, JD had told them what Agumon had offered to do. _He doesn't even want to risk losing Agumon, despite Agumon pointing out that it might be the best way. _His eyes darted towards Penguinmon. _I understand how he feels. I don't know if I can stand losing Penguinmon. _

Manny sighed, pressing his back on the back of the sofa. _What should we do? _

In the meantime, Penguinmon still received weird vibes from his orange-feathered self, but couldn't discern what was wrong. Digimon could sense other Digimon to a degree, depending on their maturity and experience. He hadn't been able to do so before being partnered to Manny, but after Digital Accessing for the first time he'd found his senses heightened and physically he'd become stronger. It was at that time when he realized that he was able to sense other Digimon, recognizing their data patterns when at close range.

He'd sensed this Muchomon _before_ meeting him the first time, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly when. There were differences, yet there was also something curiously familiar about Opie. It was as if he had met him once. It was like perceiving a familiar but forgotten scent, and it was annoying him.

Opie too seemed to be afraid of both him and his partner, and Debbie had chastised them for scaring her friend. She had made them maintain a distance away from Opie, which had evidently relaxed the orange penguin. He gave Penguinmon the impression of not understanding why Penguinmon and Manny didn't seem to like him as much as Debbie and the siblings' parents. And frankly, so did Penguinmon; Opie's behavior was nothing but perfect. He was polite to everyone, even to them despite being uneasy around them. The parents liked him, which was why they had agreed to him staying there, and they especially took pity of his amnesic state.

"Dinner's ready!" announced Kimberly, as she placed down two last side-dishes over the dinner table. "Let's eat, everyone!"

"Yaay!" Debbie enthused, while Opie too got up on his feet, equally enthusiastic.

"Coming!" Manny was still somewhat distracted, but joined his family nonetheless. "Penguinmon," he said, when noticing his partner still in deep thoughts, "you coming?"

"Yeah," Penguinmon responded, pushing his doubts about Opie to the back of his mind. But when he did that, a nagging feeling rose, telling him of something…_dangerous?_

"You don't sound too excited about it," noted Manny.

"Speak for yourself," muttered Penguinmon, ignoring the nagging feeling by focusing on his partner. "Thinking about your girlfriend again?"

"Partly."

"And JD?"

Manny nodded quietly. Penguinmon sighed. "And I bet you're thinking about Opie too. I know I do."

"Maybe," Manny said quietly, casting a sidelong look towards his sister and Opie, who were both excited upon witnessing what his mother had prepared for dinner. Soon his father came out from the kitchen, and took his customary seat and his mother sat opposite his father. "We should give Opie a chance, Penguinmon," he said, trying to divert his thoughts from thinking about JD and Gayathri. "That guy is nothing but decent, and a good company to Debbie."

"I suppose you're right," returned Penguinmon, just as quietly as they made their ways towards the dinner table. However, he abruptly stopped. His eyes narrowed.

Similarly, from the dinner table, Debbie's surprised cry was heard. "Opie, what's wrong? Why you're looking like that?"

Penguinmon and the Muchomon traded looks which unnerved their human companies. Penguinmon was glaring, Opie was cowering in fear. The orange avian had his feathers stood on ends.

Manny shifted his gaze between his partner and his sister's friend. "Penguinmon?"

Penguinmon cast a look around the house. His eyes stopped by the windows, where the curtains were still drawn to the sides. Outside, the car porch was illuminated by lights, and nobody was there. Yet he felt as if there had been somebody there. _Digimon?_ He thought, thinking that he'd picked up a new data signal. It wasn't Opie's, and from somewhere nearby. _The signal's still around here…_

"Something wrong, Penguinmon?"

"I thought…" Penguinmon stopped himself. Nobody was outside – he had a clear view of the window and the porch outside, and he could see nobody.

"Opie? What's wrong?" cried Debbie. "What's the matter?"

They saw Opie growing considerably pale, and his feathers and hairs stood up. His eyes reflected alarmed looks and he'd gotten down from the chair, backing away towards one corner the dining area. He wasn't just scared – he was utterly terrified of something.

"Danger!" Opie clutched his head and slumped down, as Debbie went towards him. The orange bird was shivering as Debbie hugged him. "Danger!" he cried out.

"What danger?" Penguinmon asked, coming closer at them.

Opie whimpered, and Debbie released herself from the embrace. Debbie quickly blocked Penguinmon's path, spreading her arms to her sides. She was positively scowling

"Stop right there, Penguinmon! I thought I've told you not to scare Opie!"

Penguinmon blinked. "But I wasn't…"

He was interrupted by a crashing sound. The metallic grills which had been installed covering the windows from the insides were sent flying as well following the crashing sound, slamming against the walls by the stairs leading to the upper floor of the house. It had caused a huge crack there, and instantly there was a glaring hole from where the window had been while shreds of glass scattered over the floor. Then something rushed in with the speed of lightning, and a gust of wind resulted from the invader, lifting over the lighter items as well as frazzling the household.

The invader was a bird. With a flap of its wings, the bird maintained its airborne position. It had brown feathers with light green linings, teeth lining its beak, claws at the end of each wings. He gazed upon them wildly until his gaze fell on the shivering Opie.

"I've found you!" the invader exclaimed. He sounded profoundly relieved. "I knew that you're not dead, here in the human's world!"

"Who…what…?" Abah flustered, shocked upon the sudden attack. His wife clutched his arm fearfully. "Manny? Penguinmon?"

"That's a Falcomon!" Penguinmon cried out. "Hey! What are you doing here?!"

"Quiet, filthy partner of the DigiWira!" Falcomon shouted. "This is all your doing! Look at what you've done to me, and to _him_!"

Without any warning, Falcomon glided towards them with a shriek and attempted to scratch them with his claws, but was stopped when Penguinmon launched himself upon him with his Endless Slaps. Falcomon was forced away, but he remained hovering near the ceilings, flapping his wings.

"It's all your fault!" screeched Falcomon, and with one flap of his wings he sent another gust of wind towards the dinner table.

Kimberly and Debbie screamed as the winds pushed them against the wall. Abah clutched both of them and pulled them towards him, his back facing the attacker. The dishes were blown away, shattered into pieces upon crashing against the wall. The foods spattered on the wall and on the floor. The tablecloth was sent flying. The dinner was ruined.

"We've never met you before!" shouted Manny, charging his water power in one hand. "We've done nothing to you! Why are you here?!"

"Fools! I was Valdurmon, before you stripped me off my powers!" Falcomon angrily yelled back, and pointed one clawed wing towards Opie. "And that is Valkyrimon, my fellow Avian Shine!"

"_WHAT?!"_ Manny and Penguinmon both looked at Opie, astonished. They didn't expect that the visitor to their house was actually an enemy.

Opie backed away, confused and surprised of the sudden revelation.

"I knew something's off with you!" Penguinmon pointed an accusing wing towards Opie. "You were Valkyrimon! I'd never thought about it being possible. Get away from them!"

"For once, I agree with him," said Falcomon. "Get away from those humans! You are an Avian Shine. Don't stoop so low in associating with them!"

"But…I…" Opie cast a look at the humans who had cared for him for the past two days. He saw them looking at him with mixed feelings – there were doubt and confusion etched on their faces. His heart sank; he didn't want them to lose their trust on him. Not when he was beginning to feel like he belonged to them. "I don't know what that bird's talking about. Honest!" He clutched his head, which was beginning to ache.

Manny stared at Opie for a moment, before shifting his gaze towards the airborne Falcomon. "We thought Satriamon and Aldiyamon managed to finish him off that day?"

"Hah! It would take more than one Mega and one Mega-powered Ultimate to finish off an Avian Shine!" Falcomon snorted. "Or for that matter, two Mega-powered Ultimates against me!" He dived towards the family, towards Opie. "Muchomon! Why are you associating yourself with these humans?! Have you no pride as an Avian Shine?"

Opie was dumbstruck. This attacker had claimed _him_ to be his associate, from the way he was addressing him. Yet he couldn't recall anything that Falcomon was saying. Avian Shine? Valkyrimon? Those words didn't ring any bell to him. Yet, the prospect of Falcomon knowing about his past self had some allure to it.

"He's not Valkyrimon, or Avian Shine, or anything you're saying!" Debbie shouted. "He's my friend, Opie!"

Opie snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing the declaration. He saw Debbie standing by him, and instantly his earlier curiosity evaporated. Suddenly he didn't feel like he wanted to know what his past self was like. Falcomon could be speaking the truth, or he might have fabricated the story. Truth be told, Opie realized that he didn't care. Let the past remained in the past; he had a good thing going with Debbie and her family. He didn't want to lose that now.

However, Falcomon didn't take too kindly of Debbie's declaration.

"Silly human! _Scratch Smash!"_

"Debbie! _Ardent Flame!"_

Falcomon's attempt to attack Debbie with his talons was stopped when a blast of spiraling orange flames hit him. It wasn't a particularly strong attack, but it managed to stop him nonetheless. Sputtering in shock, he saw that it was the Muchomon who'd attacked him. The Muchomon had placed himself before the humans, glaring at him. Sparks of dying flames were seen by his short wings. A pang of hurt soared from his heart; he was attacked by his own kind?

"Muchomon…why?"

"You're trying to hurt Debbie," said Opie, now venomously as he stepped before Debbie, protecting her wholly.

"But…but…she's _human_!" Falcomon squawked in disbelief. "We are both Avian Shines! Proud and mighty, we commanded the skies of the Digital World together! You can't seriously…"

"She's my friend," said Opie. "She and her family are my friends, and they've sheltered me when I'm close to death. I don't know of any Valkyrimon or Avian Shine that you speak of, but I do know that I want to protect Debbie and her family."

Manny saw and heard this, and was fascinated. He kept a wary hand, ready to unleash his water power whenever necessary, but now his attention was solely fixed on Opie and Debbie. He saw that Opie was protecting his sister from Falcomon. He might have been an Avian Shine – the enemy – but if Opie truly was willing to turn away from that for his sister, Manny was more than willing to accept Opie in the family now. After all, weren't he and Penguinmon too had been in the same kind of situation?

"I don't believe this!" Falcomon roared, pointing a wing towards Debbie whilst glaring at Opie. "She…she's _tainted_ you! An Avian Shine, swearing allegiance to a filthy human? Preposterous!"

"You say that I'm an Avian Shine," said Opie, "but I can't recall any of it. I don't know whether you're speaking the truth."

"Oh, so you want the truth?" Falcomon sneered. "Here's the truth!" He flapped his wings mightily, generating squalls that were focused upon Muchomon. The orange penguin was lifted off his feet and was slammed against the wall with a loud thud. That knocked him unconscious as he slid down the wall. He watched as the humans went to Muchomon. "If you're willing to betray our long-forged alliance, then you don't fit to live," he whispered. "It's such a shame. You were so proud and powerful. But now, you're pathetic." Another flap of the wings and the focused winds knocked the now-former Avian Shine to the wall again, causing the small girl to scream.

"OPIE!"

"But perhaps, it's not too late to save you from being fully tainted by the humans," continued Falcomon, silently. He raised his wings and prepared to attack again. This time, he was aiming for the girl.

Unfortunately for him, someone wouldn't just stand by idly to let him do so. Narrowly avoiding a blast of water, Falcomon found himself being intercepted.

Penguinmon's wings glimmered with light blue aura. His eyes glinted menacingly. "Not so fast, buster! _Endless Slaps!"_

Falcomon shrieked as Penguinmon delivered flurries of slaps upon him, but to his surprise the Digimon was quick to withdraw back. Then he was splashed by a jet of water, which drenched him so thoroughly that his body felt three times heavier. Angrily he looked at the perpetrator, and his eyes widened upon seeing the DigiWira charging a navy blue electric sphere in his hands. Anger gone, Falcomon realized what could have happened when the DigiWira boy released the electric sphere, when he was drenched.

"You've gone too far," said Manny, his tone low and dangerous. With a loud grunt he launched the electric sphere upon him, but Falcomon was quick to generate squalls that sent the thunderbolt crashing against the stairs. Debris flew out, some of the walls were chipped – the attack had been strong.

Taking advantage of the situation, Falcomon sailed out through the broken window and out to the night. Manny and Penguinmon were about to give chase, but they couldn't see Falcomon anywhere amidst the darkness of the night. Penguinmon growled angrily, until Manny placed a hand on his head.

"We'll get him next time."

Manny made a quick assessment of the damages in their houses due to Falcomon's attack. All in all, the damages were minimal. His electric sphere – a new attack he'd received while at the alternate dimension – had caused the most damage, ironically. Falcomon's wind-based attack did nothing more than destroying the dinner set, and dinner itself. Then he heard his sister whimpering, and saw that Opie was unconscious. Debbie was crying by him, urging the orange penguin to wake up.

"Opie…Opie…" Two drops of tears fell on Opie's face, and everyone let out a soft gasp as Opie _glowed_ in soft white light.

Then, the unconscious bird opened his eyes. The eyes appeared disoriented, at first. They rolled up and down, then left and right, as if discerning the location. Then they were locked on Debbie, then at Abah and Kimberly, subsequently to Manny and Penguinmon, before finally returning to Debbie again. Opie blinked once, twice.

"Opie!" Debbie squealed delightfully and bent down to hug the awakened Digimon. "I'm so glad that you're alright."

Opie didn't say anything, but his eyes then went to Manny and Penguinmon. He looked troubled, and after Debbie had released him, he gave a steely look towards Manny and Penguinmon. His eyes had lost the innocent, oblivious spark that they had for the past two days. They now looked aged, filled with experiences beyond his Rookie form, and hardened as a warrior's.

"I remember," he said. "Everything."

xxx

xxx

Falcomon swore silently as he soared towards the open sky, flapping his wings with apparent rage. The night was peculiarly dark this day – with the moon hidden by the clouds – but he didn't care. His eyes were trained to be as able as they were during the day.

He saw shadowy figures lurking amidst the dark sky, and made his way towards them, having expecting them to wait for him.

"You've found what you're looking for?" asked one of the figures once Falcomon was near enough.

Falcomon snorted. "Yes, and no!"

"Oh? What does that mean?"

"He's devolved, just like me. But he's been tainted by the humans!" Falcomon made a wild snarl as he said that. "He's switched sides. He's now siding with the humans! It's just…I can't believe it!"

"Is that so…" Doumon calmly said. "Well, what are we going to do about that?"

"Muchomon has betrayed me," said Falcomon darkly. "I'm gonna make sure that he's gonna pay for it!"

"And how are you going to do that?" Doumon's voice carried a dark inviting tone in it. The way he asked Falcomon, it was as if he was hinting on something. "Surely, by allying himself with the DigiWira, Muchomon is well-protected."

Falcomon gazed at Doumon and his company, still remained in the shadows. He could make out the long hair, the curvy body and the two ringed tails, but couldn't make out the face. Despite that, he knew of this other general, and steered his gaze away. This general was twice as dangerous as the Shaman, Majin and Kappa Generals, he'd heard.

"I thought by coming to the human's world, I've sealed the deal you've made to me?" asked Falcomon. He knew very well what Doumon was hinting, but wasn't willing to admit accepting it.

"Yes, but I recall wanting _both_ of you to serve me instead of only one?" Doumon inquired back. "And I am not particularly impressed of how you've gotten yourself defeated by merely Xianamon and Samudramon that other day, especially when they were only Ultimates."

"They launched Mega-class attacks on me, far stronger than any other attacks I've seen from them!"

"But alas," Doumon continued, as if Falcomon hadn't interrupted him at all, "I'm still interested to have you serve me. You've _survived_ their onslaught, which is actually saying something. I recall Astamon and Shawujinmon both being driven away when Puspamon used the same method of attack against them."

A giggle was heard coming from the figure next to Doumon, but nothing was said.

"What should I do?" asked Falcomon, finally.

"Now, we're going to return to the Digital World and get you healed," said Doumon as he tilted his head sideways, towards his company.

"Oh, you two go along," said Persiamon, as she stepped out from the shadows, appearing as if she was cat-walking in the air. "I've got another business to attend to."

"Mysterious as a cat, as ever, Persiamon?" Doumon asked nonchalantly, noticing that Persiamon didn't explain what she had in mind. But it was to be expected from her.

"Nah, let's just say I'm here to tie some loose ends," said Persiamon, grinning. "Besides, I've mastered the art of shape-shifting thanks to Lucemon's Nine Negations Dark Arts book – I should be utilizing my new ability to the fullest, and what place better to do it than here, in a place where the people are so trusting, and unsuspecting? But I have a bigger plan in mind…and by tomorrow morning, the whole DigiWira team will have their morale lowered considerably more than before."

"I think, with that curse of yours their morale has already been low," Doumon pointed out.

"Oh yes…the handsome one is my ultimate prize," Persiamon confirmed, her grin became more wicked, "but there's no harm wanting to have fun along the way. I don't see why Astamon want to kill the human girl, but he did a pretty good job with that angel. In fact, he almost had me jealous since I have to wait a bit for my plan to fruit. That's why, I'm gonna have some fun tonight."

xxx

xxx

Opie quietly returned the stare from the five pairs of eyes before him. A lot of things were running in his mind.

Having been at the receiving end of Falcomon's strong gust of wind attack, his head had knocked upon the wall. It had knocked him out, but at the same time it also served as a trigger for his latent memory to resurface. He now remembered his times as an Avian Shine. He was formerly Valkyrimon, and before that, Silphymon, before Shawujinmon and Astamon granted him power to ascend to Mega. A battle between him and three Wira Digital had caused him to revert to Rookie level and caused him to have amnesia.

His past memories conflicted with the ones he'd recently acquired. He had a good time here, with Debbie and her family. The DigiWira Manny and his Penguinmon partner might not liked him that much before, he managed to gather, from the way they kept shooting suspicious looks at him these past two days, but now Opie realized that they had a valid point in doing so.

"Stop staring at me like that," snapped Opie with a hard voice, surprising everyone.

"You're evil," countered Penguinmon, undaunted, pointing one wing towards him. "What do you expect?"

The Muchomon sneered. "Oh? And you weren't?"

Penguinmon fumed. "Stop twisting this! You're evil and you know that! Why don't you join that Falcomon friend of yours and get lost?"

Given his way, Penguinmon would've attacked Opie when the latter revealed that he was indeed Valkyrimon, but Debbie had pleaded for him not to attack Opie. Manny had restrained him too, and had been gazing at the orange doppelganger of his for quite some time now. His partner had been quiet all this while, and Penguinmon didn't know what Manny was thinking. Penguinmon remembered that Manny was about to give Opie a chance, before Falcomon came and revealed that Opie was in fact an enemy of theirs.

"Opie?" Debbie stepped forward and held his wings gently. Instantly, the Avian Shine's hard gaze softened. "Are you still my friend?"

Opie nodded. "Of course. Nothing's changed, Debbie. I'm still your friend. I'm still Opie."

"You're not going to leave me?"

"If your brother and his partner won't finish me off when I'm least suspecting it, I'm staying."

Hearing this, Debbie instantly turned to face her older brother and his partner. "Abang! Penguinmon! Don't make Opie go away…please?" she pleaded. "Opie's my best friend. I don't want him to go."

"Debbie…you must know that he's a bad guy," said Penguinmon. "He nearly killed us back when he was all-powerful Valkyrimon! He's still a danger by being here. Look at what he'd done – his friend knew he is here and look what happened here?" He gestured around the house, which hadn't been cleaned up still after the battle.

The pigtailed girl shook her head stubbornly. "I don't care. Opie's my friend. He's not a bad guy!" Her eyes watered as she looked at her parents. "Daddy! Mommy! I don't want Opie to go…"

Abah and Kimberly shared one look, before deciding mutually that perhaps in this case, their son was a better candidate in deciding. Manny had been a DigiWira for quite some time; he'd know what exactly to do. Their son had been silent – they knew that he wouldn't make a rash decision. After all, having heard of his son's previous exploit before officially joining the DigiWira team, they knew that he was also experienced and compassionate enough to do the right thing.

"Son," said Abah, placing a hand on Manny's shoulder. "Your mom and I think that this is your call."

Manny nodded, and walked past Debbie, towards Opie. He saw the bird tensed – Manny was tall, and Opie was a little bit smaller than Penguinmon who was half Manny's height.

"I just want to know a couple of things," said Manny with a low tone.

The Muchomon frowned.

"Are you still evil?"

"No," said Opie. "I don't think so. I have no wish to rejoin Falcomon or the Darkshadow Brethren, after staying here and becoming friends with your sister and your family."

Manny nodded. "Will you protect Debbie, and my family, from Falcomon should he return here?"

"Not just from Falcomon, but from any threat," replied Opie instantly. He gazed at Debbie, then at her parents. "All of you have been so good to me. I would've died if you didn't take me in and nursed me back to health. And the foods are really nice too," he added as an afterthought, cocking his head towards Kimberly, who beamed at his compliment.

"Good." Manny looked at his younger sister, and smiled softly. "Opie stays, Debbie."

"Really? YAAYY!!"

"WHAT?!" roared Penguinmon, just as Debbie embraced Opie. "Manny!" He stared at his partner incredulously. "You can't be serious!"

"I'm not saying that I trust Opie still," said Manny. He saw Opie tensing, and Debbie had released the orange avian from her embrace, now scowling at him. "I was evil once, and so were you, Penguinmon. After we turned good, we had to _earn_ Adam, Liu Ying, and Gayathri's trusts – they weren't that trusting at us back then." He smiled grimly upon remembering that darker time, which he'd left as a bad memory and a nightmare. "But eventually, we gained their trust, and _regained_ their friendship."

"You want me to prove myself?" demanded Opie. "How?"

"There's no rush," said Manny coolly. "For now, I'll just take your words for it. There'll be time when you can _prove_ yourself to us that you're trustworthy and have reformed."

Penguinmon still didn't like having Opie in the house – he still couldn't trust him. But he had to admit; his partner was wiser in coming up with a solution for this matter. "Fair deal," he said finally.

Opie grumbled. Abah stepped forward and clapped his son's back. "Well said, son."

"YAAY!! Opie's here to stay!" cheered Debbie happily, and proceeded by hugging Opie again.

Kimberly smiled. "And as a member of the family, Opie will have to do his share of work," she said, and indicated the mess around the house caused by Falcomon.

Opie grumbled again. "Fine."

"Oh, I didn't say you have to do it on your own, Opie," said Kimberly. "All of us will do it together. As a family."

_Family?_ Opie thought about it. Somehow he felt like he belonged here. A smile formed on his face; not even the cool gazes from Manny and Penguinmon could hamper his happiness of being accepted in this family. He'd kill for protecting this family, he thought, as Kimberly began dividing chores for all six of them. _I'll make you two trust me,_ he swore to himself, staring at Manny and Penguinmon's retreating backs, before he was pulled by Debbie to assist with cleaning the dirtied walls.

xxx

xxx

"Oh, look at you!"

JD looked up from his plate, staring at the elderly woman who was looking out of the house's grilled back door, cooing towards something he couldn't see from the dinner table. He wondered what had caught Bibik's attention, especially when the woman proceeded by opening the door. She bent down to pick up something, and when she stood back up JD saw she was cradling a cat with shining black hair and green eyes. It was an adorable cat, but seeing it made him flinch. It only reminded him of the tattoo he had on his chest.

Agumon, who was sitting beside him, evidently was thinking about the same thing as well. The dino kept shifting gazes between the black cat and his DigiWira partner.

"Isn't she cute, Josh?" asked Bibik as the cat meowed softly.

JD wrinkled his nose. "Whatever. Right now, I don't like cats."

_And that's an understatement,_ Agumon added silently.

"Oh, how come?" Bibik smiled. "Certainly you don't believe that black cats carry bad luck now, do you?"

"Long story." He stood up and eyed the cat. "I don't need any more bad luck."

The cat gave JD a meow. JD snorted and looked away from it.

Bibik shrugged. She was used to his moods by now. Besides, the boy didn't seem as happy as he was ever since Adam left, no matter how hard he was trying to deny it. With his cousin gone, Bibik suspected that JD was feeling lonely once again, since his parents were still busy and his siblings not staying at home. While things had certainly gotten better these days with the family – and Bibik was very glad for that – there were things Johan and Leeanna needed to attend to that night, which left the house to her, JD, and the not-so-talkative Agumon.

"Do you think your parents would let me keep the cat, Josh?" she asked, wanting to make conversation.

_Great. As if it's not enough for me to see a damn cat on my chest everyday, now I get to see one even with my shirt's on,_ JD thought, but feigned indifference towards his caregiver. He could sense Agumon eyeing him, but chose to ignore him. Bibik would see them making eye contact, and would wonder what was up.

"Eh…as long as it doesn't crap around the house or anything, Mom and Dad won't say no for you to keep it."

"It's a she," said Bibik, smiling.

"Whatever. I'm going upstairs, Bibik. Meal's good, by the way."

Bibik nodded and watched as the sullen blond and his Digimon partner trudged back up to their room. At times she wondered what had caused the boy's moodiness – she'd thought that he'd changed for the better when Adam was revealed to be his long-lost cousin. But when the lively boy left the house, he seemed to have taken away JD's brighter personality with him as well, leaving JD only with his dark and brooding personae. She sighed, and gazed at the cat which she was cradling.

"Well, kitty, looks like it's you and me now," she murmured. The cat purred.

Hours later, when it was past midnight and everybody was asleep, the cat slinked across the dark kitchen and made its way past the hallway, heading towards the stairs. It crept up the stairs with apparent ease, and looked around for a moment at the second floor's living room and at the four closed doors. Satisfied that it was the only living thing there – it had been two hours since the masters of the house went to bed, and they'd been the last ones – it let out a dark red glow and transformed into a woman. The glow then subsided.

_Which way now?_ Persiamon grinned, before her ears twitched. _Ah…a Digimon, inside that room. Who else but his partner?_

She tiptoed silently towards the door and placed a hand on the door knob. Twisting it a bit, she found that it was locked.

_Hiding something now, aren't we? _Smirking, she inserted the long, sharp tip of a claw inside the keyhole and twisted it around a little, before a soft click was heard and the door was opened. _Purr-fect!_

Cat-walking silently inside the room, and closing the door, she saw Agumon stirring on the bed closer to the walls. Her gaze shifted towards JD who was sleeping on the other bed, undisturbed by her entrance and partially covered by a blanket. _One and half week left, boy. I bet you're out of ideas…but, after hearing what your partner's said that day, I realized that my plan has a flaw, and it's what I'm here for. To rectify it. _

Extending one hand towards Agumon, she silently released streams of energy ribbons from it. The ribbons had been de-powered considerably so that it wouldn't harm Agumon. Instead, the ribbons wrapped around the rookie, cocooning him whilst placing him under a spell Doumon had concocted for her earlier. The spell would incapacitate Agumon until he was released from the enchanted energy ribbons. Then with a graceful flick of her hand – an energy ribbon remained connected between around her wrist and the cocooned Agumon – she retrieved the bundle and secured it between her right arm and right side of body.

_It doesn't have to come to this, but then you go and declare your disgusting love to him…if I don't take action my plan will be ruined. _

Her eyes then searched the room for the next thing she was looking for. She found it, shining in gold and crimson, laid on the bedside table. Plucking the Juara Digivice gingerly, she took it towards the computer, which had been left in hibernating mode. It was perfect; the computer wouldn't make noises as she proceeded with the next part of her plan.

"Digiport Open," she whispered. Tossing the Digivice towards the bed, she jumped into the lights that streamed out from the computer monitor, now not bothering to hide her gleeful laugh.

xxx

xxx

TobuCatmon's eyes snapped open when the television set he had in the sanctum buzzed. Usually, this would mean that a DigiWira was going to arrive from the human's world.

The glow from the TV illuminated the darkened sanctum and TobuCatmon got out from his sleeping hammock, tied between two sturdy trees. He saw a form appearing within it, and paled upon realizing that it wasn't the DigiWira, Cores or Honoraries. It was a villain, and a deadly one too.

"YOU!" he screamed. "Get out of here! You're not welcomed here!"

Persiamon snickered as the lights died down. "Wow. Just as I've thought," she sneered towards the guardian of Forest Sanctum. "The Forest Sanctum is protected by an invisible shield that prevents any evil from entering. But apparently it doesn't do anything if a villain so happen to inside it without crossing the barriers." She licked her lips. "Nice place."

"How did you get here?!" demanded TobuCatmon. "Only Digivices can open a gateway to here!" His eyes then fell over the dark red cocoon Persiamon had secured on one side of her body. The glowing sashes had fully-wrapped something which suspiciously bore the form of one Digimon he knew. "Agumon…" He instantly got his answer.

"I see I don't need to explain myself." Persiamon looked around the sanctum. "Quite a nice place, I've got to say. Better than what we've been expecting."

"If you think that I'm going to let you use this sacred place as your lair…"

"Oh, relax. I like the Onyx Pyramid more. However," she sneered, "now that I'm here, I might as well destroy this place. And you, too," she added as an afterthought. "This shan't take long."

Then, without waiting for TobuCatmon to response, she extended one hand forward and energy ribbons spewed out from between her claws. They sped towards the sanctum guardian with the speed of lasers, but to Persiamon's surprise TobuCatmon glowed with light yellow energy as he cut the ribbons with the sharp appendages jutting out from his back. Harmless they might appear to be, but apparently they were as sharp as blades, as TobuCatmon had proven.

"_Spinning Flight!"_ TobuCatmon spun like an abrasive saw before launching himself towards Persiamon.

The cat goddess attempted her Sekhmet Shadow Sutra ribbons once more, but to her surprise the ribbons tore upon contact with TobuCatmon. She fired a stream of chilling energy to freeze TobuCatmon, but was further surprised when the champion cut through her attack. Seeing that the champion was getting nearer, she energized her claws and slammed them upon TobuCatmon.

A loud clang, and TobuCatmon was thrown away like a rag doll, slumping down a tree trunk.

Persiamon huffed. "You can actually fight," she noted. "Though, it's pretty pointless to stop me. We're both cats but I'm way ahead of you."

"Don't underestimate me," snapped TobuCatmon. "I'm not just a Champion Digimon; I'm the chosen guardian of this holy sanctum!" His eyes shone with gold lights. "Outside, I'm on par as regular Champions, but inside here the power of this sanctum flows inside of me, and with it, I will _delete_ your heathen presence!"

TobuCatmon flew over the part which was covered by a rattan mat. A circular energy ring seemed to radiate underneath the mat, and released a pillar of golden energy which TobuCatmon absorbed. The pillar then vanished, and a digivolution cocoon burst forth from TobuCatmon.

_**TobuCatmon, Warp Digivolve to…**_

The cocoon exploded and a white armored knight appeared. His flowing crimson cape billowed against the winds that seemed to pick up following his digivolution. His golden lance – seemed to be a mix of a spear and a double-sided pollaxe – shimmered with power; the upper part looked deadly with two ax-blades attached on it side by side, while the bottom part ended in a shimmering jade tip, with what appeared to be a bow was fixed somewhere in between the middle of the lance and the jade tip. Spinning his lance, a pair of golden eyes flared with burning anger that matched the crimson bat-wings that jutted out from each side of his knight helmet. TobuCatmon had become a medieval knight, known as…

_**Medieval Gallantmon! **_

"Shiny," said Persiamon, dropping the cocooned Agumon on the marbled floor. "Perhaps I have underestimated you. This should be interesting…"

Medieval Gallantmon pointed his axe-bladed lance towards Persiamon. "With the power the sanctum has bestowed upon me, I shall banish you from this world forever! Then perhaps, the DigiWira you have infected with your curse will be spared from the grave outcome you have been expecting!"

"Dream on," snickered Persiamon. "Even if you kill me the curse will still finish him."

"Then, at the very least the human's and Digital Worlds will be spared from you!"

"All these knightly talks are tiring me." Persiamon giggled, and somersaulted backward and upwards with unrivaled agility, avoiding a thrust of Medieval Gallantmon's deadly lance. She landed on top of one of the marble pillars, and glowed with dark purple and crimson aura. "It's time for me to even up the score. You're not the only one who can become Mega."

Medieval Gallantmon let out a soft gasp, as Persiamon was enveloped with a digivolution cocoon as well.

_**Persiamon, Mega Digivolve to…**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Not really a battle-intense chapter, but it does its job. I didn't think that this sub-arc would be this long – originally the sub-arc would have ended with this chapter, but while writing them lots of things still need to be explained, so I can't really be sure when exactly will this arc's finale be. And I really don't know what Medieval Gallantmon's weapon is called, so I just tried to describe it at the best of my ability. His evolution to Medieval Gallantmon is actually legit, according to Wikimon. TobuCatmon evolves to WarGrowlmon X and furthermore to Medieval Gallantmon. And I have a reason why I've specifically chosen TobuCatmon to be Medieval Gallantmon.

The Falcomon here is the regular one, not the black one from Savers.

Yeah…some part of this chapter is derived from Savers, I'm sure readers can easily notice where. But I've changed a few bits here and there to make it stand out on its own.

With so many subplots intertwined in one chapter I have quite a hard time figuring the chapter title. I've finally chosen _Reflections_ as it implies on Gayathri's reflections of her past with her late friend, and that Penguinmon and Muchomon are almost reflections to each other. Not a perfect title.

Willis's guest appearance is something I considered omitting, but then decided to just go for it. According to Wikipedia, though in the movie he's shown to be reunited with Chocomon (Lopmon's In-training form), in the drama CD that followed the end of the Digimon 02 series revealed that he hasn't been reunited with his lost partner. I'm going with the latter for plot's sake. I've wanted to include a canon DigiDestined for quite some time now, and Willis takes the 'coveted' spot. :D


	61. Wave Goodbye

Medieval Gallantmon watched with dread as Persiamon was enveloped in a purple digivolution cocoon. Immediately he launched towards the cocoon, hoping to stop Persiamon from fully digivolving into her Mega form. Thrusting his axe-bladed lance into the cocoon, he was surprised to hear a loud clang coming from inside the cocoon. Then seven dark energy hearts slammed upon him, corroding his armor like acid whilst sending him plummeting towards the sanctum's marbled floor. The floor cracked and the force from the attack had caused him to be driven in the middle of the large crack.

_She's strong! _Medieval Gallantmon searched for his lance, and gasped upon spotting it. He'd released his weapon after the sudden assault, and it had destroyed the table and the TV set. Without the TV the DigiWira couldn't make it to the sanctum. He struggled to get out from the crack, before a wild cackle was heard.

The cocoon had ceased, revealing a dark woman in Persiamon's place. Her only prominent feature within the darkness of the night was her bone-white complexion, eerily making her appear like a wraith. However, Medieval Gallantmon knew exactly what form Persiamon would achieve, since the Darkshadow Brethren were now utilizing the powers of the seven evils that had walked the grounds of Digital World eons ago. There was only one female member of the Seven Great Demon Lords.

"_Lilithmon_," he growled, now back to his feet.

"He knows how to play," cackled Lilithmon, her voice strong and clear. The way she spoke, the way her eyes widened as she spoke, and the way she moved her head about – she seemed to be constantly mocking her opponent. Sneering, she added, "Most would stand and watch like dumb fools, but you…you actually _tried_ to attack me, trying to prevent me from digivolving!"

Her very being emitted violet aura, now allowing Medieval Gallantmon to see her features with clarity.

Lilithmon's face harbored traces of a former beauty, now looking wild with her shadowy eyes that were constantly wide, prominent cheekbones that contrasted her sunken cheeks, and a constant sneer on her purple lips. She had demonic horns sprouted from the sides of her head, which could easily be mistaken as part of the tiara she had to hold her ebony hair up in a bun. Demonic wings sprouted from her back. Dressed in a black corset and skintight leggings, with flowing purple sleeves and skirt, she projected a dangerous aura; one that shouldn't be trifled with. She was checking her long, dark-painted fingernails, but gazed in disdain upon seeing that her left hand had mutated into a golden hideous claw. Then, she shrugged uncaringly.

Medieval Gallantmon picked up his lance. He fumbled with it at first, before closing his hands around the middle shaft of the lance.

Lilithmon cackled, apparently noting his sluggishness.

He noticed her mocking him, and growled, "I'm warning you, Lilithmon…get out of this place, or I will be forced –"

"Oh please," she cut in. "One look at you, and I know that despite your powers, you're vastly inexperienced."

With a snarl, Medieval Gallantmon charged. He swung the pollaxe-half of his lance upon the demoness. She parried the blow, cackling, and caught the lance with her claw before pulling it towards her. He pulled the weapon back, but her hold on it was surprisingly strong. She then placed her other hand under her pursed lips, and blew out purple mist towards the knight, whispering,

"Phantom Pain."

"Mist?" he said incredulously, not bothering to move away from the mist.

"Wait for it. Three, two, one…."

He screamed; the edges of his pearly armor melted ever so slightly, letting out wisps of purple smokes. The mists had corroded his armor.

"There," said Lilithmon, smirking. "How about a second helping?_ Serpent Shadow Sutra!_"

She flustered him even further by unleashing energy ribbons, similar in fashion in how she'd executed her Sekhmet Shadow Sutra while she was Persiamon. Now, this attack had evolved; the now-purple ribbons harbored the heads of cobras, hissing wildly as they snaked toward the knight. The ribbons then magically merged into one giant purple cobra which bore its fangs as it loomed over the diminutive-by-comparison Medieval Gallantmon. It opened its mouth, threatening to consume him if it wasn't stopped soon.

Medieval Gallantmon thrust his lance to stop the energy cobra from snapping its mouth shut, and in return the lance pierced through the mouth. Hissing wildly the cobra evaporated into thin air.

Lilithmon seemed unfazed. "Interesting. Perhaps I have underestimated you." With one rapid flick of her hand, ribbons flowed out again. This time around, they didn't shift into cobras but immediately wrapped around Medieval Gallantmon's lance. She attempted to seize the lance, but Medieval Gallantmon's grasp on it was strong.

"No way am I going to let you take my lance!"

"You don't exactly have a choice here," said Lilithmon, and yanked the lance out of the knight's grasp. "There. Toy's gone. Now let's play this game my way." She raised her hideous claw, smiling wildly as she gazed upon it. Her eyes turned blood red and an apparition of an eye rippled behind her. The claw began to shine with black and purple aura.

"I'm done playing," snapped Medieval Gallantmon, and was about to charge when the eye behind Lilithmon became more opaque. It was scarlet, and to his surprise, it blinked. And somehow, seeing this eye didn't bode well with him. The eye was very unusual, round like a dartboard, the pupil redder and slanted like a cat's. Lilithmon had been a deadly opponent so far, but he had never felt afraid of her as he was now. She'd managed to seize his weapon, which was now lying too far away for him to reach. If he wanted to retrieve it he would have to go past her, and it wasn't like she was going to allow him to do so easily.

"Too bad," said Lilithmon. "I'm just about to start!" The eye behind her released streaks of electricity upon her claw, and it shone with red aura. She jumped, and launched the claw towards Medieval Gallantmon. _"Nazar Nail!" _

_Without my lance, there's only one way to get around this, _thought Medieval Gallantmon grimly. He flexed his body and arms, and golden flames erupted around him. The flames coalesced upward before forming a fiery wyvern, with great flaming wings and long serpentine tail._"Rage of Wyvern!"_ The dragon image opened its maw and disgorged streams of flames towards the incoming demoness.

Lilithmon pulled back, smirking. The flames hit an empty spot instead. "So you do have other means to attack without the lance."

"That and more," spat Medieval Gallantmon. The fiery wyvern remained standing behind Medieval Gallantmon.

"_Darkness Love!" _She placed a hand over her mouth and blew a kiss at him. As she swung her hand away from her mouth, several violet hearts made out purely from energy flew out from her mouth and tore through the dragon, slamming upon Medieval Gallantmon squarely on his body. The hearts clearly possessed corrosive effects as they began to work in corroding his armor.

Medieval Gallantmon screamed again. He made the wyvern release streams of flames upon him which destroyed the energy hearts, but also damaged his own armor and cape in return. Nevertheless, the corrosion effect was stopped and he was able to heave relieved breaths. Not too long after, sharp pains erupted from where the hearts had struck him. It was twice he'd been at the receiving end of the energy hearts, and he knew that underneath his armor, he was injured. His knees began to buckle.

"Oh, you've reached the peak of your oh-so-glorious power up," laughed Lilithmon. "It's too bad; I'm just getting warmed up."

Goaded, with a loud snarl he charged towards Lilithmon, appearing to want to strike at her empty-handed. She readied herself to intercept his attack, but Medieval Gallantmon had other thing planned. Before reaching her he rolled sideways, grabbed his lance, and with a roar he slashed the jaded tip of the weapon upon Lilithmon, catching her by surprise.

Nevertheless, she successfully blocked it with her claw and pushed it down. "Didn't we just do this?"

"Not this one," grunted Medieval Gallantmon, eyes glinting. _"Final Crest!"_

Eyes widened, Lilithmon was blasted point-blanc with a thunderous energy blast from the jaded tip of her foe's lance. It slammed her straight on the torso, sending her flying. Before she managed to gather herself she saw Medieval Gallantmon used the same attack again, and once more she was blasted away against a pillar. Another blast, and she managed to roll away just in time – the blast caught the pillar instead and sent it tumbling down. The attack suddenly ceased; Lilithmon saw Medieval Gallantmon looking frazzled upon having destroyed a part of the Forest Sanctum, and smirked. She now saw an opening to retaliate. Quickly she wiped the blood that trickled from the side of her mouth with her sleeves, got back up on her feet and flapped her wings, sending her airborne.

"Looks like the guardian of the sanctum is destroying the sanctum himself," she mocked. "Why not let me help you?"

"No! Not the sanctum!"

"Oh hush, no need to be shy..."

She unleashed torrents of Darkness Love towards one of the remaining three marble pillars of the sanctum, sending it crashing over the artificial fountain. That agitated Medieval Gallantmon even more, and he charged upon her, attempting to stop her by slashing and hacking the energy hearts that came his way. His movements, while had little traces of skill and more likely fueled by rage, hinted Lilithmon of his inexperience. Shrugging him off, she simply flew away towards another pillar. This time she energized her Nazar Nail claw and made one clean strike upon it. A diagonal violet line appeared before it, before the upper half of the pillar slid down and crashed upon the other pillar.

"There! All done!" cackled Lilithmon.

"You…you…" Speechless, Medieval Gallantmon simply drew out one hand and released a jet of red lightning towards her. He saw the demoness caught the lightning based attack with her claw, not bothering to move her claw until _he_ was forced to withdraw the attack. The remnant of the lightning entered Lilithmon's claw, forming a sphere.

With a grin, Lilithmon crushed the sphere effortlessly and blew the data remnants of her hand. "_Now_, play time is over."

"You're not getting away with this! _Final Crest!"_ Seeing that Lilithmon had a difficulty in countering this attack, Medieval Gallantmon used it against her. He however, didn't take into account that he'd simply caught her unaware when he used this technique the first and second time around.

Lilithmon used her claw and hand both to intercept this attack, and slowly made her way towards Medieval Gallantmon, all the while chuckling darkly. Her foe was powerful, but she could sense his power dwindling. He had mentioned that his power stemmed from the sanctum. She suspected that with the sanctum partially destroyed the power within it was dying as well. Medieval Gallantmon had been more powerful earlier; his weakened state could be attributed either because he was injured or his power supply was waning. Either way, it benefited her. Smiling, she exerted some of her own dark power into her claw and hand, causing Medieval Gallantmon's attack to be deflected haphazardly around the sanctum.

"Medieval Gallantmon's destroying the Forest Sanctum, HA HA HA HA HA!!" she mocked the knight.

"No!" Medieval Gallantmon stopped attacking, and realized a little bit too late that he'd just given his enemy the opening. Before long, he was blasted with her energy hearts once again, sending him flying towards the destroyed fountain. His body slammed upon the sun staff and wrecked it before he crashed over the fountain.

Lilithmon walked towards the fallen Medieval Gallantmon.

"Looks like its time to wrap up our play session, hmm?" she asked with a mock-soothing voice.

"I'm not beaten yet!"

"Yes, I think so too, since," Lilithmon grinned, "you've been a wonderful help for me in destroying this place. I didn't even break a nail in getting down and dirty!"

Medieval Gallantmon was disgusted. His hand gripped his lance tight; the only mistake he hadn't repeated – he'd managed to still maintain hold of his weapon. However, his enemy saw it and stepped on the lance, preventing him from raising it to attack her. He growled, she grinned.

Lilithmon made one sweeping look around the sanctum, and carelessly sent energy hearts across her shoulder repeatedly. As silly as her action might seemed to be, the effect was disastrous. The energy hearts were like bombs that exploded upon contact. Explosions were heard in the background, but her attention was fixed solely on Medieval Gallantmon who began to glow with faint golden aura. His lance combusted into data particles and in a swirl of light he devolved back into TobuCatmon, following the complete destruction of the sanctum.

"There! Play time's ended!" cackled Lilithmon, and extended her hand. A jeweled sphere rolled out from her sleeve. "No point in wasting precious data, hmm?"

TobuCatmon's eyes widened. "What are you…"

"Shh. Just watch." The sphere glowed, and rapidly absorbed the dispersed data particles from his devolution.

"What did you do?!"

"Like I've said, no point in wasting precious data. I might be able to use this later."

"Don't bet on it!" shouted TobuCatmon. "I saw what D'Arcmon's data did to the Majin General."

"Oh, that," snickered Lilithmon. "Whoever says I want to use your Mega's data for myself?" She cast a look towards the cocooned Agumon.

TobuCatmon followed her gaze, and realized what she was intending to do. "No! You can't…you _mustn't_!"

"And who's gonna stop me?" said Lilithmon, drawing her hand over her lips. "Certainly not you, especially when you…will be dead."

_She's going to kill me,_ realized TobuCatmon. _I can't beat her. I have to try to escape! If I just sit here and resign to my fate…'_

"_Flying Phoenix!"_

Lilithmon yelled; he had just sailed past her in form of a golden firebird, and slashed his way out using the sharp appendages that were coated with the firebird's wings. Blood poured out from Lilithmon's shoulder, and in retaliation the dark woman spewed out corrosive mists upon him. He gained speed, becoming too fast for the mist to catch him. He had gotten out of the sanctum, now above the trees that obscured the sanctum from the world outside.

"_Darkness Love!"_

Looking back, he saw the hearts flew past the mists and were gaining on him. Thinking fast, he averted his course, outmaneuvered the hearts, causing the hearts to slam and explode against each other.

_I'm safe for now,_ he thought, streaking towards Green Meadow. His heart leaped; from the distance he saw a familiar visage of a white-clad angel._Aldiyamon!_

All of a sudden, something slammed upon him. He'd let go of his guard for one second, upon seeing Aldiyamon, and Lilithmon had used it to attack him with her corrosive energy hearts. He let out a pained shriek and lost his firebird form. His vision blurry; he saw Lilithmon chasing him, a wild look etched on her face. He had lost too much energy, and was slowly falling.

A flash of white light and TobuCatmon found himself pressed so close to a person's chest that he could hear the person's rapid heartbeats. _Red shirt. Black jacket. _He looked up. "JD!"

"Hang in there, TobuCatmon," said JD.

TobuCatmon weakly nodded, watching as Aldiyamon shifted into his Juara Mode and began firing shots of light arrows to counter Lilithmon's Darkness Love. The hearts were destroyed by the light arrows, and one of the arrow pierced Lilithmon's shoulder. His heart swelled with satisfaction. Aldiyamon blasted a stream of white radiance, and Lilithmon was forced to seek the protection of the sanctum she'd destroyed.

Only seconds later, she burst out from the trees, Agumon pressed close to her side. Cackling with glee, she unleashed the energy serpent upon Aldiyamon. Aldiyamon was pushed back, and Lilithmon attacked with her energy hearts to further fluster Aldiyamon before speeding away, her form blending with the darkness of the night.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 61 – Wave Goodbye**_

xxx

xxx

JD knelt down and gazed upon the severely injured TobuCatmon with pity.

A bright flash of light illuminated from behind JD, giving him a good look of TobuCatmon's injuries. He swore softly upon seeing how extensive those injuries was.

There was a nasty cut across TobuCatmon's chest, and a wound stretching from his right front paw towards the cut on his chest. His face was bruised and lots of lost patches of hair could be seen on his self. Every time he coughed, he spewed out blood. He could barely open his eyes. His breaths were ragged and he spoke with a way that showed that it was costing him a lot just to do so.

"Josh, how's...how's TobuCatmon?" Adam asked, somewhat breathlessly from behind him, the lights that had been from Aldiyamon's dedigivolution rapidly dying down.

"Not good," he muttered, inclining his head slightly to see his cousin's fearful gaze on their wounded mentor.

TobuCatmon weakly fixed his eyes on the cousins. "Adam, JD…You're here. How…how did you know?" Violently he coughed out dark liquid that smelled a lot like real blood. The liquid smeared JD's uniform jacket, but the blond teen didn't seem to care.

"I woke up and Agumon was missing," answered JD with gritted teeth. "Someone had used my Digivice to open a Digiport. I thought it was that blasted bitch Persiamon, but that woman…" He had only seen from afar, not recognizing the dark woman that had been chasing TobuCatmon as the latter made his escape.

"That was Persiamon," wheezed TobuCatmon. "She has digivolved… to Lilithmon. Another demon lord."

"What…?"

"And she…has Agumon too." TobuCatmon coughed out more blood.

"But why…?" JD stopped, realizing exactly what was going on. _She must have somehow heard Agumon wanting to take the curse in my place! That blasted bitch!_

A rush of anger erupted within him, and he was slightly shaking. He couldn't believe it. He _knew_ something was off with that black cat. The only way for Persiamon to have a way inside the Forest Sanctum was via the Digiport. The only way she'd manage to get inside his house without noticing was by disguise, and that black cat was the only thing he could think of that matched her. Nobody had told him that; being evil once, he was familiar with how the villains worked. Karatenmon had taught him _too well, _he thought at times.

_Lucemon was able to fool the men of Malacca back in the 1500s by disguise, that bitch can probably do the same thing. They are in the same washed-up clan. _

"We should've teleported to the sanctum," said Adam quietly. "We could've reached you in time…"

"It's not your fault, Adam," wheezed TobuCatmon. "You did what you thought was best. Lilithmon is very powerful. I digivolved to Mega-" He coughed out blood again, and tried to clear his throat. "But even I couldn't stop her. She was very strong."

"I'm sorry," said Adam, tear-stricken, for it was apparent that TobuCatmon's condition would only worsen.

"Don't be, Adam." TobuCatmon sounded serene. He gazed upon the boy and his partner who was floating behind him. "Adam, how did you know to come here?"

"I-" Adam paused.

JD looked up and stared at his cousin. He was wondering the same thing too. If TobuCatmon hadn't been able to alert them, and JD only went to the Digital World to look for Agumon, how did Adam know to come to the Digital World when his help was needed? It couldn't be a coincident – Adam and Patamon had even arrived just a few seconds after him, via the nearest TV set.

"I…I don't know," he finally admitted. "It's just…I _felt_ something's wrong. I don't know how…"

TobuCatmon coughed again. Weak, he raised one paw, and JD grabbed it.

"Hang in there, TobuCatmon."

"I've been attacked relentlessly," TobuCatmon choked out. "My injuries are fatal. I can feel it."

"No, that's not true." Adam shot up on his feet. "I'm gonna see whether there's any healing potion left. You're going to-"

"It's no use, Adam," said TobuCatmon, halting the boy from proceeding. "Lilithmon has destroyed everything. Nothing is salvageable." A tear streaked out from his left eye, followed by the right, and he hiccupped. "I'm supposed to be the protector of the Forest Sanctum, but I've failed. I…I…even took part in destroying the sanctum…"

"I'm sure it's for self-defense, TobuCatmon," assured Patamon. "Don't be too hard on yourself."

"I've failed," repeated TobuCatmon as his body shimmered. His legs were the first to decompose into golden data particles.

"No!" Adam gasped, and held on to his mentor's paw. "TobuCatmon, please…don't go…don't die…"

"Adam," said TobuCatmon. "Take care, my boy. I'm happy… to see you, this one last time."

JD saw another tear escaping Adam's eyes. TobuCatmon now shifted his gaze to Patamon.

"Patamon, I wish you and your fellow partners luck," the cat now whispered. "Out of all the five partners, you have the most experience. Guide your fellow partners in my place. I've always thought that I'd be around to do it…but… how unfortunate…"

"I will," said Patamon. "Don't worry."

"Save Agumon," implored TobuCatmon.

"That goes without saying."

"Agumon…he has been a wonderful friend to me," said TobuCatmon. "He was my eyes and ears for a while, since I couldn't leave Forest Sanctum. I regret…not being able…to tell him that."

"I'll tell him that for you," promised Patamon.

All the while, JD had been watching TobuCatmon's condition grew graver. He had so much to say to TobuCatmon. He'd yet to apologize to TobuCatmon for how Satriamon had roughed him up, back when he was under Karatenmon's spell. He hadn't gotten the chance to really say how much he appreciated TobuCatmon trying to look for a way to lift the curse laid on him by Persiamon. He knew how worried TobuCatmon was. TobuCatmon was the one he'd turned to first when he'd discovered the tattoo on his chest. He really wanted to say something, anything…but he found that his throat had constricted, overwhelmed by shocked and sadness.

Everything had happened too fast. He'd never thought that of all people, TobuCatmon – their mentor – would be gone too. Hadn't the mentor always remain with the pupils?

He saw TobuCatmon gazing up at him; only his head, upper body and front paws remained.

"JD, I pray that you'll find the solution-" The cat coughed again, now more severe than before. The coughs continued as his front paws decomposing. "JD…good luck…"

"TobuCatmon, I…" He found his voice back. But seeing TobuCatmon decomposing on his lap, anger swelled inside of him. "TobuCatmon, I'll avenge you," swore JD, gently wiping the blood out of the dying cat's mouth. His hand shook in silent fury as he did so. "I'll get Agumon back, and I don't know when, I don't know how…but before I die, I swear I'll _kill_ that bitch myself!"

"Give my love to the others. I'm happy to have met all of you."

With that said, TobuCatmon combusted into data particles, his data soared towards the sky. The golden data sparkled like stars against the dark night, before the soft winds picked up and scattered the data around the area.

"No…" JD gasped. Beside him, Adam was stifling his sobs, and Patamon wasn't doing any better.

His body trembled with fury, and with a roar he thumped his fist onto the ground.

The ground exploded, soundly sending stones and dirt all over them. JD let out another howl and punched again, now seeing his fist glowing with dark crimson aura. A zapping sound was heard tingling in his ears. The second punch had widened the crack that resulted from the first one, but his anger hadn't been quenched. He punched again and again, barely noticing that no pain came from all the punching, nor that his fist wasn't injured. He just didn't care.

He'd lost count on just how many punches had he abused onto the ground before the strange crimson glow dissipated. He was exhausted, and with his anger finally subdued he felt all the sorrow in him threatening to come out. _No!_ he thought. His cousin was here. He mustn't lose control.

From the back, a pair of thin arms suddenly was wrapped around his torso.

xxx

xxx

Adam and Patamon had been watching the sudden manifestation of power in JD.

They saw JD howling in fury, and before he knew it his eyes sparked with black light, before changing to crimson flare. From his eyes two streaks of light jolted out, him apparently unaware of it, and the light jolts wrapped around his right fist just as JD was going to punch the ground in sorrow and anger. His fist emitted a strong beam of dark crimson blast that tore a hole onto the ground.

The ground cracked, spewed up dirt and stones, before a thin crevice was formed. Adam jumped away from his raging cousin. He teleported the fallen debris away where they wouldn't harm any of them. He kept on doing so for as long as JD kept punching the ground. The crevice widened with every punch, radiating all around the meadow. The earth actually shook with the punches inflicted on them - though nothing like an earthquake, but still noticeable.

After a long five minutes, approximately, the light in JD's fist died down. Adam saw him kneeling down, heaving his breaths slowly. Tentatively he approached JD. "Josh?"

No reply. When he was close enough to him, Adam saw him trembling. He looked at Patamon. Patamon nodded.

"He needs it," the Digimon whispered. "Especially from you."

Adam nodded. He could _sense_ what JD was feeling. He didn't know how he could do that. It was the same way how he'd been jolted up from his deep sleep, sensing danger and trepidation from out of nowhere. Something had told him to go to the Digital World, and he'd heeded it. Now that he thought of it, it wasn't actually the first time he had encountered this strange phenomenon. As Aldiyamon, he had felt a sudden rush of sorrow from Puspamon, back during that fateful day when Bel and D'Arcmon were murdered by Astamon.

Now, he was picking up anger from JD. He could actually _feel_ JD's rage flowing in him. The emotion was so intense that Adam was forced to take a few deep breaths – the emotion was not his, but it was threatening to consume him too. Taking slow deep breaths seemed to be effective in controlling the invading emotion. Relieved, Adam knelt behind his cousin.

Then, he draped his arms around his cousin's body to comfort him. JD's heart was beating wildly against his hands, and Adam suppressed his gasp when waves of mixed emotions flowed inside him – anger, sadness, fear, hurt, frustration were those that he could figure out. Those feelings were further emphasized by two damp drops on his hand. He resisted the urge to pull away; the emotions raged within him but he released them, by letting his own tears flow out freely, unrestrained. His cousin was shivering, and a low growl was heard. Adam feared that if he let go JD would act brashly, so he held on as firm as he could muster. He had no doubt that if his cousin wanted to, he could've easily brush him off without much effort. But JD wasn't resisting at all.

The emotions he sensed from JD made him realize that JD was in need for comforting, far more than Adam himself.

JD had always been the strong one for Adam. That night, it was Adam's turn.

xxx

xxx

Lucemon opened his eyes, just as Persiamon entered the dark hall of the Onyx Pyramid. The Virago General seemed injured – she was bleeding. Quite an unusual sight, he thought, for few could match her prowess. Satriamon from the Wira Digital team had been a notable adversary against her, but he'd required assistance from another Wira Digital then. He read her mind without bothering to ask; he had always done so, and they knew it. Even if they were against it, there was nothing they could do about it. He smirked upon thinking about his advantage, as images of Lilithmon versus Medieval Gallantmon entered his mind, ending with Lilithmon's parting blow towards TobuCatmon.

"You've killed the mentor," said Lucemon, picking up several after-images by casting his mind power towards the battle scene. "And your battle with him while he was a Mega was impressive. Really, you are by far the one who's fully in control of your Mega form. Doumon requires lots of meditation, Astamon and Shawujinmon require trainings, but you…"

"Oh well, I'm strong enough now. I could've beaten him in my Ultimate form but I supposed I wanted an exercise of sorts, and Medieval Gallantmon _looked_ strong, at first glance."

"Understandable," nodded Lucemon, closing his mind web so that he could focus on the conversation at hand. "Medieval Gallantmon is a subspecies of a member of the Royal Knights, who have been instrumental in defeating the Seven Great Demon Lords. It's only natural if you're wary of his power and digivolve to Mega yourself."

"For the record, I _didn't_ freak out," Persiamon pointed out.

"I've never said you did," said Lucemon. "And, I suppose congratulations is due, since you've gotten rid of TobuCatmon."

"Did I really? I wasn't sure. Had no time to really make sure, but…"

"He's dead. I sensed it."

"Oh. Then, yay me! Anyway," Persiamon gestured towards the cocoon she was holding, "I've also got Agumon. He was going to ruin my plan. I have to break them up."

Lucemon considered her plan. His eyes fell on the cocoon. "Shouldn't you just kill him and be done with it? Oh, wait, don't tell me…" He read her thoughts again and smiled. "Your lust of evil is certainly unique, yet terrifying. And I'm quite impressed of your control of your Mega form. But are you sure that you're totally _in_ control to perform what you're intending to do?"

"Really, can't you just be like normal Digimon and _ask_ me what I'm planning rather than reading my mind?" snapped Persiamon.

Her outburst amused him. "It's easier that way," he stated. "But alright. Since I'm not reading your mind, care to answer my earlier inquiry?"

"Of course. I won't want to do it if I'm not sure. I however, will need your help. Your psychic power, specifically. Heard you managed to suppress the angel girl Astamon absorbed?"

Lucemon shrugged. "It wasn't too difficult."

Persiamon's look was conspiratorial. "Can you do it on the real owner of the body instead, letting the absorbed data become dominant?"

"_That_ is a bit complicated, but it can be done," said Lucemon. "And speaking about psychic power, did you know that tonight, by causing tonight's mayhems, you've awakened not one, but _two_ forms of psychic powers?"

While casting his mind web as far as the Green Meadow region earlier, his psychic power recognized other variants of itself. Lucemon sensed that these other variants of his power weren't as strong as his own. _Not yet_, he reminded himself. Their powers had the potential to grow, to expand, making them powerful opponents in future. _Psychic powers are like wildcards,_ thought Lucemon; _they need to be controlled properly. Usually it's done subconsciously, but it might be interesting to see their control just…slipped._

"I didn't. Why? Are they as strong as yours?" asked Persiamon.

"Not quite," Lucemon smirked evilly. An idea crossed his mind. "However, I might be able to have some fun with them. One of them, in particular."

"So long it's not the blond one."

"Oh, don't worry. I actually have the dark-haired one in mind."

xxx

xxx

"Adam."

"Hmm…?"

"It's almost dawn," informed JD. "Unless you're planning on ditching school..."

Adam's reply was almost automatic, it amused him. "I can't do that! I missed school quite a few times already!" His eyes fluttered open, and he looked around him in surprise. A look of dawning understanding replaced the surprise, and he sighed, subdued. JD couldn't blame him – by now Adam must have remembered back of what had happened the previous night.

"Hey. Morning, sleepyhead."

In return, Adam gave him a small smile. "Hi, Josh."

"I'd say delayed reaction, but that would be stating the obvious," said JD, referring to how Adam had reacted upon waking up.

The smile was gone. Adam sighed. "I was hoping that it was all a bad dream."

"Yeah," said JD. "I hoped for the same thing too."

"What time is it?" asked Adam.

"Close to six. No rush. We can see the sunrise before going back."

Adam nodded. He settled back, leaning against the boulder, and looked straight ahead towards the horizon in silence.

"Hey, listen," started JD. "I didn't get to say thanks last night."

He was referring to how his cousin had comforted him when he was at the verge of losing it. He had lost Agumon and TobuCatmon was dead, both in the span of one night. Though Agumon wasn't confirmed to have been deleted, but Persiamon had kidnapped him. He hated to think of what that manipulative general would do to Agumon. He didn't even know how to save his partner. They weren't as powerful as the generals, not yet anyway, with only Aldiyamon achieving Mega level. Invading the Onyx Pyramid now would be suicide.

It had been late, but both of them and Patamon had gone back to the destroyed sanctum. The place, once beautiful with its marbled floor and pillars, artificial fountain where the sound of water provided a soothing effect, and the hammock and TV that made it homely – it had been wrecked beyond repair. The pillars all had fallen, one was_sliced_. The TV and the sun staff were no longer usable. The medicinal potions had been the victims of the destruction. The floor was cracked all over. They had then worked quietly in cleaning up the mess at the sanctum – he'd used this as an opportunity to vent, while Adam used his power to remove the bigger mess that JD couldn't clean up. It had taken them about an hour before the sanctum was cleaned up, but even so, it wasn't the same sanctum they were familiar with. An aura of despair hung over the place. Not one of them could bear being in there so they all went outside.

Adam was the one who had gotten tired, and JD had suggested that they camped out there for the night. The night was clear, and he could provide the fire they needed to keep themselves warm. But apart from all that, JD simply didn't want to return to an empty room. His cousin's presence was comforting, and despite himself, he found that it gave him a sense of peace. So he'd asked Adam to stay, and to his relief Adam didn't refuse, probably out of tiredness, physically and emotionally. The boy had gone to sleep just after several minutes sitting with his back pressed against the boulder by the lake. JD had taken another hour before he dozed off, and throughout that hour he had spent thinking about what had taken place that night.

"You don't have to," said Adam. "You're always the one comforting me when I was sad."

"That's the thing." He smiled lightly. "Talk about role-reversal."

"You can't always be the strong one forever," said Adam, smiling back. "How are you holding up? It must be terrible for you."

JD didn't reply. What his cousin had just said had struck a chord in his heart. _When I die, next week…are you strong enough to move on? _ He saw Adam blinking and frowning at him, and thought that it was odd. It was as if he had heard him saying that in his mind, which was impossible. Avoiding Adam's thoughtful look, he stared towards the horizon, where the sky was slowly becoming brighter. It would be sunrise very soon.

"We'll do what we can to save Agumon." Adam gazed at JD for a moment. "I've tried summoning Agumon, last night. Unfortunately it didn't work. But…" The boy frowned, and cast a long look towards the dark horizon. "I think he's still alive. I don't know how to explain it…but he's out there. Somewhere."

"Thanks." He squeezed Adam's shoulder. "Sorry. I totally forgot that out of all people, you knew how it was like, losing a partner."

He waited for a response, but Adam didn't seem to hear him. He had a dazed look on his face, unblinking. He snapped his finger, and Adam blinked. JD jerked his eyebrows up, and Adam looked away. He saw the boy looking at the crevice that stretched across the meadow that was visible by the naked eye in the scanty amount of light. He knew immediately what Adam was going to ask.

"What's up with last night? I mean, the way you punched the ground…" Adam glanced back to JD; his expression was that of wonder. "No normal people could do that."

JD frowned. "I'm not sure. But I remembered feeling so angry. Like I wanted to kill Persiamon there and then if I could." He stopped, trying to picture what had taken place the previous night.

"And…?"

"Then I was seeing red all of a sudden, before feeling my hand shaking with power. Next thing I knew I punched the ground. I didn't realize that it was making the ground crack."

Adam stared at him, wide-eyed. "What do you think that was about? I mean…you weren't able to do that before."

JD shrugged. "My guess, it's my new power."

"New power…" Adam let the words left their taste in his mouth. JD thought he saw Adam at the verge of saying something, but seemed to change his mind from the way he clamped his mouth. "I wish TobuCatmon's here," he finally continued. "He'd know what is going on."

Silence. JD leaned back against the boulder, and for a moment he was reminded of their deceased mentor. That made him sad.

"I never knew that he could digivolve to Mega," he said quietly.

Adam gazed at him. "Neither do I, or any of us," he responded. "We do know that he was supposedly stronger within the sanctum's area."

"It's just…" A bad memory crossed his mind. "Do you know that when I was evil, Agumon and I – as Satriamon – had battled him?"

"Yeah, we know. TobuCatmon never blamed you."

"That time, he could've just become Mega and trash us that day," said JD. "But instead, he just let us bully him into submission, before we captured him."

"I think," said Adam, frowning a little, as if trying to remember something. "He'd always believed that you two would come back to the side of good. Maybe that's why. In the end, you and Agumon joined us. I think for TobuCatmon, that's all that matters. That you two left the side of evil."

"I never really got the chance to apologize for that," said JD. He frowned, shaking his head. "No. I did have a chance. It just…never came up."

"I know one thing," assured Adam, squeezing his shoulder, "He never blamed you. Not one bit. You should've seen how worried he was when you and Agumon got stuck at the Dark Ocean. He almost _pleaded_ for me to go and save you two." He smiled grimly. "As you know, I didn't really like you much that time."

"One of my least favorite moments," murmured JD, clasping his cousin's hand firmly.

Adam abruptly pulled his hand back. "Sorry for bringing that back up."

"What?" JD gazed at the smaller boy, somewhat surprised of his reaction. "Why are you apologizing for?"

"It's just…nothing." Adam cast his gaze away, looking a bit troubled. JD decided not to push it. Apologizing for the littlest kind of mistake was something that had seemingly been _ingrained_ in the boy's system – no matter how much JD told him not to, Adam would always do it nonetheless. That boy sometimes was polite to a fault.

Several seconds passed, as the early morning breeze blew upon their faces. It was refreshing. Patamon stirred, but still hadn't woken up. It wasn't sunrise yet; the two DigiWira sat together in companionable silence, mutually deciding that they'd return after daybreak.

Sunrise ensued. For a moment they admired it, but for JD, every new day meant that it would be less one day for him. _Agumon's presumably gone, TobuCatmon's gone, and pretty soon, I'll be gone too…damn you, Persiamon. Damn you. _

"We've better get going," he muttered after a while. "We still have to break the news to the others."

Adam's shoulders sagged. "I hate to be the one doing it. They'll be heartbroken when they find out."

"We'll do it together. C'mon." JD laid one hand on Adam's shoulder, a casual gesture of affection for him. Then he saw his cousin tensed.

_What's up with him?_

xxx

xxx

He had contemplated in telling JD about his new power, when JD mentioned that the power he'd displayed the previous night was probably a new power. But he'd stopped himself, remembering the strange bouts of pain JD had occasionally, during battle whenever he was Satriamon. When Satriamon was seemingly strained, the pain would erupt. But JD would always avoid telling him about the pain, usually dismissing it as the result of his workout or that he was strained. Half the times JD used those excuses, it had seemed believable to Adam, but he knew as well that JD was hiding something.

_New power_. Adam thought that it made perfect sense. He was too focused on teleportation being his main power, he'd forgotten that there was a possibility that the element of light of his DigiSphere could give him another power. _So that makes me having teleportation, summoning, purifying, and now feelings-sensing? _ He grunted inwardly. _Another inactive power. _

But perhaps, with this power he could get a better outlook of what his dark and brooding cousin was feeling.

Every time when they made contact, that strange jumble of negative emotions would flow within him. When he'd managed to separate anger from the rest of the emotion, he'd found that his cousin was feeling sad and dread at the same time. There was something JD was not telling him. He had even left no clues of his current wellbeing.

As JD turned to face him, Adam dared to look into his eyes. JD's hand was on his shoulder again, and Adam tensed upon seeing his cousin's hazel eyes. Despite experiencing the wave of emotions again, Adam realized that he didn't need his power of emotion-sensing to know what JD was thinking.

He would just have to look into his eyes. Deeply. Those eyes had lost their mischievous twinkles. They now looked despaired.

Some time ago, _Adam_ was the one who had mastered the art of veiling his sorrow, by suppressing them and thrusting them at the back of his mind. He'd done that so flawlessly that even by looking into his eyes in a casual manner, most people wouldn't be able to detect what he was feeling. And people were saying that just by looking in the eyes one would know what the other was feeling. He had fooled everyone, even his sister to a certain degree. Now, looking at JD, he thought that his cousin wasn't really as good as he had been when it came to hiding his emotions.

_How did I miss those? Josh is obviously unhappy about something, long before today. _

Following JD from the back, he let in the traces of feelings radiating from JD, analyzing them without making contact. If he could feel those without even touching his cousin, then those feelings must be strong enough. Once more, he'd gotten anger and sorrow.

_Even if you're not telling, Josh…I'm going to find out what's really bothering you._

xxx

xxx

It had sounded so important, and their expressions were so grave when he saw them earlier during recess time. Manny kept this in mind as he walked briskly towards the park near their school that afternoon, after school had let out. Liu Ying had taken a head start; she'd said that she'd return with drinks for all four of them, as it was a particularly warm afternoon. In fact, Liu Ying had even offered to meet at her house, which was just opposite the park, but both JD and Adam had declined.

If the cousins didn't call them up for a meeting, Manny would have. He wanted to tell them about Opie, that the Digimon was actually Valkyrimon, and about Falcomon's intrusion the previous night in order to retrieve Opie back.

He saw the cousins were already there, at the edge of the park, and they saw him. He waved at them. Only Adam waved back, and it was done half-heartedly. Manny thought that both looked oddly downcast. He wondered what could be wrong.

"Liu Ying says that she'll come with some drinks for us," informed Manny, once he was with them.

The cousins nodded. Said girl soon came, with four plastic cups and a jug of lemonade. She beckoned towards a wooden table under a tree. It was a shady spot, perfect for conversation.

"So," said Liu Ying, as the boys gulped down their drinks. "You said that it's urgent."

Manny noted JD and Adam sharing a long look, before facing them.

"It's TobuCatmon," said Adam with a low tone. He gazed upon at Manny and Liu Ying, eyes shining. "He's… dead."

Manny gasped. Liu Ying choked on her drink. Both stared at their team leader.

"What?" they asked simultaneously, eyes widened in disbelief.

"He's _killed_," growled JD, his tone furious, "by that no-good, conniving bitch Persiamon!"

Liu Ying gasped, her hand held before her mouth.

"How…how's that possible?" asked Manny.

JD's face darkened. "Last night, Persiamon invaded Forest Sanctum. TobuCatmon went to Mega form to stop her, but that bitch's also got her own Mega form. TobuCatmon didn't stand a chance and attempted escape, but Lilithmon – her Mega form – sent a fatal attack his way. We came over too late; Aldiyamon managed to only drive her away. He died before us."

It took a while for JD's explanation to sink in. Manny found that his throat was somehow constricted, making him unable to speak. Liu Ying was clasping and unclasping the plastic cup she was holding.

"That can't be true!" exclaimed Liu Ying, aghast. "Forest Sanctum is protected by a force-field that prevents evil from crossing it. It's impossible for Persiamon to invade the sanctum. The force-field would prevent her from doing so."

"She didn't go through the force-field," said JD. "That bitch disguised herself as a stupid cat to weasel her way in my house. She won Bibik's trust, and Bibik took her in." He paused; the crease between his brows deepened with his frown. "When it was night and all of us were asleep, she used my Digivice to gain entrance to the sanctum. She even kidnapped Agumon..."

"Agumon? Why?" gasped Manny. As if it wasn't bad enough that TobuCatmon was killed.

JD gave him a dark look, as if saying _you know why_. The same look was shot towards Liu Ying. With Adam having his head hung down and that he was sitting beside JD, Manny saw that JD had taken that opportunity to give them that meaningful look. Instantly, he knew. They both knew what Agumon had wanted to do, should the cure for the curse was not found. They couldn't speculate about the reason of the kidnapping right now, but deep down, he knew that JD knew, and Liu Ying would know too.

"It was horrible," said Adam. "The sanctum was a mess. Josh and I, and Patamon, went there after TobuCatmon…we tried fixing it up, but it just isn't Forest Sanctum anymore. Nothing was spared…everything was destroyed." He was pressing the sides of his head, while JD looked at him oddly.

"I can't believe it," said Liu Ying, still shocked. Her breaths became ragged. She stood up abruptly. "I want to go to Forest Sanctum. Right now." Her grasp of the plastic glass slipped and she spilled the lemonade on the ground. Looking more and more stricken, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "I want to see it with my own eyes. The sanctum, or what's left of it."

JD stood up as well. "C'mon. Let's all go."

"Wait," said Manny. "Does Jackie know?"

"We've told him this morning," said Adam. "He's taken a leave from work to investigate. He should be there by now."

"What about Gayathri?"

"I don't know whether we should tell her or not today. She'll be back tomorrow. Manny, what do you think?"

Manny's shoulders sagged. "I don't know, too. She sounded better when I called her last night, and that she can't wait to come back here tomorrow." He sighed. "I'd hate to spoil her last day of vacation. Maybe we should wait till she gets back here. This news…it's better if it's told face-to-face, don't you think?"

"I agree," said Liu Ying. "But she'll be heartbroken when she finds out. She and I, we're the earliest two. We were close to him."

"I wish I'd gotten to know him better," said JD bitterly. Beside him, Adam nodded.

Manny silently agreed. Since he and JD joined the team, everything had happened in a very fast pace; Lilamon's attempted foray on the sanctum, the Puaka Generals' dark deception on Adam and the whole team, the invasion of the Darkshadow Brethren to their world. They had never really got the chance to get acquainted with their feline mentor. And now, they wouldn't be able to.

"We better get going if we want to go to the sanctum," Adam reminded.

They parted ways, back to their houses where they'd use their home computers to Digiport to the Digital World.

xxx

xxx

Manny didn't pick up his cell phone. Gayathri thought that it was strange. She could think of three reasons why her boyfriend wouldn't pick up the phone.

This time of day, he could be sleeping. She had caught him sleeping a couple of times, so she'd learned not to call him. A sleepy Manny wasn't someone she could talk too on the phone, no matter how amusing he could be when he was still half-sleeping while answering the phone. He might also be in the bathroom. Or the third reason: he could be in the Digital World.

She was bored. Willis and his parents had gone to Kuala Lumpur to get to the airport. And Anding was the one driving them there, since her family and his had gotten acquainted over breakfast. Their driver had needed to make a quick stop at his college to retrieve some assignments, and her father had suggested to Willis's stepfather that perhaps Anding could drive them to the airport. That way Anding could earn some extra pocket money, and the Johnson family would be assured that they'd be taken to the airport in good hands. Anding had agreed readily, hence his absence today.

She and Willis had promised to keep in touch once Willis returned to America. She was looking forward to tell her fellow DigiWira about Willis. They had traded stories over dinner the previous night, and Willis had commented that he hadn't have what he'd termed as _out of the world_ adventures as they had – his most intense fight was when he and the Japanese DigiDestined team teamed up to stop his virus-infected partner Chocomon. After that life was relatively calm for him.

Gayathri had responded by saying that she'd trade anything for calm, though she wouldn't trade anything for her friendship with the other DigiWira, and her current relationship with Manny. At least she wouldn't have lost Bel.

_Bel,_ she thought fondly, watching the hotel's indoor artificial fountain whilst using her parent's laptop. _We'll continue fighting…I'll continue for you. I miss you, girl, but I'm okay now. _

She had begun typing her new private journal prior to her first attempt in calling Manny, as Liu Ying had suggested – it was what she'd done, and still doing every now and then, whenever she missed her late father. Gayathri had started writing to 'Bel' – the name she'd given for her private journal – since the previous night, after her dinner with Willis. She'd save it in her flash drive, and would continue writing it in her own personal computer back home.

_Liu Ying was right. This is rather therapeutic…_

xxx

xxx

"I can't believe that TobuCatmon's gone," whispered Liu Ying, wiping her reddened eyes as she stepped out of the forest surrounding the sanctum. She gave one forlorn look back towards the forests, sighing. "I've always thought…he'd be here until the end. Until we've won."

"I feel the same way," said Manny, glumly. "We're on our own now."

Jackie, now joining them, sighed. "This has _never_ happened with the other teams. You guys really have it rough."

"Obviously," snorted JD, "since we get a pack of bastards and one bloody bitch as our enemies."

Adam merely gazed at his friends from the back, walking side-by-side with Dina. Patamon and Lalamon were following them from behind.

He'd called her earlier, wondering whether she'd like to come too. The girl had agreed: now partnered to Lalamon, she was also part of the team. He had also informed his sister and Abu about TobuCatmon's death. They'd really wanted to join, but Abu's shift wouldn't end until next day's morning, while his sister had to meet up with someone regarding her freelance work.

He'd caught glimpses of sorrow from practically everyone, but Adam now realized that his new ability was enhanced by touch, and if the emotions were strong enough. For instance, JD's anger – just being around him Adam could perceive his anger. He could understand why his cousin was so angry, and suspected that he'd continue be feeling it for as long as Agumon was still in captive. Back at school, the only feeling he'd picked up was relieved exuberance whenever the bell rung: that had been pretty intense, considering in his class alone there were thirty-three pupils, not counting him and Gayathri who was absent, and all of them were simultaneously happy whenever the bell for recess or end of school rung.

He'd gotten weird vibes from his fellow DigiWira when they met at the park prior to coming here. He couldn't make out what they were, but it was as if they all knew something that he didn't. He could distinguish anger and sadness, the dominant feelings he was getting from them now, but there was also…something else. _Anxiety. Towards me. How odd._

"I don't remember the ground being cracked," noted Liu Ying, gazing at the crevice.

"I did that," admitted JD. "Last night."

"How?"

"Watch." With a low growl JD energized his right fist with dark crimson aura. Then with a yell, he punched the ground, causing explosion of debris to ensue.

Debris rained over them. Liu Ying immediately raised her telekinetic shield, assisted by Adam who teleported the bigger debris away. JD saw this, and let out an awkward, apologetic smile.

"Sorry."

"What was that?" Jackie exclaimed, surprised.

"Not sure. New power maybe," said JD, shrugging.

"Anger-energized punch," clarified Adam. The look JD gave him in return was almost appreciative. The others however, still looked confused.

"You mean you created that by feeling angry?" asked Jackie.

"Pretty much. It was how it came to being last night. I was pissed like hell, and it happened. I didn't even realize what was going on until the anger's gone." JD gave the digital man a long look. "I was hoping _you_ could explain it for me."

Silence. Jackie seemed to be thinking, from the way he was rubbing his chin. The DigiWira waited for his answer in anticipation.

After several seconds passed, Adam started counting in his head. _One. Two. Three. Four._

"I have a guess," said Jackie finally. "It seems to me that you've gained a pure psionic-like power. You're able to channel your emotion – in this case, your _anger_ – into a focused beam of energy out of your hand. Psycho-blast, perhaps, is a right term for this."

"Hey! I'm no psycho!" JD said, affronted.

"Psycho here means psychic-related, or mind-related," explained Jackie. "Not crazy, as you've clearly suspected."

"Hmph. You could be a bit more specific."

"My apologies."

JD shrugged.

Adam watched the exchange with interest. Jackie seemed knowledgeable enough about their special abilities. He wondered whether he should ask him about his new power to sense emotion. He was rather surprised when Jackie mentioned JD's new power stemmed from emotion. That meant that both his and his cousin's new powers were emotion-based. He could detect other people's emotions, while JD was able to manipulate emotions to generate an offensive technique.

"You guys are becoming stronger than us," complained Penguinmon. "Why don't _we_ get these powers? I'd like for some of that thunder power Manny's got."

"What would you need that for?" asked Labramon. "You've already got your attacks."

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe zap Opie's butt when he's least expecting it."

"Penguinmon!" admonished Manny.

"Opie?" asked Adam. "Who's Opie?"

"Oh, you weren't with us that time," said Manny. He looked a little bit troubled, Adam noted. "I've told JD and Liu Ying that a Digimon that looked a lot like Penguinmon had come to our house last weekend. Debbie took a liking at him, and called him Opie, since he had amnesia then and didn't have a clue of who he was. Opie stands for Orange Penguinmon."

"Wow. That's…creative."

"_Had_ amnesia?" Liu Ying questioned.

Manny sighed. "That's what I've been wanting to tell you today, but never got the chance too. You see, last night, a Digimon called Falcomon invaded our house, and claimed that he and Opie were actually the Avian Shines. Falcomon was Valdurmon, and Opie…he was Valkyrimon."

A round of surprised gasp ensued.

"What the hell?" JD exclaimed. "Valkyrimon?"

"Valkyrimon? I thought we've beaten that guy," said Adam.

"That's what I thought," said Manny. "However, it seems that Valkyrimon was only reduced back to Rookie form. The last attack you two gave him must have knocked him pretty hard on the head, for he'd lost his memories. Which was why, he refused to go with Falcomon. Said that he didn't know what Falcomon was talking about. That ticked Falcomon off, and he knocked Opie over the wall so hard that he became unconscious. Penguinmon and I managed to force Falcomon to go away. Then Opie woke up…memories regained."

"I don't think I like the sound of this," said Liu Ying, frowning.

"No, no. It's alright, actually. Opie remembered being Valkyrimon, but apparently he had a change of heart. He'd become friends with Debbie, and was grateful for us in taking him in when he was injured. That was what made him wanting to stay with us instead of leaving with Falcomon. Apart than getting a roof to live under and free foods, I suppose. Given my way, I'd make him leave, but Debbie really is attached to him already, and I didn't have the heart to deny her. We decided to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Hmph!_ You_ decided," snorted Penguinmon. "I don't trust him."

Adam took a few seconds to process this information. "Do you have a reason not to believe Opie, Penguinmon?"

"He's Valkyrimon! An Avian Shine! An enemy! He wasn't even hoodwinked, like us back when we were under Karatenmon!" wailed Penguinmon. "Isn't it obvious?"

"But," reasoned Adam, "maybe you ought to give him a chance? After all he did say he's reformed."

"Ha! You're one to talk! I seem to remember _you_ being so mistrusting to your cousin when all of us thought that he'd become good! And now you're telling me to be like, _hey Opie, though you're once evil and nearly had our heads but I'm willing to forget all that and believe you right this instant?_"

Adam's cheeks colored. He was rendered speechless.

"And as I recall," drawled Penguinmon, "you weren't so trusting to _us_, either, at first."

"Penguinmon! Enough!" Manny looked at Adam apologetically.

JD stepped in. "Hey, I didn't blame him for not being so trusting. Hell, even I wouldn't be so trusting to me back then, after what I've put him through. I was an ass. Gotta say I deserved it."

"Hmph. You're just siding with your cousin."

"And what's wrong with that?" Penguinmon was about to retort, but JD cut in again, "And one word about this from you again, and I'll make roast bird out of you. Clear?"

"Crystal," said Penguinmon, eyes narrowed. "No need to get so defensive, I was just saying. Sheesh. Keep your shirt on."

JD responded by generating a flicker of flame.

"Penguinmon, stop picking fights," said Manny in a severe tone. Penguinmon flinched. "Opie's _promised_ to protect Debbie and the family from any harm, did you forget? I think that's reason enough for us to give him that benefit of the doubt." Penguinmon nodded weakly. "And, I think you owe Adam something?"

"Huh?" blinked Adam. _Owe me what?_

"Yeah, yeah I know," said Penguinmon. "Sorry, Adam."

_Oh, that. _"It's alright."

Silence. The air suddenly felt heavier, and the atmosphere tensed.

All of a sudden, an explosion ensued. A stream of thunderous blue energy blasted towards the edge of the Green Meadow far north, and caused the earth to shook. Smokes resulted and the plants there caught fire instantly. Thick smokes ensued.

Several Digimon emerged from the smokes; half a dozen of Duskmon and Velgemon each, and a taller knight donning grey armor and a flowing cerulean cape. The dark knight was wielding a jousting lance and a circular shield. The Velgemon screeched and took flight, while the Duskmon flanked the dark knight, as they marched towards the DigiWira.

"Digimon attack!" Jackie exclaimed.

"Shit! This day has gone from bad to worse!" swore JD.

Adam was inclined to agree, too. Without Agumon, they were down one fighter. He took out his Digivice. "Let's do it."


	62. Duke of Hazard

JD watched his cousin and friends' merging with their partners with heavy heart. All these times he had taken Agumon for granted; the dino was always there when he was itching for battle. Now he was on his own, and JD hated how _useless_ he seemed to be now. He could only look as Aldiyamon Juara Mode, Xianamon and Samudramon emerging from the bursts of evolution light, before sailing towards the incoming villains.

As if their movements had already been coordinated, Samudramon went towards the Duskmon while Xianamon took to the skies where the Velgemon hovered over. Aldiyamon, being the only Mega, charged towards the dark knight, whom by now JD had identified as a viral Mega Digimon called ChaosGallantmon. Samudramon seemed to be having a relatively easy time drowning the Duskmon with his water blast – JD snorted, wondering why the generals had bothered sending the Duskmon when Samudramon was around, when those brutes' weakness was being drowned by water. Xianamon in the meantime was at first overwhelmed by the half dozen Velgemon, but soon rectified that by creating her duplicate, which in return, trashed the whole bunch of Velgemon.

It was the battle between Aldiyamon Juara Mode and ChaosGallantmon that had his utmost attention.

_Damnit,_ he thought angrily, as the two Megas clashed swords. _What the hell am I gonna do staying at the sidelines?_

---

Their weapons clashed. It was now a battle of strength between the two Megas.

Aldiyamon didn't like this one bit. Physical match was one thing; he and ChaosGallantmon seemed to be at equal grounds. In fact, in terms of physical resemblance, if ChaosGallantmon would lose the cape and had white wings as well as white armor, they had an almost the same bodily semblances already. Heights and sizes, they were not much different.

Mental match however, was not something Aldiyamon had expected. As Adam, he was able to perceive emotions by physical contact, and at times when he was close enough he could sense intense emotions from others.

Now as Aldiyamon, he discovered that this ability had increased; which, he thought, was a distraction he did not need in this battle: ChaosGallantmon was practically _blasting_ him with chaotic emotions, and Aldiyamon was taking it full on, no defenses raised. Just by looking into ChaosGallantmon's gleaming crimson eyes alone he was able to perceive various conflicting emotions, and they currently had their weapons pressed against each others'. Aldiyamon – or Adam and Patamon – had never suffered a headache such as this one.

It didn't help that ChaosGallantmon was not making this any easier. He needed to break the contact to catch his breaths, to sort out the raging emotions – failing to do so and the emotions would consume him. The dark knight was growling as he pushed his jousting lance down Aldiyamon's Heavenstar Gladius.

He teleported away, and the sudden loss of contact made ChaosGallantmon stumbled on his knees. He reappeared a distance away, but before he could sort out the emotions ChaosGallantmon had seen him. The dark knight got up and spun around, ready to charge towards him again. The way ChaosGallantmon was snarling, it was as if the Digimon had a personal vendetta against him. Aldiyamon prepared to defend himself – he couldn't be teleporting away forever.

But thick vines suddenly sprouted from the grounds and bound the dark knight, wrapped tightly around his body. A safe distance away, Aldiyamon saw Rosemon kneeling, her thorny vines planted into the crevices JD had created the previous night. Samudramon and Xianamon were currently engaged in the battle with the brutes; it didn't look like they were able to assist him anytime soon.

The emotions he was reading from ChaosGallantmon slowly became clearer.

_Anger,_ thought Aldiyamon. _No…Hate?_

"What are you doing?!" demanded Rosemon. "I can't hold him off much longer!"

ChaosGallantmon snarled, and tore the vines as he got up, almost effortlessly. He turned to face Rosemon and pointed his shield towards her.

Fearing the worst, Aldiyamon teleported before them. Rosemon was protecting JD, Dina and Jackie; she couldn't possibly resist ChaosGallantmon's assault.

"_Judecca Prison!"_ growled ChaosGallantmon. The shield responded by glowing with midnight-hued auras.

The attack looked strong. Thus, Aldiyamon released his Transcendent Purification just as a massive energy beam was shot from the shield. The two attacks met halfway and begun pushing away Aldiyamon slightly. Rosemon stepped forward, unleashing her Forbidden Temptation. The pink flowery energy blast streaked side by side with the pristine white beam, before slowly merging with it to form a pinkish-white combination attack that was strong enough to gradually push back ChaosGallantmon's shot. With a loud grunt, the two Megas exerted more power and their combined attack slammed onto ChaosGallantmon before both attacks dissolved into data.

"He's strong," panted Aldiyamon, as ChaosGallantmon fell on his back.

"No kidding," said Rosemon. "You better take care of him quickly – he's a dangerous opponent if he can hold his own against you."

"Right."

Aldiyamon took out his sword and floated towards the fallen ChaosGallantmon. He extended his sword hand towards the side, raising it up slightly as it sparked with white electricity.

"_Heavenstar Slasher!"_

He swung the sword horizontally, intending to create a trail of white energy blade, but to his surprise the sword seemed to freeze upon its own accord midway. The trail remained, but the sword became rigid. Or rather, it was his _arm_ that had become rigid. Aldiyamon gasped; it was as if an invisible force had _frozen_ his arm and his sword.

His headache intensified. The sword proceeded by jolting a thin streak of white energy towards his temple, and Aldiyamon gasped again. It wasn't painful, but had surprised him. He gazed down towards ChaosGallantmon, for a moment thinking that the dark knight could be behind this, but aside from having gotten up the knight did nothing else. He looked at his sword, and it glowed at him once before powering down. The strange rigidity had been lifted; he could now lower his arm to his side. Then he grunted; the sides of his head throbbed, but not of pain, though they were as intense.

The emotions that raged within him, and within ChaosGallantmon, were true to his namesake. They were chaotic, like the tidal waves during an ocean thunderstorm. But Aldiyamon now realized that hate and anger were only feelings that were superficial, in his enemy's case. Something else threatened to emerge from underneath those emotions, and with the jolt from his sword Aldiyamon was able to delve deeper – involuntarily. It seemed that his sword had detected something wrong with ChaosGallantmon and was determined that its master must be made known about it. Now, having passed the superficial feelings, Aldiyamon gasped as a horrible realization set in his mind.

ChaosGallantmon was feeling sorrow, anguished. And that was because he was in pain.

Underneath ChaosGallantmon's armors, there was something that screamed _wrong_ about him. Closing his eyes, letting his heart and mind guide his action instead of common sense, Aldiyamon pictured ChaosGallantmon in his mind. Slowly the image of the dark knight distorted, replaced with a smaller, warmer, _familiar_ presence. He opened his eyes again, his mouth half-opened in a mixture of horrified and amazement as ChaosGallantmon snarled, pointing his lance towards Aldiyamon.

Aldiyamon didn't have the heart to resist. He only held his sword up for defensive measure, pleading, "Agumon! No!"

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 62 – Duke of Hazard**_

xxx

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"What?"

JD froze upon hearing Aldiyamon's yell. He swore when ChaosGallantmon slammed his lance upon Aldiyamon, who was barely defending himself with his sword. The angelic knight was thrown onto the ground, and ChaosGallantmon charged towards him. _Agumon? It can't be…_

"Agumon! Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" shouted Aldiyamon.

"I know what I'm doing!" ChaosGallantmon shouted back.

It was the first time the Mega had spoken, JD noted, as the Mega pointed his lance on Aldiyamon's supine form. He thought that the Digimon sounded enraged, but there was something else underlying the rage. It sounded as if ChaosGallantmon was in pain.

"And that is to destroy you!" ChaosGallantmon continued, snarling like a vicious animal.

"Agumon, please. We're your friends!"

Aldiyamon managed to raise his body up, but couldn't move further as the tip of ChaosGallantmon's lance was held dangerously close to his chest. He inched away – one move forward and the lance would stab his heart.

"I don't have friends!" ChaosGallantmon's lance sparked with black thunder.

_Why is he saying that this freak show is Agumon?_ JD wondered, and approached the two Megas. JD didn't know whether to believe Aldiyamon or not, but there was no reason for Aldiyamon to lie.

"That's not true," said Aldiyamon. "We're your friends…don't you remember? What of Josh? What of him, Agumon? Surely you must remember him?"

ChaosGallantmon screamed. "LIES! All lies! _Demon's Disaster!"_

Aldiyamon teleported away as the black stream of lightning blasted the ground. The ensuing explosion created a small crater with smokes erupting from within it. JD was forced to cover his eyes, but saw a stream of light slamming upon ChaosGallantmon, pushing him away. The dark knight's roar was heard.

"Agumon, please listen," Aldiyamon continued to plead. "I don't want to hurt you." He stopped firing.

ChaosGallantmon took a moment to gather back his bearing. Then with a snarl he released a stream of Judecca Prison blast upon Aldiyamon, intercepted in the nick of time by Aldiyamon's Transcendent Purification. ChaosGallantmon's eyes flashed and the intensity of his attack grew. Aldiyamon was forced to kneel as the power pushed him down, hands now over his head. But then swirls of light spiraled around the dark blast and condensed the blast into a pearly white sphere, only to be unleashed as a burst of harsh daylight towards ChaosGallantmon. The dark knight was sent crashing onto the ground, and Aldiyamon breathlessly stood back up.

"Aldiyamon!" JD approached the angelic knight, looking at him strangely. "Is it true?" he demanded. "Is that," he pointed towards the fallen ChaosGallantmon, "Agumon?"

Aldiyamon nodded. "It's him. I'm sure."

JD frowned. "How do you know that it's him?"

"I…I sensed Agumon, inside ChaosGallantmon. Josh, he's in pain." Aldiyamon's look darkened, which was saying something since he was a being of light. "Josh, I think, he's dark digivolved! Like Patamon did, back at the Shadow Realm, into Black Knightmon. And like how _I_ did once, when battling VenomDevimon. It's the same thing."

"Damn…" JD cast a look towards ChaosGallantmon, believing Aldiyamon instantly. _He would know_, JD thought. _I bet that bitch's behind this. _

"I'm trying to talk some sense into him, but he's not making it easy," said Aldiyamon.

"No," said JD resolutely. "If he's Agumon, then _I'll_ talk to him. He'll listen to me."

"Are you nuts? He will kill you!"

"No, he won't. Agumon won't harm me. I know it."

"But…"

"Besides," JD cut in. "Whatever you've tried to do, doesn't seem to work. I'm his partner, let me talk to him. He'll come 'round."

Aldiyamon sighed. "Fine. But I'll bring you to him."

"Fine by me."

An explosion overhead, followed by the sound of defeated squawks, told them that Xianamon had successfully taken cared of the Velgemon. Then, a distance away, JD saw Samudramon blasting two Duskmon – two remaining Duskmon, from the looks of it – with a combination of water and thunder powers. The Duskmon didn't stand a chance. The two Wira Digital then made their way towards him as he settled on Aldiyamon's forearm.

"Listen," said Aldiyamon, "ChaosGallantmon is Agumon, and we're going to try to talk some senses to him. We need you to back us up."

Xianamon and Samudramon were clearly perplexed.

Expectably, Xianamon asked, "How do you know that ChaosGallantmon is Agumon?"

"I…sensed it. It's really him. My sword refused to be used against ChaosGallantmon."

"Didn't it also attack you back?" asked JD, remembering how the Heavenstar Gladius jolted Aldiyamon with a small white thunderbolt. He inclined his head up slightly while adjusting himself on Aldiyamon's armored arm, which wasn't exactly the most comfortable spot he had ever sat on._Who in the world sat on people's arms, anyway?_ He thought, before finally settling on a horseback-ride kind of position on Aldiyamon's forearm. Aldiyamon wasn't exactly a giant, but at almost three meters tall, his arm was big enough for JD to sit on.

"That, too," said Aldiyamon grimly. "Actually, that's how I managed…to sense Agumon." He cast a look towards the fallen ChaosGallantmon, who was barely moving.

"What do you mean, you _sensed_ Agumon?" asked Samudramon.

"I don't know. It's just…all of a sudden I was feeling what he's felt."

"We're wasting time," grumbled JD. "If that's my partner out there, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to bring him back."

The Wira Digital approached ChaosGallantmon, who was still lying in supine position. His armors had faint smokes rising, and they were heavily damaged. His lance was several feet away, but his shield remained with him. Black spaces were seen where the eyes were supposed to be; the Mega must be closing his eyes at the moment.

JD hopped down, and went to ChaosGallantmon's side. "Agumon?"

No response. He tried shaking ChaosGallantmon's shoulder, but the armors were too heavy that he could barely move it.

Then, a groan was heard. ChaosGallantmon's eyes opened, and for a moment JD saw the familiar green eyes of Agumon, confirming Aldiyamon's claim, before they flashed with blood red hues. The groan turned into a snarl, and the snarl became a furious growl. With one flex of the arm in an attempt to get up, ChaosGallantmon threw him off his feet. JD stumbled to get up, but his eyes widened when ChaosGallantmon had pointed his glowing shield towards him.

"NO!" Aldiyamon's panicked yell teleported JD away.

Xianamon and Samudramon both unleashed their most potent techniques, but they were no match to ChaosGallantmon. The dark knight's attack easily tore through their attacks and sent them crashing onto the ground.

Aldiyamon was about to attack, but was halted when JD ran past him. "Josh, no!"

He had seen the proof he needed. ChaosGallantmon was indeed Agumon – right when he saw those green eyes when ChaosGallantmon woke up, he knew. Anger flared within him, thinking of what Persiamon had done to his partner, and the anger manifested into a crimson flare in his fist. He leaped high up, straight towards ChaosGallantmon's free arm as the dark knight attempted to attack Aldiyamon, and delivered a rock-hard punch. The contact sent a stunning electricity blast upon ChaosGallantmon, causing the dark knight's arm to spasm. He pulled back, landing back on the ground, crouching to steady himself, as his fist dimmed.

"Agumon…" His heart ached, but not because of the curse. He was saddened to see his partner in this state. _What can I do? _

ChaosGallantmon snarled, his attention fixed towards JD. JD saw this and stood his ground, once more energizing one fist with his psionic power, and the other with his flames. If talking wouldn't stir his partner, he thought, then perhaps some tough love would.

But when ChaosGallantmon raised his shield to attack, he was blasted away by Aldiyamon's light wave. It deterred him, but was not strong enough to push him away. Snarling, he used his shield to block the attack.

JD took the opportunity to deliver another well-aimed punch towards ChaosGallantmon's shoulder. "Agumon! Snap out of this!" He pulled away, and sent a torrent of flames towards ChaosGallantmon, catching his cape and set it ablaze. It was enough to distract ChaosGallantmon. "Agumon…"

"You'll pay for that!" ChaosGallantmon snarled, and pointed his shield towards JD.

JD proceeded by charging towards the shield and gave his all by punching it with his energized fist. It had taken ChaosGallantmon by surprise, and as the result both of them were sent tumbling down. JD quickly climbed up the knight's body, and glared into ChaosGallantmon's eyes as he secured both hands on the knight's pauldrons.

"Now you're gonna listen to me, and you're gonna listen good!" he panted. "You're Agumon! You're my partner!" JD shook ChaosGallantmon with all his might. "Come on, shake it off, Agumon!" His chest heaved as sweat trickled down his forehead and cheeks. "You told me that you cared for me! I say bullshit! You're attacking _me_, and you're attacking your friends! If you really do care for us, then PROVE IT!!"

He punched ChaosGallantmon's helmed face, eliciting a groan from the dark knight. "Prove it, Agumon. I've told you, I care for you too."

The red flare from ChaosGallantmon's eyes dimmed into a familiar green tone. They appeared confused at first, before ChaosGallantmon grunted painfully and the red flare resumed their dominance.

"You…you're lying to me!" ChaosGallantmon spat. "I know the truth!"

"What truth? What truth, Agumon?!"

"You're just using me," accused ChaosGallantmon. "You're just using me…to get rid of the curse! You _wanted_ me to take the curse, so that I'll die in your place!" He let out an animalistic growl. "I cared for you, and in the end you just wanted me to die!"

"That's bullshit, Agumon!" JD punched ChaosGallantmon on the helm once more. This time, his eyes burned too. He realized now what was causing Agumon's dark digivolution. It seemed to be so much like a hate spell, like the one he had been inflicted by Karatenmon, and it pained him greatly. A hate spell would need something for it to draw upon. His heart raced. His temple throbbed. He blinked back tears and shook ChaosGallantmon again.

"I _never_ wanted you to die in my place! Never! You knew that!"

His breath caught up to him, and he cast a look across his shoulder. Aldiyamon stared at them, looking horrified.

"You think I'm expendable," said ChaosGallantmon, as he followed JD's gaze. "Not like your little cousin over there. Him, you're so afraid that he's going to take the curse in your place that you're doing what you can to stop him from knowing!" ChaosGallantmon chuckled darkly. "Well, guess what? Now he knows. What are you going to do?"

JD let out a snarl and punched ChaosGallantmon once more.

"Agumon, what's gotten into you?!" he demanded. "I never wanted ANYONE to die in my place. Not you, not Adam, not anyone!"

"Liar!" ChaosGallantmon raised his body up and slammed his fist onto JD's chest, sending him flying.

JD found himself teleported into Aldiyamon's arm, cradled close to his body. He saw the angel drawing out his sword. He choked out blood; an unimaginable pain shot up from his chest. It wasn't the curse; JD knew that his ribs were probably fractured due to ChaosGallantmon's punch. He didn't know for sure, but the pain made it seemed very likely.

"Adam," he choked out, calling Aldiyamon by his human half's name. "Save him, but don't kill him."

"I won't," said Aldiyamon, his expression grim. JD noted that the angel's voice quivered, and knew that Aldiyamon had overheard the entire thing about the curse. "I'll try everything I can, and I won't kill him. Don't worry. You just hang on. I won't kill him."

"How about if I," said ChaosGallantmon, in a very eerily calm voice as he picked up his lance. He then pointed it towards Aldiyamon and JD. "Kill you?"

ChaosGallantmon's whole body radiated with dark aura, and even the sky darkened as black lightning crackled around his lance. He appeared to be channeling all his power into his lance to deliver one fatal shot towards the ones he'd deemed his enemies. "Goodbye, partner," he said, and the lightning focused towards the lance's tip._"Demon's Disaster!"_

Aldiyamon crouched down, protecting JD as he held his glowing sword forward. The blast from ChaosGallantmon's lance slammed upon the sword, which glimmered with silvery white light even brighter than before, before the beam was deflected back towards ChaosGallantmon, right towards the center of his chest. A sickening _tearing_ sound was heard, like broken metal and ripped flesh.

Everything seemed to happen in a slow motion afterwards. ChaosGallantmon let out a shocked yelp before he fell to his knees, lance and shield discarded onto the ground before both weapons dissolved into data. His armors were next, and the tattered remains of his cape followed. A glaring hole had formed in the middle of his body, and data and digital blood poured out from it as ChaosGallantmon fell facedown. And the red eyes, they had turned back into green – the shade of Agumon's eyes.

"Agumon!" howled JD, as Aldiyamon flew towards the fallen dark knight.

The dying ChaosGallantmon inclined his head towards JD, and the green eyes watered. "Josh…I'm sorry."

Before anybody could say anything, ChaosGallantmon – Agumon – exploded into data particles. JD's anguished howl echoed all over the Green Meadow.

"AGUMON!!"

---

_This can't be,_ thought Aldiyamon, feeling rage and sorrow flowing into him. He now understood why; ChaosGallantmon had spat out that JD was dying. He couldn't believe it, and now he knew why he was getting these emotions from JD. Hearing JD's howl further enforced his own sadness.

_Agumon…_He thought sadly, thinking of what ChaosGallantmon had accused JD – the Digimon seemed to believe that JD wanted to make Agumon take the curse. _That's not possible. Josh won't make him do that, _he thought. He looked up at the soaring data particles, and silently prayed for _anything_ that he could do to help JD.

_Adam…Patamon…Aldiyamon!_

_Agumon? _Aldiyamon gasped. Someone was calling him, and it sounded like Agumon. He closed his eyes, and a mental image of Agumon appeared in his mind. The image was blurry, very transparent, but he could make out the dino's features: the orange scales, the sharp claws, and the vivid green eyes. From Agumon, he felt a rush of emotion – determination, a strong determination – flooding him.

_Save Agumon, _the dying TobuCatmon had implored.

_That goes without saying, _Patamon had replied.

_Save Agumon, but don't kill him, _JD had requested.

_Help me,_ now pleaded the Agumon-image. _I don't want to leave Josh…not like this. Please!_

_How?_ Aldiyamon raised his hand, without knowing exactly what he was doing. Light orbs erupted from his hand, going after ChaosGallantmon's data particles which had spread all around the meadow. He didn't open his eyes despite the gasps he heard from the others. Gradually he felt drained, as if the power was leaving him. He could feel his chest constricting, as well as something warm trickling out from his nose. A rusty smell – _blood? _

Yet, the mental image of Agumon was slowly becoming clearer, more opaque. He saw Agumon smiling.

_Thank you…_

"Adam! Adam!"

He weakly opened his eyes, and saw that he had dedigivolved. He was laying facedown, his cousin beside him, unable to get up. Patamon was somewhere on his back; he could feel soft, even breaths from his partner.

And from the corner of his eyes, by his right hand, Adam saw a sphere of white light which dissipated, revealing a DigiEgg.

xxx

xxx

"How?" Persiamon blinked in disbelief. "How did he do _that?_"

She and Lucemon had been watching the entire battle from a distance, hovering within the clouds. They had just seen Aldiyamon reconfiguring the deleted ChaosGallantmon back into his DigiEgg form. Persiamon had wanted to absorb the dark knight's data into the sphere, similar to what she'd done to Medieval Gallantmon, but the light orbs from Aldiyamon had retrieved every one bit of them.

Just a few hours ago, they had managed to successfully fuse in the data of Medieval Gallantmon into Agumon. With his psychic power Lucemon had manipulated the anxiety Agumon was experiencing, twisting it to his whim. They had made Agumon feel that his partner wanted him to die in his place, while suppressing all the good memories Agumon had about JD using a series of psychic barriers. Using Medieval Gallantmon's data, Agumon was able to dark warp-digivolve into ChaosGallantmon, further enhancing his twisted persona.

It shouldn't be possible for the Wira Digital to recover Agumon. ChaosGallantmon was sent to destroy the Wira Digital, and if he was killed in the process than his scattered data would be used by Lucemon and Persiamon to add to their own. They had not expected Aldiyamon to be able to weave the data back into a DigiEgg form; such ability was extremely rare for Digimon.

"This is interesting," said Lucemon. "I've never seen such an amazing development of power in such short time!"

"_Amazing?_" snorted Persiamon.

"Yes, indeed," said Lucemon. "I suspect…this is because of his new psychic power – the power of empathy."

"The power to feel emotions?" Persiamon snorted again. "How does by _feeling_ other people's emotions make him able to reconfigure deleted Digimon?"

"That, my dear feline friend, is attributed to his other power: teleportation," explained Lucemon. "Teleportation or empathy alone cannot achieve such feat that Aldiyamon has just demonstrated. But together, by using both powers together…" Lucemon's face darkened. "He can do wonders."

xxx

xxx

JD leaned back against the wooden chair, gazing upon his sleeping cousin silently. A dull pain crept on his chest; Dr. Abu had mentioned that two ribs had gotten fractured, but the Saintly Siblings had quickly intercepted him, casting their healing power on him. The ribs had mended, proven by the X-Ray examination that Dr. Abu had insisted on him taking the previous day. As a result, that day alone, Dr. Abu, his cousin Alisha, their partners, as well as Adam and Patamon, and also Dina who had been there, had been made known about the curse on him.

He had been here since morning. Without anyone from his house knowing, that morning he had gone to his cousins' apartment instead of school. Alisha had been apprehensive at first, but knowing that he was recovering from ribs fracture and that he was cursed, she soon relented and allowed him to be there. He hadn't returned to his house yet, spending most of his time in Adam's room. He had a feeling that once Adam had woken up, the boy would want some explanation of what ChaosGallantmon – Agumon – had mentioned the previous day.

His eyes went towards the clock. It read 4.00 P.M.

Adam stirred. Tokomon, who was sleeping beside him, murmured something incomprehensible.

Then, Adam's eyes fluttered open. He stared at the spinning fan, before groaning softly.

"Hey, sleepyhead," said JD, smiling slightly. His cousin didn't seem to have noticed him.

Rubbing sleep off his eyes, Adam slowly turned to look at him. JD noticed how pale Adam was; already fair, Adam now looked almost bone white. The boy frowned at him.

"Someone's unhappy to see me," teased JD.

"No, it's not that," said Adam quickly, alarmed. "It's just that…I expected us to be at the Green Meadow."

"That was yesterday." JD waited, and saw a shocked expression dawning on his cousin's face. He went on to sit by the edge of Adam's bed.

"Yesterday?" The way he asked it, it was as if Adam was trying to determine whether JD was pulling his leg or not.

"Yeah, you got knocked out for a day. Kak Lisha almost flipped when we brought you back, unconscious."

"You…" Adam seemed to be trying to remember the details of the battle. "You were injured. I remember. Are you ok?"

"Don't worry about me. Salamon and Gatomon fixed me up in no time. My ribs got fractured, but they've now mended, thanks to those two."

"And Agumon?"

He smiled grimly. "He's reconfigured into a DigiEgg, which according to Jackie, is the best outcome we could hope for from his corrupted digivolution, and the fact that he got blasted with his own fatal attack." He tapped his Juara Digivice, which was clipped on his Bermuda shorts. "He's inside. I don't know when he's gonna hatch. Soon, hopefully."

"Thank God," murmured Adam, his gaze fell on Tokomon. "When Patamon and the Saintly Siblings were reconfigured, it took them a day to hatch. And that was with Ophanimon's power boost…"

"Don't worry about that now," said JD, clasping his cousin's shoulder. "Agumon is safe thanks to you. So…thanks, cuz. I know it must have strained you and Patamon a lot. I seldom see our partners dedigivolving to In-Trainings nowadays."

"It's okay," said Adam. "Anyway it's worth it. I'm just glad that Agumon will be alright."

JD scratched his chin. "I never knew Aldiyamon could reconfigure deleted Digimon."

"I didn't know, too," said Adam. "I thought I heard Agumon then, but I don't know…it's all seemed so surreal."

JD smirked. He decided to tell Adam what he had managed to discover just this morning. Jackie had dropped by that morning, concerned that both JD and Adam didn't turn up at school. It was lucky that their mentor had decided to come by the apartment first instead of his house. JD had taken the opportunity to ask Jackie several questions, most of them regarding Adam. Jackie was able to provide him some answers.

"Jackie told me that you might have a new power of your own. You've been saying a lot about _sensing_ trouble lately, I thought I'd ask Jackie about it."

"What did he tell you?" asked Adam.

"He said that you might have telepathy, or empathy. It could be either one. Or both."

Adam frowned. "What is empathy?"

"Emotions sensing," said JD, gazing at his cousin. "Personally, I think _that's_ what you're having. I've thought about it, and I've been watching you closely since the night TobuCatmon…" His gaze fell on his hand, which he had purposely placed on Adam's shoulder. Jackie had his theory, and now JD was trying to prove it. "Anyway, if I'm right, you should be feeling what I'm feeling right now?"

Adam nodded slowly. "I've been getting these emotions from you lately," he admitted. "Anger, mostly. Sad too…dread…" He blinked, and looked back at him with a searching gaze. "Josh, ChaosGallantmon said something yesterday…"

JD sighed. "No point keeping this from you anymore." He took his shirt off, and Adam recoiled upon the sight of what was imprinted on his chest.

"Josh…what…what's that?"

"The Blight of Bastet," said JD darkly. "Persiamon gave me this when you were hospitalized, about a month ago."

"You've got this for _a month_ now?" Adam now looked alarmed. "How come…how come I didn't notice? Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't notice because I didn't want anybody to know about this," said JD, as Adam peered to look at the tattoo closer. "Ever seen me take off my shirt in front of anyone after you got back from the hospital?"

Adam looked thoughtful for a moment, before shaking his head. "I never really thought about that…"

"I learned about the tattoo's effect when I went to see TobuCatmon and the three ladies," said JD. "Rosemon said that the tattoo is something like a poison. Ophanimon couldn't purge it with her powers…she was even blasted away when she tried to do so." He decided to keep out about D'Arcmon's premonition about the tattoo. "TobuCatmon's healing potions couldn't take it off either."

"This tattoo is the one that's been giving you those pains," noted Adam slowly.

"When I exert myself too much, yeah," JD nodded. "But that's not all it's been giving. I'd be happy with only pains."

Adam didn't say anything, but it was clear that he was tensed.

He gazed straight into his cousin's dark gray eyes. "Adam, the tattoo is a death curse. I knew about it when you, Liu Ying and Gayathri went back to the past. Persiamon told me, at that time…" He saw Adam trembled; the boy was in tune with his emotions now, JD suspected, with them being so close. "This curse would kill me."

Adam gasped loudly. "Kill…you?"

"Hang Tuah helped by making me not feel the pain with some kind of psychic healing power, but he couldn't purge it completely," continued JD. "For a while, the pain's gone. Unfortunately, Persiamon seemed to know about it and sent that Magnadramon, who managed to cancel out Tuah's magic on it. The pain returned."

"Isn't there a way…any way…?"

"To get rid of it?" JD asked, nodding. "There is one way. Manny found out about it when he went to that alternate dimension. The Persiamon there told him about it." He stopped. This was where it got tricky. He had relented to Manny and Liu Ying's wishes for him to inform the other DigiWira about the tattoo, but he wouldn't risk anybody's life by telling them how exactly it could be cured. As long as he left out the details about the conditions for the curse to be healed, Adam and everyone else would be safe.

"Josh?"

"Another person could take the tattoo," said JD grimly. "But that person would die in my place. I won't let anybody do that." He gazed at his cousin, waiting for his reaction. The boy was staring towards the blanket; it was hard to determine what Adam was feeling. When he looked up, JD saw his eyes shining.

But before he could do anything, Adam pointed his hand towards the tattoo, and bellowed, "Tattoo!"

"Adam, no!" But it was too late. The light orbs swirled around his chest, apparently trying to gauge out the tattoo. However, the eyes on the black cat suddenly lit up and it blinked out a blinding crimson light which turned the light orbs into data bytes. Adam's extended hand was slapped away by an invisible force. And worse, it gave _him_ the pains. He clutched his chest and let out a pained growl.

"Oh, no…Josh! Are you…"

"Fine." JD took a deep breath, closing his eyes, letting the pain subside. He was sweating profusely due to his attempt to resist the pain. "Any attempt on the tattoo would either backfire, or as I learned today…give me the pains. So don't try that again," he said with a low hiss.

"I'm so sorry," whispered Adam, his tone fearful.

"Don't be. It's not your fault." The pain was gone. "I'm ok now."

"But…how long…how much time do you have left?" Adam's voice croaked as he asked this.

JD sighed. This was the hardest part. He couldn't bear to say how little time he had left. But Adam deserved to know about this one fact.

"A week after this Sunday. Next Sunday, when the next full moon wanes," he said softly. He pulled his shirt back on, and then gazed back at his cousin, who looked extremely miserable. Adam looked at him, and made a slight move towards him before stopping himself short. JD opened one arm, and pulled his cousin into a half-embrace. His heart ached when he saw Adam struggling not to shed any tear, and at the same time failing. The boy's mouth was knitted thin, yet it twitched so often.

"That's why you made me promise, isn't it?" asked Adam, pulling away, wiping a tear carelessly with his hand. "Back when I was moving out your room."

JD nodded once, still not tearing his gaze away from his cousin's eyes.

"And yesterday, ChaosGallantmon mentioned that you're scared that I'd know about this."

He nodded again. "I was only trying to protect you."

"How does by not knowing this will protect me, Josh?"

"Adam…I just wanted you to not worry about me."

"But I'm already worried, even before I knew about this," said Adam, sounding frustrated now as a tear fell from his face. "You have been acting really strange. You were back being dark and brooding. And worse, you hid it from me, but everyone other than me saw you brooding while at school. My classmates mentioned about this a few times, and every time, I feel bad not knowing why."

"I had no idea you felt bad about that," murmured JD, guiltily. "I thought I was doing a good job hiding it from you."

"Well, you didn't! In fact, you _sucked_ real badly about it." A choked sob now escaped Adam. "I thought we're like brothers? Aren't brothers supposed to share any burden, any trouble… any secrets…"

"Adam…" He sighed, not knowing what else to say. He would've smiled upon hearing his terminology being used by his cousin, and how fitting it was, if not given the situation.

"I understand why you kept this from me," murmured Adam, now clasping his hand. "But I'd rather know about this. I'd never forgive myself if you die and I didn't know about the reason."

He patted the boy's hand. "I know, Adam. I know. And I'm sorry, okay?"

Silence. Adam's tears had dried, but he was fixing a gaze towards the wall. JD wondered what he was thinking. He saw the boy's eyebrows knitted together, and frowned. How he wished that his new psychic-based power would allow him to delve into Adam's mind instead of giving him the psycho-blast ability.

"Adam, now that you know…" He waited until Adam looked back at him. "Remember your promise. Don't do anything foolish."

Adam didn't reply. The fact that Adam's eyes had become cold didn't go amiss by him. Adam's face was calm, but JD knew his cousin better than that. The usually mirthful eyes had turned stormy once more. He had seen it before – it was during the day when he was still evil. That was the look Adam gave him after he revealed his betrayal to the boy, that he was the evil ShadoWira. Although this look was not directed towards him now, JD had a sinking feeling that Adam didn't take the news well.

"Adam. Promise me again. Don't do anything foolish."

Adam blinked. The dark look on his face evaporated. "I won't, Josh. Don't worry."

Somehow, JD didn't believe him.


	63. Storm Front, Part I

Gayathri looked out of the Jeep's window as Anding drove the car down the road, taking in some last minute details of Cameron Highlands as they embarked on the journey back home. Beside her, her mother was reading a novel, while by the window her father was checking something with his PDA. Anding was constantly alert, while beside him his mother Mak Mirah was staring ahead silently. She tried not to groan; as much as she was looking forward to go home, she had just gotten a text message from a classmate of hers, reminding her about the school's midyear examination coming in a week time.

_How could've I forgotten about that?_

She supposed that she had good reasons to. Her best friend had passed, and she had gone through an emotional trauma for the first few days after Bel's passing. As she was slowly coping, she met Willis and he had helped her by merely relating his experience and his comforting words. After meeting him, she was able to move on, and had enjoyed several family outings with her parents. She was refreshed and ready to go back home. As for homework, she supposed that she would just have to speed up her process of catching up with them once she got back home. Then, whilst smiling softly, she thought that perhaps she could arrange a group study session with her boyfriend, and with Dina, and then the other DigiWira.

Her smile faltered. Somehow, she felt that something was amiss. Manny had sounded somewhat off for the past two days, as if something bad had happened. And he didn't actually deny it, but said that once she had gotten back home, he would tell her everything. Liu Ying had replied to her messages cordially; her messages were neutrally-toned, as if carefully revised before being sent. They were short and precise, but glaringly lacked the details about Digimon. _Had they not have any fight with any evil Digimon?_ she thought. Adam and JD, in the meantime, were both not responding. It wasn't really odd when it was JD, who rarely responded to messages from anyone who was not Liu Ying or Adam, she supposed. But Adam…he had been somewhat quiet for the last two days. No updates on homework; no daily messages to tell her about school. And Dina was strangely quiet too.

She cast a look outside, towards the sky. It wasn't a clear day. The sky was murky, and from the distance she could see dark clouds gathering.

_Storm's coming,_ she thought uneasily, and leaned back on her seat.

xxx

xxx

Manny entered the school library. It was his turn to be on duty by the library's counter, until three in the afternoon.

He was just about to set his bag down, when Liu Ying walked in, JD following behind her. JD looked tensed, and Liu Ying was obviously searching for him. Their eyes met, and Manny indicated towards the farthest table, by the academic book section which was usually deserted on Fridays. He excused himself from the librarian on duty – he still had ten minutes before his shift started – and briskly approached his teammates.

He didn't even need to ask JD in order to know what he was so tensed about.

"I'm telling you," said the blond teen, as he pulled a chair to sit down. "It's not like Adam to skip school if he's not sick, and guess what I found out? Kak Lisha told me that Adam did go to school, or at least, appeared to be."

"That is strange," agreed Liu Ying. "Although, if he chooses not to come, I understand, given…the news," she murmured, glancing towards JD uneasily, "but then, he stepped out of the house with the allusion of coming to school, but somehow don't end up here." She shivered, remembering her kidnapping. "I hope he's okay."

"His Digivice's signal isn't appearing on the largest scanning range," said JD. "I've checked."

"That means he must be at the Digital World," decided Manny.

"No," said JD. "I checked that too; during recess time I took a short trip there. No signal either."

Manny and Liu Ying exchanged glances, before gazing back towards the worried blond. He and Liu Ying had privately discussed the matter earlier; being classmates had made it easier. Both of them admired how JD was keeping a brave front on this matter, while also gravely saddened of the prospect of losing him. He had even attended school just to keep his family in the dark, and to avoid trouble with school. It was obvious that their blond friend was miserable, but he'd been able to pass of as simply being his usual dark and brooding self. _They_ however, knew better.

"The only thing we can do is to ask Adam directly," said Manny finally. "I'm sure he's alright."

"It better _not_ be the Dark Ocean again," muttered JD. "Or the past, or alternate dimensions," he added, while shooting Manny a brief look.

Manny nodded knowingly.

JD sighed. "I shouldn't have told him about the curse."

"He knew about it anyway," Liu Ying pointed out. "ChaosGallantmon…Agumon…he practically told everyone that, two days ago."

"Not everything."

Manny blinked. "What do you mean?"

"He doesn't know the whole thing about the curse," said JD, slowly. "He knows that the curse needs to be transferred to another person to save my life, but he doesn't know the exact conditions."

Liu Ying frowned. "Are you sure that's…"

"I'm sure." JD's mouth was set thin, his eyes narrowed. It was enough to make Liu Ying swallow what she was going to say earlier.

Dull silence followed, before the three DigiWira parted ways. Manny resumed working, but he couldn't concentrate on his work anymore. Something lingered in his mind. JD had missed a guess, a reasonable one, he thought, especially when both he and JD had used it previously, during their time as the ShadoWira. But he shook the thought off his mind; surely Adam wouldn't do it?

Given the situation though, Manny didn't know what to expect.

xxx

xxx

"Are you sure you're going to do this?" asked Sagittarimon, inclining his head slightly so that his gaze met Adam's.

"I'm not sure," murmured Adam, who was riding on the centaur's back. The boy cast a look behind, taking in the reddish brown sky, the dry cracked ground, and the skull-shaped bastion that stood silently around a circular crevice. The winds suddenly picked up, sending his dark hair fluttering. His face darkened. "But I'm doing this."

"I don't trust_ him_," said Sagittarimon.

"I don't either, but…"

Adam turned back to look at him, and Sagittarimon could see that his partner was exhausted. Dark bags were prominent under the boy's eyes, making him – Sagittarimon silently thought – look like a Pandamon. Anyone could look at him now and know that he was not getting enough sleep. Indeed it was true; ever since JD returned to his house last night, he and Adam had gone to the Digital World, searching for any clues that could have led them for an alternate cure for the Blight of Bastet. They had gone to the places they have visited previously, but their search was stumped. Until earlier that morning, they had no answer, before Adam suggested coming _there_.

His thoughts stopped as he felt Adam leaning his head on his back, apparently drained. _Of course he is,_ Sagittarimon thought grimly, _he's just a boy, and he hasn't been sleeping since last night. And he's still recuperating, after we restored Agumon into a DigiEgg. _

Sagittarimon had come to realize that for a human, Adam was still on the young side. In terms of age, they were almost the same age, but a Digimon could mature as soon as the following week after it was hatched from the DigiEgg, depending on the conditions surrounding it. Humans however did not have that kind of adaptations; their growth was gradual, physically and mentally.

Nevertheless, Adam had matured greatly due to his past experiences, but at times his defenses were lowered and he would show hints of vulnerability. As the boy's partner, Sagittarimon had witnessed several occurrences of it. It had become more pronounced, though in a good way, when Adam bonded with JD. The blond-haired DigiWira had given Adam the chance to become the boy his age once again, instead of one older than he was. As the result, Adam was happier. The aged look that Sagittarimon always saw in his eyes was replaced by a youthful mirth that more suited the boy.

Then he had been made known about JD's condition, how the older boy supposedly have only one week left to live before the curse would take full effect. Sagittarimon instantly saw the happiness in his partner evaporated. Adam seemed to have returned to his former self – the one Sagittarimon had known prior to their digivolution into Aldiyamon. The dark veiled look in his eyes had returned and the solemnity that seemed to hang heavily around him became marked. The boy was back being his silent grieving self.

Sagittarimon knew attached his partner was to his cousin. And now, despite not liking it, he knew why Adam resorted to this. As much as he hated admitting it, it was the only way left.

And therefore, he would not judge his partner for what he was doing. He would stand by Adam.

"I don't want Josh to die," whispered Adam. "Not like this…"

Sagittarimon sighed. "I know, Adam. Just…" He stopped walking, eyeing the Bakemon ghosts that were haunting the area, but have been strictly ordered to not bother them by the master of this realm. He inclined his head back slightly, feeling Adam straightening up. "Promise me one thing. Whenever you come here to keep your end of this…this _bargain,_ I want to be here too. With you. I don't trust SkullSatamon, and I most certainly am not going to trust you to be alone here. Even though he is trapped behind that imprisonment, I still don't…" His throat suddenly became constricted, due to the vehemence of the words he had just uttered. "At least," he said, more calmly after a few seconds, "as Aldiyamon, we could drive him away if he tries anything funny."

The look on Adam's gray eyes were cold. "If _he_ doesn't keep his end of the bargain, the deal's off."

"But Adam…what if you actually _managed_ to do what he's told you?" asked Sagittarimon. "Are you really going to do it?"

Adam stared right inside Sagittarimon's eyes, and instantly, the centaur knew what his partner's answer would be. Adam's eyes were filled with sheer, unfaltering determination. There was no swaying him.

"As long as Josh is safe, from the curse and the untimely death…" Adam sighed, and leaned his head once more on Sagittarimon's back, "there's_ nothing_ that I won't do."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 63 – Storm Front, Part I**_

xxx

xxx

He could barely remember how it had happened. One moment, he was walking home from school – an arrangement he and his mother had agreed upon on the days he had librarian duties at school. It wasn't a long walk, though at the same time it wasn't a short one, either. But Manny liked getting his exercises every now and then, and walking was one of the good ways to do it. The day was not even warm; it had been cloudy, but now it was a rainstorm.

Now, as Samudramon, he was battling not one, not two, but _three_ Digimon. They had all appeared out of nowhere, right smack at the center of the town at the junction where Shawujinmon and Astamon had attacked previously. Out of the three assailants, he could only recognize one of them – Valdurmon, one of the Avian Shines. The other two he did not recognize; a massive crocodile with red scales, nearly as colossal as the municipal center, and a humanoid in leather outfit, with black wings. By quickly running through the Digimon Analyzer, he now knew their names: Leviamon and Beelzemon. For a moment, the two Digimon stayed back, watching as he had his hands full dealing with Valdurmon. He had sent out all alerts to the other Digivices – as well as Gayathri's, he had forgotten to exclude hers – and could only hold the attack off before help arrived.

Valdurmon shrieked, and shot out blinding lights towards him. He intercepted by raising walls of water from the rains, which did little to block out the attack, but managed to reduce its potency before the waters eventually gave way. Samudramon immediately fired thunderbolts to nullify the attack, and was relieved when he managed to do so. However, Valdurmon seemed to be attacking with vengeance clearly on his mind, and another wave of light struck Samudramon towards a street pole.

"_Heaven's Charm!"_

"_Forbidden Temptation!"_

Against the downpour, two streaks of pink energy waves struck Valdurmon, and Samudramon saw that help had come. MagnaAngemon, Angewomon and Rosemon were there, and with them he could at least stood a chance. MagnaAngemon had held back, while Angewomon and Rosemon both had unleashed their attacks; the male angel was doing what he could to protect the people nearby. Samudramon realized that Dr. Abu was not around; hence GuardiAngemon could not be formed – the Saintly Siblings were able to digivolve into Ultimates without the aids of their partners' Digivices.

Valdurmon attacked again, but found resistance in three Ultimates – Rosemon was a Mega, but with an Ultimate's powers. Angewomon somehow was more than an average Ultimate, which put them at near-equal level with the bestial Avian Shine. Samudramon had a hunch of what Valdurmon was going to do, but he wouldn't let the bird had his way.

_He's here for Opie,_ Samudramon realized. _And Opie's with Debbie. I can't let him go to her._

xxx

xxx

At that same moment, Debbie and her Muchomon friend were watching the battles from afar. They didn't have a clear view due to the rains, but could see streaks of colored lights moving about, fighting the invaders. They were safe, for now, but there was no telling how long Samudramon and his friends could hold Valdurmon.

"Opie, I'm scared…" said Debbie, shivering slightly due to the coldness.

Opie didn't respond. He frowned, knowing why Valdurmon was here. He also recognized the other two Digimon, and realized instantly how treacherous the situation was. Samudramon and his friends were up against THREE Mega Digimon, and as far as Opie knew, none of the good guys were Megas. The flower woman was, but apparently she had been weakened. And Aldiyamon, the only Mega Digimon in the Wira Digital team, was notably absent.

Manny's words rang in his head. It had been haunting him since the day he regained his memories. Manny told him that he would have to prove himself, in order to win his trust. Penguinmon was less than accepting, but Opie suspected that the only reason why his mirror image was preserving his judgment was due to his partner's decision. Deep down, it was plainly obvious that Penguinmon absolutely loathed him at plain sight. Penguinmon had not wanted anything to do with him. He sighed; now would be the time for him to prove himself.

"Debbie, listen to me," said Opie, as gently as he could to the very young girl. "I want you to go inside the house, and stay there with your mummy."

"Where are you going?" Debbie asked immediately. She trailed his gaze and her eyes widened in fear. She quickly grasped Opie's wings, not wanting to let him go away. "No! Don't go!"

"Your brother and Penguinmon are fighting bad Digimon," informed Opie, calmly explaining the situation to his very young friend. "I want to help them. If they lose then the bad Digimon will come here, and I have promised your brother that I will protect you and your family."

"But…I don't want you to go," said Debbie, her eyes shining. Her body shook and she began sniffling.

"Debbie..."

"I don't want you to die!" she suddenly wailed, before crying uncontrollably. Thunder rumbled and she shivered violently, her cries became more pronounced.

Opie was stunned. Why was Debbie reacting so strongly at his desire to help the Wira Digital? She was calm one moment, as she usually was; Opie hadn't known his friend to have the tendency to cry like this. It made him uneasy, but he knew that she did so out of concern. Still…

"What…what ever gives you that idea, Debbie?"

Debbie rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. The tears however just kept on flowing. With great difficulty, and amidst sobs, she told him, "Kak Gayathri's friend… was killed…. by bad Digimon… last week. Abang… told me about… it. It was…was horrible. That's why… Kak Gayathri… was away… this week. She was so… sad…"

_A human? Killed?_ Opie was further shocked of this revelation as thunderclap rumbled once again. He – as Valkyrimon – had been sent to battle the other Wira Digital then. The Majin and Kappa Generals had instructed him and Valdurmon to do so that day, so that they could focus their attacks on one Wira Digital who the Majin General seemed to hold a personal grudge against. Fear crept in his heart; he didn't realize that the generals had killed a human that day. Nobody had informed him this.

Debbie hugged Opie, and the Digimon didn't resist. "Please don't go, Opie. I don't want you to die."

"Debbie," he said, gently pulling away. "I _won't_ die. I promise you that."

He shone brightly in light red aura, morphing into a taller humanoid Digimon – a half man and half bird being. His humanly, muscular torso was wrapped in white leather with a chest armor over it; his sturdy legs had reddish-brown feathers, ending with deadly talons of an eagle's. A metallic visor obscured his eyes, and orange-brown hair grew out of his head.

"In this form, I'm as strong as your brother and Penguinmon, when they're Samudramon. It's too bad I can't digivolve further…" He knelt before the girl, so that he was at an eye-level with the girl whom he had grown so fond upon. "But I can give them a good fight, I'm sure." He grinned to assure Debbie that he was confident.

Debbie bought it. She stared at him with awe. Her sobbing stopped. "Opie…you look great…" She wiped her tears, and hugged her friend tight, before letting go. "Come back safely, Opie." She then leaned towards the birdman, and kissed him lightly on his cheek.

A blush crept on Opie's cheeks. He had not anticipated Debbie's kiss, but found that it wasn't so bad. "Sure. Don't worry. Now go back inside. You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here." Then he gave her a grin. "Why don't you prepare a bowl of that wonderful mushroom soup for me? I know I want it when I get back."

xxx

xxx

Today would be the day, Leviamon and Beelzemon had decided. They were well-prepared for this day. Leviamon had, of course, been quite prepared. He had full control of his Mega form, no longer having to worry about devolving into Shawujinmon in the middle of the battle. Beelzemon however, had hit a snag recently. By absorbing D'Arcmon's data he had gained even more power, but at the cost of his mind – the angel simply would not leave him in peace. Fortunately for him, Lucemon had taken cared of that matter.

Leviamon cast a sideway look, and snorted. Beelzemon was ogling the female fighters – both skimpily clad and drenched, their clothes clung tight to their bodies. Clearly the leather-clad demon wanted to join the fray so badly. Leviamon stopped him; they were powerful, but it was best if they conserved their energy for the whole Wira Digital team. But Persiamon's tactic had left the Wira Digital one warrior short, but they had been joined by powerful allies as of late. Valkyrimon's betrayal was quite a surprising blow – their enemies now had another Mega Digimon as an ally. However, the turncoat's ability to evolve into Mega would have been wiped out when he renounced his allegiance to them. He would be back in his Ultimate form only. And that Rosemon, and the Saintly Siblings, were all Ultimate-level threats.

However, it would be better for Valdurmon alone to take care of the side threats. Xianamon had joined the battle, now blasting Valdurmon with golden energy waves, combined with Angewomon's arrow of light, MagnaAngemon's sword attack, Rosemon's energy blast and Samudramon's strongest thunder-based power. The attacks all merged into one and slammed onto Valdurmon soundly, pushing him back. Yet the bird screamed, as a streak of crimson light was approaching the battlefield from a distance. The light died down, and Leviamon let out a chuckle.

"The turncoat's here," said Beelzemon. Valdurmon let out a shriek and charged towards Silphymon – Valkyrimon's devolved form. "Why is he not in his Mega form?"

"The price for turning back on us," said Leviamon simply. Valdurmon and Silphymon both soared up towards the sky, engaged in a fierce battle which was partially obscured by the storm clouds. He then saw the two Wira Digital and their allies heading towards them.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Xianamon.

"Don't recognize us?" Beelzemon asked smugly. He pretended to look around. "Where's that pretty Wira Digital, huh? She and I still need to get some stuff settled."

"YOU!" Rosemon shouted, apparently recognized him. She unfurled her whip and with a raged howl, she slashed the whip towards Beelzemon. "Murderer!_ Thorn Whip!"_

"Easy, sugar," said Beelzemon, and raised an arm. The thorny vine wrapped around it, but smirking, the biker demon gave it a slight pull, pulling Rosemon towards him. "Wow," he said, eyes glinted lecherously, staring towards his opponent's well-endowed body. "You're even hotter up close! What say you and I…"

Rosemon booted Beelzemon's gut and clawed his face with her gloved fingers before yanking back her trapped vine. She paid no heed to Beelzemon's comment, knowing that he was only goading her so that she would lose focus. "You'll pay for what you have done to D'Arcmon and her partner! _Roses Rapier!"_

Beelzemon quickly raised his large blaster and the vine was deflected back. He smirked. "Is that all you got, honey? Come on, how about you do that naked attack of yours, hmm? I'm so looking forward for _that…_"

Rosemon growled and charged towards Beelzemon, her palm raised high as if wanting to slap him. Beelzemon withdrew from his companion, and Rosemon followed suit, unleashing her Thorn Whip and Roses Rapier alternately towards the demon, who easily deflected the attacks.

Leviamon found himself cornered by the remaining four fighters. They were about to charge, but Leviamon merely leaped forward and opened his massive maw, revealing formidable rows of sharp fangs lined neatly inside his oral cavity. He reached towards Samudramon before shutting the maw. Samudramon retreated, and his maw had gotten nothing, but he didn't mind. He was just _playing around_, for now. With a guttural growl he swirled around, and slammed his tails towards all of them, sending them flying towards the large building before him.

xxx

xxx

Adam entered his apartment with trepidation, slightly drenched. His dark hair was matted down, waters trickling down the sides of his face, as if he had just gotten out of the shower.

He instantly saw Alisha and JD, both had simultaneously gotten up from the sofas upon his entrance. His sister had her hands on her hips, JD's arms were crossed over his chest. They both were looking at him pointedly. Adam glanced at the clock, which showed 4.00 P.M. He was late. Intimidated, he waited for what his sister and cousin were going to say to him. From the looks on their faces, they seemed to be very worried.

"Where were you?" Alisha asked. "You should've been home about two hours ago."

Adam frowned lightly, before his eyes fell on JD. JD obviously knew that he had skipped school, but it seemed that his sister didn't. He tried suppressing a yawn – having not slept for nearly twenty four hours were taking its toll on him.

"Never mind that now," interrupted JD. "There's an attack, near Taipan and the municipal council. It's a big one." His shoulders sagged as his hand ran over his Juara Digivice, clipped over his Bermudas. "Agumon's still a DigiEgg."

Adam nodded weakly. He was tired, nearing fatigue. But he didn't argue. He placed his schoolbag down. "I'm going."

"Be careful," said Alisha, nodding worriedly. "I've sent Angewomon and MagnaAngemon earlier."

"C'mon," said JD, sliding across the living room towards Adam. "I'll go with you."

Adam could feel his cousin's concern when JD placed a hand on his shoulder. The two exited the apartment and JD closed the door, his eyes never leaving Adam.

"Alright. Spill. Where were you?" JD demanded.

Adam took a step away, thus breaking contact with his cousin. "Didn't you say that there's a battle? I should get going."

"In a minute." JD reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Where. Were. You?"

Adam frowned. He didn't want to say anything about what he had found from SkullSatamon; JD wouldn't like him going to SkullSatamon at all. "I was at the Digital World. I'll tell you all about it later, right now _I _need to get going." Before JD could protest, he shrugged JD's hand off his shoulder and teleported away, alone.

"What…? _Damn it,_ ADAM!"

He could hear JD's incensed remark as he disappeared. He didn't care. Without Agumon, he couldn't let JD join the battle. He didn't want his cousin to be harmed in any way, and he knew his cousin. JD would charge face-on in battle, and he could get himself hurt. Adam wasn't willing to let that happen.

It would put his effort into waste.

xxx

xxx

"Back off, Valdurmon!"

Opie hovered over the dark storm clouds whilst staring towards his bigger opponent. Lightning flashed, followed by thunders. "Go back to the Digital World!" he shouted.

"How dare you?" shrieked Valdurmon, flapping his great wings. "Traitor!"

"I've found where I belonged," Opie returned. "Debbie is more than just my friend. I could feel it."

"HAH!" Valdurmon snorted, and sent torrents of light wave towards Opie.

Opie engulfed himself with crimson light and tore through the light wave. He gasped when his body was slightly singed by the burnish light. He heaved his breaths slowly, trying to ease the pain from the burns. He realized that he was at a severe disadvantage, with him in his Silphymon form.

He and Yatagaramon – the Ultimate form of Valdurmon – had ruled the skies of the eastern Digital World three hundred years back, before Grademon sealed them. Upon escaping, the Kappa and Majin Generals had granted them power to further evolve into their final forms, which they knew they would have, for the name they had donned together perfectly fit their Mega forms. He had _never_ expected that he would end up beaten by the Wira Digital, had his memories suppressed momentarily, and in that moment of vulnerability, befriended a little girl and her family who then took him in and nursed him back to health. That time, he had felt very grateful for their help, and had grown fond of them, especially of Debbie whom had eagerly befriended him. That did not change when his memory returned, and Opie was glad for it. His past deeds still remained in his mind, but they were nowhere as strong as the fondness he was now feeling for Debbie.

"I cannot believe you're allying yourself to those lowly humans!" Valdurmon shouted.

"And here I thought it's already clear enough," said Opie.

"The DigiWira and the Penguinmon, they don't even believe you! I saw it on their faces when I went to the house!"

"It doesn't matter. Debbie believes in me. I'll do anything for her…even if it's fighting you!"

"How dare you? Have you forgotten the pledge we've both taken, when we formed the Avian Shines?"

"I have not, and I regret breaking it," said Opie, before looking distinctly thoughtful. Then he shook his head. "No. On second thought, I don't. But, I have taken a stronger oath. It's not official, but I can feel that it is inevitable. The bond between a human and a Digimon is a bond higher than any bond any Digimon could have come up with. It's our ultimate destiny."

"I see," said Valdurmon darkly. "You still have not let go of your idealistic dream, after all these years. I thought, long ago, that when you bypassed your Halsemon form, you would lose that naiveté. It was cumbersome, having you – a Halsemon so strong, yet so childish – to be my equal, but I was glad that you grew more focused when we both achieved Ultimates. I had known, at the time, that soon your potential would precede your hopeless desire. How unfortunate; it seems that the blow I have inflicted on you that night only have reawakened it."

"Say what you want, Valdurmon. You and I have flown the same path once," Opie paused, bemused, "but I have found where I truly belonged."

"In that case," Valdurmon snarled. "We fight to _kill_."

xxx

xxx

Despite the storm, the battle between Rosemon and Beelzemon had just grown more heated. Rosemon was able to deliver blows one after another, but she soon realized that Beelzemon still had the upper hand. The demon was simply toying with her. Not once had he attacked her; he'd just goad her and laugh as she became more and more flustered.

But she wasn't about to give up. This demon had killed D'Arcmon and her human partner. Rosemon knew that her own partner would want to see justice served to this demon, and she would only be too happy to do it for her. This demon had even _absorbed_ D'Arcmon's data. Rosemon knew all along, that even if Beelzemon hadn't absorbed the data, her friend would not be reconfigured as the same Digimon she was. There was hope for her to be reconfigured as the same D'Arcmon she had known all those years, decades, _centuries…_ but when the general killed young Belinda Foo as well, all hope was lost. D'Arcmon was effectively _dead_ as well, as Ophanimon had been. Had she not been partnered to Dina – and how grateful she was because of that – she would have committed suicide out of grief.

"Old woman, you're slowing down," Beelzemon chuckled.

"I'll show you!" Rosemon snapped. _"Forbidden Temptation!"_

Beelzemon whistled. "Now that's more like it!" he leered, and didn't make any attempt to shield himself. The blast of flowery energy slammed upon his chest, but it didn't even faze him, not even when Rosemon was not showing any sign of letting up.

"_Transcendent Purification!"_

However, a blast of pure light was able to force Beelzemon away. He yelled as the light sent him tumbling in midair.

Rosemon glanced sideways and saw Aldiyamon Juara Mode, his mouth grimly set. "Another Demon Lord…" he muttered.

"Ah…finally a Digimon of my equal standing!" laughed Beelzemon, brushing dusts off his jacket. He pointed his blaster carelessly towards Aldiyamon, sneering as the angel attempted to defend himself before moving the blaster towards the shops of Taipan Triangle business center. "Heh, heh. Fooled ya! _Chaos Flare!"_

Aldiyamon gasped and waved his right hand towards the beam. The stream of purple destroying beam was surrounded by swirls of white orbs before it vanished into thin air. Beelzemon looked clearly affronted, and was about to send another attack before a sphere of condensed energy appeared in Aldiyamon's hands, glowing purple at first before it was transformed to pure white. With a loud grunt he sent the sphere frontward and it burst into powerful explosion of pure energy, slamming upon Beelzemon.

Rosemon sailed forward, over the streams of energy unleashed by Aldiyamon, and wielded out her vine. _"Roses Rapier!"_

She had aimed to attack Beelzemon's head, and smiled in satisfaction when it struck Beelzemon's helmet with a loud clang. Beelzemon roared in pain and immediately shrugged off the attack from Aldiyamon by deflecting it with his blaster. He stared towards her, teeth bared in fury before making way towards her. She lashed out by calling for her Thorn Whip, but Beelzemon slashed the vine away with his deadly claws, before with a determined snarl he slashed towards Rosemon's exposed body, right over her bosom, spewing out light green liquid from the wound.

"AAAGGHH!!" Rosemon's pained howl echoed all around.

"Rosemon!" Aldiyamon cried out, and snatched her limping body. He took out his sword and slashed it in midair. _"Heavenstar Slasher!"_

Beelzemon evaded the incoming energy blade, and drew an energy pentagram with rapid succession. He then shot energy spheres through the center of the pentagram, and each shot that went through the demonic symbol seemed to have amplified in power and capacity. Rains of intense energy spheres went towards Aldiyamon and Rosemon, and all Aldiyamon could do was to teleport himself and Rosemon away. Seeing this, Beelzemon threw his head back and laughed…

...until a sharp streak of arrow slashed through his shoulder. Purple liquid burst out from the wound. He turned back and saw that Aldiyamon had teleported up behind him. Rosemon had been teleported away, out of sight. It was now a battle between him and Aldiyamon.

xxx

xxx

Aldiyamon charged forward, but was suddenly halted when a burst of emotion flowed in his head. It seemed to be coming from Beelzemon, yet it wasn't Beelzemon's.

_Help me!_

A woman's voice. He hadn't heard it before, but now, he was hearing it.

A shadow loomed over him. He looked up, saw Beelzemon ready to claw him, and teleported out of sight. As Beelzemon's claws struck empty air Aldiyamon reappeared behind the demon. Beelzemon swiftly turned around and attempted to strike him again, but this time Aldiyamon was prepared. He seized both of Beelzemon's wrists and for a moment the demon lord attempted to overpower him. Aldiyamon felt himself fatigued; he was already not at his best, and the voice grew stronger in his mind. And as it grew stronger, it also grew more and more familiar…

_Aldiyamon, help! _

Something clicked in his mind. _D'Arcmon?_

Beelzemon snarled towards him. "Perhaps I should just kill you, like I did to that girl and her angel partner, hmm? I hate angels."

"Not today, and too bad," snapped Aldiyamon. _"Transcendent Purification!!"_

Beelzemon screamed and was blasted away by the attack. Aldiyamon charged forward and sent out his Heavenstar Slasher which knocked on Beelzemon's helmeted head. A loud clang was heard, but Aldiyamon was not relenting. D'Arcmon's voice was growing stronger in his head, and he knew he was doing it right. _Injure Beelzemon, that's what I have to do. He's too strong with D'Arcmon's data, but…_ He summoned out his crossbow and let out the Radiant Star Blaster, followed by the Shower, and a series of Hunters.

The demon lord's scream grew louder, and Aldiyamon saw golden data leaked out from a wound from his shoulder, pierced by one of the Radiant Star Hunters. The data soared high, and Aldiyamon blinked when Beelzemon seemed to phase out of sight. Or rather, his wings and blaster were. The rest of him remained intact.

_Thank you, Aldiyamon…_ D'Arcmon's voice was faint, but it also sounded content.

Aldiyamon smiled. But then his smile evaporated. He had been distracted.

Amidst the heavy rains and the occasional flashes of lightning, Aldiyamon had lost track of his foe.

Beelzemon had vanished out of sight.

xxx

xxx

"I swear, when I see Adam, I'll…" JD muttered, clutching his chest. A dull pain rose in his chest and he panted. He had been running from Adam's apartment to the site of battle, and as a result he was now soaking wet. _Damned curse, it's only a less than a mile run! _

He squinted. There was a familiar girl under a red umbrella, staying hidden behind a car. She saw him coming, and made a motion to offer JD to share her umbrella, but before they could do so Rosemon materialized before Dina, injured.

"Rosemon!" Dina quickly knelt by the flower woman. Her umbrella was thrown to the sides, abandoned.

"Damn…" JD stared at the deep gash across Rosemon's chest. "Rosemon, you feeling alright?"

A sound landing was heard not far from them. A person in black was crouching slightly, seemingly done to break his fall. Then he stood up, clutching a wound on his shoulder before grinning maliciously towards them. Three bloodshot eyes burned their gazes upon them.

"Beelzemon!"

Rosemon snarled and struggled to get up. JD quickly helped her up by putting her arm on his shoulders, supporting it with one hand while the other was propped on the farther side of her waist. Dina joined in on the Mega's other side. With the teens' help Rosemon was able to stand up properly.

Rosemon's mouth curled into a mocking smile as she shot the demon a glare. "What did Aldiyamon do to you? Ripped you off your wings and precious blaster?"

"A minor setback," said Beelzemon, brandishing two black guns towards Rosemon and the DigiWira. "With your data, I'll get those back and more. D'Arcmon had been a Champion, but you…you're a Mega. Much more data for me to consume."

Rosemon gasped. "Dina, JD…run!"

"The hell I would!" JD's fist flared with deep crimson aura. He shot a glance towards Dina. "Dina, get out of here!"

"But…" Dina was evidently scared, but she wasn't moving. Before long, her face reflected the intensity JD was showing, and she clasped Rosemon's hand tight. "I'm not leaving too. Rosemon…you're my partner. This demon…killed Bel…"

Beelzemon snorted. "Oh, move on already!" He clicked his guns. "Fine. If you two measly humans won't leave this woman with me, then I guess it's three at one go!"

Rosemon stood before the two teens, shoving both JD and Dina behind her. "You will not harm them! Over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged." Beelzemon was about to click the triggers, but was stopped short when a blast of light slammed him from the back. An arrow struck his hands with deadly precision, throwing the guns off them. Beelzemon fell on his knees, cursing vehemently as he looked up. Instantly he winced as rains got into his eyes.

Aldiyamon, glowing radiantly, was fixing an arrow of light towards him warningly. One move from the demon, and he would shoot the arrow.

Beelzemon snorted. "Heh. Didn't hurt…"

"Perfect timing," said JD, his earlier attention to snap at his cousin forgotten. For now, he was glad of Aldiyamon's presence. Later, he thought, he'd strangle Adam for leaving him so abruptly.

Swirls of golden data suddenly showered over Rosemon. The winds picked up and her cape was blown against JD and Dina. Both teens backed away slowly, as the data formed an apparition of someone familiar. "Whoa…" said JD, when the apparition became more opaque. There was no mistaking _her_.

Rosemon froze with shock, a tear trailed down her wet cheek. "D'Arcmon, how…"

"_Rosemon, take my data,"_ implored the ghostly D'Arcmon. _"Take my data to heal yourself, and to restore your power!"_

"What?" Rosemon exclaimed, taken aback. "I cannot do that! I simply can't! You can't ask me to do that!"

D'Arcmon gave Rosemon a wistful smile. _"You must, dear sister…I insist…"_

Beelzemon chuckled. "Oh, it's the angel. Come to daddy…" He was about to advance, raising his hand towards D'Arcmon, before retracting it back with a hiss as a light arrow nearly cut through it. The arrow tore a hole onto the tarred road inches away from Beelzemon. The demon snorted and was forced to remain on his knees. He rolled sideways when an arrow threatened to cut his knees, cursing, as Aldiyamon stared towards him with hatred.

"_If you don't take it, HE will!"_ D'Arcmon insisted. _"And his power will rise to greater heights with my data in him! Take my data, Rosemon! It is my wish!"_

"But…D'Arcmon…"

"_I won't be reconfigured,"_ said D'Arcmon sadly, as she looked at Dina, who was crying. A golden tear fell from her face too. _"I have died when Belinda died that day. You, Rosemon…you must take my data, and regain your Mega-level power in order to fight this demon. Do it, before he does!"_

Rosemon choked a sob as she raised one hand. D'Arcmon shimmered and combusted into data once again. The golden data swirled around Rosemon and began closing up her wound, before slowly transforming her outfit. Her rose-red outfit and tiara turned snowy white, her green cape shifted into lustrous pink with a distinct glimmer radiating about it. Her vines became thicker and turned ebony-black. The Tifaret jewel on her chest let out a brilliant pink shine, and the remaining swirls of data morphed into seven more pink orbs that were similar with the jewel, all orbiting around her. Rosemon felt a power within her, the power she had thought she lost when she stepped out of the Lost Mountain. Her Mega powers had been restored, with some differences in her form. **"Rosemon, Burst Mode!!" **

xxx

xxx

Gayathri was growing restless. She had received a signal on her Digivice, coming from Manny. Then Anding switched on the radio, and the first thing they all heard was the massive attack on Subang Jaya. The newscaster had mentioned that it was an attack as big as the one that took place at KLCC Park not too long before. And her heart stopped cold when she'd heard about the exact location of the Digimon attack. The newscaster proceeded by describing the total damages inflicted on the battle site, and another anchorwoman – Gayathri thought that her voice was very familiar, before realizing that she was actually Rita Kaur – was describing the battle in depth. Then, a discreet cough was heard from her father and Anding instantly switched off the radio. Too late, nevertheless.

"Stop the car," said Gayathri. "Now!"

Anding hit the brakes instantly. The Jeep came to a complete halt.

"Gayathri, honey…" her mother said, befuddled. "Where are you going?"

"I need to go there," said Gayathri intensely. "There's a huge battle, and my friends need my help."

"No." Her father fidgeted on his seat, but by putting away his PDA to look at her, Gayathri knew that her father wanted to have a say in this. "Don't go, Gayathri. Remember what happened…"

"That's precisely why I need to go!" Gayathri opened the back door and stepped out. The road was not totally deserted, but Gayathri waited until the car behind them and the lorry behind the said car moved past them before whipping out her Juara Digivice and released Floramon. "So that nobody else has to go through what _I've_ gone through. So that no other family has to go through what Bel's family has gone through."

Her parents followed suit immediately. Then Anding and Mak Mirah joined them.

"But honey, that's…that's a traumatic experience for you. Surely, you need rest."

Gayathri shook her head fervently. "No. I have rested enough. I have recuperated long enough. It just _kills me_ not knowing what's going on back home. Even my friends won't tell me what's been going on. I'm done being sheltered….it helps a lot, really it does, and I really appreciate it…but it's not something that I want. It's just like running away from reality…"

The Nadarajah pair looked at each other. Gayathri knew that they had hoped that she would stop involving herself in battles anymore. She knew they had been worried ever since they were made known of her dual identity, but they had kept silence about it. But the recent attack had hit just too close to home, literally speaking. Gayathri knew that her parents had had enough.

"But…"

"No buts," said Gayathri, with the intensity that she had never displayed during her recuperative period. "I know I'm needed. If the reporter's right, if the attack on _our home town_ is as big as the one at KLCC, then it will require ALL of us to put a stop to it. Beating Puaka Generals was hard enough, and the reporter mentioned that there are _three_ Digimon on the loose. As Puspamon I can reach there far quicker than this car, I have super speed and…"

"But, honey, what if you're…"

"I won't," said Gayathri. "I won't let myself be killed by that _murderer. _He must be stopped at all cost. I need to do this, so that he won't kill anyone, anymore." She took a deep breath. "I'm not going to be on my own. Everyone else is already there. Together, we'll put a stop on this." She stared at her parents, flailing her arms in frustration when her parents seemed to be not budging from their decision. She sighed. "If you don't allow me to go…I'm going anyway."

Her mother sighed back. "There's no stopping you, is it?"

"No."

"You're our only child, Gayathri," her father said intensely. "We've tried so hard not to stop you from endangering your life, so many times… We both understand that this is your calling. But how could we just let our only daughter run off to face such a dangerous task, and the only thing we could do is watch?"

"If it were you who have gotten this call," said Gayathri slowly, "would you leave the fight, before knowing that it's over?" She looked up, meeting her father's forbidding gaze.

Mr. and Mrs. Nadarajah sighed. They gazed at her. She returned it without blinking.

Then, her father sighed, finally relenting. "I wish I could protect you from all these." He moved forward and embraced his daughter. "But I understand. We understand."

"And we're very, very proud of you," added Mrs. Nadarajah tearfully, and joined the embrace. "Return to us safely, honey."

"I will. Thank you for understanding..."

Gayathri felt tears trickling out her eyes. Then she let go of the embrace, and just as quickly her parents pulled away. Anding and Mak Mirah both gave her encouraging smiles while Floramon nodded.

She raised her Digivice up high, called out the evolution cry, and in a flurry of pink flowery windstorm Puspamon was born.


	64. Storm Front, Part II

It didn't take Puspamon long before the KLCC Twin Towers were within her sight. Having flown for thirty minutes, she had utilized her super speed to the fullest, and realized that it was raining quite heavily. Her friends must be battling Digimon in this weather. She was glad that she had decided to fly back; there was a heavy traffic congestion on all the roads, made worse by the weather, if not the time.

Looking down, she passed the ravaged KLCC Park, noting that reconstruction processes had been abandoned due to the bad weather. The park and the buildings around it had suffered heavy blows during the Puaka Generals' attack two weeks back. She hated to think how her hometown would end up after the battle with the recent threats. The reporter had described the Digimon invaders being a giant white bird, a massive red crocodile and a winged demon in black. None of them rang a bell to her. Nevertheless, she had a feeling that she was direly needed.

And so, ignoring the gasps of people who had spotted her, she gathered speed and sailed towards the roads.

xxx

xxx

As Shawujinmon, he'd had high expectations on how strong he was going to be when he finally digivolved to Mega. Remaining an Ultimate was not an option when his opponents were also Ultimates. For nearly two months, he and Samudramon had clashed against each other a few times, and he could not recall just one time when he had actually beaten the merman Wira Digital. Sure, he had managed to overpower Samudramon on many occasions, but in the end the latter would turn the tides over him and he'd lose.

In terms of experience, he was better. Strength-wise, he was superior. Against many adversaries of SkullSatamon in the past, he had flourished, particularly against the marine Digimon. When he had been released from entombment, he had thought that against these _children_, it would be a menial task that could be taken cared of with one eye closed.

How wrong he was.

Samudramon had an advantage he never had, and that had been his weakness. Samudramon willed both water and thunder powers, and as a water Digimon he knew first-hand that those two powers did not mix. Yet Samudramon controlled both powers with relative ease, and was unaffected by them. For that he could never hope to achieve victory over the Wira Digital. Should Samudramon only have water power, then there was no doubt of who was the better fighter.

Now, fully-digivolved in his Mega form of the Demon Lord Leviamon, he was having the time of his life. Samudramon's combined powers didn't faze him much, and even with the other Wira Digital's – the sorceress – help, they still could not hope to match his profound power. He had the advantage now; his scales were so tough that electricity did not have an effect on it. They were also tough enough to serve as armors, protecting him from the attacks, since in return of his extreme durability he had sacrificed mobility. His massive stature had reduced the nimbleness he once had when he was Shawujinmon, but Leviamon thought that it was a fair exchange.

"_Rostrum!"_ A stream of reddish-yellow blast was vomited out when he opened his maw. It had not the loveliest name, he thought, but that was put aside when one saw how the attack affected his enemies. Samudramon and Xianamon were both forced away; Xianamon's force-field did not seem to be able to block it completely while Samudramon's attempt on countering it with his glowing thunder dragon was proven ineffective. They were blasted towards the building nearby, crashing through the windows. Another wave of Rostrum destroyed half of the building, before the two Wira Digital retaliated.

Leviamon snorted._ "Cauda!"_

His serpentine twin-tails coiled over his head and lashed towards his incoming foes, sending them crashing once more. Then they seemed to hiss – the effect of waters pattering against them – and became erect, like two serpents ready to strike. Spirals of dark deluge appeared before sneeringly he aimed towards the fallen two Wira Digital. _"Water Tail Blaster!"_

Samudramon's feeble attempt to raise a water barrier from the rains was cancelled out totally when his Water Tail Blaster pierced through it. Xianamon's telekinetic barrier was resisted as well, before the attack flooded over them. Both Wira Digital were sent crashing onto the ground, rendered unable to get up as Leviamon unleashed more of his Water Tail Blaster against them. Leviamon was not letting up; it would be virtually impossible for them to resist. They would be drowned if nothing was done to stop him, and Leviamon was not going to stop.

However, a piercing blow over his snout forced him to stop. It was an arrow of light, sent by Angewomon. MagnaAngemon swooped down and struck him further with his purple blade. Both blows however did not faze him – his scales were almost indestructible against normal weaponries. With a snort, he lashed out both his tails against the two angels, intending to take them down quickly. Angewomon was forced back, but MagnaAngemon was undeterred as he held his shield forward, while raising his sword up. He made a circular motion with it, leaving trails of gold aura until a ring of gold became a _gate_ of gold. Leviamon looked over warily, recognizing the attack.

"_Gate of Destiny!"_

A mystical portal was opened, and the inside was filled with gleaming mercury-like substance. Leviamon felt a force pulling him inside as the portal grew larger to accommodate his size. He soon saw faint waves of energy wrapping around him. Yet, his stature was so massive that he remained unmoved. He saw MagnaAngemon grunt as the angel exerted more power into creating a gate. Leviamon snorted; against _smaller_ Megas – smaller ones like Beelzemon, he thought snidely – the Gate of Destiny would be their undoing. Leviamon was thankful of whatever force that had determined that his form would be monstrous. The Gate of Destiny was powerful, but it would not work against him.

He opened his maw, and unleashed a concentrated Rostrum blast towards the gate. The blast went into the gate and for a moment the gate seemed to be absorbing it wholly. Leviamon continued releasing the attack, and soon felt the pulling force lessening. The golden frame of the gate crackled madly with electricity before the flawless circular shape of the gate began to deteriorate, like a drop of water that fell over a concrete ground. He roared, and the Rostrum blast increased to its maximum level. The gate combusted into data particles, and while still releasing the blast he aimed it towards MagnaAngemon and Angewomon, as well as the nearby buildings. The struck buildings crumbled. Shrieks were heard, and he saw the angels regressing into their Rookie forms. He laughed.

"Better luck next time!" He loomed over the helpless Salamon and Gatomon. His shadow washed over them, and he saw them shivering. "Except there _won't be_ a next time!"

He opened his maw, ready to end the lives of the Saintly Siblings. However, a pure blast of white light invaded his maw and he was forced to close it quickly before it overwhelmed it. Even so, the light was able to push him away ever so slightly. He looked up to see Aldiyamon, sword in his hand, ready to strike. A shiver was sent along his spine; wasn't Aldiyamon involved in fighting Beelzemon? If he was here, then… He cast a look towards the roads that were led away from the intersection where he was at, where a heated battle was taking place. There was a new fighter, in white and pink, greatly resembling Rosemon… and she was now giving Beelzemon a rather challenging fight.

Leviamon snorted. _So I'm now up against Aldiyamon, the only Mega-form Wira Digital…_ He turned around; Samudramon and Xianamon had both gotten up. With a grunt he lashed upon them with his tail, sending both of them flying._Better not risk being interrupted…_

Aldiyamon sheathed his sword on his back, and swirled his hands in a circular motion. Leviamon saw a pearly sphere generated from the aura around him._ That's it,_ he thought. _He's releasing his strongest attack. This means, I'm going to have to match it with MY strongest attack!_

"_Transcendent Purification!"_

"_Poseidon Grave Strike!" _

Leviamon's eyes glowed crimson. The winds picked up, and the rains grew heavier as he drew himself to full height, now standing on his hind-legs, taking pleasure to see Aldiyamon faltered a little upon his monstrosity. Two dark red lasers shot out from his eyes, followed by a blast of night blue spiraling waves from his snout before they were joined by two streams of chartreuse energy beams from both his front legs which were now his 'hands'. The three attacks converged midway and merged into a supercharged attack that collided soundly with Aldiyamon's attack. Elatedness coursed all over Leviamon – he hadn't expected this. _Aldiyamon is weakening! Now's my chance…_

_Leviamon, you FOOL!__ Stop this at once!_

Leviamon stopped dead at once at the voice that rang coldly in his mind. He recognized Lucemon's voice, and was caught with the harshness in it. But before he could power down the attack, it consumed Aldiyamon. An explosion like no other ensued, followed by the horrified screams from the other Wira Digital.

_You better hope that Aldiyamon, or rather, the __**boy **__is not dead,_ spat Lucemon in his mind. Leviamon realized that Lucemon was communicating with him telepathically. _The Master has specifically instructed that the boy is NOT to be harmed. You may have your way with the others, but Adam is not to be destroyed. _

The smoke cleared. Leviamon heaved his breaths in anticipation. He saw the other DigiWira – the one with his partner deleted and reconfigured – ran towards Adam's prone, lifeless form, while shouting out dire threats towards him. He watched as JD lifted Adam and backed away, with Samudramon and Xianamon regained their composures and stood up defensively. And, to his relief, he saw Adam moving slightly while in his friend's arms. _The boy's alive,_ he thought, with undisguised bitterness. He could have destroyed one Wira Digital that day. He had never understood the reason why SkullSatamon had taken a special interest in the boy. Lucemon seemed to know why, but the other generals did not.

He however, had no time to indulge his thoughts upon that matter, when Samudramon and _two_ Xianamon leaped over the air to deliver their attacks.

xx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 64 – Storm Front, Part II**_

xxx

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Samudramon spun his trident before launching the powered up mode of the Double-Edged Thunderblades. The electric-blue dragon coiled from his very being before it was blasted towards Leviamon. To his surprise, the crocodilian Demon Lord simply grasped the dragon with his scaly paw, and crushed it without much difficulty.

"Is that the best you can do?" Leviamon laughed.

The two Xianamon both held out their hands, flicking them once, allowing stardust to rain upon Leviamon before flying away in opposite directions. Instantly, Leviamon's movement became somewhat sluggish, but he was still able – albeit forcefully – to move about. This was the opportunity the two sorceresses were waiting for. They converged and crossed their fly-whisks together, calling out the Diamond Matrix Mandala which slammed dead center on Leviamon's chest. To Samudramon's delight, the Demon Lord was sent crashing on his back, causing some of the abandoned vehicles around the vicinity to be crushed upon Leviamon's weight.

The Xianamon didn't waste time. They attacked in perfect unison; now sending their poisonous needles towards Leviamon. The needles bounced away against Leviamon's scales, forcing them to change strategy. But with Leviamon already down, they cast their immobilization spell towards the demon, hoping that they would be able to destroy him while he was in stasis.

"This will take time," the yellow-garbed Xianamon muttered. Samudramon noted that her voice sounded strained. "His hides…his scales…they are all too strong for our attacks to penetrate."

"Ah, no worries," came the lighthearted reply from her clone. "With your Magical Stasis and my Soul Frost spells, we can at least prevent him from moving."

"But we could not injure him with our attacks," said Xianamon.

"One step at a time, sister," said the clone easily.

Leviamon's movements grew more constricted. When he had fell on his back, his legs were still movable. His tails had swished wildly, like snakes that were retaliating upon threats. But now the tails had stopped moving altogether, while Leviamon's trashing grew feebler.

Samudramon could only wonder for how long they could keep up with this strategy. They had seen Leviamon's power – he was able to beat even Aldiyamon Juara Mode. He could have finished Aldiyamon, but something had stopped him. He wondered why; not that he wanted Aldiyamon destroyed – no, _far_ from it – but the opportunity was there. Why did Leviamon hesitate? It had cost the Demon Lord when they managed to catch him with his guards down.

Samudramon also knew that _nothing_ offensive from their part could destroy Leviamon.

_Puspamon,_ he thought silently, casting one look towards the sky. _I need you._

The Rolling Thunder Hurricane – Samudramon and Puspamon's joined attack – was by far the most powerful of all Mega-powered attacks that the team had, if compared to the Final Purification, the Diamond Matrix Mandala and the Firestorm Slasher. It was the only Mega attack that did not cause them to dedigivolve after its execution. And with Aldiyamon down, he would need it in order to _hope_ that they could bring down Leviamon.

The Kappa General had been his personal enemy, but he recognized the fact that he could never take Leviamon down alone. The Puaka Generals had been _Adam's_ personal enemies, and Aldiyamon Juara Mode had evoked the last amount of his and his fellow Wira Digital's powers to destroy the evolved Puakas once and for all. Would it be the same with Leviamon, who had exhibited tremendous power?

"Puspamon…"

A shriek from the skies averted his thoughts. He looked up, and saw flashes of white and red amidst the clouds. _Opie's fighting Valdurmon now…_

"_Why can't we just call him by his Digimon name?" _demanded Penguinmon. _"The name's getting on my nerve, seriously!"_

_Force of habit,_ he replied, smiling a bit. He looked at the Xianamon, and caught the main Xianamon's eyes. She nodded, mouthing what easily interpreted as _Go_, and that she would handle Leviamon for the time being. Then he looked towards the flashing clouds once more, amidst the rains and thunders, analyzing the magnitude of the situation between the two birds. Opie, in his Silphymon form, was not going to be the victor against his Mega-level former comrade. He thought of Debbie, and how she had adored the former Avian Shine, and made his decision.

xxx

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"_Puspamon…"_

Amidst the rain, a gust of wind swirled around Puspamon. She stopped short in midair, over the tallest building around the vicinity. _Manny? No… Samudramon?_

She looked around, confused. She could have sworn that she had heard him. But it was impossible. She was still so far away from Subang Jaya.

_I'd call it hallucination, but I'm not seeing stuffs. I'm hearing them…_

Shrugging it off, the fairy Wira Digital called upon her super-speed and flew gracefully and swiftly towards the direction of her hometown, tearing the rainy sky with a streak of solid pink light.

xxx

xxx

"Adam…Adam, wake up."

Adam opened his eyes slowly, hearing his cousin's desperate call. Then sensations returned to him, and he winced. He was in _pain. _ Patamon – who had obviously seen better days – was unconscious and was on his chest, and he himself was currently being cradled by his cousin, who was running.

"Josh?" he asked weakly.

"Shhh. Hang on."

Flows of concern rushed into Adam via empathy, and he smiled contently. Suddenly the pain didn't seem to hurt as much anymore. He frowned. There was a burning emotion coming from his back. Something related to anger, frustration and dire – all not directed towards him, but bothered him all the same. He tilted his head slightly, and caught hints of crimson aura. Adam wanted to say something, to assure his cousin, but his head felt heavy and his eyes drooped down by the patters of rain that had mostly been shielded by his cousin's stature. Another slight movement of his head, and Adam brushed against JD's chest where the heart was, and winced upon the _darkness_ that he was getting from it. _That accursed tattoo…_ he thought. He closed his eyes, trying to push away the darkness.

"Adam?" JD had stopped. They had reached somewhere where it was not raining. Or rather, somewhere protected from the rain – Adam could still hear the rains. He opened his eyes blearily and saw that they were at a driveway of a house. An abandoned house, probably, from the looks of the weeds that grew at the gardens. "My arms are a bit sore, so I'm gonna put you down, okay?"

Adam nodded. He was merely glad that he was not out in the open rains anymore. When JD helped him to sit, Adam realized that they were not alone.

"Are you alright, Adam?" Dina asked, concerned. Adam didn't have to have empathy to realize that.

"I'm okay," he said, petting Patamon gently. He saw that JD also had the Saintly Siblings with him, both perched on his shoulders. He hadn't noticed them earlier. The two's conditions were no better than Patamon, though they managed to remain conscious. "Where is…. where's Rosemon?" he asked, realizing that Rosemon Burst Mode had been battling Beelzemon before Aldiyamon left to assist the others. Rosemon had insisted that she was able to take care of the _murderer_ herself.

"Still fighting _him,_" said Dina, and there was dark conviction when she was referring to Beelzemon. "She told me to get to safety, so that Beelzemon won't be able to get to me the same way he got to…" Dina paused, and looked down. She took a deep breath, and when she looked back at him, Adam saw her eyes twinkling. But she did not cry. "So that I won't end up like Bel," she said finally.

"How's she faring against him?" asked Adam.

At this, a flicker of a smile appeared on Dina's face. "She's amazing, Adam. She's even more powerful than before. I really hope that she'll win." She sighed. "It will be the best news to tell Gaya when she gets back here."

A dry chuckle turned Adam and Dina's attentions towards JD. "At least there's one good news she's gonna have when she's back," he said darkly.

"Oh, Josh…" Adam murmured sadly, as JD turned away. Adam saw he was clutching his Digivice, his hand still flaring with crimson aura as he stood up and skulked towards one of the dirty pillars that were holding the driveway's roof. His empathic power picked up JD's emotions easily, despite them not being in contact.

JD turned around and stared upon him. There was suspicion in those blue-green eyes, which at first look made him want to turn away. However, Adam resisted doing so, lest it would rile JD's suspicion even further. So he carefully met JD's gaze, and their eyes remained fixed upon each other before JD finally relented. The hard look in the older boy's eyes slowly diminished, but were not gone completely. JD looked away momentarily, before a sigh was heard and he was seen clipping the Digivice back on the knee-length Bermuda shorts he wore. Then, he turned back towards him.

"I can tell, you know," JD said quietly. "You lived with me long enough."

"Tell what?" Adam asked, although he knew what JD was referring to. He simply didn't expect that JD would ask him about it in the midst of a battle.

"That you're hiding something," JD returned.

"What makes you…?" He stopped when JD raised one hand up, halting him.

"You won't even tell me what you were up to earlier this day. It was a simple question, yet you were so evasive about it."

Adam sighed. "I've told you, I was at the Digital World."

"Didn't think that I'd check on you?" asked JD, his voice low and dangerous. He briefly tapped on his Digivice.

"Honest, Josh. I was there." Adam looked at his cousin. He had never heard JD talking to him like that. "I was looking for some leads, about the curse."

"Then why didn't I detect your signal?" he demanded.

"I…" Adam honestly didn't know why. "I don't know."

"You don't know," echoed JD, crossing his arms over his chest. Adam knew that pose, and that look he was giving him. He was going on his big-brother-mode. At times, it annoyed him, but most of the times he loved that – to know that someone was watching out for him. It was then that he was reminded of the deal he had made, and kept his eyes down from JD.

"I don't know. Really, Josh…I'm not lying." He chanced a look towards his cousin, and saw the hard look gone.

"You don't have to go around looking for the cure, if that was what you were doing," JD said, a hint of worry was made apparent. His expression softened. "Manny and I tried, for almost a whole freaking month. No clues. Nobody can heal me. Persiamon's made sure of it."

_Not if I can help it,_ Adam thought grimly.

"Adam, just…don't do anything foolish, okay?"

Adam nodded. "Okay. I promise. Again." _Nothing is foolish, if it can save your life…_

Adam realized that the only way out now was to sidetrack JD. He didn't want to lie, but he didn't want to be entirely truthful either. If JD knew what he had done… the deal he had struck with SkullSatamon… No, it was better that JD didn't know that Adam now was aware of the whole truth about the curse, courtesy of SkullSatamon. He now knew the exact nature of the curse and the supposedly only cure, and it had shaken him greatly that night. The cure required a sacrifice. Now he knew why his cousin had kept this vital information out when he admitted about the curse the previous day. Adam could not blame him; he must have guessed what Adam's immediate action would be. In fact, it was what that had first crossed his mind, before SkullSatamon offered the deal.

xxx

xxx

**(Flashback)**

"How is it that I know that I can trust you?"

"I have use for you, young Adam," SkullSatamon said bluntly. "Your powers intrigued me. I think you know that."

"No use trying to take it from me. Even if I want to give them to you, I can't."

"Oh, who says I want to _take_ them from you? On the contrary, young Adam…on the contrary…"

"You want meinstead? You want to make me evil."

"You, my boy, is incorruptible by evil. The holy aspect of your power has made sure of that. You can, however, be _consumed_."

"Consumed?"

"Your dark digivolution into Aldiyamon Fury Mode has proven that. You didn't dark digivolve due to evil; you did so because you succumbed to your emotions. You had been sad, bitter, angry, and most of all, consumed by your desire to seek vengeance against the Puaka Generals, and the result was beautiful!"

He stared at the skeletal demon, disgusted of his definition of beautiful. Aldiyamon Fury Mode was destructive.

SkullSatamon paid no heed to him. "And now, you have the power to sense emotions…perceive emotions from others. How very wonderful. I have wondered _why_ you were able to dark digivolve with the protection given by your DigiSphere. Now, I know why…"

"So what is it that you want?"

"Straight to the point? Alright. In exchange for my answer to your current predicament, you will have to train under me and my Hellion General. Your powers are too precious to be left untrained. We shall tap into their fullest potential soon. You can already achieve various wonders with them, wonders that are extremely rare even among the most noble and purest of Digimon. No single Digimon has the power to purify attack to use it at its own whim, or reconfigure deleted Digimon, as you have done to Agumon. You, my dear boy, are precious."

"First, give me the cure…"

SkullSatamon aughed fervently at his demand. "Oh, surely you don't think I am stupid, young Adam? No, I think not."

"Josh only has ONE WEEK to live!"

"Then I will give you the answer when it's almost time."

"How do I know that I can trust you? You've made it pretty clear that you don't care about my life back when I was taken here. Why should you care for Josh?"

SkullSatamon chuckled. "I recognize opportunity when I see one, Adam. My minions are dwindling, thanks to you and your friends. But that won't matter if I have you in return."

Adam squirmed. There was something _odd_ from the way SkullSatamon mention about his dwindling servants. _Thanks to us?_ SkullSatamon probably was being sarcastic, but Adam still thought that there was something else beyond sarcasm to that statement.

"And furthermore…you are incorruptible, as I have said. Should you feel any danger from me or Lucemon, all you have to do is teleport away. I will not lose anything, but you on the other hand will lose JD..."

"No..."

"Unless, of course, if you die in his place. It'll be a shame, but in the long run, it doesn't matter. For me, if you're alive I'd rather have you in my side, but if you're dead…I'll shrug and say ' whatever'. Your team will suffer a heavy blow without you, and that is advantageous enough for me. But…endure one week with me, and both of you shall live. That, I am positive."

"Why do you want to train me?" Adam asked suspiciously. SkullSatamon had given him the impression that he had something more that he was not telling. "If my powers are honed perfectly, I can destroy you all so easily." He suddenly stopped, clasping his mouth. There was a chilling edge in his voice while he made that threat. It sent shivers down his spine.

"Ah…we're making progress already!"

The demon's reply made his blood ran cold. It was the sheer lightheartedness of the reply that made him doubting his decision to go along with what SkullSatamon's plan. SkullSatamon had looked so elated when Adam came out with that threatening inquiry. But it had only taken a mental picture of JD, how he looked when he was in pain, and the memory of the times they had spent together, and the doubt was gone. _Whatever that will happen, will happen_, he assured himself. _I'll save you, Josh. Whatever it takes..._

"Might I add," SkullSatamon said, "that only by this training that you can save his life? That sweetens the deal, I'll wager?"

Adam didn't miss the hungry look on the demon. The eyeless sockets seemed to gleam with glutton, the lights within them dancing with mirth, as if knowing what Adam would be saying. SkullSatamon had chosen his words perfectly; there was no way Adam could refuse now.

"So…do we have a deal?"

**(/Flashback)**

xxx

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JD cleared his throat, pulling Adam out of his thoughts. "That still doesn't explain why I couldn't get a trace of your Digivice's signal when I went to the Digital World."

"I've told you…I don't know why." Adam took a deep breath and veiled his emotion. It was something he was good at and he hoped that it would be enough to fool JD. "I…after you told me about the curse last night, I went to the Digital World to ask around for the cure. I had to do something…"

"Manny and I looked, but we've found nothing," JD pointed out.

"I know. I just wanted to try…but I couldn't find anything. Then…" Adam looked up at JD. "It finally dawned into me. That I…" He looked down and coached himself to take a few deep breaths. He was surprised at himself…he had _failed_ to inhibit his emotion. That was made painfully obvious when a choked sob escaped his throat. "That I…am gonna lose you."

Whatever trace of hardness on JD's face was wiped out completely when he heard that. Adam saw a look of anguish crossed his cousin's face, and at that precise time he knew that whatever that would happen, it would be worth it. He would give anything so that his cousin would be rid off this curse. All he had to do was to fulfill his half of the bargain.

"I'm sorry, if I made you worried. It…" He took a deep breath, trying to conceal his emotion. He had pulled it off before, he could do so again. "It just that, I got sidetracked. I…I was so shocked, and sad….I didn't know what to do. So I…I took Sagittarimon, and we went to…"

Adam stalled again. JD raised his eyebrow. "And…?"

"I asked Sagittarimon to take me, to all the places that _we_ have met previously."

JD gave him an odd, surprised look. Clearly he had not expected Adam to answer that.

"You know…Stone Valley. Megalith Coliseum, or what's left of it. Cave of Solitude, or what's left of it." He smiled grimly. "_You_ destroyed the cave… and someone's destroyed the coliseum. I don't know who, but words got around that it was one of the generals. Beelzemon fits the description I got…" Adam halted, before shaking his head grimly. "That's not the point anymore."

"Why did you go to those places?" JD asked softly. "Those aren't good places to remember our meetings. They're not how I want you to remember me, when I'm…" He inclined his head awkwardly. "Y'know. Evil."

Adam's shoulders sagged. "I guess I was just reminiscing…both good and the bad times. It made me appreciate you even more, and…" He looked away, noting to his surprise that the emotional barrier he had was threatening to fail. He could not do this as perfectly as he had thought he could. Dina, who happened to meet his gaze, gave him a sympathetic nod.

What he had told JD so far was the truth. He did go to all the places where he had met JD in the Digital World. Peculiarly, the places he had gone to were the places where he had encountered the _evil_ JD. It ultimately led him to the Shadow Realm and straight to SkullSatamon, who Adam thought, as the head honcho of all the villains they have been facing all these times, would know something about the curse. And he was not wrong.

The only thing was, SkullSatamon had no intentions to help him without getting something from him in return.

"I know, it's weird," murmured Adam, finally regaining his composure once again. He decided to keep the part where he'd already known about the curse and its nature out from JD.

"No, Adam. It's not weird at all," said JD. "I guess…well…" He grunted. "I don't know." He gazed down towards Adam, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his forlorn face. "I'm gonna miss you, Adam." He frowned sadly. "If there is a _me_ to miss."

"Don't say that!" Adam said shrilly. "We'll think of something. Anything…" Adam stopped abruptly, knowing that if he spoke any more there was a chance that he would blurt everything out to his cousin. After all the times he had spent with JD, he was no longer the same boy he had been. His former trait, developed out of grief and pain, was beginning to crumble. It was different then. He was able to suppress his emotions then because he did not have to watch them die. With JD, he would be going to witness JD die if SkullSatamon did not comply with his end of the bargain.

JD looked away, staring towards the battles ahead. The Xianamon duo were immobilizing Leviamon, Samudramon had rushed towards where the Avian Shines were battling each other, and they could hear a feminine scream and a snarl exchanged intermittently somewhere close by. This went on for a while, before an ear-splitting scream was heard, and they froze. That wasn't a normal scream – it even outclassed the thunders.

"Gayathri?" Adam wondered; Gayathri was the only one who could scream like that.

"Puspamon?" At the same time, JD wondered out loud.

"No!" Dina, wide-eyed, shot up to her feet. "It's Rosemon! Something's wrong."

"Dina, wait!"

Adam and JD were too late; Dina had run back under the rains, her umbrella abandoned. They exchanged one look. JD couldn't Digital Access without Agumon, and Adam was too beat to digivolve, but they still had their powers whereas Dina had no such enhancement. She was in graver danger than they were. So they got up on their feet and chased the girl.

xxx

xxx

Along the Federal Highway, Puspamon sped over the vehicles that were caught in traffic jam, well-aware that she was not helping the situation when many vehicles stopped short upon her sighting. She could hear cheering sent her way, and smiled grimly. There seemed to be a road block instigated by the police at the entrance of her hometown, and over the distance she could make out flashes at the sky, as well as a distinct feminine scream that was so much like her own Sprite Scream, followed by a flash of crimson.

A gust of wind swirled around her. She heard voices again.

_"Gayathri?" _Adam's voice.

_"Puspamon?" _JD's...

_"No, it's Rosemon! Something's wrong." _...And lastly, Dina's.

There was no time to think. Whether this was something she had newly acquired, it was not important. From the sounds of it, her friends were _hoping_ for her to show up. And she knew that it must be really bad for them to wish for her - she could even sense direness in the voices she had heard.

_Hang on, you guys…I'm coming!_

xxx

xxx

"_Tifaret!"_

Beelzemon hissed as from the sky, Rosemon launched her seven glowing jewels upon him. They looked harmless, but Beelzemon knew better – these jewels possessed the powers of the stars that could _burn_ through him if he did not evade them. He took out two Berenjena shotguns and began shooting towards the jewels, two by two. The jewels combusted, but to his disgust that did little to befuddle Rosemon, who upon a mere tap of the main jewel that fastened her cape to her, another seven jewels appeared around her, ready to do her bidding.

"Blasted woman!" snarled Beelzemon, clicking on his guns. He aimed them towards Rosemon. "Take this!"

Rosemon swung her black whip towards the incoming attack, proclaiming _"Charite!"_ as she did so. The black whip glowed rosy pink and seemed to develop a life of its own as it elongated and struck the incoming bullets, destroying them into bits of data. This however, was the opportunity Beelzemon was waiting for. He launched upward and grabbed the whip, wrapped it around his wrist before yanking it back, forcing Rosemon towards him.

"Whoa, woman, are you coming onto me?!" he laughed.

"What's the matter? Afraid you can't handle it?" Rosemon returned icily and slapped him hard on the face.

"Sorry, woman. Bitch-slapping isn't my style." He ignored the burning pain on his left cheek where he had been struck while drawing his claws up. The black claws glinted with scarlet glow. Rosemon attempted to escape but Beelzemon still had her whip curled around his wrist, thus preventing her escape. "There's no running away, rosey."

"How about a kiss, then?" Before Beelzemon could comprehend what Rosemon had just said, Rosemon drew one hand over her mouth, and blew him a kiss._ "Aguichant Levres!"_

"What the hell!" His eyes widened when six hearts shot out from her mouth; this attack was unexpected! The hearts shot lasers upon him, on his helmeted head, chest, and arms. One laser caught his hand and melted a portion of the whip that was coiled around his hand. Rosemon was thus free and flew back up, before releasing another round of Aguichant Levres upon him.

Beelzemon made a backward somersault to avoid the laser-spewing hearts, and executed several shots to destroy the hearts. He heaved; without his wings and blaster, he was at a serious disadvantage against the powered-up Rosemon. And she seemed to know it too.

He cursed his luck; he hadn't anticipated that D'Arcmon's will was that strong to be able to shift from his body to Rosemon's. It was even worse that he had trained in his powered-up form, with the wings and the blaster, and now had only so little experience in his current form. He was still strong, still on par with Leviamon or Rosemon, but he needed at least his wings if he were to fight Rosemon.

_Who can I absorb?_ He thought, while avoiding another rains of jewels. He looked around._She's ensured everything! Aldiyamon's not around, her partner's escaped…nobody around here that I can use as leverage against her. Damn it! I'm better off as Astamon rather than this wingless form!_

"There's no other Digimon around here for you to absorb!" Rosemon's clear voice rang amidst the rains. "You'll meet your end now, murderer. The death of my partner's friend and D'Arcmon will be avenged today._ Aguichant Levres!"_

Beelzemon quickly brought out his guns and shot the energy hearts. Rosemon attacked again, and he repeated the same attack. _This could go on forever,_ he thought.

Rosemon continued attacking, and Beelzemon noticed that she had refrained from using her whips again – another drawback for him. He couldn't seize the whip and draw her close as he had done previously. Now, she would only use either her jewels or her energy hearts against him. On both accounts, he could either avoid them or destroy them, but Rosemon was leaving him no chance to attack back.

"And now…" Rosemon said darkly, as her whole form glowed with pink-crimson aura. She brought both arms up, joining them together side by side. Red crackling energy spiraled around her entire being before they condensed around her hands, forming a crimson sphere that grew from the size of a marble which bloomed into an energy rose the size of a house in a span of several seconds. _"ROSEN BLOOD!" _

A banshee-like shriek resulted as the rose petals opened, blasting a stream of pure energy that resembled a burst of blood. It looked more potent than the Forbidden Temptation, and when Beelzemon tried to intercept it he was surprised upon finding that the technique was not purely an energy technique – energy thorns were shot, and they tore and pierced him so viciously that he was forced to break contact. The blast consumed him, and it was just lucky that he had energized his claws prior in intercepting the Rosen Blood, or the blast would have killed him. He managed to reduce the attack's full-potency, but the blast was strong enough to throw him off his feat, blasting him towards a house and crashed him right through it.

He winced. His back ached. He had crashed through a wall. He looked behind; the house was obviously occupied, judging from the furniture and the cleanliness. But the quietness hinted that the occupants were not around. _Lucky them,_ thought Beelzemon snidely. _I'm so frustrated now I could kill anyone in plain sight._ He pushed himself back up, grunting and kicking the debris, before panting heavily. _What the HELL was that? She's gotten so strong! That power could have been MINE!_

He walked through the large gaping hole resulted from the crash, and squinted through the rains. _Hmm…where is she?_ He looked around, before noticing her on the roads. Unmoving. And not too far from Rosemon – still in her Burst Mode – a girl was running frantically towards her, followed by the two DigiWira. _She's unconscious! This is my chance!_

Beelzemon leaped down from the hole, landing on the house's driveway. He flexed his claws and sliced the gate open, kicking it to make way. _It's dinner time…_

xxx

xxx

Valdurmon was not kidding when he declared that they were fighting to death.

The massive bird of light had not once relented in sending him blows of light wave, never caring whether they would hit him or not. Obviously, Opie thought, that Valdurmon was not taking his betrayal well, and was now showing how much he was appreciating it. Opie winced upon feeling the heat from a Purge Shine sent his way, and utilized his speed to evade it. In his Silphymon form, speed was his only advantage; all his attacks were useless against Valdurmon, who was one level higher than he was.

"_Static Force!"_ A supercharged pink energy sphere was sent towards Valdurmon. He had been sending out those countless times, and every time the result was the same.

Valdurmon drowned the energy sphere with another Purge Shine, as he had done previously. Then he sailed the stormy sky, aiming his deadly talon towards Opie.

Opie sped away, casting a glimmering after-image of him being caught by the talons instead. His pink image exploded in Valdurmon's grasp, flustering the mighty bird. Opie smirked, and launched several Static Forces towards Valdurmon again, hoping that he could at least overwhelm the Mega, if not beating him. For a while, it seemed to work, before Valdurmon squawked amidst the thunder and lightning and flew upon him. The Static Forces that Opie tried sending were deftly thwarted.

"This has gone far enough," snarled Valdurmon, as his six wings shone with blinding white aura. _"Aurora Undulation!"_

Valdurmon curled his six wings forward and blasts of light shot out in six different directions, before converging towards Opie. There was no escaping the attack, no matter how fast he tried to evade them; the light streaks came from all over him. Opie was hit full-blast by the attack, and felt the wind knocked out of him. He lost control of his senses and only felt himself plummeting towards the ground. Pain shot all over his body, blood trickled out his mouth and went into the small gap between his visor and his face, nearly flooding his eyes.

The changes of the winds alerted him that Valdurmon was giving chase, and Opie forced himself to recall his flight power to balance himself. He managed to do so, but was struck by Valdurmon's strong talons and was sent crashing on the ground. He groaned, clutching his chest. The blow was strong and he was having a hard time gathering his breaths, while at the same time trying to get out of the small crater resulted from his crash. A dark shadow made him stall; Valdurmon loomed over him.

"So long, traitor." Valdurmon stretched his wings wide, and amidst the lightning it only made him look even more formidable.

Opie quivered, his body tensed. He would not survive this attack. _How unfortunate, _he thought direly, _my first day fighting as a good guy, and I'm doomed…_

Two streaks of _blue_ lightning suddenly streaked down the heavens and struck Valdurmon, halting him. Both Avian Shines gasped and searched for the perpetrator. When they saw the source of the lightning, Valdurmon snarled, Opie sighed in relief before it turned into a surprise._Them?_ _But I thought…_

Samudramon stood several yards away, his trident crackling with thunderbolts.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

I know, I know. I've said before that Storm Front will only have two parts, but it seems not possible. There are just too many characters to focus on. Opie, Rosemon, Leviamon, Beelzemon, Samudramon, Puspamon, Adam, JD and the others. By splicing the finale into three-parts, the story is able to proceed at a much steadier pace. If all goes well I might be able to post the third part by the story's second anniversary.

Rosen Blood actually is an attack that belongs to Rosemon X instead of Rosemon Burst Mode. I figured I'd use it here as her most potent technique. I don't know how Charite is executed but I've read somewhere that it involves her whip so I decided to go with that.

Leviamon has two new attacks: Water Tail Blaster and Poseidon Grave Strike. Why? To make him deadlier. Beelzemon however retains his original attacks, and while he is still powerful to match Rosemon Burst Mode's strength (she has the power of a _normal_ Mega in this story) I've decided to show him struggle with the fact that he is wingless.

_Edited: 24th March 2008_


	65. Storm Front, Part III

Dina knelt by the seemingly unconscious Rosemon. She shook the woman's shoulders slightly, ignoring the rains that pattered on her head. "Rosemon?"

Silence. Then Rosemon slowly stirred. She inclined her head up, and saw her partner. A weak smile formed, though blood trickled from the sides of her mouth.

"Dina, it's not safe here," she whispered.

The girl shook her head. "You're hurt. Come on, let's get you out of here."

Dina helped Rosemon up, struggling as she did so. Rosemon was much taller than she had been after the power upgrade. Then she glanced sideways, as Adam, JD and Patamon stopped by her. Without a word, JD swooped beside Rosemon instantly, for which Dina was grateful, for JD was almost as tall as Rosemon.

"I don't see Beelzemon anywhere," said Adam, looking around warily. "Have you…?"

"No," said Rosemon resolutely. "Though I've sent him my strongest attack, he was resilient enough to resist it. He was thrown off, but far from deleted."

"So where is he?" grunted JD.

As if on cue, a dark chuckle ensued. They squinted hard against the rains, and saw a familiar shadow approaching. Dina gasped, her action mirrored by Adam. JD snarled and raised one glowing fist, and Rosemon beside him tensed. They slowly backed away as Beelzemon appeared. He too had blood trickling at the corners of his mouth, which was carelessly wiped off by the sleeve of his bomber jacket. His leather outfit was torn on many sites, and his helmet had suffered a noticeable dent on the front. The center eye was bruised.

"That was one strong attack," said Beelzemon, his nonchalant tone containing a hint of anger. "Now it's my turn." He flexed his claws. "I'm going to make minced data out of you four…"

"Not on my watch!" Rosemon shoved Dina and JD behind her, and prepared to attack.

Beelzemon cocked his guns. "Stop me if you can." He fired two shots towards Rosemon.

Rosemon whipped away the incoming bullets with rapid ease, apparently still having some energy to fight. However her knees buckled and she tripped.

"You're weakening!" Beelzemon exclaimed. He raised his claws up. "This is going to be a piece of cake. You've taken your friend's data for a test ride, now it's time to let me have 'em back…"

"No! _Aguichant Levres!"_

Beelzemon shot the hearts, not missing any of them. He then charged towards the kneeling Rosemon, eyes glinting with greediness.

Dina shrieked. Adam gasped, ready to teleport Rosemon away when JD let out a crimson blast which struck Beelzemon's looming claws. The blast shoved the demon's claws away, but did not do anything to hurt him. JD swore, and attempted to attack again when Beelzemon looked at them. He then looked at Rosemon, before shifting his gaze towards them once again.

"I'll deal with her later. First I have three meddling kids to take care of."

"No!" Rosemon attempted to stand up, but Beelzemon kicked her away without much effort. She fell into a dirty puddle, marring her white outfit, but she took no notice of that. "Don't hurt them!"

"Bastard," snarled JD. His fist flared to life once again. "Back the hell off!"

Patamon huffed. _"Boom Bubble, PAH!"_

Beelzemon didn't even faze when the air bubble knocked his helmet. He smiled, like a predator that had just spotted blood. "A Rookie versus a Mega? You've gotta be kidding!" He snickered towards JD. "Oh, and I'm_ so_ scared of a partner-less DigiWira!" He grinned when JD swore at that. "And you…" He leered towards Dina, who flinched horribly upon meeting his gaze. "You were the one I tried to kill last time, before your foolish friend jumped in the way. Heh, maybe I should finish the job."

"No…don't!" Dina screamed, having been reminded of Bel's death.

"Don't worry, girlie…it's gonna be quick," said Beelzemon, deftly swatting away a crimson blast from JD. He saw light orbs appearing around him, but strangely the orbs were diminished as soon as they had appeared and the smaller boy slumped onto the other. He raised his claws up. "On second thought, why not just finish all three of you in one blow? _Darkness…"_

Beelzemon was stopped however, as a flaring pink sprite streaked through his body. Sparks of small explosions resulted all over his body and he was thrown back.

Dina, Adam and JD saw a familiar presence from the sky. The newcomer was not that far, and even amidst the rain they could see her trembling with fury.

"Puspamon!"

xx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 65 – Storm Front, Part III**_

xxx

xxx

Puspamon stared hard towards Beelzemon. She couldn't believe it; she had barely recognized the demon when the winds told her of who he really was. She had heard him threatening Dina, and that was when she knew that this was him. He was the Majin General.

"You are _not_ hurting my friends!" She stared hard towards Beelzemon, and grunted in grim satisfaction when their eyes made contact. _"Dream Rose Mirage!"_

Her illusion technique worked. Between her and Beelzemon, both could see a black rose blooming behind Puspamon, with thorny vines wrapped around Beelzemon tight. She saw the bewildered expressions of her friends; either they were surprised of her sudden appearance or that Beelzemon was flailing over nothing – since they could not see the illusions – she had no time to explain. She focused back towards the demon, teeth gritted in resurfacing fury as she tightened the illusionary vines against the demon's body.

Then, she willed for the tulip ornament on her chest to release energy replicas of it towards Beelzemon. They worked the same way as Rosemon's new technique, she noticed, when lasers burned against Beelzemon. Yet the demon was still tough enough to resist it. He howled, and Puspamon gasped when she felt her hold on the Dream Rose Mirage decreasing.

"AAAAGHH!! _Darkness Claw!"_

Beelzemon tore the vines away viciously. The technique failed, and she saw the demon panted heavily before glaring towards her. He raised one claw and was about to leap towards her, before she retaliated with her Sprite Scream. It managed to make him stagger, but nothing more. She sent another row of Jelita Shocker, but they were nullified by his gunshots. Running out of ideas, she attempted to execute her hurricane power but stalled midway when Beelzemon strangely turned around, and took off.

"You're not getting away!" shouted Puspamon, but was stopped when Beelzemon whirled around and fired several gunshots at her. She sent out an energy hurricane which drove the bullets off course, but soon realized that it was a diversion. Beelzemon was now out of sight.

xxx

xxx

"Interfering fool!" shouted Valdurmon, and spread out his wings. _"Purge Shine!"_

Samudramon summoned enough power to form a retaliation attack. _"Double-Edged Thunderblades, Powered Up Mode!"_

Stream of white light met a crackling dragon of thunder, and an explosion resulted. Samudramon was pushed back to where Opie was at; the Silphymon was struggling to stand up, hand clutched on his chest armor which was now in a near-broken state. He felt the former Avian Shine gave him a look of wonder, but ignored it.

A shriek ensued and the smoke cleared, revealing Valdurmon getting ready to strike again._"Aurora Undulation!"_

Samudramon waved his trident and called upon the waves from the depth from out of nowhere. The two attacks collided, but Valdurmon's attack was more forceful. It pushed back the waves, engulfing them at the same time, before the waves vanished in data particles. The remnants of Valdurmon's attack blasted Samudramon and Opie, sending them crashing against a billboard nearby.

"He's too…strong," gasped Opie as he pushed himself away from the dented billboard. He grabbed on Samudramon, being close in physical size, and held him firmly.

Samudramon winced. Opie removed his hand slightly from the merman's waist, and saw a sharp wooden splinter jabbed at his abdomen. It wasn't a deep cut, but it would hurt. He hadn't realized that the wood was there due to his strong claws acting as a buffer. Quickly he pulled the splinter out, and Samudramon let out a pained cry.

"That hurts," he grunted, composing himself.

"If I let it be there then it'll hurt even more when it's time to remove it," said Opie.

Samudramon didn't reply. He summoned a pillar of water to stay airborne, and peeled Opie's arm off his body. That caused him to wince again; he had accidentally touched the wound, and there was blood leaking out from there. Remembering that wound could at least be washed by water to promote its healing, Samudramon did so, and gritted his teeth as pain seared from his abdomen. It was lucky that the wound was superficial. Both of them then looked up, where Valdurmon was looming.

"Opie, get back to the house," muttered Samudramon, readying his trident. "Protect Debbie and my mother."

Opie hesitated. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine. Go!"

"No," said Opie. "I can't go. And I won't. I promised."

"What promise? You never promised anything," said Samudramon, eyes fixed on Valdurmon who was getting closer.

"I did. You told me that there will be time where I can prove myself trustworthy for your sister. I know now that _now's_ the time."

Samudramon groaned. "Not now! You're no match for Valdurmon! Go!"

"No! You're injured. Let me help you." Opie fixed him a look. "It's what Debbie would want."

Samudramon was about to retort when Valdurmon let out another piercing squawk, and made a dive towards them. Opie grabbed hold on him and zipped away with his speed, and Valdurmon clutched nothing. The birdman then spun and released a deep pink image of himself towards Valdurmon as they flew away. Samudramon had a fleeting thought that it was somewhat strange for Opie to clung himself at him so closely.

"You rather help him than your own comrade!" Valdurmon shouted. _"Aurora Undulation!"_

Samudramon saw a wave of brilliant light coming towards them. He felt Opie becoming rigid as he used himself as shield so that Samudramon wouldn't get hit. Samudramon gasped; Opie was going to take on the blast for him! "Opie! No! Let go!" Opie didn't budge. Horror swept through Samudramon as he realized the birdman's intention. "No! Don't do this! Opie!"

Opie didn't reply. Samudramon was blinded by the light, and he heard Opie howled in pain as the wave hit them while Samudramon was barely harmed. Valdurmon's laugh echoed as he continued releasing the Aurora Undulation against him. He felt Opie shook, but couldn't see what was happening with all the light. _He…he's sacrificing himself for me!_ _For us! No! Debbie…what would she think?_ Sorrow engulfed him and he attempted to turn around so that he could steer Opie away from the blast, but Opie's grasp was too strong. _Debbie…I'm sorry. We're sorry. _

The lights dwindled. Samudramon could see again. And what he saw gave him a shock of his life.

"V-Valkyrimon?" he sputtered. "Opie?"

Valkyrimon looked up, and Samudramon saw that his expression was contorted in pain and what oddly looked like relief at the same time. "Thank goodness," the warrior whispered weakly. He let go of Samudramon, and began to shimmer in white and blue lights. "Do you…trust me…now?" he coughed, sounding so weak.

Samudramon instantly feared the worst. "Opie…don't…"

He saw something shimmering from within his fist; lights were escaping from the spaces between his fingers. He opened it, and marveled upon seeing a D4 Digivice, white in color, with cerulean trimming – the same colors that Valkyrimon had on his outfit. The Digivice floated from his hand, shone, and engulfed Opie in white light. The former Avian Shine reverted to Muchomon before being absorbed by the Digivice. Samudramon drew the Digivice close to him and realized what this meant.

"A Digivice for Opie…and Debbie?"

"Now do you trust me?" asked Opie again.

Samudramon blinked back the tears that would have fallen. He smiled; Opie was alive.

"Yes. And you've earned it," he said. "Are you…"

"I'm alright," said Opie from inside the Digivice. "I think you'll need this."

_**Juara Access Digivolution!**_

The new Digivice flared brilliantly. A second later, Samudramon too flared with rich blue aura. A wall of water surrounded him as lightning raged the sky. Samudramon then saw his own Juara Digivice emerging from thin air, glimmering with sapphire and golden auras which soon spiraled around his body. The X-shaped armor that adorned his body detached itself from him, leaving his body bare for a mere second before a full body armor materialized in its place. It was contoured perfectly to his body – a shining metallic blue plate with chain-mails adorned over it for extra protection. The chain-mails were patented to appear as if they were made from the hardest scales of the creatures from the deep. His legs were protected by plain blue chausses that extended towards his knees where they were joined by a pair of thick metal boots. Navy pauldrons with golden rims padded his shoulder and a cape flowed down his back all the way until his ankles, gold on the outside and white on the inside. His helmet remained relatively the same royal blue, only with the blue fins that lined the center of the helmet turned into gold, as well as another golden fin added on each side, both patterned to sweep back. His hair remained silvery blue but his skin turned from pale to tan. The transformation was completed when his trident, formerly metallic was now as silver as Aldiyamon's sword; the three tips enlarged a little and turned blue.

An electric blue dragon of thunder emerged from the tips of the trident, spun around Samudramon once before soaring towards the sky, joining the raging lightning and the sky flashed once. The water barrier was lowered before diminishing into data particles, and he saw the shocked expression of not only Valdurmon, but the other Digimon and people around him.

_**Samudramon, Juara Mode!**_

He was now a Mega. Samudramon couldn't believe it. The power from his Digivice and his sister's had given him enough power to ascend to the next level. He felt power flowing throughout his entire being. His wounds had healed, and with the protection his new armor now gave him, he wouldn't be as vulnerable as he had been in his Ultimate form. Plus, he was now able to fly.

"Thanks, Opie," said Samudramon gratefully, and the Digivice vanished into his armor, joining his own Juara Digivice.

"So," snarled Valdurmon, "that ungrateful turncoat has even proven his point as far as extending his power to you weak human! No matter. I'll destroy the both of you!" The mighty bird of light swooped down towards Samudramon, wings shining, ready to attack.

"Not today." Samudramon spun his trident once before raising it towards the sky._ "Zeus Ex Thunderstrike!"_

Valdurmon was suddenly trapped inside a column of blue light before the sky thundered magnificently. Streams of lightning bolts streaked all over the sky before they converged inside the column, electrocuting the bird severely. The column vanished and Valdurmon – blackened due to the extreme lightning power – was nearly paralyzed.

"Amazing…"

This shocked even Samudramon; he didn't expect that his attack was this potent. Valdurmon shimmered before morphing into a three-legged crow. It was a Yatagaramon, Samudramon realized, for he had seen a Yatagaramon before. Obviously Valdurmon had been weakened, and that was proven when once more Yatagaramon glowed before regressing into a bird with colorful exoskeleton. It fell towards the ground, resulting in a sound crash.

"Wow…" It was all that he could mutter. He was beyond amazed. He looked down, and his excitement died away.

Beelzemon was lunging towards the fallen Avian Shine, and slammed his claws through the bird. He laughed maniacally as the bird combusted into data particles, and absorbed the data without a second thought. A pair of black wings sprouted from his back, and a huge blaster formed on his right arm.

Quickly Samudramon summoned the Zeus Ex Thunderstrike again, but the column of light was destroyed when Beelzemon slammed his claws through it. The lightning attack that ensued was _absorbed_ by the blaster, and with it Beelzemon was ready to attack him back. _"Chaos Flare!" _

"_Zeus Ex Thunderstrike!"_ It was able to nullify the Chaos Flare, but he soon saw that it was merely an act of distraction. Beelzemon had gone to fight Rosemon…_and Puspamon?_ Samudramon gaped, and was about to chase after the demon before a shriek drew his attention. He spun and saw Leviamon moving freely, and only one Xianamon remained.

_He must have escaped Xianamon's enchantments,_ Samudramon thought. His heart pounded as he looked back, where Beelzemon was already engaging Puspamon and Rosemon in a fight. _But they look like they need my help too, but Xianamon's in bigger trouble…_

Torn between two, Samudramon hoped that Puspamon and Rosemon would be able to hold off Beelzemon for the time being and flew towards Leviamon.

xxx

xxx

"Miss me?" Beelzemon chuckled. "I'm back!"

"Not in a million years!" shouted Puspamon, disgusted. _"Jelita Shocker, Powered Up Mode!"_

To her horror, her strongest technique was merely deflected by Beelzemon's weapon. She tried again, but with the same result.

"_Aguichant Levres!"_

Puspamon saw energy hearts spewing lasers towards Beelzemon, but the demon had shielded himself with his weapon. She realized that this weapon had given Beelzemon an edge in this battle. That and his wings too; he was now able to fly – an advantage he did not have, and an advantage that had favored _them_.

She saw that Rosemon wasn't at her best. The attack she had sent earlier seemed to have cost her greatly. Rosemon seemed to be phasing in and out from her regular form and her charged form. She remained mostly at her Burst Mode, but Puspamon knew that it was only a matter of time before Rosemon would dedigivolve.

Beelzemon hauled his blaster and drew a pentagram. He aimed it towards Rosemon. "You're so old already, rosey. Ophanimon's gone. D'Arcmon's technically gone, if you didn't count the fact that you have taken her data. Why don't you join them?"

Rosemon looked up, Dina by her side, holding her hand. _"Rosen…"_ Rosemon whispered, and a crimson rose bloomed before her and Dina. However her power failed and she reverted back to her former mode. The rose vanished. "Oh no, Dina…run…"

It was no use. Dina was either frozen with fear, or determined to stick by her side. When JD grabbed her from behind, she resisted, but was no match against his strength.

"Oh, how touching," mocked Beelzemon. He drew back a little and pointed the blaster towards all of them. "If you're so willing to die that much, I can finish you all at one go. _Death…" _

That minute, Puspamon snapped. She had witnessed Bel and D'Arcmon being killed by this cold-hearted murderer. She wasn't going to let her remaining best friend died in his hand as well. She growled, and burst of pink light exploded from her very being. It forced the demon away, much to everyone's amazement.

"No more deaths," whispered Puspamon. "No more."

_**Juara Access Digivolution!**_

Her Juara Digivice appeared out of nowhere as the pink light began to condense back towards her. It enveloped her, and when it was gone the first thing she realized that she had grown taller; she definitely had to be at the same height as Samudramon and Aldiyamon. Her outfit had changed; she was now lightly armored over her breasts and shoulders. The glistening armor was patterned like petals, and underneath it was a white leather outfit with soft lilac hues that clung to her body, arms and thighs. Her skirt was gone, and her boots had turned to metal ones, and had been lowered to knee-level. A glittering silver sash was tied around her waist stylishly, forming a flowery ribbon on one side with the remains cascading down to her ankles. Her visor remained pink but she had lost her tiara. Flower petals bloomed from each side of her visor, turned metallic, and were swept back before they froze in that position. Her dark red hair turned silvery pink and sleek, cascading stylishly to her waist. The only unchanged feature was her wings, which remained translucently soft pink and fairy-like. Her staff appeared, and instead of being black and wooden it was now made out of glittering diamond, with the rose tip crafted from a beautiful pink jewel. With one flap of her wings she sent a wave of flower petals towards Beelzemon, which then took form of a sprite, nearly sending him tumbling. Her Digivice vanished and she heaved a breath of awe and relief.

_**Puspamon, Juara Mode!**_

"You…" Beelzemon said in shock. "You're a Mega now! But no matter…" He clicked on his blaster and called out: _"Death Slinger!"_

The pentagram reappeared and Beelzemon shot through the center of the star diagram with rapid ease. Soon more than five energy spheres were sent her way, but Puspamon calmly waved her diamond staff towards the incoming spheres. The rose jewel on its tip sparked to life and Puspamon calmly proclaimed, _"Viveka Chudamani!"_

A burst of energy petals showered out from the rose jewel, and Beelzemon laughed at her attempt. Puspamon merely smirked, and watched as the petals collided with the spheres. To _everyone's_ astonishment the petals glowed and the energy spheres morphed into harmless flowers of various types which were blown away by the rainy winds. Taking advantage of Beelzemon's surprise, Puspamon summoned more power and rushed towards the Demon Lord, utilizing her super-speed.

"_Pushpa Vimana!"_

The winds picked up around Puspamon and petals spiraled around her body. She became a glowing sprite as she zipped past Beelzemon, knocking his chest with the sharp tip of her boot. This was repeated many times at an unimaginable speed, and Beelzemon had no chance to evade it for Puspamon had speed at her disposal. Blow after blow after blow were given, and each time the pain was worse than before. Puspamon finally stopped by him and slammed her staff right upon the demon's chest.

However, Beelzemon was quick enough to raise his blaster, and a deafening clang resulted when the diamond staff collided with it. "My turn," grunted the demon. _"Darkness Claw!"_

Puspamon reeled away, causing Beelzemon to miss his target. She retaliated again by pointing her staff towards the demon. _"Viveka Chudamani!"_

Apparently there was more than one way the attack could be carried out; this time the tip let out fuchsia lasers that Beelzemon managed to deflect with his blaster. She frowned; she had no doubt that her attack could harm Beelzemon if he was without the blaster. He seemed to be somewhat reliant of it.

"Sweetheart, this baby's made out of Chrome Digizoid," said Beelzemon mockingly. "There's no way a simple attack like _that_ could penetrate it."

She had to change her strategy. Nothing could destroy the weapon, but Beelzemon wasn't this tough when he was without it.

Beelzemon charged, but was stopped when thick vines wrapped around his legs, halting his movement. More vines tied around his wings, before another snaked around his arms and pulled them wide apart, leaving his body wide open for attack.

"You've spoken too soon, demon!" shouted Rosemon. "Puspamon, now! With all your strength!"

Puspamon saw her chance. She pointed her staff towards Beelzemon and fired again with the Viveka Chudamani. The lasers scorched the demon, eliciting a scream from him. Her normal attack was not working; she would have to increase it up a notch.

"More power, Puspamon!" insisted Rosemon. "I can't hold him for so long!"

"Nasty bitch! Let go!" demanded Beelzemon, struggling. "LET GO!"

"Over my dead body!" Rosemon retorted.

Spreading her arms, Puspamon Juara Mode willed the power of nature and wind to flow inside of her. Her wings grew brighter until they were no longer translucent, but seemed to be made out of pink burning light. Then she brought her arms forward, joining them together, and channeled the gathered power from her wings to her opened palms. A glowing dark pink sphere was formed, nearly as big as a truck, with flower petals coalescing around it. One look at it and one would think of a miniature sun.

"_Dahlstar Sunset Pink!!"_

"No! NOOO!!"

Beelzemon howled as the supercharged power sphere collided against him. Slowly it burned through him, and still he couldn't move because Rosemon's vines were straining him. He yelled and howled, trashing about viciously. But it was no use. Rosemon didn't seem to want to let go.

Puspamon's arms remained joined, ready to deliver a second attack if needed be. However, she saw Rosemon withdrawing her vines, and a rush of fear swept through her; Rosemon must be losing her power now. Beelzemon was free again, and he drew his hands towards the glowing nature sphere…

"_Roses Rapier!"_

"AGGGHHH!!"

Nobody anticipated that to happen. Rosemon's attack impaled through Beelzemon's chest, destroying the core that kept one alive – the heart. Puspamon's nature sphere then burned through the now-lifeless form of the demon, causing him to explode into data.

The Majin General was gone. Puspamon sighed in relief – the murderer of her best friend had been brought to justice, but she didn't feel happy at all. It was a bittersweet feeling; Beelzemon might have been deleted, but that didn't change the fact that Bel was dead. A tear escaped her eye as she descended towards her friends.

Rosemon had devolved to Lalamon, and Dina called her back into her Digivice for the Rookie looked like she really needed the rest. Puspamon suspected that Rosemon too felt the same way she was feeling, and Dina too obviously was thinking of the same thing. Adam and JD were both staring at her with awe, but before any words could be exchanged they heard a thunderous explosion.

_Samudramon!_

xxx

xxx

"Two Juara Modes in one day," murmured Adam, "what a day!"

"I know," agreed JD quietly, watching his two younger friends with guarded expression.

Dina didn't say anything. She merely fixed a look at her Digivice, her face wistful as she traced a finger around the accents. Adam focused his mind, and caught hints of awakened sorrow, followed by a mild satisfaction, both conflicting against each other. He said nothing and tried to sense what his cousin was feeling – JD's expression was somewhat strained, he thought. Other than the usual pent-up anger and sadness, he now sensed _longing_ too. Of course, he thought sadly, JD would have wanted to achieve Juara Mode too. But Agumon had been deleted, and hadn't hatched from his DigiEgg form.

"There's Liu Ying," said JD, pointing towards a distance. His voice broke Adam's thoughts, and he followed where JD was pointing at. Sure enough, the said girl was running towards them. "Come on, we better get back to that abandoned house before any of us catches pneumonia."

xxx

xxx

"_Water Tail Blaster!"_

"_Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

The two water-based attacks collided against each other, and diminished into data. This marked the attacks being equal in power.

Samudramon grunted. He had tried everything, but none could penetrate Leviamon's tough scales. Somehow, Leviamon was immune to thunder just as he was, though Leviamon didn't seem to possess a thunder-based attack. He had used the Zeus Ex Thunderstrike multiple times, and the Demon Lord merely earthed it to the ground. And water technique didn't seem to be harming the demon either.

Worse, he was now alone, for Xianamon's power had failed her. She had received a Rostrum blast from Leviamon, and that had devolved her. Samudramon hoped that she had managed to get to safety. His only assurance was that neither Liu Ying nor Labramon were in plain sight, but that too didn't help much.

"Need a hand?"

Samudramon turned around in surprise, recognizing the voice. "Puspamon!" And then he noticed her altered look. She was different, yet familiar. "You…digivolved."

"Looks like I'm not the only one," said Puspamon. She then saw the Demon Lord, and her face wrinkled in disgust. "Is that used to be Shawujinmon?"

"Yes, and he's way tougher now." He then realized something. "Wait. I thought you and Rosemon are fighting Beelzemon?"

"Beelzemon's taken cared of," said Puspamon with a hard tone. "He won't be bothering us again."

"WHAT?!" snarled Leviamon. "It cannot be!"

"Seeing is believing," retorted Puspamon, "and I bet you won't be seeing Beelzemon anymore. Rosemon and I have made sure of that."

Leviamon roared when he realized that Puspamon was not joking. "You little whelp! _Cauda!"_

Both Puspamon and Samudramon were lashed by Leviamon's tails, but their armors ensured that they weren't harmed. Puspamon was the first to retaliate, pointing out her glittering staff towards the crocodilian Demon Lord and casting out an incantation that Samudramon couldn't comprehend. He saw Leviamon being drawn back by beams of fuchsia lasers emitted from the staff, and saw an opportunity to strike.

"_Double Dragon Thunderblades!" _

Two streaks of lightning burst from Samudramon's outstretched hands, and became two roaring dragons made out of electricity. One was blue while the other navy, both had sharp edges that denoted their thunder element. With an earthshaking roar they sped towards Leviamon and wrapped themselves around the demon, electrocuting him. Samudramon took the opportunity to attack again.

"_Depth Bomber!" _

Samudramon made a circular motion with his trident, generating trails of water that floated in the air. Once a full circle was formed, the inner part turned mercury-like, and from it torrents of water pods escaped and slammed the electrocuted Leviamon, further increasing the potency of the earlier attack.

Puspamon joined in the fray, firing lasers from her staff again. Most of her attacks were deflected by Leviamon's strong scales, but some managed to penetrate the scales after the abuse inflicted from Samudramon's attacks.

Leviamon growled, and glowed with dark purple aura. He destroyed the dragons with the aura, before rising to his hind legs. Then he used his front paws to capture the water pods fired his way. He threw a handful of water pod towards Puspamon, sending her flying towards Samudramon. The other water pod was thrown towards Samudramon, before his eyes glowed crimson.

"_Poseidon Grave Strike!" _

Leviamon's powerful finisher struck both Samudramon and Puspamon, sending them crashing against the nearly destroyed municipal council. They didn't crash through, but seconds later the second wave came and half of the building exploded. Debris rained and struck the nearby houses.

"I've anticipated this would happen!" snarled Leviamon. "Beelzemon was too reliant on the power he stole. I, however, have my power upgraded, from the Nine Negations Dark Arts!"

"Meaning what?" muttered Puspamon as she tried pulling herself away from the un-destroyed half of the municipal council. A crack was formed there.

Samudramon followed suit. "Means that even though we've both digivolved, Leviamon still has the advantage," he answered quietly. "And frankly, after fighting him, I'm sure that this is true. Valdurmon, or maybe even Beelzemon, were not this powerful."

"Who's Valdurmon…never mind." Puspamon watched around with dread. It was a site of total destruction. All the nearby buildings and houses were demolished from the battle. The roads were rendered useless with the cracks formed by Leviamon's heavy weight. Lamp poles lay haphazardly all around the roads.

"Our single attacks won't work with him," Samudramon continued to analyze. He looked at Puspamon meaningfully. "Our only way to beat him is by combining our powers."

Puspamon nodded. "I'm with you." She grasped his hand. He held hers tight as they flew towards Leviamon.

Recalling how they had summoned the Rolling Thunder Hurricane previously, now with more power they were about to summon a greater power. Their clasped hands glimmered with white aura while the other hands, holding their weapons, sparked with blue and pink. Knowledge flowed through their mind – and they realized that they had a new joined attack.

**"_Everlasting Storm!"_**

At first, the rain poured heavier, turning into a rainstorm. Dark clouds followed and the winds picked up. Thunders rumbled, and lightning struck as windstorm and thunderstorm were called out. Then a most peculiar phenomenon happened; the temperature dropped so low that the rains shifted into snows, and the winds turned into blizzard. Snows began to pile up as the two Juara Modes focused the chilling blizzard around Leviamon. Leviamon snarled and resisted the cold, but his wet scales began to freeze.

"What are you doing?" the demonic crocodile demanded.

Samudramon and Puspamon crossed their weapons and it released a stream of light violet that struck Leviamon's hind legs. They were encased in blocks of thick ice, much to Leviamon's surprise. He attempted to break free from it, and succeeded, but they continued to release the freezing wave at his legs, moving up gradually. The blizzard focused over the Demon Lord and caused frostbites to his unfrozen body parts. His face turned pale, faint frosts trailed his scales as his body was encased. Only his head and arms remained, and the two Juara Digital intended to finish the job.

"No! Stop it!" Leviamon howled, but it fell on deaf ears. "No…." His head had been encased wholly by ice.

The snowstorm ceased instantly. They uncrossed their weapons and took a moment to gather their breaths. They had used a substantial amount of their powers to create the Everlasting Storm, but the benefit of joined attack was that they had done it together, thus the attack didn't wipe out their powers entirely.

"It's not over yet," said Samudramon quietly, gazing up at the ice statue.

Puspamon nodded. "I know. It'll melt soon. We have to destroy it before it does."

"_Double Dragon Thunderblades!"_

"_Dahlstar Sunset Pink!"_

Two dragons and a sphere that bloomed into a fairy sailed towards the giant ice statue. They merged and formed a thin energy blade that sliced through it. It broke into half, and the upper part of the statue slid down and combusted into data. The lower half rocked back and forth before it fell back, exploding midway.

"Now…it's over," said Samudramon.

"But at what price?" There was no jubilance in Puspamon's voice as she looked around, assessing the damages. "It's KLCC all over again."

He laid a hand on her shoulder. "We did our best," he reminded her. "They could've done a lot worse. I'm glad that you've come back," he added, smiling slightly.

Puspamon smiled. "Me too." She inclined her head down ever so slightly. "I heard you calling for me."

"Heard?" Samudramon was perplexed. "How?"

"I don't know. I just…heard." She shrugged. "Never mind. It's not important."

The clouds parted, but it was already almost dark. Yet, thanks to the fact that their country was located at the equator line, the temperature began to climb up to normal, and the snow was slowly melting. Samudramon allowed some water flowed over the snow to promote its melting, while Puspamon used her wind power to levitate some of the remaining snow towards the sky, scattering it all over so that it would not pile up.

Then, they flew away as faint sirens were heard coming from afar.

xxx

xxx

SkullSatamon let out a chuckle, as Beelzemon and Leviamon's powers flowed inside of him.

He now had the powers of _six _generals – The Mage, the Dryad, the two Puakas and now the Majin and the Kappa Generals. He would reach the threshold to the next step of evolution quicker than he had anticipated. It was lucky for him that Beelzemon and Leviamon were both deleted while they were in their Mega forms. He would have to wait longer if they were deleted in their Ultimate forms.

He remembered the final battle between him and Grademon like it was yesterday. He had digivolved to Diablomon, and Grademon had become Grademon Juara Mode. In their Mega forms, they were equally matched. That forced him to ascend into Armageddemon, a form with less brain and more brute. He hadn't been able to master it fully, but Grademon apparently had another trick up his sleeves. He too ascended, via the powers of his DigiSpheres, into the rare _Burst Mode_, and had greater control of his form.

It was a turn of event that he had not anticipated. Grademon had wielded his powers ably while he had struggled. He possessed greater power, but Grademon was in control of his form. Wizardmon, or Wisemon, or perhaps even Ancient Wisemon, must have taught him too well for his own good.

After days of nonstop battles, he'd had enough. They were still evenly matched. He then summoned all his power to create a massive attack that would have destroyed Grademon and the whole realm. Grademon had seen this, and had probably grown quite desperate himself. That time it had dawned to him that Grademon's power had also been dwindling. That must have been the reason then; instead of trying to defend himself with his own attacks, Grademon resorted to use the gifts he had acquired from other Digimon.

He saw Grademon using the art of light teleportation to divert his attack, purify it, before sending it back to him with both telekinesis and super speed as propellers to the purified attack. He had not anticipated it and had no way to defend himself when Grademon sent the attack back at him. All of his Mega power was stripped off him and he was left in his SkullSatamon form again. However, to fool Grademon into thinking that he was still able to fight, he had laughed off Grademon's effort, claiming that he had merely been caught off guard, that he would ascend to Armageddemon once again and destroy the weakened Grademon. That had proven to be his ultimate undoing, and till now he had regretted taunting Grademon. It was a foolish mistake.

Grademon had become more desperate. At that moment, it was clear to SkullSatamon that Grademon would do whatever it takes to win, even at the price of his life. Grademon had used his DigiSpheres, and bound his life-force to the White DigiSphere in order to create an impenetrable barrier surrounding his Horror Hall. The magic he had used ensured that since Grademon had _died_ while invoking the barrier, the barrier would be nearly unbreakable. Only one single power stronger than the invoker would be able to destroy it, and Grademon had been two times the power of a normal Mega. Finding one that could match his power alone would be nearly impossible.

_It had been impossible then, not now,_ he amended grinningly. It was good that he had a backup plan. But somehow, Grademon seemed to have gotten round with that piece of information as well. SkullSatamon however knew that Grademon had not gotten all the details, and had acted somewhat neurotically. Instead of imprisoning just his generals, Grademon had imprisoned _all_ his minions, fearing that deleting any of them would give SkullSatamon extra strength. _Better safe than sorry, perhaps,_ he thought snidely.

"The irony of it, Grademon," he said to himself. "You had worked so hard to ensure that I won't get the little powers I've bestowed my generals. And your heirs worked twice as hard in destroying my minions, thus giving me back the small insurance I have placed inside my generals. I have given them only tiny portions, and in return I get _all _their powers if they are deleted. Six down, three to go!"

He shuffled back to his bastion. "Oh, and another deliciously ironic situation: your young heir, naïve little Adam Ariff has come to me, so unexpectedly. With proper cultivation, I might have myself an absolutely unbeatable and _loyal_ servant soon." He stopped by the entrance of Horror Hall and turned around, scanning the whole Shadow Realm with mild interest. "And for that, I must not let Lucemon enter the scrimmage…let Barbamon and Lilithmon do whatever they want, but Lucemon shall stay until he's done coaching Adam properly on how to utilize his gifts to the fullest."

He laughed. "It's Aldiyamon reaching a power _you _have never dreamed of, Grademon…or me! Either way, I'll win." He chuckled again. "It's like a race – who gets the more power wins the battle."

xxx

xxx

Gayathri could not believe it. She had hoped that nothing else was wrong throughout the entire week. In her mind, she had thought that she would be able to share the details about her brief escape to Cameron Highlands. She had been especially eager to share the news about her encounter with Willis J. Johnson, the American DigiDestined. But now, the others had broken three bad news to her: TobuCatmon's death, Agumon's reconfiguration, and worse of all – JD's doomed fate. She searched each and every one of their faces intently, wanting to see whether they were joking, but all of them looked grim. They were not kidding, and they wouldn't have kid around with such subjects so she knew that it must be true.

Things seemed to have spiraled down from bad to worse. Just now, on television, the government had announced that their town had fallen under critical threat due to the attacks earlier. The destruction that resulted from the attack was too big for restoration work to take place. The roads were unusable, the municipal council destroyed, some of the nearby houses and shops were irreparable. The names of the victims were still being withheld, but the government had advised the townspeople to evacuate to towns adjacent to Subang Jaya.

She gazed at the dinner table by the kitchen, where Debbie was feeding her new Digimon partner some mushroom soup. She smiled slightly at the sight; who would have thought that a girl as young as Debbie would be partnered to a Digimon that was able to digivolve to Mega? So far, only Dina and Debbie had such privileges. The DigiWira had to work hard to reach Mega forms, and the Saintly Siblings needed to DNA digivolve to do so. Yet, she saw the reason; both Dina and Debbie _needed_ strong partners for they were the least experienced. They had no powers of their own and thus, needed their partners to protect them, so that they would not end up as Bel and D'Arcmon.

She had just coped with the pain of losing a best friend, and now she found out that she was going to lose another. Granted, JD and she weren't exactly best friends, but they were good friends. The blond teen was like the eldest brother of the group. It saddened her greatly that she would lose him.

"I need to get going," said JD abruptly, breaking her train of thoughts. He shot a look towards Adam, as if indicating that he wanted the other boy to join him, before rising from his seat. "See you guys later."

Adam looked somewhat baffled, before excusing himself as well to join his cousin.

"They must be taking this really hard," said Gayathri towards the remaining people, once the cousins were away.

Liu Ying nodded. Gayathri thought she looked agitated. "They are. JD did quite a job hiding it before it was all revealed out in the open. We all saw him being dark and brooding at school, but he's always brushed us off when we tried asking him about it." She grimaced. "Well…he brushed _me_ off, since Manny knew about it from the beginning."

"And Adam?" she asked. "He looks so pale, and there are dark spots around his eyes. It was how he was like when Kak Lisha was in coma…"

"He just knew about it two days ago," said Manny. "I don't think he's taking it well."

"JD suspects that he's up to something," blurted Dina, before she clasped her mouth. Her eyes widened in alarm when the three DigiWira looked at her.

"What do you mean?" Liu Ying asked sharply.

Dina slowly lowered her hand. "I don't understand much of it," she admitted, her voice meek. "I was there when they argued about it, while you guys were fighting those demons. It looked like JD was mad at Adam for disappearing on him… and then Adam said that he was at the Digital World, and explained what he was doing there. JD accepted his explanation, but there was this look on his face…I don't think he trusted Adam..."

Liu Ying and Manny shared dark looks. Gayathri frowned. "Is there something that I'm missing?"

"It's something that JD _wants _Adam to miss," said Manny with a sigh. He looked at her forlornly. "JD told us that the curse can only be cured when another person offers to take his place, right?"

"Yes. And he didn't want any of us trying to do that," said Gayathri, her voice mirroring the sadness her boyfriend's had.

"He needn't worry about that," said Manny. "Because although it's possible, I'm going to ask this flat out… who's willing to take his place?"

Gayathri hesitated. She saw Liu Ying and Dina having the same stricken expression. Manny too, looked troubled as he nodded.

"This disqualifies _us_ from being the ones who can attempt to take the curse in his place. Even if we want to, we won't be able to."

"Manny, please stop talking in riddles," implored Gayathri.

"Sorry." Manny sighed. "The curse can only be taken away when the one who's taking the curse does so willingly, without even the tiniest flicker of doubt, due to their love for JD, despite knowing that the curse will kill them instead. The person must be entirely willing to sacrifice themselves in his place. Now, I can say for all of us that we all liked JD, and if there's any other way to save him we would have done it in a heartbeat…but this seems to be the only way, and we all hesitated. That disqualified us instantly."

"And Adam…"

"Friendship bond lies deep, but family bond lies even deeper," said Manny. "We're his friends, but Adam is his kin, his blood. And even without all those, he's still like JD's little brother." He smiled wistfully. "I've stayed with them a couple of times, and I have to admit…sometimes back then I felt a bit left out. They were so close." He joined his index and middle fingers together side-by-side to prove his point. "That's why… JD suspects that he would have done it, and would have succeeded…"

Understanding dawned to Gayathri. "Adam pulled that off before, for all of us…"

"Exactly," said Manny. "That's why Adam doesn't know about this."

"What? Why?"

"Because by _not_knowing about the true conditions about the curse's cure, Adam won't be the perfect candidate to take the curse in JD's place. That's what JD wants."

"So, you're saying that JD _wants_ to die in one week time?" Gayathri whispered, horrified.

"No," said Manny. "He doesn't want to die, but he doesn't want any of us to die in his place either."

"What can we do?" Gayathri insisted. She didn't want more of her friends to die. "Manny?" she asked, but her boyfriend was looking down towards the floor wordlessly. "Liu Ying?"

The said girl looked away. Gayathri saw her shivering slightly. "Nothing…" A choked sob escaped the willowy girl. "Manny, I need to borrow your washroom?"

Manny nodded. "It's by the wet kitchen at the back. Blue door."

"Thanks." Liu Ying rose swiftly and left.

Gayathri doubted anybody missed a tear that escaped Liu Ying's eyes. _Oh, Liu Ying…you really do care for him. It's killing you too…_

xxx

xxx

"I bet they're talking about me right now," said JD, as Adam approached him.

"What else would they want to talk about?" asked Adam. "Given your situation."

"I guess." JD shrugged. He noticed that Adam had shied a few steps away from him, and frowned. "So…you're heading home?"

"It's getting kind of late." Adam gazed up towards the three-quarter moon.

JD followed Adam's gaze and saw a painful reminder of his predicament. He snorted. "You can always teleport us back home."

"I'm too beat." Adam shook his head. "Besides, I wanted to make sure whether you're alright. You left so abruptly."

"Would you like to stick around as people discuss about your death?"

"Please don't say that, Josh."

"It's true. Why sidestepping it?"

"There's still one more week. Maybe…"

"Who are we kidding, Adam?" JD interrupted. He appreciated Adam's hope for the situation to get better, but there was no other way. "What's the use? Even if I kill Persiamon it won't make a difference. Oh, I'll kill her alright once Agumon hatches…but even so, I'll die too. So it might as well be me dying during battling her and Lucemon and that dried old bag of bones SkullSatamon."

Adam winced slightly. JD wondered what had he said that caused such reaction. Then he noticed that his voice had been somewhat harsh. "Sorry, kiddo. I wasn't lashing out at you, you know that."

"I know. It's just…" Adam had stopped there. JD saw him biting his lower lip down, as if trying to suppress his emotion or to stop himself from saying something.

Then it occurred to him; Adam now had the power of empathy, far more than any normal person. Such burning anger from him…Adam would have felt it. Quickly he took a deep breath to control those emotions, for his cousin's sake if not his own. He didn't want Adam to shy away from him; there was something he wanted to ask from Adam that night. He had wanted to ask Adam that for a long time, but the realization that his time was running out made him decide to not delay it anymore. He even had brought the necessary stuffs.

The rest of their journey was done in silence. JD wondered why Adam was following him still, but welcomed his company all the same. He decided to take a different route, which made them end up at Adam's apartment complex instead of his house. He inclined his head towards the complex, and they walked in, passing the guard who smiled at both of them. They stopped by the small playground before the block where Adam and his sister were living at.

"You want to come in?" Adam asked.

JD shook his head, and gestured towards the bench. They sat down, Adam looking at him curiously.

"Listen, Adam," he began. "I've decided that I'm through being mad. I don't want to be angry for this whole remaining one week. I'm gonna live it out the best I could."

Adam looked perplexed. Obviously to him, this came out of the blue.

He continued, "If this is my last week here, I won't spend it moping around, being miserable. I want to leave good impressions to the people who mean a lot to me. My Mom, Dad, Jade, Jas, Bibik….you, Kak Lisha, the other guys…" He gave Adam a small smile. "If I die next week, I don't want everyone to remember me as an ass."

"Josh, you don't have to pretend to be happy for us. We all know, and understand…"

"Who says I'm gonna pretend? I'm gonna do it sincerely. I'm gonna be a perfect son, a perfect brother…" He sighed. "And maybe even a perfect boyfriend for at least one week…"

"Boyfriend?" Now, Adam looked bewildered. "But you don't…"

"What do you think, Adam? Should I ask her out? Liu Ying, I mean?" He considered it for a moment. "You know I really like her, right? I've told you our stories…"

Adam nodded. "I don't know Josh…" He kept silence for a moment, looking away, before turning back at him. "Why not? I say go for it…but what would she say?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'll find out." He then put his hand inside his jeans pocket, and took out a Swiss army knife that his dad had brought him. Adam stared at it curiously. "Now that's settled, there's something I've been meaning to ask _you_. Actually I wanted to ask you about this for a while now, but…" He grinned, and flicked a small knife out of the set.

Adam withdrew away. "You're scaring me."

"What?" He gazed at Adam's disconcerted look, then at the knife. He chuckled, noticing how this would look like in his cousin's eyes. "Adam, no. _No._I'm not gonna hurt you. Umm…at least, I hope it won't hurt you…"

A strange look crossed the younger boy's face. "Josh…?"

"Oh, what the hell. I'm just gonna say it." He took a deep breath. "Y'know the concept of blood brothers?"

"Two brothers with same parents, or at least one same parent?" Adam asked innocently.

He could feel a sweat trickling down his nape. "Okay, that, and-"

Adam frowned. "Wait a sec. Didn't Myotismon and Matadormon, those two guys you and the others fought at Zephyrus City, called themselves the Blood Brothers?"

JD slapped his forehead. "No. That wasn't what I meant." Adam looked at him inquiringly. "Okay. It's when two guys swear loyalty to each other to become brothers, by making a small cut on each finger, and join the two cuts together to let their blood mix, hence making them blood brothers. They call it a blood oath or something." He inclined his head towards the knife. "What do you say? You and I?"

Adam seemed to be dubious of his suggestion. "Umm…Josh, you know I hate needles…"

"I thought you're in first aid team at school?"

"I _give_ first aid, doesn't mean I like having it done to me."

"C'mon. It won't hurt. I promise. Compared to what you've been through, I think you can handle this little teeny one…?"

"Won't there be any infection or anything?"

"Last time I checked I don't have AIDS or hepatitis or anything."

Adam pursed his lips, showing his displeasure. JD thought that his cousin looked very young like that – if it was he, he couldn't pass of that look in a million years, or a week. Some people commented that he looked a bit older than his age suggested.

"Why do you want to do this, Josh?" asked Adam. "You and I both know that we're like brothers anyway. We don't need this…blood oath."

JD shrugged. "I guess I wanna make it official. You can say that it's one of my to-do lists before I die." He caught a grave look on Adam's face. "Of course, I'm not forcing you to do it. But it'll mean a lot to me."

Adam was quiet, as if considering it. "Fair enough," he said finally.

"You'll do it?"

"No, _you'll_ do it. The piercing, the whole thing. I'm just gonna sit and close my eyes so that I won't see what you're doing and change my mind."

"Cool." He inched closer and took Adam's wrist. Carefully he examined the tip of the small knife, remembering that he had dabbed it with some Dettol earlier to disinfect it – Jade had taught him that, though not about what he was going to do. They shouldn't have to worry about infection now. Then he looked at the tip of his index finger, and without second thought, jabbed the tip of the knife into the fleshy part of his fingertip. Dark blood dripped out, and then he jabbed the knife into Adam's finger.

"Ow!"

"You big baby."

"Hey, it stings! A bit. Like an ant-bite."

"Okay, okay…now, I'm gonna press our fingers together. Think of us as brothers in your mind. No need to say it out loud, okay?"

Adam nodded.

JD quickly pressed their bleeding fingers together. _Adam and I, brothers. _He saw Adam's lips moving slightly, and smiled. _Till the end. _

"Alright. It's done."

"It is?" Adam opened his eyes and peered at his cotton-dabbed finger. "That wasn't so bad…"

"Told you so." From his other pocket he took out some cotton pads and a small bottle of Dettol. Deftly he uncorked the bottle and poured some of the disinfectant onto the cotton swab, and rubbed it onto Adam's bleeding finger, and gestured for him to press it against the wound. He did the same with his own, and kept the bottle and knife inside his pockets. "You want a plaster with that?"

"No, that's alright." Adam rubbed his left temple, before shooting him an accusatory look. "You planned this."

JD grinned. "Busted." He noticed Adam's action. "You okay there?"

"I think you're keep forgetting that I can feel other people's emotion," said Adam. "And that's when I touch them. Blood contact…" Adam made a face.

"Oh, shit! Sorry…I wasn't really thinking!"

"It's ok. I guess it's not something I'm not used to…" Adam's eyes widened in alarm. "The emotions part, I mean, not the you-weren't-thinking part."

JD blinked, before chuckling, before that turned into a laugh-out-loud. "So," he said, once the laugh ceased. "What did you sense from me when our bloodied fingers touched?"

"Sure you wanna know?"

"Oh, I know, lil' bro, I know. The question is, do _you_ know?"

Adam gave him a sneaky smile. "Let's see…You want to _huuuuggg_ her. You want to _kiiiisssss_ her," he said in a taunting sing-song voice. "Aha! I'm right! You are blushing!"

"I am not!" He shoved Adam's shoulder lightly, but could feel his cheeks burning amidst the night. "Heh. That's it!" he said suddenly.

"That's what?" asked Adam.

"I'll sing to her."

"Sure you wanna go there, big bro?"

"Why not? I have a great voice."

"You're going to torture her ears as you have done mine."

"Very funny. You said so yourself; I have a great voice."

Adam rolled his eyes. "You sang in the _shower_. And in the _room_. The only way I could study when I roomed with you was by telling you that you had a great voice. Or else you wouldn't stop."

"What's the difference? A great voice is a great voice no matter where it's being used." JD grinned. "And I'll take the guitar as well. It'll be a blast."

"Oookay…" Adam said. "But even though she agrees, I don't think she'll want the hug and the kiss. It's not considered appropriate in her book."

"Don't worry. I know my limits."

"Ha! So you're_ admitting_ that you want those! I knew it. I knew it."

JD grinned. He really was enjoying this. He knew that he was making the right move – from this day on, he would live the remaining days of his life the best way he could. Ever since he learned about the curse, he hadn't been able to spend a genuinely happy time with those that mattered to him. He realized how much he had missed it.

Gazing at his cousin's face, he saw that while Adam looked genuinely happy, his eyes maintained that odd guarded look. But perhaps he was just being too paranoid. Maybe he was just being overprotective of his now-sworn little brother. Maybe it was the after-effect of their blood oath; it might have sent Adam's empathic power to an overdrive. Maybe.

Or maybe Adam was _still_ hiding a secret or five.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Storm Front's done with, now a small mini-arc is approaching before I deal with JD's death curse wholly. Now you know why I have to splice the whole thing into three chapters instead of two. The double Juara Accesses, three villains that need to be written off from the story, SkullSatamon's recollection of his battle with Grademon, and the parts involving the DigiWira towards the end. That scene with the cousins is something I wanted to do for a while, but never gotten around to do it until now.

Samudramon Juara Mode is based from a merge between MirageGaogamon and Neptunemon, while Puspamon Juara Mode is based from a merge between QueenChessmon and Angewomon. Let your imagination run wild. For detailed explanation about them, and I'm sure most will be curious to know where do I get Puspamon's attack names….head over to my blog for explanation. As usual I'll put the info up a day or two after I uploaded the chapter, so that I won't spoil the chapter prematurely.

Wira Digital is TWO years old!


	66. An Evil Game

"The timing could not be more impeccable," muttered Doumon as he stirred the mercury-like liquid. He watched as replays of two battles played themselves within the cauldron. With every stir, the scene shifted. "It was just lucky that I have managed to procure Valdurmon's allegiance in order to make this work."

He then watched as the elixir in the cauldron before him let out wisps of green smoke. The smoke swirled around the darkened chamber, forming images of Digimon that have been long gone. Particularly, the Digimon who had been under _his_ service; one swirl of smoke took the shape of Valdurmon, the largest of them all. He had managed to procure Valdurmon's allegiance right before Beelzemon and Leviamon ordered him to attack the Wira Digital. Valdurmon had lost, ironically not under the hands of the Wira Digital but by Beelzemon's, whose desperation for a power-up drove him to kill one of their own.

He watched as two swirl of smoke took form at the same time, and smiled. One was Garudamon, the other Asuramon; both of them were the ones he had sent to battle the Wira Digital at the real world while he had the DigiWira pair that constituted Xianamon under his grasp.

_One Mega, two Ultimates…hmm…_

He uttered an incomprehensible incantation, and the two swirls merged into one. Crackles of lightning were elicited and Doumon smiled, admiring his handcraft as the resulted single smoke-like being emerged as a humanoid bird.

_Perfect! Another Mega. Now, join Valdurmon with Ravemon, and this unassuming DigiEgg…_

Doumon produced a DigiEgg from out of nowhere and dipped it inside the cauldron. Inclining his head back, he observed as the egg submerged inside the glowing elixir. He flicked his paw, and the two swirls of smoke disintegrated into data particles and showered inside the elixir. Then he resumed stirring the elixir in a steady clockwise rhythm, muttering more incantation as he did, before a burst of light appeared from it. He took a few steps back as something emerged from the cauldron.

The cauldron exploded and the elixir solidified around a glowing body that was two times as tall as him, its head nearly reached the ceiling. The wizard fox smiled, taking note of the being before him. It stood tall and stoic, white-armored with a black sash tied around the waist. The body contour defined it as a male. Glowing purple wings that seemed somewhat metallic were attached to his arms. A black helmet hid the upper half of his face and yellow eyes peered out from the helmet's orifices. A thin fang escaped the corner of his mouth.

"You're a masterpiece," Doumon said delightfully.

The Digimon bowed his head slightly, his mouth set thin. He offered no reply, and Doumon didn't mind.

"A rarity indeed. I have outdone myself. For simplicity's sake let us call you merely as _Ravemon_ now, shall we?"

The birdman nodded once, still offering no word.

Doumon grinned. "My evil game has commenced."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 66 – An Evil Game **_

xxx

xxx

On Sunday morning, Liu Ying and Youkomon headed towards the mountainside region of the Digital World. Glancing at her watch, she gulped; she was almost half-an-hour late.

"Youkomon…"

"Don't worry, Ying," said Youkomon, a hint of amusement in her voice. "I am positively sure that he won't mind at all."

Nevertheless, the kitsune picked up speed and Liu Ying let out a low yelp, grabbing hold on her partner's furs.

Liu Ying sighed and settled on admiring the view as Youkomon galloped amidst the terrains in silent. Adam had mentioned coming here a few times; once was during the time when Gayathri and Fairymon had been placed under a mild abhorrence spell by Sorcerymon, a few days shy before the ShadoWira's appearance. Adam was sent there to look for Wizardmon, who was once mentor for Grademon, and the only one who could provide a counter-spell for Gayathri. The second time he was there, Adam discovered that Wizardmon had been murdered by Karatenmon. The third time, Adam had been there was with 'Aizad' and his 'partner', both being the Puaka Generals in disguise – the very same day she and JD were led to a trap inside the cave of spiders. She smiled lightly at the memory.

With the timing and all, she certainly hadn't been expecting JD to call her the previous night, asking to meet her this morning. Alone. And he was bold enough by saying that he would like to think this as a date. She had blushed, and had stammered her agreement.

She didn't understand JD. He hadn't sound worried at all about his predicament; the cursed tattoo would take effect in a week. Should he not be worrying? Instead, he had asked her out for a date, and she hadn't got the chance to ask him about it. Thinking back, she lamented herself for agreeing too quickly. JD had caught her off-guard. But she was not regretting it, merely wondering _why_ JD would ask her out when they both know that JD was running out of time.

_Is that it?_ She thought uneasily, as they reached the forests that lined the lake by the mountains. She dismounted her partner, and Youkomon devolved into Labramon. They resumed their journey to the lake by walking, and as they reached the lake a voice became clearer.

"_You can see my eyes and tell me you're not mine."_

"Wow," Labramon commented, impressed. Liu Ying agreed and listened on.

"_I don't know why sometimes I get frightened."_

Liu Ying blinked. It was JD. _He's singing?_ She increased her pace and caught sounds of a guitar being played as well. The tunes matched the words that JD sung out perfectly. _He sounds great._

"_You can see my eyes, and tell that I'm not lying." _

She reached the last of the trees and peeked out. There, sitting on a boulder was JD with a guitar, and he wasn't alone. A small crowd had gathered by the lake, and over the lake. There was a trio of Betamon who watched JD with interest, obviously entertained. Two Gekomon were sitting at the stone closest to JD, one attempted to blow the trumpet that was curled around its neck before it was stopped by its companion. Not too far from them, a ribbon-wearing ShogunGekomon had a dreamy look as she gazed towards JD. Liu Ying couldn't blame the ShogunGekomon, for JD sounded really good.

In fact, she found herself somewhat entranced by the blond boy too. She shook her head, and stepped out in the open where JD could see her.

JD repeated the last two verses that she had caught earlier before their eyes met, and he made a small gesture with his head. Liu Ying followed his gaze, and saw to her surprise, a thin rattan mat lay over the sandy ground, with a picnic basket laid on top of it. He then played the last notes before ending the song. The small crowd around him clapped heartily and the ShogunGekomon let out an audible sigh, showing her admiration.

"Thank you," JD said, grinning at the Gekomon, the Betamon and the ShogunGekomon. "And you." He winked at Liu Ying and Labramon, and hopped off the boulder. The others gave them a look, before nodding understandably and went back inside the lake, ushering the somewhat unwilling ShogunGekomon away.

"You sound really good," offered Liu Ying. "I never knew that you can sing well."

"Oh thanks," said JD, accepting the compliment. He smiled. "You made it."

"You must have waited long, for you to start singing…"

"No worries." JD shrugged. "Have a seat. You too, Labramon. It's too bad that Agumon is still a DigiEgg, he could have joined you today." His face turned wistful, but a moment later it was gone.

Liu Ying wondered whether hiding their emotions was a trait for Adam and JD's family.

"That's quite alright, JD," said Labramon, giving the place a look around. "If you two don't mind, I would like to explore this place a little. Patamon mentioned this place having a very nice view, and now that I'm here I wouldn't want to miss the chance to do so."

JD nodded, and took something out from the picnic basket. He handed it towards Labramon. "Here. Heard you like banana fritters."

Labramon blinked, before looking at JD with appreciation. She accepted the meal graciously before sauntering away.

"She does that on purpose," Liu Ying muttered. Of course, Labramon just had to leave the two of them alone…

"What?" JD asked distractedly.

"Nothing." She felt so awkward, being left alone with JD. If it were Adam or Manny she wouldn't have minded. With JD, it was different.

It was just a couple of months ago when she had really hated the mixed-blood teenager, and that dislike stemmed far longer than that and neither she nor JD had done anything to rectify it. Throughout the period, JD seemed to always find the time to provoke her, one way or another, though she could not recall him going overboard with his teasing, except that first time which instigated her detestation towards him.

Then JD was revealed to be the Red ShadoWira, and she had felt that her dislike was somewhat justified. Her dislike turned to active loathing upon discovering JD's trickery towards them in general, and towards Adam on a deeper level – to think that he'd actually befriended Adam, earning his trust, before turning it all back so thoroughly. However when the spell was lifted and Adam had forgiven and accepted JD as a member of the team, she was left in a dilemma. The one she hated then had become her teammate. Talk about awkward.

Then came a day when somehow she had ended up with only JD to investigate a threat, which was actually a trap. They were forced to work together, and finally JD had admitted the real reason of him being so mean towards her when they first met. She was amazed upon learning of the reason, and her hate had melted instantly. Once the hate was gone a new feeling began to surface. It was friendship at first, but it was slowly growing into something…more. Not that any of them had said anything about it. She was comfortable with them being friends, but she didn't miss out the hints JD had dropped to her every now and then; she was just good at evading them.

Was she interested? That she didn't know…she had never felt like this to a boy before.

"I'm glad that you showed up," JD said, interrupting her thoughts.

"I said that I'd come." She eyed the picnic basket and the guitar. "I certainly didn't expect those, though."

He grinned lopsidedly. "I guess I'm just full of surprises."

"I didn't even know you play the guitar and sing."

JD shrugged. "It's no big deal. I picked up some guitar playing from my dad. As far as singing goes…it usually never goes farther than my room or bathroom." He smiled a bit, somewhat fondly. "Adam used to complain about my singing a lot, said that I'm disturbing him studying or that his ears hurt from having to listen to me all the time."

"Complain?" Liu Ying didn't think that there was anything to complain about JD's singing or guitar-playing skills.

"Nah, I could tell that he didn't really mean it," said JD, chuckling.

"Well, for what it's worth, you sounded really awesome."

"You think so?" His face lit up upon the compliment.

"Well…I'm not a professional critique or anything, but you're way better than some hopefuls we see on TVs nowadays." She rubbed her chin. "What was that song you sang and played just now?"

"Oh…just some song from my mom's old cassettes she brought from New Zealand. She says that the group is famous over there; it's her favorite song. I grew up getting used to hear her hum it every now and then, when she thought no one was listening. I guess that's how I picked it up."

"You just gained yourselves a few fans," Liu Ying pointed out. "Look, even that ShogunGekomon is still around here."

"Huh?" JD turned around, and true enough ShogunGekomon was still somewhere within eyesight, with the Gekomon and the Betamon trying to push her away unsuccessfully. Upon catching his gaze, the large bullfrog appeared delighted and waved at him, her face retaining that dreamy look she had when JD was singing. He grumbled. Liu Ying chuckled; it was all very amusing.

"Looks like she's your number one fan."

"Oh, man…"

They became silent. Liu Ying let the soft winds breezed through her hair, causing it to flutter. As she adjusted a stray hair out of her face she caught JD gazing at her. Feeling a blush threatening to creep up, she turned away. Something ran through her mind and thinking about it made the blush go away, due to the direness of it.

"How are you holding up?" she asked softly.

JD frowned. "Not too bad," he said. "I try not to think about it too much. Like I've told Adam, I want to live my remaining days the best I can."

It was a valiant answer, Liu Ying thought. It made her even sadder on the inside, seeing how JD was trying to act like nothing was wrong. She had no doubt that the boy was hurting. It must be horrible to know exactly when one's about to die. She braved herself to study JD's face more intently, but found herself unable to do so when the boy kept gazing at her.

"That's why I asked you out," JD continued. "I mean, we both know how I was such a jerk towards you. I'd like to make it up somehow." He gestured towards the picnic basket, grinning sheepishly. "It's not much, but I hope it'll do."

"JD, you don't have to do this," said Liu Ying. "I thought we settled it that day after we escaped the cave? You don't have to bother…"

"I want to." He cut in, and eyed her carefully. "I hope you didn't agree out of pity."

"No!" She stopped herself; that had come out more intensely than she had hoped.

JD smiled, but it wasn't the smirk he always gave to everyone. It was a tender, appreciative smile.

A soft gust of wind blew against their face, and the two teens took a moment to enjoy the scenery. It was truly a scenic place to be. Where they were sitting it was shady, and the waters were reflecting the whitewashed mountains and the lines of pine trees that grew at the base.

"It's almost eleven," said JD, checking his watch. "How about we eat?"

"What did you bring?" Liu Ying asked, and reached for the basket since she was sitting nearer to it; JD's path was blocked by his guitar.

"Ah, just something I asked Bibik to make. I don't even know what she's made, actually…just asked her to make something fitting…" JD took a rectangular plastic container that Liu Ying handed to him, and opened the lid. "Fried rice, _kampong_ style. Nice." He inhaled, and smiled appreciatively. "Pretty spicy from the smell of it. Super sweet."

Liu Ying eyed the rice dish dubiously, the way the sliced red chilies were spread over the very brown rice. She couldn't eat spicy food without a jug of warm water to drown the spicy aftertaste. However since JD had brought it, she supposed she would have to eat it. She took out another plastic container, and heaved a relieved sigh when inside was a caramel pudding, enough for the two of them. Or three, should Labramon return to join them. From the look her partner had given her before she left, however, Liu Ying doubted that the Rookie would show up anytime soon.

JD chuckled after she had taken one spoonful of the fried rice and rushed to drink straightaway from the bottle of mineral water.

"I figured your secret," he said.

"It's not a secret. I can't eat spicy food," she muttered, and gazed at her half-full bottle of water.

JD handed her his unopened mineral water. "You look like you're gonna need this if you're going to eat your half of this fried rice."

Liu Ying used her spoon to divide her half of rice, and pushed a large portion towards JD's half, leaving her with what seemed like three to four spoonfuls left. "You can have it. Nothing against your Bibik's cooking, but I really can't eat that much spicy food."

"You're missing out," said JD, calmly taking in one spoonful and munching them. Liu Ying stared at him disbelievingly. "You can have the pudding if you want," he offered, since she was going to finish up her miniscule portion of rice. "You gave me lots of rice, it's only fair I give you the whole pudding in return."

"Don't you want some?" She wasn't about to refuse though; that pudding seemed to be able to quench the spicy aftertaste on her tongue, which felt somewhat stung.

"Nah...I grew up with it, I know how it tastes like. Trust me, you won't want to miss it." He smirked a bit. "And you need it more than I do."

"I'll take your words for it. Thank you."

JD smiled, shrugged, and ate his rice.

Liu Ying found out that JD could eat relatively fast. He had already finished the rice just as Liu Ying was still halfway with her pudding. Liu Ying saw him looking at her thoughtfully for a moment, before he brought his guitar on his lap. She stopped eating.

"Hey, don't stop. I just thought that while you eat, I'll play a song." He struck an introductory chord, settling in with the mood. "_Let's just take our time,"_ he began, and the tune became steadier._"There's nothing else to do. What better way to spend the day, than wasting it with you?"_

She felt her cheeks burned with mild embarrassment as she took in the lyrics of the song JD was singing. The rest of the pudding was forgotten.

xxx

xxx

"I'm here," said Adam, staring towards SkullSatamon who stood behind the semi-transparent barrier around his bastion.

"Glad to see you," said SkullSatamon in his crotchety voice.

_Can't say the same about you,_ Adam retorted silently.

**Be careful with what you're thinking, boy…** Adam whipped his head back upon the sudden intrusion in his mind, noticing Lucemon descending from the dark sky. Lucemon had just spoken to him telepathically. Beside him, Sagittarimon tensed. **The Master can't hear you, but I…**

"Get out of my head!" hissed Adam. It was annoying, having a foreign voice talking in his mind. It gave him a mild throbbing pain on the temples, which irritated him.

The voice stopped. Lucemon smirked at him.

SkullSatamon chuckled. "Now, now. Let's begin, shall we?"

"Oh, wait," said Lucemon, the smirk still on his face. "I should mention this to you, boy. Apparently the Shaman General is planning an attack on your friends today. You will not be joining them, I'm afraid."

"What?" Adam cried out. "But-"

"Now, now, dear boy," said SkullSatamon. "Your dear cousin's life depends on this, and we all know how much time he has left." A low chuckle ensued. "Or rather, how little."

"And I hate to think what the Virago General will think when she finds out about this," Lucemon drawled. "Though I am more powerful than her, I don't make it a habit to cross her. We know what the price for scorning her is, I believe?"

Adam gave the demonic angel a sour look. "How does training my power will help Josh?" he demanded.

Lucemon raised an eyebrow. "Let's just say, the more powerful you get, the better chance you have to save your cousin."

"And how do you know that? I thought nothing else can cancel out the curse other than a sacrifice?"

Lucemon gave him a dry look, though his ice-blue eyes seemed to grow cold. "I have been around for four hundred years, and the Master's even more than that. And you? I'll hazard a guess…eleven?"

Adam's cheeks grew hot. "Thirteen, going fourteen!"

"Could have fooled me," the demon angel returned airily.

"Maybe that's why you got beaten by us back at the 1500s," Adam retorted. Lucemon twitched a bit, and SkullSatamon chuckled.

"I see that you've gotten your cousin's witty tongue," the skeletal demon said.

Adam saw Lucemon giving him a cold stare. He guessed that given his way, the Hellion General could easily kill him right there and then. He must have held personal grudge against him and the other DigiWira for defeating him so humiliatingly back in the 1500s. He needed to traipse his step carefully around Lucemon.

Ironically his only protection against Lucemon was SkullSatamon; even if he could teleport away he had no doubt that Lucemon would be able to pursue him if he wanted to. So far, Adam had discovered that Lucemon was able to invade minds with his telepathic power. The angel was also able to cast a telepathic web, giving him a unique way to view things that were not within his sight. Those made him a pretty dangerous enemy, and he boasted that as an Ultimate he wielded powers that could surpass most Megas. After their encounter at the past, Adam had no doubt that Lucemon hadn't merely been boasting.

It wouldn't be wise to make him _his_ personal enemy.

**Glad you know that,** came a snide telepathic remark from Lucemon.

Adam narrowed his eyes in annoyance. _Get out of my head!_ He practically screamed his thought. From the way Lucemon looked away, he supposed that Lucemon must have heard it, though there was no way to be exactly sure. Adam was now aware that he was an empath; he could perceive emotions that weren't his, but not thoughts. He would have to be a telepath to be able to do that, and Lucemon was a telepath. A skillful one at that.

He turned to face Sagittarimon. "It looks like you'll have to go to help the others for the both of us."

"But we've made a deal that I'd always be here when you're here!" Sagittarimon protested.

"I can't go, but that doesn't mean that both of us have to stay," said Adam.

"Puspamon and Samudramon both have reached Juara Modes," pointed out Sagittarimon. "They can handle it. What more with Rosemon, Valkyrimon and the siblings in the team." Sagittarimon glared towards Lucemon with utmost distrust. "Besides if he tries anything funny we can become Aldiyamon and take him out."

**Take **_**me**_** out? **Lucemon snickered telepathically. **How crude. I might have been beaten by five supercharged Ultimates when they were at full power and I was at my worst, but I have no doubt that I can deal with one mere Mega.** **Your light power doesn't affect me as it affected the Puaka Generals…**

_Stay out of my head!_ Adam gritted his teeth in anger. Something made him wanted to lash out towards Lucemon, but he didn't have any form of active power to do so. His temples throbbed again as he heard Lucemon's snickers echoing in his mind. His fists were clenched so tight that the nails threatened to pierce the flesh. He didn't care. _Stop invading my mind!_

A series of small combustions suddenly took place over the ground where Lucemon was standing. Adam gasped and Sagittarimon let out a surprised yelp. Lucemon stared at the ground, where small holes with thin wisp of smoke had formed due to the explosions, and then gazed towards Adam. His cold face showed surprise, before it melted into indifference once again when he caught SkullSatamon's look.

"How did you do that?" Lucemon demanded.

Adam schooled himself to take a few deep breaths to calm himself. _How did I do that?_ He asked himself, not knowing the answer. _That's not my power. It's like…_

Cold chill coursed down his spine. He remembered clearly the only other one who had possessed such destructive power. How was having this power would help his cousin?

SkullSatamon let out a low chuckle. "Sagittarimon can stay. Adam, that was splendid."

Somehow Adam didn't think so. The throbbing had subsided. Yet he shivered, because lashing out like he had done just now…somehow it felt _good._

xxx

xxx

"So this is the Digital World…?" Debbie asked in wonder, taking in her surroundings with eyes wide open and mouth gaping.

"Yes, Debbie," said Manny, smiling a little. He didn't resist when Debbie let his hand go and walked a few steps forward along with Opie.

"What do you think? Is it nice?" asked Gayathri.

Debbie nodded eagerly. "It's so beautiful."

Manny and Gayathri grinned, though to the watchful eyes both looked somewhat strained. It was noon and his family had barely just got back home from church, when Debbie had immediately pestered Manny into taking her to the Digital World. She had claimed that since Opie was officially her partner now, she now had the right to at least visit the Digital World. Manny hadn't any inclination to deny Debbie the opportunity, but with the Darkshadow Brethren all apparently becoming Mega Digimon, the Digital World was not the safest place to be at for the time being.

That was why he had asked Gayathri to come along. Both of them had attained the abilities to become Mega levels, which assured Manny that Debbie wasn't going to be in any danger if she was at the Digital World. Opie had adamantly claimed that he too could become Valkyrimon again and would perfectly be able to protect Debbie.

_Strength in numbers,_ Manny had replied, to which Gayathri had supported. Beelzemon, Leviamon and Valdurmon were all Megas, but each of them could only be beaten with the power of more than one Mega. And his sister was so young, Manny felt a lot better if they had as many Megas around them as possible.

However, the strain in their smiles had nothing to do with Debbie or about them. Manny and Gayathri exchanged one look, and the smiles were gone.

"You look like you didn't get enough sleep," whispered Gayathri.

"So do you," said Manny glumly, once Debbie was out of earshot.

"Let me guess. JD?"

Manny nodded.

Gayathri sighed. "Me too. I couldn't sleep well for two days just thinking about it."

Manny nodded again. "Hey, don't go too far!" he called out to his sister.

Debbie waved back, but didn't reply to him. Manny sighed and beckoned for Penguinmon to follow his sister. "Make sure…"

"Yeah, yeah," Penguinmon waved his flipper once and trotted away.

"Ha, I know that you guys want to be left alone, so I'll join them." Floramon sprinted away, bypassing Penguinmon. "Hurry up, slowpoke!" she taunted.

"Slowpoke?" Penguinmon sniffed indignantly. "I'll show you!"

The two DigiWira shook their heads, and Manny took out his Juara Digivice. Apparently they weren't the only DigiWira there.

"Would you look at that," said Gayathri, staring at the crimson and yellow dots that were blinking quite a distance away from their navy blue, sky blue and pink dots.

Manny smiled wistfully. "Yeah, JD told me that he's meeting Liu Ying here today."

"Meeting?"

"I just knew about it yesterday."

Gayathri peered down at the two Digivice signals. "Do you think they're on a date or something?"

"I'm not sure. JD didn't specifically say why he's meeting her today," said Manny. "But a date? I don't know…won't it be…" He grimaced, hoping Gayathri would catch what he was trying to say. He didn't like thinking that his friend would die in merely a week's time. He hated it more to say it out loud, which was why he'd left his sentence hanging.

Gayathri's face softened. "I know…"

Another beep was picked up. Another dot appeared on the screen, colored a shade darker than Gayathri's pink signal. They looked up and saw Dina materializing from the same TV set they all had come from. Lalamon was with her. Unlike Manny and Gayathri, who were both outfitted in their black and gray uniforms, Dina (as well as Debbie) was in normal attire, which consisted of a violet top over a long-sleeved white shirt and denim skirt. Upon seeing them and hearing Gayathri's call, the girl made way towards them. Manny noticed that she looked demure as always, but somewhat confused.

"Gaya, Manny, hi," said Dina. She didn't look any better than the two of them, Manny noted.

"Hi," replied Gayathri promptly. "We didn't expect to see you here. You should've told me that you're going to be here. We could have come together."

"Actually," said Dina, who sounded hesitant. "I called Adam's house, but Kak Lisha said that he's here. Since morning."

Manny increased the scale of the scanning range, before frowning at the result. "I don't see his signal around here. That's odd; if he's here we should be able to detect him."

"He's not at our world either," said Dina. "I've checked."

"Any specific reason why you wanted to talk to Adam, Dina?" asked Gayathri.

"Well…" Dina hesitated.

"We wanted to ask Adam how he's doing, regarding JD's condition," supplied Lalamon.

"I thought he'd be here," said Dina. "But…" She looked around her once, her face thoughtful. "Adam said, that day when Leviamon and Beelzemon came to our town, that he was at the Digital World. But JD said that he couldn't detect Adam's signal when he was here that same day." She gazed at her Digivice. "It's the same thing today."

"What was Adam's response when JD pointed that out to him?" asked Manny.

"He insisted that he was here," answered Dina. "He said that he didn't know why JD couldn't trace his Digivice signal."

Manny frowned. This was really odd, and suspicious. In fact, there was something _familiar_ about this.

Memories of his days as a ShadoWira returned to him. He felt a churn in his stomach; a reaction he always got whenever he recalled his evil days.

"The signal can be _cloaked_," he said quietly. "JD and I knew how, when we were ShadoWira. I'm surprised JD hasn't thought of this."

"Given his current condition, can you blame him?" Lalamon returned.

Manny's shoulders sagged. "No. I guess not."

"Are you saying that Adam has been cloaking his Digivice signal then?" asked Gayathri. "Why would he do that?"

"I'm not sure," said Manny, looking at Dina. "But if Adam was telling the truth, then someone else might have done that for him."

"Who?" Dina asked.

"Last time, it was Karatenmon. I have no idea who could do that now."

"Wait a sec," said Gayathri, holding a hand up. She looked alarmed. "Are you telling me that we're even _thinking_ that Adam could be joining the bad guys? There's no way he'd do that!"

"I don't think so too," Manny assured her. "But that's the only lead we have about this matter. I'd be glad to be proven wrong."

"Is there any chance that Adam himself could cloak his Digivice signal?" Dina wondered. She looked even more unwilling that Gayathri in accepting his theory, but Manny himself wasn't sure.

"No. Definitely not," Gayathri answered promptly.

Manny knew that it would be impossible for Adam to become a villain, when he had so adamantly refused to do so back when Manny and JD abducted him, under SkullSatamon's order. SkullSatamon had offered Adam to even lead the ShadoWira, and would be given powers stronger than he could have ever dreamed of, but Adam had refused the demon flat-out. He'd known the risk of refusal would be his life, but that hadn't deterred him.

_The only way I know of how to cloak Digivice signals came from Karatenmon and SkullSatamon,_ he thought. _Karatenmon's already gone. _

_Could it be because of JD's condition…that Adam's seeking answer from all possible sources? We've all been looking for answers from the good side…could Adam have gone to the opposite side? He couldn't have sought out the Darkshadow Brethren; they'd attack him instantly. SkullSatamon however is trapped. He couldn't harm Adam. Could it be that Adam has gone to SkullSatamon?_

Manny glanced away, thinking of how close his fellow teammates were. Adam was definitely closer to JD than to any of them, though he was generally friendly towards all the DigiWira. JD had told him that how he had regarded their team leader as a younger brother he never had, and how Adam had looked up on JD as the older brother he had lost.

_JD seems to suspect something, but Adam's exceptionally good in keeping secrets, even more than JD himself. None of us knew that he'd lost both parents and older brother until the whole mess with the Puaka Generals. What is it with them both? Keeping dark secrets seem to run in the family…_

"Manny?" Gayathri tugged his arm, and Manny blinked. "What are you thinking about?"

Manny calmed his thoughts. He glanced towards his sister, who was happily playing with the three Rookies. With Debbie around, he couldn't carry out what he was thinking of doing. However, Gayathri and Dina might be able to do it.

Yet, he wasn't able to convey his suggestion, for something suddenly moved with lightning speed over the sky before landing on the ground. It was a humanoid avian Digimon, tall as a building and armored all over its body in black and white. Large glowing purple wings were attached along its arms, and its golden eyes seemed to crackle with madness behind the black helmet it wore.

Debbie shrieked fearfully; the creature had landed so close to her. She had fallen onto the ground, and was frozen in fear.

"Debbie!" Manny was about to run towards his sister, but Gayathri was faster. Using her super-speed she went to the little girl, picked her up and returned back to him.

Debbie looked fearful, and Manny quickly hugged her close to soothe her fears. "Shh. It's ok."

"We'll handle this creep," said Gayathri, casting a dark look towards the avian Digimon. "You need to protect Debbie."

Manny nodded. Gayathri and Dina exchanged a look.

"Lalamon can help," Dina assured.

"I can, too," Opie said. "But I'll need Debbie's help to go straight to Mega."

Hearing this, Debbie stirred her face away from Manny's chest and fumbled with her pocket, her hand shaky. She grasped her new Digivice, before looking somewhat lost. Yet the Digivice flared to life and released a burst of cerulean and white auras that Opie absorbed.

_**Muchomon warp-digivolve to… Valkyrimon!**_

"Lalamon," said Dina, taking out her own Digivice.

"Ok," simply said Lalamon, allowing the rose red and white auras from her partner's Digivice to shower her with power.

_**Lalamon warp-digivolve to… Rosemon!**_

She had digivolved straight into her Burst Mode, which had the power of a Mega Digimon instead of her compromised regular form.

Rosemon and Valkyrimon streaked towards the intruder, now identified as a Ravemon, and begun attacking him.

"Be careful," said Manny, as Gayathri made her move.

Gayathri smiled, nodded, and took out her Juara Digivice. _**"Juara Access Digivolution,"**_she called out the new command, and thrust her arm forward. _**"HAAA!!"**_ A pillar of pink light surrounded her and Floramon and a glowing feminine figure in pink resulted, dancing in the air before the pink light left her, revealing Puspamon Juara Mode.

Manny felt like his breath had been taken away temporarily upon the sight of the beautiful armored sprite, before Debbie began pulling away. He however kept holding on her.

"Don't you want to fight too, Abang?" she asked.

"Not today, Debbie," he said, smiling to assure his sister. He wanted to help, but he wanted to make sure that his sister was safe more.

He hoped that the power of three Mega Digimon would be enough to stop Ravemon. Valkyrimon could fight even without Debbie being around, he decided. It was more pertinent for him to take his sister home, which was what he had promised their parents should any trouble happen.

xxx

xxx

"_Love was kept…from me like a secret. And I've sworn that I was through…"_

By now, Liu Ying was positively sure that she was blushing furiously. And JD, from the looks of it, seemed to enjoy seeing her in such a state. But she had to admit that the song was very well-sung. The messages however, made her heart race, as JD fixed his blue-green eyes onto her. There was something behind those eyes, the way he was looking at her.

"_Until you."_

And the song ended. JD grinned at her.

"You're blushing," he pointed out.

"Any girl would have, if you sing that kind of song to her!" she retorted, and looked away.

JD chuckled lightly. "I take it you liked the song?"

"It was-" Liu Ying didn't finish her sentence, for they heard a loud _blinking_ noise coming from a distance away. Her eyes widened; Labramon had gone off that way earlier. She might be in trouble.

xxx

xxx

Labramon settled down beside the lake, enjoying the scenic view while munching the banana fritters JD had given her. If one would wonder why a dog would enjoy eating fried bananas, then Labramon would answer that it was because they were the first real-world food given to her by Liu Ying. The rest was history.

She sighed, when her thoughts shifted to Liu Ying and JD. Having spent nearly nine months with her partner, she didn't need Liu Ying to say things out loud in order to understand her. After all she had spent quite some time listening to her partner grumbling about a certain troublemaker at school who seemed to always attempt in provoking her. That had been going on until about two months ago when Liu Ying and JD reconciled their differences and began developing a blossoming friendship. Though it was nowhere as the one she saw between Manny and Gayathri, she thought that she could see the _sparks_. What was it that the humans say? Chemistry? She grinned to herself.

"A DigiWira partner, alone?"

Labramon nearly jumped in surprise upon hearing the cold voice. She whirled around, and her eyes widened upon seeing Doumon and a Duskmon stepping out from the forests.

"Good," said Doumon coldly. The wizard held out a paw and fired a blast of cold air that flung Labramon towards a nearby rock.

Labramon coughed. Pain shot all over her body due to the collision. Her eyes darted around, panicking slightly as she gathered himself.

"You shouldn't have left your partner," said Doumon. A flick of his paw, and Labramon was trapped inside a semi-transparent sphere. "Now, this looks familiar…"

"Put her down, Doumon!"

"Ying!" Labramon exclaimed, delighted upon seeing her partner and JD there.

"Well, well…" Doumon smirked, seeing the two DigiWira there. "We meet again."

"Unfortunately," Liu Ying hissed. "Put her down."

Doumon shook his head mockingly. "Both of you are defenseless. The boy there hasn't got his partner hatched. The two of you can't Digital Access at all."

"State the obvious to anyone who's interested, papa fox," snapped JD.

"Such big words for a cursed boy," taunted Doumon. "Tell me, how has life been treating you? Knowing that you will be dead in a week, you must be really upset."

"I've moved past upset and straight to pissed-off!"

JD punched the air and a concentrated crimson psychic blast was unleashed from his fist. The beam slammed into the sole Duskmon that was there, but barely fazed it. Snarling, he generated swirls of flames from his free hand before unleashing it towards Duskmon along with another psychic blast. The combined force actually pushed Duskmon away, although it didn't really do anything to hurt him.

"I'd kill you, boy, but Persiamon won't appreciate it." Doumon glanced towards the Duskmon, who was still awaiting his order. "Entertain him, while I carry out my plan towards the girl."

Liu Ying attempted to throw Doumon off with her power, but Doumon was barely fazed. She lifted one boulder telekinetically and set it off towards the fox, but Doumon merely flicked it away with the long sleeve of his robe. She then raised her telekinetic barrier, but a blast of Doumon's Talisman of Night shattered it. Liu Ying was thrown onto the ground.

Doumon chuckled. "Your powers might be of help against Champion Digimon, but against Ultimates you two don't really stand a chance."

"Back the hell off her you son-of-a-bitch!!"

A torrent of flames set Doumon's robes ablaze. He cursed, but an energized fist was planted on his face before he could do anything, followed by a sound kick on the gutter. Snarling, Doumon lashed with the sleeves and knocked the enraged JD away. A flick of the hand and JD was trapped inside a translucent sphere.

"That'll hold you," spat Doumon. A dark aura glowed about him and the flames were quenched away. He then approached Liu Ying, a sinister smile contorted on his face.

Liu Ying flung two boulders towards Doumon, but the fox was unfazed. One boulder was sent away with a slap of his long sleeve, and the other was crushed by his paw. She gasped, and raised a telekinetic barrier before her. Doumon struck his paw towards the barrier and it shattered; Liu Ying had hoped that she could deflect Doumon with the barrier, but Doumon hadn't used a ranged power attack against it. Physical attack against the barrier wouldn't work to her advantage.

Doumon's shadow loomed upon her. JD and Labramon's shouts were heard, but Liu Ying couldn't do anything. Doumon was just too powerful.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you," said Doumon, his sinister smile never leaving his face. He grabbed Liu Ying's scalp and clutched it tight. "Not yet, anyway."

Liu Ying struggled, attempting to break free, but Doumon's hold on her was just too strong. Her surroundings began to dim. The sounds became muffled, and before long she felt herself drifting away. She stopped struggling as everything became black.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Happy New Year 2008 everyone. This chapter really is just a set up for the small mini-arc. For the songs, I'd have included the entire songs, but that would violate the rule of the site and I don't want to risk that. So you get snippets of them instead. If you want to know of the full songs, where you can hear them and why I chose them to be included in this chapter, head over to my blog.


	67. Reality Bites

Her head hurt.

That was the first thing she noticed upon waking up. Blood seemed to pound against her temples and she felt the urge to draw her blanket up and continue to sleep.

Her eyes shot open._ Blanket?_ She saw a too-familiar soft yellow comforter over her.

That wasn't the only thing she was seeing that struck her odd._ Everything_ was odd.

She took in the dimly lit room – the night light had been left on, its light cast shadows on the walls, parquet floor, the study table, the yellow-rimmed clock on the wall, and the bed she was lying on. The fan overhead was spinning at top speed, and she felt a sudden chill once the quilt was pushed off her. She was wearing a loose tank top and a pair of pajama shorts.

Liu Ying realized that she was in her bedroom. _What am I doing here? I thought…Labramon! JD!_

She jolted up and looked around her wildly. Labramon was not with her. JD wasn't either. She blushed at the thought, but composed herself.

The clock showed that it was approximately six thirty in the morning; the time she'd usually got up on schooldays. It was still dark outside.

_What happened?_ She pressed her temples. _It couldn't be a dream. The last thing I remember was…Doumon attacking us._

Two soft knocks, and the door opened. She saw her mother poking her head inside.

"Oh, you're already awake, Ying," she said, smiling.

Liu Ying blinked; the last time she remembered, her mother had dyed her long straight hair a shade of mahogany red. But they were jet black now, identical to hers. Her mother smiled at her warmly as she flicked the light switch on. Light poured all over the room, and she saw another difference in her mother. She remembered her mother's face, while pretty, it had hints of premature wrinkles. But those were absent now from the woman that was gazing at her now. Liu Ying thought her mother looked as young as her thirty-three years old suggested.

"Mama?" she asked absently.

"Still half-awake, I see," said her mother without missing a beat. "Well, when you're ready you can come join us for breakfast."

"What day is it?" Liu Ying asked. Her mother wouldn't be asking her to get ready so early if it was not a weekday.

Mrs. Evelyn Chang looked amused. "Why, it's Monday." She raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me because of your date yesterday, you've forgotten about today being a school day?" The woman chuckled at her; Liu Ying felt her cheeks burning. "You must tell me about it. We're eager to hear about your first date."

"Mama…" _The date was yesterday? So…looks like nothing is wrong…but I didn't say that it was a date at all to Mama._

"I'll leave you to get ready." Her mother closed the door.

Liu Ying thought that it was rather odd that her mother was so chipper today. She couldn't remember when the last time her mother looked so genuinely happy like this was. No, not happy… She scrunched her face, trying to think of a perfect word. _Content? Fulfilled? _She shrugged. _And her hair didn't look like it was colored black…that's the original color. Like mine._

It was nearly seven when she was ready to come downstairs to join her family for breakfast. She couldn't find her Digivice. Had she misplaced it somewhere? It was not there on her study table as it should be. _Maybe Labramon knows…_

She heard her mother talking with somebody, her grandfather, perhaps. She paid no heed for it, and went to put her schoolbag at the living room first before stepping inside the kitchen. The aroma of fried noodles crept to her nose.

A voice however stopped her cold. She had thought that it was her grandfather, but then noticed a remarkable difference. Her grandfather sounded much older; the man who was talking to her mother sounded younger. Stern, composed, and somewhat affectionate. She hadn't known that her mother had a friend over. And for breakfast, at that.

"You should've looked at her face," her mother spoke up with a laugh. "I asked her about the date, and she turned red instantly."

The man chuckled. Rustles of newspapers were heard; he must have put it down. "I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about. After all, that boy is a good one."

_That voice! It couldn't be… _She shivered as she slowly crept towards the kitchen, and braved herself to peer towards the dining table. A man had his back facing her. Her heart thumped nervously. Short black hair, dark blue policeman uniform…she didn't have to look even more to know who that was.

"Ah, she's here," her mother announced, placing a large bowl of fried noodles at the center of the table. The man turned to face her, and gave her a warm smile.

"Good morning, Ying. Your Mama and I have been wondering when will you be joining us for breakfast."

Liu Ying was speechless. Her eyes stung, her vision blurred. Reasons escaped her, and she flung herself towards the man.

"Papa!"

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 67 – Reality Bites  
**_

xxx

xxx

"Whoa, what's this all about?"

Her father patted her on the back once, somewhat awkwardly as she hugged him tight. Tears flowed freely; a few drops had tainted her father's crisp policeman uniform. She couldn't bring herself to care about that just yet. Confusion and happiness dominated her. How was this possible? Her father had been dead for two years. And now, he was here. Alive. And her mother didn't even seem to think that it was strange. She couldn't reply to her father's inquiry; all that came out from her was either a choke or a sob, or a choked sob.

"But I thought…" she finally managed to muster out, slowly willing herself to break the embrace. It was hard; she didn't even want to let go.

"Why is she crying?" a sleepy voice inquired. Liu Ying turned around; her five-year-old brother was looking at her strangely as he wiped sleep off his eyes. Even Liu Meng didn't think that it was strange that their father was here with them.

"I don't know myself," Mr. Chang Liu Kang answered. He frowned a little at her. "Why don't you enlighten us?"

"I hope it's not because of your date yesterday," said her mother, concerned.

Liu Ying shook her head. She was so confused. Her father was here, and her mother and brother didn't seem to think that it was odd. She looked around for her grandfather and Labramon; both didn't seem to be in sight. "Where's Grandpa?" she asked, wiping her tears. "Where's Labramon?"

"Grandpa?" Mr. Chang looked at her oddly. "Your grandpa's at his home, back at Ipoh. You asked of him as if he's here with us."

_Ipoh?_ That was her father's hometown, thought Liu Ying.

"And who is Labramon?" Mrs. Evelyn Chang asked. "A friend of yours?"

Liu Ying blinked._ What's happening here?_ Her father was alive. Her grandfather wasn't here. Nobody seemed to know who Labramon was. And her tears still would not stop flowing out.

"Papa?" she asked again, looking at her father. She tried to search for any flaw, any reason why she could say that this was not her father. But she couldn't. Other than a few matured lines on his forehead and some gray strands hidden in his thick black hair – a sign of age which seemed to fit him well – this was definitely her father.

Her father frowned. "I haven't seen you acting like this since that day…two years ago." He looked at her mother. "Remember it, Lyn?"

Her mother rubbed her chin as she sat down. "Oh…yes. Yes, I remember that day. Ying was exactly like this – crying after waking up from her sleep and not wanting you to go to work."

"And we all know what happened that day," said her father with an odd tone. He was gazing at her.

"What…what happened?" she asked, rubbing her tears away.

Her parents exchanged a look. "I don't know what exactly happened that day, but you wouldn't stop crying that morning. You said you dreamt of me getting myself killed if I go to work that day, and you wouldn't listen when we told you that it was just a dream," her father said. He beckoned for her to sit down, and she complied. "You were acting really weird. It was probably the most important assignment I had ever gotten that day, to escort the Deputy Prime Minister…but you wouldn't stop crying, begging me to not go."

"Then….then what happened?"

"You're sure you don't remember any of it?" asked her father, very gently. "I thought you said you'd never forget that day?"

"I…I can't remember any of it." She could feel her parents looking at her oddly, but she didn't care. Something told her that she would get her answer to this bizarre phenomenon if she heard her father out.

"Okay…I suppose we can speak about it," said her father. "Anyway, you wouldn't stop crying, but I really was about to go to work anyway. Then you sprang to your feet, took the car keys and bolted away from the house as fast as your little feet could carry you…" His face darkened. "And we heard the most horrible noise afterward. A skidding screech and your mother shrieking…she was at the garden." He looked at her solemnly. "It wasn't a serious accident but you were still hurt; it was lucky that the driver managed to stop in time. I had to call the station and asked for another policeman to be the DPM's escort, because I had to take you to the hospital…"

Her father shook his head sadly. "Later that day, we heard that the DPM was fatally shot. And the culprit…"

"Raymond Lau," she blurted out, remembering the criminal name clearly. That was the name of the man who had shot her father, who had jumped in line of the Deputy Prime Minister. _No, that…didn't happen. Papa is alive…_

"Yes, that's his name." Her father frowned. "How did you know that? I've never told you that."

"It…it was in the papers," she supplied hastily.

_I stopped Papa from going to work that day, and it…it caused the DPM to be shot instead of Papa._ She didn't even know what to feel. She was so happy that her father was alive. She was sad because the Deputy Prime Minister was dead; the man had been nothing but helpful to her family after her father's demise. And now she was confused, because everything just didn't make sense.

"Ying, do you…by any chance, I don't know…have strange dreams again?" her father asked gently, holding her hand. "You were exactly like this that day. As you can see Mama and I are worried."

Feeling her father's rough hand on hers, she couldn't bear it anymore. Instantly she launched a rapid series of explanation which consisted of how her father got shot as he jumped in to receive the bullet meant for the Deputy Prime Minister. Then the story shifted to how she became a DigiWira and being partnered with Labramon. How they managed to stop the evil attack one after another. How the killer's brother – Riley Lau – kidnapped her to demand the Deputy Prime Minister free his brother. How Riley Lau was in league with Doumon who wanted to trap her and the other DigiWira before destroying them.

"…and then we all found out how JD is cursed with a killing tattoo which will him during the next full moon, which is this Saturday….we all can't stop it from happening. And it all became even more complicated because JD asked me out yesterday on what looked like the first and last date we're going to have and I…"

"Whoa, whoa Ying, slow down…." Her father looked at her oddly. "You dreamed ALL these last night?"

"Well, no…yes…I don't know…" Honestly she didn't know. Everything was so surreal. She knew that she couldn't possibly be dreaming about her being a DigiWira. And her father's death…had it been real? Or was it a dream? She felt her father's palm on her neck and forehead for what could be signs of fever, she supposed.

"If you're not feeling well today, Ying, you might want to stay at home today?" her father suggested.

She shook her head. "I'm fine…I think."

"I don't even know that you have this imagination about….Digi-what?" her mother said. "And did you mention that you'd gone on a date with a JD? I thought you went to a date with _Joshua_?"

"Who?" Liu Ying asked absently.

"That Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman boy who had actually called _us_ to ask for our permission before taking you out yesterday…oooh….I see," her mother said, smiling widely. "JD…Joshua Daniel. I get it. Pet names. How adorable…"

Liu Ying could only wonder what she was talking about. Since when did JD go by with his full first name? She had heard Adam calling him Josh, and that, according to them, was how JD's family members addressed him at home. Nobody had ever called JD Joshua before, except the teachers at school, she supposed.

"Ying, a friend of mine once told me," said her mother, losing the airhead vibe she had been demonstrating earlier and beginning to sound like the mother she had known. "If you dreamed of a person dying, that means that they'll have a long life." She smiled at her father, and then at her. "I don't know whether it's true or not, but think of it that way. I remember you crying in your sleep when you were five, thinking that _I_ have died when all I was sick off then was because of a mild gastritis…" The smile turned to a grin. "Obviously you cared about Papa a lot that you dreamed about him…dying…so vividly. I still get goosebumps thinking of what would happen that day if Papa did go to escort the DPM. And now you're dreaming about Josh…JD, dying."

"He sounds like a good kid," her father said. "I've had my reservations, but a boy brave enough to call us for permission to take you out; he must be a decent guy. It's a pity I didn't get to meet him yesterday."

"You should see him, he's a handsome one!" her mother chirped. "A mixed-blood. He actually has blond hair…somewhere between gray-brown and yellow. And his eyes…I can't decide whether it's green or blue. He mentioned being a quarter Malay and three-quarter Caucasian…I guess that gives him the blond hair and the eyes."

Her father gave her mother a pointed look. "Should _I_ or Ying be jealous hearing you gushing about this boy?"

"Oh, stop that." She reached sideways and swatted her husband's arm. "I'm old enough to be his mother," she retorted. "He's only a year older than Ying."

Everything looked normal, but Liu Ying dared not believe anything yet. "What about Labramon? She's real…"

"Aren't you a bit too old for an imaginary friend?" chirped her little brother, who was the most undisturbed of them all as he ate his breakfast. She glared at him. Liu Meng shrugged.

"It's funny you should mention about 'Labramon'…" her father began, and she looked up. Perhaps she wasn't dreaming at all… "Your Mama and I were just thinking about getting us all a Labrador Retriever puppy for your upcoming birthday."

Her shoulders sagged. This wasn't what she was expecting to hear.

"Maybe Labramon is a good name for a Labrador, although it sounds a little too…" Mr. Chang shrugged. "Odd, for a name?"

"We've decided to let the kids choose the dog's name," said her mother. "No matter how odd."

"I wanna name him Lassie," said Liu Meng. Liu Ying could have sweatdropped if she wasn't so confused.

_Am I even a DigiWira here?_ She thought. _One way to find out, I have to meet the others.  
_

"I think I'm going to school now."

"But Ying, you've barely touched your breakfast," her mother pointed out. "And you know that breakfast is…"

"The most important meal of the day," she finished. That one, she knew by heart.

"Yes, I wouldn't want my kids and husband to have to suffer that gastritis like I did, simply because I wanted to diet," her mother continued without again missing a beat.

_This is odd. I swear this is all really odd…_ She gazed at her parents, specifically her father. She wondered whether she'd have things played out differently. She remembered Manny being transported to an alternate dimension, where the DigiWira were evil and the Darkshadow Brethren were good. This sounded like a thing that a Darkshadow could have done.

But then again…could everything that had happened really been a dream? Her father's death, her adventures as a DigiWira…they were all too real to be a dream.

"Everything _is_ alright, right?" her father asked, gazing at her deeply.

She took a deep breath. Then she stood up and hugged her father once more. He felt so real. "Never better, Papa," she whispered, afraid and unwilling to let go. Her father returned the hug; she could feel him exchanging strange looks with her mother, but she didn't care. She really missed him, and thought that whatever was going on, it was good. It was definitely a good thing.

Thus she pushed aside her doubts for one moment, and allowed herself to genuinely feel happy.

xxx

xxx

She walked inside the school, which was bustling with students. It was a good five minutes before the bell would ring, and she suddenly remembered that she should have been to school earlier to check her prefect duty for the week. She hastened her pace, before a hand fell on her shoulder, nearly making her jump.

"Hey, sweetie," a voice whispered.

She whirled around, and gasped out loud upon the sight that greeted her. It was JD, and he was smiling sheepishly, raising both hands in a surrendering gesture.

"Whoa...didn't mean to startle you. Sorry."

"JD! You look…" She took in his crisp appearance with mild incredulity, "different," she finished awkwardly.

Different was an understatement, for the JD before her was _not_ the JD she had known. Or at least the one she was accustomed with.

For starters, he was neatly dressed in his school uniform – the buttons all in place, the school badge and nametag both ironed on the shirt's chest pocket. He was even wearing a tie properly – Liu Ying had _never_ even seen JD with a tie. And that wasn't the end of the oddity; JD's hair was shorter, gelled and swept back. And he was wearing a pair of half-rimmed glasses that made him look somewhat scholarly, though from the muscle tones on his arms and athletic overall figure JD appeared to be physically active as well.

"_JD_?" he asked, perplexed. Then he relaxed, and smiled. "Okay, you can call me JD if you want. Like I've told you yesterday it's a name I went by when I was younger…but since we're boyfriend and girlfriend, I suppose I'll let you call me that." He winked. "Only you, though."

"Huh?" Confused, Liu Ying blinked.

JD grinned, but it wasn't the lopsided grin that Liu Ying was accustomed to see. "And how am I different today?"

The way he spoke starkly contrasted the rugged demeanor she had grown accustomed with; here he sounded polite and engaging.

"Um…nothing," she said quickly, decided that she had even more important matter at hand. "Do you think we all could meet during recess? The five of us?"

"Five of us?" JD had a blank look on his face. "Me, you, and…who?"

"Us, Adam, Gayathri and Manny." She shot him a look. "Who else?"

JD was visibly perplexed. He held up one hand. "Okay, firstly…do you even speak with Gayathri?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" asked Liu Ying.

"I assume, of course, you're talking about Gayathri Nadarajah? That…" JD wrinkled his nose, as if something bad-smelling had just crossed under his nose, "snobbish daughter of that rich millionaire tycoon? She and her two friends, acting so high and mighty around the school. Three stuck-up…"

He muttered something else under his breath, and Liu Ying thought that it sounded like…dishes? Fishes? Leeches? Witches? Or something that rhymed with them. The way he made the comment however made it clear that he absolutely hated Gayathri.

"And secondly," he continued, "the only Adam I know about so far is my cousin, but he lives way up north. Yeah, the same Adam I told you about yesterday." JD smiled slightly. "But he couldn't be the one you're referring to, right?"

_Up north? _"I thought Adam's here with Kak Lisha?" she asked back.

JD raised his eyebrows. "Well, Kak Lisha lives with us for now until she finds her own apartment, although Mom and Jas wouldn't have that; they like having another girl in the family. Adam and Abang Zad live with their parents at Kelantan. Hmm…. I don't remember mentioning Kak Lisha to you."

_Adam's parents and brother are alive?_ That shocked her. Not only her father was alive; Adam's family was whole too. Adam must be so happy.

JD shook his head. "Never mind. I must have told you about Kak Lisha and about my silly crush on her." He grinned slightly, Liu Ying thought he was slightly blushing, before he sobered and said, "and I don't know of any Manny."

"My classmate, Manny," Liu Ying reiterated. "Fellow DigiWira, remember?"

"DigiWira?" asked JD, amused. "What's that? A club name or something? And as far as I recall, there's no Manny in your class."

Liu Ying frowned. _This is too weird. Everything is different._

"What about you? I mean, that cursed tattoo on your chest?"

"Tattoo on _my_ chest?" JD sputtered. His eyes widened; it was as if he thought she had lost her mind. "My folks would have disowned me if I have one!"

"So you don't have one?" A rush of relief crossed her. She didn't realize that she was staring at his chest, before JD's chuckle was heard.

"Sweetie, you're making me blush," he said jokingly. He must have seen her seriousness not diminishing at his attempt to lighten up the situation. "No, I don't have any tattoo on me. It's forbidden anyway. Not that I'd want one if it's not. I won't be able to impress your father if I have one now, right?" The bell rang. He winked. "So…eat together with me during recess? If you're not on prefect duty?"

She couldn't get the nickname JD had given her out of her head. _Sweetie? _That was just too corny. But coming from JD, it didn't sound half as bad.

She nodded. "Ok. Recess."

JD waved goodbye at her and sauntered off to join his friends. Liu Ying smiled slightly; she didn't remember JD having those boys as friends. They, as far as she remembered, were all from the respectable crowd. Yet the JD she knew was always with the ones people considered as the bad crowd prior to his DigiWira days, and had hovered over Adam and sometimes Manny when he became a DigiWira.

Something suddenly caught her attention. It wasn't clear, but she caught faint hints of beige and pink coming from the school fountain. Her heart skipped a beat.

It was a dog. A very familiar dog.

_Labramon?_

She saw Labramon looking anguished. She blinked once, and rubbed her eyes to see whether she was seeing things.

Labramon fazed out of view, like a TV screen when it was being switched off. Just like that.

She stared at the fountain but there was nothing there. She was sure that she didn't imagine things.

But where did Labramon go? She couldn't have just disappeared like that.

Against her wishes, Liu Ying felt her doubts returned.

xxx

xxx

She found out later that day that JD had been right, as she walked out of the school compound once school had let out. Manny and Adam were both not attending this school and Gayathri…

She shuddered; her encounter with the other girl had _not_ been pleasant.

That encounter had been at the girl's toilet, two periods after recess. From her cubicle she could hear giggling outside, by the sink, and she was about to step out before she heard Gayathri's voice. She didn't sound as sweet and nurturing as Liu Ying had remembered, but somewhat supercilious and snide. She was accompanied by her two friends; apparently Bel was not dead too.

Their topic of discussion there had made her flush with anger. They were discussing JD, and several other _details_ which Liu Ying had never thought off to be possible.

"I don't know what he sees in her," said Bel. Liu Ying knew she was referring to her, and decided to wait a little bit more before stepping out of the cubicle. "I'm much prettier than her!"

"You are hopeless," replied Gayathri, snickering. "But I do wonder about that myself. How on earth does someone as handsome as him ends up with someone as plain as her?" She giggled. "It's like a match made in hell."

She wasn't one who really cared about her looks, but hearing Gayathri said that hurt. But she continued to listen.

"To be honest, she's not _that_ bad when it comes to the looks department," Dina reasoned. "A little more makeup would do her good."

That elicited roars of laughter from the other two girls. "Her, makeup?" Gayathri said scathingly. "She wrote _our_ names in that stupid prefect notepad of hers because _we_ wear makeup to school! That old hag principal had personally confiscated our make-ups because of her. Stupid school rule and stupid little miss perfect for ratting on us."

"I'm just saying," said Dina. "I got back to her real good the other day, in class."

Liu Ying didn't remember Dina ever done anything bad to her. She listened on.

"That prefect friend of mine…" Dina began, but Bel interrupted her.

"You mean,_ boy_friend." Bel and Gayathri crowed with laughter.

Liu Ying couldn't see it, but she could have heard Dina rolling her eyes. "Him? Please. Not my type, but he has his uses….Anyway, he tipped me off about a spot-check for the Form Twos which would be taking place after recess. So I had to get rid of that lip gloss and nail polisher that I'd brought that day. Damn it, they were both new." She chuckled darkly. "Anyway during recess I put those two inside her bag once I was alone there. You should have seen her face when another prefect confiscated those items from her bag. Miss Perfect Prefect, bringing makeup stuffs to school? It was the talk of the class for the whole day!"

"And you didn't get caught?" Gayathri asked.

"Of course not, I'm not stupid," said Dina smoothly. "Well, that _so-called_ boyfriend of mine suspected something. Said that he knew Liu Ying wouldn't bring such items, and that he'd told only me about it so that I'd hide those stuffs someplace else. I told him I did, only that I hid it in her bag. He didn't take that too kindly."

"Ooh, what happened then?" Bel asked.

"Nothing happened. He didn't rat me out, or I'd dump him for sure."

"He was _that_ smitten with you, huh?" Gayathri asked. "Poor guy," she said after a while; Dina must have nodded. "If he only knew what he's getting into…"

"Oh, that is so not funny!" Dina shot back. "Maybe we should hear _your_ attempt on Joshua, huh?"

Liu Ying had learned by then that JD was known as Joshua here.

"What?!" Bel nearly shrieked. "_You?_"

"Oh, cool it, you! Nothing happened!" snapped Gayathri.

"What did you do to him?" Bel demanded.

Silence. Even Liu Ying wanted to know what Gayathri had done. She could hear Dina quietly snickering to herself, as Bel and Gayathri showed hints of a quarrel. As a prefect, she'd have to stop them, but she was curious to know what Gayathri had done.

"Nothing to get you so riled up. Let's just say that he would have slapped me in the face if he wasn't so gentlemanly…." Gayathri laughed loudly.

"Ooh, what did you_ do_?" Bel pressed on; the hint of anger was replaced by curiosity.

"In his own words, I was touching him inappropriately," said Gayathri with nonchalance. "Inappropriately, my foot. I told him to stop acting so goody-goody, and you know what his response was? He just looked at me, like I'm a piece of trash, and walked away. Bloody idiot."

"Ah…" Bel then chuckled. "You little slut…"

Liu Ying frowned; she wondered whether Bel meant what she had said to Gayathri, or that she hadn't been meaning to demean her with such a derogatory comment. Gayathri wouldn't like it, she thought.

However to her surprise, Gayathri simply laughed it off. No angry retort.

"Hey, here's an idea," said Dina suddenly. "How about we make a gossip about it? Maybe it'll break Joshua and Liu Ying up. They were getting a bit too lovey-dovey to my liking."

"I like it," said Gayathri. "Well, we'll have to twist things around a bit, saying that he's the one making the move on me…"

"Oh, like people's gonna believe _that!_ Everyone knows that Joshua is a model student!" Bel retorted. "And you…"

"Fine! I'll be the bad one, but let's say here that the feeling is…reciprocated by him," said Gayathri. "Liu Ying won't like that."

"Got it," said Dina, giggling. "Oh wow, it'll be the hottest gossip around here. The school mag's people is definitely gonna have a field day."

Liu Ying had heard enough. She turned the knob open and stepped out.

"I think you're going way too far with that, don't you?" she hissed venomously. "Trying to frame a decent guy for something he didn't do?" She shook her head. "I didn't know that you're that desperate for some extra grain of popularity." _Catty,_ she thought, smiling inwardly as the three girls stared at her in shock. She couldn't help it. Anger and disappointment coursed through her; the girls weren't like the three sweet, pretty girls that she knew.

"Oh, look who's here," Gayathri sneered, "The girlfriend's coming to the rescue."

"And she's not alone." Another door opened, and a bigger girl – a prefect – stepped out. Liu Ying stared at her, recognizing her as a Form Three prefect Jennifer Kang. She held a tape recorder, and pressed the stop button.

"Don't you girls know that toilets are not really the most abandoned place in the world?" she asked. This time around, the three girls looked scared. "What you three just said might mean tickets for expulsion from the school, and mark my word the principal is going to hear about this." She waved the tape recorder.

"Who the hell are you?!" shouted Gayathri.

"A classmate of Joshua. My name's Jen, I sat beside him in class for the past three years." She looked at Liu Ying and offered her a smile. "I just knew that something was off with Joshua last week. He couldn't really fool me, but he wasn't really being too detailed when I coaxed him to spill out the details. And you three have been eyed by the school board for quite some time."

"What a wimp," snorted Gayathri. "Running off to tell his problem to a girl!"

"Oh, I don't think so," said Liu Ying, all of a sudden feeling protective of her sort-of-boyfriend. "If he wanted to, he could've broken those perfect teeth of yours with one slap."

"Ha-bloody-ha!" retorted Gayathri. She glared at Jen, specifically the tape recorder she was holding. Then she made a lunge for it.

Unfortunately, Jen didn't seem like one who'd take kindly to threats. With one swift movement she grabbed hold on Gayathri's wrist and yanked her away. "I don't think so. Liu Ying and I are both in Tae-Kwan-Do, while you three….are in the nail-polishing group, I suppose, if it exists. You'll make a fool of yourself if you try to fight us. Let's all get back to class now, shall we? I'll hold this piece of evidence for Joshua to decide what to do with it."

"The whole school will know about this!" threatened Gayathri, trying to pull her hand free. She was unsuccessful, but then Jen released her.

"Oh yes, go ahead. I'm sure your father will love to know about this too. Isn't he a member of the school board?" retorted Jen, triumphantly when Gayathri visibly paled. "I thought so. Move!"

The three girls sullenly walked away. Jen winked at Liu Ying. "And for the record, Joshua's asked me a lot about you. Glad to see that you two are dating."

Liu Ying smiled, but it faded as she watched the trio's retreating backs. She thought of what JD had said under his breath earlier, and couldn't – but sadly so – have agreed more. And she was so sorry to hear that these _evil_ girls had tried to take advantage on him when he was a perfect gentleman. Perhaps JD would be better off as a tough, rugged bad-boy?

Jen stepped out, and Liu Ying was going to follow her before something caught her ears._ "Ying."_

She whirled around. Nobody was around. _"Ying."_

"Who's there?" She peered through the first of four cubicles inside the toilet – the one where she had been hiding at while hearing Gayathri and her friends' malicious gossiping. No one was there.

"_Ying."_

The second cubicle was also empty. She took a look inside the third, where Jen had stepped out from. Nothing.

"_Ying."_

The fourth cubicle had its door closed. Liu Ying placed one hand on the door, and gave it a very soft push. It was unlocked. "Hello? Anyone inside?"

Nobody answered. "I'm going to push it open…" And she did.

And she gasped loudly.

Labramon was staring at her, hovering in midair, looking absolutely worse for wear. Her eyes looked lifeless; the blue irises were a dull gray. In fact, all of her seemed somewhat dull gray though traces of colors were still evident. She was even somewhat transparent; Liu Ying could see the toilet bowl through her.

Labramon inclined her head towards her, whispering her name forlornly before a headache threatened to split her head open. She retreated towards the sink, grasping on it to maintain her balance. Labramon fazed out of view, like a television being switched off.

"Labramon?" she called. The headache was slowly subsiding. She turned to look at the mirror, and saw that she had turned so white. It was as if she had seen a ghost.

Had she?

"Hey, sweetie," greeted JD, startling her slightly by appearing from her back. "Let me get my bike and I'll walk you home, okay?"

She nodded, smiling at him. After the incident with the girls at the toilet, she had begun to feel a wave of affection for this JD. If everything that she had seen and heard about JD here was true, then JD was exactly the guy she wished that she'd have as someone special. Though, she couldn't decide whether this affection stemmed from the JD she had known previously; the one who might not have suited her taste but had attracted her all the same…or this new JD who was the perfect boyfriend to her.

JD came back, bike in tow. "Uhh…Jen told me about that toilet incident…" he began awkwardly. "I hope…"

"It's okay," she assured instantly. JD looked absolutely worried about her opinion.

"I should have told you about it," said JD glumly. "But…well, part of me was a bit ashamed for it. I must have acted like a wimp."

"A wimp? You?" Liu Ying couldn't comprehend the word when it was pinned on JD. But then again, this was a different JD; a mild-mannered, gentlemanly JD. "You're not a wimp. Far from it."

He grinned at her. "I love you for that comment."

Liu Ying blushed. Then she remembered that they were officially going out. "Oh…well…uhh…." She wasn't sure what to say. "Thanks." That seemed to satisfy JD.

She wondered why on earth that JD – or rather, Joshua, for the sake of differentiation between this boy before her and the JD she had known – was so different here. Gayathri too was alarmingly a different person; other than having the same name and physical features, she was _not_ the Gayathri who was her friend and teammate. She felt that she really hated the Gayathri she had encountered today, as much as she had hated JD once. Perhaps even more; the Gayathri here was a very spiteful person. So were Dina and Bel; Dina's prank seemed somewhat cruel for a petty reason.

They made a turn towards a quieter alley which would lead to her house, away from the crowd of students waiting for their rides home. "This might sound rather odd…" said Liu Ying, while JD listened attentively. "But…I kinda have this…uhh…dream, about you."

"Oh?" His attentiveness turned to interest.

"You were so different there."

Joshua's shoulders sagged. "Haven't I been humiliated enough already…?"

"No, no! I mean…I have this dream, where you are this bad-boy kind of person. Smoking, having long hair, swearing a lot. You were always making life difficult for me at school."

"I am? That's…hilarious, I think," said Joshua, not really sure what to say. Liu Ying had the impression that the blond boy before her wasn't one who would do such things. "My mom would've washed my mouth with soap if she hears me swear." He chuckled nervously. "Actually, she did that once…I was experimenting, actually, and she didn't take it well…the soap was awful."

Liu Ying blinked, and then chuckled. She felt that she wanted to tell Joshua about being DigiWira. He looked like he would listen to her.

"Bad boy, eh? Is that a crazy fantasy you have about me, sweetie?" asked Joshua with a sly grin. "And that's only after our first date…"

Liu Ying flushed. "No! It wasn't like that! Now, _that_…the teasing, you did that too!"

Joshua smirked. "Some things never change. But I only tease the one I like, so…"

"Hmmph."

Joshua gestured towards the empty bench at the park beside the school. "Why don't we sit there and you tell me all about your dream?"

"You really want to listen?" asked Liu Ying.

"Of course," said Joshua. "What better ways to spend the day than 'wasting' it with my girlfriend?"

A chill ran down her spine. "What?" she asked softly. _JD_ had sung a song with a line almost the same as that.

"I said…"

"No, never mind…it's just that I thought that there's a song with the same sentence."

"Oh, really?" asked Joshua. "I've never heard of it, so it must be a coincidence."

_Yeah…maybe…_

She must have spent half an hour at least outlining the details before she even thought of asking Joshua's opinion. She caught him looking at her, in a way that suggested that he probably wasn't even listening, only _looking_ at her as she regaled the 'dream' to him. She huffed. "Were you even listening?"

"Sure, although I have to admit that it's too weird for it to be a dream," said Joshua. "It sounds more like a story." He scratched his head. "I still don't get it how you manage to include my cousin Adam in it, as well as that…that…_slut_ and that stranger named Manny inside of all this." His face softened after looking somewhat miffed at the thought of Gayathri being part of Liu Ying's 'dream-team'. "And I have to admit that Adam and I aren't that close, although it would be nice if we are…I kind of liked having someone younger to look out for."

_That couldn't be farther from the truth._ She smiled slightly. Despite the outward differences, there were some similarities after all between JD and Joshua.

"But that cursed tattoo part on me…wow, that was creepy. It's the part that it's gonna kill me that makes it even more gruesome," said Joshua. He eyed her intently. "It must have felt so real to you, since that was one of the first things you asked me this morning."

"It still does," she said.

"Oh, poor baby." Joshua grasped her hand. "Hey, it's only a dream right? I'm not going anywhere."

Liu Ying didn't pull away her hand, although she was pretty embarrased with Joshua's affection. Instead she cast a look away from him, towards the trees…when she saw _her_ again and let out a loud gasp.

"Labramon!" She shot up to her feet. Labramon looked even worse now than she had been when Liu Ying saw her at the school's toilet. She was completely gray now.

"Who?" Joshua followed her gaze towards the trees. Liu Ying saw him frown. "I don't see anything," he said.

"I'm telling you, she was there," she insisted, and suddenly her head throbbed.

"_Ying…"_

Her name was being whispered again. She grunted and pressed her temple.

"Sweetie, you okay?" Joshua shot up as she swayed, catching her in his arms. "Maybe we ought to get you home."

Liu Ying nodded, and allowed Joshua to help her home. Labramon seemed to call out for her, but the voice – Labramon's voice – was inside her mind.

"_Ying…Ying…"_

"Stop it," she grunted, when the throbbing intensified. The whispering continued, pleading at her. Begging.

Suddenly, flashes of random images ran through her mind with lightning speed.

Labramon, trapped inside a bubble barrier struggling to break free, but to no avail.

A bearded man in a red poncho, holding a black staff with a skull, was laughing at Labramon. She didn't recognize the bearded man, yet something told her that she should. The man then shifted into a fox in priest garments, and she recognized him. Doumon. He had two Digivices with him – red and yellow. Hers and JD's. And for a moment she thought Doumon was gazing at _her_, smirking victoriously.

A dark cavern, with wet floors. There was a lake nearby. JD was frantically shaking _her_, imploring her to wake up. She was lying down, face up, eyes closed, unconscious. She looked so deathly pale and her lips were almost blue.

Puspamon, Rosemon and Valkyrimon fighting a large armored avian with glowing purple wings. The battle seemed to be not in their favor.

"_Ying…"_

Labramon's whispering voice intensified inside her mind, the next whisper overlapping the previous one. The throbbing increased as the voice echoed into voices. She felt so overwhelmed; the voices would drive her crazy!

"STOOOPP!!" She whipped her head back, away from Joshua and towards the bench. And she lashed out, trying to _will_ the voices away.

To her surprise, the bolts that held the bench firm on the ground all flew away in haphazard directions. The bench was yanked from the cemented ground and blasted against a tree, resulting in a resounding crash. The tree even shook, some leaves dropped over the ground like autumn dry leaves. She and Joshua both gasped, before she felt herself falling limp onto Joshua's arms. She saw a concerned look crossed Joshua as he lifted her with both arms, cradling her.

Everything started to spiral around her, before they dimmed to nothingness.

xxx

xxx

Voices floated in her head. She couldn't see anything, but she could hear them.

"Ying…Ying…please wake up. Please…I need you to wake up…."

"Liu Ying? Come on, don't die on me! Wake up!"

The first voice was Labramon's. The second was JD's.

"Oh no! Damn it! Liu Ying! Shit, she's not breathing!"

"Ying…Ying. Barbamon…Doumon….he's using you. If you don't wake up…he'll gain our powers and his Mega form will be permanent…"

"You can't die, Liu Ying! I'll be gone in a week. The team's down to four. You can't die too. The others need you. Damn it, please wake up…"

"Give it up. She's at a place where she _wants_ to be. Nothing you do can make her awake. Nothing."

Her eyes fluttered open. The voices had subsided, but she now knew what was going on.

Labramon wanted her to wake up. JD wanted her to wake up. And she did. She'd woken up.

She was back in her room again. Her parents and little brother were there. Joshua was there too, leaning against the wall. Liu Ying saw that he had changed into a red T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

"You're awake," said her father, sounding absolutely relieved. "Joshua told us you've passed out at the park."

"It's so lucky that he was there with you," said her mother. She had been crying. "Why didn't you tell us that you are sick?"

"I'm not sick," Liu Ying mumbled. She was still confused. Labramon and JD wanted her to wake up, and she had woken up. There was no difference.

"Maybe it was the heat," supplied Joshua. "It was pretty hot in the afternoon. I shouldn't have kept her out for so long."

Liu Ying stared at Joshua, confused. He sounded as if he was taking the blame for her condition. And he was implying that she couldn't stand the heat, which was nonsense. But she didn't feel like arguing.

She had seen flashes of images while she was out cold. Those images, she was convinced that they were the real deal. Everything here was so strangely perfect for her; her father was not dead, JD being her ideal boyfriend. And it wasn't perfect for only her; from the sounds of it Adam hadn't lost his parents and brother. Gayathri, though she was a complete opposite of her true sweet nurturing self, hadn't lost Bel. The world here was a peaceful place to live at, not like her hometown which had been the target of the Darkshadow Brethren.

Somewhere, she was still unconscious. That chilling voice – the last voice she had heard before waking up – had said that she was at the place where she wanted to be. That she would never wake up.

Over the course of one day, she had decided that she rather _liked_ this place, simply because her father wasn't dead. Despite its small flaws, it was far more perfect than the world she had come from. All these while, she'd wanted her father to be alive, not dead. And lately she had wanted for JD to not die because of the curse. Here, her wishes had been granted.

Here…where was here? She had the feeling that _here_ was not where JD and Labramon had meant for her to wake up at.

_Here_ was a place where Doumon wanted her to be.

_Here_ was not real. Nothing was real here. _A dream…My dream that come true…_

"You're not real," she whispered. "All of you…are not real."

"Ying, what are you talking about?" her father asked incredulously. "Of course we are real."

"No…you're not." The throbbing in her head returned. "You…are supposed to be dead, Papa."

Her mother gasped, horrified. "What a thing to say, Ying! Apologize to your father this instant!"

"Lyn," said her father sternly towards his wife. "I think it's time to tell Ying the truth."

"The truth? What do you mean?" she asked, when her mother's face appeared solemn. So was her father's. So was Liu Meng's and so was Joshua's. All of them gazed at her, unnerving her.

"Stop thinking about your former life, Ying," said her father softly.

She shook her head. "No. You're not real." She looked at him. "Everything around here is not real."

"It doesn't matter," said her father. "It's still better than what you had there."

"What?" she whispered.

"Here, it's everything that you want," said her father, smiling at her gently. He held her hand. "I'm here. I'm not dead. We're a family again." He pulled her in an embrace. "I love you, my daughter."

She broke down completely. The warmth from her father, how she missed it so. It all felt so real. She could touch her father; feel the strength of his embrace.

"I know about your journal to me," murmured her father. "It breaks my heart when I think I'm not going to be here taking care of you, Meng and your Mama. Watching you and Meng grow, complete your studies, work, have families of your own… I have that chance here." He pulled away, and cupped her chin. "Don't take this chance away from me. I beg you."

"You will be a lot happier here," said her mother, reaching towards her before gently sorting out the long strands of her black hair. "You don't have to fight anymore. There's no such thing as Digimon. No battles. No risking your life unnecessarily. You can grow up normally. With safety, love and comfort of _both_ your Papa and me. I promise. No more pain and fear…you don't have to worry about anything."

Liu Ying couldn't stop the tears from flowing out. She couldn't resist them. What they had said, it was what she sometimes think about. She had been so strong to herself for so long…

"Your parents are right, Liu Ying," said Joshua. He lifted his shirt up, enough to show her his unmarred chest. "See? No cursed tattoo. I won't die. You don't have to watch me die."

He lowered his shirt. "The others are happy here too. Adam is happier here than he was, with his folks and brother alive. Manny's blissfully unaware of what's going on back then, with him still all the way at Sabah. Gayathri, while different here, doesn't have to suffer the loss of a best friend. They're all better off here than back there."

His eyes then twinkled as he gazed at her. "And _you're_ happy here, Liu Ying. Don't let it all go." He smiled at her. "I love you, Liu Ying."

Liu Ying gasped; she hadn't expected Joshua to say that. She looked at her parents; they were smiling at her approvingly. She looked at Liu Meng; Joshua was already lifting him up. His little brother seemed perfectly happy to have an older brother to look up to. Everyone looked so happy. She could be happy here.

Images that she had seen came back to her, reminding her of what was really going on. Labramon's warnings echoed in her mind again.

"But…I saw myself there. I'm going to die. Doumon…he's going to kill me. He _is_ killing me…I will die."

"It doesn't matter anymore, Ying," said her father. "Leave it behind. Here, you'll live with us, with Joshua, until a ripe old age. It's a whole new life. It's what you've always wanted."

She wanted so much to agree with them, yet in her heart she still knew that it wasn't the right choice.

It was a selfish choice, should she choose to remain here.

And how could she be happy, when she knew now that by choosing to stay here she'd leave her friends - the _real_ ones - suffer under the hands of the Darkshadow Brethren?

She had to go back.

Tears flowed out, realizing what she was going to miss. Back home, her father was dead. In a week's time, so would JD and there was nothing she could do about it. _Trust myself to fall for a guy who's going to die,_ she thought, anguished.

_Is it going to worth it? _She asked herself. _It's the right thing, but is it worth it?_

JD had implored her to come back. Her teammates needed her, and JD was right. _If we're losing JD soon, the others can't afford to lose me too. _

_Why are these things happening to me? Doumon…how cruel you are. _

She took one last look of her whole family and Joshua, imprinting their images in her mind. There, her father and Joshua…JD…would live on forever.

Her mind was set. Her heart ached profoundly, but she had to do it. _It's the right thing. It's worth it…it's going to worth it...  
_

"I'm sorry!" She shoved past them and bolted out of her room. Her eyes blurred with tears, but she kept running. She made a turn for the stairs before hearing everyone chasing after her.

"YING!"

Distracted by their cries, she tripped her foot and went flying down the stairs. Her eyes widened in fear. Her heart skipped a beat. Her senses escaped her. Screams echoed in her mind as the staircases became closer and closer; she was falling so rapidly and no one could save her.

She closed her eyes.


	68. Just A Feeling

Doumon watched as the glow emitted by the red crystal ball that hovered before him diminished. Wisps of green smoke appeared out of nowhere and a ghastly skull appeared, with its mouth opened as it solidified. The crystal ball hovered into the opened mouth and affixed itself there.

Then a wooden shaft materialized under the skull, forming a staff. The Shaman General grabbed it, and felt power coursing through his arm.

_It's enough to maintain my Mega form,_ _far longer than it would have on Beelzemon, Leviamon, Belphemon, Daemon and Lilithmon. That wretched girl might have broken the charm, but with the power I've gotten from her…I could last a full day as Barbamon. _

He glared towards the barrier sphere before him. Labramon was in there in suspended animation. He saw her twitch before her eyes opened again.

"It seems that your attempt to astral project into your partner's subconscious mind works," said Doumon lightly. "And here I thought that you could only do so if you're in your Champion form."

Labramon was impassive to his question, but was glaring at him.

Doumon shrugged. "Well, it was nice while it lasted. I have to admit, the Dream Manipulation Charm worked splendidly. A human's life force is an abundant supply of power," he said, noting Labramon's impassiveness wavering with concern, "and with the power I've gotten from your precious partner, it would only be a _miracle_ if she's still alive!"

"Ying is still alive!" snapped Labramon. "If she is dead I would not even be here!"

Labramon suddenly shimmered with pale golden light, and devolved into Shaomon. This confirmed Doumon's suspicion; Labramon might have gotten through Liu Ying's mind, and have broken the charm, but the question that remained was whether she had done so in time, or whether Liu Ying was beginning to slip away. The torments he had given the Rookie were simply to his amusement; it would not cause a strong Rookie such as Labramon to dedigivolve so easily. Yet she had regressed to In-training, which could only mean one thing.

He raised an amused eyebrow. "You were saying?"

xxx

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Her eyes snapped open, and she was going to inhale a sharp amount of air before realizing that she couldn't do so. A mop of dirty blond hair greeted her sight.

_JD!_ She thought, not able to say it out loud, for JD had his mouth tightly pressed on hers. Then a rush of air was forced into her mouth.

That caused her to cough. JD instantly looked up, and relief crossed his rugged face.

"Liu Ying! You're awake!"

"What…are you doing?" If she hadn't been mistaken, had the boy just _kissed_ her? She would have blushed furiously if she wasn't too weak, too cold, and too confused.

"CPR. You weren't breathing, so I…oh…" He must have realized what she was thinking, for he began to look a bit sheepish. "No…I wouldn't do that! Not without…"

She coughed and wheezed, effectively stopping JD's rambling. What was going on here? She remembered falling from the stairs of her house, and suddenly she woke up here, at this dark, cold place. She could hear the rippling sound of water nearby, faintly echoing all over the constricted dark area. _A cave,_ she realized. Faint trail of light seemed to come from above, and it was so quiet that she could even count the sounds of water droplets. She was somewhat drenched, which would have explained why she was so cold to the bone.

She tried to sit up, but her body wouldn't cooperate.

"Hey, take it easy," said JD gently.

"Why am I so cold…so weak…?" she whispered, scared.

He gave her a look-over before sliding an arm under her supine back. Then with his arm he slowly pushed her body up, and positioned her so that she was leaning against his body.

"What are you doing?"

"Hang on. I'll take care of the cold," murmured JD, as his fingers interlocked with hers. "Doumon had thrown us over the cliff. We fell into that ice cold water. You weren't conscious when I got both of us out…" He stopped, and Liu Ying relaxed upon realizing what he was trying to do. Too weak to resist, she settled her head just at the corner of JD's neck.

Looking at their joined hands, she saw JD's hands began to emit flames, and would have retracted her hands away for fear of being burned. However the flames didn't harm her, rather it was giving off a pleasantly warm aura. The flames vanished but JD's hands continued radiating a reddish-orange aura, which began to disperse towards her hands. The cold slowly diminished as comforting warmth spread all over her body. Her outfit began to dry. She sighed; she was beginning to feel better already.

"Feel better?" asked JD.

Liu Ying could only nod, as she felt her eyes getting heavier.

"Liu Ying?" JD asked tentatively. "You're asleep?"

"No," she whispered back. "Not yet. Why?"

"Good," he said, "Because you mustn't. That's what Doumon wants you to do. So whatever you do, don't fall asleep."

There was urgency in his tone which made her curious. "Why can't I sleep?"

"Because…when he grabbed your hand and you were knocked out cold," explained JD, leaning the side of his face over her head lightly, "Doumon mentioned something about getting your life-force. He had this crystal ball with him, and with it he said something about a dream charm. It would suck your life-force out of you while you were asleep. So stay with me, ok?"

_So that's what happened,_ she realized. Tears stood at the brim of her eyes as she recollected of the near-perfect world she was at. It was a world where her father was alive, and JD wouldn't be dead because of a curse. _It was all a dream...but it felt so real…_

"Liu Ying?" He had straightened up, alerted by her body's shivering.

"Awake," she choked out, and the tears fell from her eyes.

"Hey…what's the matter?" asked JD. "Are you ok? Why are you crying?"

"I'm…"

She wanted to say fine, but she couldn't because what Doumon had done. If she had succumbed to it; if she had stayed behind…what would have happened to her?

Against her wishes, she broke down. And thankfully, JD didn't ask any question. From their meditative-like position he had shifted his arms so that they were closed against her body. She would have protested, but JD obviously bore no ill intention. The contact between them willed the cold away, and for that she was grateful. It also gave her a sense of comfort, which was that she profoundly needed at this time.

So she cried, for the wound that had been reopened once more, for the wound that would come, and for the possibilities that she couldn't possibly have.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 68 – Just a Feeling **_

xxx

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Puspamon Juara Mode led Rosemon and Valkyrimon to battle Ravemon. When she analyzed his data, she had come to know that this particular Ravemon was not a regular form of its species, but rather a rare super-evolved variant which was far stronger and speedier. She was fast, but Ravemon had surpassed her in terms of speed. Her Pushpa Vimana technique was countered by a somewhat similar technique which he had not uttered out loud.

And there was another peculiar aspect about Ravemon. He didn't speak at all, and that made his attacks even more unpredictable.

"_Lightning Arrow!" _shouted Valkyrimon, firing a crackling arrow of light towards Ravemon.

The birdman simply zipped away, and the way he executed it made it seemed as if he was teleporting away.

"_Aguichant Lèvres!"_

Rosemon's hearts were destroyed by a spiraling lightning bolt Ravemon released from his body. Rosemon proceeded by attempting to whip their opponent, but Ravemon was far too fast for that.

Puspamon eyed her surrounding. Manny, Debbie and Dina were nowhere in sight._Good,_ she thought. Manny must have been able to convince Dina not to stick around as well. Rosemon and Valkyrimon could fight without worrying over their partners.

Ravemon soared towards the sky, while Rosemon and Valkyrimon gave chase. Puspamon's eyes widened; Ravemon was only going to attack them! Her suspicion was proven true when Ravemon halted, and sped towards his incoming foes with lightning speed. He shot towards Rosemon and kicked her on the stomach, before streaking towards Valkyrimon with a speed so profound that an afterimage of himself was still present by Rosemon by the time he struck Valkyrimon's shield with his clawed hand. The claw went right through the shield, but Puspamon was surprised to hear Valkyrimon chuckling, before realizing that Ravemon's claw was stuck when the shield regenerated itself.

"Rosemon! NOW!"

"Right!_ Charitè!"_ Rosemon's whip turned blood red and she swung it towards Ravemon. It wrapped around his body tight; Ravemon was seized and Valkyrimon released his shield.

Ravemon snarled and struggled to break free. Being larger than any of them, it didn't require him much effort to do so. But just as he was able to break free from the vines, Valkyrimon's sword slammed against his chest.

"_Feral Sword!"_

Ice began to encase Ravemon's chest armor, but lightning spiraled around him.

"_Raikou Issen no Tsuki!!"_ he shouted for the first time.

The lightning bolts destroyed the ice before blasting towards Valkyrimon in a blink of the eye.

"Opie! Look out!" Puspamon shouted, but it was too late. Valkyrimon had been too close to Ravemon and had received the attack point blank. He'd instantly devolved into Muchomon.

Recognizing a weakened enemy, Ravemon made his way towards the fallen Opie, claw ready for a strike, but Puspamon immediately sailed towards Opie and whisked him away before Ravemon could do harm on any of them. Disgruntled, Ravemon surprisingly turned away instead of giving chase, fixing his attention towards Rosemon.

Rosemon generated a massive energy rose over her body. As Ravemon sped towards her, she brought the rose down and summoned, _"Rosen Blood!"_

A horrifying banshee shriek ensued, even louder than Puspamon's supersonic scream, as the rose spewed out blood red energy blast towards the incoming Ravemon. Ravemon however didn't make any attempt to go away; he merely spread his winged arms wide and they shimmered with dark purple lights. Then he crossed those arms forward and the glow intensified at the point where his arms crossed.

"_Musou Tenshou Yoku no Jin!!"_

A massive energy blade was released from the point of crossing between Ravemon's two arms. It sliced through the Rosen Blood and struck Rosemon hard.

Puspamon sped towards Rosemon and grabbed her arm, her hold slipping when Rosemon devolved to Lalamon. She had her hands full; both Opie and Lalamon were not going to be able to help her stop Ravemon. They glimmered in pink lights before vanishing out of sight, taken in by her Juara Digivice where they would be safe.

Ravemon turned to face her. Puspamon produced her diamond staff and prepared to receive his attack.

Ravemon released another bladed energy towards her, the same attack that had devolved Rosemon. Puspamon parried the attack by calling out the first variant of her Viveka Chudamani technique. She had come to realize that similar to Aldiyamon's Radiant Star attacks, she too possessed an attack with multiple variants.

"_Viveka Chudamani…VENUS ROSE!"_

She pointed her staff towards the incoming energy blade and released a burst of energy flower petals towards it along with a strong gust of wind. The petals spiraled around the energy blade before transforming it into harmless flowers. That gave her the chance to proceed with the second variant; the rose jewel on her staff rapid-fired laser beams which forced Ravemon to halt in midair. The birdman was forced to use his metallic wings as shield from her attacks. Doing so made him unable to fly towards her, which was her intention all along.

"_Viveka Chudamani… SKY CUTTER!" _

Seeing her chance, Puspamon sailed forward, never halting with the lasers. Most of the lasers were deflected by Ravemon's strong armor, but she noted that several had managed to inflict bodily harm on him. Not allowing Ravemon any chance to attack, a new knowledge flowed in her mind – the _third_ variant of the Viveka Chudamani, one that she had never used before. She stopped firing lasers and spun her staff in a circular motion, like the blades of a helicopter. Strong winds were released from the spinning staff as she drew nearer. The staff turned bright pink and strands of pink energy began to generate before it, along with bursts of energy flowers before the strands swirled into a ferocious pink tornado.

"_Viveka Chudamani… HAILSTORM!"_

Ravemon snarled; the tornado was slowly pushing him back. Then the flowers were lambasted against him and they combusted upon contact, actually making some damages to his sleek armor. He tried attacking but the tornado flailed his wings haphazardly, making him lose control.

Puspamon allowed herself to smile; without control over his winged arms Ravemon wouldn't be able to execute the bladed energy attack. He also wouldn't have time to generate his lightning power with the tornado continuously sent his way. She was able to fend him off for now, but she knew that it would take more than just her in order to defeat Ravemon, especially when Ravemon – despite her attacks – didn't seem hurt at all while she had lost Rosemon and Valkyrimon.

Suddenly Ravemon let out a shriek and his image became a blur. Puspamon blinked, before realizing her folly.

"_Dotou Yami Kumo no Mai!!"_

xxx

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"Just stay here, alright?" said Manny, once they materialized in his room. "Rosemon and Opie would fight better if they don't have to look out for you two."

Dina nodded, while looking around Manny's room awkwardly. "What would I say if your parents walk in here or something?"

"Just say the truth," said Manny. "They know about us. I think no one's home for now; my parents were both out doing groceries when we went to the Digital World. I don't think they're back yet." He noticed Dina's uneasiness and shifted his gaze to Debbie. "Debbie, why don't you show Kak Dina around the house?"

"Can we make mushroom soup while waiting for Opie to come home?" asked Debbie.

"Mummy's not here, and you can't do it on your own," reminded Manny.

"Oh yes I can," huffed Debbie.

"I can help her do it," offered Dina. "It's no problem."

"Don't forget a bowl for me!" Penguinmon requested.

"If it's no trouble to you," said Manny.

Dina shook her head. "It's no trouble. Just make sure Rosemon's safe, ok?"

"Ok." Manny patted the back of his partner's head once. "We better get going. Digiport Open!"

Dina and Debbie watched as Manny and Penguinmon dematerialized before the computer screen. Sighing, Dina took out her Digivice and pressed the buttons.

"Nothing," she murmured. "No sign of Adam yet…"

"Kak Dina?" Debbie held her hand, looking at her inquiringly.

Dina pushed her thoughts back and smiled at the girl. No point worrying her, she thought. "How about we get started with the soup?"

xxx

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A person's ability to read other people's emotions is like looking out through a closed glass window. One sees the scenery outside without actually experiencing it. Only the sense of sight is utilized; other senses are compromised due to the glass barrier that closes the window. It is the same when one looks at a troubled person's face; one can perceive the other as being troubled but will not know what is actually troubling them, or what is on their mind. The 'window' is closed, and to open it the troubled person will have to open up for the other to be able to read their emotion. From there, one can take action in order to change it, for the better or for the worse.

When the glass window is pulled up just one bit, one is able to perceive various sensations that accompanied the sight from outside. One can really feel whether it is warm or cold, peaceful or chaotic, still or windy, fragrant or pungent…the list could go on and on.

Adam's empathic power, Lucemon decided, was like a glass window partially opened. He was beginning to perceive the emotions from the people around him because his _empathic window_ was starting to open. Foreign emotions were able to flow through the open window. Those without the power of an empath would always have their empathic window closed; Adam's was partially opened, and this made him an empath.

He was now in an astral plane created by his psychic power and Adam's. It was like floating in the cosmos, and before him was Adam's empathic window. The window stood tall and sturdy, with white frames and the glass pulled up slightly. The amount of space opened by the window would determine just how much emotions Adam would be able to perceive.

_The wonders of being psychics,_ smiled Lucemon, _We can create worlds of our own in our minds. _

Suddenly the connection between their minds was disrupted. The astral world vanished, and Lucemon saw Adam opening his eyes. his face stricken.

xxx

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"I have to go," Adam said. SkullSatamon and Lucemon had told him that his friends would be attacked by Doumon today. And now he somehow had sensed that something was wrong.

"What is the matter?" asked SkullSatamon with mild interest.

"Something's wrong," said Adam. He frowned. "I can feel it."

"What makes you _think_ that something is wrong?" asked Lucemon silkily. "Perhaps it's only your imagination?"

Adam frowned. He didn't know why, but he had a peculiar feeling that his cousin was in trouble. He didn't know about the other DigiWira, but somehow he knew that JD was in a fix.

He cast a look across his shoulders and held out his hand towards the duo that stood by the farthest, fixing his gaze upon a crystal ball that was hovering before the one in red. Without saying out loud, the crystal ball appeared on his hand in swirls of light orbs. He brought it forward and wondered on how to make it work; he knew that Mystimon used it to observe events that transpired around the Digital World.

"Show me my friends!" he ordered.

The crystal ball flickered, before showing Puspamon Juara Mode fighting a massive avian humanoid. She was alone.

The image shifted, and Adam saw Manny, Penguinmon, Debbie and Dina retreating via a television set.

"What about Josh? Where is he?"

The crystal ball displayed JD and Liu Ying together in a dark area with stone walls and a black lake before them. He blushed lightly; the two seemed somewhat more intimate than he had expected, although at closer inspection he could see why JD was embracing Liu Ying. The girl was _deathly pale_, and JD apparently was transferring the heat from his fire power into Liu Ying.

"Ah…how romantic the two of them are," said Lucemon snidely.

Adam ignored him. "Where are they?"

The scene panned out, revealing that they were inside an abyss which was impossible to get out from without flight capability or teleportation. The abyss was simply too deep and too steep for them to climb out. Over the abyss was a valley of flowers surrounded by mountains, and there was a large temple towards the end of the valley. The temple looked abandoned, but the crystal ball focused on the temple's gate. Adam felt as if he was navigating his way into the temple, somewhat like a video game where he was a player on a quest. Upon entering the temple's main common chamber he saw Doumon and a trapped Shaomon. _Shaomon? Why did Labramon dedigivolve?_

The view then panned out and Adam saw a familiar sight of beautiful mountains, pine trees and beautiful lake. The breathtaking view however began to hold an aura of heavy mystery when purple mists appeared from the mountains and hovered by the lake.

"That's the place where I…" Adam tried shutting out that painful memory of him and the disguised Puaka Generals having a picnic there.

Unexpectedly, the crystal ball was enveloped with bluish white light before it exploded. Adam gasped in shock.

"Hey! That's the best crystal ball I had!" Mystimon protested.

Adam took a deep breath. He was beginning to feel scared. Something was happening to him, and he couldn't control it. He saw Lucemon's mocking smile and the look he exchanged with SkullSatamon, and wanted to demand an explanation before SkullSatamon beat him to it.

"If you go, then consider our training session void," the demon warned.

"But…"

"No buts," said SkullSatamon. "We've made a deal, remember? And you're showing progress. Stay another two hours as we have agreed and then you're free to help your friends."

**That is, if they're still alive,** added Lucemon telepathically.

Adam grunted; his temples throbbed again. "Stay…out…of my head!" he hissed.

A sphere of light involuntarily emerged from his hand, sent towards Lucemon. The angel-demon tried swatting it away, but upon contact the light sphere exploded, earning a surprised look from the usually impassive Hellion General. And to Adam's surprise, Lucemon merely smirked. The explosion didn't seem to have injured him.

_What are they doing to me?_ Adam thought despairingly. _All these new powers, what are they doing? Why? These can't help Josh…_

_Wait_._ Explosions…destroyers…can it actually destroy the cursed tattoo completely?_

His thoughts went to the day when JD revealed to him about the curse. He had tried 'summoning' the tattoo away from JD, for lack of other method to do so. A phantom cat had emerged from the tattoo and had struck his hand before it disappeared. He also seemed to recall Xianamon's attempt to heal Satriamon's strange bouts of heart pain; the phantom cat had appeared then, too.

What would happen if he try summoning out the tattoo and destroy the phantom cat when it emerges from the tattoo? Could that work?

Neither Lucemon nor SkullSatamon had bothered to inform him the true nature of their training, but Adam thought that this must be it. _To think they're actually keeping their words…_

He sighed. He mustn't act rashly. JD's life was at stake.

For his sake, Adam had to be absolutely sure of the nature of his new powers. And to be sure, he had to train those powers.

A chill invaded him. _If they're keeping their words, what would they get in return? They can't be helping me for free._

_But if it'll save Josh…I'll do anything. There's nothing I won't try or do…_

xxx

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_I can never understand these feelings, _thought Lucemon upon reading Adam's mind. He resisted the urge to smile; Adam's dawning assumption of their intention to 'help' him was beginning to blind his better judgments. The boy would do anything, he realized, if it meant saving his cousin's doomed life.

_The Blight of Bastet has no other cure. I have lived long enough to be sure of that. And the Master also knows that there's no other cure, other than the sacrifice made out of profound, unconditional love. Nobody's able to provide such love. The blight is infused with so much pure hatred. It is even listed as one of the Nine Negations Dark Arts, created by the first Persiamon scorned by her traitorous lover, and is passed down to all the other Persiamon that would appear after her, dear Virago General included. _

_That JD boy is doomed. Adam's struggle to find an alternate cure is futile. _

Lucemon smirked. _But it'll be fun toying around with him and his growing empathic power. The boy's so young…if his empathic power spirals out of control he might actually die. The onslaught of emotions that are not his would kill him. If things get out of hand with the training we might just have to resort to…_

His thoughts returned to the empathic window he had envisioned. The glass had been opened only so slightly, and Adam had shown remarkable progress. The power of combustion, thought to be lost along with Aldiyamon Fury Mode, had revealed itself twice. Both occurred when Adam was angry.

SkullSatamon had confided to him – and Lucemon took great pride for it – about his suspicion of the true nature of Adam's power. Teleportation was a relatively harmless power and pretty much a method of transportation. According to the Master, Grademon had never mastered the power past its most basic manipulations, and that was teleporting and summoning. Grademon had also been noted to only be able to teleport within limited distance, and was only able to teleport alone. However to date, Adam and Aldiyamon had both showed more progress, included but not limited to inter-dimensional teleportation and multiple passenger teleportation, applied separately or together. The latter was used frequently while the former was only seen once, when Adam escaped the Dark Ocean dimension along with JD and their partners. He also have shown signs of mastery for teleportation at a finer level – with teleportation being dispersing and reassembling one's molecules; Adam and Aldiyamon Fury Mode had both shown the ability to rapidly disperse molecules to the point of combustion, while Aldiyamon Juara Mode had shown the ability to reassemble destroyed molecules when he reconfigured the deleted data of the corrupted Agumon/ChaosGallantmon back into a DigiEgg.

And now it was discovered recently that Adam also had the power of empathy. The origin of the power was unknown, as Grademon had never shown signs of being an empath. But then again Grademon had never shown the ability to produce lightning bolts, supersonic scream, telekinetic barrier or psionic energy blast as the other four DigiWira had as well.

It was only after Adam was aware of his status as an empath that he became an even potent enemy. SkullSatamon had said that he suspected that the strength of the DigiWira's powers depended greatly on their emotions. And out of all people it was Adam who was given the gift of sensing the emotions of other people, making their emotions his own. If only Adam knew how to manipulate this power…

Lucemon was slightly worried at this – wouldn't that mean the stronger his empathic power grew the even more potent he would be with his teleportation power?

SkullSatamon had wanted him to train Adam so that he would achieve the power of combustion once again. With the power of combustion, Adam or Aldiyamon Juara Mode _might_ just be able to obliterate the barrier that was surrounding the Horror Hall. The Master had never specifically said what would it take to actually destroy the barrier, but Lucemon could very well remember that one time when the Darkshadows were just released from their entombment – they had all been summoned to try destroy the barrier. The five Darkshadows had tried merging their powers but it had failed miserably, and SkullSatamon merely said that the barrier could only be destroyed by a single being with the power stronger than a boosted Mega Digimon. He also mentioned about Grademon surpassing the Mega level when the barrier was erected; it would take one with powers greater than the rare _Burst Mode_ to successfully destroy the barrier.

_Is there anyone who is that powerful?_ He thought, his gaze dropping on the boy before him. _Could he be the one? The Master seems to believe that he could…but I don't think he can. The boy needs anger to trigger his combustion power, and when he does it's pretty harmless to me. _

Lucemon wondered whether his Mega form would be able to destroy the barrier. He had attained the power of the dark angel along with the others, and it was common knowledge that all angel types possessed powers greater than their level had suggested. Lucemon had the power of a Mega Digimon in his current form; as _Seraphimon_ he would possess the power greater than a Mega. He would be at the level of a Burst Mode, despite not being one.

"You're asking me to stay, but we're not doing anything," said Adam impatiently.

"Why don't you attempt on blowing things up again?" said Lucemon, smiling inwardly. His inner monologue had obviously been longer than he had intended.

"How?" demanded Adam. He flicked his hand; nothing happened. He closed his eyes and showers of light orbs washed over him. He vanished, and then reappeared at the same spot.

Lucemon smirked. **Perhaps you need a little trigger?**

The response was immediate. Adam shot an annoyed look at him and an orb of light skewered towards him from out of nowhere, exploding on his hand that attempted to intercept it.

"You should take caution, boy," he said. "If annoyance can trigger such a reaction from you, who knows what would happen back in your world when things don't go your way. As I understand, kids your age seem to always experience that?" He laughed when Adam scowled. "You don't really want to blow things up unnecessarily…or rather, blow_ people_ up?"

Lucemon thought that he might as well let Adam know of the true nature of his power. "Your real trigger is actually emotions, pretty much the same way JD charges up his new psionic blast. The more intense your emotion was, the more potent your power becomes, because by being an empath you can actually channel emotions as fuel for your power."

"How can I control it?" asked Adam for the first time.

"The same way you've always done," said Lucemon. "Have you ever taken notice that your evolutions into Aldiyamon Fury Mode and Juara Mode were both triggered by intense emotions? In Fury Mode, it was wild rage for the Puakas' deception. For Juara Mode it was grief and righteous anger for Ophanimon's deletion. See how much difference it makes?"

"I know, but I wasn't even an empath back then," said Adam.

"Oh, I'm not _entirely_ sure of that, Adam," rumbled SkullSatamon, joining in the conversation. It surprised Lucemon; the Master seemed to be in an explaining mood towards their enemy. "For all we know, the power has always been there, dormant, waiting to be woken up. For some reason you're always the more susceptible one to be affected by emotions, rather than dark spells which your light power has given you immunity from. The first time you got your powers was because of JD threatening to incinerate you with his, am I wrong? Didn't you feel fear for your life then?"

"Liu Ying and Gayathri got their powers the same time as I got mine," Adam pointed out, although he didn't sound as skeptical as he had been.

"Yes. Everyone's powers are triggered in a way by their emotion, but you seem to be affected more from it. I suppose it's because of your past," said SkullSatamon bluntly. "Come now, everyone now knows that you had actually been suppressing your sadness and grief back then. You were inhibiting your emotion, which had compromised your teleportation power in return. You were always the weakest one back then, and you knew it then too. Now, you know _why._"

Adam frowned, but remained silent.

"I don't know what actually happened at the Dark Ocean, but I'm willing to hazard a guess," continued SkullSatamon. "Dragomon attempted on your life the same way I did, only in a much greater level. I'm guessing that that traitorous JD had placed his life on the line – perhaps in an attempt to seek your forgiveness. And you…of course you'd feel touched, which made you lower your defenses down. Your power was given the opportunity to grow, and something must have happened and you _lashed out_."

Hearing that, Adam made a sharp inhale of breath. Lucemon noted the boy looking visibly shocked.

SkullSatamon simpered. "Desperation, fear for your life and the lives of others, and perhaps even anger, those were pretty powerful emotions which must have energized your teleportation power to maximum capacity, and brought all of you back to this digital plane, despite your menial mastery of its power then."

"How do you know all these?" Adam sounded, no matter how much he was trying to hide it, fascinated. "TobuCatmon never could explain that to us."

Lucemon thought that the Master looked somewhat amused by the inquiry. If he hadn't known any better he would think that the Master had developed a soft spot for the boy.

"I'm an old dark master, dear boy. I have seen far more surprising things."

"Is that why you told the ShadoWira to take me here months ago?"

"I suppose so, but I have to admit that back then I only thought of your teleportation power as a way to transport me out of this wretched barrier. It wasn't possible though; each technique inscribed on the Nine Negations Dark Arts can only be nullified by only one specific method."

Lucemon twitched a bit. This information was new to him. "Master, did you mean that this barrier surrounding your Horror Hall is actually…"

"The Shield of Waja, yes," said SkullSatamon.

Adam blinked. "Indestructible shield?" he asked.

"Precisely translated, dear boy," said SkullSatamon with a nod. "Only there's nothing but one way to render it destructible."

"And that is for the shield to be destroyed by one single being stronger than the evoker," recited Lucemon, clearly remembering the entry from the ancient scroll he had found in the library of the Onyx Pyramid. "But Master, I thought that this technique can only be executed by evil Digimon for evil purposes? Grademon and his mentor were both good, and by evoking the Shield of Waja against you meant that they did it for the purpose of good."

"Which was why we've never seen or heard about Grademon again after the battle," said SkullSatamon with a sneer.

Lucemon saw Adam was about to say something before closing back his mouth. He wondered what the boy had wanted to say, but he had his own question to ask and thus he ignored the boy.

"How did Grademon and Wizardmon come to know about the method, Master?"

SkullSatamon snorted. "The Shield of Waja was crafted by one known as Ancient Wisemon. This means that all Ancient Wisemon that appears after the one crafting the art would be gifted with the knowledge of how to evoke it. Grademon's mentor was a Wizardmon whose digivolved forms included Wisemon and Ancient Wisemon. Unfortunately, he was at the side of light. And yet, he taught Grademon of how to use it on me, as a last resort matter."

"So that's how Grademon knew about it," Lucemon concluded. "I've always thought that the concept of this barrier is somewhat familiar, but I'd never have guessed that it's actually the Shield of Waja. I believe the Virago General is currently trying to master the art as well."

"Is she?" asked SkullSatamon with mild interest. "I wonder why she thinks that she needs to master it."

"Perhaps she is wary," said Lucemon, smirking towards Adam who was listening to their conversation. "After all, when JD dies the other Wira Digital will be out to have her head." He saw Adam's look darkening instantly at the statement he had made.

"Josh won't die!" snapped Adam. "That was our agreement."

"Of course," said Lucemon, "but the Virago General doesn't know that. It's _our_ little secret, remember?"

Adam became quiet. He cast a look over the Horror Hall, as if pondering about something.

"You want to train _me_ to become powerful enough so that I can destroy the Shield of Waja?" he asked finally.

"Smart boy," said SkullSatamon. "You have the potential. Your light powers have limitless possibilities. Today alone we have made a rediscovery of your latent combustion power and its trigger. If you can do it so can Aldiyamon, as proven by yourself once upon a time ago. We just need to harness its power so that you can be very specific of what to destroy and what's not. After all…" He leered down towards the boy, who didn't look daunted one bit. "We don't want you to accidentally destroy poor JD's heart when you try to destroy the curse, literally speaking?"

To say that Adam was becoming pale at the remark was an understatement, Lucemon thought. The boy looked very ill all of a sudden, and so white that one would have thought that he had just seen a ghost. In fact, he actually had; the Master was rather ghostly.

"You have less than a week to train, then," said SkullSatamon to Adam with a tone of absolute finality. "I suggest you train hard."

Lucemon smirked as Adam nodded his head weakly, ignoring Sagittarimon's silent furious growl.

xxx

xxx

Liu Ying's sobs subsided gradually. JD waited for a few minutes until they were gone completely. He felt Liu Ying's body relaxing and her breaths evening. Those were good signs.

"You ok?" he asked tentatively.

It took her another minute to answer. "I…I guess so. I'm sorry you have to see that."

"It's fine," he murmured. "Wanna talk about it?"

"It's…it's nothing," said Liu Ying with hesitation.

JD let out a dry chuckle. "So you're saying that you just spent about…twenty minutes or so, crying over _nothing_? I don't think so."

"Is this how you get your cousin to open up?" asked Liu Ying wryly, wiping her tears.

"I can be pretty persuasive if I want. Besides Kak Lisha wants me to get Adam to open up, so I did."

For the first time, he heard her laughing. It was a weak laugh, but it was a start.

"So…how was it?"

"I'm not going to get away with this, am I?" asked Liu Ying, although she didn't sound as evasive as her inquiry suggested.

"After crying your hearts out on my shoulder, I think I deserve at least some explanation," he returned, smiling at her gently to show that he was just teasing.

It was not until another ten minutes before Liu Ying finished her story. JD had a feeling that she had left some details out, but he let that slide. She sounded so anguished upon mentioning that her father was alive at her dream world, and that JD would not die because of the Blight of Bastet. He felt sorry for forcing her into telling him those, but at the same time he was glad. Hearing Liu Ying mentioning that she dreamed of him being her boyfriend and wouldn't die because of some stupid curse sent the butterflies in his stomach flying about.

Indirectly, he learned that his feelings for the girl were reciprocated. Hadn't Doumon mention that Liu Ying would see things that she _wanted_ to see? Perhaps that was why he was so confident that Liu Ying would never wake up. And yet, she did wake up. Weakened, broken, but still very much alive. _A CPR did it,_ he thought, _or was it the kiss, like in those fairytales?_

"I'm glad you came back," he said softly, after a minute of silence. "I was so worried."

"It was so hard," said Liu Ying, "I almost didn't want to. It was so good, so perfect there…"

"But it wasn't real," said JD. "You would've died if you stayed there any longer."

"I didn't know how to wake up. It was purely by accident that I fell, and…" She tilted her head up to look at him. JD inclined his head down, and felt his heart thumping faster. Their cheeks were almost touching each other, and their mouths were merely about a couple of inches away. "I woke up, your mouth on mine and all…" She blushed, biting her lip.

"It was CPR," said JD defensively. "You weren't breathing. Taking advantage of you is the last thing I'd have in my mind."

Liu Ying nodded, and looked back down. JD didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. He settled for the first. "Thank you," she whispered. Silence ensued, before she asked, "I didn't know that you even know how to perform CPR."

"I did live with a first-aider once and my brother's a med student, go figure," said JD, amused.

Liu Ying responded with a soft chuckle as she shifted her head slightly so that she was facing forward. "Am I making you nervous?" she suddenly asked.

JD froze; he was indeed a bit nervous. "What makes you say that?"

"I can feel your heart beating at the back of my head."

He chuckled nervously. "Well what do you expect? I've got a girl I liked sitting before me, and I'm actually hugging her if we think about it…"

"I'm not that cold, actually…" She made a motion to free herself from his hold, but he didn't budge.

"Oh, yes you are. Your skin is still a bit like ice, you need me to heat you up…" JD stopped, and swore to himself. "I didn't mean it like that!" he said hastily.

Liu Ying was avoiding his desperate gaze, but she nodded. "I…I know. But do you have to do it like this? I mean…you don't have to hug me…"

"F-fine…" He could only curse himself again for the obvious disappointment _that_ had sounded. He opened his arms and placed it on his sides, still sitting in an Indian position with Liu Ying sitting within the space formed by his folded legs, leaning against his body. To his surprise, she softly placed her hands on his.

"It's a good thing that you have the power of fire," she murmured, although JD had the distinct impression that wasn't what she wanted to say.

"Yeah, heh…lucky us," said JD, deciding to hold off his thoughts. He didn't know whether he could handle much more of this. For a brief moment, Adam's taunting 'hug-and-kiss' song that night when they made their blood oath echoed in his mind. He realized that he had done those, without actually intending to do so. Still, the accompanying feelings lingered.

Then he decided that it was best for them to change the topic of conversation to a serious one.

"Doumon's got our Digivices," he began.

"I know," said Liu Ying.

"You do? How?"

"I…kind of saw it when I was…well, dreaming. I kept seeing Labramon, although I didn't know why. And then I heard you. And Labramon too. And Doumon laughing as if he'd won."

"Well, now that you're back, we'll prove him wrong. But…" He tilted his head skyward, taking note of the near-straight stone walls that bordered the cliffs. He could see the sky, but that seemed so far away. The stone walls were just too steep for them to attempt to climb.

Liu Ying followed his gaze, he noted. "Can you give me a bit more time…for me to gather myself, and fully rid myself of the cold?"

"Sure. Got lots of flames to share among the two of us." He smiled lightly at her. "You have a plan or anything?"

"I hope so," Liu Ying replied. "I hope it'll work."

xxx

xxx

"Where is everyone?" Manny wondered, once he and Penguinmon arrived at the Green Meadow.

"Looks like the party's over," said Penguinmon.

"Still that doesn't explain Puspamon, Rosemon and Opie not being here…oh no!"

Manny saw something glimmering amidst the greenery of the meadow. He ran towards it, recognizing it but hoping that it wasn't so.

"Puspamon's staff," said Penguinmon, confirming his fear. "What's it doing here?"

"All three of them are Megas, they can't be beaten by another Mega," said Manny disbelievingly.

"I dunno, Manny. That Ravemon was bigger and looked way stronger. Didn't the analyzer mention it being a special kind of Ravemon or something?"

Manny nodded. He took out his Digivice and used its scanner to detect the signal from the other Digivices. Within a second the red and yellow dots blinked together, and a pink dot moving towards the other two. He frowned.

"Either she's heading for them or that Ravemon guy is taking her there," noted Penguinmon.

"Either way, we better go after her. _**Juara Access Digivolution, HAAA!!"**_

xxx

xxx

"I'm ready," said Liu Ying, glancing up towards the light source. It seemed so far up, it was a miracle that they had survived the fall. But then, JD had mentioned about them being trapped inside the bubble barriers, only released from the barriers once they were near the underground lake.

"You sure you know what you're trying to do?" asked JD, standing up and helped her with it.

"Actually I don't," she admitted, and saw JD's surprised look. "But I've done it on other objects; I just never thought of attempting it on myself."

She had a theory on how to get them out of the cliff. Her power was telekinesis, which enabled her to move objects with her mind. She was able to channel her power into her hands as well. Now she wondered whether she could take it up a notch.

She was going to attempt levitation. She could levitate objects, so why not herself and JD?

"Getting a bit daredevil here, don't you think?" said JD, apparently trying to soothe himself if not her.

"Well, it's either up or down, and frankly speaking," Liu Ying glanced at the dark water and made a face, "Even if there's a possibility that there's a way to escape there I'd rather not swim in waters _that_ chilly ever again if I can help it."

"Same here."

Liu Ying tried to focus her power, _willing_ it to lift her up. She then felt her feet slowly moving away from the stone floor, hovering till her feet was at JD's shoulder level. She looked down at JD, and made a slow flicking motion with both hands. JD yelped as he was slowly lifted from the ground.

And suddenly they swayed about in a haphazard manner. Liu Ying felt her power failing. JD was the first to fall on his back, and she followed, crashing onto his body.

"Ooh, that hurts."

"Sorry, JD," she said, quickly scampering up her feet. "It was fine and all when I did it separately, but when I tried lifting you up while levitating, something went wrong."

"You couldn't control it?" asked JD, rubbing the small of his back while frowning.

Liu Ying thought about it. "No, it's not that. It was more like I couldn't do two separate things with my power." She gave a laugh of irony. "I'd have thought, with a technique called 'Duo Focus' when I'm Xianamon, I could actually do it. Do two things at once."

"Hey, it's ok," assured JD. "Don't push yourself too hard. We'll figure out another way, or wait for the others to come."

"No, I'm done waiting. I saw Labramon, she was in danger. I've waited long enough." She looked at him, thinking of another way to do it. "There is one other way to get around this. I won't have to worry about levitating myself and you separately, but…" She stopped and glanced away from JD's gaze.

JD flicked his hand, generating a fireball enough to light their faces. "Ok, you're blushing," he noted. "Whatever the plan is, you don't like it."

"It's not that I don't like it," said Liu Ying hastily. "It's just that, we…gonna have to, kind of, er…"

"You're blushing _and_ stammering," said JD. "C'mon. Don't you trust me by now? If you know of a surefire way that's gonna work, then by all means just do it if you don't feel like telling."

Liu Ying sighed. "Fine. Let's get this over with." She hesitated, before stepping right before JD and draping her arms around his waist. She then laid her head gently on JD's chest, and felt the taller teen stiffened in shock. "Don't get any ideas, but I need you to hold me the same way I'm holding you."

"You mean you want me to hug you back?"

"Yes. If we're close I can focus my power better. I don't have to split my attention. That way, it might work to get us both out of here."

"Oh. Alright." And Liu Ying felt _her_ body stiffened when JD returned the embrace. Her cheeks grew hot, and JD made her feel safe with his arms around her, but she shook those thoughts away. Closing her eyes she willed her power to lift her and JD up. Slowly, they began to hover from the ground, and steadily levitated away from the cold abyss.

"Hey, it's working," JD whispered to her ears. "Open your eyes, Liu Ying. You need to look at this."

She opened her eyes and gave a sharp intake of how ethereally magical the surrounding was. Soft yellow mists with glittering stars swirled around them as an invisible force seemed to hoist them up towards the higher ground. They were spinning in slow motion; it was what she would have imagined to see in romantic fairy tales. JD let out an exhilarated chuckle and Liu Ying watched as how his eyes lit up and his hair flapped against his forehead. She was somewhat entranced; it was hard to believe that JD was cursed to die in less than a week should one look at him right now. For a brief few seconds, Liu Ying was glad to be able to make him happy.

They both practically flew up towards the late afternoon sky after passing the targeted higher ground. Quickly she willed her power to take them both towards the ground.

Her knees uncharacteristically wobbled once they touchdowned and she almost tumbled, if it weren't for JD's strong arms draped around her.

"Whoa, careful there," he said.

"Of all the times to get weak knees," she nervously said. She noticed that JD wasn't in the hurry to let her go.

That meant she had to take the initiative to break the contact. She was somewhat surprised to find herself almost sorry in doing so as JD slowly released her from his embrace. He looked like he was about to scowl in disappointment before the ever-familiar poker face graced his face.

"That was…well, amazing, right?" she asked, hoping to ease the tension between them.

"_You're_ amazing," said JD with a lopsided grin.

Liu Ying found herself missing that: the mischievous lopsided grin. "Don't joke around," she chided.

JD chuckled. "Ok, ok. How about we go look for that sore loser priest and kick his butt?"

"Sure," she said, entertaining his enthusiasm, "but how? Our Digivices are with Doumon."

"Maybe I can help," said a new voice.

The two of them quickly looked sideway, and saw Manny and Penguinmon walking towards them. Manny was holding his Juara Digivice, and he had a mildly amused look on his face.

"Ok, that's just plain creepy," said JD, pointing an accusing finger towards Manny. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. By the way Liu Ying, I didn't know that you could fly?" said Manny in a perfectly composed tone.

She raised her eyebrow; Manny had just hinted that he had watched the whole exchange she and JD had after escaping the abyss. She chose to simply ignore Manny's knowing look and answer his question without missing a beat. "I didn't either, but what you've seen wasn't actually flying; it was still telekinesis. Anyway, what brings you here?"

"I was following your Digivices' signals actually…yours and Gayathri's." Manny looked at the Digivice, then back at them, frowning. "I thought I'd find Gayathri with you two…"

Liu Ying and JD exchanged glances.

"We don't have our Digivices. Doumon stole them and took Labramon as well," said Liu Ying.

"And threw us in there." JD gestured towards the abyss. "Can't complain though," he added, giving Liu Ying a lingering gaze.

Liu Ying felt a blush coming, and promptly changed the subject. "Why are you looking for Gayathri?" she asked Manny.

"She's missing," said Manny, downcast. "We were taking Debbie for a look around at the Green Meadow, and were joined by Dina. Then Ravemon came by, and I had to take Debbie and Dina back. Rosemon and Opie, as Valkyrimon, stayed behind with Puspamon to fend off Ravemon. I thought that three Megas could take care of Ravemon, but when I came back nobody was around. All I found was Puspamon's staff. And I found her Digivice signal along with yours, so we came here."

"Doumon must have had her captured too," deduced Liu Ying.

Manny grimaced. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that."

"Duh! Isn't that obvious already?" Penguinmon quipped.

"Adam's not around?" JD asked, peering over Manny's shoulder despite it was obvious that said boy was not there.

"He wasn't with us when that Ravemon attacked."

"You didn't call him?"

Manny looked somewhat troubled. "That's the curious part," he said. "Dina called Kak Lisha this morning and Kak Lisha told her that Adam's been at the Digital World. But we couldn't detect his Digivice signal anywhere. Strange, don't you think?" he asked JD.

JD's forehead creased. "Not this again…" he muttered.

"I've left him a message via the D-Terminal," said Manny. "Maybe when he gets it he'll join us."

"In the meantime," said Liu Ying, changing the topic to avoid JD's dark mood, and gazing towards Manny and Penguinmon, "we're going to need you two if we're going up against Doumon. For all we know he could be a Mega Digimon by now, and Samudramon is the only Mega we have."

Manny nodded. "Sure. Count us in."

Manny pressed a button on his Digivice, and a holographic map was projected out from the device's screen. He proceeded by pressing the buttons in a sequence, and the holographic map transformed into a scenery of valleys with beautiful shrubs. Hidden behind some of the taller weird shrubberies was a massive rectangular structure which looked like an old Buddhism temple, and there three Digivice signals were detected: red, yellow and pink.

Liu Ying nodded as the hologram vanished. "Let's do it."

xxx

xxx

"We seem to have a lot of visitors today," Doumon noted with a chuckle, as Gayathri was slowly waking up.

Gayathri's vision cleared, and she registered the presences of Floramon and _Shaomon_ with her. _Wait,_ she thought, eyes focusing on Shaomon. She took in the puppy's appearance; though uninjured Shaomon obviously was weakened enough. She then noticed that they were trapped inside a bubble-shaped barrier and scowled at Doumon. "All these kidnappings are getting real old."

"Your confidence is admirable," said Doumon, and took out a pink and gold device that caused Gayathri to gasp. "There. That's the reaction I'm waiting to hear."

"Give it back!" Gayathri demanded, as Doumon levitated her Digivice to join two other Juara Digivices: JD's and Liu Ying's. She then saw Ravemon, who slinked in from the shadows, and was surprised to see that Ravemon was no longer as large as he was previously. Ravemon was now more or less the same height as the human-sized Doumon.

"You should be careful in battle, girl." Doumon raised his eyebrows and looked at her mockingly. "You'll know better next time, except there won't be a next time."

"Our friends will rescue us, Doumon!"

"I'm counting on that," said Doumon, and Gayathri instantly realized that it was a trap, and _she_ was the bait. "Ravemon, you will wait outside to greet them."

Ravemon nodded once before exiting the hall through the front door.

Doumon waved his paw and transformed into a bearded demonic man, with long white hair and a face so ugly that it could be a mask. His nose was pointed like a bird's beak, and a constant sneer was present under the beak-nose. He was wearing an elaborate crimson wizardry robe, with a poncho with large beads of various shapes, sizes and colors draped over his body. Scarlet red demonic wings sprouted from his back, and a wooden staff with a gleaming skull appeared on his right clawed hand.

"Who…who are you?" demanded Gayathri, despite the fear that was beginning to creep into her heart upon the sight of the demonic being.

"Barbamon," said the newly-digivolved Shaman General. "And I have the power of_ both_ my own Demon Lord form's and of Xianamon's!"


	69. Love Hurts

The heavy temple doors opened, prompting Liu Ying, JD, Manny and Penguinmon to bend down beside the stone staircases. They heard footsteps, and multiple shadows marching out from the door before realizing that those were the Duskmon grunts.

"One, two, three," counted JD, braving himself to have a look. "Five. Five of them."

"We'll take care of this," said Manny. "Those Duskmon can't stand water."

"Makes me wonder why the Darkshadows bothered sending them in the first place," muttered JD, "when we have a water guy in the team."

"Hold on," said Liu Ying, before Manny and Penguinmon could execute the Juara Access. A larger shadow loomed over the Duskmon and even from where they were hiding they could see a tall armored Digimon with purple wings attached to the arms. "Who is that?"

"Ravemon," supplied Manny. "Looks like they're expecting us."

"No, they're expecting you," said Liu Ying, "Doumon had us thrown over the cliff. He wouldn't be expecting us, but he must have seen your signal."

"So there's no point hiding any longer," said Penguinmon. "I say we go kick their butts!"

Manny nodded. "We'll hold them off while you go inside to take your Digivices and rescue..."

"Yeah, yeah, just go already," said JD, making a shooing motion with his hand.

Manny let out a small smile at JD before taking off. JD and Liu Ying saw a flash of blue light, followed by a thunderous commotion. Then they saw Samudramon Juara Mode soaring towards the sky and launched a grand wave of water towards the temple. Ravemon chased Samudramon who was luring him away, allowing them to go inside the temple. They trudged the wet steps carefully, where the incapacitated Duskmon were left scattered around.

They exchanged glances. "You're thinking what I'm thinking?" asked JD.

Liu Ying nodded. "We better finish them off before they cause any trouble."

JD charged his fist with flaring crimson energy before punching one Duskmon right over the eye part of its armor. Liu Ying used her power to levitate two Duskmon, slammed them together before throwing them over the temple's walls. Seeing that they didn't get deleted, she sighed and telekinetically wielded their bladed arms, closed her eyes, and willed them to run their blades over the eyes. The combustion sound that followed told her that the Duskmon were destroyed. JD in the meantime went for the fourth Duskmon after making quick work of the first one, while Liu Ying eyed the last of the enemy grunts. Since Samudramon had already drowned the Duskmon, they didn't encounter any resistance from the last two as well.

"That wasn't too hard," said JD, wiping dusts off his hands.

Liu Ying smiled. "Glad to see you're enjoying yourself. Come on, we better move in before anybody sees us."

They went into the temple's barren courtyard. An even larger structure with an elaborate door stood there; what they had seen before was only the gates surrounding the temple. Thunders rumbled over the sky as Samudramon and Ravemon both pit their strength. They would have to do it quickly; Samudramon was only holding out against the ferocious Ravemon because they needed time to get inside the temple. If he had retaliated against Ravemon some of his attacks would strayed past the birdman and hit them.

"Obviously there's a welcoming committee behind that door," said JD. "I say we make a new one right over there." He gestured towards the edge of the temple.

They ran quietly away from the door and made a turn towards the end. As they passed under the window, they could hear sound of laughter.

"Looks like Samudramon's here to rescue you," said the voice, unfamiliar but radiated evil all the same. "Ravemon will make short work out of them. Aldiyamon I believe is pretty…preoccupied, at this time. We don't have to worry about him crashing in. And as for that wretched girl and that prey of dear Persiamon…we won't have to worry about them too."

JD growled. "Voice's changed, but that's gotta be Doumon," he hissed, "and what the hell did he mean that Aldiyamon is preoccupied?"

"What did you do to them?!" a girl screamed. She sounded like she was angry and tearing up at the same time.

"Gayathri," whispered Liu Ying. She gave JD a meaningful look after sidestepping the question concerning Adam, and tapped the wall lightly. "Let's do it."

JD charged his fist with his psionic power. Liu Ying noted that it seemed that JD was very in tune with his new power; anger had been the trigger for this and it seemed that JD had no problem channeling that emotion into his fist. He delivered a forceful punch on the wall, causing a crack to form before a hole appeared. It wasn't large enough to admit anyone.

"Man, that wall is strong," muttered JD, drawing back his fist. There was a mild commotion going on inside. "Your turn."

Liu Ying squinted to focus her telekinetic power. An invisible force slammed upon the weakened wall, blasting it away. The opening was now large enough for them to walk in, and JD entered first.

"Well, we heard there's a kind of cookout around here," he announced, "and we're pretty bummed we're not invited! So we decided to crash it!"

"WE?" snarled the wicked voice they had heard. JD stepped aside, allowing her to enter. "YOU?! Impossible!"

It was the demonic wizard she had seen in her dreams. This was Doumon, digivolved to Mega. She was sure of it. With him was three more Duskmon, all standing by the doors.

"Ying!" called Shaomon. "You made it!"

"Liu Ying! JD!" cried Gayathri, sounding relieved. "Be careful guys, it's a trap!"

"Hey, who are you, ugly?" said JD cockily. "We were expecting Doumon but here we see an even uglier butthead in his place."

"Barbamon," said Liu Ying, recalling the name from the Digimon Analyzer. "So you have digivolved, Doumon."

"He's that fox face?" asked JD, surprised. "Damn."

Barbamon, surprise evident from his face, looked back and forth between her and JD. His gaze landed on JD. "You're even more trouble than you're worth, boy!" he snarled. "Even in a brink of death you still manage to foil my plan. I'll take great pleasure in seeing you die when the Virago General's curse takes effect one week from now."

JD laughed. "Don't be a sore loser. So I beat the damn curse you placed on her. How about that?"

"Ah, but you can't find a way to beat the curse on _you_," sneered Barbamon. JD swore in response. "That's right. And, girl…" He shifted his gaze towards Liu Ying. "I can't believe that _he's_ your first true love. Can't you find anybody who's going to be alive for a much longer time?"

Liu Ying's confidence faltered. "What…what did you mean by that?"

"He's messing with you," warned JD. "Don't listen to him."

"How interesting. So the boy broke the curse but he had no idea how?" Barbamon laughed. "Well, let me enlighten you. You see, the Dream Manipulation Charm puts you in a sleep that's almost impossible to wake up from, because you will be in a perfect world made so real. Your deepest wishes are granted there. After all, there's a saying that a dream is a wish your heart makes. It's hard enough to have to _want_ to leave; another condition for the charm to be broken is that…you will have to be kissed by your first true love. I know, it's sappy, it's not even my kind of curse…but I never thought that you two are involved. Even if you are, after studying your cultures I'd never have thought that you two would even go there…"

The explanation froze both Liu Ying and JD, and they could hear Gayathri gasp in surprise. Liu Ying however was quick to recover as anger flared within her. Gritting her teeth she swung one arm towards a Duskmon, sending it crashing against the wall. Another swing of the arm and the second Duskmon was sent flying towards the roof, and before it fell from the roof she had targeted the third one, sending it slamming upon Barbamon.

"Angry now, aren't you?" said Barbamon smoothly, brushing away the Duskmon that had been sent his way. He remained composed, unfazed by the Duskmon.

Liu Ying didn't reply. She had caught sight of three devices hovering not too far from Barbamon. With a squint and a curt sideways nod of her head the three Juara Digivices went flying towards her and JD. She caught hers, while JD caught his and Gayathri's. She concentrated her power, trying to blast Barbamon with her telekinesis, but Barbamon was unfazed.

"Your power alone can't hurt me," said Barbamon. "Not when _I_ have your powers too."

Barbamon made a flick of his hand, and both Liu Ying and JD were flung across the hall. They crashed against the wall and crumpled down towards the floor.

"Guys!!" screamed Gayathri.

JD groaned as he tried to stand up. He swore quietly towards Barbamon. "Did that geezer even have telekinesis before?"

"Not that I know of," muttered Liu Ying, pulling herself up as well.

"That's right," said Barbamon, sneering as he held up a wooden staff that had a skull perched on top of it, with a red orb inside the skull's mouth. The red orb glinted eerily. "I now have all your powers as Xianamon. The charm might have failed towards the end, but I still received the powers I wanted. And now, to tie up loose ends…"

"What the hell!" JD found himself hovering in midair, flailing about.

"JD!"

"Despite foiling my plan, I have no intention of getting on the Virago General's bad side," said Barbamon, "so you're staying inside that barrier with your other friend. Try not to kiss her too, will you?" he added sarcastically, before with a flick of his hand a portion of the bubble barrier was opened and JD was thrown inside of it. Then it closed again.

JD landed beside Gayathri, and despite his aching back he quickly got up. He slammed his fist onto the barrier's wall. "LET US GO!"

"And as for you, girl," said Barbamon, and Liu Ying found herself levitating, "It's foolish of you to come here when you can actually run away to safety. I was expecting only Samudramon or perhaps Aldiyamon too, but certainly not you and your _first love_ here."

Liu Ying tried using her power on Barbamon, but the demonic wizard was unaffected. Instead, he laughed at her attempts.

"I suppose I should be thankful, because now I can finish you off with my own hands."

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 69 – Love Hurts **_

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"_Raikou Issen no Tsuki!!"_

"Lightning attack?" muttered Samudramon, as purple lightning spiraled out from Ravemon towards him. _"Zeus Ex Thunderstrike!"_

Purple and blue thunderbolts streaked over the air from opposite directions, before colliding with a resounding clash. They streaked all over the sky, jumping from one cloud to another.

Samudramon's mouth was set thin. "Let's see if he has the same immunity Leviamon had," he muttered, and waved his trident towards Ravemon who was coming at him. _"Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

From out of nowhere, walls of raging ocean waves appeared behind Samudramon. He harnessed its power by willing a portion of the wave to spiral around his body from bottoms-up, until they were focused at the tips of his trident. A brilliant sapphire sphere was formed, and with one rapid forward slash he sent the sphere streaking towards Ravemon. The raging waves followed, obeying the command of their master.

Ravemon was struck by the energy sphere and was hurled backward. He was further drowned by the waves, and seeing the birdman all drenched Samudramon prepared to launch an attack. He wasn't going to take any chances; Ravemon had beaten Puspamon Juara Mode, Rosemon and Valkyrimon. He'd have to go with his strongest thunder attack.

"_Double Dragon Thunderblades!!"_

Twin electricity dragons streaked out from his trident and slammed upon the drenched Ravemon. To Samudramon's delight, Ravemon apparently had no immunity against lightning attack while he was drenched. The birdman was electrocuted severely as the thunder dragons coiled around his body, crushing him without mercy. Ravemon decreased in size, becoming slightly shorter than Samudramon. His pristine white armor was blackened by the dragons, his sash torn to bits. The dragons slowly dissipated, but Ravemon remained intact.

Samudramon created a circle of blue aura before him, and launched the Depth Bombers towards the plummeting Ravemon. Several pellets slammed upon Ravemon while the others rained upon the temple. Samudramon immediately ceased fire; his friends were inside the temple and could be injured should the roof took the fall due to his pellets.

However, Ravemon crashed through the temple's roof, which made his worry somewhat pointless. Samudramon quickly flew towards the temple to check on his friends.

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"Don't worry," said Barbamon, raising his skull staff which flared with unholy flames, "your death will be very swift."

"BASTARD!!" shouted JD, slamming his fist onto the barrier. "If you hurt her, I swear…"

"Oh, don't _you_ worry, boy," Barbamon sneered. "You'll be joining her soon enough. In one week, perhaps?" He laughed, and JD swore at him.

Liu Ying refused to show weakness before the demon that had caused her much grief. First he had orchestrated her kidnapping, by the hands of those indirectly involved in the killing of her father, in order to lure her friends to her so that he could kill them all together. And now, he had almost killed her, had absorbed her power, and was still threatening the safety of her friends. She squinted, but Barbamon was unaffected. She tried again with no results.

"_Death…"_

Suddenly a loud crashing sound came from the roof, causing it to fall almost over Barbamon. The temple shook slightly before Ravemon crashed through the roof and towards the corner of the temple, looking worse for wear. Barbamon managed to stop debris from knocking over him, but made no such attempt to save Ravemon.

"What in the world?" Barbamon shifted his attention from her, looking over Ravemon who was shivering violently. Small crackles of lightning were still evident from his drenched body. "Samudramon," he muttered, looking up towards the sky from the gaping hole on the roof. "Hmm…" He shifted his eyes back to Liu Ying. "I'll deal with you later. First I have a fish to catch."

Barbamon sailed through the open gap, and Liu Ying felt the force that was suspending her vanish. She used her power to keep herself afloat before descending slowly.

"Back away!" shouted JD, charging his fist. "I'm gonna break this damned barrier down!"

"JD, no!" cried Liu Ying, but she was too late. JD, clouded by anger, had slammed his psionic-charged fist through the barrier. The barrier crackled madly with electricity when JD's fist made contact with it, but to everyone's surprise a fist-shaped bend was formed on where JD's fist was at. The barrier retaliated by lashing several electric bolts upon JD, causing him to scream in pain. Nevertheless he didn't show any sign of relenting.

"JD, let go! LET GO!" screamed Gayathri in panic, when JD howled in pain and his free hand clutched his chest.

JD found that he couldn't pull away his fist. It was as if it was glued onto the barrier. And the electricity was lashing at him and all over the inner side of the barrier. He could hear Gayathri, Floramon and Shaomon screaming in fear as they avoided the barrier's lashings. His fist tingled. He knew he needed help, fast. And the first person he could think of, who possibly could be the only one who could get him out of this fix, was someone who was not there. _ADAM!_

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Adam's eyes snapped open, gasping. He could have sworn that he had heard his cousin calling out to him. _Josh? _

"I didn't tell you to stop concentrating," said Lucemon, eyeing him sharply.

_Adam, help!_

Lucemon frowned, but didn't mention anything. The demon-angel merely closed his eyes, and from the way he looked at him Adam knew that he was expected to do the same. But how could he, when he knew that something was definitely wrong? _Josh…? What's going on?_

His right hand tingled, as if he had been mildly jolted by electricity. And he gasped; a dull pain was felt over his heart.

He closed his eyes, trying to picture JD. Waves of foreign emotions invaded him; pain and desperation practically screaming at him in his mind. His temples throbbed; it was as if Lucemon was sneering at him telepathically like before, only he wasn't doing it now. Adam resisted the urge to lash out, but the throbbing intensified as the emotions echoed in his mind. He felt a burning pain over his right hand, and the pain he was feeling at his heart had gone past ignorable.

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Lucemon, in the meantime, managed to visit the astral plane that was Adam's mind once again. And what he saw made him frown.

The empathic window had been raised. The opening was bigger, now a quarter of the whole window while it was formerly just a fifth of the window. He was sure of that. He could hear JD's voice echoing in the astral plane, calling out for Adam. _What is going on here? _

Lucemon opened his eyes and saw Adam, eyes still closed and sitting down in the meditative posture, gleaming in a thin coat of silver white light.

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"JD! Let go! LET GO!!" screamed Liu Ying. "It'll kill you!"

"I can't…move my hand," grunted JD painfully.

A strange phenomenon suddenly took place. His right fist suddenly burst with soothing_ white_ light. The light coated his fist and the barrier that formed around it. For a moment he marveled upon the sudden appearance of the light, before the barrier suddenly shook as the light radiated to an even wider range. Before long the whole barrier was coated with the radiant light, briefly obscuring the prisoners inside from the outside world.

Then the barrier _exploded _in a shower of the ever-familiar light orbs.

"Whoa," he said, withdrawing his fist. He looked around in bewilderment. _Adam? Did you do that?_

Liu Ying approached him, looking as confused as he was. "What…just happened?"

"I don't know," said JD, gathering his breath. "But it looks like…"

"Adam's power," said Gayathri, joining them. "I know those light orbs anywhere. But since when does Adam explode things?"

"Is he around here?" Floramon, carrying Shaomon with her, looked around.

"I don't see him," said Penguinmon.

"No, Adam's not here." JD massaged his sweaty forehead, frowning. "For a minute there I could…" He stopped. _What did I feel? _

"Could what?" asked Liu Ying.

"I…dunno. It was as if he's…somewhere, and he can't join us. It doesn't make sense."

"Is he in danger?" asked Gayathri, worried. "That could explain why we can't detect his Digivice signal anywhere."

"No…" JD answered, but he wasn't sure. It did seem that Adam wasn't in any danger, but for some reason he couldn't come to them as well. "But I think…that you're right, Gayathri. I _was_ calling out for him, when I couldn't retract my fist from the barrier. And somehow I _heard_ him calling out back." He frowned, trying to process through what he did get. It was hard to decipher, considering he was in pain at the time. "He wanted to help me, but he couldn't come here. Something…no, _someone _is keeping him at where he's at. But I don't feel any threat." He sighed. "Man, this is weird."

He didn't know what else to think. Somehow he had channeled Adam's power. He would have to ask Adam about it later. But for now…

_Thank you, Adam,_ he said silently.

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_That was certainly odd,_ thought Liu Ying as she eyed JD. The boy seemed to be lost in thought as he traced the flesh of his right index finger with his thumb. She could spot a small scar there.

Suddenly Samudramon crashed through the roof, unholy green flames burning his cape. His trident soon followed, and it was heading straight towards Samudramon. If he didn't move away the trident would impale his abdomen.

Quickly Liu Ying threw one arm out, and the trident was diverted towards one of the Duskmon. It struck him right over the armor's eye, deleting it instantly. She heaved a relieved breath, as Samudramon devolved back into Manny and Penguinmon. Quickly she used her power to bring them to her, and retrieved Shaomon from Floramon.

Upon contact with her hands, Shaomon glimmered with golden aura and digivolved back to Labramon.

"How did you escape?" demanded Barbamon as he descended from the roof. He swung his staff and glared at them. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. I'll destroy you all myself!"

"NO!" exclaimed Liu Ying. "Not now, not ever."

Liu Ying's Juara Digivice let out a burst of golden aura that pushed Barbamon away. She felt a newfound comprehension flowing in her mind, feeding her knowledge, confidence and power.

"Floramon and I can still Juara Access," said Gayathri. "We'll help you out, Liu Ying."

"No," said Liu Ying with a hard tone. Gayathri was evidently taken aback by this, and was about to protest, but she quickly said, "Please. Barbamon has done something that I can never forget. This battle is personal."

Gayathri still appeared unsatisfied, but when JD placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and discreetly shook his head, Gayathri considered it and nodded.

"Be careful," Gayathri whispered.

"Kick his ass for me," said JD, giving her a thumb-up. Manny simply gave her an encouraging nod.

Liu Ying nodded, before turning back to face Barbamon. "I should have finished you off last time," she said, after Barbamon managed to fend off the golden aura with a wave of his staff. "That way you wouldn't have the chance to mess with my head. But I didn't, and you did it again." She raised her Juara Digivice up. "I won't make that mistake again this time."

_**Juara Access Digivolution!**_

In a column of golden light Liu Ying and Labramon vanished, replaced by Xianamon.

"That cannot help you," Barbamon sneered. "I have your powers added into mine!"

"This won't," agreed Xianamon, as the pillar's light became more intense instead of fading as it usually would, "but this will."

She made a graceful turn as ribbons of energy with sparkling magical stars swirled around her form, increasing her height to match her other Juara Mode compatriots. Her outfit morphed into pristine white bodysuit with periwinkle-blue linings that lined the center of her abdomen and the bikini lines. The outfit covered her whole body, arms and legs. Golden armor fitted over her chest down to a few inches below her breasts. Her shoulder pauldrons were double-layered; the lower layer was white with gold linings, the upper was gold with white linings. Each pauldron bore the symbol of yin and yang. A cape billowed down to her ankles, lilac on the inside and white on the outside. A thick copper-colored belt was clasped around her slim waist and the clasp was gold, patterned to shape like a fox's head. Her high-heeled boots and forearm guards were both dark yellow with lilac linings, each embedded with a rhombus-shaped diamond. Her hands were gloved with a strangely leather-like silver material. Her face was covered by the same fox-shaped gold mask, but her sleek black hair was no longer tied. The bangs framed her helmeted face.

Her golden fly whisk appeared, but it burst into data particles before reforming as a long white ribbon with a golden spherical bell attached to each end. The ribbon seemed to radiate with faint yellow hue as it draped around her left arm, formed an arch over her head before spiraling down her right arm, so that the bells settled inside her palms. She made one more graceful turn and showers of magical stars escaped her newly digivolved form.

_**Xianamon, Juara Mode!**_

"Whoa!" said JD, amazed. "They digivolved…"

"Straight to Mega!" gasped Gayathri.

"Amazing!" said Manny.

Xianamon Juara Mode landed on the floor, a distinctive chiming sound was heard from the bells she was holding. She looked back, smiling at them as well as noticing JD staring at her. The blond boy blinked when he realized that he'd been caught, but she merely smiled at that.

"Stay safe," she said in an ethereally captivating voice. She raised her gloved hands, which glowed as she crossed her arms over her chest. She uncrossed them and a thin rectangular shaped barrier was formed, glowing with a myriad shade of colors. _"Elegant Barrier!"_

Barbamon laughed as he landed on the floor. "So you have digivolved to Mega after all. I never thought that you could do it."

Xianamon didn't reply. She extended her right hand forward, and the bell was sent flying, pulling along the ribbon which it was attached to. Strangely, the ribbon that remained arched over Xianamon didn't show any sign of shortening as the bell that was sent towards Barbamon grew longer.

"Silly tricks won't deter me!" Barbamon attempted to catch the bell. To his surprise the bell bounced towards his right wrist, striking it lightly. Nevertheless the wrist numbed, causing him to involuntarily let go of his staff. "What is this?"

Xianamon flicked her hand, and the bell followed her movement as it began to head towards Barbamon's right elbow. Barbamon made an attempt to seize the bell with his left hand, but unexpectedly the bell jumped and struck his left elbow, and Barbamon grunted once more as his left elbow was numbed.

It dawned to everyone now that Xianamon was wielding the ribbon telekinetically, but her purpose remained a mystery.

"What is she doing?" asked Gayathri, bewildered.

"I don't know, but this reminds me of those Chinese martial-arts series I used to watch on TV," said Manny, equally bewildered. "JD? What do you think?"

"Hmm…what?" JD asked, as if he had just woken up. His face looked a bit dazed, and he had been staring at Xianamon.

"Uh…never mind," said Manny, exchanging one look with Gayathri. If it weren't for the fact that their friend had a doomed fate, they would have laughed. Their blond friend was clearly smitten with Xianamon, or rather, Liu Ying.

Xianamon suddenly made her move. Her ribbon flared with pale yellow lights as she withdrew it from Barbamon, its chiming sound echoed all over the temple. Then she released both bells simultaneously, wielding them with her hands as she made the bells slam on various points on Barbamon's body. Barbamon however was impervious to the technique already, and was able to knock the bells away. Then he bent down and picked up his staff.

"_Death Lure!" _He made a thrust towards Xianamon. The eyes of the skull blazed with evil flames.

Xianamon never faltered; she thrust one hand and let her ribbon sail towards the center of Barbamon's forehead. _"Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace!"_

Barbamon cursed and was forced to bend down; he wasn't going to risk being hit by Xianamon's attack when he had yet to understand its nature. Xianamon retracted her hand slightly, before pushing it forward with a swift palm gesture. An apparition of a glowing sword appeared in place of the ribbon and it impaled Barbamon's body as the bell hit the center of his chest. He gasped; despite the fact that his body was unharmed by the attack, the pain he felt was real enough to make him believe that a sword had indeed been thrust into his chest.

"A phantom pain," he grunted, staggering back, before recovering his senses and launched a different attack. _"Pandemonium Lost!"_

The skull on his staff let out red hot pellets towards Xianamon, but she brought up her gloved hands which glimmered with pale yellow light. The pellets slowed down upon reaching her, hovered before her momentarily before they skewered haphazardly. The remaining Duskmon were hit and deleted, while a couple of pellets caused a portion of the roof to collapse near Ravemon. The commotion woke the birdman up.

"Excellent," snarled Barbamon. "Ravemon! Attack this wretched witch! Strike her on the back now!"

"Coward!" shouted JD, as Ravemon flew towards Xianamon. Xianamon was about to defend herself but Barbamon kept her busy by launching a palm attack towards her.

"This will be your undoing, witch!" snarled Barbamon, as his palms both flared with unholy green flames. A demonic image appeared behind Barbamon; his scarlet wings too radiated with green flames. _"JIGOKU NO KAEN!"_

Xianamon countered the palm attack with her own palms, trusting that her gloves' durability and her telekinetic barrier would be able to defend her from Barbamon. She tried willing her ribbon to discourage Ravemon from approaching her, but to her surprise Ravemon _ignored_ the bells that were striking his body and slammed his claws over her back, ripping her cape in the process. She gasped as the claws dug through the armor and almost reaching the skin.

"Now you die, witch," said Barbamon with glee.

Inspiration struck Xianamon, and her ribbon came to life once again. The right ribbon wrapped tight around Barbamon's wrists and the left snaked back and coiled around Ravemon's neck.

"Perhaps only in your dreams, Barbamon," she said calmly, and she glimmered with an even brighter aura as she summoned: _"Maiden Finesse – Flowing River!"_

"What are you doing?" demanded Barbamon, trying to whisk away his hands. To his surprise his palms remained frozen onto Xianamon's. The green flames they were emitting simply flowed _into_ Xianamon's body, her unharmed. The calming sound of a flowing river echoed in his ears before he saw an outburst of his green flames overwhelming Ravemon. A searing pain pricked his own palms and he saw signs of being clawed disfiguring his hands. It was as if Ravemon was attacking him, and him attacking Ravemon. His eyes widened; the Jigoku No Kaen was his strongest attack. Ravemon wouldn't stand a chance.

Ravemon shrieked and burst into data particles, proving Barbamon's suspicion as true. Before he could process what had happened the ribbon that had been seizing Ravemon arched over Xianamon's head like a tranced snake out of a basket, before slamming hard onto his forehead. He could feel a distinctive crack before his mask shattered, revealing his true face – horridly disfigured, as if somebody had splashed him with acid.

Xianamon gasped in shock and broke their palms' contact. With a loud snarl Barbamon pointed his staff upon her and, to her surprise, exclaimed, _"Diamond World Mandala!"_

She was slammed with her own magical technique, and sprawled onto the floor. Barbamon laughed heartily, like a mad man, before waving his staff.

"Two heads are better than one, is that right Xianamon?" Barbamon seemed to be taunting her. "Perhaps you're familiar with this technique? _Duo Focus!"_

Barbamon glowed, and a green-robed clone of his was created in split seconds. The clone was complete with a skull staff with a green orb inside the skull's mouth.

"You finish off those human brats and their partners," instructed the real Barbamon, "I'll take care of the witch."

"No problem," said the clone Barbamon in a crotchety voice. Xianamon could have blinked underneath her mask; the demon's clone seemed to be as lighthearted as her own clone had been. Yet she knew that this clone was not to be trifled with, for he mirrored Barbamon's strength and powers as well.

"No!" She attempted to stop the clone, but Barbamon sent out a blast from his staff to stop her.

"Worry about yourself, witch," he sneered. _"Pandemonium Lost!" _

With her friends in peril she couldn't concentrate on battling Barbamon. She evaded the attack by levitating towards the roof, her attention cast towards her friends. The Elegant Barrier would protect them for now, but she had no doubt that the clone could overpower it with relentless attacks. For her to stop the clone, she would have to stop Barbamon first.

"_Pandemonium Lost!"_

She raised her hands to deflect the dark-powered pellets. Barbamon snorted, and reeled back in an attempt to deliver a stronger attack.

At the same time she heard screaming. She saw the Elegant Barrier destroyed, her friends sprawled onto the ground, and clone raising his staff high up. A ball of purple electricity took form from the staff. At the same time, Barbamon unleashed a demonic apparition that glowed with intense green flames. Xianamon realized that Barbamon was attempting to finish her off, while the clone would destroy her friends.

What could she do? She needed time; more time to save her friends and more for herself.

"Now die, witch!" Barbamon swung his fiery staff, sending the unholy flames upon her. She could feel the heat searing towards her, and this time she couldn't execute the Flowing River.

Turning back, she saw the electricity ball launched towards the other DigiWira. JD was charging up his fist in an attempt to counter, Manny attempted his own thunderbolt while Gayathri was about to Juara Access with Floramon. They wouldn't make it, she thought. They didn't have enough time. _She_ didn't have enough time.

Drawn by pure instinct she raised her hands as Barbamon began to shout, _"JIGOKU NO…"_

And instantly, silence ensued. Xianamon saw that everything around her had frozen. The heat from Barbamon's flames was gone, but the flames were there, gaining at her. _Frozen flames?_ She thought incredulously, and studied Barbamon. The demon lord's expression was contorted; mouth wide open in a mid-scream, palms flickering with frozen fire, and was hovering in stasis. He showed no inclination of moving.

_It's like someone's pushed the pause button on the remote controller, _she thought to herself.

She turned around. The same thing had happened to the others. JD was suspended in midair, one flaring fist raised up. Manny's thunderbolt was about to be launched – streaks of lightning was still connecting his hand to the thunderbolt. Frozen pink lights were spiraling around Gayathri and Floramon as they were about to merge. And the Barbamon clone was looming before them, his unholy dark sphere ready to devour her friends.

A dawning suspicion came to her. _Have I just stopped time? _She searched her mind for an answer, and found it without difficulty. _Temporal Time Stasis, a stronger form of the Magical Stasis. With this, I can actually stop time…only I alone will be unaffected. _

"No time to lose," she muttered and smiled slightly at the irony of her statement. She then flew towards her friends and placed herself between them and the clone's energy sphere. Then she telekinetically sent it back towards the clone. It slammed onto the clone, and instantly everything began to move again as the clone was sent flying towards his counterpart.

"…_KAEN!!"_ screamed the real Barbamon, continuing his attack call as if nothing had happened. The clone was caught in the flames instead, and with a loud shriek he exploded into data particles.

She then felt attacks coming her way and deflected away Manny's thunderbolt towards a window while parrying JD's punch, and watched as the pink lights died down as Gayathri gasped in surprise.

"Whoa! Where did _you_ come from?" sputtered JD in surprise as she lowered him towards the floor telekinetically.

"That's a good question," said Gayathri, confused. "One moment you were there, and that demon clone was about to attack us. Then the next thing you're here…"

"No time. I will explain later alright?" said Xianamon urgently, as Barbamon screamed in fury of having his clone deleted. Xianamon knew perfectly why; the Duo Focus only worked once in battle. She then raised the Elegant Barrier so that her friends would be protected from harm.

"I think she just stopped time…" She heard Manny telling the others and had to smile at that as she was about to head back for battle. _Trust Manny to come up with the explanation._

Barbamon was infuriated. Not only that Xianamon had cost him Ravemon, she had also _somehow_ caused his clone's deletion. He was on edge for not knowing how she had done that. Everything had been perfectly fine, but in a blink of the eye the situation turned a 180-degree on him. He couldn't comprehend it. _Did she stop time?_ _But that's impossible! That's advanced magic…_

"You miserable witch," Barbamon snarled.

"Oh yes, how mature; resorting to name calling now are we?" Xianamon retorted sarcastically. With the power to freeze time, despite temporarily, she would have the upper hand on this battle. Her new powers as a Mega Digimon had far surpassed her expectations. But it was probably best not to dog Barbamon out anymore. She should finish this while she had the chance.

Barbamon swept across the hall and pointed his staff towards her. _"Pandemonium Lost!"_

Recalling her way to stop time earlier, she did so again by flicking her hands once, exclaiming, _"Temporal Time Stasis!"_

But time didn't freeze. It was unexpected and as the result she was blasted to the floor by the burning pellets. She didn't even have time to deflect them back.

_So the time freeze works only once in every battle, _she realized. _I still have a lot to learn._ She saw Barbamon lunging towards her, his staff swung towards her belly. She made a back flip just in time, and resorted to her Maiden Finesse once again to combat Barbamon.

_The staff,_ she thought, noticing how Barbamon was reliant to it. His attacks were mostly from his staff. If she could seize it, Barbamon's prowess would be reduced.

"_Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace!"_

The ribbon was sent in two directions, the bells chiming amidst the battle noise. They made their way towards the staff, but Barbamon saw through it and withdrew his staff away. He released flaming pellets and they caught the ribbon, tearing the bells from it.

"Your weapon's burning!" Barbamon declared. "And now, so will you! _JIGOKU…"_

Xianamon willed her telekinetic power, and the ribbon was energized again. It didn't need the bells to function, though with the bells it became weightier and thus was easier for thrusting techniques. Without the bells, she would simply have to rely on her power. And she still had the staff in mind. _"Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace!"_

In his attempt to deliver his most powerful attack, Barbamon hadn't been quick enough to avoid the incoming ribbon. Coming from two sides, the ribbon wrapped around the staff on two parts – the upper part a few inches below the skull and the lower part, several inches from the bottom tip. With a grunt Xianamon made a flicking motion with both hands.

The staff snapped to half. Only the skull with the red orb remained. Barbamon was so shocked that he had stopped with his attack.

"You…" He snarled, before to Xianamon's surprise, he calmed down. It unnerved her.

He cackled mockingly. "I wonder if you're this strong once that first love of yours meets his doom once the full moon blooms? You fight so fiercely to protect him and your friends…" he taunted.

Xianamon's mouth was set thin. _What is he trying to do?_

"Father's gone, boyfriend soon to follow…" Barbamon continued.

"Stop it," whispered Xianamon. Against her wishes, she was reminded of the dream world once again, and her hands shivered.

"You should have stayed in that dream I've created for you," said Barbamon, raising the skull. The red orb was shining. "Why don't you let me do you a favor? I can still send you back there."

"Back there?" Xianamon suddenly gritted her teeth, remembering how much emotional pain she had endured after JD brought her back. She looked up, Barbamon was grinning at her evilly. He still thought that she was succumbing to his taunts. She'd show him. Focusing her power, she lashed out with her mind and sent Barbamon flying towards the wall.

Then she recalled the skull to her hand. Staring at its ghastly eye sockets and the red orb that looked like it was filled full with blood, she thought of how Barbamon's attacks seemed to be powered by the skull and the orb. She blasted it towards a nearby wall, watching with pleasure as the skull and orb shattered to data particles.

Waves of yellow aura escaped Barbamon and Xianamon noticed that the demon man had paled considerably. She suddenly remembered JD mentioning about Doumon having a red orb with him when he struck her with the dream charm. The dream charm had supposedly sucked out Liu Ying's life force when she was put into sleep, and if her suspicion was correct the power had been contained in that red orb. And since she had destroyed it, the power Barbamon had gained from her would be gone too.

"Curse you, witch!" screamed Barbamon.

That confirmed it, she thought. There could be only _one_ reason why Barbamon was so riled up now, where he had been nothing but a picture of confidence earlier.

However, she would need a stronger attack to finish off Barbamon. All her attacks worked well as defenses more than offenses. She needed something, anything, perhaps even another weapon!

Casting her hand towards the door subconsciously, she felt something stirring from a distance. She willed for it to come and felt it obeying her. It seemed to come from somewhere across the lake, and it was sailing past the lake now, past the trees and now soaring towards the hills. It was close now. It was now heading towards the temple…towards the main gate and the courtyard…

"Hey, it's my guitar!" said JD, as said instrument flew into the temple through the opening he and Liu Ying had created earlier. The guitar hovered before Xianamon before she took it in her hand.

_JD's guitar? What am I going to do with this?_ She thought, before the guitar shimmered, grew to accommodate her size, and transformed into a rectangular musical instrument with a slightly curved upper side. Strings were attached on it, stretching from one side to the other. It was a beautiful _zither,_ she thought, colored a beautiful sea green with intricate golden carvings, with diamonds decorating it. The strings seemed to be made out of black durable material.

"Hey, what the heck happened to my guitar?" JD called out in surprise.

_You got me there._ She stared at the zither, bewildered. Was she supposed to play it?

It was absurd. She didn't even sing, let alone play instruments.

But then another inspiration struck her mind. The third essence of her Maiden Finesse, and this was an offensive attack. She would have to try it, like it or not.

She struck the string once, and a beautiful yet melancholic melody escaped it. She could see a faint wave resulted from her awkward attempt to play the zither. She tried again, striking the chords several times, and waves of energy were released from the strings. Barbamon, who was about to stand up, was struck with the faint waves and was pushed towards the wall again. Confidence grew within her, realizing that this could be a deadly weapon when used right. She was channeling her telekinetic energy into the strings, which in return released waves of telekinetic energy towards Barbamon.

_Maiden Finesse – Jade Heart Rhapsody!_

She parted her mouth and an ethereally beautiful vocalization escaped it. It was slow but echoic, melodious and extremely captivating, increasing gradually with every chord struck. The flicks of her fingers were gentle and subtle, but the force that was imbued into the strings was powerful. She saw the telekinetic waves erupting from the instrument became more and more opaque, almost up to a point where they were a kaleidoscopic shade, like a rainbow after a rain. As she grew at ease with the attack, her mind reflected back to the times she had with her father and how abruptly she had lost him. Then it shifted to her feelings for JD, and how she would lose him soon. Tears flowed out of her mask, down her cheeks, and onto the zither. The zither glimmered with golden light.

Barbamon screamed in pain; the musical onslaught Xianamon was delivering was too much for him to bear. He had at first scorned of how unorthodox her method was, but soon grew to regret it for he had no way to retaliate. The energy waves kept on blasting towards him; he was able to fend off some of the waves with his own acquired telekinetic energy, but soon discovered that he only had the power from the Ultimate-level Xianamon. This was a Mega-level Xianamon, her power far eclipsing her former self. As the telekinetic onslaught blasted onto his hands, body and legs, his mind was invaded by the mournful tone of her vocalization. It was beautiful, yet so melancholic that he found himself emotionally affected. The voice echoed in his mind, almost piercing into his heart. He couldn't understand it – he had taken great pleasure to cause pain and suffering towards the sorceress, but now he was feeling her pain and sorrow? Incomprehensible.

It was the witch. She was toying with his mind! He had to put a stop to it before these emotions drive him insane.

Yet he realized, to his horror, that his body would not abide to his wishes. Something was immobilizing him.

He was completely at her mercy, and Barbamon knew that Xianamon was not going to spare him one.

xxx

xxx

JD stared towards Xianamon with astonishment. It wasn't because of the attack, which he had never seen before. It was the emotions that came with the song. Was she conveying what she was feeling?

"It's so sad," Gayathri said, affected by Xianamon's melancholic vocalization. "The song. I don't know why, but it's…like someone who is mourning…for a lost one."

"How do you know?" Manny whispered, placing an arm around her. He did sense a deep sense of sadness coming from the song, but Gayathri looked like she was going to cry.

"I don't know. I just feel so sad," said Gayathri. "JD? What do you think?"

"I just wish she doesn't have to feel all these…pains," JD whispered back. "I wish I can take the pains away from her."

Manny and Gayathri exchanged one look, before each laid a hand on each of JD's shoulders.

xxx

xxx

It was enlivening, Xianamon thought, to be able to express her feelings in the song. But now it was time to finish this off once and for all.

She continued her vocalization and the flicking of the strings, but began to call up the Refined Grace to aid the Jade Heart Rhapsody. The ribbon flowed out from her back, like snakes heading towards their prey. The telekinetic energy waves continued blasting towards Barbamon before Xianamon willed the ribbon to immobilize Barbamon.

"WITCH! What are you doing?!" demanded Barbamon, when one end of the ribbon tied his arms around his body. "NO! Stop it! STOP!!" he cried, as the other end of the ribbon snaked around his throat, wrapping around it, forming a tight noose.

She closed her eyes, and inclined her head sideways. A sickening crack was heard. She stopped singing and playing with the zither, and opened her eyes just in time to see Barbamon limped lifelessly onto the floor. She called her ribbon back, not wanting to see the distorted angle of Barbamon's neck. She didn't have to avoid it for long; Barbamon's body had begun to decompose into data particles. The Shaman General was truly destroyed this time, and for that she was relieved.

"It's over," she whispered softly. Standing up, she collected the zither. It reverted back to JD's guitar.

With a flick of her hand, she called off the Elegant Barrier and headed towards her friends. Then she reverted to her composite selves.

"That was awesome!" said Gayathri spiritedly. "You beat him on your own!"

"We had to call on our combined attack just to beat Leviamon," said Manny.

"I did have help," Liu Ying said, and smiled towards JD. She handed him back the guitar. "Your guitar."

JD stared at the guitar for a moment, before shaking his head. There was sadness on his face as he pushed the guitar back towards her. "You keep it. You're gonna need it more than I do."

"JD…I can't keep this. It's yours." JD was about to disagree, but she raised her palm and shook her head. It was enough to stop JD from arguing with her.

"Fine. But since our picnic got disrupted, would you…"

She raised a palm once again, making a subtle glance towards Manny and Gayathri, and their partners.

"Ok…we can take a hint," said Gayathri, and dragged Manny out of the semi-destroyed temple. "We're going to wait at the gate." The two waved at them before exiting the door, their conversation could be heard for the next few seconds before they were truly out of the temple. Labramon too headed off for the door, figuring that they would need their privacy.

For a moment, they were quiet. Liu Ying was dreading to tell JD what she was thinking, but she needed to. As Xianamon, while she was executing the Jade Heart Rhapsody, realization struck her mind. She knew that as much as she really liked JD now…

"So," said JD, breaking the silence. "About the picnic, when would you like…"

"JD…" She begun, a tear was already beginning to form at the brim of her eye, "As much as I'd love to, and I really am…but I can't. I'm sorry."

"Oh." JD studied her face, and Liu Ying saw a disappointed look crossing his face. "I understand," he said quietly. "But…can you let me say something first, before you continue?"

She nodded. JD gazed into her eyes once more, and wiped away her tears with his finger.

"Barbamon mentioned about the kiss of your first love being the one waking you up from the dream," he began. "I just want you to know that I feel the same way. Always have been…since that day, when we first met. It was why I drove you away. Although I didn't know about it back then, I realized it thereafter. But you hated me then and I couldn't find a way to say what I truly felt. I ended up giving you the wrong message." He took a deep breath. "Then when I joined the team, I guess I was beating around the bush for so long that _this_ happened, and I realized that if I didn't say this now, I never will."

Liu Ying nodded again dully. Her own feeling for the boy came after they reconciled with one another.

"Liu Ying, I…"

"Don't say it," whispered Liu Ying. "I know what you're going to say, but please don't."

JD looked stunned. "Why?" he asked hoarsely. "Why not?"

"If you say it, I'm afraid that it'll hurt me a lot more when you…when you…" She closed her eyes, and let the tears fall. "Do you know the last thing I've said to my father?"

"No, I don't. What is it?"

She hiccupped once, recalling a painful memory that she had never shared with anyone but her family. "I told him that I loved him, before he stepped out of the house. It was the last thing I ever said to him." She shook her head. "Please understand. I don't know if I can take that much pain anymore, after today. If you say it, then I'll say it, then you…"

"I understand," interrupted JD softly.

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." JD sighed. "Perhaps it's for the best."

Liu Ying looked away. Another tear fell as she observed the sun outside seemed to be sliding down towards the horizon.

JD raised his hand, hesitated momentarily, before adjusting some stray hairs away from her face. "Take care, Liu Ying. I'm glad nonetheless, that you agreed to go out with me today." He walked past her, but stopped midway and turned back to face her. His face looked somewhat composed now, but there was no doubt that his eyes had a hurt look within them. "I'm gonna hitch a ride home with Manny. Are you coming?"

She tried not looking at his face. "You guys go ahead. I…need to get myself together, for a bit."

JD nodded. "Ok. Well…see you."

"JD?" she called out, before he could leave. The blond DigiWira turned his head back, looking at her questioningly. "Thanks…for today. For taking care of me. You…you're really a good guy. I just wished…that somehow things will be better for you."

JD nodded, smiling thinly at her. "Yeah, me too. Don't stay here too long, ok? The others will be worried."

"I won't be long. Bye, JD."

He gazed at her for a moment, before nodding. "See you tomorrow, Liu Ying."

xxx

xxx

Amidst the late afternoon sun, Adam and Sagittarimon made their way out from the Shadow Realm. The training was over for today, and Lucemon had announced that Doumon, or rather Barbamon, had been deleted by Xianamon Juara Mode. He'd felt relieved that nothing bad had happened to his friends, while Lucemon looked disgruntled. SkullSatamon, he noticed, was somewhat impassive and had been quick to dismiss him and Lucemon. He wasn't going to complain; the training to refine his combustion power was strenuous.

He felt a rush of sadness coming from within, and recognized it as his cousin's. Before he knew it a tear escaped his eyes.

"Adam?" asked Sagittarimon, inclining his head back. Apparently he had noticed Adam's change of mood. Upon seeing the tear, he stopped. "What's going on?"

Adam wiped the tear, bewildered. "I feel…something's made Josh very sad. It makes _me_ sad. I sensed that he's keeping it inside of him, but somehow his feelings are projected to me."

"But he's not even here," Sagittarimon pointed out. "Didn't you have to have physical contact with a person in order to read their mind?"

"Yes, but...apparently this doesn't apply to Josh..."

"As much as I hate to admit it," sighed Sagittarimon, "Lucemon's training is definitely going to help here. See that rock over there, Adam?"

Adam followed his partner's gaze and saw the said rock. It was easily as large as Sagittarimon, crude shaped, and nothing extraordinary. Adam knew what he had to do in order to stop feeling the emotions that was not his. He focused on the rock, channeling the emotions to power up his teleportation power.

The rock shimmered with light orbs, before exploded into data particles instead. Adam sighed.

"Feel better?" asked Sagittarimon.

"Not really, but until I know exactly when to teleport and when to combust stuffs…I hope you don't mind me using you as a ride."

"Of course not, Adam. Now rest. I'll wake you up when we find a TV set to make our way home."

xxx

xxx

He was lucky that Lucemon prided himself as his most loyal general and that Adam was exhausted. It was easy to ask them to leave him be when he felt Barbamon's power flowing inside of him. He couldn't risk them seeing him digivolving. Lucemon would become suspicious and would prod him telepathically. He had taken measures to avoid his mind being read by psychics such as his Hellion General, but after all these centuries of waiting, he wouldn't want to take that chance.

_Perfect,_ thought SkullSatamon. _Barbamon was deleted while in Mega form. With his power, I can transcend my Diablomon form, and become…_

Assured that he was left alone, he channeled the powers he had gotten from the deleted generals and digivolved into Diablomon. His eyes emitted black flames that spiraled around his body before he grew five times his size, hunched down to all fours. His reflection was reflected by the Shield of Waja; he saw himself as a great black and purple spider._Armageddemon!_

_It's not enough,_ he thought, reverting back to his SkullSatamon form. _But it's perfect for the time being. If Barbamon's data is enough to propel me to a Burst Mode class Mega form, then I have no doubt that the remaining two generals will provide me with the rest of the data I need to unlock a power stronger than Grademon Burst Mode's. _

_And dear Adam's power is definitely growing. Little does he know that there's a downside of his power of empathy. The stronger he is as an empath, without control he will be vulnerable to act according to the emotions he's feeling. The longer he spends his time around here, the more susceptible Adam becomes to MY whim. _

_He may not be corruptible, but he can succumb to emotions. And what evil emotions are stronger than mine?_

xxx

xxx

It was almost midnight but Liu Ying was still wide awake. Sitting inside her room, on her bed with the nightlights switched on and the radio playing some songs aired by the local radio station, the events inside the dream world and the reality kept playing in her minds alternately. She had just finished writing in her journal to her late father as she would usually do after something big had happened. It had always been her way to convey her emotions as she wouldn't usually confide it to another person. The journal had helped her go through the difficult periods when her father had passed away.

A grunt was heard; she saw Labramon shifting slightly in her makeshift bed, which was a large rattan basket with cushions stuffed inside it. A blanket had been thrown over the slumbering canine.

She took a photo album from the cabinet and got settled on her bed, under the covers and leaning against the wall. Slowly she flipped open the album, and the most recent picture of her father and her. That picture was taken approximately one week before that fateful day. Her eyes moistened once again, but she had moved on and had started to think of Barbamon's dream charm as one of those dreams she'd always had about her father. Barbamon was right; a dream was a wish the heart made.

It was only made difficult because of JD's involvement. As she leaved through the recent pages, pictures of her and the other DigiWira came up. At first it was her and TobuCatmon; she smiled fondly at her late mentor, saddened of his demise but knew that he would someday be reborn. Then there was the picture of her and Labramon. Next was her, Gayathri and Adam as a trio in full uniform. There had never been a picture of the five of them in uniform, but in real life there had been some.

"Sunday is over and Monday has arrived," said the radio deejay with zest, "I hope all listeners have had a lovely weekend."

"Yeah, lovely," muttered Liu Ying, as she leaved to the pages with the most recent pictures of all five of them as a team.

The most recent pictures of them all were taken during Manny's birthday at Sunway Lagoon. It was the time when they all really had fun. The Puaka Generals were thought to be beaten and Adam and JD had found out that they were in fact a family. Her eyes landed on one picture. JD had insisted on having this picture taken; it was the first ever picture of the two of them together. It was a good picture too, of the two of them sitting by the bench with their backs facing the pirate ship. They looked happy; JD looked relaxed and she was smiling.

"To school goers, I appreciate you listening to me till this late but you better go to bed. I don't want to be blamed if you guys accidentally overslept and end up late to school," said the deejay, again with her perkiness, although Liu Ying supposed it came with the job. Who would want to listen to dull deejays anyway?

"And to those who are still wide awake; those who are working late, college students with their assignments, and perhaps even to students who are staying up late preparing for their midterm exams in two weeks…yes, I do know that midterms are near, I was a student too…here's a song to start the day. Let's all hope that it's going to be a beautiful Monday, without any monsters attack. And if there is, let's hope that once again the Wira Digital will be able to take care of it!"

"I hope so too," muttered Liu Ying, appreciating the deejay's faith in them. She leaved the next page, which was the final page, as the tune to a very_familiar _song began to play. She froze.

_Let's just take our time. There's nothing else to do. What better way to spend the night than wasting it with you?_

This was the song JD played to her this morning! _Yesterday morning,_ she amended.

She stared at the final page, with closed-up pictures of her and JD. Adam had been in an experimental mood with his sister's digital camera, and had used the multi-shot effect on them. They had ended up with nearly twenty pictures of them, and Adam (or perhaps JD) had four of them printed for her. She smiled as she studied the pictures; they had thought that Adam was done taking their pictures and had begun moving about, before Adam announced about a couple of minutes later that he was still taking some shots of them. He had ended up with several candid shots, and Liu Ying had to admit that the boy was somewhat talented when it came to photographing people. Those shots might be candid, but they were very nice too.

JD had teasingly said after taking that first picture that it would make headline for the school's annual magazine if the editors ever got their hands on it. He had attempted to playfully poke her shoulder and she had evaded. Adam had caught that. The second was she trying to shove JD's hand away. The third was her looking somewhat miffed and JD looking at her worriedly, while the last, perhaps several multi-shots later, was the two of them laughing.

Those pictures were somewhat funny, but looking at them now only reminded her of the events that had happened earlier. She sighed. They looked so happy then; that was impossible now.

_Love was kept from me like a secret. And I swore that I was through. Until you..._

The lyric struck a chord for her. A tear trickled down.

"I'll miss you, JD."

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Xianamon Juara Mode is primarily based on Sakuyamon and QueenChessmon; we can say that she is a subspecies of Sakuyamon as they have the same face masks. In terms of powers, I have her telekinetic power play a large role in this as well as a new power – freezing time (or perhaps more correctly, molecular immobilization). Those two are from Charmed since they are witches and Xianamon is a sorceress (witch). As for her attacks, I will explain in detail in my blog. I think her attacks' origin will be an interesting read.

Now that Barbamon's taken cared of, we are now set for the arc that shows us JD's eventual fate as the curse takes full effect.


	70. Out of Control, Part I

Lilithmon smirked, glancing at the moon of the human's world. It was beautiful, and a portion of it was obscured by darkness.

"Savor your current victory, Wira Digital," said Lilithmon silently. "You won't be able to feel happy again when one of you is gone. All thanks to _me._"

Lilithmon snapped her fingers and a dark blue portal materialized before her. Having learned the Gateway technique alongside the Shield of Waja, she was now able to move between the human world and the Digital World without having to rely on any Digiport. The Gateway technique was somewhat instable and would usually require a very strong power to level control over it so that it would not cause anyone entering the portal to be led to undesired places. Lucemon had learned it effortlessly while they were Ultimates, and now, _she_ could do so too, despite having to be in Mega form to execute it.

Before she could enter the portal though, another portal opened and Lucemon stepped out from it. "Fancy seeing you here," said Lucemon, not the least bit surprised.

"I could say the same thing about you. What brings you here?"

"The Master instructs me to keep close tab on Adam's powers," said Lucemon.

Lilithmon frowned. "Why? All he has is teleportation and feeling other people's emotions. You mentioned his psychic power not being a threat."

"They have grown quite recently. You see, the Master and I have been training the boy to utilize his powers better."

This news surprised her. "For what purpose?" she asked suspiciously.

"The Master believes that if trained, Aldiyamon will regain the power he has exhibited before: the power of combustion, down to the molecular level."

"Really?"

"The boy has displayed several arrays of power evolutions, both empathy and teleportation, just after three days of trainings," said Lucemon, his tone contained a hint of worry. "Earlier this day I have discovered that there's more to his powers than he'd ever known. By tapping his mind I have encountered an empathic window, and with it I am able to determine his current state of power."

"And?" She had never heard of an empathic window, but didn't bother asking.

"Clearly you don't understand," said Lucemon, obviously having picked up her thoughts. "Let's simplify the situation by imagining a windstorm taking place, and you are inside a house with one window. The window is a quarter opened. What would you expect to feel from the barely-opened window?"

"Gusts of the winds and a little bit chilly," said Lilithmon, irritated. "Lucemon, you don't have to simplify it to an In-training's level! What do you take me for?"

"For simplicity's sake, for you and me as well; I have no intention of undermining your intellect." Lucemon chuckled. "Alright. What do you expect if this window is fully opened?"

Lilithmon raised an eyebrow but went along. "The windstorm would wreck havoc inside the house, probably tearing the house apart from the inside."

"Precisely. Now, young Adam's current power is like the first situation I have explained. And thus, Aldiyamon's current power, as you have termed, is like _the gusts of winds and a little bit chilly_…"

She began to see what Lucemon was trying to say. "You mean…"

"Yes. His power is merely at its preliminary level, and with it he has already able to achieve many great feats. Today alone, he has regained the lost combustion power despite lacking control over it. The Master and I are going to train him to fully control this power by the time your Blight of Bastet would take full effect on JD once and for all. The Master wants Adam, as Aldiyamon, to gain enough power to shatter the Shield of Waja surrounding his Horror Hall."

"Why the precise timing?" asked Lilithmon.

Lucemon smiled. "Oh, because we have insinuated to him that with his evolved power he might be able to 'vanquish' your curse off his dear friend."

"And he believes it?" snorted Lilithmon. She relaxed a little; there was no other cure for the Blight of Bastet other than a transfer out of sacrifice.

"Apparently yes. Which brings me here: to further examine this empathic window of his. I want to learn of how to manipulate this window. To make the window's opening bigger or smaller at will. Adam couldn't be in the Digital World all the time without rousing suspicions from his teammates, so I have to take the effort to come here instead."

"The bigger the opening is, the more emotions he would feel, and the stronger his combustion power would become, am I correct?"

"You're certainly no In-training," said Lucemon.

Lilithmon waved the sarcastic reply away. "And you want to be able to manipulate this…window, so that after Adam has somehow discovered your trick, you would be able to lower this window to prevent Adam from channeling his empathic power into his combustion. He won't be a threat to us if you can control that empathic window of his."

"Your intellect is definitely almost the match of my own," said Lucemon, in his way of agreeing to a person without actually saying so. "It might take some work in trying to raise the window myself. We need a situation that puts Adam in a psychological duress that his empathic window would be raised."

"How about our recent guests?" Lilithmon suggested with a sinister grin. "They have been in the catacombs of our pyramid for too long already."

Lucemon considered it, before nodding. "Yes, yes…it's about time the Four Terrors terrorize the human's world, don't you think?"

"Exactly. Their powers are at the level of ours, which will definitely put the Wira Digital and their friends in quite a fix. That'll give the little white kitten all that psychological duress he needs." She grinned. "I even like the sound of that as we speak. Can we do it now?"

"Not yet," said Lucemon. "Adam is already exhausted. Let him have a full night rest, and surprise all of them tomorrow."

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 70 – Out of Control, Part I**_

xxx

xxx

Despite feeling a bit weary from the previous day's psychic training, Adam cycled out of the apartment grounds towards the street. He made a right turn and started pedaling the bike faster towards school's direction. He noticed however, that despite it being seven in the morning the main roads seemed somewhat deserted. There were vehicles but they moved along the roads smoothly; usually at this time of the morning it was a rush hour as people drove out of the housing area to go to work at the adjacent Shah Alam or the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur, among other places.

_Oh yeah,_ he thought, cycling past a white van parked by the apartment compound's exit. _Kak Lisha mentioned yesterday about some people evacuating Subang Jaya to a safer place after the incident with Leviamon and Beelzemon last Friday. It was in the news…_ He cast a look towards the road again. _I just didn't realize that it had affected the other people this seriously._

Adam nevertheless knew just how much damage the two Demon Lords had caused to his hometown. The municipal council building which where the town officials work, as well as the nearby, usually-bustling business center of Taipan, as well as the houses around the area, had all been at the receiving ends of the brutal onslaughts of the villains. He suspected that there were deaths too, but how many he didn't know for sure. With JD's life hanging on the line and his own training to stop it from happening, Adam hadn't thought of asking. He also thought that it might be better if he didn't know about it. Both his sister and Abu had refrained from telling him about it, and Adam wasn't keen on reading newspapers.

He sighed as the destroyed business center and municipal council came into view. The damage was too great and despite the reparation work had commenced Adam knew that it would be a while before the town would be returned to its former glory. The same applied to the KLCC Park and the buildings surrounding it. No doubt millions of Malaysian Ringgit would need to be invested for this matter.

_The others have beaten the Shaman General yesterday,_ thought Adam. _At least it didn't happen here. _He halted, eyeing the damaged main road that led to an even heavily-damaged T-junction. _No doubt the others will be waiting to interrogate me at school today. I wanted to tell them, but they'll only stop me. Especially Josh…he won't like it one bit. I hope they'll buy the explanation I've thought about last night. _

Adam heard a soft screeching sound of a halting vehicle behind him, and turned around. It was a white van. _Wait. Isn't this the van that I cycled past, back at the apartment compound's exit?_ The passenger door slid open and a very familiar woman in crisp red business suit hopped out. A shining handbag was clasped in between her right arm and body. Adam groaned. _Oh no. Not her again._

"Good morning, Adam," greeted Rita Kaur cordially, a wide smile plastered on her face as she ran a hand to smoothen her hair. From the looks of her, Adam thought she must have spent the night inside the van. "I'm glad that we've managed to catch up with you. If it weren't for Chia sleeping, we would have offered to take you to school today…in an exchange of an interview, of course."

Chia, whom Adam recognized being Rita's cameraman, came out from the driver seat with a videocamera hoisted on his left shoulder. He cast a wary look around, which made Adam want to snicker. No doubt the wiry-haired man was afraid of JD, for JD had damaged his videocamera twice. Once, when they were harassing Liu Ying and the other time when they were harassing _him._

"Me?" asked Adam with a skeptical tone. "What do you possibly want to know from me?"

"I've noticed things," said Rita, her sugary tone never faltered. "You seemed to be there in every place which had experienced Digimon attack. Somehow you were there by the mosque where that feline monster attacked…"

"I was there for Friday prayers," said Adam calmly.

"Of course," said Rita. "But why, instead of seeking cover inside the mosque where it was safer, you'd be at the park where the battle between the two Digimon took place?"

Adam frowned. "I was running late. And the park was a shortcut to get to the mosque faster."

"And you were just curious of what was going on?" asked Rita.

"Perhaps," said Adam carefully.

"And somehow that cat lady spotted you and diverted Satriamon's attack towards you?"

"I think that was what happened."

"It must be quite a horrible experience for you. I would've said that back at the hospital, before your cousin and the doctor ordered us to go away," said Rita in a tone that Adam thought sounded curiously like false sympathy. If Rita thought that she could fool Adam, she was mistaken. He could easily read Rita's emotions now, and what he had found was somewhat troubling. There was...hunger? Determination? His imagination had provided him with an image of a vulture, circling its dying prey, waiting for it to die before devouring it.

"I thank you for your concern," said Adam, returning Rita's false sympathy with well-acted politeness. He swung his arm lightly. "But as you can see it's healed now. So…it's cool."

"That's pretty fast healing for a fracture," pointed out Rita. "Usually it would take about four to six weeks for bones to mend. In your case…it seemed that it had healed overnight. And the strangest thing was, when we checked back with the hospital…they said that you were there because of a mild…dislocation." Her eyebrow arched up. "Dislocation doesn't need those thick casts you were in that day."

Adam tried hiding his worry. Salamon and Gatomon had healed his arm too perfectly that night. It had stumped the medical personnel, until Jackie had intervened and modified the memories of those who were involved with his case, with the exception of Dr. Abu who had to provide an alternate diagnosis from him. It was better if he acted that he didn't know anything about this, and alert Jackie to the fact that there were still people remembering the details about his accident.

"The people we interviewed, Miss Kaur," said Chia breathlessly, "they said that there was quite an amount of blood at the park, where he was attacked that day."

"Yes," said Rita. "Curious, isn't it, how a mild dislocation can produce that much blood?"

The two reporters were giving him the creeps now. They were like vultures now ready to strike their dying preys. _They are on to something_, Adam decided.

He however shrugged. "Maybe it's one of their bloods. It was a fierce battle, I think."

"Of course it was," nodded Rita, her very red painted lips still smiling, "so fierce that Satriamon actually had help that day. Aldiyamon was around as well. Details were hazy here, but somehow Aldiyamon was not around when the battle was over. The other Wira Digital arrived, but I think with Aldiyamon's teleportation power they could have taken you towards the hospital faster."

"I don't blame him," said Adam, feeling odd for defending himself for not doing something for himself. "Maybe there was trouble someplace else and he…teleported there."

"Do you really think so?" asked Rita, pursing her lips slightly as she arched an eyebrow.

"That's my assumption anyway," said Adam. "I was unconscious at the time. I wouldn't know for sure."

"I think we both know that that so-called assumption of yours is false, Adam," said Rita sweetly.

Adam narrowed his eyes. It was better for him to stop talking with them now than risk Rita digging in for confirmation of her theories. She sounded so confident in rebuffing his theory, Adam knew he must not respond in a way that she would expect.

"Yeah, it could be wrong," he said with a light tone. "I still don't see the point of interviewing me about this. Shouldn't you be interviewing the Wira Digital instead?"

"Oh I don't know," said Rita. "It seems to me that the Wira Digital are somewhat involved with you and your friends. Take that Chang Liu Ying girl for example. She got kidnapped and instantly the Wira Digital involved themselves in the matter."

"I thought there _was_ Digimon involved? Something…fox-like, if I'm not mistaken?" asked Adam, feigning ignorance.

"Precisely," said Rita, her smile turned to a grin. "Why must the Digimon involved themselves with human crimes?"

Adam knew then that he was trapped. He didn't like Rita's expression, or the triumphant feeling he had picked with his empathic radar.

"And it was pretty strange too," continued Rita, "When evil Digimon targeted Gayathri Nadarajah's house and killed one of her friends who happened to be there with her. It seemed so much like coordinated attacks, all of these."

Rita's inquiry was getting dangerously more and more specific. By saying Gayathri's name, she had singled her out as the Digimon's main target. It was Bel who was murdered by Astamon; to most people they would have thought that either Bel was caught in the midst of the battle or to the more suspicious ones, Bel would appear as the generals' target.

"And, let's see," said Rita, pretending to rub her sharp chin. "Ah, yes. The battle at KLCC Park. Did you know that I happened to come across your sister and her boyfriend that night, outside the park?" She nodded towards Chia, who briskly switched on the videocamera and pointed it towards Adam, much to Adam's annoyance. "There was an explosion of light. A white bird…a _phoenix_, to be precise, emerged alongside a scream of a boy…and I heard your sister said as she stared at the phoenix, and I quote: _Adam, everyone, please be alright._"

Stunned, Adam couldn't even speak, as Rita turned towards the videocamera. "Are you getting this Chia?"

"Recording," said Chia, flashing a thumb-up.

"So _you_ are Aldiyamon, obviously," said Rita. "When the puzzle pieces are put together, it makes sense. Aldiyamon and Satriamon fought the cat creature, and that cat had caused Satriamon to injure Aldiyamon. That's why Aldiyamon was nowhere around the area, and poor boy Adam was left injured, arm mangled. Yes…And you're healed so quickly probably because of your Digimon friends' interventions. I don't doubt that some of them have healing powers."

Adam tried to appear unbothered. As long as the reporters had no proof…

"And when Chang Liu Ying is kidnapped, only four Wira Digital appeared around the Batu Caves temple: Aldiyamon, Puspamon, Satriamon and Samudramon. Chang Liu Ying is definitely Xianamon. That's why Digimon were involved in her kidnapping, and why the Wira Digital interfered when the police could have handled the case, if it was a normal, boring kidnapping."

"When the Digimon killed Belinda Foo, Puspamon was the one who fought back. Belinda's best friends were Gayathri Nadarajah and Wardina Fadlullah. And to my knowledge of Tamil language, the word _Pushpa_ means flower, and it seems more fitting if Gayathri is Puspamon instead of Wardina."

Nevertheless, the reporters could pursue them forever if Rita disclosed her theories to public. Their identities were in danger.

Rita's eyes gleamed with excitement. "And several pupils from your school mentioned that you are always in a group of five. You, Liu Ying and Gayathri, and the other two being Emmanuel Abah and Joshua Daniel Kamaruzaman bin Johan Awaludin, more known as Manny and JD. Manny seems quiet, calm as the water…he's definitely Samudramon. While that raging bull cousin of yours has a temper like fire, which means that he is Satriamon." She stopped talking and gazed towards Adam. "Have I been wrong so far?"

Adam controlled his feelings so that they would not show on his face. "Me? Wira Digital?" he asked, and let out a chuckle. "Who would have thought?"

"Say it to the camera, Adam, and we will leave you. We reporters just want a huge story," said Rita, beckoning towards the videocamera.

"Say what?"

"That you're Aldiyamon."

"You want me to lie so that you get your huge story?" Adam thought it was ironic, since he was lying. Half-lying, he thought, because he alone did not form Aldiyamon.

"Now, now, Adam, we all know that that's not a lie. Or do I have to show you that I have more proof?"

"What proof?"

"Let's just say," Rita said coyly, "that when you and your cousin made that ridiculous sworn brother oath, you weren't alone, and you were…filmed."

"What?" Adam frowned as anger began to rise from within. "You have no right to do that!"

"So JD only has one more week to live," said Rita, ignoring Adam's anger. "My deepest condolence, whatever the reason is. But you see, ever since that day when your sister let slip of the fact that night that you're somehow related to the event that was going on at the KLCC park that night, the two of us have done some researches about you. And we've found lots of interesting facts. It's amazing that once we know who and what to look for, it becomes so easy for us to trace the Wira Digital's identities to you five."

Adam calmed his emotion to allow himself to think rationally. "So you've seen us," he said, waving away what Rita had just said to him. "What we talked about that night had nothing to do with Digimon."

"True," said Rita. "That's just me trying to provoke you. If you're like that _big brother_ of yours, you'd have let it slip already. Very good. But perhaps something _you_ did after poor Belinda Foo's burial is proof enough that you, at least, is indeed Aldiyamon?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Rita smiled. "Didn't you _teleport_ the flowers from Gayathri and Wardina's hands towards Belinda's grave?"

Adam was shocked. He had thought that the grave was deserted, save for the ones who knew about them.

"You messed up," said Rita triumphantly. "And we caught it on tape! And as far as I recall, teleportation in shower of white light sparkles is Aldiyamon's trademark?"

"Oh, we got him now, Miss Kaur," said Chia gleefully.

Adam shot a look at him, and narrowed his eyes. If he could just summon the videocamera away...

And to his shock, swirls of light orbs coated the videocamera despite him not actually summoning it. Rita and Chia both exclaimed in surprise, before the videocamera exploded before Chia's face. It was lucky that the cameraman was fast enough to pull his face away from the videocamera before it exploded, or else he would have been injured. The explosion also wasn't total, but was enough to wreck the equipment beyond repair. The horrified cameraman dropped the damaged videocamera and backed away, his face paled.

"Calm down, Chia. Just get the spare videocamera," said Rita, unfazed by the mild explosion, her dark eyes still on Adam. "You messed up, Adam," she said smoothly, and opened her handbag, taking out a small videocassette recorder. "And I got it on camera."

Adam however wasn't listening anymore. He caught glimpses of emotions, but couldn't point out exactly whose. They were even more well-defined than before; he could hear the sound of babies crying, mothers scolding their children, people arguing at the top of their lungs, fear from the cameraman whose videocamera Adam had just wrecked and a sense of victory from Rita. The emotions were too strong; Adam would need to channel them out soon before they overwhelm him.

"Get away from here now!" snapped Adam, glaring at Rita's videocamera.

Rita however was adamant. "Not until you tell us what you really are. Are you really a boy, or a Digimon?"

Adam pressed his throbbing forehead. "Fine," he said quickly. He would have to make them go away as soon as possible to avoid harming them. "I'm a DigiWira, a DigiDestined partnered with a Digimon. Together we form Aldiyamon."

"So you really are Aldiyamon!" said Rita gleefully. "How do you feel about the lives you have failed to safe? The death counts during the KLCC Park event and the one here are rather high…"

"STOP IT!!"

The mention of the deaths caused the emotions to surge forward, way beyond Adam's control. The van's glass windows shattered first. Then the portable videocamera Rita was holding combusted into broken pieces of metal and electronics. The front side of the van too suffered the onslaught of his explosive power. The shockwave from the explosion sent Chia flying; he crashed down head-first of the hard tarred road and was knocked out cold instantly. Seeing that, Rita screamed and scrambled towards the cameraman, before the middle part of the van exploded and its sliding door went flying towards her. The broad surface slammed her from the sides and she fell, the door burying her.

Adam saw all these with horror. He watched as flames burned the van, smokes rising towards the sky, and the odd sensation of satisfaction as the emotions subsided. He was in control once again, but the damage had been done. His eyes widened, taking in the destruction he had caused, staring at the reporters' unmoving bodies.

People began to emerge from their houses, gasping upon the sight of the burning van as Adam tried pushing the dismantled door from Rita's unmoving body. Two men appeared by his side and helped him moving it with more ease, while a woman checked on Chia's vital status. Scared, Adam backed away and nearly jumped when someone caught his shoulders.

"Kid, what happened?" It was a man with a dark mustache. Behind him were several others. "We heard explosions."

"Isn't that Rita Kaur, the anchorwoman?" said a woman with long plaited hair. She darted past them, kneeling beside Rita and checked her pulse. She nodded. "She's still alive." She gave Rita a look-over. "She's out cold, that's all. Luckily the broad side of the door knocked her."

"Same here for this guy," said the woman who was checking Chia's condition earlier. "Somebody call an ambulance and the police!"

"Kid?" The mustached man asked again. "What happened?"

"I…I don't know…" stuttered Adam, his breathing ragged. "The van…I was just…"

"Relax." The man pressed his shoulder. "Take a deep breath."

"The kid's badly shaken," said a woman from behind him; Adam didn't bother to turn back. "Why don't you take him back to our house and give him something to drink?"

"No, that's ok…" He looked around for his bike, spotting it left lying on the road. "I have to go to school."

"Are you sure?" asked the mustached man. "You're not injured?"

Adam shook his head. "I was just about to turn towards the main road when it happened," he lied quickly, "I heard it stopping, then the explosions…" He bit his lip, taking in a deep breath to stop panicking. For all he knew, _panicking_ might trigger the explosions again. "I'm fine. I hope they're going to be fine too."

He quickly took his bike and cycled towards school, eyes moistened upon thinking of how close he had come to killing the two reporters with his uncontrollable powers.

xxx

xxx

Lucemon recalled his psychic web as he opened his eyes. He had been in tune with Adam's mind ever since the boy had woken up that day, but was careful to be absolutely discreet. Adam could easily detect his presence if he directed even a single _thought_ towards him. Yet even without that, he had sensed Adam's mind waves becoming somewhat erratic. He recognized the pattern; he had sensed it every time he had managed to irk the boy back during their training at the Shadow Realm.

Something must have bothered him greatly. And he hadn't even called in the Four Terrors yet.

Steadying himself in his floating-meditating posture amidst the clouds, Lucemon visited the astral plane where the empathic window stood.

The window had been raised again. It was now _half_ opened.

Extending his astral self's hand forward, Lucemon walked up the pedestal and attempted to push the window down. He wasn't surprised to find that it wouldn't budge; it wasn't the first time he had done so. He was however worried; he was supposed to find a way to manipulate the window, so that it could be opened and closed at his will.

Suddenly the window slid down at its own accord. Lucemon stared with surprise as it slid slowly, before stopping at its former place.

The opening was now a quarter to the whole window again.

xxx

xxx

The bell rang. The main gate began to close, admitting the lasts of the school pupils, as five particular people watched from the school's artificial fountain.

"I can't believe Adam is missing school today," grumbled JD. "It's not like him to miss school on purpose."

"Lots of people aren't going to be around today," said Manny. "Nearly fifteen people from our class alone won't be coming for the time being."

"Ten from my class," said Gayathri. "I didn't expect Adam to not come as well."

"People are evacuating the town after Friday's attack," murmured Dina. "My family's been thinking of going to my uncle's at Putrajaya…but there's no final word about it yet."

"Adam's never mentioned of going anywhere," said JD.

Liu Ying cast a look at the gate; an out of habit after being assigned to detain the tardy people far too many times. She didn't have prefect duty this morning however. "You guys better go line up now. The assembly's going to start and I heard the principal is going to be giving an important announcement." Her eyes narrowed suddenly. She saw Adam approaching and the gate was going to close, which would make Adam the first late person for this day. He seemed distressed. His hair was in disarray and his white shirt seemed a bit gray, as if marred by smoke. It looked like he had run into some trouble on his way to school. He didn't need to be late to school too.

She quietly pointed one hand towards the sliding gate and stopped it from being pushed, allowing Adam to dismount his bike and walk in through the remaining space. The guard who was closing the gate seemed somewhat bewildered, prompting Liu Ying to quickly stop applying her power on the gate._This will be the first and last time I use my power like this,_ she thought grimly, ready to approach Adam. _He does look like he needed that intervention though…_

Suddenly, she saw Adam swaying. His grasp on his bike slipped, and the bike fell onto the road. And without warning, he too collapsed.

"Adam!!" Liu Ying quickly sprinted towards the fallen boy, and her scream had attracted the other DigiWira who were going to join the assembly. Instantly they turned around, saw what had happened and ran towards her. "He came in just before the gate closes," she quickly said, "but suddenly he just…collapsed."

"Damn it, MOVE!!" yelled JD towards several prefects who were surrounding Adam. All except Liu Ying complied, allowing JD to kneel beside Adam. He checked for Adam's carotid pulse by the neck, looking a bit relieved when he seemed to have found it. Then he cradled the boy and stood up. "What happened to you?" he murmured. Adam was unresponsive.

"JD. Infirmary, now," said Liu Ying firmly, tugging at his sleeve.

"It's like deja-vu all over again," muttered Gayathri as she took Adam's schoolbag, while Manny took his bike towards the bike shed. Liu Ying looked at her questioningly as they followed JD towards the infirmary. "Remember? We…well, as Puspamon and Samudramon, came to school half-conscious and injured after our first battle with Astamon."

Liu Ying nodded and glanced towards Dina, who looked pale. "Dina, go get Jackie," she instructed, to distract the other girl from being too worried. "Whatever happened, we can be sure that it is Digimon related." Dina gave a meek nod and parted ways with them.

The assembly had stopped and everyone stared as them as they went towards the infirmary, which was inconveniently located right at the ground floor, opposite the assembly ground. JD turned away from them, grunting slightly as he shifted Adam's weight on his arms while Liu Ying avoided the questioning looks from the others. It seemed that the principal had been responsible to call for the halt; she was now stepping down from the podium and walked towards them.

Aside from Jackie, the principle Khadijah Basri was the only other school staff who knew about them being DigiWira.

"What's happened to Adam?" the middle-aged woman asked quietly.

"We don't know yet," JD merely grunted.

"Can you excuse us from the assembly?" Liu Ying requested, as Jackie and Dina walked past the whispering students.

"There won't be an assembly," said Principle Khadijah grimly. "I was going to announce that the school is permitted to have a one week holiday effective today. The town is deemed as a major target for Digimon attacks as of late, with Friday's attack being the last straw. The town council has announced yesterday that it would be best if the residents evacuate the town temporarily, until the Wira Digital can give an assurance that there won't be any attack to the town again."

"We don't know about that yet," said Liu Ying. "What we do know is that there are at least three more evil Digimon that we have yet to beat. They are the strongest ones yet."

The principle nodded, as a student opened the door to the infirmary. JD stormed past the student, and with a nod from the principle, the other DigiWira and Jackie followed. JD placed Adam on the nearest bed and Jackie knelt by the bedside, placing a hand a couple of inches over Adam's forehead. It was a method the DigiWira had seen Jackie used to alter the memory of other people who had somehow known of their identities as the Wira Digital, or just came close to knowing. As a digital human, Jackie possessed limited psychic powers, which he had used to alter memories.

"His mind is…chaotic," said Jackie after a minute, retracting his hand away as he stood up.

"Chaotic? What the hell does that mean?" demanded JD.

"It means," said Jackie, not bothering to reprimand JD for his choice of words - his cover as a school teacher demanded him to do so, "that his empathic power has gone wayward, beyond his control." He closed his eyes once again and placed a hand on each side of Adam's head. Acknowledging the DigiWira's questioning looks, he explained, "My mind-reading capability is pretty limited, but with close contact I might just be able to know exactly what had happened to him."

"I know of a quicker way." JD lightly patted each of Adam's trousers pocket before taking out Adam's Juara Digivice from the left pocket. "Patamon, Access."

Patamon instantly materialized, and instantly he looked aghast upon the sight of an unconscious Adam. "Oh no…"

"What happened to him, Patamon?" JD made a motion for Patamon to perch on his outstretched hand.

"He was on his way to school before someone stopped him in the middle of a journey," began Patamon, obeying JD's wish. "It was a woman, and she was at least with another person."

"It's not a Digimon?" asked JD.

Patamon shook his head. "No. I would have known if it was. It was human, more than one."

"The woman, do you know who she is?"

"I'm not sure, but it sounded like she is a reporter," said Patamon, frowning. "I didn't catch her name."

"A reporter?" Liu Ying asked. "Could it be…?"

"That nosy Rita Kaur?" JD snorted. "Yeah, I bet it was her. She didn't look too happy when I chased her out of Adam's ward that day."

"She didn't look too happy when you wrecked her cameraman's videocam either," Liu Ying reminded.

"But what would she want with Adam?" Manny asked. "And what could she have done to make Adam end up like this?"

Patamon looked fearful. "She asked Adam a lot of questions, and made it quite clear that she knew Adam has powers and that he is Aldiyamon."

Surprised murmurs dominated the room. "Guys, let him finish," said JD curtly. "Go ahead, Patamon."

"She's been snooping around, and apparently have been following you guys. She was suspicious that Adam got healed so quickly, and finally after Adam dodged all of her questions she finally said that she'd caught Adam using his powers on tape during Bel's burial, and forced Adam to admit that he's Aldiyamon. And…" He became quiet, the fearful look on his face however remained.

"And what?" asked Gayathri.

"Adam lost control," whispered Patamon. "I could feel it. She was pressuring Adam into admitting, and his power has been unstable as of late, since that…that combustion power appeared."

"_Combustion_ power?" The DigiWira all asked at once.

"Since when does Adam have combustion power?" Liu Ying reiterated.

"It's the evolved form of his teleportation power," said Patamon. "He…blows stuffs up when he's stressed or mad, purely by accident. He can't even teleport now without risking exploding stuffs. And today, the reporters were cornering him, making him lose control of that power…"

"Oh no…" Liu Ying whispered. Gayathri and Dina both paled, Manny's eyes widened and JD balled his hand into a fist in frustration.

Patamon sighed and landed beside his partner's unmoving body. "I don't know what had happened, but somehow Adam had accidentally injured the reporters when he lost control of his power."

"Man…" JD was about to continue, but was interrupted when Jackie let out a loud grunt. The digital man was standing up, frowning.

"I couldn't get much, but what I do know now is that Adam had accidentally combusted the videocamera from the cameraman when he tried summoning it. The reporter was indeed Rita Kaur, and she had caught Adam using his power on another secret videocamera hidden inside her handbag. Then she'd made remarks of the deaths of several people due to the battles, and that had overwhelmed Adam so much that it triggered his power….and the _van _exploded. The cameraman was sent flying due to the shockwave from the explosion, and was knocked out cold. The van's door flew out towards Rita and slammed her onto the ground. She was knocked out as well."

"Hmph. Serve 'em right. Bloody busybodies," growled JD.

"Where are you going, Jackie?" asked Gayathri, when Jackie made his way towards the door.

"The hospital," said Jackie. "I have to go there and erase their memories about this before they wake up."

"Erase their memories?"

They saw Principal Khadijah stood by the door, a shocked expression on her face. She had closed the doors behind her.

"It's for safety measures, principal," said Jackie. "I only have to erase the memories of those deemed unworthy to maintain the DigiWira's secrets. Rest assured, I won't do it on you."

Principal Khadijah took a moment to process it before she nodded, allowing Jackie to pass through the doors. "How is Adam?"

"He's in great strain. It's best if he rest here," said Jackie. "I'll contact his sister while on my way to the hospital." He closed the doors, as the students were now crowding outside the infirmary.

"I've dismissed the students to go back home," said Principal Khadijah. "But it will be a while until the school compound would be empty."

"Principal! Principal!"

Students were knocking the infirmary's door urgently. Principal Khadijah frowned, and opened the door. "What is it?"

"The sky!" said a boy whose height surpassed her by almost a foot. "Look!"

Curious, the other DigiWira sans JD followed the principal and looked up. Swirls of dark blue clouds emerged from out of nowhere, blocking the clear morning sky. Winds began to pick up, and it wasn't just the area over the school that was affected. The entire neighborhood was affected…and the entire town.

"Something evil's coming?" murmured Gayathri, feeling the winds as they blew towards them. Then she looked around, appearing confused. "Who said that?"

"Said what?" Manny asked.

Gayathri frowned. "Didn't you hear it? I hear some…girl, I think, saying that something bad is coming. Monsters. Dark creatures…."

Manny and Liu Ying frowned. "I don't hear anything other than the winds," said Manny.

Gayathri frowned too. She could have sworn that she had heard someone whispering to her ears a message. It was a breezy voice, female, light as the wind. She could feel the winds blowing against her face, but at the same time she could also hear voices whispering in her ears. Now she could hear not only the breezy female voice as the winds swirled lightly around her, but also a strong masculine voice as the winds picked up. The male was now talking to her, and Gayathri found _his_ voice to be much clearer than the female's. "Be warned…fair maiden of…the winds?" She repeated the male's voice, making her confused more than ever. "You…and…." She tried following _him,_ but the clouds thundered loudly that _his_ voice was drowned by it.

"In danger," she finished, having caught that last word from _him_ before the voices were gone, just as the winds dissipated.

"Who were you talking to?" asked Liu Ying, her expression odd.

"You didn't hear the voices?" whispered Gayathri urgently. "There was a guy and a girl. They were talking to me."

"The only thing I heard was the winds," Liu Ying whispered back.

"Could it be," Manny said slowly, "that you can understand _winds_ now, Gayathri? After all one of your elements is wind."

"You mean, like a new power?" asked Gayathri. "What kind of power is that?"

"Assuming that it's true," said Manny, "were you repeating what the…uh…winds…were telling you?"

"I suppose."

"Then it's fair to assume that the winds had given you a message," said Manny.

Gayathri thought about it and recalled the time when Puspamon was flying towards her hometown, having heard of Leviamon and Beelzemon attacking. She had heard Samudramon calling for her, despite still being miles away from the victimized town. When she was closer, she had heard her friends too. Every time she'd heard them, it was when a gust of wind blew upon her.

Gayathri realized that Manny was probably right. It was certainly a strange power, to be able to understand winds. But if it was so, then the winds had warned her of an impending danger.

"If that's so, then the winds had just told me to be prepared for danger," said Gayathri.

"This isn't good," said Liu Ying. "There are still too many students in the school."

"The three of us should Juara Access now before anybody attacks," suggested Manny. "JD can stay with Adam."

"I'm going with you," said Dina, who had just exited the infirmary. "Rosemon can help."

Liu Ying simply nodded. The DigiWira quickly searched for a secluded spot, but with students running around in panic it was somewhat difficult to find one without risking being exposed by the other students. Finally they took the stairs, went to the topmost level of the school building, and were relieved to find it deserted. From there, to avoid crashing down the top floor due to their sizes as Megas, Liu Ying levitated Gayathri and Dina towards the roof, followed by Manny, before she herself went up there.

"That's a really nifty trick," said Gayathri.

"Yeah, I saw her and JD practically flying up from a practically bottomless abyss yesterday," said Manny.

Liu Ying shot Manny a look, before they released their Digimon partners from their Digivices.

_**Juara Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!**_

_**Lalamon warp-digivolve to…Rosemon!!**_

The three Juara Modes and Rosemon (Burst Mode) headed back towards the assembly ground, but before the students could marvel at their appearances, the sky boomed once again. This time around, four streaks of dark blue energy streaked from the sky, landing in four different places around the school. Apparitions of beings that stood taller than the school buildings began to appear from the blue aura, followed by wisps of dark aura radiating about them, and sinister chuckling which seemed to come from the largest apparition.

They felt a sweeping force that pushed them back, at the same time dismantling some of the roofs as the dark aura left the four beings, now made apparent in all their ghastly glory.

The smallest one, if it_ could_ be considered small considering that it alone towered the four-storey school buildings, was an egg-shaped cyclopean creature. Its yellow eye blinked upon taking in their sight. Its 'head' was armored in black, with three spikes directed backwards. Under the head armor was a metallic body, with a pair of pallid arms jutting out from the sides and a thick pair of legs at the bottom of its egg-like body. The arms ended with three black claws with yellow eye at the center of its 'hand'. Similarly, the legs too ended with three black claws. To complete the bizarreness of its appearance was a thick pointed tail and a pair of leathery, tattered red wings that seemed too small to support its body.

"**Deathmon**, Mega level, Virus type," muttered Samudramon, summoning the data from the Digimon Analyzer.

Contrasting Deathmon's appearance was a thin demon in colorful avian-themed armor and a great pair of scarlet wings that were big enough for its body. Its face was masked with a copper manteau, yet giving view of its dark eyes. The manteau had several perforations that connected to the earth green turban that it wore, the turban's shade mirrored by the shawl it had draped around its neck. Copper armors bearing the shapes of bird heads were worn over its torso and shoulders. Around its waist was something that looked like bones, but if it were then this demon had used it as a belt to hold drapes of green clothes, clasped further by copper plates from the outer sides of its thighs. Sickly blue legs emerged under the drapes, ending with metallic boots that were topped by copper kneecaps. A reptilian tail swished back and forth behind it as it stared coldly towards the three Wira Digital.

"**Murmuxmon**, Mega level, Virus type," whispered Puspamon.

If the two creatures looked deadly enough, nothing could compare them to the other two that surpassed Deathmon and Murmuxmon in terms of height and size. One was humanoid, with thick ivory and purple armors that did nothing to provide it an image of pureness. The face seemed cyanotic, with crimson bat-shaped facemask obscuring the upper half of the face. Scraggly blond hair jutted backwards, hidden by the large purple wings that were erect. The inner sides of the wings were deep red, and seemed to somewhat _melting_ with what looked like blood dripping down from the wings. The shoulder armors were pod-shaped; with red fangs lining the white upper half and purple lower half sides. The chest armor was thick, with a scarlet bat insignia that was almost akin to the insignia SkullSatamon had once bestowed upon Satriamon and Samudramon. The chest gave way to a very thin waist, before triangular-shaped armor was inserted over this demon's pelvic region; the tip pointed forward. The slanted black eyes with yellow beady pupils and the lines of teeth that decorated the sides of the plate armor seemed to suggest that it was actually a head, with the mouth ready to open at any moment notice. The arms and legs were both formidably thick; it could easily brought the entire school to dust with one mere sweep of the arm or a kick of its leg.

The last of the quartet was a dark centaur that seemed to radiate an aura of regality despite its demonic appearance. Compared to its brethren, it was the least armored, but its disposition seemed to suggest that it was the leader of the team of four, thus the strongest of the four. Long sleek burnish hair rippled down its back. Cerulean mask with three points jutting upwards covered its eyes, the mask's shade bluer than its complexion. Its thin body and arms were draped with mahogany brown leather, and the monster was casually crossing its arms over its chest. The furry lower bestial body however looked extremely horrifying; metallic shark-like _mouths_ jutted out from each side of its waist, both wide-opened, showing rows of sharp teeth and curled tongues that ready to snap out. All of its four legs ended with gleaming claws, and curls of blond hair formed its tail. This demonic centaur was smiling; its leathery black wings were in a mid-flapping position that suggested that it was the one who had pushed them away previously.

"**Belialvamdemon** and **GranDracmon**," said Xianamon in barely contained fear, "Viral Megas."

"And we're the Four Terrors," GranDracmon added in a pleasant, gentlemanly voice. "Thank you for the introductions, my dear. Now we're not strangers, for we have heard of your exploits."

"The Four Terrors? It can't be!" Rosemon gasped. "Lady Ophanimon had beaten you, all those centuries ago! How can you still be alive?!"

"_Beaten_ us?" Belialvamdemon rasped. "Despite the power bestowed upon her by the Lost Mountain's former guardian, she could not take on the four of us altogether! She merely had created an abyss and imprisoned us there, bounded by her holy powers to prevent our escape."

"Luck has it that she had gotten herself destroyed," said Murmuxmon darkly. "Her deletion paved way for our escape as the enchantment she had placed on us weakened."

"Enough with the small talks," said Deathmon, eyeing the panicked school pupils. His golden eye glinted evilly. "_Explosion Eye!"_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

The Four Terrors are all Demon Lords Digimon as well, save for GranDracmon who is a Demon Beast. Their affiliation to the demon lords is the reason why I chose them to be the Four Terrors. Murmuxmon, Deathmon and Belialvamdemon are a given, and for the fourth member I've decided to include GranDracmon. And the reason why I chose the name Belialvamdemon instead of MaloMyotismon is…well…Belialvamdemon sounds much more evil. As for Deathmon instead of Ghoulmon…come on, you know the reason right? It's like choosing Demon/Daemon over Creepymon.


	71. Out of Control, Part II

Alisha jumped slightly when the doorbell rang, before quickly darting towards the door. Having already properly attired, she swung the door open. She was only expecting one person that morning; the previous day she and Abu had made plans to go for breakfast together at a café, since Abu had the day off. Yet she would have to cancel that, for she had received very disturbing news.

"Jackie just called," she said breathlessly. Salamon and Gatomon peered from the doorway, careful lest there were the neighbors passing by.

"I know," said Abu grimly. "I saw it on my way here."

"Saw?" Alisha asked, dumbfounded.

"The sky." Abu gestured for her to step outside. Alisha instantly realized what Abu was talking about. She could have sworn that just moments ago it was a sunny morning. Now dark clouds hovered, their shadows loomed upon the world below forebodingly.

"What's going on?"

"This isn't ordinary," said Gatomon, frowning. Her tail ring suddenly glimmered with soft pink light.

"Whoa. Gatomon, look at your tail ring!" Salamon exclaimed.

"Your collar too, brother." Gatomon glanced at her ring before gazing up towards their partners. "Dark Digimon's coming. That's the only reason why our holy charms are acting up like this."

"I've never seen our charms acting up like this since that time with the Puaka Generals," agreed Salamon.

Abu nodded, before gazing back to Alisha. "I assume this is why Jackie called you?"

"No. It's Adam….they said he collapsed all of a sudden. Jackie didn't elaborate, but he mentioned Adam straining himself." She stared at her beau pleadingly. "We've got to cancel that breakfast plan…"

"Of course. Don't worry about it, Lisha. If it'll make you feel better, I'll go there and check up on him."

Alisha nodded gratefully. "I'll go with you. Thank you. Let me get my keys and purse."

"Don't forget the Digivices," said Gatomon.

A minute later the two adults were headed to Abu's car, before blue sparks of lightning caught their attention. Even from the apartment, which was a few good miles away from Adam's non-visible school, they could clearly see four monstrosities looming over the school. Alisha gasped softly while Abu released the Saintly Siblings from their Digivices.

"Whoa!" Salamon gasped. His cerulean eyes narrowed, defying the adorableness that he exuded with his Rookie form. "Four demons. And there's something…familiar about them."

"The only time I've ever heard of a GranDracmon, a Belialvamdemon, a Deathmon and a Murmuxmon grouped together is three hundred years ago, but I thought they're just an ancient folklore," said Gatomon grimly, her expression mirroring her twin brother's. She saw the looks exchanged between their human partners, and realized that more explanation was due. "They formed a group called the Four Terrors…but the Four Terrors were beaten by Ophanimon way before SkullSatamon's era of evil…"

"Four Terrors? There _are_ four of them there," pointed out Abu.

Gatomon pondered about it as she rubbed her chin. "It was never said that they are deleted, though. Only beaten…" She gave her twin brother a dark look.

"This is bad," Salamon groaned. "Sis, we better go check the situation out. No doubt the DigiWira will need our help."

"I agree." Gatomon turned to face their partners. "Kak Lisha, Abang Abu," she addressed their partners the same way Adam would address them, merely out of habit and also of respect, "we need you to digivolve us to our highest level. And please stay here where it's safe."

Alisha frowned. "But Adam…"

"We'll see to it that he's alright," assured Salamon. "No doubt that the Wira Digital would be fighting those monsters now. We want to help."

Alisha and Abu exchanged worried looks, before they saw that their Digimon partners were right. Reluctantly they pointed their Digivices towards the siblings, allowing silver, pink and violet lights to shower upon Gatomon and Salamon, energizing them with power enough to propel them to their strongest fused form.

"_**Gatomon…Salamon….Warp DNA Digivolve to…. GuardiAngemon!!"**_

xxx

xxx

"Why is it so dark all of a sudden?" murmured Debbie, looking up towards the cloudy sky.

Opie had no answer to that, but he could feel the feathers on his body stood up. He knew that something was wrong. As a former member of the Avian Shines, he had a keen sense upon darkness, being a Digimon of light while in his Mega form. He couldn't explain what was happening, but knew in his heart that there was going to be another invasion.

The Wira Digital would be able to handle it, he knew. Yet he also knew that somehow, his help would be needed.

"Debbie, your brother and Penguinmon might need my help," he began gently. He had to remember that his human partner was very young, and thus he had to be careful not to excite her too much.

Debbie however surprised him when she gave him a solemn nod. She fumbled with her pajama pants, before taking out her Digivice which had been clipped there.

"Do you want mushroom soup when you get back?" she inquired earnestly. "I can ask Mummy to make some."

Opie grinned. How lucky was he to be partnered with her? "That would be very nice, Debbie. Thanks."

Debbie nodded and pointed the Digivice towards him. Showers of white and cerulean lights washed upon Opie.

"_**Muchomon warp-digivolve to….Valkyrimon!!"**_

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 71 – Out of Control, Part II **_

xxx

xxx

"_Explosion Eye!"_

The attack was unpredictable. Deathmon had swiftly raised his hands up; the eyes on the hands and on the face all let out streams of orange energy beam that merged, before creating an orange energy bolt the size of a truck. The bolt streaked towards the panicked students before the Wira Digital could do anything.

"Oh no, stop!" Xianamon gasped, inadvertently raised both hands.

Instantly everything went still and quiet. Deathmon's energy sphere had frozen halfway. Everyone except her was unmoving.

Xianamon had called upon her Temporal Time Stasis. "Better make this count," she whispered, gliding towards Deathmon's energy bolt, positioning herself between the energy bolt and the students. She erected an Elegant Barrier to protect the students, and then forcefully waved her arm towards the energy bolt, sending it blasting back towards Deathmon. Her tampering with something that had been frozen broke the freezing effect, but Deathmon had been sent flying upon collision with the power sphere. The demon crashed upon an abandoned school block, reducing it to rubbles due to his sheer size.

Deathmon let out a moan, his whole body shivering before becoming still. Xianamon sighed with relief.

"What just happened?" Murmuxmon cast a curious gaze towards Xianamon. "You, how did you move from one place to another in a blink of the eye?"

Xianamon saw that the Four Terrors had no idea of what had just happened. If she was able to keep her ability as a secret, the Four Terrors would not know what to expect of them. It would give them an edge for this battle, which they must end as soon as possible. She then eyed the students, safe behind the Elegant Barrier.

_They won't be safe as long as they are here,_ she thought. _I have to get them out of here._

She flicked her hand and the Elegant Barrier wrapped around the confined students, confining them in a protective rainbow sphere. She saw many others scattered around the school, and pulled them into the sphere telekinetically. While at first her attempt garnered squeals of protest from the students and teachers alike, including Principal Khadijah, they soon saw what she was doing and stopped protesting so much. She proceeded by pulling in the school workers, canteen operators and the guard on duty as well before levitating the sphere, ready to get the sphere to safety.

"You're not going anywhere!" Murmuxmon pointed a hand towards Xianamon. Dark purple flames flared from it.

"Hey! Worry about this instead!" Puspamon spun her staff rapidly, generating a pink flowery windstorm. _"Viveka Chudamani – Hailstorm!" _

Rosemon, who seemed somewhat agitated, flew over the vertical windstorm before adding her own effort to it. _"Aguichant Levres!" _

Samudramon joined in by calling forth his Zeus Ex Thunderstrike. The three attacks coalesced together and headed towards Murmuxmon. The avian demon was forced to forget about Xianamon in order to counter the incoming attacks. Yet Murmuxmon needn't worry when a large armored hand intercepted the attack on his behalf.

Belialvamdemon had stepped in, and being armored the attacks didn't harm him at all. "Go after that sorceress," he grunted.

Murmuxmon left without a word, pursuing Xianamon who had already escaped with the ones she was protecting.

The armored vampire shifted his eyes towards the remaining three warriors. "And as for you… _Melting Blood!"_ His shoulder pods snapped open and spewed forth red acidic mist that enveloped the warriors, causing them to scream as the mist corroded against their armors. For Puspamon and Samudramon the effects were not as severe for they were armored, but Rosemon suffered the most.

"The mist's corrosive!" shouted Rosemon painfully. Her leather outfit couldn't protect her from the mists. She spun around, waving the mists away with her glowing cape.

Samudramon charged his power over water. "I'll take care of it. _Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

Waves of pure water spiraled around Samudramon, soared towards the sky before washing upon them once again as well as on Belialvamdemon. The mist was drowned by the pure water, and Samudramon seized the opportunity to fire a blue energy orb with the rains of water spiraling around it towards Belialvamdemon.

"Child's play!" Belialvamdemon didn't even bother to move as the orb slammed on his abdomen. It did so little to deter him for he was larger, but Samudramon was ready with a second attack.

"_Zeus Ex Thunderstrike!"_

Having been saved by the waters, Rosemon quickly joined in the fray. _"Aguichant Levres!"_

And Puspamon wouldn't be left out. _"Viveka Chudamani – Sky Cutter!"_

Belialvamdemon was pushed back by the combined force of the attacks hailed his way. He snarled; the lasers from Puspamon's diamond staff did little to harm him due to his heavy armors, but his wings had suffered. Rosemon's laser-spewing hearts had added to the insult, while Samudramon's lightning bolts were not to be underestimated. From the corner of his eyes he saw GranDracmon watching the whole ordeal with an amused smirk, showing no inclination of helping him. In the meantime, Deathmon was still unconscious; the Cyclops must have generated too much power in his attempt to attack, which caused _him_ to be the one who got knocked out by that sorceress's trickery. Belialvamdemon couldn't count on him to help out as well.

Not that he actually needed any. "The fun ends here, foolish ones. Now feel the wrath of my Sodom and Gomorrah," he intoned. _"Pandemonium Flames!"_

The shoulder pods opened, releasing streams of dark flames towards the Wira Digital. The attacks hit Samudramon, Puspamon and Rosemon, sending them crashing against the school canteen. They were however saved by Samudramon's timely intervention seconds before Belialvamdemon released his powerful fire attack; the Depth Bomber had somewhat toned down the severity of the Pandemonium Flames although it had failed to counter the attack wholly. Belialvamdemon was just too powerful for Samudramon alone.

"He's too powerful," groaned Samudramon, freeing himself from the wreckage.

"They're the Four Terrors," said Rosemon fearfully. "The lady Ophanimon had a hard time defeating them."

"Well we're not going to give up that easily," said Puspamon, turning to Samudramon. "Time for a double-team."

"Right." The couple interlocked hands and crisscrossed their weapons. _"Everlasting Storm!"_

A chilling snowstorm spewed out from the clouds after a series of thunderstorm, rainstorm and windstorm, focusing upon Belialvamdemon alone.

"Ice and snow against my dark fires?" Belialvamdemon growled. "Smart move, but we shall see whether it's a worthwhile attempt or a waste of time._ Pandemonium Flames!"_

The flames and pushed against the blizzard. For a moment, the flames seemed to be stronger and at other moment the snowstorm managed to freeze a portion of the flames. It was apparent that the two attacks were equal in strength. Finally, an explosion occurred and both the couple and Belialvamdemon were pushed away from each other. Seizing the chance, Rosemon loomed towards the staggering Belialvamdemon and unleashed flurries of her energy hearts; one could see how agitated she was. He didn't bother to protect himself for his armors would do it for him.

"_Tifaret!"_ Rosemon slammed her star-powered jewels upon Belialvamdemon, but the demon's armor was just too strong that the jewels were deflected away.

"Impudent wench!_ Melting Blood!"_

Rosemon screamed. The corrosive mist was too concentrated for her to withstand. She dedigivolved into Lalamon instantly, still screaming in pain.

"And now to finish you," rumbled Belialvamdemon, raising his massive fist.

"Oh no, you don't!" Puspamon sailed towards Lalamon in top speed and gave Belialvamdemon's fist a sound kick. She retrieved Lalamon and swung her staff forward, releasing lasers to impede Belialvamdemon as she retreated back to safety.

Samudramon saw that Puspamon needed some cover for her escape. _"Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

Belialvamdemon was further slammed by a concentrated amount of pure water led by an azure power sphere. He was pushed back and the mists were drowned by the waters. He grunted; Samudramon was beginning to become a thorn on his side. Samudramon's pure water was nullifying his corrosive mists. And while he managed to take out Rosemon, doing the same would be difficult against these powerful pair of fighters. He watched the aquatic man with careful eye.

"_Depth Bomber!"_

"Interesting," commented GranDracmon as Belialvamdemon was overwhelmed with pods of water coming from Samudramon. "They actually have the power to resist us. It was impossible last time…"

"Rather than spewing your so-called thoughtful insights, why not help me deal with these pests?!" demanded Belialvamdemon as he countered the water pods with his large arms.

"I will," assured GranDracmon, "when you need it the most. I was told that there is another Wira Digital we should be keeping an eye on. The one with the power of light, the leader of these defenders of good. He has yet to show himself."

Samudramon and Puspamon exchanged one glance. The Four Terrors didn't seem that much perturbed while the Wira Digital had been giving their best shots. So far they had only managed to take out Deathmon, and that was by Xianamon's time manipulation and telekinesis that caused Deathmon to be at the receiving end of his own attack. No doubt Deathmon had aimed to destroy, thus his own attack had been powerful enough to take him down. For that, they were grateful, especially when Rosemon was down for the count and Adam being unconscious.

It would be up to them to stop Belialvamdemon and GranDracmon.

"If you won't help me, fine," snapped Belialvamdemon, his wings flaring with red and black aura. _"Blood Rain!"_

Energy whips colored deep red lashed out from Belialvamdemon's wings and struck both Puspamon and Samudramon rapidly. Each struck caused a dent on their armor, and they soon found themselves overwhelmed by the powerful energy whips from the vampire demon. Belialvamdemon advanced forward as the two Wira Digital lost their balances and crashed onto the assembly ground.

"See," said GranDracmon. "You don't need my help after all."

Belialvamdemon grunted and ceased using the energy whips. He watched with a smirk as Samudramon and Puspamon both struggled to even stand up. He was victorious.

"They're not the ones the generals ordered to spare," said GranDracmon. "Why don't you do the honors?"

Belialvamdemon thumped his fists together. "With pleasure."

xxx

xxx

"Damn," muttered JD, eyeing the battle via the infirmary's window. "Those damned demons are just too strong."

"Adam!" gasped Patamon all of a sudden, drawing JD's attention back to his cousin.

Adam was letting out a faint white aura before his eyes fluttered open. He appeared dazed for a moment, taking in his surrounding before setting his eyes on JD. His expression made JD recoil a little; the face wasn't that of his cousin that he had come to know about and adored. It still had Adam's features, but somehow he thought that they were different. The _silent-anger_ expression on Adam's face was very alien to him, made apparent by how his brows were knitted together and his mouth set thin. He had seen those before, and he didn't like it.

Those were the expression Adam had when the Puaka Generals revealed their deceptions. It was how Adam looked before he and Patamon transformed into Aldiyamon Fury Mode.

Adam didn't address him. He simply cast a look towards Patamon. "Patamon, let's go," he said, his voice solemn and somewhat echoic.

For a moment JD thought that it was _Aldiyamon_ who had just spoken instead of Adam.

"Adam, you can't," he said, drawing the boy's attention. To his surprise, Adam's angered expression was gone. He looked somewhat serene when their eyes met.

"I must go," insisted Adam. "Samudramon and Puspamon need my help."

JD blinked. "How did you…?" Adam had been unconscious, yet he seemed to know about the battle.

"I feel their silent cries calling out to me," said Adam, sounding absolutely sure. "That's why I must go. Patamon, come."

Before JD could stop them, they teleported away in showers of light orbs. He sighed, as a flash of very bright light erupted from the outside. "Be careful, Adam," he said, once again eyeing the battle from the window, with his hand grasping something inside his trousers pocket – his Juara Digivice, with Agumon's DigiEgg inside it.

He really wanted to go out there and join his friends, but all these days since Agumon's reconfiguration, he still couldn't shake off ChaosGallantmon's words from haunting his mind…

xxx

xxx

Lucemon smirked. Adam's empathic window had been raised again, though not by his manipulation. The window was now half-opened.

"As a boy, his power has grown to a point where he could wreck a vehicle," said the Hellion General. "It will be interesting to see how he fares in his Wira Digital form."

xxx

xxx

Xianamon flew towards the municipal council's public sports field, with the telekinetic sphere containing the school people hovering over her. In her Juara Mode, she was somewhat relieved that her telekinetic power had grown to a much refined level; she was able to fly as well as levitate without apparent difficulty.

"_Gehenna Flames!"_

Xianamon gasped as a burning aura grazed her back. It was by sheer luck that her whole being was coated with a light amount of telekinetic barrier, another certain perk of her power. It would protect her from ordinary attacks, yet the one that had hit her was anything but. She glanced back, and saw an unsightly being pursuing her.

"There's no escaping!" intoned Murmuxmon. "Not from me!"

"We'll see about that. _Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace."_

Her bell-attached ribbon sprang from her body towards Murmuxmon and began lashing out at him like serpents upon being threatened. She wondered how long she would be able to keep Murmuxmon at bay, with her attacks all being somewhat close-ranged. The Jade Heart Rhapsody could probably take the demon out, but seeing how Murmuxmon had easily burned her ribbon with his purple flames, she realized that she had to come up with another way to attack him.

She lowered the protected people down towards the open road; what little vehicles which were there had all halted and people ran about in fright.

Xianamon withdrew her torn ribbons back, but to her surprise they glowed and shattered into data particles. The data coalesced around her right hand, before forming a long gold staff that ended with a golden ring at the top, with the two bells affixed on top of it. Smaller rings were attached to the main large ring, and white sashes draped around the point where the ring connected with the staff, tied into a flower-shaped ribbon with two long ends billowing down the staff.

"A data weaver," commented Murmuxmon. "I see you have close relations to the Sakuyamon and Kuzuhamon species, so you must be a powerful sorceress."

Xianamon had no idea what Murmuxmon was talking about. She felt power radiating from her staff, and knowledge flowed into her mind.

"Nevertheless, you are still no match for me! _Necro…"_

Xianamon wasn't going to allow Murmuxmon to attack. _"Ryoukai Mandala!"_

The Ryoukai Mandala worked nearly the same way as either the Diamond Matrix or the Diamond World Mandalas; from above and under Murmuxmon a circle of magical rune materialized, trapping Murmuxmon inside a rainbow-colored barrier akin to the Elegant Barrier. Then lightning bolts followed by waves of energy and flurries of sharp jewels showered the trapped demon from above and below.

Murmuxmon screamed in pain, but at the same time Xianamon could see him glowing with evil flames. The demon extended his arms to the sides and began jutting out flames from his hands. The barrier that was containing him began to falter; the lightning and energy waves ceased while the jewels hovered within the barrier, slowly orbiting Murmuxmon as he continued to release more flames.

Finally the barrier shattered and Murmuxmon was free. The demon heaved his breaths slowly, before snarling towards the sorceress.

"That was impressive," he said. What bothering Xianamon was the fact that Murmuxmon seemed to have suffered little damages; his armors dent and a small portion of his clothes ripped. Otherwise the demon appeared at the pink of health. "But I've been holding out long enough. You're not the one the generals requested to spare, and so I shall destroy you now! _Necro…"_

"Not so fast!"

Xianamon saw two points of light speeding towards them. She saw Opie first; the Valkyrimon slashed his sword upon Murmuxmon's left shoulder before joining her side. "I saw you, and thought you might need help," said the former Avian Shine. "And I'm not alone."

"_Heaven's Ripper!"_

Murmuxmon turned back, only to be blinded by white and gold lights coming from GuardiAngemon. Rains of metallic feather projectiles ensued, ripping him apart before GuardiAngemon loomed with his giant blades ready to strike. Snarling, Murmuxmon slashed his fiery claws forward and actually managed to block the giant blades.

GuardiAngemon nevertheless pushed forward. "So you're indeed one of the Four Terrors!" said the angel.

"So you've heard of me," said Murmuxmon calmly, before opening his mouth. _"Gehenna Flames!!"_

GuardiAngemon was forced to pull his blades back as the flames threatened to burn him. He was armored with Chrome Digizoid, but he didn't know of Murmuxmon's true power and wouldn't risk being harmed this early in battle. Murmuxmon was free from his blades, but GuardiAngemon prepared to launch another attack upon realizing that his holy aura repelled the flames somewhat, what little amount of flames that grazed his armor did nothing to actually harm him.

Murmuxmon assessed his situation, turning his glance from GuardiAngemon to Valkyrimon and finally to Xianamon. "Interesting. All of you have holy aspects imbued within you, but in the angel it's even more concentrated." He smirked towards GuardiAngemon. "So you will be the first to die!_ Necro…"_

"_Lightning Arrow!"_

Murmuxmon's attack was halted when an arrow of electricity slammed on his hands. He inclined his head towards Valkyrimon, who was holding out his crossbow. "A fellow avian warrior," he muttered. "I have no wish to harm you, but if you're going to betray your own kind for these…"

"Save it," said Valkyrimon. "Won't be the first time I've been called a traitor anyway. _Lightning Arrow!"_

"Fine. Then you will die as well. _Necro…"_

"_Heaven's Ripper!"_

Murmuxmon calmly moved away from GuardiAngemon's incoming attack, but Xianamon was fast approaching. She swung her free hand gently and her whole being glowed with gold.

"_Kitsune Mahou!"_

A nine-tailed spirit fox projected out from her body and streaked towards Murmuxmon. The kitsune streaked _through_ Murmuxmon, unstoppable by his flames, and caused Murmuxmon to let out a cry of pain. The spirit fox dissipated out of sight, but Murmuxmon was seen clutching his chest as an explosion of light followed.

"Let's finish him now!" Valkyrimon said spiritedly. _"Lightning…"_

"_Heaven's…"_

Murmuxmon grunted. "Maybe some other time, fools."

Murmuxmon snapped his finger and engulfed himself with purple flames the shape of a screeching vulture. The vulture wrapped around him before vanishing before any of them could react. The people cheered for their victory, while the good warriors were left astounded of Murmuxmon's sudden retreat.

xxx

xxx

Puspamon and Samudramon struggled to get up as Belialvamdemon loomed upon them. Their armors had suffered from Belialvamdemon's vicious lashings, and it was clear to them that the vampire demon had no intention to hold back anymore. He had proven it once, he would do so again.

"It's been a pleasure," rumbled the vampire, "but the fun ends here. _Blood Rain!"_

The blood energy whips coiled out from Belialvamdemon's wings and lashed towards the fallen Wira Digital, but showers of light orbs coated the energy whips before they exploded into data particles. Belialvamdemon recoiled as a majestic white firebird flared before him. Within the firebird was an angelic knight, sword in his hand.

"Aldiyamon," he snarled softly. _He's here. I have to be careful._

Aldiyamon looked at his fallen comrades and his mouth knitted thin. He swung the Heavenstar Gladius towards Belialvamdemon, releasing a bladed energy wave._ "Heavenstar Slasher!"_

Belialvamdemon prepared to intercept the attack, but to his surprise the energy blade tore through the armors coating his hands. He hissed in pain, but Aldiyamon showed no sign of stopping his assault. With one discreet nod towards his fallen comrades, Aldiyamon had teleported Samudramon and Puspamon away, clearing a path between him and Belialvamdemon. A radiant white bow materialized within his left hand and he fixed the silver sword upon the bow's string.

_"Heavenstar Hunter!"_

"_Pandemonium Flames!"_

The sword however tore through the flames and struck his left shoulder cannon. An unearthly shriek ensued before it combusted into data particles and Aldiyamon's sword reappeared in its master's hand. Belialvamdemon let out a surprised gasp as Aldiyamon was about to repeat his attack.

"Lucemon wasn't kidding when he said we have to watch out for you," grunted Belialvamdemon.

Aldiyamon faltered slightly. The mention of Lucemon's name seemed to have distracted him for a moment. A look of recognition suddenly crossed his face, and Belialvamdemon could practically feel the anger burning from him. He heard a light snarl coming from the angel, before the bow of light simmered to nothingness. The sword however remained and Aldiyamon was pointing it towards him.

"_Transcendent Purification!"_

If Belialvamdemon had thought that Aldiyamon's previous attacks as powerful, he wasn't prepared for an attack of _this_ magnitude. The stream of light energy slammed upon his extended palm, and he hissed upon its pure radiance that threatened to corrode his palm. For a moment he cursed the fact that the Four Terrors were beings of darkness, with light being their bane. Samudramon, Puspamon and Rosemon all seemed to possess a certain amount of holy aspects in their attacks, but Aldiyamon…he was _light incarnate_.

Despite that, Aldiyamon shouldn't be this strong. His power was somehow equal to Ophanimon's when she was imbued with the power from the Lost Mountain.

The light energy then wrapped around him like a cyclone as Aldiyamon's sword disappeared; the angel was now using his hands to unleash his never-faltering attack. Belialvamdemon gritted his teeth; he would not let his enemy have the satisfaction of hearing him cry out in pain. Nevertheless, the light cyclone was threatening to rip his armor apart, forcing him to cry out, "GranDracmon! Help me!"

xxx

xxx

GranDracmon watched the ordeal between Aldiyamon and Belialvamdemon with mild interest before deciding to step in.

"Aldiyamon, cease your attack," he said calmly.

Aldiyamon frowned, but didn't follow GranDracmon's command outright. There was something_ fascinating_ about the way GranDracmon spoke to him, like everything would be alright if he did. He thought that it was ridiculous for him to think so, for GranDracmon was the enemy. Nothing the demonic centaur said would be good for him. But why was he having a hard time doubting GranDracmon?

"You don't want to do this," said GranDracmon. "Why don't you stop attacking the poor soul Belialvamdemon there and we talk?"

The longer GranDracmon talked the more Aldiyamon thought it as a good idea. He lowered his hands.

Belialvamdemon grunted. "You're much welcome," said GranDracmon. "Now, Aldiyamon, how do you feel about destroying these unsightly buildings?"

Aldiyamon considered it. Why not? "All…Alright," he said, and began charging up his attack.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Aldiyamon blinked. JD's voice invaded his mind so profoundly that he began to feel his mind_ clearing._ It was as if it was foggy at first, and JD's voice had willed the fogs away. Confused, he looked down at JD, who had emerged from the infirmary, staring at him with his fist pumped up.

"You can't be serious! You said _alright_ when he told you to destroy the school? What the HELL is wrong with you?!"

The angelic knight gasped softly. Did JD just say what he thought he had heard? Why did he say alright? It had seemed like a good idea when GranDracmon suggested it to him. But when JD had yelled at him about it, Aldiyamon realized that it wasn't a good idea at all. It was a notoriously horrific idea. What had GranDracmon done to him?

_He's messing with my head,_ realized Aldiyamon, and instantly his anger towards the demonic centaur flared once again.

"Don't listen to him, Aldiyamon," said GranDracmon, still calm. Aldiyamon felt a shiver running down his spine. Whatever GranDracmon was doing, his voice seemed to have an effect on Aldiyamon.

"Stay out of my head!" he hissed, glaring towards GranDracmon with fury. He'd had enough of _Lucemon_ constantly invading his mind telepathically during their training, and now this demon was also messing with his head? Lucemon might have a reason for Aldiyamon _not_ to destroy him, for now, but this centaur certainly had not.

"_Transcendent Purification!"_

A burst of furious light wave slammed upon GranDracmon. That surprised the demonic centaur, but Aldiyamon wasn't going to stop with just that. Underneath his silver manteau, his brows knitted so tightly that he could have formed a permanent fissure in between his brows. These demons were so going to get it!

He had known that anger was the trigger to his new combustion power, and he was going to put it to use now.

His hands shook as a more forceful Transcendent Purification blasted out towards GranDracmon. The demon, while intercepting his attack so readily seconds ago, let out a soft gasp as the attack began pushing him backward. Aldiyamon could see the demon actually looked somewhat troubled, merely by the way the confident smirk vanished from the demon's face. He snarled, and summoned more power.

However he hadn't counted on Belialvamdemon to join GranDracmon. The two demons attacked him simultaneously.

"_Blood Rain!"_

"_Eye of Gorgon!"_

Aldiyamon was blasted towards one of the school's four buildings, and his powers backfired violently. His own power and the attacks from GranDracmon and Belialvamdemon caused the A-block building he had crashed onto and B-block adjacent to it to be ripped apart. The demons laughed, and the last thing Aldiyamon saw was them retreating, disappearing into thin air.

He could sense soft cry coming from afar. _Dina!_ JD's shocked howl ensued, followed by the gasps from Samudramon and Puspamon.

Shutting his eyes, he willed the anger to _go away_ and prayed that he would be able to do this right. He forced himself to take a few deep calming breaths, and summoned his teleportation power. Anger triggered his combustion power, without anger he should be able to call upon his power's basic ability.

In showers of light orbs, he vanished as the A-block crumbled, followed by JD seconds before the B-block would fall upon him. From the intact adjacent C-block, Dina who had been watching also disappeared, as well as Samudramon and Puspamon who had been safely teleported elsewhere previously.

Everything seemed _bigger _to him as they all rematerialized at the school field. He realized that he was back being Adam, with Patamon plopped onto the ground. Tears stung his eye as they watched as the school's two most prominent blocks reduced to piles of unsalvageable rubbles. The only blocks that remained standing was the C-block and the school's greenhouse. The other three were destroyed.

xxx

xxx

The destruction of the school had caused uproar that day. If previously, there were some who were still hesitant to leave Subang Jaya, by nightfall the town was almost transformed into a ghost town. Never had the town experienced such deathly silence. Somehow, people had made the connection between the attack at the school and towards the two reporters, and had realized that it would be best to evacuate to the nearby towns which had relatively enjoyed safety from Digimon attacks.

The official evacuation order had come out that night. It was impossible for _everyone_ to leave the town, for there were some who had no place to go, but everyone had been alerted to safety measures should there be another attack. Within the town itself, the three shopping complexes, the hospital, other schools and mosques were used as places for people to gather whenever there was an attack, and these locations were made public so that the Wira Digital would know of it. The government had no known connections with the mysterious team of superheroes, and had hoped that by making this information public the Wira Digital would be able to defend these locations from harm. The town borders were guarded by the government soldiers and policemen to aid the evacuation process.

That night, Adam sat alone by the swings within his apartment complex. He and his sister had opted to remain in the town, for both of them had Digimon partners that would be able to protect them from harm. Adam nevertheless wasn't sure of how able he was to protect his sister – his powers had become so destructive this day alone. Abu and Jackie had informed him earlier that day that Rita and Chia would be fine, but they would remain at the hospital for the time being for observation. Jackie had made them forgot about the incident, instead making them belief that they had been involved with an accident. Abu had questioned the _ethic _of altering their memories, but eventually agreed to it in order to protect Adam.

Adam hated it. He had done something horrible and now he had people covering up for his mistakes. Not only he had nearly killed the two reporters, he had also inadvertently caused the destruction of the school. Many believed that the evil Digimon were responsible for _both_. If only they knew.

"Adam?"

He nearly jumped in surprise. JD stood across the badminton court, gazing at him. Adam noted, as his cousin brother crossed the court, that he was dressed somewhat nicely, as if ready to go out somewhere in his black buttoned down shirt and blue jeans. He stood up with trepidation; was JD here to question him about all that had happened today?

JD gave him a small smile. "Relax. I'm not here to interrogate you for what happened today and your weird behaviors these past few days."

"Huh?" Adam asked, dumbfounded.

"Let's sit down, Adam." JD gestured towards the bench, where they had made their blood oath just three days ago.

"Are you going out somewhere?" Adam sat down beside JD, taking in his appearance once again.

"That's what I'm here about," said JD, clearly unenthusiastic. "My folks decided to evacuate. We'll be staying somewhere near the international airport, which according to Dad, is pretty far from here."

Adam nodded weakly, his heart heavy. "And you're going along."

JD gazed at him for a moment, as if considering his words. "For three days, yeah," he said finally. "I'm coming back here on Friday. I'm hoping to be able to stay with you and Kak Lisha."

Adam looked up, confused and surprised at the same time.

JD sighed. "I don't want my folks to know about the curse. So I thought…" He gazed up at the moon, which had the shape of a bowl. It would be full moon in less than a week. "It's better if they think that I…got killed during a battle instead of the curse. I'm gonna spend these last few days with them, then the final two days with you and the others. I don't want them to see me die."

"Josh…"

"And Adam," said JD, raising his hand to silence him. "I don't know what you've been up to, but is it about me? About the curse?"

Adam nodded. He didn't want to lie to JD if he didn't have to.

"Found anything?"

Thinking about it for a while, he shook his head. "But I won't give up, Josh. I won't."

JD smiled. "I know. I appreciate it, Adam, but don't get too worked up about this ok?"

"How can you ask me not to?" Adam asked, his voice broken. "Do you expect me to just accept the fact that you're going to die because of a stupid curse? Do you? I don't know about you, but even if you have given up, I haven't. I _won't_." Adam stopped, realizing that he had rambled on too much and his eyes stung with tears again. Quickly he took in a deep breath, schooling his mood to become calm again. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally combust something.

JD's smile didn't falter much. "You taught me one thing," he said. "You said that if it's meant to happen, it will happen, right? Remember? When you told me about your brother and parents?"

"It's…I…" Adam was at loss. He did tell JD those. "But I won't just wait around until it happens, either. Not when there might be a way to get around it. I just have to find it."

The way JD smiled at him seemed to tell him not to get his hopes too high up. It pained Adam when JD seemed to have _accepted_ the curse as his undoing. Well, he would do something about that. He was training for it now. He had lost one brother before; he wasn't about to lose another for a curse. It wouldn't be fair for everyone.

"Adam…as far as I know about your new power, its source is your feelings…and the feelings of others that you're feeling," said JD.

Adam stared at his cousin. JD spoke about it as if he _knew_ about it.

"Do you know what happened yesterday? During the battle with Barbamon?"

"No…"

"Something…interesting happened. Your combustion power…somehow _I _managed to do it yesterday. I couldn't do it again now, but at that time, I was trapped inside a barrier and Liu Ying and Labramon were in danger. Barbamon was going to kill them, so I had to escape. But when I punched the barrier, my fist was stuck and the barrier lashed back at me by jolting me with electricity…"

Adam gasped. "That…that was awful!"

"It was." JD nodded, now placing his hand on Adam's shoulder. "I didn't know what to do. I thought the barrier was going to kill me for sure…so I called out for _you._ In my mind."

"Really?" Adam had actually heard JD while he was training with Lucemon. So JD _had_ been in trouble then.

"Yeah…and all of a sudden my stuck fist let out these light orbs, those that only you could do. The orbs coated the whole barrier, before causing it to explode into data, like deleted Digimon. It was wicked. I knew that it wasn't _my_ power which had done that, so it must have been yours. You have such a cool power now."

"Cool? I can't control it," whispered Adam. "I don't know whether I'd teleport or combust stuffs now."

"Is that why you were MIA yesterday? And for last week..."

Adam recognized the opportunity to lie. JD had provided the opening; Adam would have to seize it. "Yes…that was it. You saw what happened today. I shouldn't have come to school at all."

"If you didn't,_ everyone_ would get trashed by those Four Terrors. Or worse, killed," pointed out JD, "because let's face it, those demons were winning before Aldiyamon stepped in."

"But the school…"

"They would have leveled it down anyway. What happened today was not your fault."

"How about Rita and her assistant? It was me who caused the van's explosion. My powers spiraled out of control…"

"When they threatened you," JD cut in. "They _had_ it coming. They went too far, they dug too deep. You had to shut them up, and you went ballistic. Hell, _I_ went ballistic when they were around." JD smirked. "You think maybe I rubbed you off the wrong way? Only I didn't go around exploding stuff, I used my fist to do it." He jerked up his eyebrows in a provoking manner.

Adam shoved JD lightly. "Not funny."

"Maybe, but you're smiling a bit. That's a good sign."

"We shouldn't be joking about this," Adam insisted.

"Heh…ok, ok. Sorry. But at least they're alright right? No harm done."

"Except that I had literally obliterated their van…"

"There's that. Never mind. Let's drop it."

Silence. JD then cleared his throat. "You know, I was thinking. About yesterday. When I thought of you that time, somehow I managed to channel your power." JD gazed at him, as if searching for the answer inside Adam's eyes. It made him somewhat uncomfortable but Adam didn't look away. "And today, you woke up because you said you heard Samudramon and Puspamon's pleas for help."

Adam inclined his head slightly. JD had brought up two valid points, but he hadn't asked anything yet.

"Those are your empathy's doing?"

Adam considered it. "I think so. It's also the reason why my teleportation becomes destructive. Different emotions caused different things to happen, but most of the time I'd end up exploding stuffs." Adam closed his eyes briefly, before opening them again. "I _heard_ you calling out to me yesterday, but I couldn't come though I really wanted to. I really wished at the time that I would be able to help you. You sounded like you really needed my help, from your voice I could tell. But I didn't know what happened until you told me about it just now."

JD merely nodded. "You left so quickly today, you missed what Lalamon's told us about the Four Terrors. Watch out for that GranDracmon guy. Lalamon said that he has this freaky voice that could spellbind any angel Digimon to do his bidding. And since you're such a little angel I thought I warned you first hand." He gave Adam a small teasing smile. "I guess that's why you thought that destroying the school was a good idea when GranDracmon suggested it, huh?"

Adam instantly felt ill. JD laughed and patted his shoulder. "Hey, no worries. Between you and me, I sometimes felt like doing so as well."

"You pulled me out from GranDracmon's…spell, or whatever," Adam noted.

JD shrugged. "I happened to be there."

Adam thought that there was something more to it. JD was able to channel his power, and he had discovered that he was able to feel what JD was feeling. Both would happen when the need was great. He had felt the same need from Samudramon and Puspamon, but not to the extent of actually being able to lend his power to them. When it was JD, it was as if he had become an extension to Adam himself. It was somewhat puzzling, but Adam supposed it was because he was closer to his cousin brother than the others. Was it because they were a family? Satriamon even was able to wield the Heavenstar Gladius; the sword would accommodate Satriamon the same way it did Aldiyamon.

"I should probably get going," said JD, glancing at his watch as he stood up. "Mom and Bibik probably are done with the packing. I'll give you a call when I reach wherever we're going, ok?"

Adam nodded, pulling his lips in to suppress his dread for what was going to happen to his cousin if he couldn't come up with a way to vanquish the curse.

JD clapped his shoulders. "Bye, Adam." He smirked, and patted his younger cousin's cheek in a teasing manner. "Don't look so sad. If it _is_ my time to go, then I'd be gone no matter how, right? The curse won't really be the reason why I'd be gone, you know that, right?"

Adam nodded again, biting his lip. Silently he promised to perfect his powers so that he could vanquish the curse. He wouldn't let the curse becoming his cousin's undoing.

"I'll call you when I reach there." JD then walked away.

"See you again," said Adam, feeling the need to say that out loud towards JD's retreating back.

JD paused, and looked back. "Yeah, see you. Friday. Take care."

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

The Four Terrors' prowess has been demonstrated, as well as Adam's empathy power. Given the dark setting I have placed towards the last scene of this chapter, a history lesson concerning the Four Terrors would be included in later chapters. Things will speed up a bit for the next chapter, which will pick up sometime before JD's return.


	72. Dangerous Liaisons

It was seldom for GranDracmon to take interest in any particular Digimon, let alone humans. He deemed himself as a superior being, his attention unworthy to beings under him. The only reason why he allied the Four Terrors with the dwindling Darkshadow Brethren was the fact that Lucemon, in his Seraphimon form, had proven to be more superior to him. It was to be expected; Lucemon's Mega form was unlike any other Seraphimon he had met – it wasn't even a purely angelic being, so to speak. GranDracmon had gravely miscalculated, thinking that he could win over the Hellion General using the voice charm he had over angelic beings. That decision was a mistake because of two facts that he hadn't factored then.

Lucemon and his Mega form were both a hybrid of angel and demon. GranDracmon's voice charm would not work on him.

_And he's a psychic,_ thought GranDracmon, somewhat disgruntled. Lucemon had known that GranDracmon would be using the voice charm, and had at first played along, pretending to be under his control. And GranDracmon hadn't suspected anything to be amiss, until Seraphimon delivered a heavy blow against him and the other Terrors. A regular Seraphimon's_ Seven Heavens _could easily strike seven enemies at once; the Hellion General's Mega form had done so towards the four of them, with three out of the seven holy-charged orbs sent his way. Having just escaped the abyss where Ophanimon had trapped them, none was strong enough to counter the Hellion General.

Lucemon surprised them back then when he'd offered an alliance with them. He mentioned that Ophanimon had been killed by the Puaka Generals, and her death deactivated their centuries-long imprisonment. GranDracmon had no reason to pursue the Wira Digital; the fact that they had somewhat inherited some of Ophanimon's powers did not interest him. Nonetheless, they had been gone for so long, and if these Wira Digital had even beaten Lucemon once, the Four Terrors would have to be very careful. They had to tread their steps carefully lest their escape would be in vain. The Darkshadow Brethren would be a good source of information as they reorient to the present time.

It had been an eight-century-long imprisonment, and so much had changed. Not only the dark ones were becoming more powerful, but so were the ones siding with the light.

The Four Terrors's era had long since passed; this was the reconstitution of SkullSatamon's era. GranDracmon had at first seriously doubted that the Darkshadow Brethren would be a threat to the Four Terrors once they return to full strength, but had been proven wrong again upon realizing that they had harnessed the powers to take form of the legendary Seven Great Demon Lords that had terrorized the Digital World long ago. Anybody who could take the form of a Great Demon Lord was one to be watched out. Deathmon, Murmuxmon and Belialvamdemon were all Demon Lords as well, but their types hadn't existed during the reign of the Seven Great Demon Lords and thus were not recognized as a Great Demon Lord. Nevertheless, type affiliation had so little meaning after the demise of the Seven Evils – GranDracmon wasn't even a Demon Lord, belonging to the inferior _Demon Beast_ group, but still his power surpassed his other three comrades.

_Know thy enemies,_ GranDracmon had reminded himself back then. He and the other Terrors did not consider Lucemon and Lilithmon as allies, but they knew that it was best to not make enemies out of them as well. Lucemon was powerful, and Lilithmon seemed to have an array of skills that he did not remember a regular Lilithmon possessed. That was demonstrated when one night Deathmon and Murmuxmon had foolishly cornered her in order to _get acquainted_ with her. They could not even lay a hand on her; GranDracmon remembered Lilithmon surrounded by a semi-transparent sheen bearing the shape of a large bronze bell. She had then warned them, if ever anyone dared to come upon her like that, they would be at the receiving end of her _death curse._ None of them knew what Lilithmon had meant then, but when GranDracmon brought it up to Lucemon for clarification, Lucemon merely smirked and advised him to heed her warning. A DigiWira had suffered her death curse, and as of now, was currently awaiting his doom when the full moon bloomed.

The battle they had had with the Wira Digital proved that the heroes were indeed powerful. Though they were marginally less powerful than the Four Terrors, their advantages were their number and their unique abilities. Yet they didn't intrigue him as much as their angelic leader had, and that was because of how _easily_ the angel had broken his voice charm.

Now, GranDracmon had corrupted some angels in the past. He had never failed then. The voice charm should be nearly irresistible to angels, and according to Lucemon though Aldiyamon was powerful he was also very young and somewhat inexperienced. A strong, experienced angel Digimon would be able to resist it, GranDracmon suspected, but the theory was never proven.

_No_._ Aldiyamon couldn't have broken the charm by his own. It was the boy who yelled at him. One shout and Aldiyamon snapped out of the charm. And there is only one possible way to do so..._

GranDracmon frowned. That one solution was a rarity, nearly nonexistent.

"Deep in thought, GranDracmon?"

GranDracmon saw Lucemon descending from the sky, a haughty smirk on his calm face.

"Oh, I see," said Lucemon. "Your voice charm failed to spellbind Aldiyamon."

"It actually worked at first." GranDracmon would not allow Lucemon the satisfaction of him failing to charm another angel Digimon. "But it was repelled when a human boy screamed at him. It shouldn't have broken the charm, but still it did. Aldiyamon snapped out of the charm and retaliated. His strength and powers suddenly increased…" He stopped, narrowing his eyes upon Lucemon's triumphant look. "You planned this out now, didn't you?"

"Not really, but it proved that Adam's psychic training with me works."

_Psychic training?_ "You didn't mention the boy having psychic powers."

"Not a general psychic power, but a specialized form of it – the power of empathy," said Lucemon. "His cousin brother also possesses another variant of psychic power – the ability to channel emotions to project a psionic energy blast. I suspect that it was him who interfered with your voice charm."

"You mean they _both_ possess psychic powers?" asked GranDracmon. "And they are related?"

"Blood relations, even, if you're familiar with the humans' relationship concept," said Lucemon. "They share a common ancestor, although I can't imagine why this would interest you."

_Blood relations, and share a similar power?_ "Are they close?"

"I'd say inseparable."

_It's so rare, but could they possess it?__It would make perfect sense why that boy was able to nullify my voice charm on Aldiyamon. If they have it, his mere presence would disrupt the charm – his shout would cancel it out.__ My voice charm isn't perfect, but it has never failed me before. Even Ophanimon nearly fell for it before she returned to the safety the Lost Mountain offered her…_

"You seem interested about these two particular DigiWira," noted Lucemon with a smirk. "I suggest you to forget about them. One of them, JD, is going to perish soon due to the Virago General's death curse. I believe she has mentioned that to you before? And Adam, half of Aldiyamon, holds the Master's interest."

"Why such interest on a potentially powerful enemy? He can be a threat to us."

"For now, his power can be manipulated for our cause."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, do not worry about it. The Four Terrors only need to know where their standings are in this era."

"You seem suspicious of us. Haven't we done what you have suggested?"

"Perhaps…but I'm under the impression that you're only biding your time," said Lucemon, smirking as he tapped his temple.

GranDracmon grunted. "I was merely curious of why my voice charm didn't work on Aldiyamon and I have gotten my answer. But if what I'm assuming is true, then by next week there won't be a problem in charming Aldiyamon."

"Ah…" said Lucemon. GranDracmon had the impression that the demonic angel was reading his thoughts again. "Marvelous. By next week you can charm him to work for our cause," continued Lucemon. "It's what the Master wants, because Aldiyamon or Adam cannot be corrupted. He will definitely consider your power over Aldiyamon invaluable, and won't think of the Four Terrors as threats to his cause. And we'll be able to keep Aldiyamon in tighter leash."

_What else can the Four Terrors do than follow the flow?_

"Agreed, Lucemon," said GranDracmon. _For now._

Lucemon smirked.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 72 – Dangerous Liaisons **_

xxx

xxx

JD stared at the television inside the hotel room. The latest breaking news was on air, but he wasn't interested in hearing the anchorman's somewhat panicked statement. Rather, his attention was focused on the battle shown on the screen.

Hordes of Velgemon and Duskmon were seen invading his hometown, blasting everything in plain sight. His heart skipped a beat when Xianamon glided down from the sky towards the brutes; the golden glow about her gave her a goddess-like presence. She swung her weapon and unleashed a spirit fox that streaked through the enemies. There were easily ten of them, all destroyed by Xianamon in one blow before a fiery purple vulture slammed against the golden kitsune. He snarled softly as Murmuxmon came into view, and to his dismay the scene shifted.

_Stupid cameraman!_ He cursed inwardly.

He then saw Puspamon and Samudramon, both up against Belialvamdemon once again. Opie the Valkyrimon and Rosemon were close by, seemingly having been at the receiving end of an attack. Puspamon and Samudramon called their joint attack which was once again countered by the armored vampire's dark flames. With one flick of his hand Belialvamdemon redirected the dark flames towards Puspamon. Samudramon was forced to break contact and delivered his water techniques towards the flames, successfully quenching them for his move was unexpected. Rosemon and Valkyrimon both charged towards Belialvamdemon, and to JD's disgruntlement the scene shifted again. He was about to curse the cameraman responsible for the scene shift before a familiar sight appeared on the TV screen.

_Adam!_ His body grew rigid upon seeing Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon both fighting Deathmon, with GranDracmon looming from afar.

His heart sank. His friends were battling evil and he was here, away from the fight. He really wanted to be out there helping his friends, but he wanted to give his family a lasting good impression first before the curse would take effect. No cure other than the sacrifice could alleviate him from the curse, and JD didn't want that. How could he live his life knowing that another person had taken the fall for him? It was the main reason why he didn't want Agumon to hatch from the DigiEgg. ChaosGallantmon's accusations had haunted him; JD knew out of personal experience that all hate spell needed a trigger for it to base upon. While JD had no doubt that Agumon was absolutely sincere in his wish to take the curse on his behalf, that sincere wish was corrupted when the hate spell took effect. A grain of pity he had felt for Adam way back before the two of them knew each other, and the jealousy that he had felt upon assuming that Adam was very close to his sister and his deceased brother whereas he hadn't been able to get along with his siblings – all these corrupted him into making Adam his primary target when he became the Red ShadoWira.

ChaosGallantmon had accused JD for _wanting_ him to take the curse on his behalf. He'd claimed that JD was only going to use him to escape the curse's deadly effect.

_Bullshit, Agumon…_ He thought, sadly. _I don't want you to take the curse on my behalf. This way, with you as a DigiEgg, you won't be able to…_

He hesitated, as how he would be every time his thoughts drifted to this matter. Agumon had made it clear that if JD died he would cease to exist, but if _he_ died JD would still be able to move on.

Could he really do it? Could he really allow Agumon to die in his place?

_But Agumon dies either way,_ a voice whispered in his mind. It was the inner thought that JD wanted to squash into pulp. It was the one who was always encouraging him to will in his heart for Agumon to hatch, so that Agumon would take the curse on his behalf out of love for him. In short, it was his darker thoughts. Nonetheless, he had to admit that as dark this inner thought was, it was also right. Agumon had said so himself. JD however hesitated; it was heartless to have others die in his place. He couldn't live with himself if anybody died so that he could live. _Isn't there any other way? __Without sacrificing anyone?_

His attention returned to the TV set when Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon delivered a simultaneous blow that sent Deathmon flying. The scene shifted and he saw Xianamon and Murmuxmon still involved in a battle; both seemed to be at equal ground for the moment. JD dared not think that Xianamon would be the victor; hadn't it taken her teaming up with Valkyrimon and GuardiAngemon just to drive Murmuxmon away the other day? Xianamon seemed to be able to defend herself well, but her attacks didn't faze Murmuxmon much. In the meantime, fate seemed to be not in Belialvamdemon's favor, with him facing four Megas; Rosemon and Valkyrimon were both restraining the armored vampire. The vampire's shoulder pods were encased in blocks of ice, while thorny vines wrapped around his legs as Samudramon and Puspamon charging up the Everlasting Storm.

_Way to go, guys,_ he thought, watching Belialvamdemon took the fell from the snowstorm attack.

It was now Thursday, and tonight he would have to make a move. He still hadn't told his parents of his decision to go back. Nobody was aware of his inner plight, for he had wanted it to be this way. If he was going down, he wanted them to think that he had perished in a battle. But deep in his heart, he knew he was only kidding himself. He didn't want to die, and after spending these few days with his family, he realized how their hearts would break if he died.

"_**Oh no, it looks like something is wrong! Aldiyamon is now attacking the other angel Digimon instead of the demons!"**_

_What the hell?_ JD saw that instead of fighting Deathmon, Aldiyamon was now delivering furious waves of light against GuardiAngemon. And GuardiAngemon was actually fighting back, as hard as Aldiyamon attacking him. JD realized what was going on instantly. GranDracmon must have used his voice to control both angels. Rosemon had warned them that GranDracmon had a power to make angel Digimon obey him, and the angels would not be able to resist him.

"Why's Adam doing that?" gasped Jas, who was watching the news as well. She turned to look at him, bewildered. "Aldiyamon _is_ Adam, right?"

"And the other angel, isn't he the fused partners of Kak Lisha and her doctor boyfriend?" added Jade.

"Fiancée," Jas corrected. "They are engaged, remember?"

Jade nodded. "Fiancée." Both of JD's siblings looked at him inquiringly.

"It's that GranDracmon." He pointed, frowning. "His voice can spellbind all angels to do his bidding."

"Demons having powers over angels?" Jade tried to clarify, mirroring his brother's expression.

JD merely nodded, not bothering to explain. An explosion was shown on the TV, and both Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon were pushed back in opposite directions. They could barely make out GranDracmon's victorious chuckle amidst the invisible anchorman's panicked exclamation. Buildings around them had been ripped apart; JD's heart sank upon realizing that those were some houses around the vicinity of their hometown. He hoped that the people living there had evacuated long before the battle. The airport and this hotel where he was staying were full with people from Subang Jaya, the nearby towns, and even from Kuala Lumpur. He'd seen a few familiar faces camping out in the airport compound.

They suddenly saw the most remarkable thing. In a blink of the eye the falling Aldiyamon and GuardiAngemon were gone. They seemed to have_blinked out _of sight.

JD realized what just happened when the camera shifted, showing Xianamon retreating with two telekinetic cocoons hovering about her. She was already so far away for Deathmon and GranDracmon to give chase, and to prevent them from doing so she had sent the piles of destroyed buildings flying towards her foes as cover for her escape. Samudramon and Puspamon, as well as Rosemon and Valkyrimon both followed suit, with Belialvamdemon's massive form seen lying amidst piles of what had formerly been a row of shop-houses.

He could feel his siblings' burning gazes on him.

"Don't get me wrong," Jas began, "I'm relieved that you're here, but…shouldn't Satriamon be out there too?"

"Jas," Jade said in a firm reprimanding tone. "Agumon…"

"Oh." Jas looked at him apologetically.

JD however saw the opening he needed to go back to his friends. "Jas is right though. I should be there with them, instead of hiding out here. Agumon, he…" This was the time to lie. "He's gonna hatch soon, and when he does, we'll be able to form Satriamon once again. And that's when I'll be able to kick some serious demon-ass. Staying here prevents those demons from coming after me and Agumon's egg."

Jade gazed towards him. "So you actually came here with us to wait for your partner to hatch? Where it is safe?"

Jade was one who would try to make analytical guess based on his logic. It did sound like the logical thing to do, although it was far from JD's original intention.

Nonetheless, he gave his eldest sibling a nod. "But I'm going back there," he added firmly. He appreciated their surprised response, before adding, "Now." There was no point delaying his return.

"You're going back?" asked a new voice.

JD saw both his parents. He hadn't heard them coming from their private bedroom of the hotel suite. His mother was the one who had asked. He nodded.

"You can't be serious, Josh," his father protested. "Stay here with us where it's safe."

"Not for long when the demons widen their scope. I have to help my friends. I can't just leave them alone…like I've been doing."

"But you can't even become Satriamon!" said Johan, well-aware of the fact that his son's missing partner. He wasn't clear about it; his son had merely mentioned that Agumon had been _deleted_ in a battle, but would not elaborate even farther than that. The dark look his son had on his face that day prompted Johan and Leeanna not to ask him any further. Adam however had given them the details, and in return they had advised their other two children to not bother their youngest child with it.

"Agumon's gonna hatch soon," JD lied smoothly. It was hard, but he had to do it. "And when he does, Satriamon's back in action." He offered them a carefully-orchestrated grin.

"But…"

"Mom, dad…_Adam _is out there. _Kak Lisha_ is out there." That effectively stopped his parents' attempt in trying to persuade him. The grave look exchanged by his parents unnerved him.

_This is it,_ thought JD sadly, walking up towards his parents. _I'm not gonna be able to see them again after this._ He gave them both a long gaze, imprinting their faces in his mind. His heart felt heavy all of a sudden; he didn't want them to lose him, but he had to be prepared for any consequence. Persiamon had said that the curse would kill him during the next full moon._ Tomorrow will be the first night of the full moon…_

Casting his hesitation away, he embraced his mother tightly, wanting to assure her that he would be alright. He wondered how she would feel in a few days, when his death had taken place. He felt a hint of tears brimming and blinked it back. "Mom, if I ever make you mad, or sad, or not proud of me…I'm sorry."

"Josh, why are you saying all these?" There was a fearful tone in Leeanna's voice. JD sighed. A mother would know if her child was in trouble, and JD suspected that his mother had suspected something when she pulled away to give him a good look.

He smiled weakly. "Nothing. It's just…I think I'll feel better if I go out there, fighting those demons if I have your blessing and dad's."

A tear streaked down his mother's cheek, marring her makeup. She hugged him tight. "I wish you could stay, Josh. But I understand." She pulled away just the slightest, planting a loving kiss on her son's right cheek. "And I'm very, _very_, proud of you."

"We both are," said Johan, joining the embrace somewhat by slinging an arm around his wife's shoulder, and rubbed his other hand on his son's back before clasping his shoulder firmly. "Come back safely." He gave his son an expectant look; JD thought that his father wanted a reply from him for assurance.

"God willing," he replied. There was a sense of peace as he said that. During his time to help Adam cope with his parents and brother's death, he had read from somewhere that death would come to everyone, and when it did it would be neither early nor late.

He gently pulled away from his parents' holds, for they didn't seem inclined to let him go. He walked towards Jade, and surprised his brother with the hug he gave him. He did the same with his sister, who actually gasped upon receiving the crushing hug. He smirked somewhat; when was the last time they had done this? If felt like a lifetime ago. The rift their parents once had had driven them apart as well, and though their parents' relationship had improved, their sibling relationship was slow to pick up. Jade and Jas were seldom home, staying near to their universities. Nonetheless, throughout his stay here with them he had avoided picking a fight with his sister and avoided teasing his brother, having in return showing them the respect they wouldn't have expected from him.

"Bye guys," he said with a smile. Jade and Jas were still so surprised that they weren't able to respond.

JD didn't wait for them. He went to Bibik, who was watching from the far corner of the suite, by the small kitchen counter. The elderly woman was crying. He took a moment to gaze at his caretaker, who had always been there for him during the hard times he had with his family. This Javanese woman had never judged him for his bad choices, loving him just the same way she had been all these time. Bibik was a wise woman; JD thought that if his mother could somehow sense that something was amiss, Bibik would be able to as well.

"There's something you're not telling us," whispered Bibik as JD hugged her.

_How on earth does Bibik know? _JD pulled away, smiling at her sadly. "Pray for me?" he asked her.

She hugged him back in return. "I always do, Josh."

After rubbing her back for comfort, JD let go of Bibik and walked towards the door. He saw Jade reaching for the car keys and Jas for her purse. That made him halt, confused.

"Hold up, Josh," said Jade. "I'll give you a lift."

"And I'm coming with you," said Jas.

JD wanted to protest. His original plan was to contact Jackie, but he hadn't done so and his friends had just been battling the Four Terrors. Jackie must be busy right now tending to his friends. Would he be able to come? Adam's teleportation was unstable that he'd refused to risk teleporting JD back when JD called Adam up for it the previous night.

_It'll spoil everything_. If he agree to this, he'd risk Jade and Jas knowing about the curse. He didn't want that.

"Don't say no," said Jas firmly. Her face softened as she added, "please."

"It's the least we can do," said Jade, nodding to their parents, who nodded back approvingly.

JD's heart melted. His sister rarely said please to anybody – being the only girl in the family, Jas was used to have things done her way. And his brother seldom showed out front that he cared much for anybody else. JD thought that somehow, what he had done for the past few days must have gotten to his siblings somewhat. Though they weren't really as bad as they were prior to their parents' reconciliation, some habits had been ingrained deep into their core. JD couldn't really blame them – his own harsh attitude retained, but directed only towards the enemies now.

He'd have to do something about them soon, but for now he decided to not disappoint them. "Thanks guys," he said.

xxx

xxx

"It's like a ghost town around here," said Jas with a shiver, an hour later as they made their way towards Subang Jaya.

It was nearing dusk and they were still several miles from reaching there, but even the nearby towns looked abandoned. Many buildings were dark, only some were lit, signifying that there were still people there. Common spots such as mosques, rest stops and hypermarkets had several people hanging around, but most were those who were in the process of evacuating. Some vehicles were seen moving out from Subang Jaya's direction; only their car was heading towards it.

Jade, who was driving, nodded. "Judging how Subang got attacked, the people living near the town wouldn't risk staying around any longer. I went to the airport yesterday to get something, and it has become like a war camp over there."

Sitting alone at the backseat, JD merely cast his eyes outside the window. The conversation meant nothing to him. He was more worried about his impending doom, for it would be night soon. The full moon – he had asked around – was anticipated to begin the night after that day.

Jas suddenly gasped out loud, and the car into a halt. "Oh my God!" Jade exclaimed in horror. "Josh! It's one of those demons shown on the news!"

JD swore upon seeing GranDracmon materializing over the seemingly-abandoned toll gates, located just a couple of miles from their hometown. Alone, he descended and his weight had crushed the toll gates into rubbles and caused a rumble. Jas shrieked as JD got out of the car. "Josh! No!"

JD ignored his sister. Once out of the car he glared towards the demonic centaur.

"Ah…just the one I've been looking for," said GranDracmon, sounding enthralled.

"What the hell do you want?" demanded JD, as his brother and sister slowly stepped out of the car as well.

"I'll give you one guess." GranDracmon gazed down upon him.

"Great, another freak wanting my head."

GranDracmon chuckled. "Oh I assure you, my reason is completely different than the Virago General's. I won't have to lift a finger…I'll just let nature takes its course."

_Damnit, if I let him speak he might spill everything to Jade and Jas, _thought JD. "So what's your reason?" He tried steering GranDracmon from the topic of his death.

"You are the reason why I could not control Aldiyamon that day. Your bond with Aldiyamon broke my voice charm on him," said GranDracmon in a chillingly nonchalant manner.

_Say what? _JD was perplexed. "What bond?"

"You mean you don't know?" GranDracmon chuckled. "Ah, it doesn't matter. It's not like I have to worry about it for long."

_Maybe he's speaking about the fact that we're family? Ah, screw him. If he's not gonna explain then I'm not gonna beg him to do so! _

"So you're not here to kill me. What do you want then?"

GranDracmon chuckled again. "Those friends of yours have escaped us, not to mention having actually taken Belialvamdemon down. There's a score to settle." He grinned. "I can use you and your companions here as baits to draw them out. Especially dear Aldiyamon."

JD swore.

GranDracmon flicked a hand and three crimson diamond-shaped crystals materialized before him. _"Crystal Revolution." _

The crystals fired three red beams towards them. JD charged up his psionic power to his right fist and countered the beam. He managed to deflect it, but his sister's shriek and his brother's yelp alerted him that they had been struck. Turning around, he paled upon not seeing them, as the beams were pulled back into the crystals.

"Over here," said GranDracmon with an amused tone. "Your siblings have become my prisoners."

His siblings were contained in two life-sized crystals GranDracmon had created, and they were hovering before the centaur. Given GranDracmon's enormous height it would be impossible for him to reach for the crystals, let alone save his siblings. A flick of the hand later and the two crystals orbited around GranDracmon's body.

JD saw his siblings looking horrified. "Bastard! Let them go!"

"The air supply within the crystals will run out soon," said GranDracmon. "So you better hope your friends are…"

GranDracmon was stopped short by an echoic screech of a bird coming from out of nowhere. A split second later, a flare of white light burst before him. Surprised at first, his face contorted to a wicked sneer as he realized who had come.

JD took a few steps back, amazed, as Aldiyamon Juara Mode materialized from within the light. The angel cast a look towards JD, and JD saw that the hardened expression on Aldiyamon's face melted somewhat upon the sight of him. He grinned back weakly, and Aldiyamon's mouth was set thin before he cast a look back towards the entrapped Jade and Jas.

"You're here," said GranDracmon.

Aldiyamon inclined his head towards the two crystals orbiting GranDracmon, and they were teleported before him. He took a deep breath and concentrate.

"Aldiyamon…your power…" said JD, fearful that Aldiyamon was acting rashly.

"Trust me. I can control it now," said Aldiyamon, glancing slightly towards him. He pointed one hand towards the crystal that was trapping Jade, and slowly orbs of light coated the crystal. Then he flicked his hand slightly and the crystal burst into data particles. Jade limped forward, unharmed as the orbs of light shifted to the crystal containing Jas. The same thing happened and Jas was set free as well.

"Adam…" said JD, amazed. _His trainings must have worked…_

Clapping sound echoed; GranDracmon was the one who did so. He didn't seem perturbed at all with Aldiyamon's actions. "Now that you've freed them, how about you kill them now?" he asked nonchalantly. "Both of them. Do it. Do it _now._" He sneered when Aldiyamon turned to look at Jas, who backed away behind Jade as Aldiyamon advanced towards them.

_He's working on his voice charm on Aldiyamon,_ realized JD, noticing the stern look on Aldiyamon's face replaced by daze. "Adam! Don't!"

Aldiyamon stopped, and JD's eyes widened with surprise.

GranDracmon sighed.

"Adam? Look at me," said JD; beginning to suspect that GranDracmon was right. "C'mon bro, look at me."

Aldiyamon did so, and the dazed look on his face gradually shifted to realization. He whipped his head back towards GranDracmon, and the voice that escaped his throat was a mix of an infuriated snarl and a breathy whisper. "Stay OUT of my head!" he said, and without even wording it out a blast of white light slammed upon GranDracmon.

GranDracmon quickly intercepted the blast by extending his hand, and withdrew it back with a soft hiss. _"Crystal Revolution."_

Crystals streaked towards Aldiyamon. They were almost the same as the ones he had summoned earlier, only that they were violet now instead of crimson.

"_Transcendent Purification!"_

One crystal sped up to be at the forefront of the others, and to everyone's surprise it _absorbed_ the attack. The crystal glowed white, before unleashing the attack back towards Aldiyamon.

"Adam, look out!" shouted JD.

Aldiyamon didn't seem surprised. He flicked one hand, and two crystals were teleported before him. The blast hit both crystals, and _they_ in return absorbed the light blast before turning it back towards the first crystal. With lightning speed Aldiyamon summoned the Heavenstar Gladius and slashed the crystals in front of him to half, before throwing his sword towards the first crystal that was deflecting the attack. The sword was unscathed by the light as it went through the first crystal, as Aldiyamon redirected the incoming light blast towards GranDracmon. And finally, he stared hard towards the remaining three crystals, seemingly focusing his power. The crystals exploded into data at the fifth count of heartbeats.

"Incredible," whispered Jade.

"He's so strong!" gasped Jas, seeing Aldiyamon up close for the first time. "I can't believe that _that's_ Adam."

Ignoring his siblings, JD was silent but his mind was reeling at top speed. Though he knew Aldiyamon was skillful with his power, he had never seen him wielding the power with such proficiency. It seemed that Adam had already mastered control of his power. It was obvious that sometime in between Monday and Thursday Aldiyamon had encountered GranDracmon at least once, for he was wiser to GranDracmon's moves, despite still being vulnerable to GranDracmon's voice.

Something stirred within JD. He remembered how frightened Adam had been after the school was demolished partly by his uncontrollable powers. And he had warned Adam of GranDracmon; Adam knew that Aldiyamon was vulnerable to GranDracmon's voice, yet he still came to him. Could it be that he had once again _knew_ that JD was in trouble, and had teleported directly to him?

"You are incredibly strong," said GranDracmon. "Your training with the Hellion General must have been successful."

_WHAT?!_ JD would have shouted that out if he wasn't too shocked of GranDracmon's snide revelation. It didn't seem like GranDracmon had wanted to spite JD or Aldiyamon; he sounded simply like he was stating a well-known fact. And from the angle Aldiyamon had positioned his body suddenly JD knew that Aldiyamon was avoiding his intense gaze. He recalled Adam's mysterious disappearance and connected the dots. It made sense. _You'__ve been training with him since last week. __No wonder you were so secretive. What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Adam? Training with Lucemon?  
_

GranDracmon chuckled, and took a few steps back. "I am not here to harm any of you. The Hellion and Virago Generals both had meticulously warned me not to harm you two, but the other three Wira Digital and their friends are fair game. Even as we speak, my comrades are now engaging your comrades in a battle. And, oh…" He halted, looking at a distance thoughtfully before summoning a crystal – it was green now. It glowed and everyone saw the other three Terrors overpowering Samudramon, Puspamon and Xianamon by joining forces as one. The three Wira Digital were thrown back and devolved in midair before the crystal ceased glowing.

"Show's over. How delightfully entertaining. Until we meet again."

The air around GranDracmon rippled. He vanished before a stream of light from Aldiyamon could hit him; the blast was recalled back by Aldiyamon before it could destroy the nearby flyover.

Silence overruled for a moment before Aldiyamon devolved. JD noted that Adam was still avoiding his gaze; his cousin brother acted as if _Patamon_ was an interesting sight to behold.

"Adam," called JD. He'd get Adam to explain even if he had to force Adam choke it out for him. Training with _Lucemon?_ What was he thinking? "Adam, what did you do?"

Adam turned around, and JD was surprised enough upon the sight of Adam's face that he had momentarily forgotten about his earlier question. Exhaustion seemed to have taken the toll on Adam's formerly serene face. Dark bags hovered under Adam's eyes, contrasting his pale skin. And after not seeing him for a couple of days only, JD thought that Adam had gotten thinner too.

However, all those were starkly contrasted by the twinkle in his eyes.

"Josh, I can explain," said Adam, and JD thought Adam sounded…_enthralled?_ "But first…" He took in Jade and Jas, as well as Jade's car, before spreading his arm slightly.

JD knew what was coming; within seconds they were surrounded by brilliant light orbs which would teleport them away.

xxx

xxx

The hospital was very crowded. Over the foyer lots of people were camping out, and along the aisle leading to the elevator people were either sitting quietly on the floor or standing around anxiously. JD hadn't got the chance to really know the status of his hometown, but with this many people inside the hospital he could only assume that the town had suffered worse than what had been portrayed in the news. He and his siblings followed Adam quietly as they went inside the elevator, going up to the fifth floor. The boy led them out and towards one of the private ward, opening the second door from the left.

"Adam, you're back!" Alisha's voice rang from inside. "And Josh, Jade and Jas!"

JD saw his cousin sister walking towards them. He offered her a smile, and Alisha returned it before hugging Jas. He peered inside and saw that everyone was there. His fellow DigiWira, Jackie, and Dr. Abu were all there, but the only Digimon he could see was Lalamon and the Saintly Siblings. And there was no escaping in noticing the dejected looks on the DigiWira's faces.

"JD!" The DigiWira exclaimed simultaneously.

"I thought you'd be here tomorrow?" Liu Ying asked, casting a nervous look towards Jade and Jas. No doubt she was thinking what he was thinking.

"Change of plans. And it wasn't my idea to bring them here," said JD softly so that only Liu Ying could hear her.

"Where's the other Digimon?" asked Adam.

Liu Ying's face darkened. "After you left, three of the Terrors invaded the town again. It was all probably an elaborate set-up, to get you to go before ambushing the rest of us."

"Our partners were abducted," said Gayathri, who had obviously been crying. "Floramon, Labramon and Penguinmon."

"I know. GranDracmon practically gloated about it," said Adam. "He showed us the battle you had."

Manny sighed. "The Terrors combined powers and beaten us with one blow. We devolved and our partners were snatched away before we could do anything."

"I don't understand it," lamented Gayathri. "Why would they kidnap them?"

JD frowned; a horrible suspicion just crossed his mind. "These kidnappings are giving me the deja-vu. Remember what happened to Agumon?"

Liu Ying frowned. "You mean…"

"It sounds like a thing Lilithmon would do," said JD grimly. "She's done that before to Agumon, she can do it again to the others."

The room went still instantly. Liu Ying, Manny and Gayathri exchanged worried glances.

"Let's hope that she won't do such a thing," Dina, who had been quiet, hastily attempted to assure the other DigiWira.

"What else would she do to them, then?" asked Liu Ying. "If the Four Terrors wanted to, they could have finished us off there and then."

JD saw Adam fidgeting. Something seemed to bother his cousin, who was releasing Patamon from the Digivice.

Manny sighed in despair. "We're doomed if they turn our partners into something like ChaosGallantmon. We only have Aldiyamon, GuardiAngemon, Rosemon and Opie as our defense now…"

"Where is Opie anyway?" asked Patamon. He looked around; Penguinmon's orange counterpart was missing too.

"He's safe," said Manny. "He and Debbie are with our parents, at the double room at the end of the corridor."

"Along with most of our families," added Liu Ying to JD's benefit.

JD nodded. Glancing at Adam again, he wondered whether he should call Adam out for his affiliation with Lucemon. He decided against it; he trusted Adam and Adam didn't seem to like it either. Adam must have a good reason to do so, and JD had to admit that Adam had now demonstrated greater control of his powers. Aldiyamon had handled himself decently against GranDracmon without losing control of his power, easily using both the normal teleportation and the new combustion power against GranDracmon. _But something still reeks real badly from all this…_

"Guys, I'm stepping out for a while," said JD, trying to catch Adam's eyes. He cursed inwardly when Adam avoided looking at him. He looked at his siblings instead. "Jade, Jas…you guys planning to stick around?"

Jade and Jas exchanged glances. They appeared conflicted; JD understood that both wanted to retreat to the safety offered by the airport, which was a hundred mile away from the Four Terror's target. But with him here, his older siblings seemed inclined to not move.

"We could use all the help we can get," said Abu all of a sudden. "And as far as I know, Jade, you're a fourth year medical student?"

Jade appeared stunned at first, before he nodded. "Yes, I am."

"So you've started your clinical years?"

"Yes."

Abu nodded. "We could use your help then, Jade. The medical staffs are severely shorthanded," said the doctor grimly. "Not many dared to stick around here and we have one doctor stationed at all over the designated refuge places around town. Right now we still have a number of sick patients here that we couldn't transfer to other hospitals that are safe. Until we manage to do so, we need to take care of them the best we can. I've been made known that you're a good student?"

"Uhh…" Jade cast a look at Alisha, who smiled back at him.

"Oh, why not?" Jas spoke up, elbowing her brother. "Jade, stop with all the false modesty. You couldn't stop bragging about your perfect grades all the time, why bother doing so now?"

Jas winked at JD. JD had to smile at that while Jade scowled. Nonetheless, there was no hiding that he was flattered too.

"What can I do?" the burnish-blond young man finally asked. Abu smiled.

"You can help me tending to those with mild injuries. I'm sure you can handle that?"

"I guess so…"

Abu nodded. "We could use your help too, Jasmine." He looked at Jas.

"Me?"

"As this is an emergency, I'm thinking of using Salamon and Gatomon's healing powers to help with the recovery of some of the severe cases. Without enough specialists to care for them now, this is the only thing I could think of. It won't cure them wholly, but at least it'll sustain them until further treatments. I'm not authorized to treat them, and most cases are out of my scope of specialty."

"Our healing charms can work if we're exposed to those patients," said Gatomon. "But it won't be a total recovery as we've done to Adam and Kak Lisha, which is good since it'll be less conspicuous. It'll be enough though to stop some patients from suffering due to lack of care, due to lack of personnel."

"And Abang Abu can't exactly lug us around the hospital without drawing attention to him," said Salamon. "So…"

"You want _me_ to do it," Jas concluded, "because it'll be less conspicuous for a _girl_ to lug around plush toys?"

"That's the idea…" Abu said.

"Jas, you'll be doing that with me," said Alisha, smiling. "We can cover more grounds if we split up. I can take Gatomon to one floor, and you take Salamon to the other, while Abang Abu and Jade and the remaining medical personnel tend to those who need their help."

"Sounds like a plan," said Jas, nodding. "Sure, why not?" She glanced towards her older brother. "Besides, Mom and Dad would be glad if we're here to keep an eye on Josh, won't they Jade?"

"Yeah, maybe," agreed Jade. He took out his cell phone. "I'll tell them about it now."

JD sighed. He didn't want his siblings to stick around, but he supposed there was no use trying to force them away. It would draw unwanted questions.

"I'm stepping out for a drink," said JD, placing a hand on Adam's shoulder. "Adam, care to join me?" He shot a look towards the other DigiWira, to tell them discreetly that he wanted to be alone with his cousin. He noticed Adam shrinking slightly from the touch, but ignored it. They needed to talk.

What was Adam getting himself into, going to Lucemon out of all people? And if he did so because he was searching for a cure to his curse, JD wanted to know exactly what Adam was trying to do. He knew his cousin; Adam was a trusting person, especially when he was told of things he wanted to hear. If Lucemon told him that he had a way to alleviate the curse, Adam might believe him. Adam would still be suspicious, but unlike JD Adam was one who would offer even Lucemon the benefit of the doubt. That, he had no doubt Adam would do.

That was it. JD was sure that he was on the right track.

He_ had_ to make Adam talk. He had to know what Adam had gotten himself into.

xxx

xxx

In the middle of the city of Kuala Lumpur, a tower loomed over the city from a small hill. It was another famous landmark of the city, named the Kuala Lumpur Tower, or KL Tower in short. Touted as the fifth tallest communication tower in the world, it was built to represent the symbol of the city. It was also used as a place to look for the crescent moon to determine the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan as well as the beginning of both Eid celebrations. And most of all, it also was opened as a tourist's attractions, for it offered a panoramic view of the city from above.

However, the tower now had become the attention of a different kind of tourists. Hordes of Velgemon hovered around the tower's antennae tip, while a troop of Duskmon guarded the base. The tower door opened and Lilithmon stepped out from it, smiling with satisfaction as the Four Terrors arrived.

"You have them?"

"Have you doubted us?" GranDracmon returned.

"If I had, would it be justified?" Lilithmon challenged back.

"Stop arguing," grumbled Belialvamdemon. "We have them."

Belialvamdemon lowered his paw and opened it. In it was Labramon, Penguinmon and Floramon, all three unconscious.

Lilithmon smirked. "Excellent. My doubt's proven to be unnecessary after all." She quirked her dark eyes towards GranDracmon, who merely grunted in return.

"What do you want with them anyway?" Deathmon demanded. "Lucemon said that other than Aldiyamon and the boy you cursed, the others are fair game."

"Oh he did, did he?" Lilithmon examined her long violet fingernails. "Well, there's been a change of plan."

"Those three are good Digimon," Murmuxmon pointed out. "They're of no use to us."

"Oh, I wouldn't bet on that. The boy I cursed…I've once corrupted his Agumon partner into a menacing ChaosGallantmon. There was no way to bring him back; those children were forced to delete him. That's why that boy's without a partner now." Lilithmon laughed. "The way I see it, it's a win-win situation for us. With a perfectly-executed abhorrence spell these sleeping Rookies will be transformed into fearsome evil Megas that will obey me. The Wira Digital can only either delete their own partners or let them loose to wreck this beautiful city."

The Four Terrors shared a look. "You've given the fair-haired boy a curse of death, caused his partner to be deleted, tricking his cousin into looking for a nonexistent cure for the curse, and now forcing him to watch his friends' partners being corrupted the same way his had been?" said GranDracmon. "One could only wonder what he had done to you to earn such fate."

At that, Lilithmon chuckled. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," she said vaguely. "And I don't take credit for the tricking his cousin part, that's Lucemon and the Master's doing. The boy is a fool for believing it, unaware that he's becoming the Master's tool in escaping Grademon's imprisonment. _Should_ Aldiyamon become too strong for the Master's liking, he'll have Lucemon and me, the four of you, and three new Mega minions to put a stop on Aldiyamon. It was the Master's order after all for me to corrupt these three into dark Megas. No doubt the Master is planning all of this from the start…perhaps he is thinking of reconstituting the dwindling number of the Darkshadow Brethren…there were nine of us then…"

"We have no interest in becoming his minions," growled Belialvamdemon. "We don't serve anybody. Unlike you and Lucemon."

"Lucemon trashed you and you couldn't even touch me," said Lilithmon. "Our powers come from him. The Master can easily kill you all if you're not with us. Need I remind you that if you're not with us, then you're against us?"

"We'll have this discussion some other time," GranDracmon intercepted. "_For now_, we are allies."

Lilithmon raised an eyebrow. "For now," she merely replied, and turned towards a Duskmon. "You!" She gestured towards the DigiWira partners as the addressed Duskmon approached her silently. "Take these three and follow me."

xxx

xxx

"Peaceful night, huh?" asked JD, once they stepped out to the hospital garden. The reconstruction works on the garden had been abandoned; the park needed reconstruction because it had played host to a battle between the Wira Digital and the Darkshadow Brethren some time ago. He took the last gulp of his Coca-Cola before throwing the empty can into a nearby trash bin.

Adam looked up at the sky. The moon looked almost full.

"Adam, you haven't spoken a word since we got out from the others," said JD, undeterred by his cousin's silence. "You know I'm gonna ask, sooner or later."

Adam looked at him. JD waited with as much patience he could muster. He saw Adam taking in a deep breath, looking at him straight into the eye. "I know you think that I must be out of my mind for going to Lucemon and SkullSatamon…"

"WHAT?!" JD roared, not expecting to hear SkullSatamon too. "That old bag of bones too? Adam, what the hell are you thinking? That _Skeletor_ has been trying to get you from the beginning!"

"Josh, they helped me control my powers."

"_Helped?_ You're seriously thinking that they were helping you?"

Adam inhaled again. "They said that if I learn how to control my powers better, I'll be able to vanquish the curse from your body. And for the past two days I've learned to control them. You saw how I handled GranDracmon today."

"Yeah, I saw. You know what I saw? If that blasted demon charmed you into obeying him, he could have you destroy the whole country in a blink of the eye!"

"Josh, please…I'm doing this for you. I've told you that I'd look for any way to get rid of the curse. Any possible way. And if this is the way for me to do it…then I'd do it."

"Adam! Did you hear what you've just said?!" snarled JD, seizing Adam's shirt and pulled him close, almost raising a hand on the boy before he stopped himself. Cursing himself inwardly, he took deep breaths and let go of his cousin. Adam looked undeterred. "Adam, tell me one thing. What do you have to do in return? What did they ask you to do?" he asked, once he was able to calm himself down. _For God's sake I've been away only for two freaking days! Who knows what else is he hiding from me.  
_

Adam hesitated; JD caught it before Adam could disguise his emotion. "Adam, don't bother lying. I was evil once, I know how they work. They won't offer charity. There's got to be a price. Oh, I hazard a guess of what they want. They want you, don't they? You have to surrender yourself to evil or something?"

"No. They didn't ask me to become evil. But…they did ask me to do something in return."

"Stop hinting and just tell me."

"SkullSatamon wants me to set him free. He thinks that my empathy, if trained properly, can propel Aldiyamon's power to its highest form. The Shield of Waja that's trapping SkullSatamon can only be destroyed by a single being stronger than the one casting it. According to SkullSatamon, Grademon was beyond a regular Mega when he cast the shield, so he wants me to achieve a power stronger than that. He wants me to become stronger than a beyond Mega-level Grademon."

Adam's answer didn't really surprise him. JD should have known that it was either that or Adam turning to evil. SkullSatamon couldn't corrupt Adam, so he'd want to use Adam to destroy the shield. It had been the reason why the ShadoWira had been instructed to kidnap Adam way back when he and Manny were under his spell. SkullSatamon had always believed that Adam was the key to his freedom. And now he had found a way to manipulate JD's situation for his own gain.

"So you have to free him before he trains you enough to vanquish the spell?"

He was surprised when Adam shook his head. "He said I could do it now."

JD blinked. Surely he must have misheard Adam? "Say what?"

Adam smiled nervously. "I can do it. I…I actually tried it yesterday…on Lucemon. He had a tattoo on his chest…I managed to wipe the tattoo out." At that, Adam grasped JD's right wrist, looking genuinely elated. "You should have seen the look on Lucemon's face, Josh. I never thought that he could look that scared…he didn't have that look when we used the Legendary Blades on him back at the past." Another hand joined JD's left wrist. "Don't you see Josh? The trainings I had, they worked. I can do it now."

Something still didn't bode well with JD. It _couldn't_ be this easy. "Okay…but tell me one more thing, Adam. If they already have trained you enough, what makes SkullSatamon think that you'd free him from the shield of whatsitsname? You could just not keep your end of the bargain."

Adam suddenly looked ashamed. The dark-haired boy tried looking away, but JD was quicker. He seized Adam's chin and forced Adam to look at him in the eye. "For a goody-two-shoe, you're very good at lying, little bro. But don't you dare lie to me. I know there's a catch. You tell me now, straight to my face…."

Adam blinked once, and again, and again before he took a deep breath. "Labramon, Penguinmon and Floramon are the bargaining tools. Until I set SkullSatamon free, they'll be under Lilithmon's command. You were right…SkullSatamon's told Lilithmon to corrupt them as she'd done to Agumon." Adam looked down, avoiding his gaze. "I was there the whole time when they plotted it. GranDracmon would intercept you and I would come, and the other Terrors would seize that opportunity to strike again and capture the others' partners."

Adam's confession shook JD to the core. He hadn't been expecting that!

"Goddamnit! Adam…do you realize what you have done?" he hissed. "The corruption's irreversible. You _might_ be able to save me, but you've cost Liu Ying, Gayathri and Manny their partners. You're as good as killed their partners, Adam."

"If we destroy Lilithmon first, then there's a chance that we can save them," Adam insisted.

JD shook his head. Adam's innocence sometimes baffled him. His words were dark, but fueled by his naiveté. "Adam, these aren't the bad guys that we see on TV. The Darkshadows, SkullSatamon, the Four Terrors….they're the real deal. Your plan to turn back against them might work in TV shows, but not in real life." Adam looked confounded, and JD sighed. "They might have anticipated this already. They must have a backup plan. Something's off, Adam."

Adam thought about it, and shook his head stubbornly. "I cleared the tattoo on Lucemon's body without harming him. That means I can do it on you, too."

"The price is too high, Adam. In the end, don't you realize that you've only caused them to increase their numbers? Their powers? SkullSatamon will be set free, there's Lucemon and Lilithmon to worry about, not to mention the Four Terrors…and add the three corrupted partners to their list of army. And what do we have? You, me, GuardiAngemon, Rosemon and Valkyrimon. We won't stand a chance against them. Adam, you didn't really think this through now, did you?" He gazed at the younger boy. "This isn't what I wanted."

"I know," whispered Adam. "It's what I wanted. Call me selfish or anything, I just can't lose another brother anymore. I'd do anything to stop it from happening."

"I might be saved, but at the cost of our friends' partners. We might not be able to stop them all."

"Liu Ying suggested calling help from the other DigiDestined around the world if it really comes to that," said Adam. "The Japanese team especially…she said they're the most powerful team."

"Their team consisted of six DNA-Digivolved Megas," said JD, somewhat mockingly. "Liu Ying told me that, sometime ago before the whole curse thing. And we, we all are independent Megas. Except for GuardiAngemon. And Satriamon, of course."

"Josh?" Adam looked up, and JD saw him suddenly looked frightened. "If…if our friends…if they hate me for what I've done, will you…hate me too?"

"Oh, Adam… no. Of course not. I can never hate you." He rubbed Adam's head. "I'll stand by you if it ever comes to that, okay?"

"_I_ don't know if I should hate you or not..."

JD and Adam were startled when Manny stepped out from behind a tree. The shadows cast by the hospital had made it impossible for them to see him. Besides, Manny had been very quiet until he spoke up. "But given the reason, I understand why you did it," said Manny, gesturing at Adam. "Doesn't mean that I or the girls would agree to what you have done, but if JD can be cured…then we'll find a way to retrieve our partners back."

"How long have you been there?" JD demanded.

"Long enough to hear everything," said Manny evenly. JD noticed that there was a hardened tone in Manny's voice – had the ongoing battles the Wira Digital had for the past couple of days during his absence battle-hardened him somewhat? JD seemed to remember Manny easily intimidated by his harsh tone. "It seems that the only way I could get a hold on any information from you two is by tailing and eavesdropping on you two," he said. There was no resentment in the statement, and the hard tone had softened.

JD scowled. Adam sighed. Manny eyed them both.

"Let's do it then," said JD finally, taking off his shirt. The black feline tattoo seemed to gleam amidst the darkness of the night. He looked at his cousin. "You ready?"

Adam raised a hesitant hand, pointing it towards the tattoo. "I'm a little nervous…" His hand actually shook as he said that.

JD gave Adam a comforting smile. "Me too, but remember this, Adam. Whatever happens to me, don't ever blame yourself. Keep that in mind."

Adam nodded. This was it. It was now or never.

"Tattoo!"


	73. Led Down the Primrose Path

Adam and Manny held their breaths. JD closed his eyes, his body relaxing as the light orbs entered his chest where the tattoo was imprinted.

Suddenly JD grunted. He clutched his chest, his face contorted in pain and his breaths became ragged. The grunt turned into a howl as he dropped on his knees before falling on his face. Within seconds he rolled over, screaming and trashing about as an astral black cat projected out from the tattoo. It let out a fierce feline growl; its crimson eyes gleamed with menace as it repelled the light orbs. Then it vanished, but JD continued trashing about.

"AAAAGGGHHHH!!"

Adam was horrified. "Josh!" He knelt beside his cousin, but was knocked away. He lifted himself back up. "Josh…"

"JD…" Manny stood there, transfixed, not knowing what to do.

JD's scream echoed over the quiet night for a while, before it died down. He became still, lying on his back, and his hand fell limp on his side.

"Josh?" Adam crawled towards JD. No response. JD's eyes were closed; he was unconscious. "Oh, no…"

Adam placed his shaking hand over JD's chest. He gasped. "No…"

Manny knelt on JD's other side as Adam clasped his mouth. The sound that came from Adam was incoherent, and under the moonlight Manny saw that Adam was close to hyperventilating. He placed his palm on JD's heart, and his eyes widened in fear. He reached for JD's wrists with both hands, waited, a frown forming on his face. Then he placed two shaking fingers on JD's neck, exerted a small pressure on it… and sighed in relief. "Adam, there's a pulse. It's weak…but it's there. JD's alive."

"It should have worked," whispered Adam, repeating what Manny had done. "It should have. It worked on Lucemon before…"

Manny picked up JD's shirt and blanketed the latter's bare body. Footsteps were heard approaching. Obviously they had heard JD's screams and were coming to see what was wrong. Manny grasped Adam's wrist, pulling it slightly so that Adam looked at him. The younger boy was too distraught to notice the footsteps.

"Adam, teleport us to the ward now. Quickly. Before someone sees us."

When the people who'd heard screaming showed up by the garden, all they saw was hints of light dusts hovering in the air.

xxx

xxx

Lucemon was in the astral plane again. His telepathic web had picked up a disturbance in Adam's emotions. For the past few days, the Master had instructed him to keep a close watch on Adam whenever he was not with them, and to make things easier Lucemon simply cast his psychic web with Adam as the target. Adam hadn't trained with them since the previous day, when the Master deemed that he had enough training upon his success to vanquish Lucemon's tattoo.

In truth, however, Adam never managed to control his power. The boy never could summon an ordinary tattoo away from the surface it was imprinted on, let alone a cursed tattoo. The tattoo he was able to remove from Lucemon the other day was a faux one – a painted one, using removable material. _Water_ could have removed it.

_Poor, poor Adam,_ he thought sardonically.

It was all because of _him_ Adam was able to seemingly control his power. Lucemon had discovered a new aspect of his psychic power and that was to influence another person to do his bidding. He had gotten the inspiration from GranDracmon's voice charm, but since he never attempted it his mastery over it was close to nil. Nonetheless, he'd worked on it and was able to tap into Adam's mind since his was the mind Lucemon was exposed to the most. Able to maintain a certain degree of control over Adam's powers, from there Lucemon was able to tame them somewhat. Adam had obviously benefited from his interference, by finally able to attempt teleportation and combustion without having to fear to mix the powers up. And Lucemon also benefited from it, by being able to read Adam's thoughts without having to actually be near him to do so.

SkullSatamon had warned him to be discreet about it. Adam would not appreciate knowing that he had been lied upon. However, they were also banking on Adam's anger for his power to evolve, but it must not be achieved prematurely. There was no need to rush. The anger must be developed; SkullSatamon wanted Adam to feel the rage he had felt towards the Puaka Generals upon their cruel deception. The concept itself had been the same: Mephistomon had taken the guise of Adam's dead brother, thus instilling hope in Adam that his brother, somehow, was alive, before crushing that hope into pieces. Now they were playing the same game: JD was like a brother to Adam, a replacement to the one he had lost, and now he was faced with the prospect of losing a brother again. The offer to train his power had been assumed to be at JD's best interest, and the effect of that deception was what SkullSatamon hoped to achieve from Adam.

The empathic window came into view. He sensed strong currents coming from the opening. Facing the window, he marveled at how much the window had opened.

It was now three-quarter opened, and to his surprise he picked up various sounds coming from the opened window. It took him a while to orient himself to the sounds, before realizing that those were in fact voices. People talking. The echoic voice belonged to Adam, or more specifically his _thoughts._ Lucemon could practically hear Adam apologizing nonstop to his fallen cousin – it was chanted like a mantra. It amused him.

More voices came up. Lucemon knew Adam was feeling all these. He was picking up the emotions from the people around him.

Lucemon listened to the voices. Perhaps he could pick up something from this.

At the same time, he also had to use his power to control Adam's, lest the powers consume Adam wholly.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 73 – Led Down the Primrose Path **_

xxx

xxx

"What happened to Josh?" Jade asked, as soon as he and Jas appeared in the ward. They stopped short, upon seeing their brother unconscious on the bed. On his chest were six leads and the electrocardiograph was beginning to print out something. Abu took the electrocardiogram and read it, a frown forming on his face.

"This isn't good," muttered the doctor, looking at Jade and Jas.

"What's not good?" Jas asked. "What happened to Josh?"

"And what is_ that?"_ Jade pointed to JD's tattooed chest. "Since when did he get a tattoo?"

The blond-haired siblings saw the grim faces on everybody inside the room. Adam, who was sitting by the bed, was puffy-eyed and had his legs pulled up on the chair. Their brother's other friends all stood behind the chair, their expressions mirroring each other's. Alisha sat by Adam on the armrest, rubbing Adam's back in an attempt to comfort him, she herself looking direly worried. Jackie leaned against the wall, a hard look on his face.

"Josh doesn't want you to know, but it's time to tell you about it," Abu said finally, as nobody else volunteered to answer the siblings. He explained what happened a month before and JD's wish of not having this told to anybody and how the others came to know about it. He showed the electrocardiogram to Jade. "I took an ECG reading on Josh just last week and everything was normal. No signs of heart pathologies at all. I even confirmed it with a chest x-ray and an ultrasound. But now…it is as if his heart's failing."

"No," gasped Jas, "it can't be true! He was perfectly fine a few minutes ago!"

"The curse takes effect as the full moon blooms."

The voice surprised everyone. It was weak and pained, and it came from JD.

"Josh!"

"JD!"

JD blinked, taking in everybody's faces that loomed upon him. He managed a weak grin as Abu removed the ECG electrodes from his chest and Alisha used a tissue to wipe off the lubricant used for attaching the electrodes on JD's chest. "Hey…everyone," he managed, his hand trailing on the tattoo.

"I'm so sorry," whispered Adam. His voice drew JD's attention to him. "Josh, I'm so sorry…"

"Adam, stop," JD sighed. He looked straight into his cousin's damp eyes, not liking what he was seeing within them. Adam always had dark eyes, but he didn't remember them being this dark. "Now you know that they can't be trusted." Adam nodded once, looking down. "But you tried," said JD, "and I don't blame you on it. Neither should you. Remember I said that before you tried 'porting the tattoo away?"

The DigiWira girls looked amongst each other, realizing what had happened. Manny, who had been there when it happened, fixed his eyes on JD without saying a word.

"Josh, why didn't you tell us?" Jas asked, wiping her eyes. She sat at the edge of the bed, with Jade standing by the bed.

"You've been carrying this for a month and you didn't even say a word to us?" Jade looked at his brother, his face harboring the fear and pain he was feeling for his brother's impending doom. "Josh, I know we're not close, but you shouldn't…" He stopped, because his voice had turned into a choke. "You shouldn't…" He tried again, but failed once more. Thus, he looked away, shivering as he tried to maintain control of his feelings.

"I'm sorry," JD quickly cut in. "I'm sorry, Jade, Jas."

"Mom, Dad and Bibik don't know about this too?" Jas asked. She was freer with displaying her emotions, thus severely ruined her mascara with her purplish-black tears. She gazed at her younger brother, and clasped his hand with both of hers.

"No. I…" JD inhaled, and took his time to exhale it out. The pain was gone, but lying down without a shirt he could see the tattoo as clear as day. He grimaced. "I don't want any of you guys to worry. I thought, its better if you…if you think I was gone in a battle instead because of a curse."

"We_deserved_ to know," Jade choked. The eldest sibling of three had returned looking at JD, and everyone saw him blinking back tears. "Josh, we're your family."

"I know. I'm sorry." JD bit his lip. "I won't stop you if you want to tell them now."

Jade and Jas looked at each other. With shaking hand Jade took out his cell phone from his trousers pocket and flipped it open, reaching for the quick dial function. He took one look at JD, who looked miserable, and flipped the phone close. But even so, he didn't keep the phone back inside his pocket but handed it to his sister.

"You do it."

"What do you want me to say?" Jas demanded, crying. "How do you expect me to do it? I can't do it."

"Neither can I," said Jade. A tear streaked down his cheek after he blinked. He looked around helplessly.

"I'll make the call," offered Abu, having enough practice of breaking bad news after being a doctor for four years. He took Jade's phone and stepped out of the ward.

"Surely there's a way to remove the tattoo?" Jas asked. "Jade, you're a future doctor. Surely you know how?"

JD felt bad for causing such grief to his siblings. He had seen enough people crying for his impending death. This wasn't what he wanted. He'd feel better if the curse would take his life when it was first inflicted, rather than making him wait for one month, forcing him to see the people he loved grieving even before his time was due.

"No, there isn't…" he began to say.

"Laser can remove tattoos," interrupted Jade at that exact moment.

"_No_," said JD, much more resoundingly. "This isn't a normal tattoo, guys. Stop thinking about this in a logical manner; you can't grasp the concept. You won't be able to. This is _black magic tattoo_. And…" He trailed his eyes to his friends, a hidden message relayed in it, before looking back at his siblings. "There's no cure. We've looked. Adam…" He glanced at Adam, a soft smile played on his face as Adam choked a sob. He reached up and patted Adam's arm. "He got tricked by one messed up villain, tried to 'port it away with his powers earlier…it didn't work."

"I made it worse," said Adam, despair evident in his voice. "I'm so-"

"Adam." JD gazed at him. Adam bit his lip. "It wasn't your fault. You tried. I appreciate that. Besides…" His hand went lower so that it would grasp Adam's. "It would've affected me anyhow tomorrow. No difference. It's only a matter of time."

"What about Salamon and Gatomon?" asked Jas, still unwilling to accept it. "They have healing powers, don't they?"

"They tried," said Alisha, "even as GuardiAngemon, they couldn't do it."

"We can't just sit here and accept it," said Jade.

"I've accepted it," said JD. He looked around the ward, on each person's face. "So should you guys. Please…everyone, don't cry anymore."

Adam stood up suddenly, frowning.

"The deal's off, then," said Adam, his voice hard. His brows knitted together, and everyone let out a soft gasp. For a moment they saw Adam's face darkening, figuratively speaking. Adam's gray eyes grew shadowy, almost pitch black, and traces of veins became evident on his pale face. Alisha clasped her hands over her mouth and the other DigiWira backed away in shock. His mouth quirked slightly and he seemed to be concentrating onto something.

An explosion of white light took place at a distance, but everyone saw it happened through the window.

Jackie started. "Digimon!" The digital man could sense a Digimon's signal as easily as any other Digimon.

"They're Labramon, Floramon and Penguinmon," said Adam, his voice still hard. "I called them back."

"No." Salamon and Gatomon looked at each other. Their holy charms were glimmering. "It's not them. Something's…different."

"No," said Adam, eerily calm. "I called them back. It's them."

"Your charms," said Alisha, forcing to shift her gaze from her brother to the Saintly Siblings. She pointed towards their holy charms. "Didn't they do that whenever the Four Terrors are here?"

"Yes, but it's not the Four Terrors this time," said Gatomon.

Sounds of buildings crumbling were heard as showers of lights illuminated the dark night. Explosions were heard this time around, followed by ripples of smoke that soared towards the sky.

"Whoever they are, they're not friendly," Jackie cautioned.

"Without our partners, we can't fight," realized Liu Ying.

"Lalamon can," said Dina, nodding towards her partner.

"I'm ready," affirmed the vegetation Digimon.

"I'll get Opie," said Manny, already heading towards the door as it swung open and Abu entered.

"GuardiAngemon's definitely needed for this one," said Alisha, nodding to her fiancé.

Adam grunted. "It's them. I'm sure of it. But if it's a threat, then Aldiyamon-" He was stopped short when his wrist was grasped. Hard. He looked down and saw that JD had reached out to clasp it. Clearly JD was still in considerable pain, his contorted face bore evident to that fact. Yet he still reached out to stop Adam from walking away. Within seconds, everyone saw the darkness on Adam's face evaporating – his face was no longer veiny and his eyes returned to their original hue. The differences were remarkable, once everyone thought of it. But Adam seemed to not think that he was any different.

"No, Adam," said JD, with much difficulty. "I can't keep an eye on you if you go out there."

Adam seemed surprised, and he looked his usual self once again. "But, Josh…"

"No. Stay here with me." JD managed to glare at him. Even with his condition he was still able to make Adam squirm. "GranDracmon might be out there and we both know his voice charm affects you. GranDracmon thinks I can break his charm and it's somewhat proven. So stay here, Adam. Without me out there you can't break it. Aldiyamon will end up attacking the others, and without the other Wira Digital we can't risk that. So _stay._"

Adam reluctantly nodded. He looked at Patamon. "We'll go only when we're needed."

"GuardiAngemon is vulnerable against GranDracmon's voice charm too," pointed out Liu Ying.

"If it ever comes to that, I'll step in," said Lalamon, drawing everyone's attention. She clarified, "As Rosemon, my whip is able to charm my opponent into falling in love with me."

"Excuse me?" Dina asked, surprised. All other females in the room blinked.

"But it won't lift the voice charm's power," continued Lalamon. "GranDracmon's much too powerful; his spell will be stronger than mine are. The only advantage I have is the fact that GuardiAngemon is a DNA-digivolved Digimon. He is…unstable as compared to Valkyrimon and myself. Too many enchantments will disrupt his digital makeup, and he will definitely devolve. Once devolved to their rookie forms, GranDracmon's spell would definitely be lifted as it works on angelic Digimon only." Lalamon gazed at Adam. "A Wira Digital's form makeup is far more stable than a DNA-digivolved one. I'm afraid you will still retain your Mega form despite being under my love charm."

Adam sighed. Then Liu Ying took out her D-Terminal and began typing something on it.

"What are you doing?" asked Gayathri.

Liu Ying shook her head while pressing the buttons on the device fervently. "This is getting out of hand. I have to take up his offer now."

Everyone frowned. "Whose offer?" Gayathri asked.

"Koushirou Izumi," replied Liu Ying, "on behalf of the Japanese Digidestined team."

"In that case," said Gayathri, whipping out her cell phone. "I'm calling Willis. He's at Sabah. He said to call him if we need any help."

"Right now," said Liu Ying grimly, "we need all the help we can get."

xxx

xxx

Lilithmon smirked as Lucemon entered her new dark fortress, once the proud landmark of the DigiWira's country.

"I like what you've done to this tower," complimented Lucemon, looking around the gothic interior admiringly. "It feels almost like the Onyx Pyramid. You even have crafted a throne of your own." He gestured towards an elaborate chair that stood in the middle of the chamber that was revolving in a circular motion, overlooking the whole stormy city of Kuala Lumpur.

"What brings you here?" asked Lilithmon. "I know you don't simply make social calls. Something's up."

Lucemon nodded. "I've picked up Adam's thoughts. His empathic window is raised again. I'm not sure what had happened, but I suspect that he's discovered that he's been tricked."

"So? It's what the Master wants now, is it? To get the boy riled enough so that his power increases?" Lilithmon smirked again as she sashayed towards the throne. "He'll get angry enough now, because he's just called back the three DigiWira partners…only that they're no longer the partners those brats know. The _abhorrence spell_ works marvelously, although without something to anchor on the spell I ended up DNA-digivolving them with some Duskmon to strengthen the darkness the spell gave them. These Duskmon have been given some_power-propeller spell_ as well before being infused with the partners. They'll serve as anchors to render the resulted dark Megas unbreakable."

"That's complex work," noted Lucemon.

"It did require me a few minutes to come up with," agreed Lilithmon. "Why look so surprised? You thought I wasn't up for it?"

"No, no…just stating. I've never attempted that, to be honest," said Lucemon.

"How flattering to hear that," Lilithmon laughed. "It's so rare to hear you so humble…something must be wrong with my ears or something?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Or there's something that you want from me, Lucemon?"

"There is, but it serves to our benefit rather than yours," said Lucemon. "I've picked up another of Adam's thoughts."

"You seemed troubled. That's rare. I'm listening."

Lucemon smiled sourly at Lilithmon's sarcasm. "Those DigiWira are planning to call for some reinforcements."

"So?"

"From what I could make of, the ones they're calling are stronger than them."

Lilithmon waved her hand airily. "Let them come. What are we afraid of? I'm a Mega, you're practically a Mega and that's without having to actually digivolve to one, the Four Terrors are Megas, and so are the three corrupted Megas we have in our hands. That's NINE Megas, against…how many?"

"Six," said Lucemon. "But still, it's unwise to underestimate our opponents when we don't know their strengths. They could disrupt our plans. They're not our enemies." The demonic angel smirked as he rubbed his chin. "Yet. But one thing at a time. No use rushing, we might end up losing everything. Just look at what happened to our unfortunate brethrens."

"You do have a point," agreed Lilithmon. "So what do you propose we do?"

"Combine our powers," said Lucemon, "and cast an unbreakable Shield of Waja around this area. Let it spread to include the town where those children are seeking refuge in."

"You're forgetting one thing. Those interferers are also similar to those DigiWira," said Lilithmon, "which means they have means to travel between worlds. They'd use the Digital World to travel into the region we surrounded with the shield."

"Not when the Shield of Waja is concerned. I thought you've studied the shield's casting method thoroughly?" said Lucemon gleefully. "The shield is powered by dark magic. It reacts accordingly to what its caster wants upon casting it. If we're specific enough, no Digiport can be opened within the shield."

"So cast the spell, Lucemon," said Lilithmon. "Your Seraphimon form is supposed to be powerful."

"Yes, but we don't know their strength yet. For all I know those meddlers might have a Mega eclipsing my powers. I prefer not to take chances."

"Is it actually possible for us _both_ to cast a single shield?"

"It hasn't been proved, but if we succeeded the shield would be unbreakable with _both_ our powers imbued in it," admitted Lucemon. "The Negations only mentions about it and any other arts in it to be used only for evil. Good intentions will destroy the caster. So I suppose there's nothing to be worried about. Unless if you have a change of heart?"

Lilithmon glared at her fellow general. "The sooner we do this, the sooner I can celebrate JD's death without any possible interruptions. Come on."

xxx

xxx

Spirit foxes blasted against a row of buildings, destroying them. A woman's laugh was heard as she glided under the moon, her features made prominent due to her glistening bronze armor. At one look, she seemed to resemble Xianamon greatly in terms that they both wore facemasks that bore the look of a fox's head. Their weapon was almost the same. But their choice of colors was different; the woman was in bronze and black, whereas Xianamon was resplendent in gold and white.

Gliding along the winds meters under the armored woman was another woman with strong floral affinity: scantily dressed in rippling white skirt that was parted in the middle, revealing her undergarments; dark violet leathers that wrapped around her body tight; unhealthy purple skin, and a budding yellow flower as a helmet. She wielded two scepters; one with a jewel on its tip was blasting out a rainbow energy wave that sent a tall building tumbling while the other with a carved snake coiling around it shot out dark blue energy blast from the snake's mouth. This woman was laughing heartily in an attack-frenzy, starkly contrasting the first woman who did her dark deeds in silence.

The wrecked roads were suddenly flooded, and a heavily-armored merman swam over it. His tail was bigger and thicker than a merman would usually have, thus costing him his agility. He had to use waters in order to move, but his lack of movement was compensated with his abundant power. Using his weapon – a staff with a shark's head as tip, he sent blasts of blue lightning all around him, destroying everything in sight.

"Stop!" screamed Rosemon as she approached the trio of evil. Without wasting time she launched an attack towards the nearest offender. _"Aguichant Levres!"_

Her evil counterpart sneered. "Oh. Great. Another wannabe." She swung her serpent staff forward. _"Serpent Ruin!"_

The two attacks collided and exploded. They looked to be evenly matched.

"Who are you?" demanded Rosemon, curious of her foe's appearance.

"I'm insulted," said the flower woman flamboyantly. "You don't know me? I'm **Lotusmon**." She pointed both scepters towards Rosemon. "Your worst nightmare."

"I can see why," muttered Rosemon. "You're everything I hoped I'd never become."

Lotusmon sighed in an overdramatic matter. "These grounds need some weeding done. Let's start with you." The jeweled scepter sparkled with multicolored aura. _"Seventh Fantasia!" _

In the meantime, GuardiAngemon advanced towards the bronze-clad female who was blasting the abandoned houses with waves of lavender energy and cherry blossom storms. Seeing how relentless the woman was, GuardiAngemon knew there was no talking the woman into ceasing attack. Thus he summoned his giant blades and formed a sword, before blasting the woman with a beam of _Holy Espada_. The light attracted the woman's attention, and she spun around, retaliating immediately.

"_Amethyst Mandala!"_ More cherry blossom storms were sent his way. GuardiAngemon grunted as his attack was cancelled out by the flower petals. The woman swung her staff forward, generating two crescent-shaped energy blades which streaked towards GuardiAngemon. _"Twin Blades of Beauty!"_

"Two can play that game, **Sakuyamon**." The steel saint spread his metallic wings wide. Pure lights burst forth from his very being. _"Heaven's Ripper!"_

Energy blades met holy-charged projectiles, resulting in a sound explosion. Both GuardiAngemon and Sakuyamon emerged from the smokes unscathed.

"Now that's more like it," mocked Sakuyamon, sneering. "And now to show you what a real Mega Digimon can do. _Spirit Strike!!_" She emitted a yellow aura and four spirit foxes spiraled around her body before moving out, yowling, before streaking towards GuardiAngemon. He retaliated by unleashing another Heaven's Ripper, but to his surprise the foxes glided in between the projectiles before slamming full force on his body. He was sent flying. Sakuyamon smirked. "Told you so," she snickered.

Opie the Valkyrimon swooped down from the sky towards the dark merman Digimon. Something seemed to draw him towards the merman; the aquatic Digimon reminded him too much of Samudramon who was of the same species. In fact, this trio all reminded him of Samudramon, Puspamon and Xianamon.

_Could it be?__The similarities between him and this Digimon are uncanny._ Opie thought, halting his descend as the merman's profile became clearer amidst the moonlight. _Wait a minute…I recognize this Digimon. Isn't he one of the Olympus Twelve? _

"**Neptunemon**?" wondered Opie, brandishing his sword and shield simultaneously. If he was about to face a member of the Olympus Twelve then he had better be careful; the Olympus Twelve members were regarded as having deity-like powers. He wondered whether this Neptunemon was one of the Olympians or just a regular Mega bearing the features of the highly regarded King of the Oceans. _It's impossible that he's actually an Olympian, _thought Opie, _because the Olympus Twelve and the Royal Knights are both extinct after battling the Seven Great Demon Lords. That is what it's said in the legends. This must be a regular Neptunemon instead. Our powers shouldn't be too much disparate. _He gulped. _I hope._

Something didn't bode well with him though. He was getting a very familiar vibe from Neptunemon.

"So you recognized me," said Neptunemon in a dark echoic voice. "I don't believe we've met, though I recognize you from somewhere." For a moment, the merman stared at Opie curiously, before shrugging it off. He chuckled. "It doesn't matter anyway," Neptunemon pointed his shark trident towards Opie, "Because you shall be dead._ Vortex Penetrate!!"_

Spirals of dark waters burst forth from around Neptunemon. Crackles of lightning followed forth. The two forces intertwined with each other, generating a forceful attack that would destroy anybody it hit upon. Water and lightning were a deadly combination.

Opie took a deep breath and summoned his ice and wind powers. While his technique could never match Samudramon and Puspamon's _Everlasting Storm_, he hoped that it would at least deter Neptunemon's attack. A cyclone began to take form around him as the temperature decreased rapidly. The Valkyrimon hoisted one arm towards the sky and pointed the other towards the incoming attack, calling forth, _"Punishing Storm!"_

Winds and hailstorm lambasted against the waters and thunderbolts. The water froze, but the lightning struck through the hailstorm, only to slam against Opie's golden shield. Opie was pushed backward with an involuntary outcry, his arm behind the shield numb due to the force of the attack. He gasped.

Neptunemon smirked. "Not bad…" The smirk contorted somewhat, as the Olympian added, "Opie. Now I know why you seem somewhat familiar…"

"Penguinmon?" realized Opie. He glanced upon his comrades and took in their foes' appearances. He had thought that the similarities were purely a coincidence, but with Neptunemon's identity was confirmed as Penguinmon, it was fairly obvious that Sakuyamon and Lotusmon were formerly Labramon and Floramon. He wondered whether GuardiAngemon and Rosemon had realized that; the way they were going at it, he thought that perhaps they didn't know. Sakuyamon and Lotusmon were not relenting with their attacks, forcing his comrades to fight their best. He turned back, only to see Neptunemon charging up his staff.

"WAIT! Let's not fight!" pleaded Opie.

Neptunemon's smile was cold. "No. Let's."

Opie barely avoided an incoming lightning bolt sent his way by making a back flip. Neptunemon, still remaining where he had been, had fired him that blast. Opie noted that Neptunemon hardly moved about. _His weight. That tail's too heavy for him; he's lost Samudramon's agility. I can use that to my advantage._

xxx

xxx

Adam leaned against the chair, pulling his legs up and close to his body. He stared at his cousins, who were talking with each other. Jade had stopped crying, and was telling something about JD's childhood, while Jas, being smaller than her brothers, had somehow managed to convince JD to scoot aside to make room for her on the bed. She was half-sitting, half-lying down, stroking JD's hair with a sad smile, her tears never stopped. JD was basking in the attention, but every now and then he would steal a glance towards Adam to make sure that he wouldn't feel left out. It made Adam smile; he had never seen his cousins to be this close. But it also made his heart ache thinking that it had taken JD's life to reinitiate their bond.

His empathy was picking up their emotions, and it pained him. He could even feel a dull pain on his own chest – no doubt JD was feeling worse. JD's pain had also become his, although to somewhat lesser degree. Jackie had informed him that it was another aspect of his new power. His empathy was letting him experience not only other people's emotions, but also their pains. It was an aspect that Adam hoped he had never gotten, but in a way, it gave him a better understanding of what his cousin was feeling.

He gazed towards the clock. It was three minutes to midnight. The others had been gone for almost a couple of hours now, rejoining their family at that late hour, while his sister and her fiancé went to the café along with Jackie to get something for JD to eat.

Adam wondered whether the three Digimon had found the partners. He felt guilty for somehow being involved with their kidnappings, and now it was revealed that it was all a trick. SkullSatamon had wanted him to develop his powers so that he would be able to break through the Shield of Waja. His powers had grown and he was in control.

_Lucemon_. The name alone caused suppressed anger to resurface. He'd trusted the demonic angel and it turned out that everything was a lie.

All of a sudden he was taken back to the time when he met JD at the Dark Ocean. He remembered having difficulties in trusting JD back then, when he knew that JD had returned to good. It wasn't even JD's fault that he was evil; he couldn't be taken into account for his actions. Yet Adam had refused to believe him when the other DigiWira had done so. How difficult it had taken him to trust JD, but how _easy_ it had taken Lucemon and SkullSatamon to gain his trust.

_I'm so stupid,_ thought Adam despairingly. _How could have I trusted them? They've been close in killing me…and still I trusted them. Stupid Adam. _

The clock struck midnight. Adam counted heartbeats, waiting in anticipation. _Josh only has one day left…_

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!"

Adam snapped out of his thoughts. JD was trashing about again, and this time it looked to be more severe than before. He screamed, and tears streaked out from his eyes, signifying just how much pain he was feeling. Jas gasped, aghast as she was thrown from the bed by JD, while Jade slammed the button to call on the medical personnel. Adam and Jade quickly attempted to restrain JD, but overwhelmed by pain JD had become too strong for them to hold. Jade was at least, strong enough to maintain grip on his brother, but Adam was much smaller and thus weaker. He backed away, helping Jas to stand instead.

"The tattoo!" gasped Jas, pointing at it fearfully. "It's moving!"

The black cat was indeed moving. Its eyes shone crimson as it seemed to dig its claws into JD's chest. JD howled in pain, clutching his chest while trashing about. His screams hurt Adam too, for Adam felt what he was feeling. The pain was too great, and by the time Abu came with a nurse JD had passed out. Jade choked out sobs as he was comforted by Alisha, while Adam tried his best to comfort Jas while crying himself.

"There's a beat," said Abu grimly after checking JD's pulse and heartbeat. He connected the heart monitor to JD, and frowned at the monitor. "God…what's happening to him?"

"Josh…" Jade whimpered, staring at the monitor. The lines were all wrong, the patterns changing in split seconds, baffling all the medical personnel.

"I've never seen anything like this," said the nurse, staring at JD curiously. "Doctor, what's happening to him?"

"I don't know, Amy," said Abu grimly. "Get some IV painkillers. The boy is in pain and no medical books have described this condition. Painkillers are the only thing I can think of. Go, now!"

The nurse skittered out of the room. Abu took a small towel on the medical tray and began wiping the sweats on JD's face and body. In his attempt to withstand the pain JD had sweated profusely; Abu was worried that JD would dehydrate soon. He stared upon the black cat tattoo, which seemed to be sneering back at him. Its sharp claws were all dug in. JD's breathings were ragged – he was doing it with so much difficulty. When the nurse returned with the requested medication, Abu injected the painkiller into JD's system and silently prayed for the best.

JD stopped trashing about. His breathings took a long, rhythmic pace. The monitor began showing a heart pattern, but still it didn't look normal to anyone.

Abu sighed. It was the best he could do. The heart pattern was abnormal, the pulse rate too low, the blood pressure too low. Everything was wrong.

All the while, Adam had felt what his cousin had felt. The pain, the sorrow, the dread… everything. Adam had also, somehow, glimpsed into JD's mind and realized that despite his brave front, JD was never ready to die. JD didn't want to die. The waves of emotions, dreams and desires from JD flowed into Adam, overwhelming Adam until it became too much for him to handle.

Adam rushed out of the ward, but before long he slumped by the nearest corner. Clasping his mouth, he tried hard not to cry but the tears wouldn't stop flowing. Patamon called out to him from the Digivice but Adam couldn't even stop his cries to let out Patamon. _Isn't there any other way? _He thought despairingly. _Any way? Any other way?__I don't want you to die, Josh. This isn't how it should be. It's not fair. Why…why is this happening to him?_

He felt someone kneeling beside him, gently pulling him in a comforting embrace. Catching a familiar fragrant smell, he realized that it was his sister, and sobbed in her embrace. "Why did we have to go through so much, for it to end this way?" he blurted out in between sobs.

Alisha hugged his brother tighter, having no answer to his question.

xxx

xxx

From a distance, a speck of light appeared from the sky. Within seconds the speck grew larger, and a gigantic blue dragon in black armor zoomed down from the sky. The armored dragon was flanked on the left by an angel in light armor, with blue shields mounted on his shoulders and arms, and eight golden wings, and on its right by a woman in white avian-themed armor whose flowing hair was the colors of rainbow.

"Okay, Imperialdramon, stop here," said a teenage male's voice from within the blue jewel located on the dragon's back.

"It's not like we can move any further, Ken," responded the dragon, Imperialdramon, in strange dual voices. "There's a force-field blocking us from entering the city."

"Imperialdramon's sensors indicate that the city and the regions around it are surrounded by the force-field," said another male, relatively younger than the first male.

"That's odd. Izzy didn't mention anything about a force-field," said a female. "You'd think that the bad guys are expecting us or something."

"What should we do?" a feminine voice, gentler than the first female's, inquired.

"I say we blast the shield!" said a spirited, masculine voice.

"We can't, Davis," implored a calm voice that hinted the speaker's laid-back attitude. "Imperialdramon's attack is too devastating for the surrounding area. We better let Dominimon or Irismon try breaking the barrier with their swords first."

"TK's right," said the bird-woman, Irismon, also in dual voices. What was stranger was the fact that while Irismon was clearly a female Digimon, her voice was the amalgamation of a stern female and a polite male. She raised her shining rapier before her obscured face, and gazed into the jewel encrusted on the hilt. The rapier began to shine with white aura. "I'll try first. _ Storm Gazer!"_

A blast of cyclone with white lightning bolts escaped the tip of the rapier as Irismon swung it in a horizontal direction. They slammed upon the barrier, but the barrier crackled with electricity before dark red lightning bolts danced around the surface of the barrier, nullifying Irismon's attempt to break it.

"What?" Irismon gasped.

"It didn't work?" Imperialdramon and Dominimon were clearly astonished as well.

"Someone's coming," alerted Dominimon, also possessing dual voices. The three Mega Digimon saw a being that screamed contradiction approaching. They couldn't figure out whether this being inside the force-field was a demon or an angel; he could be _both._ "I don't believe what I'm seeing," muttered Dominimon.

"Well, well," said the demonic angel, smirking haughtily. "An Imperialdramon, a Dominimon and an Irismon. I shouldn't have bothered with the shield, but no matter. We'll get to you when we're done with them. For now, you may watch as events unfold around here. One of the DigiWira will meet his doom in less than a day from now, three DigiWira have lost their partners to evil, and one…I believe, will be in _our_ grasps soon. Interesting itinerary, yes? Well, until later."

"WAIT!!" roared Imperialdramon, but the strange Digimon had flown away. "Davis, Ken, what do you think? Should I blast the shield?"

"That strange Digimon sounds too full of himself," said Ken, "Imperialdramon, go to Fighter Mode and be ready to intercept the attack should the shield deflects it."

"Why are you expecting that to happen?" asked Davis. "Irismon's attack only got canceled out."

"I was an evil overlord. I'd know," replied Ken with a tone that was both wry and grim.

From a quadruped Imperialdramon transformed into a taller bipedal form of himself, gaining several humanoid characteristics. The dragon head had become part of the armor protecting his torso, and from the dragon mouth a cannon emerged. It blasted a giant violet sphere towards the dome-shaped barrier, but to their surprise, the barrier retaliated by deflecting the power sphere back towards Imperialdramon. It was a testament to Imperialdramon's durability when his own attack didn't faze him at first, though his armors were severely dented. He reverted to Dragon Mode.

"You okay, Imperialdramon?" asked Ken, worried.

"Just a bit shaken up, that's all," said Imperialdramon. "I've felt worse."

The relieved smile was nearly obvious on Ken's reply: "Glad to hear it. Sorry to put you through it, but you're the only one who's heavily-armored – the blast would have devolved Irismon and Dominimon. And we can't risk the blast destroying this place."

A golden glow appeared from a distance. "More enemies?" Dominimon wondered, readying his shining energy blade.

"No," said Cody, "that's a Rapidmon. A golden-armored one."

"Willis!" said Davis ecstatically. "I nearly forgot that he's in Malaysia too for a vacation. He told me about it in his recent email. He met a girl too…one of the five core DigiWira, according to him…"

"Details," said Yolei, an amused sarcasm was there in her voice. "Willis has an online blog, remember? We've read all about it there."

"He didn't actually mention meeting one of the DigiWira in his blog," said Kari, to Davis's defense. "Though he did mention about a girl."

"Hey guys," called Willis, who was mounted on top of Rapidmon's right shoulder. "Gayathri mentioned about you guys coming too. Things have gone pretty serious for the DigiWira. Gayathri was actually crying in the phone when she called for my help…something about one of them going to die soon and their partners captured… I couldn't get all the details but I promised I'd come."

"We couldn't go any further," said Davis, dejected. "One Goth angel-demon guy came by when we tried blasting the force-field."

"Why don't you come inside the cockpit and we fill you in with some details?" invited Yolei. "Cody's calling up the Digimon Analyzer for a match to the Goth guy Davis was talking about."

"And some other Digimon inside that dome, too," said Cody, a hint of worry in his voice.

"Sure." A beam of light showered upon Willis and Rapidmon. Willis was pulled inside the blue jewel on Imperialdramon's armor, and found himself in the company of six Japanese Digidestined. He took in their appearances; a tanned boy with spiky mahogany hair, a pale boy with dark curtains framing his face, a girl with her chestnut hair pulled back in a chic half-ponytail, a bespectacled girl with her long silky violet hair let down, a blond boy wearing a Gilligan hat and finally a stern-looking boy with short brown hair.

Willis offered a smile to his Japanese friends, though his expression was grim. "What do we have?"

"The Digimon that came to us," Cody said, indicating a screen, "is Lucemon, an Ultimate. In fact, he's the only Ultimate inside there other than abundant number of Duskmon and Velgemon. Despite that, he actually has powers rivaling Megas."

"And here I thought MagnaAngemon's the only one who has that," said TK with disdain.

Cody caught his DNA partner's sarcasm. "Funny you should mention MagnaAngemon. You'll be surprised to learn that one of the newer DigiWira…an _honorary_ DigiWira, actually, has a MagnaAngemon as a partner." He nodded towards Kari. "And another honorary DigiWira has an Angewomon. They both can DNA Digivolve to form GuardiAngemon, a Mega Digimon close enough in terms of power to rival Dominimon."

"I bet these two honoraries are a couple," muttered TK.

"Actually, they're listed as engaged," said Cody matter-of-factly.

TK and Davis shared a look, before both shifting their gazes towards Kari who was whispering something to Yolei, unaware of the two boys' gazes upon her. TK grumbled somewhat, while Davis looked at his blond friend curiously.

"Why are you grumbling?" he whispered. "If anybody should grumble, it's me. You at least have that online thing with Catherine."

Cody shook his head. "Back to our current pressing matter," he said, trying to get the two boys' attention. "There's a girl partnered to a Rosemon, and a much younger girl partnered to a Valkyrimon."

"Those two are Megas!" Willis sputtered.

"Even Izzy was baffled. It's so rare for anyone to be partnered with Megas, yet this country has loads of them," said Yolei.

"I thought the core DigiWira have all reached Megas?" inquired Kari. "Except for one."

"Yes," nodded Cody, checking the analyzer. "Aldiyamon, Xianamon, Puspamon and Samudramon have all reached Megas."

"What about that cool-looking dude?" suddenly inquired Imperialdramon, with a single voice that sounded much like Veemon. "You mean Satriamon," said Wormmon.

"Satriamon remains an Ultimate for now," said Cody, reading the data displayed on the screen, frowning. "The DigiWira who constitutes half of Satriamon is the one whom Lucemon said will die. It's said here that he has been cursed with an incurable blight. No cure has been found."

"That's awful!" gasped Kari, genuinely horrified. "Who could have done something like that to him?"

"A Mega Digimon called Lilithmon," said Cody. "She's also inside the barrier."

"Our sensors are picking up her digital signature coming from that tall tower," supplied Imperialdramon.

Yolei studied the image provided by Imperialdramon on the screen. "That's the KL Tower, a famous landmark for this country. I even have a postcard with that tower's image from my classmate who came here last winter's holiday." She frowned, as the image of the entrapped city came into view. "The city's practically deserted…"

"Man…" muttered TK. "These guys have it hard. But…any team with _seven_ Megas should be able to handle practically any level of Digimon attacks."

"They're not dealing with usual Digimon threats," said Cody. "Remember what it took for us to finally destroy Daemon?"

"Even Omnimon and Imperialdramon weren't enough to stop him and the reconstituted Daemon Corps," said Ken, his eyes darkening.

"Luckily Irismon, Dominimon, Phoenixmon, and Vikemon appeared when they did," said Yolei.

"Don't forget my Kouji and his Beowulfmon. They helped too," reminded Kari in a somewhat dreamy voice, earning her dark looks from TK and Davis, though she was oblivious to it. Yolei, Ken and Cody merely shook their heads while Willis took in what he was seeing with stride, having heard of some one-sided details from Davis.

Cody coughed; while Kari, Davis and TK were still friends, the topic of Kari's new boyfriend was always a sore spot for Davis and TK. "Anyway," he began, drawing his teammates' attention. Yolei and Ken seemed glad of his call. "The Malaysian team is currently facing six demon Digimon, and had beaten five in recent past. Seven of these demons belong to the Great Demon Lords group, where Daemon was also a member." An image of the Seven Great Demon Lords appeared on the screen, causing some of them to cringe. "They have beaten Daemon, Belphemon, Beelzemon, Leviamon and Barbamon." With each name being mentioned, the corresponding image on the screen vanished. Only two remained now. "Lucemon and Lilithmon remain, but they are now joined by GranDracmon, Belialvamdemon, Deathmon and Murmuxmon. According to the Digital World's history, these four are known as the Four Terrors."

The images of the Four Terrors appeared on the screen, joining Lucemon and Lilithmon.

"Hey, that's MaloMyotismon!" pointed out Davis. "What's that freak doing back here?"

"I don't think it's the same one, Davis," said Ken.

Cody nodded. "He isn't. I don't know why he's called Belialvamdemon here. But that's not their biggest problem…" Cody pressed several buttons, and three more Digimon joined the rank. "According to Imperialdramon's sensors, three more have been identified as villainous Digimon – Neptunemon, Sakuyamon, and Lotusmon. And, oh…" He looked away, somewhat embarrassed, while TK and Davis's eyes flew up in surprise upon taking in Lotusmon's appearance.

Davis whistled. "Check her out!"

"That's a _Digimon_, you two!" Kari protested. Yolei went one step further and pinched the two teenage boys on the cheeks. Willis sweatdropped while Ken and Cody exchanged wry looks.

Willis thought that it was best to change the topic of conversation. "Anyone knows who's the head honcho for these demons?"

Cody typed something on the console. A skeletal demon appeared on the screen. "Look familiar?"

"Him?" asked Kari, sounding unimpressed.

"A SkullSatamon, yes," said Cody, "but remember that it took Imperialdramon _Fighter Mode_ to beat him, and he's only an Ultimate." Kari nodded.

"And with hordes of Mega under his command, no doubt that this SkullSatamon is able to reach Mega too," said Ken darkly.

"How can _we_ help them when we can't even get through the barrier?" grunted Davis, rubbing his horribly red cheek.

Silence. The Digidestined exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Willis raised a hand. "We can look around for computers to open a Digiport. Go to the Digital World and find a way to open a port towards somewhere inside the dome."

"That could work," said Ken, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Then let's get to it!" said Davis, full of spirit. "Let's help these guys."

Kari nodded. "With one of them cursed to die…they're going to need all the help they can get to get through it."

xxx

xxx

Subang Jaya's entrance point lay in ruins. Remnants of houses scattered about, half-buried under the subsiding waters. Abandoned vehicles had been turned upside down. Roads wrecked, lamp poles strewn about, adding to the sight of total destruction.

Jackie squinted, trying to look for any signs of his Digimon friends. This was the place where GuardiAngemon, Rosemon and Valkyrimon had gone to battle the most recent threats. Two hours had passed and everyone had grown worried when they hadn't returned. Dina and Debbie especially had grown very restless, for their partners were out there. With Alisha busy comforting a devastated Adam, and Abu consoling JD's family members, it was up to him to look for the Digimon. He was thankful that he'd decided to look for them the old-fashioned way – by utilizing his abilities as a digital human instead of having to restrict himself to the ways of the regular humans. In times like this, flight and psychic powers were useful.

He halted in midair, noticing a glow from under piles of rubbles. He could have missed it for the glow was very faint. Descending there, he utilized his own telekinetic powers to remove the rubbles, and saw Salamon, Gatomon, Lalamon and Muchomon there – dirty, drenched, injured, and unconscious. The glow came from the charms worn by the Saintly Siblings.

"They've been beaten," sighed Jackie as he collected them and headed back to the hospital.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

The Japanese Digidestined and Willis only appear as cameos, as per request and valid reasons pointed out by readers. :D The Japanese team would have intervened if things get too out of hand for the other teams, being the most experienced and all that. Just look at what they'd done during the 02's World Tour episodes. This way I get to feature them, despite only in one scene, and I tried squeezing in as much information as I could to what they have done since the events on 02 ended. Willis reappears because I have formerly established him to be somewhere in the country, holidaying with his family. Dominimon and Irismon (Ancient Irismon) are chosen to be the advanced forms of Shakkoumon and Silphymon because I want to be different.

Never say never, though. I admit it would be nice to have the Japanese team helping out the Malaysian team, but still…I'm still undecided on this one. We'll see. No influencing me on this one, ok?


	74. In a Heartbeat

Daybreak. Adam watched the sun rise with dread. It only meant that time was running out.

His eyes stung, but no tears came out. Hadn't he spent the night crying in his sister's embrace? He couldn't remember. He remembered waking up on a mattress strewn inside JD's ward, with a blanket over him. Dr. Abu then stepped in and quietly asked him to join him for the dawn prayer and he had obliged, before heading towards the hospital's rooftop to be alone, with the exception of Patamon's company. JD was still sedated; Abu said that it was the only way to keep the pain out of JD.

A gust of dawn wind blew upon him. The chill didn't bother him; it couldn't be compared with the chill he had running down his spine whenever he thought about JD's impending doom.

"Adam."

He turned around. Dina stood at the edge of the door, Lalamon floating close beside her. Their eyes met, and she approached him. A hand held the door open and Liu Ying and Gayathri walked out before Manny stepped out and closed the door behind him. Their faces harbored the same emotion; Adam didn't even have to sense it. They were feeling what he was feeling. He cast his eyes away, too ashamed to meet his friends' gazes. Their partners – except Dina's – had fallen to evil because of him.

"Kak Lisha told us you might be here," continued Dina.

"I don't think you should be alone," said Liu Ying. "We're all in this together."

"I'm sorry." Adam said that without looking at his teammates.

"Sorry for what?" asked Gayathri, puzzled. "You haven't done anything wrong."

Adam whirled around and stared towards Manny. Manny shook his head a little. Adam realized that Manny hadn't told the girls about what he had done. But if he was ever going to get a sense of peace in his mind, he must be truthful to his friends. How they would react, Adam would accept it. He was at fault. "There's something I should tell you…"

He told them everything, leaving no details out, from his training with Lucemon to his affiliation with their partners' corruption. He saw their faces changing, he sensed their resentments, but to his surprise all those changed in split second and he felt _understanding_ radiating from them.

"Lucemon tricked you," said Liu Ying gently. "He told you what you wanted to hear. I understand. I had the same experience with Barbamon."

Adam was touched. Liu Ying really meant what she said. She would know what he was feeling. Gazing upon the others, he understandably caught on the hesitation, doubt, understanding and disbelief all intertwined in one from Gayathri and Dina, while Manny was beginning to cope with what he had learned the previous night.

"I'm sorry," said Adam finally. "I'll fix this. I don't know how, but I'll do my best."

"Adam, don't," said Lalamon. "Not just yet. Lotusmon, Sakuyamon and Neptunemon are incredibly powerful. The only reason why I and the others are still alive is because we faked our death. They left because they thought we didn't survive the building they sent crashing upon us."

Adam frowned. "Then I'll wait for the other Digidestined," he decided, looking at Liu Ying, "Have they come?"

Liu Ying nodded glumly. "They were here, but there's a force-field surrounding Kuala Lumpur and the towns around it, ours included. They couldn't break into the force-field despite using their strongest Digimon's power, and they couldn't enter from the Digital World too."

"Willis mentioned the same thing too," murmured Gayathri.

"A force-field?" Suspicion dawned to Adam. "That's got to be the Shield of Waja."

"The what?" Manny asked.

"The Shield of Waja. It's the same thing that's trapping SkullSatamon."

"How do you know that?" Liu Ying asked.

"From my so-called training. Only a single power greater than the shield's caster can break the shield. SkullSatamon was trapped by Grademon when Grademon was beyond Mega level. It would take a Digimon even more powerful than that to break the shield surrounding SkullSatamon's fortress."

Manny frowned. "Single power?"

"Multiple attacks won't work in destroying the shield. As far as I know, so are combined powers; the Darkshadows tried to free SkullSatamon, but they failed." Adam considered something as his teammates awaited his further explanation. "Both Lucemon and Lilithmon know how to cast the shield, but Lucemon's probably the one who generated it."

"This is freaky," said Gayathri. "You, knowing all these. But that's not a bad thing," she added hastily.

Adam gave her a reassuring smile. Gayathri looked relieved.

"It could work to our advantage," said Liu Ying. "Maybe I can ask Izzy whether they have a Digimon more powerful than Imperialdramon Fighter Mode." She took out her D-Terminal and began typing on it. Within a couple of minutes, the device beeped.

"_Imperialdramon is powerful, but Omnimon is by far our strongest arsenal,"_ she read aloud. _"It's too bad we can't form Imperialdramon Paladin Mode again. It is the only combination that's stronger than both Omnimon and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode, but apparently it's only a one-time deal when we fought Armageddemon three years ago. We couldn't form it when we fought the Demon Corps a year after Armageddemon. I'll ask Tai and Matt whether they can take a leave from school today to aid you. They probably would jump at the chance, but I'll get back to you on that in a minute." _

"I doubt even this Omnimon can destroy the shield," muttered Adam.

"Have faith," said Lalamon. "An Omnimon is a product of two Mega Digimon, DNA-digivolved, and not to mention a co-leader of the famous Royal Knights. Centuries ago, the Royal Knights played an instrumental role in bringing the downfall of the Seven Great Demon Lords."

"No, I'm not belittling Omnimon. It's just that…Lucemon has a Mega form I've never seen. He's already as strong as a Mega in his current form. His Mega form would be stronger than most Megas. He'd be in equal ground with Omnimon," said Adam worriedly.

"Nonetheless, we should try out all the options we've got," said Liu Ying, as her D-Terminal beeped.

"_Tai, Matt and Omnimon are on their way. The juniors couldn't come – their parents have strictly prohibited them from skipping school for Digidestined business outside Japan. Sora and I wanted to come too, but with Mimi in America and Joe swamped in his med school schedule we wouldn't be of much help. However, good luck. I hope Omnimon will be able to destroy the force-field."_

"I'd give anything to be able to go to school again," said Gayathri wistfully as they observed the sunrise.

Adam sighed, before something stirred in his mind. A ghost of a pain rose over his chest. "Guys, Josh's awake," he said.

Liu Ying looked at him strangely as she pocketed her D-Terminal. "How do you know that?"

"I don't know," admitted Adam. He knew that he was feeling his cousin's pain, but to a lesser degree. "It's as if…I'm feeling what he felt."

"Empathy," said Manny knowingly. "Usually an empath can feel other people's emotions, but as the power evolved an empath can also experience other sensations." He gave Adam a long look. "You might also be able to channel other people's powers, or project your powers to anyone…with a psychic ability. That explains how JD was able to combust Barbamon's shield."

"And how would _you_ know that?" Gayathri gazed at her boyfriend curiously.

"Jackie and I discussed about it earlier," replied Manny, smiling a bit towards his girlfriend. "Couldn't sleep much," he added.

Adam tried not to sigh. He could sense what Manny was feeling. Manny was suspicious of him, but it wasn't because he was thinking that Adam was still aligning with the villains. Manny was more suspicious about the nature of Adam's powers. And Adam couldn't blame him. He had given his friends a lot of reasons to be suspicious of him. What Manny did was to be expected.

"Let's go see JD," said Liu Ying. "He'd be wondering about us."

"I hope there won't be any attack today," said Dina. "It's JD's…last day."

What Dina said ripped Adam's heart, but it was also true. There was no use trying to sugarcoat it. "I hope so too," was all he managed to say.

xxx

xxx

When they came by JD's room, JD had already been put back to sleep. Jas was crying and Jade was comforting her.

"He was too much in pain whenever he's awake," Abu informed the DigiWira.

Adam nodded numbly. He knew what his cousin was feeling. How he wished he could do something about it, other than feeling it as well.

_It's Josh's last day, and we couldn't even talk to him,_ thought Adam sadly, as he watched Liu Ying left the room in the verge of tears. Gayathri and Dina went after her, while Manny remained by his side. They exchanged a look, and Adam saw how miserable Manny was. Then the other boy placed a hand on his shoulder, and Adam felt a wave of emotion.

"Adam, I'd just like to say…" Manny hesitated. He was blinking rapidly while taking in deep breath. "If it were me, I probably would have done the same thing you've done."

"Don't say that. You have more common sense than I do to strike a deal with devils." Looking at his friend's face, Adam knew that there was something else Manny wanted to say. He voiced that out. Manny blinked, before looking somewhat sheepish.

"Adam, yesterday, back here...did you notice a change on your face?"

"No. What change?"

"When JD said that he accepted the curse, you said that the deal's off and tried summoning our partners back," explained Manny, watching him with a calculating look. "The thing is, when you did it, your face changed It's…" Manny hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Scary. Your eyes turned black, and your face became sort of a gray shade…and veins became clearer. You sure you don't remember any of it?"

Adam was taken aback by Manny's inquiry. "I didn't realize," he admitted.

"It happened so quickly, but surely you remembered our reactions? Kak Lisha was there too, you can ask her." Manny leaned slightly towards him. "Just… be careful, okay Adam? Jackie mentioned that the power of empathy needs proper controlling or the emotions could consume you." He patted Adam's shoulder twice, and stepped out of the ward.

Adam thought of it, but cast that thought away as he approached his cousin's sleeping form. Jade looked at him sadly as he guided Jas out of the room.

"Mom, Dad and Bibik couldn't come," said Jade. "They were on their way here but there was…something…blocking entrance to Subang from the highways. I'd have told you about it last night but you were already asleep."

"It's a force-field," informed Adam. "The bad guys don't want us receiving help from the other Digidestined around the world."

Jade grimaced. "That explains it. Can't you teleport them here?" he asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry. I tried that once before…nothing gets past the shield."

"How unfortunate. Josh's…I think they'd really want to be by his side…" Jade cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "Do you want something from the café? Jas and I are heading there."

Adam shook his head. "I couldn't eat."

"Aren't we all?" said Jade wistfully. "I'll get you a sandwich. Look after Josh while we're gone, okay?"

"I will." And he was left alone with his cousin.

The tattoo was glowing – the cat looked almost dissatisfied of JD not experiencing the pain it was exerting. Adam would have felt satisfied if it weren't for the fact that the painkillers were only taking away the pain, not the curse. He gazed down upon his cousin, focusing on JD's face despite the tattoo practically screaming for his attention. _You look so peaceful; it's hard to believe that by this time tomorrow you won't be here with us._

_Lilithmon did this,_ thought Adam. He felt a rush of anger towards the demoness. _Lucemon lied to me. SkullSatamon wanted to use me to break the shield surrounding his fortress. No way am I doing it…__I'm going to turn this all back against them. So they wanted to make me stronger. _He felt his eyes burning. _I'm in control of my powers now. I'll show them. Starting with her. No. All of them. _

At that moment, he caught a glimpse of his reflection on the mirror. He gasped out loud, almost not recognizing the boy staring back at him. Black eyes, gray veiny face…those fitted Manny's description. Curious, he went to the mirror closer and saw the black irises slowly returning to their usual gray hue. The veins subsided and his face returned to their light peach complexion.

His knees buckled; he was struck with how _malevolent_he had looked. Those black eyes were nothing like Liu Ying's calm obsidian irises – they looked unnaturally pitch black, while Liu Ying's were bordering on dark brown. Hers looked natural, his did not.

Adam leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes, sighing with despair. _I don't know what's going to happen to me, Josh, if you die. _

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 74 – In a Heartbeat **_

xxx

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"Just a few more hours," said Lilithmon, watching the late afternoon sky from the tip of the KL Tower, which she had seized to become her dark fortress.

"I've never seen you look this happy," noted Lucemon, who was floating by her side.

"Well, I've never had the privilege to see my Blight of Bastet takes its effect," replied Lilithmon, smiling evilly. "I've inflicted a lot, but I've never really stuck around to see what's going to happen to the victims. I was never really this patient. Had I known how enthralling the waiting is, I'd have done so earlier."

"The first Persiamon who created the death curse had inflicted it on her former love, who left her for another female," Lucemon recollected.

"And just _what_ are you insinuating?" snapped Lilithmon. "That I like the boy? I'd have your mouth ripped apart for that!"

"Relax. I wasn't insinuating anything. Aren't you aware of the interesting history of your Persiamon ancestor? It was said that she still loved the BanchouLeomon she had cursed, that she had taken the curse instead when the BanchouLeomon was at the verge of dying. That was how the counter-curse for the blight was created."

"And the BanchouLeomon realized how much that stupid great-great-great…whatever, of mine, loved him that he took his own life after she died," Lilithmon finished with a bored tone. "I won't do the same mistake. That unfortunate DigiWira scorned me when he'd beaten me that day, so he received the curse. No big deal. There was nothing minutely _romantic_ about that."

"I know," said Lucemon, amused. "You've inflicted the curse a hundred times back in the old days. You couldn't have loved them all."

Lilithmon glowered at her fellow general. Lucemon shrugged.

The two generals cast a look towards the horizon. The sun was going to set in an hour or so.

"Did you see the Omnimon who tried breaking the Shield of Waja this morning?" said Lilithmon, changing the subject.

"Yes. I was somewhat glad that we combined our powers to create the shield," said Lucemon. "As Seraphimon, I'm confident that I can match his strength, but it was lucky that I didn't risk it. That Omnimon might possess a fraction of strength greater than mine; he could have broken the shield if I generated it on my own."

"That Omnimon is probably the other Digidestined team's greatest asset," deduced Lilithmon. "We won't have to worry about any other intrusion. I can watch JD die in peace."

"In peace?" Lucemon snorted. "Why are you being so kind all of a sudden?"

"I was referring to _me_, not him!"

"Ah. That explained it."

"As for the rest of the DigiWira," smirked Lilithmon, "why not make their lives miserable by sending in all we've got? They only have Aldiyamon, GuardiAngemon, Rosemon and Valkyrimon now in their arsenal. They couldn't win if we send the three partners, the Four Terrors and the brutes all at once."

"Ah…Aldiyamon," said Lucemon. "That one we should be cautious about. The Master doesn't want him dead."

"What in the digital world does he want with that boy?" snorted Lilithmon. "It's clear now that Aldiyamon won't want to break the shield surrounding his lair."

"I don't know. The Shield of Waja blocks my psychic power," said Lucemon. "I couldn't read his mind."

Lilithmon was so surprised that she laughed. "And here I thought you're totally devoted to him. And what's that you've said to me a long time ago? He was like a father to you, for raising you ever since you were an In-Training? Why Lucemon…"

"Enough," said Lucemon sternly. "Yes, I am loyal. No doubt about that. But it's nice to know what he's thinking about. We're playing a dangerous game here. Aldiyamon is a fairly powerful even without the power of an empath. Having that power at half-strength, his might already matches GranDracmon that it took GranDracmon _and_ Belialvamdemon to drive him away. Adam's control of his empathic ability is wayward without my psychic interference. Aldiyamon is no better. The Master knows that, and still he wants the boy alive."

"You know, I have _never_ seen you look this worried," said Lilithmon. "I thought you and GranDracmon have agreed on working together to control Aldiyamon's power?"

"Yes. But we both know that the Four Terrors can't be fully trusted. I've read their minds. They're not content having to ally themselves to us."

"They know that they can't match our powers. We have the Nine Negations – that gives us the advantage. That should keep them leashed."

"True, but I suspect that it's going to change when JD is dead."

Lilithmon blinked. "What's that boy got to do with all this?"

"JD is the only one who can snap Adam out of GranDracmon's voice charm. I can't fathom why. GranDracmon seems to think that it's because of their close bond." Lucemon halted, as something crossed his mind. "During Adam's training session with me, while Barbamon was fighting the others…there were a time when I've telepathically picked up something from Adam's mind. I heard JD calling out to him, and Adam unwittingly responded by projecting his powers towards JD. My telepathic web enabled me to see the battle with Barbamon, and I saw JD utilizing Adam's power of combustion to break the shield Barbamon had trapped him in."

Lilithmon frowned. "So what are you saying?"

Lucemon's expression mirrored the demoness's. "I don't know for sure. I've told you about the empathic window. As the window opens his power grows. An empath is not limited to only perceiving other people's emotions; as their power grows they can also perceive various sensations – pain, for instance. Adam had felt _pain_on his chest – a pain JD was feeling when he exerted himself, the pain induced by your curse. When powers are concerned, an empath can also channel other people's powers for his own use, but I have not seen Adam using this yet. He was, however, able to project his power to another, so it's going to be a matter of time when he's able to do it the other way round. If he does, he will be…unstoppable."

"So you're thinking that Aldiyamon is going to come after us, and we actually can't kill him because the Master wants him?" Lilithmon clarified.

"The more pressing matter is," said Lucemon, glancing down towards the ground where the Four Terrors and three corrupted partners were assembled, "is GranDracmon's voice charm power. I can perhaps instigate some psychic blocks inside Adam's mind to cage his powers. But with JD's dead, GranDracmon will have full reign over Aldiyamon. He can easily convince Aldiyamon to fight us. GranDracmon's voice charm is more or less another form of mind power, which can disrupt my own power."

"So it's going to be a power play between you and GranDracmon to win Aldiyamon over."

"More or less," said Lucemon grimly.

"So kill GranDracmon," suggested Lilithmon lightly. "Or control his mind. That's what psychics do, isn't it?"

"Not so easily," said Lucemon. "I don't have that capability to fully influence other people's actions, yet, and GranDracmon's voice charm is very useful in influencing Aldiyamon. The flow of emotions he will get after JD's death will propel his power to greater heights and I might lose whatever control I currently have over his mind, but GranDracmon's voice charm works on all angels. So…" He gave his female companion a meaningful look.

Lilithmon caught it without missing a beat. "You need me to keep GranDracmon in leash."

"You and your three new underlings, against GranDracmon and his other Terrors," said Lucemon grimly. "That is, if they are against us. The Four Terrors are aware of your cursing capability; they won't dare cross you. And with your mastery over the Shield of Waja they couldn't even touch you."

Lilithmon considered it. "I can do that."

Lucemon nodded. "Be prepared then, for the battle will take place tonight."

"So much for wanting to watch JD die in peace."

xxx

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"Don't sedate me," said JD, staring at the needle Abu was holding with distaste.

"But, Josh…you're in pain," protested Abu, as JD clutched his chest, snarling.

"I don't care," snapped JD. "The curse won't kill me before midnight. I want to be able to see and speak with everyone before I die. Restrain me, I don't care, but don't put me to sleep."

"I'll give you a milder dose, then," said Abu. "It won't put you to sleep, I promise," he added, when JD glared at him.

"Fine. Thanks, doc."

JD looked around him. Everyone was there except his parents and Bibik. That saddened him; he suddenly felt that he wanted them to be by his side at this time. But it also relieved him somewhat; seeing his siblings, cousins and friends all miserable was all he could take. Jade looked stoic, though there was no escaping the misery displayed from his blue eyes. Jas's eyes had swelled due to the amount of crying she had done – he suspected that she had never stopped crying since the previous night. On his other side, Adam and Alisha stood by the bed – Adam holding a small towel to wipe the sweat off his face and body. JD gazed at the boy, the younger brother he had sworn in, and saw that while he wasn't crying he was as good as.

Casting his gaze beyond his family members, he saw Liu Ying, her eyes damp as she was held close by Gayathri and Dina on each side. It seemed that after Belinda's death, Gayathri and Dina had taken Liu Ying in, and for that he was glad. He knew how miserable Liu Ying was, despite her strong front. She had exhibited her vulnerability and her feelings during the fight with Barbamon, and afterward. Manny, standing at the edge of the bed by his foot, was silent as he usually was. As their eyes met, Manny gave him an encouraging smile, and mouthed _be strong_ to him.

He resisted the urge to snort; if he wasn't strong enough he would have succumbed to the pain.

Now that he thought of it, his pain did seem somewhat suppressed. It was still there; it was a bit painful when he inhaled, but at least it wasn't causing him to trash about. It was then he saw Abu and Alisha placing their partners by his side – their holy charms were glowing.

"We can't heal you, but perhaps we could relieve your pain a bit," said Gatomon, when she realized he was looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" asked Salamon.

"Thanks, you guys. It's working," said JD. His eyes trailed towards the clock. _Ten thirty. An hour and a half to midnight._

Adam followed his gaze. JD caught the dreaded look on his face. He searched Adam's eyes and saw the gray irises darkening. At first he thought that he was seeing things, but it wasn't the room's lighting. The irises _were_ turning black, but Adam didn't have that zombie-like look like he had the previous night. His cousin also seemed to be in daze; he didn't seem to realize that he was being gazed. JD cleared his throat, and Adam started.

"Hey, you look like you're lost in thoughts."

Adam bit his lip. The blackness in his eyes receded. "It's…it's nothing."

"If you have something to say to me, then you should say it now," said JD, skeptical.

Adam opened his mouth, in a verge of speaking before he seemed to change his mind. He grimaced, before finally whispering, "I don't want you to die."

"Adam…we've been through this." JD then saw the most remarkable thing taking place.

"No!" snapped Adam, surprising everyone inside the room with his sudden outburst. JD saw the blackness returning in Adam's irises, like spilled ink. "You don't understand. You helped me cope with my first loss. You helped me move on." The blackness became more prominent. "And now I'm going to lose you too." Adam's voice broke. The blackness began to bloom out from the iris, darkening the white sclera. The facial veins became more prominent as Adam's face took on a slightly gray hue – the zombie-look JD had seen on him the previous night. "I don't know if I can take anymore losses." By now, everyone had noticed the change. Jade and Jas were both wide-eyed, staring at Adam. Adam had glanced away, probably hiding the tears that began to streak out from the brims of his eyes, inadvertently allowing the others to the changes. The other DigiWira gasped. Adam's brows tightened, a permanent fissure could have formed in between his brows. He let go of the towel he'd been holding, shared one quick look towards Patamon, and then together they vanished in swirls of purplish white orbs.

"Damn…" was all JD could say, as the others began to panic. Adam's disappearance wasn't the only thing bothering him; it was the changes on his face and the _color_ his light orbs had adapted.

White orbs with tinge of blue were the ones usually exhibited by Adam and Aldiyamon. White orbs with golden dashes only happened once, and that was during Aldiyamon's first appearance. Purplish white orbs, however, were the ones adopted by Aldiyamon _Fury Mode._

The pain returned, despite the painkiller and the Saintly Siblings' influence. He gasped out for breaths; inhaling was like having blades jabbed into his heart. Something was closing in around his heart, like claws squeezing the life out of it. The agony was unbearable. He screamed.

xxx

xxx

Lucemon cursed softly and opened his eyes. Lilithmon saw a hint of surprise in Lucemon's icy blue orbs, and wondered what could have riled him that much.

"Incredible…" Lucemon had just visited the astral plane, attempting to keep track on Adam's empathic window during JD's final hours. What he saw was what he had not expected to happen. How could he have lost control over Adam's psychic power? His telepathic web had been perfect. It wasn't even midnight – JD couldn't have died yet. What was causing such strong emotion?

"What?" Lilithmon asked, lounging over the throne. "You look like you have seen a ghost, and that's really saying some-"

"Adam's empathic window," said Lucemon, evidently disturbed. Their eyes met; Lilithmon raised a brow questioningly. Lucemon took a deep breath before revealing, "It has _shattered._"

xxx

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A white firebird with dark purple dusts flowing out of its wings sailed towards the KL Tower at top speed and landed on the grounds. It simmered down, forming into the visage of Aldiyamon. His arrival shook the Digimon that had gathered there. The Velgemon shrieked upon the intrusion, the Duskmon ready to strike. Lotusmon, Sakuyamon and Neptunemon all pointed their weapons towards him. The Four Terrors balked upon the sight of the angelic knight.

"I'm here for the cure," snarled Aldiyamon, watching as three Velgemon sent crimson orbs towards him. A soft snarl escaped Aldiyamon and the orbs combusted into data particles. And a blink of the eye later, so were the three Velgemon, without much effort at all from the angel. "You can tell me by your own accord," he said, his voice hard and deadly, and two Duskmon combusted, "or I can make you."

Lotusmon, Sakuyamon and Neptunemon cornered Aldiyamon from three sides, and simultaneously launched their signature attacks. Aldiyamon hissed, and the three attacks were teleported off-course; Sakuyamon's_ Amethyst Mandala _lambasted upon Neptunemon, Neptunemon's _Vortex Penetrate_ hit Lotusmon straight onto her chest and Lotusmon's _Seventh Fantasia_ blasted upon Sakuyamon. To further add to the insults, Aldiyamon unleashed the _Heavenstar Slasher_ in a circular motion, blasting the three Mega Digimon away from the tower grounds.

"Just stay out of this," Aldiyamon muttered. "Until I figured out a way to revert you back."

Sword in hand, he turned his attention towards the Four Terrors. Wary of GranDracmon, without warning he lashed out with the _Transcendent Purification._ The attack had adopted a dark purple tinge; Aldiyamon knew that his combustion power was also channeled by the attack. The light attack had now become a combustion wave of power. It wouldn't hurt a strong Mega such as GranDracmon on a first blow, but it would show him who he was messing with. His ears caught buzzes of incoming attacks from the back. Yet before the attack could reach him, they shattered into data particles without even inflicting injuries upon him.

Something was telling him that this was all wrong, but he didn't care. He _had_ to force them into telling him a way to heal JD. And he didn't have much time.

"LILITHMON! LUCEMON!"

"No need to shout," said a loud, cool voice. Aldiyamon looked up and saw Lucemon and Lilithmon descending.

"It wasn't even midnight," said Lilithmon, smiling snidely, "Shouldn't you be with dear cousin's side?"

"Give me the cure," demanded Aldiyamon.

"There is no cure," said Lilithmon, her heavily-lidded dark eyes narrowed to give her a mocking expression. "Other than a sacrifice. I'm sure you know all about it." She saw the angel tremble slightly. "What's the matter, Aldiyamon? Don't love your cousin enough to take his place? I thought he's like your own brother?"

"Don't provoke him!" hissed Lucemon. "The Master wants him alive."

"Stop worrying. He doesn't have the guts to do it," Lilithmon sneered. "Why would he come here, then?" She turned to face Aldiyamon, and laughed at him contemptuously. "If you're here for an alternate cure, then you can forget it. There is no other way. Either JD dies, or someone else dies in his place."

Aldiyamon was about to attack Lilithmon before a dark, fascinating voice halted him.

"She is _lying,_ Aldiyamon," said GranDracmon. Aldiyamon whirled around, looking at the demonic centaur curiously. "She is. Trust me. A curse invoker always knows of a way to cure it. It's logical, because if the curse is used on her she would need a cure. Just look at her; who'd love her enough to take the curse on her behalf? She must have the cure."

"Turncoat," snarled Lucemon.

GranDracmon smiled, continuing to egg on Aldiyamon. "She simply wants your cousin to die. She was sore when Satriamon beat her fair and square. She had to use a dirty trick, for Satriamon was superior to her. She is a sore loser. Don't you see, Aldiyamon? She couldn't win, so she played dirty. She cursed him instead."

"GRANDRACMON! How dare you!" Lilithmon screamed. _"Darkness Love!"_

The energy hearts flew towards GranDracmon, but in split seconds later they were surrounded by light orbs, hovering momentarily in stasis before being blasted back towards Lilithmon. However, she was quick enough to counter her corrosive energy hearts.

"What in the world? _Shield of Waja!"_

The hearts slammed upon the bell-like shield Lilithmon had called upon. The deafening sound of a ringing bell was heard and the hearts dissipated into data.

"You see, Aldiyamon?" said GranDracmon, grinning as his voice charm worked its way upon Aldiyamon's mind. He simply would have to keep talking to rapt the angel's attention. "I was telling you the truth, and she is angry. Perhaps you will have better luck in making her tell you about the cure."

Lucemon narrowed his eyes. "Stop influencing Aldiyamon!"

"Don't just tell him to stop, _make_ him!" Lilithmon shouted, for Aldiyamon began releasing a wave of_ Transcendent Purification_ towards her. The attack couldn't break through the Shield of Waja, but Aldiyamon pressed on, his mind somewhat influenced by GranDracmon's mind now.

"Keep him busy. I'll take care of GranDracmon," said Lucemon.

Belialvamdemon, Deathmon and Murmuxmon stepped forward, obscuring GranDracmon. "Not so fast."

"You _think_ you can stop me?" Lucemon said coolly. Twinkles of black and white lights danced around his body, and armors began coating his body and extremities. They were mostly white, with bronze and black linings and designs. His boots and gloves were black. A white helmet descended upon his head, black demon wings adorned the side as the bronze star on the helmet's front rotated, forming an X-shaped star instead of a T-shaped. His wings remained the same. Dark aura radiated about the armored demonic angel. "I've beaten you once, I can do so again."

"We'll see, Seraphimon," said Belialvamdemon. The three Terrors summoned their strongest attacks.

"Insolent fools," said Seraphimon Chaos Mode. _"Seven Heavens!"_

Seven brilliant white orbs blasted upon Belialvamdemon, Deathmon and Murmuxmon all at once. The Terrors however managed to launch an attack of their own, and Seraphimon became the receiving end of a furious red laser, a stream of dark fire and a fiery vulture blast. Those however were deterred by his strong armors. The Terrors weren't able to hurt him.

Belialvamdemon clutched his stomach – having received three out of the seven holy-charged orbs. Seraphimon was indeed very strong; Belialvamdemon was already injured with the first blow he had received, the next two blows had aggravated it to the point of wrecking his ivory armor. Glancing sideways, his eyes met GranDracmon, and launched another attack towards Seraphimon.

"I can read minds, you know," said Seraphimon, intercepting the blast. "I know what you're going to do even before you do it."

"It doesn't really matter anyway," said Murmuxmon, firing a _Gehenna Flames_ towards him as he intercepted Belialvamdemon's attack.

Deathmon followed suit from Seraphimon's back with a focused _Explosion Eye._ The two attacks singed Seraphimon's wings but did nothing else.

Seraphimon grunted, annoyed. "This ends now. _Seven Heavens!!"_

Deathmon, Murmuxmon and Belialvamdemon were all blasted away once again. Seraphimon was unbelievably strong and he was using holy powers against them, manipulating the Terrors' weakness to gain the upperhand. However, he gasped when something piercingly sharp jabbed upon his shoulder pauldron. Looking up, he realized that Aldiyamon had fired an arrow of light upon him. He set his sight towards GranDracmon.

"Clever, GranDracmon," Seraphimon said, preparing to blast GranDracmon with an attack. "Turning Aldiyamon against me?"

"He was never by your side in the first place," said GranDracmon calmly, summoning his _Crystal Revolution_ to intercept Seraphimon's _Seven Heavens. _The seven light spheres were absorbed by the seven crystals, and were sent back towards Seraphimon.

"Neither by yours. _Seven Hells!_" Seraphimon nullified the incoming light orbs with a darker version of his former attack. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the other Terrors retreating away and smirked beneath his mask.

To his surprise, GranDracmon soared towards the sky, sailed past Aldiyamon, heading towards Lilithmon. Lilithmon had the Shield of Waja raised, but GranDracmon began assaulting the demoness with the_ Eye of Gorgon_. The dark centaur fired multiple laser beams from his eyes towards the shield, pushing Lilithmon away. And Lilithmon, by summoning the Shield of Waja, couldn't retaliate without risking being blasted by GranDracmon's attack.

"We're on equal grounds, GranDracmon!" shouted Lilithmon. "You're no stronger than I am! You can never break the shield."

"I don't have too. You're not worth my time," calmly replied GranDracmon. He turned to Aldiyamon, looking at him coyly. "Perhaps you should make a point for Lilithmon to reveal the cure," he halted, satisfied upon seeing that the angel of light was listening to him, before continuing dramatically, "by killing the Hellion General."

"Hmm." It wasn't a confirmation or a rebuff, but Aldiyamon sounded as if he approved of the idea.

Seraphimon cursed. _I've seen this coming. Now I have to make sure that I can break GranDracmon's voice charm with my psychic power. He's insinuated that a strong psychic rapport is the only thing that's able to break the charm…I have to use that to my advantage!_

"You better hurry," urged GranDracmon. "Time is running out."

Aldiyamon descended before Seraphimon while GranDracmon watched on from the sky.

Seraphimon recalled the psychic link he had established with Aldiyamon's mind, but to his surprise he was met with a resistance that was not there previously.

"Stay out of my head!" the radiant angel snarled. That surprised Seraphimon; he hadn't even _said_ anything telepathically. He tried again, and his psychic presence was thrown out. The only thing he had done was to infuriate Aldiyamon even more. Aldiyamon's silver manteau shattered into data particles, revealing his black fiery eyes and a face shadowed by fury. His appearance surprised Lucemon; there was nothing angelic in the face he was staring at. Those eyes…he had a distinct impression that he was looking in the eyes of a demon.

"Perhaps you should listen to him, Seraphimon," said GranDracmon with glee. Seraphimon shot the demonic centaur a disgusted look.

He had to regain control of Aldiyamon's mind. But he couldn't. It was as if there was a wall blocking his path. _It couldn't be. The only way for one to block my telepathic probe is by being a telepath as well. Aldiyamon is an empath._ A dawning suspicion crossed his mind. _Could it be? Is it possible that his psychic power has evolved? Is he now a telepath? That would make him a teleempath… _

He continued probing, and Aldiyamon continued resisting. White flames began to burst from Aldiyamon's body, taking the form of a firebird. The flaming bird wrapped its wings around Aldiyamon, causing the angel to scream. His scream echoed and everything around them was obliterated in rapid pace. The earth shook before cracking, fissures formed all over the ground and some parts were swallowed by the widening cracks. Seraphimon saw a shadow looming upon him. It was the tower! The foundation had been destroyed and the tower had lost its hold. He was forced to stop probing to move out of the falling tower's way. It crashed onto the cracking grounds; its heavy weight wrecked everything.

Seraphimon saw a dark figure forming within the bird of flames. A man in a fetal position was there before he stretched up, digivolving from Aldiyamon to Aldiyamon Juara Mode, before flames, lightning bolts, a cyclone and glittering stars spiraled around him, shifting the hues of his armor – the whites became dark gray, the golden linings turned white. His spiked hair lost their hold and fell down his shoulders, adopting the shades of red and orange; the fierce winds around him made his hair flaring like raging flames. His feathery white wings shone brighter and brighter in purple and white, making them appear energy-based. Unlike his previous form, he wore no facemask, revealing his face for all to see. His black eyes glared towards Seraphimon, and Seraphimon was hit with a wave filled with combustion power that it exploded upon contact with his armor. To his surprise, his armor was dented. He looked up, and saw that the new, rage-filled Aldiyamon was _far_ from content.

Seraphimon had never sensed so much power from one Digimon. Aldiyamon had transcended beyond Mega level; the shattered empathic window had allowed flows of emotions to invade Aldiyamon's mind the fullest. He had expected it to happen _after_ JD had died, when the sorrow would become too great for Adam to handle. He had been preparing to create psychic blocks inside Aldiyamon's mind so that he would not turn into what he had become now. Seraphimon realized now, that he was too late. Looking into those black eyes, blacker than nights, blacker than darkness, he sensed _fury_. Pure, unbridled fury, offset only by the tears leaking from his eyes._Sorrow_.

There was no time; he had to start putting up the psychic blocks now before Aldiyamon became too uncontrollable.

"I warned you," snapped Aldiyamon. His black eyes flashed once and Seraphimon was blasted by another combustion wave just as he was able to get a glimpse of the angel's mind.

Pain. Seraphimon looked down, and saw that the second blast chipped off the armor, sending traces of data floating. It shocked him; his armor was made from Chrome Digizoid. It shouldn't be _that_ easily destroyed. He summoned the _Seven Heavens_, but the seven holy orbs were teleported back towards him, blasting him so hard that he nearly tripped.

He had to try again. The brief glimpse he had gotten revealed the fact that Aldiyamon was in _pain_ as well. Seraphimon heard someone screaming in Aldiyamon's mind. At first, he thought that it was Adam or Patamon, but the voice was harder, huskier – it was JD. It all suddenly made sense to him; Aldiyamon was fueled by JD's pain, combined with his own fury and misery. He had to make Aldiyamon let his guard down, to be able to control the raging power.

"Aldiyamon, we have the cure!" He used what GranDracmon had used on Aldiyamon. "I'll give it to you, if you would just listen."

"No!" shouted GranDracmon. "Aldiyamon, he is _lying_!"

"Both of you lied!" Both GranDracmon and Seraphimon were blasted by another combustion wave. "No more lies…" A ring of light was seen in each of his blackened eyes.

Suddenly Seraphimon felt his body being numbed by an unseen force. He couldn't move any of his limbs. Something had frozen his senses. He saw Aldiyamon slowly inclining his head upward…and he found himself being levitated from the ground. _This is not his power!_ Seraphimon gasped, realizing that his suspicion had proven to be true. Before long, a furious cyclone erupted around him and thunderbolts streaked down from the sky, blasting him straight onto the head. One blast cracked his helmet and the next blast destroyed it, revealing his face. The third blast electrocuted him severely, but the armor on his body protected him from the worse part of the attack. His long, crisped hair was blown haphazardly by the winds, obscuring his face. _Telekinesis, wind power, lightning bolts… he is channeling the powers of the other DigiWira!_

Aldiyamon's eyes flared again, and Seraphimon found himself at the receiving end of a continuous wave of combustion power. He stopped attempting to reach out for the angel's mind, fearing that it would only make things worse. He couldn't attack or defend himself – the telekinetic power Aldiyamon had drawn from his friends had prevented him to do so. The lightning bolts and the cyclone continued to inflict abuses on him, and the combustion waves were slowly corroding his armor. Pain like one he had never experienced before shot the nerves all over his system. Its effect was severer that the ones he had experienced back in the real world's past. Even the Legendary Blades didn't inflict him this much pain. _Such power…_

He gritted his teeth. He tried calling out the Shield of Waja, but could not concentrate for Aldiyamon was relentless. The next combustion wave successfully destroyed Seraphimon's armors. It left him vulnerable. He realized, to his horror, that he was doomed.

The only thing he could do was to plead for mercy.

"Aldiyamon, I have the cure…"

Aldiyamon responded by slowly raised his arms. Time seemed to have halt – the cyclone and the lightning bolts subsided.

To Seraphimon's surprise, the firebird wrapped its wings around the angel and he vanished in showers of light orbs. It befuddled him. The telekinetic hold on him was then lifted – he was able to move. Everything became deathly quiet around him. He allowed himself a relieved breath…

A violent shriek was heard and Seraphimon howled, feeling his insides being ripped apart – the last sensation he had felt before everything became black.

"Incredible…" muttered GranDracmon, too stunned. It all had happened too quickly. Aldiyamon's reappearance was from _within_ Seraphimon, obliterating Seraphimon completely as the firebird stretched its wings wide. It simmered down as Aldiyamon landed on the tip of the fallen tower.

Lilithmon, from the protection of her shield, was horrified. _Lucemon…gone? This is impossible! He's the strongest. The most powerful…And he's gone, just like that._ Fear crept all over her as she watched GranDracmon laughed heartily at Lucemon's destruction. _He's convinced Aldiyamon to destroy Lucemon…he's going to make him go after me next!_

"My plan works!" GranDracmon laughed. "So much for the mighty Hellion General!" He gazed towards Aldiyamon, who appeared dazed after all that happened – his black eyes were slowly reverting to their original states. The other Terrors were slowly emerging from where they had been seeking refuge, disbelief evident in their faces. Even the corrupted partners had woken up, confused of what had happened around them. Everyone was setting their eyes on Aldiyamon, who seemed oblivious to what had just taken place. The radiant angel was looking up towards the full moon, and GranDracmon knew instantly what he was thinking. _He is powerful, nearing invincible. He cannot be allowed to live. He is like a time bomb; one wrong move could mean our undoing._

He looked directly towards the Four Terrors, gesturing towards the dazed angel. Slowly they closed in on Aldiyamon.

They made a mistake when Deathmon accidentally crashed a boulder he had stepped on. The noise alerted their target.

Aldiyamon blinked, and his eyes turned black once again.

xxx

xxx

Since Adam's sudden departure, JD hadn't stopped trashing about in pain. With every scream everyone in the room felt as if a portion of their heart had been ripped apart. It was killing them to know that they couldn't do anything to alleviate his pain. Salamon and Gatomon had both digivolved into MagnaAngemon and Angewomon, with hopes that their healing power would be more potent. Nonetheless their efforts were all in vain. It hadn't worked before, it wasn't working now.

The heart monitor suddenly blared the alarming sound everybody had been dreading.

"Vitals are dropping!" gasped Jade. JD stopped screaming and trashing about. His pupils dilated and the lids began to close as he slumped upon the mattress.

"Oh no, Josh!!" screamed Jas, shaking her brother's body. "Josh!!"

"Get the defibrillator!" shouted Abu, and the nurse who had been with them inside the ward scrambled out. She came back, wheeling the device. Abu jumped towards it, grabbed its paddles. "Everyone back away," he said, rubbing the paddles together. "Clear!"

Alisha winced as Abu slammed the paddles on JD's chest. JD was jolted up, but remained unconscious. "CLEAR!" shouted Abu again, repeating the procedure.

"Josh, wake up, wake up," pleaded Jas, crying as Jade restrained her.

"Josh, please," whispered Jade, "if you can fight it…then fight it. Don't die. Not like this…don't leave us."

"Vitals are still dropping," the nurse said fearfully. "Doctor…"

"No, we try again!" Abu shouted, glancing once towards the clock. _Eleven forty._ He'd fight to save the boy until the dreaded midnight, when the curse would take effect. He had no idea where Adam had gone to, but that proved that Adam still hadn't given up looking for the cure. So shouldn't he; he'd continue his very best to sustain JD until that moment where Adam would return, with or without the cure. "CLEAR!"

The DigiWira all watched as JD began to slip away, transfixed and horrified, as the heart monitor began to display a familiar, dreaded flat-line, screeching the horrific familiar sound all the time.

xxx

xxx

"_Adam…"_

Aldiyamon stopped short from his attempt to send an explosive wave towards the Four Terrors. _Josh?_

His vision blurred. The fallen tower, the Four Terrors, the destroyed site, all of them gradually fading from view as he – as _Adam_ – was transported into a realm where there was nothing but whites. It was where he had met Grademon, after he had sacrificed himself to destroy the faux Puaka Generals.

Adam's heart skipped a beat upon seeing JD walking towards him. Both of them were in their DigiWira suit. "Josh?"

"Hey, Adam," said JD, sadness evident from every syllable. He looked around, frowning. "Where are we?"

"We're…" He shook his head. "Josh, how did you…?"

JD sighed, taking a step forward. "Adam, my time's almost up. The last thing I remembered was being in the ward, screaming, in pain… then all of a sudden I'm here." He smiled a bit. "I remembered wanting to see you. You took off so suddenly…"

"It's almost time?" Adam gasped softly. He hadn't realized of the time passed during the battle he had with Lucemon. His body trembled. "Josh…I tried. Really I did."

"Don't worry about it," JD replied. Adam stared at him. "It's okay," continued JD, his voice a comforting whisper.

"No, it's not. I…"

Adam suddenly coughed violently, feeling as if his body was being slammed by boulders from various sides. _What's going on?_

He suddenly realized what was going on. His physical body was still at the tower site, now vulnerable against the Four Terrors' assaults. He was suffering the attacks from the Terrors, without the ability to fight back, for his mind was in this astral plane. He suddenly knew that Patamon had taken over their joined body, fighting in his place. However, as their Wira Digital form determined the DigiWira as the dominant half, Patamon couldn't fight as good and refined as Adam could. Patamon was merely holding out, knowing how much seeing JD for the last time would mean to Adam.

He could let go of this plane to resume the fight, perhaps winning it too, since he had beaten Lucemon once and for all. But he wanted to be with JD. It was all he wanted to do now, the only thing he could think of doing. They would part soon. He would bear with the pain, it wouldn't be long, and surely it couldn't be compared with what JD had felt all these times.

His heart ached as the prospect of JD leaving him became more real. Could he do it? Could he move on? It was JD who had helped him to move on properly with his own ways. The pain of losing his parents and brother had long since passed thanks to JD, but now he would lose someone equally as important, someone he had let in after so long. Could he really move on after losing JD too? Would he end up as he had been previously?

He had asked himself those countless times, and every time the answer was the same.

xxx

xxx

"Adam, what's going on?" asked JD, frowning. Adam's face harbored the strangest of expressions, as if he was in a process of making a difficult decision. JD had seen it plenty of times.

"No. It's nothing." Adam wiped the tears that were going to fall from his eyes. He gazed up, wanting to remember each and every detail of JD's face before they parted ways.

JD was unconvinced, but decided to let it pass. At these last few moments he had with his cousin, brother, and best friend all in one, he wanted to make the best out of it for Adam's sake. It wouldn't matter if Adam was being his secretive self. Perhaps he was just trying to be strong for him.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked, placing both hands on Adam's shoulders.

Adam's smile was sad. "Can I hug you? Before we part?" he said with a small voice. "One last time?"

The request nearly broke JD's heart. He knew it was going to be difficult for his cousin, having suffered enough losses throughout his very young life. "Sure, Adam. You don't have to ask," he said, a tear trickled down without warning as he pulled the boy close for the requested hug. In his mind, he thought that at least Adam looked like he was taking it well. Perhaps Adam had begun to accept it, and JD found that oddly reassuring compared to how his siblings and the other DigiWira were reacting. He could even hear their cries and shouts now, in this strange world of nothing but white, and that didn't bode well with him. Adam was obviously miserable but he wasn't crying, nor was he doing the emotional-suppressing thing that JD had seen him done so often for the past few days. He tightened their embrace, half-expecting Adam to protest. Yet, no complain came. Adam was unusually quiet and rigid.

"Josh, tell Kak Lisha I'm sorry."

The words chilled him to the bones. Suddenly he felt a burning pain from his chest…and then it was gone. The pain – the one that had been with him for a long one month, the phantom pain that was always there, tormenting him despite not actually inflicting the real pain – was gone. He heard Adam gasp, and pulled away from their embrace. His eyes widened in surprise.

Black smoke, with the front shaped like the head and front legs of a cat, spiraled around Adam's body as Adam gave him that sad smile. It yowled fiercely before slamming straight onto Adam's left chest and disappeared. Adam clutched his chest, gasping in pain, while at the same time looking up at him as he dropped on his knees.

"Adam…no… Why did you do it?"

Adam merely smiled back before his body slowly becoming transparent. JD reached out for Adam, but his hands went through the other boy's body. He tried again, but failed. Raising a shaking hand he held it before the semi-transparent Adam.

"It's midnight," whispered Adam, placing his fading palm before his cousin's. "Take care, Josh."

Adam vanished. JD screamed in anguish.


	75. Red Dragon Rising

The ECG monitor screeched horribly as it displayed the flat-line, as it had been for the past ten minutes. Everybody's eyes kept darting back and forth from the clock to Dr. Abu, who was relentless in his attempts to resuscitate JD with the defibrillator.

"One last time." Abu raised the paddles, before suddenly seeing the most remarkable thing, and halted.

"Why are you stopping?" Jas demanded tearfully. "Save him, doctor, please…"

"Everyone, look." Abu pointed towards JD's face. "He's…crying."

"WHAT?!"

Everyone huddled around the bed and gasped. A tear was trickling down JD's closed eyes. The screeching suddenly stopped and everyone saw the tattoo on his chest vanishing in wisp of black smoke. Beeps came from the screen; everyone saw his vital signs normalizing. A regular heart pattern was shown. And finally, JD's eyes fluttered open.

"JOSH!" Jas immediately grabbed hold on her brother and hugged him in relief. "Oh, thank God, thank God you're alive!"

Jade shook his head as he joined his siblings. "It's a miracle," he murmured, gazing at his brother. JD was stoic, but on the verge of tears.

"It's not," said JD with a choked sob. Jas released him from her tearful hug, and both his siblings looked at him questioningly. "It's Adam…"

"Adam?" Alisha sat beside her cousins, looking at JD, frowning. "Josh?"

JD looked at his cousin sister, directly towards her eyes and thought immediately of how similar they were with Adam's own eyes. He looked down at his chest, now unmarred, and another choked sob escaped him. "Kak Lisha…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should have seen it…I should have known he'd do it…"

Alisha paled. "That's impossible! He wasn't even here. He ran off…"

"I met him," said JD, closing his eyes once as if attempting to block out the tears. He opened them again. "I don't know how…it's like a dream, but we met… he said he wanted to hug me one last time…then it happened. He took the curse…and then he…he…" JD couldn't even speak anymore; the memory of Adam's slowly vanishing before him was too overwhelming for him to bear.

"No…"

"He told me to tell you…that he's sorry."

"No…" Alisha clasped her mouth. "Adam…he's…dead?"

"I'm so sorry, Kak Lisha. I didn't mean for this to happen. I tried…I didn't even tell him fully how he could do it…"

Alisha looked so horrified, she almost collapsed if it weren't for Liu Ying and Manny who had quickly stepped behind her. Both DigiWira were able to support her body, and saw that she had fainted. JD scrambled down from his bed and Abu and the two DigiWira placed Alisha on the bed. Jas looked stunned, while Jade had instinctively drawn JD back in a hug, rubbing his back.

Seeing what happened, JD broke down; the memory of Adam vanishing before him became too overwhelming for him to bear.

"This influx of power is amazing…" said SkullSatamon, as powers flowed inside of him. "Lucemon must have been defeated, while in his Mega form too. His power is the greatest of all the generals; I might be able to…"

He began his transformation, ascending into Diablomon and then Armageddemon. His current form was achieved after Beelzemon, Leviamon and Barbamon were beaten, and now with Seraphimon's great powers he would be able to reach the third threshold of his Mega level – the power he'd dreamed of for a long, long time. Grademon was in his second threshold of his Mega form when he evoked the Shield of Waja – he would bypass that power and break the barrier.

His giant scorpion form began to shrink, reverting back to his ultimate form before he slowly grew within a fiery whirlwind that erupted around him. His skull became golden as black and gold armors wrapped around his skeletal body, giving him extra protection against any attack that would be sent his way. His left hand ended with shining golden claws with a blaster perched over his knuckles. His right arm had thoroughly mutated into the deadly blade of a scythe.

"I've done it…" he said with great satisfaction. "Now to test my powers. _SERPENT FLAME PURGATORY!!"_

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 75 – Red Dragon Rising **_

xxx

xxx

JD looked down at the silver and white Juara Digivice in his hand. It was all that the others could find when they tracked the signal – it laid under the rubbles amidst a scene of mass destruction. The KL Tower had fallen; the whole area was demolished by what could only be made by an earthquake or a typhoon.

He couldn't care less. Buildings could be restored back to their former glory. Human lives couldn't.

He had hoped that by following the signal from Adam's Digivice, they could find him. There was a ghost of a chance of finding him, when Liu Ying announced that she detected Adam's Digivice signal back then, at the ward. However there was no sign of him or his body. That fact had devastated Alisha the most – she had wanted, at least, to have Adam properly buried.

Thinking of his cousin sister, JD couldn't blame her when Alisha seemed to want to avoid him. After all Adam had taken the curse on his behalf. Alisha hadn't spoken to him for the past three days. JD wanted so badly to talk to her, to apologize _again_ until she accepted it, but Abu had advised him to give her time. She had lost the last remaining direct family she'd had; it would be a long, difficult process to get her to talk to anyone, let alone JD. The only time she had talked to him was after she woke up from her faint.

xxx

xxx

_**(Flashback)**_

After Agumon hatched, JD was determined even more so to go look for Adam that night. He couldn't bear staying in the ward, where everyone was giving him cautious looks. It was suffocating. Alisha was still unconscious, and after convincing his siblings that he didn't need comforting they had retreated from the ward, to update their parents with the news. Thinking of what they could have said – _Josh's alive… because Adam had taken the curse on his behalf ­_– broke his heart to pieces. But he had gone past the crying phase, and there was nothing more that he wanted to do other than tearing apart some demons. Specifically, a demoness and her demon-angel counterpart.

"Agumon, you're up to become Satriamon?"

Agumon looked up. "Whenever you are, Josh," he said promptly.

"Then let's go."

"JD, don't," pleaded Liu Ying, placing a restraining hand on his shoulder. "We don't know what's out there. Lilithmon will see that you're still alive, she'll come after you."

"I don't care!" snapped JD, shoving Liu Ying's hand off his shoulder. "Lilithmon's gonna pay for this! If she didn't give me that damned curse in the first place, Adam wouldn't have taken it from me. Adam wouldn't have…wouldn't have…" His eyes stung. He took a deep breath, refusing to acknowledge the fact that Adam had died.

"At least wait until the others are able to accompany you," said Manny. "They've taken heavy blows during yesterday's fight. Give them time to recover, and they can come with you."

"I'm not waiting for anyone! Come on, Agumon!"

"Don't you dare," said a soft voice, stopping him dead on his track. He turned around.

"Kak Lisha…"

Alisha had woken up, and her face had hardened. JD was reminded to how Adam had looked like when he was grieving – it was now mirrored by Alisha. "Adam had _died_ so that you would live," she said, her voice quivered as she acknowledged her brother's death when JD had refused to do so. "If you go out there, those monsters will find out that you are still alive, and that demoness might inflict the curse on you again. If she does, Adam's death would be meaningless. His sacrifice would be in vain." She choked out a sob, looking like she was about to cry, but she persisted on, shooting him a tearful glare that made him flinch. "You're not going anywhere," she said with deadly finality, before turning sideways and sobbed, Liu Ying and Gayathri rushing to comfort her.

_**(/Flashback)**_

xxx

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That had effectively stopped him from going after the demons. The fact that Alisha seemed to avoid talking to him thereafter made it harder for him to go out there. He had the means, he was more than ready, but Alisha's last words continuously echoed in his mind. He didn't even join Abu, Jackie and his fellow DigiWira, alongside MagnaAngemon, Rosemon and Valkyrimon when they went to look for Adam's body by tracing Adam's Digivice signal.

_Adam…why did you do it?_ He thought sadly. _This isn't what I wanted._ He could almost hear Adam's voice replying in his mind: _I know. This is what I wanted_. That was replayed from memory, when he had confronted Adam for going to Lucemon for the so-called cure.

Glancing sideways, he saw Agumon by the corner of the common room where he was at. The raptor had been a constant, loyal ear to him whenever he needed someone to vent. Not once had JD heard the raptor spoke up, offering him only a silent companion if not spoken to, which was what he needed.

Gazing towards a mark on his right index finger, he was reminded of that night when he and Adam made the sworn brother blood oath. Adam wasn't really enthusiastic about it, but JD had persisted that Adam finally gave in. The scar tingled somewhat, which was odd, because it had healed. Rubbing a finger against it, JD felt somewhat oddly comforted. It was as if Adam was around, accompanying him. _Adam and I, brothers till the end._ That was what he had wished for when they made the blood oath.

"Josh?"

He whirled around at the voice, and his eyes met a pair of familiar gray eyes. "Kak Lisha?"

The woman sat beside him, and gave him a calculative look. Gatomon went to sit by Agumon. "I haven't seen you these few days," murmured Alisha. A ghost of a smile appeared on her face – swelling eyes, somewhat pale and now that JD thought of it, thinner too, but still beautiful. "Partly it's my fault," she said.

JD sighed. "I don't blame you. I totally get it, if you're angry with me."

"Did I give you that impression?" She grasped his hand. "I wasn't angry with you, Josh. Far from it. But Adam's death…it shook me up. I've lost our parents and Aizad, and now Adam too…" She sighed, but JD saw no tears coming out from her eyes. She merely cast a long stare towards the blank wall, before shaking her head. "I've dreaded it, ever since you told us about the curse. I guess deep in my heart, I've known what Adam was going to do. He was always disappearing during the nights when I went to check up on him. I'd wait up for him until he came back, and his answer was always the same – he was trying to look for the cure."

"There was no cure. Lucemon tricked him," said JD bitterly.

"Nevertheless, Adam tried so hard," said Alisha. "Despite you mentioning that there was no cure other than a sacrificial exchange, he still tried. It dawned to me then that he would do _anything_ to save you, and I knew back then that there was no use trying to talk him out of it. He'd never mentioned it, but I always saw it in his eyes. The fear he had of losing another brother – that fueled him to make those nightly visits to the Digital World. I prayed so hard so that it wouldn't come to that, praying that a solution would come up so that you won't die because of the curse."

"I shouldn't have gotten close to him."

"Would you rather have it the other way round?" asked Alisha.

"No," admitted JD. "But at least…"

"It couldn't be avoided no matter how you'd rather have it," interrupted Alisha. "Our families are joined back when our great-grandfather died. Your parents would have taken Adam in even if you two hadn't gotten close because of your DigiWira adventures. You two would still bond. It's all…fated."

"Well, fate's done a banged-up job when 'it' made Adam take the curse on my behalf," said JD, bitter again.

"Oh, Josh…" Alisha's grasp on his hand tightened. "As much as I'm inclined to agree with you, I…" She halted, as if unsure of what to say.

"There's something you should know," said JD, looking down. "The curse… it's not just a sacrifice that could transfer the curse from me to Adam. It needs love. Unconditional love and no hesitation at all in taking the curse on my behalf…"

"And the curse was transferred from you to him," Alisha finished, and JD looked up. "Doesn't that speak volumes of how much he loved you? When his own brother was still alive, I remember Adam always having this light in his eyes whenever Aizad was around him. He wasn't close with me but was inseparable from Aizad. The light was gone after the accident, and they remained absent…until I saw him with you, that day when I woke up from my coma."

"I thought you two were close?"

"It needed some work, but yes, eventually we became closer… because who else did we have back then except each other," said Alisha wistfully. "I couldn't blame him. I guess that's what boarding school and university did to me. For nine years, I wasn't there as he was growing up, only seeing him occasionally during the holidays. Even so, Adam was always tailing over Aizad as Aizad went on his various escapades around the village, woods or by the beach, while I…" She chuckled lightly, but a sad one. "I was like the family's princess."

"I can't imagine," said JD, a crack of a smile began to form on his – he hadn't been smiling for a long time. But like Alisha's chuckle, his smile was a wistful one.

Alisha gave JD a contemplative look. "What I'm trying to say…is that, I'm glad that Adam had met you. At least, he was happy. He could have lived long and remained unhappy, but instead he had a short one, but a happy one. I'm sad that my little brother is gone, but at the same time… he died nobly. I'm proud of him."

"You're tougher than I am, Kak Lisha," said JD. "I couldn't even bring myself to say out loud that Adam's...gone."

"I've cried these past three days, Josh," said Alisha. "That's why I isolated myself from everyone. My worst nightmare had come true. But I realized that I have to move on. Adam wouldn't want me to be miserable all the time. Abang Abu said that as soon as all of this is over, he'll marry me, and we'll start a new life together."

"And…?" JD prompted, when Alisha suddenly appeared lost in thought. He thought that his cousin sister looked somewhat disturbed.

"It's just that, whenever it came up, I've always thought Adam would be the one who would give me away when that day comes," said Alisha finally.

"Oh…"

JD thought that Alisha still appeared as if she wanted to say something to him. It was as if she was holding something back from him.

"I had a dream of Adam last night," said Alisha, as if reading his thoughts.

JD shifted on his seat so that he would lean against the back of the chair. She looked disturbed. "What did you dream about?" he asked, concerned.

"I don't know whether I should pay attention to it or not…some said that dreams could be the devils' play…but I dreamed of Adam…and a black cat." She gave him a meaningful look. "It was a big cat…like a panther, and it was chasing Adam. Adam was running from it. He looked afraid." She sighed. "I woke up not long after. I don't know what to make out of it."

JD frowned. His finger – where the blood oath mark was – tingled all of a sudden.

"Do you think it's a message?" JD asked, his heart beating wildly.

"I don't know what to think, Josh," admitted Alisha. "I mean, I've had this hope that, until I see his body before me, he's not dead yet. But until now, there's no news about Adam. His body hasn't been found. And you told us that the curse would take your life once the time is up, right?"

JD nodded.

"I just…don't want to get my hopes up." She gazed at him. "Adam's given you the gift of life, Josh. He wouldn't want you to waste it."

"I know, Kak Lisha. And I won't. But until we find the body, I won't stop hoping that he's still out there," he replied. "I won't stop searching for him…no matter if he's dead or alive." He took a deep breath, having finally acknowledged that fact out loud. He gazed upon Alisha's worried face. "If you let me," he finished, hinting of what Alisha had said to him a few days back.

Alisha nodded. "I can't stop you. But I meant what I've said then; if you die Adam's sacrifice would be in vain." She rubbed his hair with a fondness he'd seen her sharing with Adam. He smiled slightly at that. "I see Adam when I look at you, Josh. He lives on in you. So… promise me you'll try avoiding any confrontations with the demons if you can, okay?"

"I have a feeling that a confrontation can't be avoided," said JD.

"Then try not to get yourself killed," replied Alisha.

xxx

xxx

He had no idea where to start looking, but his instincts told him to start at the place where Adam had most likely been last. Another day had passed since his talk with Alisha, and with her blessings he had stepped out from the safety of the hospital to start looking for Adam's body. He and the other DigiWira had gone with Jackie's car, with Rosemon and Valkyrimon escorting from the sky. It had been a quiet four days, but still they would have to prepare for any attack.

JD received certain odd vibes as he stepped out of the car, looking around the site of massive destruction. The hill several meters ahead of them was crushed by the once-proud KL Tower. A battle had taken place here. And it looked like there was no victor or loser; both parties seemed to have suffered. But who could have caused this?

He took out Adam's Digivice, receiving a tingling sensation around his hand. Looking back, the other DigiWira beckoned towards the surrounding areas, saying in silence that they would look there while JD investigated the destroyed tower ground. With Agumon in tow, they began inspecting the grounds.

_In times like this, Adam's teleportation power would really come in handy,_ thought JD, with a certain fondness.

A flash of image suddenly invaded his mind.

_**The KL Tower stood erect, and Aldiyamon redirecting attacks that blasted three Digimon away.**_

"Whoa," JD blinked, and the image was gone. "What the hell was that?"

"Josh?" Agumon looked up inquiringly.

He frowned. He had no idea what had happened. The images were so vivid though; it was like watching a movie being played before him.

"Agumon, you know loads about Digimon, right?" Agumon nodded. JD recalled the ones he had seen in his mind. "What can you tell me about…a woman in golden armor, a bit like Xianamon; a Samudramon-like guy with huge tail and armored all over; and a flower chick with purple skin…not really as pretty as Puspamon?"

"It sounds like the sorceress Sakuyamon, the ocean king Neptunemon and the flower maiden Lotusmon," answered Agumon, instantly seeing where JD was going. "Xianamon, Samudramon and Puspamon are more or less, based on them. Why do you ask, Josh?"

"I think I've seen a battle taking place around here between those three and Aldiyamon," said JD. "He took them out just like that!" He snapped his finger…and gasped, as another different image crossed his mind.

_**Aldiyamon facing off Lucemon and Lilithmon, with the Four Terrors standing nearby. Aldiyamon was attacking Lilithmon while the Four Terrors and Lucemon seemed to have a falling out, when Lucemon digivolved into a bigger, armored dark angel, and blasted the Terrors with orbs of light. **_

He described the armored angel to Agumon. "That sounds a lot like a Seraphimon, leader of the angels," murmured Agumon. "But the Seraphimon I've heard of is glorious in blue armors and has golden wings. But that's the closest Digimon I could think of, based on your description."

"Could be a new Digimon you don't know of. One thing I know that whoever he is, he's still that whack-job Lucemon," said JD. _I wonder who won the fight._ He thought, looking around the destroyed site. He felt the same rush, and by now he realized that every time he thought of Adam, an image would be triggered in his mind.

_**GranDracmon and Seraphimon both seemed to be vying for Aldiyamon's attention. Aldiyamon snapped and then it happened: everything around the Digimon was obliterated and soon enough the KL Tower's foundation was wrecked by Aldiyamon's destructive power. It crashed as Aldiyamon underwent a transformation within the flaming bird aura radiating around him. He became an angelic knight, but with red hair flaring like fire, dark armors, and wings beaming with energy. His mask gone, Aldiyamon now bore Adam's face – blackened eyes, veiny zombie-like face. GranDracmon retreated, while Aldiyamon battled Seraphimon in what looked to be a rather one-sided fight, and Aldiyamon was winning, sending waves of power one after another. **_

_**Aldiyamon raised his arms and the rush of power proved to be too much for Seraphimon. His armor long gone, Seraphimon soon was obliterated. **_

_**Aldiyamon was about to attack the Four Terrors when suddenly he stopped. A dazed look on his face, his blackened eyes shifted back to their original state. For a moment, the Four Terrors seemed bewildered of Aldiyamon's change of behavior, before GranDracmon ordered the Terrors to seize the chance to attack Aldiyamon. Aldiyamon didn't even resist; he just took the blows and still remained standing, still in a daze as he coughed out blood. Tears leaked out from his eyes before black smoke engulfed him. **_

_**When the smoke subsided, a lifeless Adam and Patamon fell onto the ground.**_

"Josh?"

Agumon's voice pulled JD back into reality, and he heaved a few deep breaths. "I saw him. Aldiyamon destroyed Lucemon, literally. But then…the curse got to him. He devolved and that's the last thing I saw before…" He glared at his partner, somewhat frustrated that he hadn't seen what happened to Adam. He thought of Adam, hoping that whatever force that had triggered the images in his mind would work again, but nothing came up. The tingling sensation was gone.

He gazed down towards Adam's Digivice. C_ould it be that the Digivice is showing me the lasts of Adam's memory around this place? _

His brows knitted together. "Lucemon's out of the picture," he said, with grim satisfaction. "Between the Four Terrors and Lilithmon, one of them must know of where Adam's body is."

"Josh…I was just wondering," said Agumon. "Did you…happen to see Patamon…burst into data?"

He thought about it. He only saw Adam and Patamon fell onto the ground. "No…" He gazed down at his partner, understanding what Agumon was trying to ask. Although they didn't share the closeness he and Adam had, Agumon and Patamon were still close, having stayed together with them for a few months. "I understand what you're trying to say Agumon, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Manny told us that the Persiamon he'd met in that alternate dimension said that there's no other cure for the stupid curse." He inhaled, closing his eyes briefly as he calmed his raging heartbeats. "The curse would've taken effect that night. It's been four days." He thought of Alisha, how she had accepted Adam's death. "It's time to move on," he whispered.

Agumon's shoulders slumped. JD rubbed the raptor's head. "Let's just look for Adam's body."

Suddenly winds began to pick up, and a magnified voice was heard echoing the entire city. Before long, an image of Lilithmon projected on the sky.

"Why, JD…" She cackled. "I've been wondering where you have been. It's strange to see you up and about; I thought my curse had gotten rid of you."

JD swore. "Bitch…"

Lilithmon pretended to think of something, before sneering down at him. "Oh, that's right. That precious white kitten…that sworn-in baby brother of yours… he took the fall on your behalf. My, my…I should have seen that. The Master wasn't pleased, most definitely, but at least I've gotten rid of the most destructive threat. After all he did destroy Lucemon, tsk, tsk…"

"Just wait till I've found you," snarled JD. "I'll rip you apart!!"

"No need to look further," giggled Lilithmon. "I'm not very far away. In fact, you could practically see where I'm at right now."

JD looked around, taking in all the skyscrapers of the city. She could be anywhere.

"Here's another hint: I've always had a thing about skyscrapers. The Digital World doesn't have a lot of them, but here, they're everywhere, but I've decided to settle for the best. I'd taken over that tower where you're at right now, but after Aldiyamon destroyed it I was forced to look for a new place. And I've found not one, but _two_ towers, said to be the world's tallest twin towers!"

Instantly, JD's eyes landed on the Petronas Twin Towers. Stormy clouds hovered over the towers, shadowing them to the point of making them appear black. Suddenly an explosion of light came from the towers, and when it subsided the towers were surrounded by a bell-shaped barrier. _The Shield of Waja._

"Let's play a game now, shall we?" snickered Lilithmon.

"No games! Tell me where Adam's body is."

"Oh?" Lilithmon looked amused. "I didn't expect that. I thought the question would be _Tell me where Adam is?_" That distracted JD; Lilithmon seemed to be hinting on something. Her coy face seemed to be egging him on. "Not that he's alive or anything," she said offhandedly, crushing the single grain of hope he had of Adam being alive. He swore aloud. "Now, now, don't take that tone with me. What would I want with a DEAD body? By now it would have rot; it would smell so badly that I'd want to wretch…"

"SHUT UP!" He took Lilithmon's nonchalance as an insult to Adam's memory. "You sick, psychotic bitch."

"Whatever," shrugged Lilithmon. "As I was saying, if you want a piece of me, you're welcome to come and get it. I'll be waiting."

JD snorted. "You're asking me to come and kill you?"

"Ah, now we're getting warmer," said Lilithmon. "As to your question, yes, you're welcome to _try_, anyway. But doesn't mean that I'm going to make it easy on you. You see, I've already sent my lackeys to get to you. They're waiting for you, JD. You're on the losing side, but I'm banking in the fact that you alone haven't reached your Juara Mode. Those lackeys I've said just now, they're triggers for you to do it. Feel free to kill them if you wish."

"Why are you telling me all these? For all I know, it could be a trap."

"Smart boy," laughed Lilithmon. "Of course. Life's too precious to be wasted on seeking revenge now, isn't it? After all, your baby brother's sacrifice would be in vain if you die, right?"

JD merely glowered at the demoness. She chuckled.

"If you come here, there's something in it for you," said Lilithmon mysteriously.

"What could you possibly…"

"I have his body with me."

"What?" JD stared at her incredulously.

"The dead kitten's body. I have it with me."

"You're lying."

Lilithmon sneered. "Only one way to find out."

"You said earlier…"

"I didn't actually _say_ that I didn't have it. I merely asked why I would want to keep it._You_, boy, are the reason why I'm keeping it with me." She let out an amused, dark laugh. "Who'd have thought that even a dead body can be used as a hostage?" Lilithmon's face had a twisted look on it, making her look like a deranged woman. "It's not really a pretty sight, but with the Shield of Waja it's bearable. Now, should I be expecting you to drop by and collect the body, or do I have to dispose of it myself?"

"I'll come," said JD, pocketing Adam's Digivice and unclipped his own from his belt.

Lilithmon grinned. "Oh, just a heads-up. Three of those lackeys of mine were in fact, partners to your friends. You might want to discuss with them first before killing them." She giggled. "After all, just how many deaths could you handle in such short time? Especially when they're by your hands?" The giggle turned to a mocking laugh as JD swore loudly at that proclamation. "Oh, don't be like that. Weren't you the one who tried so hard to kill Adam when you were a ShadoWira? And now…you've succeeded! Thanks to me."

JD snarled and crimson lights burst from his fists. "Just you wait…"

"Take your time. I'm not going anywhere. Ta!" And Lilithmon vanished.

_**Digital Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!**_

After a long period of absence, Satriamon was back. White lights exploded from his gauntlet-hand, and the Heavenstar Gladius materialized in it as the Dragonforce Striker gauntlet was transferred to his left free hand. He felt power radiating from the two weapons. Without its original master, it looked like the silver sword had chosen him as its new master. For a moment, he was touched, before using it as fuel for the upcoming fight.

Alisha's words rang in his mind, and for a while he was thankful of the woman for restraining him these few days. His anger had been so great; he would have _dark digivolved _if nobody had stopped him. The result would be disastrous. But now, while still there he now had better control of his anger. He vowed to himself that he wouldn't die in the hands of Lilithmon and her accomplices. He might not be a Mega, _yet_, but with Aldiyamon's sword he was as good as one.

_You're going down, Lilithmon. That's a promise._

From the distance, he saw three figures approaching from the darkened sky. He recognized them instantly from memory. _Sakuyamon, Neptunemon and Lotusmon. Lovely. _

"Let's roll," said Satriamon, grasping his two weapons tight.


	76. Carpe Diem, Part I

The profiles of Sakuyamon, Neptunemon and Lotusmon became clearer as they approached him. Satriamon saw Rosemon and Valkyrimon soaring towards the sky, both battle-ready with their weapons grasped tight. Jackie and the other DigiWira ran towards him, seeking refuge from the dangers that lied ahead.

"This is gonna be tough," said Satriamon. He was about to charge, when a gust of wind caught his attention. A shadow loomed over him. Everyone looked up, and Satriamon smirked.

"We came here as soon as we could," said GuardiAngemon.

"The more the merrier. You've fought those guys before. Just how tough were they?"

"Very," said GuardiAngemon grimly. "They didn't hold back at all."

"And we did," said Valkyrimon. "We tried to talk them out, but apparently the spell over them was too strong."

"Tell me about it," said Satriamon, remembering how his Digimon half was corrupted by Lilithmon. Nothing they tried worked in bringing him back. In the end, ChaosGallantmon was deleted, but thanks to Aldiyamon's intervention he was reconfigured. _Aldiyamon isn't here now,_ he reminded himself. The tingling sensation returned to his hand, and he was half-expecting to receive the mental images again. But they didn't come.

"Isn't there any other way?" asked Gayathri despairingly. "We're going to lose them…"

"What should we do?" Manny wondered; he and his girlfriend both looked at Liu Ying questioningly.

Liu Ying frowned. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"We've lost Adam," said Jackie. "That makes you the team-leader. You'll have to make the final decision. What are you going to do?"

"But…" Liu Ying seemed to be at a loss. "Jackie, you're from the Digital World. Surely you know of another way?"

"I know of only one way," said Jackie, his voice soft but stern in order to get his point across, "but you're the one who's gonna have to make the call for it."

Liu Ying was quiet, as everyone waited for her decision. Satriamon thought that he saw her swallowing, and it was clear that she was nervous. He understood why; they were clearly at a severe disadvantage in this battle. They've lost Adam, thus losing Aldiyamon whom, from how he seemed in those retro-cognitive visions he'd received earlier, was the strongest of them all. They've also lost three partners, and _they_ in turn had been placed under the hate spell and were given powers to ascend to Megas independently.

_Hate spell?_ Something stirred in his mind. He began to receive a sense of deja-vu. He wondered whether Liu Ying had thought of it too.

"We've already lost them," Liu Ying said finally, her voice soft. "And the only way to save them is by…" She stopped, inhaled, before addressing her fellow DigiWira. "Labramon, Penguinmon and Floramon wouldn't want to be used for evil."

Satriamon frowned. _Don't they remember? _

"No. Wait a sec, guys," he said, "there might be another way. I was under a hate spell too, and I snapped out of it. Karatenmon placed Manny and I under the spell. Manny broke it when he…well, you know why," he said, nodding at Manny. "And I broke it when Karatenmon was gone. I still don't know how Karatenmon got himself killed, but thank God for that. I would've…" Satriamon stopped. Lilithmon's words rang in his mind – how he'd attempted on Adam's life so many times that eventually Adam did die for him. He closed his eyes briefly, composing himself.

"What are you trying to say?" asked Manny.

Satriamon opened his eyes. "Just try to hold 'em off as long as you can. Knock 'em out, if you can, but don't delete them." He raised his gauntlet and sword. "I'm gonna go and get rid of the source. I've a score to settle with her, both Agumon and I."

"You mean, with Lilithmon gone the spell would be lifted?" asked Gayathri.

"That's the theory," nodded Satriamon. "If it works, then those three would be returned to us. If it doesn't work…well, we'll cross the bridge when we get there."

"How do we know if it's even the same spell?" asked Manny.

"We don't," said Satriamon. "But don't you think that it's worth a shot?"

"Not if Lilithmon gets to you," said Liu Ying.

"Not a chance. She won't. I won't let her." His tone hardened with determination. "Adam's dead because of her, and I've promised Kak Lisha that I won't get myself killed. I'll figure something out, but whatever it takes, I'm gonna flay that bitch and _be_ alive afterward." He gazed down at his teammates and mentor. "Hold them off while I do so."

The DigiWira and Jackie exchanged looks, before looking up at him.

"How did you get so resourceful all of a sudden?" Liu Ying asked, admiration evident in her tone.

"Experience," said Satriamon. "And circumstances," he added wistfully, before shaking his head. "So, are we game?"

"Got it," said Rosemon, nodding.

"We'll do the best we can to hold them off," said Valkyrimon.

"But what about you?" asked GuardiAngemon. "You can't go out there alone. There are still the Four Terrors and Lilithmon out there. Even though you have Aldiyamon's sword with you, but against _five_ Megas…"

Satriamon beckoned towards the corrupted partners. "Then you better take those three down as fast as you can. Get ready, here they come!"

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 76 – Carpe Diem, Part I **_

xxx

xxx

Satriamon had gone to the twin towers, and the Megas were now engaged in a fight against their corrupted comrades. He and the DigiWira, in the meantime, were on the rooftop of a skyscraper; just several moments ago he'd gotten an idea of how to _slow down_ the corrupted Digimon. It was a long shot, but he had to give it a shot anyway.

He pressed his index and middle fingers on each temple, and closed his eyes. As a digital human he possessed various special powers, but it was his psychic power that needed the most concentration and mind strength. Altering memories of humans was an ability he had perfected; stripping others of their free wills was another, but he wasn't going to do _that._ Skilled psychics could do so, he on the other hand, hoped that he could just slow the corrupted down so that it would be easier for Rosemon, GuardiAngemon and Valkyrimon to take them down without being forced to kill them.

"Jackie, what are you doing?"

He opened his eyes; he should've informed the DigiWira first of what he was trying to do.

"I'm trying to use my psychic power to get into your partners' minds. Maybe I can slow them down a little."

"Didn't you say that your power is limited?" asked Liu Ying.

"I did. That's why I'm up here." Jackie frowned, throwing a glance towards the nearest competitors: Lotusmon and Rosemon, who were only at the end of the block, trashing each other. The others were in sight, but farther away. He couldn't get to them from where he was at. "I need to focus," he finally said, and closed his eyes, focusing on what mind patterns he could get from the Digimon. Being a digital being himself, it was easier for him to identify another digital being's mind. In a way, he was like a Digimon; he could sense other Digimon's presence.

His theory had never been attempted, but he was relieved to see that they worked. He'd gotten glimpses of Rosemon's mind, and then Lotusmon's. Ignoring Rosemon, he began focusing on the other flower woman, trying to decipher the _scrambled, obscured_ data readings he could get from her.

The DigiWira must have gotten the message, for they didn't ask anything anymore. "Gayathri, Manny," he heard Liu Ying addressing, "we'll have to use our powers to make sure that nothing could interrupt Jackie from what he's going to do. Dina, stay close." He smiled, and amidst the shrieks from the two nearby flower women, he began to concentrate.

xxx

xxx

Surrounded by buildings that had been blasted all over, the battle between Rosemon and Lotusmon was coming to an end, despite having just started about ten minutes ago. Lotusmon seemed keen to prolong the battle, if only to mock Rosemon for her previous defeat. Rosemon, however, wanted to end this as soon as possible.

"_Serpent Ruin!" _

Lotusmon's attempt to blast a building was thwarted by a wave of _Forbidden Temptation_ sent her way. Rosemon's lesser-powered form's attack wasn't as strong as her current form's, but it was the one she could send without risking her own strength. It wasn't powerful enough to counter the midnight-blue blast, but it at least managed to make Lotusmon stop attacking…in favor of mocking her instead.

"You call _that_ an attack?" asked the corrupted maiden loftily. "Please. You can do better than that!"

"I intend," muttered Rosemon.

She suddenly saw Lotusmon becoming rigid, whereas she was relentless previously. That gave her the chance to launch a well-targeted_ Aguichant Levres_ over Lotusmon's legs, and the corrupted flower maiden toppled over the intersection below, knocking down the lamp poles and billboards around her. She caught sight of Dina, the other DigiWira and Jackie on a rooftop of a building not too far from there. Jackie seemed to be concentrating hard on something. She remembered that Jackie possessed a degree of psychic power; _could he be the one who caused Lotusmon…?_ She thought, before it was interrupted by Lotusmon's cough.

"Blasted weed!" snarled Lotusmon, looking up at her. She attempted to move, but cried out in pain when it was apparent that she couldn't do so – she couldn't even move her injured legs.

"This ends now," said Rosemon, gathering power in her hands to form a blood-red sphere.

"You wouldn't dare," taunted Lotusmon. "What would Gayathri think, her best friend's partner deleting hers?"

"Don't worry," muttered Rosemon. "You'll be around to find out."

She hesitated for a moment – the attack she was about to launch was her strongest one; it could wipe Lotusmon out instantly if Lotusmon wasn't strong enough to withstand it. Underneath her rose tiara, her eyes trailed Lotusmon's limited movement – both of her scepters were glowing with energy. It was now or never.

"_ROSEN BLOOD!"_

The horrendous shriek that followed the _Rosen Blood_ disrupted Lotusmon's concentration for one brief second, which was all it took for her to be left open for the attack. The sphere disintegrated her outstretched scepters before pushing her deeper into the ground. The ensuing explosion resulted in a shockwave that pushed Rosemon back, and when it subsided she saw, to her relief, that Lotusmon was not deleted. However, she wasn't moving too, lying still on the broken roads.

Lotusmon was knocked out unconscious.

xxx

xxx

"There," said Jackie, wiping the sweat off his brows.

"What did you just do?" asked Manny.

"My original intent was to hamper Lotusmon with my psychic power," said Jackie, "but I've made an interesting discovery while reading her mind. It seems that she is actually a _they._ Lotusmon is a byproduct of a _Dark DNA Digivolution._" He paused, taking in the surprised reactions the DigiWira showed him. "I suspect the same is true for Neptunemon and Sakuyamon."

"DNA Digivolution? With who?" said Gayathri, casting one look towards Lotusmon's unconscious form.

"I don't know, but it's repulsive," said Jackie with distaste. "There's dark spell involved as well. A normal DNA-digivolved Digimon would have dedigivolved after receiving an attack such as the one Rosemon sent to Lotusmon, but as we can see Lotusmon's still intact." He inclined his head up, where two battles were still going on.

"So…there's a way to get our partners back?" Liu Ying asked hopefully.

Jackie gave them a grim look. "I do know of one thing: if we're able to separate them from whatever that have been fused with them, we _might_ be able to get them back." He then saw another battle that needed his interference, and flew off towards it.

xxx

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"Opie, Opie, Opie…" snickered Neptunemon, blasting everything in sight with the thunderbolts from his staff. "I never thought that you managed to survive last battle."

"Well, sorry to ruin your fun," snapped Valkyrimon, charging his sword with holy-powered lightning bolts to counter Neptunemon's dark thunderbolts. He was waiting for the right moment, having thought about it just a few seconds ago. It was a strategy he had once implemented against a water-type Digimon a long time ago, and it had worked then. He had seen Neptunemon utilizing one particular water-based attack during their last battle, and was hoping that Neptunemon would do so again.

For now, he used his advantage to the fullest – flight. Neptunemon couldn't fly, and thus was at a disadvantage against him.

"Oh, you didn't. As you can see I'm having a blast." The ocean king spun his staff and bubbling waters materialized under his thick fishtail. "I can take to the skies too."

The waters formed a pillar which propelled him upwards so that he would level with his avian foe. Valkyrimon couldn't believe his luck; just after hoping that Neptunemon using that attack and Neptunemon did so thereafter. _Today must be my lucky day,_ he thought, speeding down towards his soaring foe. He spiraled down the tower of water, utilizing his speed to the fullest.

"_Punishing Storm!" _

Cold aura lowered the temperature around him drastically as he circled around the tower of water. Soon a sub-zero cyclone was formed, and the water began to freeze into blocks of ice. Neptunemon's tail was within the waters, thus it too froze along with the rest of the waters. Valkyrimon let out a victorious cry and sped away, grinning towards Neptunemon.

"Yeah! Game's over," said Valkyrimon.

"Why you little…" Neptunemon swung his staff, ready to destroy the crystalline tower. Suddenly it was snapped out of his hold by a _Lightning Arrow_, sent his way with deadly accuracy.

Valkyrimon smirked; his plan worked. Now was the time to finish the ocean king off once and for all. He summoned his sword, and called out his most powerful technique. _"FERAL SWORD!"_

Neptunemon was blasted squarely over his chest by a light-charged wolf generated from the sword. It sent him and the embedded tower of ice under him crashing against an abandoned building, and his massive weight tore the building apart. Neptunemon laid in the midst of the broken building, dazed from the attack, before the building lost its foundation and crumbled over him.

"There. Crumbling building didn't kill us last time, it won't kill you," muttered the former Avian Shine, before catching a blur of white flying towards a building near where GuardiAngemon was battling Sakuyamon. _Jackie?_ He thought, as everything fell into places. _No wonder._

xxx

xxx

GuardiAngemon in the meantime, wasn't as successful as his fellow comrades. He was having a hard time facing off Sakuyamon, who had the advantages of barrier-generation and sending his attack away with the winds she generated. For the past ten minutes, he hadn't been able to lay a single blow against the sorceress, while Sakuyamon didn't have such limitations. It was just his luck that his Chrome Digizoid armor was able to withstand most of her blows; he didn't like to think what could have happened to him should he wasn't as armored.

"_Amethyst Wind!" _Sakuyamon sent hails of cherry blossoms upon GuardiAngemon when he charged towards her.

The winds dampened his momentum, but drawn by instinct GuardiAngemon united his blades together before him as he would do when he wanted to summon the _Holy Espada_. The blades merged and an explosion of light resulted. When it faded, the steel saint was surprised to see that a large shield was formed, shaped like the blade of a broadsword. Gleaming with metallic sheen, it was lined with cerulean pattern which formed a cross, and a dark blue jewel was embedded at the center. Digital runes etched in gold decorated the blue cross-shaped star.

"_Sacrosanct Starburst!" _

The digital runes glowed, and the shield unleashed a stream of holy energy that streaked towards Sakuyamon. However, she was able to raise her barrier in the nick of time, and the holy burst slammed loudly upon the barrier. Refusing to give up, GuardiAngemon pushed on his attack, as an idea came to mind. _She's able to block one attack, but what about two? _

"So you have a new attack," Sakuyamon sneered, within the protection of her shield. "You still can't harm me."

"Guess again," replied GuardiAngemon, wings outstretched. _"HEAVEN'S RIPPER!"_

The stream of light from the shield was joined with bladed energy projectiles, all slamming furiously against Sakuyamon's spherical barrier. Bolts danced around the barrier, and Sakuyamon gasped as the barrier faded and the attacks blasted upon her. She let out a shriek and was sent flying, shards of her broken armor tailing her way before they dissipated into flecks of data.

"Way the go, GuardiAngemon!"

The fused Mega turned around and saw Jackie hovering not too far from him. "I didn't even have the chance to manipulate Sakuyamon as I did Lotusmon and Neptunemon," said Jackie. The mentor must have caught the blank look he was giving him, for he merely waved a hand dismissively and beckoned towards the twin towers, standing proud all the way at the end of the straight road. "Come on. Satriamon needs our help."

xxx

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Satriamon touchdowned at the KLCC Park, briefly reminded of the first time the park and the buildings around it fell prey to evil Digimon's attacks. The twin towers were somewhat obscured by a layer of bronze light which had the shape of a giant bell.

_She could be anywhere inside those towers,_ he thought, _or inside the shopping mall under it. _

A stream of dark fire suddenly shot the ground just beside him. Surprised slightly, he turned around and sneered at the giant visage of Belialvamdemon that appeared from behind the skyscrapers around the park. The vampire was soon joined by the other Four Terrors from the other three sides of the park. He was surrounded, but that did nothing to dampen his spirit.

"Finally. I was wondering where the welcoming committee is." Raising his golden gauntlet and tightening his hold on the silver sword, Satriamon smirked. "Bring it on."

The Four Terrors didn't reply. Satriamon suddenly noticed something odd; the four demons had a similar glazed look on their faces.

_GranDracmon's without his smartass comments, Belialvamdemon isn't a grouch…well, not as grouchy as I remembered. Something's not right. _

He looked at them more closely. There was something odd about them: the way they moved, the way they looked, and the complete silence. Then it occurred to him.

_They've been brainwashed! That bitch…how did she manage to control them? These guys are seriously bad-asses…damn, they're attacking!_

Each Terror was charging up their signature technique, and Satriamon was surrounded from four sides.

Flames danced around his golden gauntlet as the silver sword sparked with brilliant white aura. Launching himself up via the _Flaming Torch_ technique, barely evading the attacks from three, Satriamon decided that he might as well began the battle by taking down one of them first. He aimed for Deathmon, who was the closest and smallest.

"_FIRE STORM SLASHER!"_

He hacked through Deathmon's lasers with his sword, and when he was close enough, launched a flaming white tornado upon the cyclopean. It engulfed the demon; Satriamon saw sparks of explosions erupted all over him, but failed to throw him off his feet by the time it subsided.

"_Explosion Eye!"_

Satriamon held up his gauntlet as a shield, and was pushed back. One laser singed the armor on his shoulder, another chipped off the chest part. One was deflected by the shining sword, and two more made him jump from the ground. "Man, you're tough," snarled Satriamon as he landed on his feet. "Let's see if you can take on this!_ DRAGONFORCE STRIKER!"_

Deathmon countered by hacking his claws towards Satriamon's fiery gauntlet. A loud clang ensued and Satriamon was forced into somersaulting back towards the ground, while Deathmon didn't move. _Damn, he's strong! _Thought Satriamon, feeling a dull ache from underneath his gauntlet.

Rumbles were felt. Satriamon saw the other Terrors coming. _And he's not alone too. What's taking the guys so long?_

Deathmon roared. Satriamon turned his head back to face his foe. "Relax, egghead," he said. "I haven't forgotten about you."

The remark provoked the demon lord. He raised his hands, and the eyes on the palms began spewing out energy arrows that nearly flustered Satriamon. He attempted to evade, but the arrows were fired at rapid pace and two struck him squarely over the chest. He fell on his back, and Deathmon launched more arrows upon him.

A flash of white light erupted from Satriamon, and Satriamon saw a protective spherical barrier had contained him. The arrows slammed upon the barrier and were deflected away, but at cost of the barrier itself, which crackled with electricity bolts before dissipating.

_The Deistic Guard,_ realized Satriamon – an attack that belonged to a regular Aldiyamon. _Adam…_ He shook his head. _Concentrate, Josh,_ he chided himself. _Agumon, any thoughts?_

"_The Deistic Guard is an Ultimate-level attack…it couldn't resist Deathmon's. But it sure came in handy," _responded Agumon, from within their joined body. _"With Adam's Digivice with us, I suspect we can actually summon Aldiyamon's attacks."_

"Really?" Satriamon gazed at the glowing sword. The jewel sparkled slightly, as if agreeing with Agumon. "Let's try it out."

Recalling how Aldiyamon utilized his sword techniques, he slashed the sword in a horizontal motion, calling out, _"Heavenstar Slasher!"_

Nothing happened. _"I suspect that because we're still an Ultimate, Aldiyamon Juara Mode's attacks are too powerful for us to handle,"_ deduced Agumon. _"Ultimate-level attacks shouldn't be a problem."_

"Let's stop suspecting and find out." He soared as high as he could, and slashed the Heavenstar Gladius in a vertical direction, summoning the sword's name. A glowing pillar of light resulted, and it slammed upon the surprised Deathmon. The demon lord remained standing, but an audible hiss was heard; the demon lord had covered his eyes with his hands – as if blinded by the light from Aldiyamon's sword. Satriamon saw those shriveling arms blistered due to the focused ray of light.

"This is awesome!" said Satriamon, launching himself forward without wasting time. This time around, he channeled his power towards his gauntlet. _"Dragonforce Striker, POWERED UP MODE!"_

Deathmon snarled and retaliated by clawing at him. The two attacks met, but with a stronger fire attack Satriamon wasn't pushed back. They pressed on, but his ears caught on sounds of attacks coming from the back. Sneaking a look across his shoulder he saw flames, black and purple, coming his way. He was forced to move away, but that impulsive move proved to be beneficial when they caught on Deathmon instead – sending him tumbling down.

"Thanks!" said Satriamon sarcastically. "Couldn't have done it without you."

Murmuxmon and Belialvamdemon, both eyes looked dead red, grunted. Satriamon saw Deathmon trying to get back up on his feet, but with his egg-like body structure it proved to be a difficult feat once he had fallen on his back. He gazed up the twin towers, and then his three opponents._Deathmon's out of commission, but there are still these three freaks and their bitchy mistress,_ he thought, grasping his two weapons tight. Gauntlet and sword both shone in their respective colors, as if assuring him that he'd make it out of the battle. _Adam… I know this is stupid, really, but if you're out there watching…watch my back, will ya lil' bro?_

The Heavenstar Gladius flared with white light. Satriamon gazed at it oddly. Strange enough, he felt assured by the sword's response.

"_Josh, I sense other Digimon approaching," _alerted Agumon. Satriamon whipped his head back, and saw three familiar visages that put his heart at ease.

"At least they're friendly." He raised the flaring sword up, hoping to catch GuardiAngemon, Rosemon, Valkyrimon and Jackie's attentions. "Hey, what took you guys?"

xxx

xxx

"Do you think we should be there with them?" asked Manny, casting a faraway look towards the twin towers. They could hear explosions, but the park was located on the other side of the towers. They occasionally saw sparks of light coming from there, but the towers as well as the buildings that lined the road leading to the towers obscured the battle from their sights.

"We can't help much," murmured Liu Ying. "They can fight better if they don't have to watch over us." A shriek caused her to turn back sharply.

Gayathri, pointing towards somewhere, was backing away. She was visibly afraid. "Guys, the Digimon…!"

"They're awake!" Dina gasped, backing away from the edge of the rooftop. "And they're coming!"

Lotusmon, who was nearest, trudged towards them, legs injured. Neptunemon crawled out from the piles of boulders that buried him, armors wrecked. And finally Sakuyamon, clad only in her black suit without her bronze armor, appeared from the corner of the block. The three corrupted Digimon caught sight of the DigiWira, sneered, and approached them. They were all injured, but that didn't make them any less dangerous, especially against four teenagers.

"Your friends should've finished us when they had the chance," said Lotusmon acidly. "That Rosemon wench will pay, with the death of her human partner!"

Dina screamed, alarmed. Gayathri went towards her. "NO!" shouted Gayathri, gazing up at her corrupted partner. "Lotusmon…_Floramon…._"

"Floramon is gone," said Lotusmon. "No use trying to call for her."

"Then I'm really sorry I have to do this," whispered Gayathri, and looked up towards the sky. Instantly, the winds began to pick up and dragged Lotusmon away.

"Wind power?" snorted Lotusmon, shaking off the winds. They subsided instantly. "Pathetic. Let me show you how…"

She was pushed back by a stream of water and an invisible force. The combined powers did little to damper her, but it did buy Gayathri and Dina time to retreat.

"Hey! Fight your own partner!" Sakuyamon loomed down towards Liu Ying, one hand extended. Similarly, Neptunemon sent a stream of water that knocked Manny off his feet.

Liu Ying raised her telekinetic barrier with one hand while slowing Manny's fall with the other. The boy was barely able to thank her when Neptunemon send another stream of water, which nullified her telekinetic hold on Manny. Manny fell on his back on the floor, groaning.

Sakuyamon laughed and slammed her hand upon Liu Ying's telekinetic barrier, destroying it, sending Liu Ying rolling towards Manny. Liu Ying groaned and saw that she had scraped her knees and arms. Ignoring the pain, she tried hoisting herself up.

"We're sitting ducks out here," said Manny, helping her up when it was clear that she needed assistance. They retreated towards Gayathri and Dina, as the three corrupted loomed upon them.

"What should we do?" whispered Gayathri, fear-struck.

Thoughts raced over Liu Ying's mind. She was reminded of Jackie's explanation; the corrupted were the results of DNA Digivolution. And if they could force the digivolution to break up, there _might_ be a chance for them to get their partners back. "In our Wira Digital forms, we DigiWira are the dominant halves," she deduced, her shaking hand reaching for her Juara Digivice.

"What?" Gayathri said, looking at her with apprehension.

Liu Ying knew that she was on the right track. It was a bold and impulsive move - something that JD or Adam would do, not her. She would stick with facts and figures, but not this time. It just _felt_ right. It had to be. There was no other way. They had to take this leap of faith.

"You two, take out your Digivices now."

"What do you have in mind?" Manny asked, already following her lead. Gayathri followed suit.

"Those little devices won't be able to stop us," Sakuyamon sneered.

"Liu Ying…?" Gayathri said desperately.

"No time to explain," Liu Ying said quickly. "It's a long shot, but it's the only thing I could think of. We have to Juara Access with them."

Manny and Gayathri both started. "Won't it be dangerous?" voiced out Dina; the other two DigiWira were speechless.

"It's still better than waiting for them to finish us off! There's no time for us to wait for Satriamon to beat Lilithmon; we'd be _dead_ by then."

"But what if…" Gayathri's voice trailed off.

"We'd be dead anyway," Liu Ying cut in, and Gayathri flinched.

Sakuyamon, Lotusmon and Neptunemon all raised their hands – sparks of energy were emitted. They all looked dead-set in finishing the DigiWira off once and for all.

"We have to risk it then," decided Manny quickly. "There's no other way."

"Okay," was all Gayathri could say.

Liu Ying's nod was grim. "Let's do it."

_**Juara Access Digivolution….HAAAAAAA!!**_

Dina backed away, clasping her mouth with one hand as her friends turned into motes of yellow, pink and blue lights, soaring towards the three corrupted partners before they phased into the Digimon's bodies. The corrupted partners screamed and convulsed horribly as streaks of lights escaped eyes, noses, mouths and the in-betweens of their fingers. Their screams were horrible; Dina could hear her friends' howls intermixed with the screams of the Digimon, echoing all around the ghostly metropolitan. She was tempted to run out of sight, she couldn't take the sights…before something remarkable took place.

Three identical dark-armored beings – _Duskmon,_ she was able to identify – were expelled from the three partners. Then streams of yellow, blue and pink engulfed the Duskmon and reduced them into specks of data. Dina looked up as the lights subsided, almost crying with relief upon the familiar sights before her.

**"Xianamon, Juara Mode!"**

**"Puspamon, Juara Mode!"**

**"Samudramon, Juara Mode!"**

xxx

xxx

Lilithmon monitored the battle from the topmost floor of the left tower through the glass windows. The Four Terrors were winning, and she had no doubt that they would. Satriamon was only an Ultimate, and while the other three were Megas, they were nowhere as strong as the Four Terrors. But she would have to be careful, and that meant monitoring the battle to make sure that things would go her way. Despite what she had said to JD earlier, she didn't want the Four Terrors destroyed. She just wanted Satriamon to achieve Juara Mode, and when it happen, she would initiate her plan.

_I'__ll need all of them to prepare for the Master__s arrival...to trounce him!_

xxx

xxx

_**(Flashback)**_

Lilithmon, inside the safety of her Shield of Waja, glared towards the Four Terrors as they advanced towards her. Seraphimon had been obliterated and the Four Terrors had just taken out Aldiyamon. Adam and Patamon's lifeless forms were on the ground. By this time, she thought, JD would be dead.

At what cost? She was the sole Darkshadow Brethren that was left. She couldn't seek the Master; he was still trapped back in the Digital World. The Shield of Waja she and Seraphimon had cast was still intact. There were Digimon waiting outside, all ready to assist the DigiWira once the barrier was lowered. Now, she alone couldn't break the barrier. She couldn't escape the real world – the conditions she and Seraphimon had determined while creating the shield was to not let anything emerge from the digital world into the world contained by the shield, and vice-versa.

She was trapped.

"What are you going to do now, Lilithmon?" asked GranDracmon smoothly. "Once you lower your shield, we'll attack you at once. There will be no chance for you to inflict any of your attack."

"Why wait?" Belialvamdemon sneered. "Let's break the barrier now!_ Pandemonium Flames!"_

The flames struck against the barrier around her. It glowed and repelled the flames. Lilithmon was relieved; Belialvamdemon was no stronger than she was. Murmuxmon and Deathmon were weaker. GranDracmon was presumed to be the strongest, but he didn't even bother trying.

"You're powerful, Lilithmon, and with vast arrays of attack that we've never seen or heard of," said GranDracmon, "but there's only one of you, and four of us. The Hellion General is…oh, I'm sorry…_was_ the strongest of all the generals, right? And where is he right now?"

"You planned this from the start," said Lilithmon. "Lucemon's told me that you four couldn't be trusted."

"Indeed. It was his fault to ally you generals to us, after knowing what we have in mind," said GranDracmon.

"You couldn't beat him on your own, you have to use Aldiyamon to do your dirty trick," spat Lilithmon.

"Not much difference. You should be thankful that we've taken out Aldiyamon for you. From what we've heard, he's after _your_ blood," said GranDracmon, shrugging. "And please, Lilithmon, don't talk to us about dirty tricks. You've done the same thing against one of the DigiWira, the one the boy there has been striving to save for the past few days." The dark centaur waved his hand with flourish. "Think about it. If it weren't for YOU inflicting the curse on JD, all of these wouldn't have happened."

"Not as easily, at least," said Murmuxmon, smiling fiendishly. "But GranDracmon's right. It wouldn't be so easy to bring down Lucemon. But thanks to you, we didn't even have to lift a finger."

"Don't you turn this against me!" shouted Lilithmon.

"Guilty much?" asked GranDracmon sarcastically.

Lilithmon growled. It took all of her willpower not to attack the Four Terrors rashly. She kept the barrier raised up; there was nothing the Terrors could do to shatter the barrier. As long as she remained inside the Shield of Waja, she was safe. _But for how long?_

"Now, now, let's not be enemies," said GranDracmon suddenly.

Lilithmon's brows shot up; she hadn't expected that.

"You generals follow your Master blindly," said GranDracmon. "Haven't you stopped and think about the rationality his orders were to you? Don't tell me that it has never crossed your mind why your Master insisted on having Adam trained? Or does allying with SkullSatamon made you all lose the capability of logical thinking?"

She snarled. "The Master wanted Adam trained so that he could use his combustion power to set him free."

"To the point of enabling Aldiyamon to bypass the second threshold of his Mega form?" GranDracmon challenged. "To the point of making Aldiyamon more powerful than ANY of you?"

"It was unforeseen!" Lilithmon snapped back. "Lucemon too had bypassed the second threshold! The Master expected that Lucemon and I would be able to keep Aldiyamon at bay."

"Really," said GranDracmon. "Everyone knows how uncontrollable Adam's powers had been. The plan wasn't foolproof. Surely your Master had foreseen that."

"He…" Lilithmon was at a loss. What GranDracmon said made sense. "He trained Lucemon to be the best. He had trained Lucemon for _centuries_! Surely, he couldn't have expected Aldiyamon to win over Lucemon just like that!" Her words sounded convincing, but it only raised her inner doubts even more.

"You know what I think? I think he really was counting on Aldiyamon to obliterate Lucemon."

"What?"

"I've seen what he is capable of," said GranDracmon. "He doesn't know that I know. He's made sure that none of his generals know about this. But I do, and I have seen it happen."

"What do you know?" GranDracmon's tone was darkly inviting, Lilithmon couldn't help but ask.

"There were times when the Onyx Pyramid became too boring for me to stay put. There really wasn't much thing to do. You generals were always so secretive, training to wield your Mega forms to perfection, and honing other skills to complement your own. So I, at times, decided to venture out of the bastion and flew amidst the darkness of the night. Several times, I was led to the Shadow Realm, but I always made sure to remain hidden within the dark clouds hovering over that arid region. And from there, I saw your Master…trying to digivolve. I always overheard him talk to himself – sometimes I wonder whether he knew that he was talking out loud. Probably a habit ingrained for being captive for several centuries."

"I don't see where you're getting at," said Lilithmon.

"I heard him mentioning about being able to digivolve to Mega once Belphemon and Daemon were defeated," said GranDracmon. "He became Diablomon from _their_ powers."

"You're lying!" snapped Lilithmon. "I know of the Master's Mega level. He could become Diablomon. I've seen it."

"His digivolution power was wiped out during his battle against Grademon," pointed out GranDracmon. "But of course, you wouldn't know about it. You were already imprisoned, but yes, I heard him mentioning losing his power during the final battle. And yes…" He smiled, almost a kind smile towards Lilithmon, but also a mocking one, "I've heard him mentioning about a back-up plan he had. How he had prepared to restore his powers to full glory."

"What…?"

"Weren't you curious of the reason why this Grademon never deleted you all? Rather, he entombed you, when he could have easily destroyed you?"

GranDracmon had a point. She stared at GranDracmon curiously.

"Grademon knew of your Master's plan," said GranDracmon. "So he foiled it by entombing his servants before going after him. Smart guy."

"But then those DigiWira fools went and destroyed the entombed servants," laughed Belialvamdemon. "Grademon wasn't around to prevent it from happening."

"In short, you were all his puppets," said GranDracmon, "and he's the puppet master, orchestrating everything to happen. With every general deleted he grows stronger. I couldn't fathom how much power he'd gotten from Seraphimon's deletion. Seraphimon's very powerful… you know," he shot her a dark look, "he might have already escaped. And he'd be coming after _you._"

That shook her up. "You…you're lying."

"But you believe us," said GranDracmon simply.

She did. And she didn't like it. But what GranDracmon had said – all of them made perfect sense. She cast the leader of the Terrors a long, suspicious look.

"You know, perhaps we can work together on this one," offered GranDracmon.

"You want me to ally myself with you?" That came out harsher than she had expected.

"The decision is up to you. As for us, we don't want your Master to gain full power. As long as you live, he won't be at his strongest. That means you don't have to worry about us killing you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Then why let Aldiyamon kill Seraphimon?"

"Seraphimon, smart as he was, was blindly loyal to his Master. He would never believe us. You, on the other hand, have brains. We know you'd see reason." GranDracmon smiled. "There's always a room for a fifth Terror. Join us, and we'll help you against this Master of yours."

_I__'ll be damned if I trust you four. __I have a better idea_.

She lowered the Shield of Waja. GranDracmon's smile turned to a grin as she slowly approached him.

_**(/Flashback)**_

xxx

xxx

None of the Terrors had seen it coming. None had expected it when she used the abhorrence spell to take control over GranDracmon. The spell was for corrupting good beings, which would make the whole corrupting process a lot easier. Corrupting _evil_ Digimon…it was like giving a pillow to a sleepy person, as she had discovered that night. GranDracmon had fallen under her will instantly, and with GranDracmon she was able to outclass the other Terrors and seized control over their minds. She didn't even need to infuse the Duskmon inside the Four Terrors – the spell alone sufficed in turning them under her will.

She had taken precautions against the Master. If he was coming after her, then let him come. She had the Four Terrors and three DigiWira partners under her power. That was _seven_ Mega Digimon. If Satriamon reached his Juara Mode, he would be the eighth. It was either Satriamon Juara Mode or ChaosGallantmon, she didn't care – both were powerful. When he digivolved, she would step in. No need for him to wipe out her army.

_But of course, there's also my trump card. _

Lilithmon cast a look towards the corner of the dark chamber where a bell-shaped barrier stood erect, a prone figure within it. She smiled darkly.


	77. Carpe Diem, Part II

Looking around her with dread, she saw herself inside the dark jungle again. Shadows loomed from the canopies above, light was scanty. She looked around, anticipating what would come her way in a matter of seconds.

Someone darted past her, as if she wasn't even there. The boy seemed scared, panting, running for his life. He didn't notice her.

A roar echoed, and she saw a large panther leaping towards her. She would have screamed in fright, but she didn't, for she knew from experience that the beast couldn't harm her. But out of reflex she did gasp and raise her arms, but it simply flew past her, fangs bared with saliva dripping from them, as it chased the running boy. The boy turned around – her heart ached upon seeing his tearful gray eyes – gasped, and picked up pace.

She had seen this numerous times. She knew what would be taking place. The boy would continue running, and eventually he'd lose the panther.

But then something unexpected happened – something that she had not seen during her previous experiences.

The boy tripped, and toppled onto the ground. The panther leaped towards the boy, eyes gleaming red as it loomed upon the boy…

"Adam! NO!!"

Alisha screamed. Her eyes snapped open and she was nearly jerked forward hadn't it been for the seatbelt she was wearing. The car skidded to a halt. Abu, who was driving, gazed at her, concerned. She saw his unspoken question and sighed.

"It's that dream again," said Abu knowingly. She nodded. "That's the fourth time you've dreamt this, Lisha," he pointed out.

Alisha nodded again, weakly. "I didn't expect to doze off…"

"You haven't been sleeping well," said Abu gently, "You were up all night after Josh said that he'd go to look for Adam's body."

"Every time I sleep, I'd see Adam," she said. "He's always running from a panther. I'd wake up as they disappeared…but today I saw something else happening…" She swallowed a lump in her throat. Her heart raced wildly. Her instinct was telling her something, but it was impossible.

"What did you see, Kak Lisha?" Jas, who had been sitting at the back with Jade, peered beside her, concerned.

"Adam fell, and the panther got to him…" Her voice broke. "I don't know why I'm dreaming this over and over again."

Silence. Jas rubbed her shoulder softly. "Josh will find him," she whispered. "He won't rest until he does. He told us that, remember?"

"I know. It's just…" She wiped her tears. "Moving on is just so hard with these dreams…"

They were on their way to Kuala Lumpur, after seeing Lilithmon's image projection over the sky, having heard what she had claimed to have. It had caused a stir at the hospital, where the name JD and Adam were both familiar. JD's cursed tattoo had become a gossip at the hospital, and with Lilithmon mentioning his name people had begun to connect the dots. Wanting to avoid the unnecessary questions, as well as concerned for the DigiWira's safety, Abu and Alisha decided to go after them, with Jade and Jas tagging along.

The car moved again along the deserted highway leading to the metropolitan capital. Everyone's eyes were fixed at the Twin Towers, contained within an opaque bell-shaped aura.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 77 – Carpe Diem, Part II **_

xxx

xxx

"Deathmon's out," said Satriamon, gazing towards the remaining three Terrors. Suddenly a roar ensued, and the ground rumbled.

"Apparently you spoke too soon." Rosemon pointed towards Deathmon, who had managed to get back up on his feet.

"Damn! It's four against four again."

"At least it's better than four against one," said Valkyrimon.

"Okay. It's open buffet for everyone. Help yourself." Satriamon smirked, powering up the gauntlet and the sword again.

GranDracmon summoned his crystals while Belialvamdemon's shoulder pods opened as dark energy coalesced within them. A fiery vulture flared about Murmuxmon, while Deathmon merely grunted, having weakened from being blasted by the other Terrors earlier. Satriamon and his allies braced themselves, their gazes changed intermittently from each Terror.

"They're still too powerful for us," insisted Rosemon. "Lady Ophanimon…"

Rosemon was interrupted when the sky thundered; flashes of lightning ensued, illuminating the darkened grounds of the KLCC Park and the shield that was containing the whole city. Winds picked up as thunderbolts danced over the ground, forcing the Terrors to back away. The bolts however didn't come near any of the good guys, as if not wanting to harm them. They turned around, and to their surprise they saw Samudramon Juara Mode descending from the sky, lightning bolts coalescing about him. He was followed by Puspamon Juara Mode whose body was engulfed by faint pink hurricane, and finally Xianamon Juara Mode, with Dina in her arms. The three Juara Wira Digital headed towards the others and Xianamon lowered Dina beside Jackie.

"Talk about a grand entrance," said Satriamon, smirking. "Welcome back. How did you guys do it?"

"How did we do it? Oh, I'll tell you how we did it," said Puspamon, glaring towards Xianamon. "Liu Ying suddenly decided to pull a JD on us."

"Pull a _what_?" Satriamon asked, confused.

Xianamon shrugged while returning Puspamon's glare. "Hey, it does work!" She glanced towards Satriamon. "We Juara Accessed with them when they were about to kill us," she said, deadpan.

"Whoa!" That surprised Satriamon. "That's so not like you."

"I know," agreed Xianamon. "Puspamon's right. That's more like_ you_." She smiled at the comment. "But it was a leap of faith worth taking. If we didn't do it, they would have…umm…it doesn't matter now," she amended suddenly. Satriamon knew why; the Digimon halves of the three Juara Wira Digital would be uncomfortable if the matter was addressed.

"Lookout!" Samudramon swirled his hands and called out, _"Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

Torrents of water projected out of Samudramon's hands and collided with curls of dark flames from Belialvamdemon. Samudramon was pushed back for Belialvamdemon's attack was stronger, but Puspamon immediately stepped in with her wind power. The hurricane wind spiraled around the water and Samudramon began to regain his stance. The temperature began to drop, water and wind enveloped the flames and the flames froze into chunks of ice that crashed upon the ground.

The two Juara Wira Digital leaped to the air. "We'll handle Belialvamdemon!" said Samudramon.

"He'll pay for what he did to us back at the school." Puspamon joined the aquatic dragon-man, as they streaked together towards the massive armored vampire.

Satriamon saw Xianamon staring towards Murmuxmon, who was charging up another fiery vulture. He saw Xianamon raising both hands, and the next thing he saw was Murmuxmon trapped inside an energy column formed by two glowing Mandalas, shrieking with rage as magical storm furiously ripped him apart inside the Mandala column.

"Time freeze?" he asked.

"Guilty," she replied, and flew towards the avian demon lord. Satriamon smirked, but was surprised when lasers singed his pauldrons.

"Man, you don't waste time now do you?" he grunted towards Deathmon, and evaded another blast of _Explosion Eye_. "Sheesh!"

Deathmon snarled and unleashed several beams in a fit of drunken rage, which almost blasted Satriamon and GuardiAngemon, while Rosemon and Valkyrimon instantly leaped to the air.

"_Holy Espada!"_

GuardiAngemon summoned his metallic broadsword before taking on the cyclopean demon lord. Deathmon retaliated by sending lasers, but they were deflected by the steel saint's sword. The angel then tried slamming the sword upon the demon's head, but the demon managed to head-butt the sword – a move unexpected by the angel – before blasting GuardiAngemon back with lasers from his main eye. GuardiAngemon however refused to back away, his armored body protected him from being fully harmed by the laser. The holy sword vanished as GuardiAngemon began to shine with silvery pink light.

"_Heaven's Charm!"_

A pink vertical column formed around GuardiAngemon as he brought his hands together towards his front. Then he opened his arms wide, sending a horizontal wave of holy energy towards Deathmon. It singed Deathmon's hands and caused him to shriek.

"Wow. He's damn good," said Satriamon, looking up at Rosemon and Valkyrimon. "You two, help Xianamon out, okay? GuardiAngemon and I'll fry this egghead."

Rosemon and Valkyrimon shared one look and sailed towards Xianamon wordlessly.

"C'mon, Dina, we better find some safe place to hide," said Jackie, beckoning for the girl with him.

"Mr. Chan, can't you use your psychic power against the Four Terrors like you did to the partners earlier?"

"If I'm not as taxed as I am now, I can," said Jackie. "The others can handle this. C'mon."

Watching as the two ran to safety, Satriamon charged his weapons with power, smirking, "Alright. Let's seize the day!"

xxx

xxx

"Impossible!"

Lilithmon couldn't believe what she was seeing. The scales had tipped to favor her foes.

Gazing down through the transparent window, she saw Belialvamdemon having his hands full against Puspamon and Samudramon, Murmuxmon fighting against a coalition formed by Xianamon, Valkyrimon and Rosemon, while Satriamon and GuardiAngemon worked together against Deathmon. GranDracmon, left alone for the time being by the Wira Digital and their allies, sent his attacks against the Wira Digital, but in his controlled state he wasn't as efficient or as crafty as he had been. That coupled with the fact that the Wira Digital were in close range with the other Terrors made it difficult for him to fix his targets properly. And the Wira Digital had the advantage in numbers; their strategy worked marvelously, for one would watch out for the other in the battle, fending off GranDracmon's attack whenever it got too close to them while the other focused on battling the Terror they were fighting against.

Her eyes fell on Satriamon. _He hasn't reached Juara Mode yet, _she thought, thinking of her plan against SkullSatamon. _Everything's falling apart. I can't let them beat the Four Terrors. I have to interfere with this battle, and wipe out all of those goody-two-shoes myself!_

She blasted the window and flew down the eighty-eight levels before hoisting herself back up just seconds before reaching the ground. Calling off the Shield of Waja surrounding the twin towers, she began heading towards the weakest fighter of the team.

xxx

xxx

"Satriamon, LOOKOUT!!"

Xianamon's scream alerted Satriamon and he turned, but it was too late for he was struck by barrages of corrosive hearts from out of nowhere. The attack was too strong and sudden that he was blasted off his feet, falling on the ground. Quickly summoning his flames to burn off the corrosive hearts, he glared towards the culprit as she sashayed towards him.

"You."

"And I'm here to finish what I've started," said Lilithmon sleekly, raising her formidable claw.

He would have fought Lilithmon there and then, but that would leave GuardiAngemon alone against Deathmon.

"Go! I'll handle him!" urged GuardiAngemon.

That was all he needed to hear. He readied his weapons, blood boiled with anger as he remembered what she had done to him and the deadly outcome it had on Adam.

Lilithmon's eyes glinted. _"Serpent Shadow…"_

Suddenly an energy ribbon wrapped around the hideous claw and halted Lilithmon. Satriamon saw Xianamon abandoning her fight with Murmuxmon, her eyes now trained towards Lilithmon.

"Not so fast." Xianamon flicked her hand inward. The ribbon tightened around the claw.

"Xianamon, this is –" He however didn't have the chance to finish his words, when Xianamon cut him off quickly.

"Don't you dare say that this is your fight," said Xianamon. "She's aiming for you, and out of all of us you're the only one who's still an Ultimate. You need my help."

There was no use telling her otherwise. She was determined to help him. He might as well accept her assistance.

"How touching. Two lovebirds wanting to fight side by side," snickered Lilithmon, an in rapid succession she called out, _"Darkness Love!"_

The energy hearts instantly corroded the ribbons, freeing her claw, but Xianamon had retaliated with the _Kitsune Mahou_ which Lilithmon fended off with more _Darkness Love._ The attacks cancelled each other out, but before the resulted smoke subsided Lilithmon had launched herself towards Xianamon. Xianamon retaliated by thrusting her hand, halting Lilithmon with her power before sending her back flying. The demoness was able to regain her stance by flexing her wings out before launched her dark hearts again, but those too were sent back towards her.

Satriamon could almost smirk upon hearing Lilithmon snarl in anger, but he had to be on alert. An angry Lilithmon could only mean more trouble. He was going to step in, but the battle between the two females grew even more heated that he was forced to step back and reconsider.

"_Phantom Pain!"_

"_Elegant Barrier!"_

Satriamon thought that it was odd for Lilithmon to send out mists, of all things, before realizing from the smell of them that the mists were corrosive. Xianamon was smart to raise her barrier up – even the barrier was corroded by the mists before it combusted into data. But it had given Xianamon enough time to soar higher and launch her ribbon towards the demoness.

"_Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace!"_

"_Nazar Nail!"_

The ribbon moved with swift agility, evading Lilithmon's direct claw thrust. He then saw a chance to attack after catching Xianamon's brief look upon him. He might have imagined it, it was too hard to tell, but Xianamon seemed to be distracting Lilithmon more than actually attacking. That was the nature of the _Refined Grace_ anyway, flustering and making the enemy losing patience, Satriamon knew. He crept slowly behind Lilithmon, the Heavenstar Gladius infused with power, and when he was close enough…

"_Fire Storm Slasher!"_

His sword slashing however clanged with a bell-shaped barrier that formed from out of nowhere. Lilithmon laughed heartily and turned to look at him.

"Did you really think I'd leave myself unprotected from you? With the Shield of Waja you can never harm me!"

"Really? How about taking on this for size! _Dragonforce Striker, POWERED UP MODE!"_

Lilithmon didn't even budge; the bell barrier was enough to shield her from his attack. He grunted; his hand under the gauntlet numbed.

"You can't harm me," chuckled the demoness, "and unfortunately for you, I can! _Darkness Love!"_

For the briefest of seconds, the barrier vanished as the hearts sailed towards him, reappearing again as they slammed upon him. The second blast of these hearts was enough to penetrate his armors, and his flames had barely vanquished the hearts before they actually made contact with his skin.

"_RYOUKAI MANDALA!"_ shouted Xianamon. A column of light closed in by two Mandalas contained Lilithmon and her shield, but even the attack didn't work to break the armor.

"Not good enough," taunted Lilithmon. "The shield can only be broken by someone _stronger_ than me. And of course, also by the evoker. _Darkness Love!"_

Xianamon toppled onto the ground, her armor corroded. Lilithmon laughed heartily.

"I don't know how you've managed to break the spell on your partner, but no matter," said Lilithmon, sending another _Darkness Love _to both of them. "I'll kill you anyway."

Satriamon hoisted himself up from the ground. "If you think we're just gonna stand here and believe your shit about the shield, then you're wrong!_ Dragonforce Striker!"_ The bell barrier electrocuted his gauntlet upon contact, but he persisted on, trying to stab the shield with the sword. The barrier retaliated by electrocuting the sword as well, and the electric conducted into his body. He screamed in pain before both the gauntlet and the sword combusted into data particles.

"No…" He wouldn't care much of his gauntlet destroyed, for it would come back during the next digivolution. But the Heavenstar Gladius...what if it was a one-time deal?

"Aww, you lost your toys." Lilithmon smirked evilly. "It's okay, I'm done playing anyway. Now it's time to destroy you two losers."

"No," said Xianamon resolutely, standing back up. "Don't be too sure of yourself yet. There's a way to beat you still, Lilithmon."

"You're welcome to try any way you wanted," said Lilithmon, spreading her arms wide in a mock-inviting way.

"You asked for it. Satriamon," she said, glancing towards him. "Get ready. I'm going to channel my power to you."

"WHAT?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Lilithmon frowned.

Xianamon's mouth thinned. "She's said it herself: only one power stronger than hers could destroy the barrier. I'm a Mega, you're an Ultimate. If my powers are added into yours, it's either you ascend to Mega, or you wield my power in your current form. Either way, you'll become a temporary powerhouse with powers from two Digimon inside a single being…which should be enough to stop this wretched demon!"

There was a certain edge in Xianamon's voice that Satriamon couldn't figure out. It was anger, sadness, and hate towards Lilithmon all mixed into one. "Xianamon…"

"It might be the only way to beat her," whispered Xianamon. "Adam's a good friend of mine too," she added, her tone forlorn. Satriamon knew instantly that this was the DigiWira half of her speaking. What she said convinced him entirely. "The others would do the same thing, but only I can do what I'm intending to do," she finished, as her ribbon glimmered with golden aura.

Satriamon nodded. "Okay. Let's do it."

Xianamon floated behind him. _"Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace!"_

The energy ribbon wrapped around his waist and arms. He wondered what would Xianamon do, when the second variant of her _Maiden Finesse_ was called out.

"_Maiden Finesse – Flowing River!"_

He felt his body being jolted, before a rush of power flowed into his body. It was a comforting feeling of warmth and grace, as her powers intermixed with his own. He closed his eyes, feeling their power synchronizing. What mild injuries he had sustained from Deathmon and Lilithmon were healed, and he felt even more power flowing in that the warmth suddenly became a burning sensation that was too great for him to handle. The amount of power was too great for him to handle.

"Oh, no…" whispered Xianamon fearfully.

"No, keep going!" The process was painful, but it was nothing compared to the pains he had felt from the curse. He could do this.

The yell he let out could have split the earth apart as his legs and arms grew rigid. His form bulked up and his armor was expanded to their limit. Spirals of flames coalesced around his body followed by psionic crimson bolts and glittering golden stars. He felt the ribbons loosening and Xianamon's weak sigh. _She's given all she's got. _

Satriamon thrust his arms forward as surges of power coalesced around his arms and were released in a manner similar to how Aldiyamon had sent out his _Final Purification. _The flames and psionic bolts slammed into the bell-barrier, and began pushing it back. Lilithmon grunted, as the blast successfully shook the barrier.

_This is it,_ he thought, as a Mandala lined with flames materialized before him. The powers he was unleashing were greatly amplified by the Mandala. And then, to his surprise bluish white light orbs spiraled around the flames and bolts he were releasing. _Xianamon's power, my own power, and traces of Aldiyamon's power…all in one. Gotta make this count. _

"_**FIRESTORM PURIFICATION!"**_

xxx

xxx

Launching the _Heaven's Ripper_ was definitely a good call, realized GuardiAngemon, as Deathmon was once again sent toppling on his back. His egg-shape figure made it hard for the demon to get back on his feet. That brought his attention towards the battle taking place between Rosemon, Valkyrimon and Murmuxmon.

_That's one demon lord we don't have to worry about for now,_ he thought, as the ground shook slightly. He cast a look towards the edge of the Twin Towers, where a fearsome wave of flames was unleashed by Satriamon towards Lilithmon. Xianamon slumped upon the ground not too far away, and GuardiAngemon was surprised to see that she was only clad in her white suit – the golden armor and facemask was gone. She looked terribly weakened, but somehow still retained her Mega form. _Looks like Satriamon's going to defeat Lilithmon…amazing…we don't have to worry about Lilithmon attacking for now. What about the three other Terrors?_

Valkyrimon and Rosemon were dealing well with Murmuxmon, but with Valkyrimon continuously having to shrug off GranDracmon's attacks that would leave only Rosemon to fight Murmuxmon. The rose woman however had profound skills of a swordsman; she dealt blows one after another against Murmuxmon with her shining rapier-vine.

_We need to get rid of at least one of the Terrors to be on comfort zone,_ said Angewomon from their joined mind.

_Right,_ agreed MagnaAngemon. _ So…Deathmon or Murmuxmon?_

A scream was heard. Rosemon was suddenly overwhelmed by Murmuxmon's flames, and Valkyrimon was forced to summon his ice power to quench the flames. From afar, GranDracmon had seized the opportunity to strike both of them with lasers from his crystals. The lasers threw both his comrades away.

"Two can play a dirty game like that," GuardiAngemon snarled, joining his bladed arms to form the Sacrosanct Shield. _"SACROSANCT STARBURST!!"_

The blast of holy energy struck Murmuxmon from the side. It caught him by surprise, sending him toppling onto the ground.

Focusing on the fallen Murmuxmon, GuardiAngemon directed the holy blast to further engulf Murmuxmon. The demon lord shrieked as he tried to get away from the intense holy-charged attack. GuardiAngemon however was relentless, nodding towards his comrades to follow up with their own attacks. As a famed Terror, Murmuxmon was strong, but together, they_had_ to be stronger.

"You're through, Murmuxmon!" snapped Rosemon, getting back up her feet as she cornered Murmuxmon from the side opposite to GuardiAngemon.

"Yeah, the table's turned now!" Valkyrimon formed a triangle of three warriors surrounding the avian demon lord, and initiated the first attack. _"FERAL SWORD!"_

"_AGUICHANT LEVRES!"_

Rosemon's attack was the final toll for Murmuxmon, as three attacks proved to be too much for him to take in his weakened state. The demon lord was the first to be deleted, exploding into data before their eyes. This elated all three fighters as they withdrew their attacks from the now-empty spot.

Withdrawing his shield, GuardiAngemon was elated. One Terror was down for the count. But he suddenly saw a large, oval shadow loomed over him, followed by an infuriated snarl.

"GuardiAngemon, look out!" screamed Rosemon, and her seven jewels shone brightly._"TIFARET!"_

"_LIGHTNING ARROW!"_

The two attacks sailed over GuardiAngemon with amazing speed and slammed upon the shadow's master. He turned around and saw Deathmon toppled onto the ground, blisters all over his body and his large one eye struck by Valkyrimon's crackling arrow of light. The Cyclops was writhing horribly, howling with pain, and GuardiAngemon closed his eyes. Deathmon was evil, but GuardiAngemon didn't believe in letting one suffer before deletion. He pointed his shield towards the demon lord.

"_SACROSANCT STARBURST!!"_

Deathmon shrieked and combusted into data as well. Their victory however was short-lived for the battles had taken their tolls on all three of them. Rosemon and Valkyrimon both devolved at the same time into Lalamon and Muchomon. GuardiAngemon remained in his digivolved state, albeit feeling weaker than ever. It had been a long day and he had outstretched the limits of his power with the new _Sacrosanct Starburst, _which was by far his most powerful arsenal.

"You two better seek out a safe place to hide," he advised to Lalamon and Muchomon. "I'll stay around to see where I can help out."

xxx

xxx

Despite teaming up together, Belialvamdemon still was a powerful opponent against the two of them, what more with GranDracmon's interference from the background. It was hard for Samudramon and Puspamon to lay any strong blow against Belialvamdemon, with the vampire being too heavily armored. Normal attacks couldn't penetrate the armor. All their efforts had been in vain thus far.

"_Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

"_Dahlstar Sunset Pink!"_

Spheres of water and nature slammed on both Belialvamdemon's shoulder pods; they'd aimed to destroy the pods so that Belialvamdemon couldn't attack them with the _Pandemonium Flames._ Yet the pods were closed, thus their blasts merely dented the pods more than actually damaging them.

Belialvamdemon laughed darkly. _"BLOODY RAIN!"_

Crimson energy whips struck Puspamon and Samudramon hard. Puspamon's mask was torn away and her body was seized by the whip, while Samudramon was whipped repeatedly. The vampire laughed and brought Puspamon close to him, sneering as Puspamon tried freeing herself from the whip.

"Let me go!" She couldn't attack. She even felt vulnerable as her nose caught the sickening blood-like smell from Belialvamdemon.

"Puspamon!" Samudramon couldn't get to her, with Belialvamdemon's whips attacking him relentlessly. Finally, losing his patience Samudramon summoned lightning bolts that blasted the whips back into the vampire's wings. However, the vampire retaliated by calling out the_ Pandemonium Flames_, focused directly on Samudramon. Samudramon countered with the _Depth Bomber,_ but realized soon enough that with Puspamon held captive he couldn't use his severest attacks without risking Puspamon's safety.

Puspamon wiggled hard to break free, but it was useless. She was forced to watch as Belialvamdemon loomed towards Samudramon and struck him hard with his claws. Samudramon shot to the ground, barely avoiding the full blow of the attack with his trident which was destroyed in the process.

Belialvamdemon then drew her close to his face. She glared towards his dead-like eyes, and for a moment she thought that she saw, from Belialvamdemon's eyes, that her own eyes were shining with pink light. Belialvamdemon was not blinking; Puspamon saw that his fierce look slowly diminishing, replaced by a mesmerized look. She blinked. Belialvamdemon remained dazed.

Suddenly she knew. She didn't know how, but she just. It was her fourth attack, one she hadn't used before – the _Fatal Attraction_. Her mind raked for how it worked, and within seconds it came – the attack held the opponent's mind in her control after they had maintained an eye contact.

"Let me go," said Puspamon. Belialvamdemon gazed at her blankly. She frowned. _Okay, so much for mind control. _She balled her hand in a fist, angry…and the whip tightened around her body so rapidly that she couldn't breath. Gasping, she un-balled her fist, and the whips released her. She realized instantly what was going on. _Oookay… so he'll follow my every movement?_

She tipped her chin, and Belialvamdemon mimicked her action, which nearly made her laugh because with that posture, Belialvamdemon looked downright comical, unbefitting his demonic form. To test her theory again she placed both hands on her hips; Belialvamdemon did the same thing and she couldn't stop herself from bursting into laughter at this absurd, but seemingly powerful, technique. She could feel Samudramon's odd gaze burning upon her back.

"What are you dong?" Samudramon asked oddly, as she scratched her cheek. Needless to say Belialvamdemon did the same.

"I don't know. It's my new technique: _Fatal Attraction._ I don't get what's so fatal about it though, all he does is follow what I'm doing."

Samudramon frowned. "He'll follow whatever you are doing?" he asked, skeptical.

"Apparently yes." She blew a kiss with flourish to further test her power.

Samudramon couldn't bear to look at _Belialvamdemon_ blowing a kiss, especially when it was directed at him! It made him want to vomit.

Puspamon giggled. "Don't worry. I swear I won't get jealous."

Samudramon looked at her exasperatedly, before it melted into a thoughtful look. "Maybe we can use it to our advantage. How long will this attack hold?"

"No. Why?" She gazed at him. "Anything on your mind?"

"Just an idea." Samudramon smiled conspiratorially. "We can use him to attack GranDracmon."

"Oh..." She had to admit that it was a good idea. There was only one problem, though. "How do I make him attack? I can only control his movements."

"Looks like you have to use whatever physical techniques you know."

"I don't know any of those! I've never taken any martial arts!" A thought crossed her mind. "But I can use the _Pushpa Vimana_…"

Puspamon launched the said attack around an empty space after making sure that GranDracmon was close to Belialvamdemon. Belialvamdemon mimicked her, despite his moves rendered somewhat sluggish due to his bulk, but he had tackled GranDracmon so hard that the two monstrosities collapsed upon an abandoned building. Puspamon pretended to get back up on her feet; Belialvamdemon quickly followed. She kicked the empty air; Belialvamdemon slammed his foot upon GranDracmon's chest.

It was then that GranDracmon had had enough. The dark centaur blasted Belialvamdemon away with lasers, and apparently the centaur was angry enough that he'd sent lasers one after another upon Belialvamdemon, not caring that Belialvamdemon was his comrade at all. Belialvamdemon was sent crashing against another building. Puspamon made a notion of getting back up on her feet…but to her surprise this time around Belialvamdemon didn't follow suit. She saw Belialvamdemon slowly getting up at his own accord.

"Uh oh…that blow might have snapped him out of your power," cautioned Samudramon.

Puspamon tried waving her arm…and Belialvamdemon followed suit. "I think there's a time limit for this one rather than having to maintain control with my mind," she said, getting more and more familiar with her new power. "I better try something to finish him off once and for all. Can you distract GranDracmon for a few seconds?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Oh…just a little…dance."

GranDracmon began advancing towards Puspamon, but was pushed back by Samudramon's lightning bolts. Samudramon was careful not to hit the crystals, for they would only deflect the attack back to him – physical strike was the only way to destroy the crystals. "One minute," he gritted his teeth.

"Okay," said Puspamon, and began spinning over the air like a spinning top. Belialvamdemon followed her action, but in his process of spinning he had knocked many buildings over. Puspamon tried moving away so that the vampire was led to an open space. The idea was to make Belialvamdemon dizzy so that it would be easier to beat him. She spun faster and faster, nearly becoming a tornado and Belialvamdemon had a hard time trying to catch up.

Then she halted, and Belialvamdemon slowly stopped, his eyes were Xs as he collapsed onto the ground.

"Samudramon!" she called out. "Double-team!"

Samudramon nodded, and they linked hand. _"EVERLASTING STORM!"_

The thunderstorm and windstorm resulted from the attack pushed away GranDracmon as the snowstorm was focused on Belialvamdemon. Ice blocks confined Belialvamdemon until he was nothing more than a crystalline megalith. The winds slowly raised the frozen vampire up towards the thunderous clouds formed by the _Everlasting Storm,_ and when it was high enough it attracted the raging lightning to strike all over it from multiple directions.

The sheer force from the lightning, coupled with a well-timed _Zeus Ex Thunderstrike _and_ Double Dragon Thunderblades_ from Samudramon, destroyed Belialvamdemon into million bits of data.

"We're not done yet," said Samudramon, beckoning towards GranDracmon who watched the whole ordeal emotionlessly.

"Yes, but…" Puspamon gasped as her body glowed pink. Samudramon too shimmered with blue light, before they both became motes of light that streaked towards the ground. When the lights diminished both Juara Wira Digital had devolved to their composite selves. "We've devolved!"

"The attack took out a lot from us, but at least we get to beat one of them," said Manny, helping Gayathri up as they saw GuardiAngemon. He looked at Penguinmon – it was the first time both DigiWira saw their partners after nearly a week of separation. "Penguinmon?"

"What…happened?" Penguinmon blinked, looking so confused. "How did I get here?"

"The last thing I remembered was fighting the Four Terrors at Subang," said Floramon, frowning. "And we're now in KLCC…where we fought the Puaka Generals…"

Gayathri and Manny exchanged looks.

"Long story, but apparently the Four Terrors are now…" Gayathri looked around, noticing GuardiAngemon, Lalamon and Muchomon, as well as a fiery Satriamon blasting flaming waves towards Lilithmon, with an unarmored Xianamon behind him. There was no sight of the other Terrors. "It's only One Terror now."

GranDracmon roared. The four of them quickly ran towards GuardiAngemon, who had a massive metallic shield ready to intercept GranDracmon. And not too far away, a fiery Satriamon was unleashing torrents of unforgiving flames towards Lilithmon.

xxx

xxx

"Curse it…" grunted Lilithmon, as the Shield of Waja flickered. "Impossible!" She narrowed her eyes. _He hasn't even digivolved, and he's already breaking the shield?_

She quickly gathered power in both hands, preparing to attack as the shield combusted into data particles. Ignoring the rush of winds against her, she blasted out the _Serpent Shadow Sutra_ and the _Darkness Love_ ruthlessly towards Satriamon. The attacks collided with the _Firestorm Purification_ and resulted in an explosion that pushed both of them back. She flapped her wings to regain his stance, and saw Satriamon somersaulting once and landed firmly on his feet.

_He even matched two of my attacks!_ She thought, hearts thumping as Satriamon glared at her. It was then that she noticed some discreet but remarkable changes in Satriamon's features; ones that she hadn't noticed before.

Formerly clad in red armor over a black tight suit, the suit was now white while the armors had become bulkier and with sharper edges. Blazing flames the shape of a bird's wings flared from his back, acting as his own wings. Within his right hand was a formidable saber – the outer edge was jagged like the shapes of flames while the inner side seemed to be made out of purely crimson energy. With the new advancements, Satriamon looked deadlier than he had been before. His emerald green eyes glinted when their gazes met. She swallowed a lump.

"You…digivolved," she choked finally.

"Point for stating the obvious," said Satriamon Juara Mode, looking at his saber wistfully. He looked back at Xianamon, nodding at her. "Go take cover," he said, bending down to help the weakened sorceress up. "And thanks for the power up."

"You're our only hope now," said Xianamon, smiling slightly before she flew towards GuardiAngemon, who was protecting Gayathri, Manny and the four partners. She then devolved into Liu Ying and Labramon, and Satriamon provided cover for them as they retreated.

Satriamon then turned to face her, an unmistakable look of determination flaring from his green eyes. "You're dead," he said solemnly.

Lilithmon looked around. Other than GranDracmon, the other Terrors had been deleted. Her plan was foiled. If SkullSatamon were to arrive, she would be dead. If she released GranDracmon from the spell, he _and_ Satriamon would fight against her.

_I have to retreat,_ she decided, _and wait until SkullSatamon and these Wira Digital fight against each other. Both are strong; there may be no victor and loser, the real victor will be me!_

"Tell me where Adam's body is," demanded Satriamon, his voice hard.

Lilithmon snickered. "Before I tell you, you have to agree on my terms."

"Just tell me where his body is," said Satriamon, undeterred. His saber flared with radiant flames.

"Not until…"

"Just TELL ME WHERE ADAM'S BODY IS!!" Satriamon shouted, losing his patience. "Or I slay you with my saber, bitch."

Lilithmon was slightly taken aback; Satriamon's voice thundered inside her eardrums. _Rage,_ she thought. Before she knew it, Satriamon charged towards her, saber raised up.

_"DRAGONFORCE SABER!!"_

"_Darkness Love!!"_ She retaliated, but Satriamon hacked the energy hearts to dusts. Satriamon was getting closer; she had no choice but to retaliate._"NAZAR NAIL!"_

Satriamon however changed his strategy quickly, withdrawing his saber before making a one clean swipe towards her extended claw, severing it from her wrist! The Nazar Claw plopped onto the ground lifelessly before combusting into data. She screamed and clutched her dismembered arm, where clear liquid and data particles poured out, staring at Satriamon with disbelief.

"Just be thankful that you didn't lose the whole arm," said Satriamon indifferently. "Yet," he added, with venom, pointing the tip of the blade toward her. "Start talking."

"That's it," snarled Lilithmon. "For that, your cousin's body shall rot at wherever I've left him! _Darkness Love!"_

The hearts were blocked by Satriamon's Dragonforce Saber. Lilithmon realized that she was getting nowhere.

An ugly idea crossed her mind – one that would seriously deliver a blow against Satriamon's ego. She stopped attacking him.

"Fine," she said, as defeated as she could muster, "You win. But you won't want to kill me…"

Satriamon seemed taken aback before shrugging it off. "On the contrary, that's what I really wanted to do right now."

"If you kill me, my powers will be added to SkullSatamon," she revealed, addressing SkullSatamon without the usual reverence to further throw off Satriamon. She saw a surprised look crossing the dragon man, and chuckled. "Yes. It's ALL about him. We generals are his tools in getting stronger." She approached Satriamon, silently channeling power to her remaining good hand. "With enough power gained, he will become strong enough to shatter the Shield of Waja surrounding his bastion."

"Liar," spat Satriamon. "You're saying all these to save your ass."

"Am I?" she retorted, now circling the dragon man coyly. "That was why Grademon entombed us instead of outright deleting us back then. And trust me, he could have finished us all if he wanted to, but he didn't. So if you kill me…you're only giving SkullSatamon the ticket to the ultimate power, a power you'll never be able to beat!"

"Don't trust her!" shouted Xianamon.

Satriamon pointed his saber towards Lilithmon's neck. "Why should I believe you? You villains are all the same."

Lilithmon chuckled. "SkullSatamon genuinely wanted your cousin to become stronger, so that Aldiyamon would become stronger, stronger than any other Digimon that has ever walked the two worlds. That's why he instructed Lucemon to train him…and poor, blindly loyal Lucemon, did so without questions. SkullSatamon hoped that, with luck at his side, Aldiyamon and Lucemon would end up destroying each other…which was pretty much what happened to them.

"So you're right…I am just trying to save my own ass, but this is a proposition where the two of us wins." She approached Satriamon, her finger trailing the saber's metallic edges. "I'm the only general that's left. If you kill me, you'll all end up dead. If I'm alive, then he won't be at full power. There's a glimmer of hope that you will be able to beat him."

"You're awfully calm about all this," said Satriamon suspiciously.

"I don't have anything to lose by telling you all these, but lots to gain."

"A while ago you were trying to have our heads."

"A while ago I was fooled with the notion of turning you to evil, again." She grimaced. "I was wrong."

"Now you're admitting you're wrong?" Satriamon asked incredulously. "Now I know something's wrong. Nice try."

"Fine, if you don't trust me," Lilithmon stood just within an arm's reach from the dragon man. She spread her arms invitingly. "Go ahead, kill me. It won't do you any good."

"If I let you live…"

"Then Adam will be the only one who has perished," said Lilithmon, purposely using Adam's name to distract Satriamon's attention.

And then…

"_BLIGHT OF BASTET!"_

She struck Satriamon's chest with her good hand, the fingers flexed as her nails dug through Satriamon's armor. She laughed upon the look of disbelief on Satriamon's face.

"Adam's sacrifice is in vain after all!" Her hand shook as Satriamon yelled and swore, trying to shake her off. "It's no use. I…AHHHHHH!!"

Spirals of crimson energy blasted her hand away from Satriamon's chest, numbing it. That came as a surprise; it had never happened before.

A burning pain rose from _her_ chest. She looked down, and there it was on her left breast – the black cat tattoo. "No! It can't be!"

"DAMN YOU!" roared Satriamon, flames dancing around him. _"FIRESTORM PURIFICATION!"_

Caught by surprise by the outcome of her curse, Lilithmon didn't manage to defend herself. The attack caught her at close range and she choked out blood as it burned through her outer outfit, leaving her only with the black catsuit underneath before she crashed onto a mound of earth. Satriamon gained on her, leaping towards her, fist flaring with flames as he loomed towards her, before his eyes caught sight of the tattoo on her chest. The rage-filled eyes calmed into that of curiosity as he landed before her.

"Well, what do you know," he smirked.

"What did you do?!" she screamed back, blood trickling from the side of her mouth. "Why did the curse rebound to me?!"

Satriamon blinked. "How the hell would I know?"

Lilithmon sweated. This was unexpected. _He's healed from the curse…could it be that he__s also immune to it now?_

She scrambled up to her feet and flapped her wings, heading for the top floor of the tower. And strangely, Satriamon didn't pursue her.

_Everything's falling apart! I have to make him heal me. And I know just the way how!_

xxx

xxx

After Lilithmon's retreat, Satriamon braced himself to face GranDracmon, thinking that Lilithmon would order the demonic centaur to attack. However, the centaur retreated from the park, leaving them alone. Her action bewildered him, who then devolved quickly. There was still one matter that he needed to check. If Lilithmon had cursed him again, Adam's sacrifice would be in vain.

JD quickly pulled his shirt up, dreading to see the curse…and sighed with relief.

No tattoo. His chest was unmarred. _Thank God. Thank you…_

He heard footsteps approaching. "It's alright, guys, I'm okay," he said, lowering his shirt.

"Thank goodness," said Liu Ying, her alarmed face calming. "We were afraid that…"

She was cut off when sky suddenly thundered. Lilithmon's image projected on the sky.

"Oh, it's you. Good luck finding someone who'd love you enough to take the curse in your place," said JD, sarcastic.

"I don't think I have to," the demoness returned darkly. "You _will_ cure me. I know you have the counter-curse for the Blight of Bastet. It seems to me that when your dear cousin took the curse on your behalf, your healed body created an antibody for the curse. I want that antibody."

JD didn't expect that. The revelation only made his heart ached even more – not only Adam's death had saved him, but it had also given him a way to protect himself from the blight.

"You're hesitating. Let me give you an incentive." Lilithmon bent down, as if snatching something from her feet. When she straightened up, everyone gasped in shock.

"Adam?" JD gaped, eyes widened in shock.

Lilithmon was clutching Adam by the neck. And Adam was _struggling_ to be let free.

"Let…go…" The voice was weak, strained, and sounded to be in great deal of pain, but there was no mistaking that it was Adam's voice.

"He's alive?" Adam seemed to have gone through a great ordeal; exhaustion and pain were evident from his pale face, marred with soot and dust. Traces of dry blood were seen at the side of his mouth, and trails of dried tears were there on both cheeks. It pained him to see Adam in such a state, but at the same time, there was joy and relief, for Adam wasn't dead. "Adam…"

"Josh…help…" And Adam's head hung limp.

"ADAM!!" JD glared at Lilithmon's image. "You LYING BITCH! What did you do to him?!"

"Oh don't get too riled up, he's still alive," said Lilithmon, shaking the limp boy like he was a rag doll. "He's been doing this for the past five days."

JD swore at her. "You told me the curse's fatal!"

"And it is," agreed Lilithmon. "I don't know _how_ this little kitten survives. The curse should have killed him during the full moon, but somehow, it didn't. But this certainly puts certain things at a perspective now, isn't it?" She flashed him a wicked smile. "I don't care how you do it, but you _are_ going to heal me. Then I will let you heal your dear cousin."

"NO! You give him back!"

"I have one month before the next full moon," said Lilithmon. "And Adam has survived the curse for only so long…yet the curse still inflicts pain on him, even more horribly so than how it had done to you. I don't know how much longer his young body could take it. He's carrying a full-term curse for it's the one he's gotten from you. The effect is severer, he might be dead soon, if you don't hurry and figure out how to heal me." She inclined her head sideways. "And don't even think of climbing up here to get him. If you do, I'll order GranDracmon to obliterate you all."

"And you won't be healed," retorted JD.

"Would you risk it?" challenged Lilithmon. "I don't think so."

JD's hand found Adam's Digivice clipped on his belt, and gripped it hard as if it was a lifeline. He stared towards Adam's limp form. "Adam…"

Adam's Digivice suddenly burst with white light and Lilithmon shrieked. JD saw Adam vanishing in swirls of white orbs, and his heart nearly halted with anticipation for one split second, before Adam reappeared on the ground before him.

"Adam!" He knelt by his cousin brother, his shivering hands clutched Adam's shoulders. He gave the boy a shake. Adam stirred weakly.

"Josh...you...here..."Adam winced and gasped out in pain, sounding as if he actually wanted to scream but had no energy to do so.

JD's eyes fell on Adam's chest and he swore – the tattoo had _burned_ its way through the bloodstained shirt. The skin around the tattoo was scalded, and there was a stinging smell coming from it. He couldn't describe it, having not smelled it before, but suspected that it was blood that was burned.

His eyes stung. Adam had suffered a lot…in his place.

"Fine then," snapped Lilithmon, angered of what had happened. "GranDracmon! Destroy them all!"


	78. Against All Odds

"GranDracmon! Destroy them all!"

JD's brows knitted together as GranDracmon shuffled forward, wiping out the buildings within his reach. The demonic centaur moved clumsily, his dead eyes set on all of them. JD wondered for a brief moment whether a _zombie-fied_ GranDracmon was more dangerous than a normal one. He cast that thought away as his eyes fell on Adam, who was struggling to even breathe as faint wisp of air rose from the horrible scald on his cousin's chest. _He's so much in pain,_ thought JD sadly.

Just to look at him, Adam seemed to be struggling. "Josh…" he asked, before coughing. JD winced upon seeing specks of blood spat out by his cousin.

"Shh…" He knelt by Adam. "Rest. I'll take care of him."

"Josh…" This time, his name was uttered by a different person, albeit a familiar, feminine one. From afar he saw a woman in green towards him, followed by three figures tailing her back. "Kak Lisha?" He called out, at the same time recognizing the others behind her. "Jade, Jas, Dr. Abu…what are you guys doing here?"

"Josh, where's…" Alisha stopped short upon seeing Adam's prone form. "Oh, Adam!" She quickly sped towards Adam and knelt by his side, wanting to hug him but was stopped when she saw the injury Adam had sustained. "What…how…" She looked up at him questioningly. JD however, was disinclined to answer – anything he could say would make the woman more worried than she was at present. He was then, grateful, for his older brother's interruption.

"When we saw the demoness saying that she had Adam's body, Kak Lisha wanted to come," supplied Jade.

"We can't stay in the hospital either," added Jas, answering his earlier question. "The demoness mentioned you and Adam, and some people at the hospital knew of you. Speculations spread like wildfire. We had to get out from there. So we tagged along."

"It's still dangerous for you guys to be out here," said JD, eyes trained on GranDracmon. Then he swept a gaze over the gathered people around him.

Jackie and Dina emerged from the mosque at the far end of the KLCC Park, and indicated for the others to hide there. It being a non-skyscraper made it a safer place for refuge in close range.

"Follow Jackie," he instructed. "Satriamon will fight GranDracmon."

Abu scooped up Adam and looked at him. "Can you fight that beast on your own?"

"It's not like I have any other choice," said JD grimly.

"GuardiAngemon," said Abu, looking at his and Alisha's DNA-digivolved partner.

"Understood," the angel said even before his partners relayed the request.

"No," said JD. "I'll stand alone. GuardiAngemon, you're more useful protecting the others. Make sure that no stray blasts come your way."

"But, GranDracmon being the leader of the Terrors, that makes him the most powerful of all," protested GuardiAngemon. "It took a lot from us to delete Murmuxmon and Deathmon. It took a lot out of Samudramon and Puspamon to wipe out Belialvamdemon. You alone can't…"

"I know," interrupted JD. "But you look like you're going to devolve any time soon. You're better off staying back out here. At least I can fight with ease, knowing that everyone's safe. Don't argue," he ended, an edge to his voice as he heaved hard, noticing GuardiAngemon's slightly opened mouth snapped shut. "I want you to stay back and protect everyone. More importantly, I want you to use whatever healing power you have to ease Adam's pain. He's suffering, and I know you can't vanquish the curse, but…try whatever you can. _Please_."

GuardiAngemon knew from experience – having lived with JD while he was in his composite Rookie forms – that JD rarely said 'please', so when he did he really meant it. His gaze shifted to Agumon, who stood by his partner with silent obedience, before nodding. "Alright."

"Thank you." It was even odder for JD to thank anyone so formally, that everyone around him knew how Adam's condition was killing him too.

JD fixed one look at Adam, his heart thudding with despair at Adam's bloodied cough. "Go," he said, turning away to face GranDracmon. "Agumon?"

"Right here with you, Josh," said Agumon.

"Then let's do it." JD raised his red and gold Juara Digivice up to the air. _**"Juara Access Digivolution! HAAAA!"**_

"Damn you," muttered Lilithmon, watching the ensuing battle between Satriamon Juara Mode and GranDracmon with disdain. "You're wrecking everything!"

She stared down at her dismembered right arm, now without its Nazar Claw – a souvenir from Satriamon. She managed to bandage it with some clothes she found curtaining the windows of the towers in her attempts to stop the data leakage. For a moment she was thankful that she wasn't human – the blood would have leaked out from the curtain and the hemorrhage would continue. Her being a Digimon however, the data leakage was aptly halted by the curtain.

"Everything's falling apart!" She snarled angrily, tracing the cursed tattoo on her left breast. It being there was like an ironic mockery to her – having inherited the curse from a long line of Persiamon. Deep inside, she knew that once the next full moon bloomed, she would be doomed by the blight. For generations, she had heard and watched the Blight of Bastet taking the lives of many of her and her ancestors' opponents. A sacrifice out of love, be it platonic or romantic, would transfer the curse, but she had _never_ heard of an immunity for it before.

"Does it matter anyway?" she muttered. "Either way I'm going to die." She laughed out loud, her laugh so shrill that it echoed eerily around the emptied building she was in. "One way or the other, SkullSatamon's won. It's either he deletes me when he sees me, or he waits and collects my data."

Gazing down and hard towards the battling Digimon, a plan crept in her mind. "Well, if I'm going down it won't be without a fight. If I'm going to die, I'm taking down _everyone _with me! That wretched SkullSatamon and that blasted Satriamon; both will fall under my hands, and I can only do that if…" She paused, clutching her chest as dull pain throbbed from her heart. She frowned; she wasn't even exerting herself and the pain had already begun making its presence known. "Curse it," she snarled, and blasted the window open.

All that she needed to do now was to wait for the opportunity to present itself, right within the safety the Shield of Waja offered her.

xxx

xxx

_**WIRA DIGITAL**_

_**Chapter 78 – Against All Odds **_

xxx

xxx

"_DRAGONFORCE SABER!"_

Zipping through the air aided by his flaring wings, Satriamon hacked each crystal that GranDracmon sent his way, having realized that only a physical blow would destroy the crystals. As he hacked one crystal the others shot out lasers that burned through his thick armor. Knowing that he had to be quick, he sped towards the next crystal and hacked it into shreds of data, cursing every delayed moment the crystals was causing him.

Despite being under Lilithmon's control, GranDracmon seemed to have not lost his battle prowess. Satriamon knew from observation how the demonic centaur was keener in observing the battle rather than participating directly in it, and when he did he would take on only those who he would win against. Aldiyamon, for example, was vulnerable to his voice charm and that was who GranDracmon would fight against. On several occasions he had Aldiyamon under his power, and recollecting the images he had seen at the destroyed KL Tower site, he wondered whether Seraphimon's destruction was due to GranDracmon's orchestration or by Aldiyamon's own accord.

A crystal came upon him and he delivered a forceful kick upon it. It cracked and vanished in specks of data.

"I'm getting nowhere," he grunted, realizing that GranDracmon was only tiring him out.

"_Josh…"_

His heart seemed to halt upon hearing the chillingly weak voice. "Adam?" He looked around. Adam wasn't around. Another call, and he realized that he was hearing Adam's voice inside his head. _Telepathically?_ He wondered. _Adam?_ He thought, but there was no reply. Instead he began hearing Adam's pained cry, echoing in his mind. There was no doubt then; he was hearing Adam telepathically. _Adam…hang on!_

"I'm through with this. Time for a different take for this battle." He brought the saber over his back and pressed it against the armor. A soft click was heard, meaning that the saber had been secured. Then he charged his right fist with flames that spiraled around his very being, before a fiery red dragon apparition materialized. His fist turned magma-like surrounded by fiery aura as he now hovered within the dragon apparition. The temperature around him rose drastically; this was a focused technique, just as powerful as the _Firestorm Purification,_ but the force behind this technique was converged in his flaring fist.

"_DRAGON FIST EXPLOSION!"_

Speeding towards the crystals he punched them into dusts before looming towards GranDracmon, landing a sound punch onto the centaur's chest. A sharp audible crack resulted and GranDracmon staggered back, but the fact that he had four legs made him too sturdy for Satriamon to knock away with just one blow. Angered, GranDracmon slapped Satriamon away with his giant paw.

Satriamon somersaulted in midair before his wings stabilized him. He smirked and spread out his arms, seeing another chance to strike. _"FIRESTORM PURIFICATION!" _

GranDracmon summoned his crystals and the flames were absorbed into them. A fraction of a second later the flames emerged from the crystals, heading back towards Satriamon.

"Damn it!" Satriamon evaded the flames and was going to attack, before Adam's pained cry halted him. The distraction proved to be disastrous for GranDracmon chose that exact opportune moment to unleash lasers from his eyes and mouth. They slammed against Satriamon, pushing him back while denting his armor. Other than that, the Juara Wira Digital was unharmed.

An image suddenly invaded Satriamon's mind, with the same intensity he had perceived while at the KL Tower's destroyed site. He saw Adam writhing in pain, Alisha crying beside him, Jade, Jas and Abu looking so forlorn and the other DigiWira having the same worried looks on their faces. He saw GuardiAngemon devolving to Salamon and Gatomon, having used the lasts of their powers in attempt to ease Adam's pain. He saw the blisters on Adam's chest bubbling, Adam screaming and crying at the same time…and the image vanished.

_Oh, Adam…_ His eyes stung. His hands shivered. Seeing his cousin suffering in his place was too heart-wrenching for him to bear. _What if Lilithmon's right? What if…Adam's time is almost up? He's alive now but is suffering so much…_

The image returned, only it showed Adam unmoving, no longer screaming, no longer crying, before it vanished. He was stunned. _No, it can't be. Not now. _

He blinked back tears, realizing what the vision had implied. The curse had taken its toll on Adam, having tortured him for the past few days without killing him. Underneath his mask, his brows knitted together._Adam, don't die on me now. I've just found out that you're alive. _He remembered Lilithmon demanding from him the cure for the curse that rebounded back to her. _I have the cure?_ He wondered, not moving to evade the lasers from GranDracmon._ But…Adam's gone. What good is the cure if I couldn't use it to heal Adam?_

His hands suddenly glowed crimson and took form of claws that sparked with bolts – _psionic bolts._ They seemed to be stronger than his other attacks, feeding on the sorrow that was slowly building up in his heart. Tears slid down from the mask that was covering the upper half of his face. They dropped onto his shaking claw-hands, resulting in the psionic bolts to crackle even wilder.

With choked voice, he uttered out, _"Melancholic Bone Claw."_

Then he charged, delivering a vicious swipe towards GranDracmon's incoming hand, and to his surprise, tearing away some flesh off the demon's palm. With a start GranDracmon jerked away, but that only gave Satriamon the opening to slash forward with his claws. One claw viciously slashed GranDracmon's chest in a vertical motion, the other added to the injury with a horizontal strike. Each strike tore more and more flesh off GranDracmon, but Satriamon continued inflicting more damage on GranDracmon. It was then he realized how powerful the Melancholic Bone Claw was; the attack truly lived up to its name – feeding on his sorrow and melancholy in order to create a force strong enough to rip fleshes way down till the bones. Such was the force of his psionic power which fed on his negative emotions, due to its dark attribute. He struck again and tore off GranDracmon's right arm that tried to flick him away, causing the centaur to scream in pain. A gust of dark gale was blown towards him, pushing him back. He had to evade this.

Satriamon backed away ever so slightly and delivered a forceful flying kick that struck the demon squarely on the chest. As the demon reeled back he raised the claws, roaring loudly before pressing them on the demon's injured chest. Bolts danced over GranDracmon's chest as Satriamon pressed on, forcing the demon to kneel. More and more flesh was torn amidst GranDracmon's scream, as data poured out from the wounds. Yet, GranDracmon was massive and defeating him with a pure physical attack was a difficult feat to achieve. He saw a looming shadow coming upon him – GranDracmon was attempting to strike him with his remaining good hand. He withdrew quickly, and loomed towards the ground where GranDracmon could not reach him. There, an idea struck him.

"_Melancholic Bone Claw." _

He slashed GranDracmon's right front knee, reeling back at the sight of digital liquid bursting out from the wound, spilling all over him. Snarling in disgust he backed away as the centaur wobbled down, having lost his balance. Satriamon made way towards the left knee in a swift motion, and when it too was struck GranDracmon instantly lost his balance and crumbled down, howling in pain. The Terror was now rendered immobilized – there was no way he could move with two injured legs.

Soaring to meet GranDracmon's eyes, Satriamon raised one claw in an attempt to finish the fallen Terror once and for all. The image of dying Adam was all he needed to supercharge his claws with more righteous dark energy. GranDracmon made an attempt to swipe him, but Satriamon quickly countered the massive paw with his psionic claw. Upon meeting his claw, GranDracmon let out a shriek as the flesh of his remaining good arm was ripped apart. Data liquid burst forth, followed by a series of sickening cracks as the bones that constituted the arm cracked into several little pieces before becoming shreds of data particles. GranDracmon was now without both arms.

Nevertheless, Satriamon took no pleasure in inflicting all those injuries to GranDracmon. He only wanted to be by Adam's side, to try whatever he could to vanquish the curse. The more time he spent battling GranDracmon, the lesser the chance it would be for him to ensure Adam's safety.

He flew over GranDracmon's head, the centaur only looking at him with his blank, dead eyes as he charged up his psionic power once again.

"_Melancholic Bone Claw."_

And with one powerful thrust of both claws over GranDracmon's head, it was over. The resulted psionic beam that escaped his claws created a pillar of crimson light that ripped GranDracmon apart, cracking the Terror's skull first before decapitating him. The Terror's humanoid body soon followed, bursting into data before the bestial half followed. For a while Satriamon watched the dark purple data particles that resulted from GranDracmon's deletion hovering around the city, before flying off towards the mosque.

xxx

xxx

Lilithmon waited until Satriamon was completely out of view, before slowly soaring towards the place where GranDracmon formerly stood before Satriamon ripped him apart. Dark purple data still hovered around the area, along with digital liquids that were slowly vanishing.

_If I'm going to have a fighting chance against Satriamon AND SkullSatamon, I'll need additional help,_ thought Lilithmon as she flicked her good hand upward. The purple data dusts began to converge around her as her body let out a soft glimmer. Data absorption was tricky and was rarely attempted, and she had seen how it had backfired on the Majin General when he absorbed D'Arcmon's data. D'Arcmon had rebelled, unwilling to be siphoned into Beelzemon's data constitution, and as the result she managed to escape and joined Rosemon instead. _It was a good thing, then, since GranDracmon was killed while he was under my power. But then, I have to be so sure._

Gazing momentarily at her reflection on a window of a nearby building, she thought, _This probably would be the last time I'm going to see myself in this beautiful form. Such is the price for power._

Closing her eyes, she began the process. The data was slowly absorbed into her body, and she felt her power increasing steadily.

_Yes... more... more..._

However, a strange jolt that coursed through her veins alerted her that something had gone wrong...

xxx

xxx

"Adam?"

JD stepped in the open-air section of the mosque, where everyone gathered around Adam's still form. Alisha was crying, comforted by Jas, while Jade and Abu were talking quietly beside them. Dina too was sobbing along with Gayathri, while Manny and Liu Ying both looked up upon his arrival. Tear-stricken Liu Ying slowly shook her head, slowly backing away as JD and Agumon knelt beside Adam before joining the other DigiWira girls.

"He didn't make it," whispered Manny, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. JD saw that Manny's eyes were shining.

JD nodded numbly as he reached for Adam's hand, grabbing it tight. It was still somewhat warm, but no longer had the warmth of life. His eyes stung as realization set to him. He'd lost Adam.

"I haven't seen Patamon anywhere," mumbled Agumon.

"Now's not the time, Agumon," snapped JD, before regretting doing so just a second later. As strong his bond with Adam was, so was the one shared by Agumon and Patamon. "Sorry, Agumon."

Agumon nodded understandably. "That's ok, Josh, but can I have Adam's Digivice?"

JD nodded and handed it to him without a word.

A thoughtful look crossed the raptor's face before he summoned slowly, "Patamon, Access!"

To everyone's surprise, it wasn't Patamon who emerged from the Digivice, but his In-Training form of Tokomon. But Tokomon was unconscious.

"Josh, look…"

JD stared at the sleeping Tokomon. Agumon was looking at him with wide eyes. "Josh, Tokomon's still here," he said urgently, grabbing on JD's other hand.

"I can see that."

"Don't you see, Josh?" said Agumon. "If Adam is dead, Tokomon wouldn't even be here. I've told you before, Josh, a partner can't live without his human. If Tokomon's still here, that means that Adam is still alive. Barely, but still alive. You still have time to heal him."

"Really?" Alisha scrambled towards JD, grabbing his arm. "Can you, Josh?"

JD swallowed a lump, meeting his cousin sister's tearful gaze. "I…Lilithmon said that I have the cure," he said, afraid to confirm, "I'll do whatever I can."

He crept closer to Adam as Agumon held Tokomon gently in his paws. He nervously placed his hand over the blistered tattoo, not knowing what to do but doing so by instinct. _God help me, _he thought silently,_ if I have the cure, please let it heal Adam. Please. I've never wanted anything so bad...if I can have only one wish, one wish throughout my entire lifetime, then let it be used to save Adam. He doesn't deserve to die like this. _

He was expecting to see his hands glowing, expecting to see the cursed tattoo gone, but it never happened. Casting a look towards Tokomon, he refused to give up. Agumon was sure that with Tokomon around meant Adam was still alive, and Lilithmon was sure that he had the cure. The curse had rebounded back to her when she tried cursing him again, which had to mean something. He had to have the immunity against the curse – that was the only plausible explanation.

But how was he going to extend that same immunity to Adam?

"Josh…" Agumon's panicked cry caught his attention. Tokomon was glowing before shifting into a small, white blob. "He's Poyomon now – his Fresh form."

"Oh no," whispered JD, growing more frantic. Tokomon reverting to Poyomon was a sign that Adam was slipping away. _What am I going to do? Please show me a way, any way, to heal Adam. I don't want him to die…I'd rather die myself. _His heart skipped a beat at the silent proclamation. He did mean it. _He's like my own brother and I love him…please, if it's the only way, let me take the curse back so that he'd live. Adam doesn't deserve this._

Nothing happened. A tear trickled down his cheek as his failure implicated something that he had dreaded for so long. The curse should have transferred back to him – did this mean that he didn't love Adam as much as Adam had? _No! I do care for him. I do love him. Why isn't this working?__ Adam managed to take the curse on my behalf…why can't I do the same?_

Memories began to flash rapidly in his mind, of their time together. Their previous enmity, ignited on his behalf; their slowly re-forging friendship at the Dark Ocean; the discovery of them being a family after the ordeal with the Puaka Generals. The fun times they had as their bond strengthen to a brotherly one, one that JD had seek out for a long time, and one that Adam had lost. They complimented each other well, like yin and yang, foils of each other due to their opposite natures. He'd thought that he was slowly getting over Adam's apparent death, but now, seeing him dying before him, he realized that he wasn't willing to lose Adam again.

_You coming back alive after these few days is already against all odds that have been stacked against you,_ he thought, tracing the light scar on Adam's right index finger – the result of their blood oath. _It has to mean something. You didn't stay alive all these while just to die again…it has to mean something. I can't bear to lose you again. Kak Lisha can't too. _

Suddenly he stopped, staring at the blood oath scar on Adam's finger, and then at his own. _I have the immunity…it means that it's in my blood…_

His thoughts raced wildly, as something suddenly clicked in his mind. It was like he had finally been able to join all the scattered jigsaw puzzle pieces to see the big picture.

_Everything happened after we made that oath. I began channeling Adam's power, I can combust and teleport stuffs…_

He thought of GranDracmon's voice charm over Aldiyamon, and how frazzled the Terror had been when it was _his_ voice that had recovered Aldiyamon from the effect of the charm.

_I even broke that damned Terror's charm on Aldiyamon. Can it be…? GranDracmon was so sure that his charm was flawless, yet I broke it without any difficulty when everybody else failed to make him see reason. _

_Lilithmon was damned sure that her curse would kill me or anyone who took the curse in my place. Yet, Adam's still alive…She coudn__t be lying; the Persiamon Manny met at that alternate Digital World confirmed that the curse has no other cure.  
_

_I met Adam at that strange white place…when it was clear that I was at the hospital and he was around here, fighting Lucemon, Lilithmon and the Terrors. He took the curse while we were there. _

_I saw Aldiyamon's battle in a series of…psychic images…_

_I heard Adam calling out to me, telepathically, while fighting GranDracmon…_

_These all can't be coincidences,_ he thought, looking at the mark on his finger. _Could it be that all of these are caused by our oath? And if the immunity__'s in my blood..._

He reached for his pocket. _Damn…I don't have my pocketknife. _

His eyes fell on Agumon's sharp claws, and grabbed it before impaling the raptor's sharp claws into the fleshes of all his five right fingers. Agumon yelped in surprise, everyone else gasped, screaming at him to control himself. _Stupid! I'm not committing suicide!_ He thought, before reaching up for Adam's right hand and punctured the same wounds on the fleshes of his fingers. JD then joined his bloodied right fingers with Adam's, while his left was left hovering over Adam's chest. _This has to work! _

"Adam," he said strongly. "I love you, bro. Come back to us. Come back to me, bro. Kak Lisha needs you. Everybody needs you. _I_ need you."

His fingers began to tingle. They stung too, but JD didn't care. Alisha crept beside him, looking at him with tearful curiosity, but did nothing to stop him. He dared to glance at her once, and saw the _hopeful_ look from those familiar gray irises. She trusted him, he realized. He squeezed the blood out of his bleeding fingers.

"JOSH!" Both Jade and Abu protested, when droplets of blood fell on the blistered tattoo.

"No, wait!" Jackie stopped the two men, looking at JD curiously. A look of dawning comprehension graced his face, before he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his cerulean eyes were sparkling with mirth. "Incredible... You two share a bond… a psychic rapport! That's so rare…" He looked around, his voice high anxious. "There's a chance that JD can save Adam!"

"WHAT?" Immediately everyone scrambled closer to them.

"How?" Liu Ying asked. "The curse..."

"Just let he do what he's intending to do," advised Jackie. "He might not be able to explain what he's doing, but I know that deep down he _knows_ what he's doing. Trust him."

Everyone else nodded and watched JD and Adam with anticipation. JD nodded at Jackie, appreciating his confidence on him before he focused on Adam.

"Please, Adam...come back to me," he whispered. A tear dropped on his hand that was joined to Adam...and to his surprise the two hands _glimmered_.

"JD...your hands, they're glowing!" gasped Manny, despite JD was able to see that clearly.

_Can it be?_ He thought, his heart swelling with hope. _Come back to us, bro..._

He saw light orbs emerging from their joined hands, colored crimson and white which gave them a slight pinkish hue, spiraling around Adam from head to toe, slowly and miraculously cleansing the boy from all the dirt, sweat, soot and injuries. His bloodstained shirt became clean white; his jeans lost the dusts and dirt that accumulated from his days of captive. Soft winds caught his dark hair, and they looked like Adam was just fresh out of shower. From dying, Adam now seemed to only be sleeping. JD felt the warmth of life returning to Adam as the orbs converged towards the boy's heart...

A bright flash of light took place and Adam gasped. His eyes fluttered open as the blisters on his chest began to heal. The black cat tattoo faded in a blink of the eye, leaving his chest unmarred as it had been. JD, speechless upon witnessing the _miracle,_ only gazed as the gray orbs searched around him, adjusting to the amount of light that hovered within the mosque. Looking around him, he saw that there was no dry eyes there, human or Digimon.

In Agumon's hand, in swirls of light Poyomon digivolved to Tokomon, and then again to Patamon before opening his eyes. Patamon's awakening erupted a series of joyous cries from the other Digimon.

And finally, the orbs healed the wounds on JD's and Adam's fingers, but left the original blood oath scars on their right index fingers intact before they simmered down to nothingness. Their hands slowly part as Adam got up, JD assisting him quietly, still too numbed to speak.

"Adam?" Alisha said with a quivering voice, looming over her brother's prone form, sounding as if she didn't dare to believe that Adam was alive.

Adam smiled as his eyes met hers. "Kak Lisha, hi…why are you crying?" he asked softly.

Alisha immediately pulled Adam into an embrace, crying with joy and happiness before finally planting a kiss on each of Adam's cheek. "You're alive…thank God I didn't lose you…I was so worried, with all the nightmares I had about you..."

"I love you," said Adam, effectively stopping Alisha's rambling, only to proceed in making her even more tearful out of joy.

Adam smiled again before his eyes met JD's. JD had been too shocked and too enthralled that he was rendered speechless. Alisha, noticing their exchanged gazes, released Adam from her embrace and grabbed JD's hands, thanking him profusely while Adam fondly nodded.

"I knew you'd save me, eventually," said Adam. "All these while, while I was held captive—"

Adam was interrupted however, when JD pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. "I've told you once…don't scare me like that ever again!" He mumbled, referring to the incident after their victory over Gulfmon several months ago. "Scratch that," he said, withdrawing from the hug and gazed at the young boy before him with a mixture of fondness and the desire to frown. "You're never going to listen to me."

"It did work out for the best," said Adam, smiling, but his eyes searched JD's. "I still don't know how all of these happened…I just thought, that day, I was going to perish anyway when the Four Terrors surrounded me, and I wanted to see you one last time so badly that somehow we met. And now..." His eyes fell on their blood oath scars. "Is this how you healed me?"

"I...I'm not sure," he admitted, inclining towards Jackie for assistance. The digital man seemed to know something from the way he told everyone to trust what he was doing earlier.

"You two share a unique psychic rapport," said Jackie, approaching the two boys, two fingers pressed on his temple. "I hope you don't mind me reading your minds, but the discovery I've made from it is staggeringly surprising!"

"Just share what you've found out," said JD, chuckling before messing up Adam's refreshed dark hair, causing Adam to protest halfheartedly.

"It all seems to begin when your psychic powers were awakened. While they grew to be two different kinds of powers they still had the same fundamental base. It instigated a stronger bond between the two of you, but it would have never developed into a strong link if you two didn't make that blood oath. When your blood was joined, so were your powers, and thus a strong, unique psychic rapport was created. JD began having the ability to somehow harness Adam's power, while Adam began picking up on JD's emotions even more strongly than from the others, despite being separated by distance.

"This is further proven when JD became the only person who could snap Aldiyamon out of GranDracmon's voice charm, which apparently could only be broken by this rapport. Furthermore, it is also what that has saved Adam from death, because his mind was still psychically connected to JD's, enabling Adam to survive the curse. In layman' s term, JD had become Adam's anchor for survival. As long as Adam was strong enough physically to withstand the curse, he would live – the rapport gave him a fighting chance to survive. And then, after he was rescued, as we all have witnessed just now, the rapport plus the immunity JD has against the curse, not to mention love, too – a strong driving factor – all these worked together in expelling the curse from Adam without having to resort to another sacrifice. But of course, all of these are just...well, theories. Speculations. I'm not sure just how viable they are, but they're what I've managed to pick up..." Jackie looked around; apparently noticing the blank looks on almost everyone's faces. He smiled sheepishly. "I've lost you all, haven't I?"

Everyone laughed, including JD and Adam. "Ah, no worries, Jackie," said JD easily. "I'm sure we'll figure it all out sometime later. What matters now is that Adam's alive."

Adam nudged JD. "I really have to thank you for forcing me to do that blood oath," he murmured. "You convinced me that it wasn't ridiculous."

"Heh. I did, didn't I?" He playfully messed up Adam's hair again, somewhat amused that the fact that they were always able to return looking neat and straight after he had messed them up. "But you took the curse on my behalf. I'm the one who should be thanking you."

"But you cured me back," argued Adam. "If you didn't figure out how to cure me, I'd be dead by now."

"If you didn't take the curse, I'd never have developed the immunity against it," countered JD. "We both lived because of your bravery, bro. I'd have died if it weren't for you."

Adam frowned, as if trying to think of a way to reply, before Alisha pressed his shoulder gently as well as grabbing JD's at the same time. "How about you boys call it even?" she suggested. "In my eyes, you two saved each other's lives. How does that sound?"

"I think that pretty much summarized the whole thing anyway without getting too technical," Gayathri quipped, resulting in another round of laughter.

"Yeah…" JD nodded, and looked at Adam who smiled back. "How about it?"

"Yeah," nodded Adam.

"Good, now we can celebrate--"

The ground rumbled and a horrifying shriek was heard from outside. It was nothing like they had ever heard before.

"Looks like you've spoken too soon," said Manny, wincing slightly at the shriek's horribly high pitch.

"What was that?" Adam wondered.

"Couldn't be the Four Terrors, we've beaten them all," said JD, craning his neck to see what was going on.

"The Four Terrors beaten?" Adam gasped.

"You missed out a lot," said JD. "Now it's only Lilithmon…and probably SkullSatamon too. And don't look so worried; I saw you, as Aldiyamon, destroying Seraphimon. That's one badass version of Aldiyamon if you ask me."

"You_ saw_? How?" Adam frowned. "You weren't there!"

JD thought about Jackie's explanation, which probably made the most sense because he didn't know what to make out of the psychic images he had received earlier. They were like visions of some sorts, but he wasn't sure. So he tapped his temple and grinned as he tapped Adam's. "Psychic rapport, remember?" His face became serious. "You're ready for action or do you need to lie down a bit to rest?" He cast a look at the other DigiWira, and saw that they were still drained from battle. Adam however, despite having just being brought back to life, looked radiant and rejuvenated. There was something about his cousin that sparked power beyond what he had ever seen.

"I've never felt better," replied Adam, before stopping to consider it. "Maybe once or twice…umm…"

"Okay, so you are better," said JD. "How about we…" He stole a glance towards Alisha, seeking her permission. "Uh…"

"You two look out for each other, that's all I'm going to ask," Alisha said, nodding.

"That goes without saying," said JD, handing out Adam's Digivice to its rightful owner. "I believe this is yours."

"My Digivice!" said Adam, taking it, looking profoundly relieved. "I remembered forcing Patamon inside it and 'ported it to someplace safe before Lilithmon took me away. I'd hoped that you'd find it, and see that Patamon was inside it, and realized that I was still alive."

"It never occurred to me that he was in there all this while," said JD wistfully. "I should've known…"

"How could you have known? As far as we had known then, I'd be dead after midnight," assured Adam. "I just hoped that you'd try calling for Patamon, thinking that I was still alive."

Adam's innocent answer suddenly made JD felt a bit ashamed. He saw Alisha flushing a little, and for a moment was at a loss of how to respond to Adam. Had they really been too quick in thinking that Adam was dead, while Adam had suffered for five days, waiting for them to come to his rescue? How difficult was it really, to call out for Patamon. The Digivices had the ability to store Digimon inside them. Why didn't it ever occur to him that Patamon could actually be inside there? Just because Patamon never called out for him? But then again, Agumon seemed to realize that Patamon was in there…he was the one who'd called Patamon out.

"You're blaming yourself," said Adam slowly. "Please don't."

JD frowned. "How did you…?"

Adam grinned. "Psychic rapport, remember?" He said, mimicking JD's earlier words.

JD was going to retort before another shriek ensued, reminding them of the situation at hand. Adam blinked, before looking up to him.

"It's Lilithmon," he said grimly. "But there's something…different. Kinda like GranDracmon too…"

JD gazed at his cousin briefly, wondering whether Adam's power had evolved to a point where he could determine the source of the emotions he was picking up with his empathic ability, before pushing the thought away. They got a situation in hand.

"Have you seen my Juara Mode?" he asked, jerking up his eyebrows in a provoking sort of way.

"Have _you_ seen_ my_ Burst Mode?" Adam returned, and raised his Digivice up.

_**"Burst Access Digivolution, HAAA!" **_

Adam and Patamon merged, and became Aldiyamon, and then Aldiyamon Juara Mode, before a column of silvery white light enveloped him. Feathers spiraled around the column of light before it siphoned into a white armored figure with ten wings made out of silver-white energy. He was pretty much the same as the Juara Mode form of Aldiyamon, but with one remarkable difference: his hair was once again dark, similar to the angel's Ultimate form and more importantly, to the DigiWira half of him. It was long and sleek, and tied to the back. Much to JD's relief the Heavenstar Gladius materialized within Aldiyamon's right hand, while on his left hand there was a glowing shield that looked so much like the shape of a bird with its wings stretched wide. Completing his transformation, the winged white visor covered the upper half of his face as a white firebird aura shone around him. He then declared his newest form as…

_**Aldiyamon, Burst Mode! **_

"Burst Mode? What kind of a name is _Burst_ Mode?" JD mumbled, making a face as he took out his Digivice. "This is so unfair. I've just gotten my Juara Mode today!"

"_**Juara Access Digivolution, HAAAA!"**_

xxx

xxx

Flying side by side, Aldiyamon and Satriamon saw a huge monstrosity wrecking damage against the buildings around the towers.

"Oh man, check it out," said Satriamon. "An unholy offspring to Lilithmon and GranDracmon!"

"Don't give me any idea," said Aldiyamon, "but that's a good description of that…that thing."

One look at it and they could see Lilithmon's features – her head and upper body was of hers, but her lower body was nothing but a huge blob of purple with dark patches of hair that seemed to be from GranDracmon's body, along with what looked to be the mangled extremities that belonged to the dark centaur jutting out in a random manner from the purple blob. On her back there were her dark sleek wings as well as GranDracmon's bigger pair of wings. The way she moved was clumsy and sluggish; Satriamon couldn't help but comparing this monstrosity to how GranDracmon had been acting before his deletion. They both looked the same. _Looks like she's paying a heavy price for power,_ he noted silently.

Aldiyamon looked at him. Despite masked, it was apparent that he was confused. "How did she get the curse?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Satriamon asked, before suddenly stared at the angelic knight deviously. "Hey…the only way you'd know about that is if you were checking her out!" he teased.

Aldiyamon flushed. "I did not! It's just there, I can't help but notice!"

"Heh, heh, relax there. I'm just messing with ya," Satriamon snickered, feeling all too glad that things were getting back to normal. "She tried to curse me, but it rebounded back to her. I was glad that it happened, because then she told us all about you being alive and that I have the cure. That's how I got the idea on how to heal you." He snorted upon gazing at the monstrosity before them; Lilithmon didn't seem to realize that she had company.

"It seems to me that she's taken more than she could handle," said Aldiyamon. "Something was worrying her, I can't read her mind clearly, but she's absorbed GranDracmon's data and has failed to siphon it perfectly with her own…resulting in this monstrosity."

"Well she did mention of SkullSatamon betraying them," noted Satriamon. "She told us that the reason why Grademon entombed them instead of outright deletion was that SkullSatamon would've gotten their powers if they were deleted."

"You mean…"

"Yeah. SkullSatamon now has the powers from all the Digimon we have deleted. Lilithmon's kinda freaked out too, I think. She thought that SkullSatamon's coming after her."

Aldiyamon's mouth thinned into a line. "That was his plan then," he muttered. "To power me up so that I'd destroy Seraphimon, and he'd get Seraphimon's power."

"Hey, look at the bright side," said Satriamon. "You're now one level higher than any Mega. Earlier today, we were on the losing side. Now, the Terrors are all gone, save for GranDracmon maybe, and we even got you back. This might sound a bit cliché, but seems like the good guys always win in the end."

Lilithmon suddenly rumbled; she had seen them. Her dark eyes focused on them, and a snarl escaped her. She screamed and wordlessly blasted out energy hearts towards them. Aldiyamon extended his glowing shield but Satriamon had unsheathed his saber, eager to take this monstrosity on. He hacked through the hearts, destroying them before advancing towards the monster. Looking back, he knew that by level alone Aldiyamon was more powerful than him, but the big brother nature inside of him couldn't resist a bit of showing off. After all, hadn't he made quick work out of GranDracmon earlier? Maybe he could deal with Lilithmon just as quickly too.

"Watch my back," he requested, and smirked. "And be amazed."

Aldiyamon merely chuckled. "Got it."

He stared towards Lilithmon, who reeled back at the heat he was producing. He called upon his psionic power. "This is for TobuCatmon. _MELANCHOLIC BONE CLAW!"_

He began slashing towards Lilithmon, but the mutated demoness was able to parry his blows easily with a series of crazed energy hearts attack. He caught sight of one hand – apparently Lilithmon's dismembered hand had recovered when she took GranDracmon's data as her own – swiping towards him and slammed his psionic claw towards it.

"Too bad, Lilithmon. Looks like you're gonna lose your new hand too!"

"We'll see about that!" Lilithmon slurred for the first time; her voice sounding like a tape recorder played at a very slow speed.

Their claws slammed, but to his surprise Lilithmon had exuded a powerful force against his claw that it pushed _him _back instead.

"What the hell?" He balked, as his hand was numbed. The psionic claw had vanished without even hurting Lilithmon, whereas it had torn apart GranDracmon's thickset arms without much effort. Something was wrong here. He knew that the Melancholic Bone Claw was powerful, but somehow it barely could injure the mutated demoness.

"Do you need help?" Aldiyamon asked.

"Not yet, I…" He gazed at Aldiyamon, and then realized what was wrong.

_Of course,_ he thought, resisting the urge to laugh out loud. _The Melancholic Bone Claw feeds on my sorrow and sadness. I thought Adam was dead then, I was too damned sad...that's why the claw was so powerful. Now Adam's back with me. I'm not sad at all…the claw's no longer as powerful as it had been. Heh…_

"Look out!" Aldiyamon warned, as Lilithmon delivered another furious swipe towards him. He managed to jump away just in time. "Now do you need help?" Aldiyamon asked him.

"Not yet. Both of us could kill her, which is not what we want," said Satriamon.

"The cure!" Lilithmon suddenly shrieked. "Give me the cure, or suffer the consequences!"

"Hmph. Just _looking_ at you makes me suffer," retorted Satriamon, and Aldiyamon giggled at that. "I've got a better idea."

He soared high, and Lilithmon furiously howled before attempting to follow him. He charged his fist with flames, a fiery dragon glowing about him This time around, his jubilance and elatedness of having his cousin brother with him seemed to charge _this_ attack with more power than it had ever demonstrated before.

_"DRAGON FIST EXPLOSION!"_

A deafening dragon's roar echoed all around the destroyed city as Satriamon loomed towards Lilithmon. Lilithmon retaliated with her _Serpent Shadow Sutra,_ which took the form of a cobra that was ready to strike, but Satriamon sped faster, his right fist extended as red glorious flames licked the black cobra menacingly. The cobra let out a hiss and reeled back before dissipating into data particles, and Satriamon pushed on. His fist slammed against the center of Lilithmon's chest, causing her to stagger back as the flames from Satriamon's fist erupted all around her. However, to his dismay he saw that she was unhurt - a bronze bell barrier glowed about her.

But then, the barrier crackled and was destroyed when a holy-charged sword was impaled upon it. Glancing sideways, Satriamon saw that Aldiyamon had used the Heavenstar Gladius to destroy the barrier. He was momentarily amazed; this meant that Aldiyamon Burst Mode was more powerful than Lilithmon.

The sword then reappeared in the angel's hand. "Thought you might need that," said Aldiyamon.

"Sure did. Thanks!" Satriamon unsheathed his saber and charged it with both fire and dark powers._"DRAGONFORCE SABER!"_

He made a series of rapid slashes, further injuring Lilithmon, but was careful not to delete her. He doubted that as a regular Mega he was able to inflict too much harm on the demoness; having absorbed GranDracmon, Lilithmon would be stronger than any Mega. Aldiyamon Burst Mode was a better match for her, but he was wary that Aldiyamon could actually destroy Lilithmon if push came to shove, and thus opted to fight Lilithmon on his own, employing strategy as well as raw power.

"_FIRESTORM PURIFICATION!"_

He left Lilithmon no chance to strike back. The blast of flames further burned the demoness' blob-body, causing Lilithmon to howl in pain. Then she shrieked and her face craned towards him. Before he knew it she let loose a black hurricane gale from her wide-opened mouth, cackling as he was sent crashing against the park.

"Satriamon!" shouted Aldiyamon. The angel held on his sword to his far right side as white holy bolts danced about the blade of the sword, calling out mightily as he brought the sword to his left side, _"Heavenstar Gladius!"_ His visor flashed with white radiance that blinded Lilithmon for a moment, before he slashed the sword forward. _"FINAL STRIKE!"_

The resulted bladed energy blast made a cut on Lilithmon's body. Lilithmon shrieked as digital liquid poured out from the gash.

"Whoa!" said Satriamon, joining Aldiyamon's side. "That's one badass attack, lil' bro."

"She's strong," replied Aldiyamon grimly. "I really think we should work together to beat her. And…"

"And what?"

"Firestorm_ Purification_?" asked Aldiyamon, clearly indignant. "Copycat!"

Satriamon was about to return a playful retort before Lilithmon let loose another black hurricane gale against both of them. Aldiyamon raised his shield and managed to protect himself, while Satriamon resorted to folding his fiery wings before him, forming some sort of a shield as well. They pressed forward, resisting the foul-smelling hurricane with their saber and sword flaring with flames and light power.

A black energy orb was formed inside Lilithmon's mouth. She shrieked, and the orb exploded into a beam of dark energy that headed towards them.

"Let's cross our swords," he suggested quickly.

Aldiyamon nodded, and the Heavenstar Gladius was crossed with the Dragonforce Saber just as the beam hit the crossing point between the two blades. The blades shimmered with crimson and white before deflecting the dark beam back towards Lilithmon.

"Now let's show her some purification power!" he shouted, when Lilithmon was distracted from the first attack.

"You're on!"

"_FIRESTORM…"_

"_ETERNAL LIGHT…"_

"…_**PURIFICATION!"**_

The two attacks were released simultaneously side-by-side, before crackles of lightning bolts danced around the two attacks as they converged into one fearsome blast of flames and lights, hitting Lilithmon squarely on her face and body. She shrieked as the two attacks burned against her body, before an explosion of light resulted. Satriamon and Aldiyamon immediately stopped, fearing that they had exerted too much power that could have killed Lilithmon.

"Oh, no, where's she?" Satriamon wondered worriedly, when the blobbed Lilithmon had vanished.

Aldiyamon placed two fingers on his temple and began concentrating hard. "She's not deleted yet," he said, pointing towards a direction. "There!"

Satriamon followed Aldiyamon's direction and saw, to his surprise, _Persiamon,_ lying prone over the edge of the park. While still alive, she looked worse for wear, and he noted that her right arm was missing a hand. Slowly the two of them descended down as Persiamon staggered to get up.

"YOU!" She gasped in disbelief, looking at Aldiyamon. "How did you…" She cast a look towards Satriamon. "You do have the cure."

"Guilty," he agreed. "You lose, Persiamon. You couldn't kill me and my bro, and you got cursed instead. Karma bites you back hard." He snickered, enjoying taunting the weakened Virago General whom had caused him so much grief for the past one month.

"Kill me, then!" challenged Persiamon. "What have I got to lose?"

"What, and let your dear Master gain the lasts of the power he needs?" Satriamon asked. "Not a chance. You still have one month. As long as you're alive we still have time to hunt down that bag of bones and wipe him out. And who knows…" He shrugged. "Maybe you'll find someone who'll love you enough to take the curse for you."

"Stop mocking me!" shouted Persiamon, rising to her feet before falling to her knees. "Don't mock me!"

"I'm not mocking you," said Satriamon calmly, casting a look towards Aldiyamon. Realizing that whatever strength Persiamon had with her at present was only enough to sustain her in her Ultimate form, he let go of his power and devolved into his composite selves. Aldiyamon followed suit.

JD gazed towards the weakened general. "Although you nearly killed us both, but at the same time you've made me realize that I have a lot of people around me who actually loved me. You made me appreciate life even more, and you've strengthened the bond Adam and I have. For that, I should thank you."

Persiamon however, had obviously misinterpreted his sincere words. "Damn you, JD! Are you that much of a coward, resorting to taunting me until I meet my end rather than killing me? Huh?" She spat at him, her saliva landing several inches from his feet. She glared at him, pure hatred glazed from her green eyes. "Coward," she hissed.

JD shrugged. "Sorry if you feel that way. I don't feel like fighting you, because we all know that I've won."

"You won with the kitten's help!"

"Exactly," said JD. "I have people watching my back, and I'd do the same to anybody else who needs me to do so. We're never alone, unlike you. You know…I almost feel sorry for you."

"DAMN YOU!" Once again she spat at his feet. It actually landed on his shoes now.

"But then again, maybe I don't," said JD, his voice hardened. "You better go at the deepest corner of the Digital World and hide, Persiamon, if you value what's left of your life."

"Stop pretending that you care!" snapped Persiamon. "If you care so much you'd cure me as you cured him."

JD chuckled as he slung an arm around Adam's shoulder. "That's impossible," he said. "I can't cure you, because I sure as hell don't love you!" From the distance, he saw the others approaching, obviously having seen the battle from afar and knowing that they had beaten the Virago General. "C'mon, Adam, let's go."

xxx

xxx

"Don't you DARE walk away from me!" Persiamon screamed, watching as JD, Adam and their partners met up with the other. They ignored her screams, rejoicing over their victory that day.

She couldn't believe her misfortune. JD was saved from the curse, Adam was healed from the curse, and _she_ instead had been inflicted with the curse. The Blight of Bastet could only be removed, or _healed,_ with a strong love. JD was saved when Adam took the curse on his behalf, and Adam wasn't even killed by the curse. GranDracmon had suggested that it was a deep psychic bond between those two boys that prevented Adam from being killed by the curse, and now the said boy was alive and well, the theory was proven true. JD had the immunity against the curse, and through their bond the immunity was extended to Adam, eradicating the curse.

There was no way that JD would heal her. Despite his kind words she knew that deep inside JD hated her guts. She had caused him to suffer for one long month.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!" She screamed, thumping the grounds angrily. Looking up at the moon that was now emerging from the darkened sky, she was reminded of the times when she actually enjoyed watching the moon, waiting for the full bloom to see JD's demise with her own eyes. Now, all she was feeling was dread as the next full moon would spell her doom. She cursed her ancestor, the one that had created the blight and passed it down to all the next Persiamon lineage.

_"You've gotten your just desserts, Persiamon..."_

_"Now you know how we've felt, Persiamon., when you cursed us with that wretched blight."_

She didn't know how this was possible, but she began seeing apparitions of various Digimon whom she had cursed centuries ago, swirling around her, laughing and mocking at her repeatedly for the irony of her downfall.

_"I've told you that one day you would pay for your evilness!"_

_"How does it feel, to be at the receiving end of your own curse?"_

_"You__re going to die a horrible, painful death, just like us..."_

"STOP!" She shouted angrily. "Don't mock me!"

Clutching her head, she shrieked to cast out the ghostly voices from her mind, but they would not go. They continued tormenting her with their insults and laughs, and from a distance she saw the DigiWira looking at her oddly.

"What is wrong with her?" wondered Liu Ying.

"I don't see anyone mocking her," said Manny.

"I think she is hallucinating," said Jackie.

"Ignore her. She's gone mad..." said JD, looking at her with a frown.

_Fools,_ seethed Persiamon. _Didn__t they see them? They are right here!_

She suddenly felt fatigued and collapsed face-up onto the ground, with no energy left to even retort to the ghostly figures that were circling above her. Let them insult her as much as they wanted, she didn't care. She couldn't bring herself to care anymore.

Suddenly, a thunderous crack was heard from the high heavens and the ghosts vanished, their laughs slowly diminishing. She would have laughed if she wasn't too weak.

The barrier that she and Seraphimon had cast around the city crackled. Waves of flames engulfed the barrier from the outside before it combusted into data.

Her heart nearly stopped. That particular Shield of Waja was created from the combined powers of her and Seraphimon, meaning that it would take a Digimon with a greater power than what Seraphimon and she had to destroy it. Yet there it was, destroyed.

From the heavens a fiery whirlwind descended, landing in between her and the DigiWira. She saw to her horror, a familiar skull head with gleaming red eyes gazing at her. A body formed under the skull, armored in gold and black, with a blaster perched on one arm and a blade of a scythe as the other. He chuckled at her astounded face. She thought there was a hungry look from the way he was staring at her.

"My, my," the Digimon said, "The proud Virago General… reduced and broken. Never thought I would see the day."

"SkullSatamon…"

"Correct, Persiamon, but not quite there," said the demon, sounding so falsely pleasant. "I'm now **Reapermon**."


	79. The Heirs of Grademon, Part I

Going through a path of glowing light, Reapermon saw a speck of light at the end of the line. He chuckled and sped towards it.

It had taken him five days to master the _Gateway_ as described by the Nine Negations Dark Arts left by the Hellion General. He couldn't open a Digiport without a Digivice, but the portal was a good enough substitute. He'd considered learning the other arts – the _Distorting Time and Space_, for instance, would be a good addition to his current power – but decided against it for it would require more time for him. Lucemon, one with a sharp mind, hadn't been able to fully master it despite spending weeks on it – the main reason why he had failed. Hadn't the Hellion General been transported back in time himself, victory would already be theirs.

_No point in rushing,_ he thought, _I have all the time I need after I tie up some loose ends. _

Reapermon had then decided to learn all the arts once he had destroyed the remaining obstacle – the heirs of Grademon. Then, with his powers and the Nine Negations in his hands, he could even beat the Guardian Beasts and take their place as the guardians. He could even destroy Dragomon, the master of the Dark Ocean dimension, and seek control of the Digital World's parallel dimension. And then, he could move forward to take over the fabled Real World.

He flew out from the portal's exit and instantly found himself in the midst of an abandoned city. Not too far ahead was a glowing dome, and around there hovered five Digimon.

_Three Royal Knights, one Ancient Ten and an Angel? _ He thought, smiling to himself. _Perfect. I can actually test my new powers. Omnimon and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode are powerful, both being Class 2s and Royal Knights. Marvelous. _He took note of the other Digimon. _That looks like a variant of Ancient Irismon, and the angel is Dominimon, an Angel just one rank lower than the Celestial Three. And the third Royal Knight, he's only a Golden Armored. _

"Someone's coming!" He heard Omnimon alerting the others. _This Omnimon must be the leader of this pack,_ he assumed. It was obvious from the way the knight regarded the others.

"Who's that?" The variant form of Ancient Irismon asked.

"Obviously a bad guy," answered Imperialdramon instantly.

"Everyone be careful! I sense great powers coming from him." He snorted; Dominimon seemed to have the innate ability to sense other Digimon's power. Like that was going to help him, he thought snidely. _All of them have dual voices…which mean that they're DNA digivolved. _

"You have no business here," he said calmly. "I'm here to tie some loose ends."

"Just who are you?" demanded Omnimon.

_This isn't going to be easy. _"Reapermon," he entertained. "It's no use trying to fight me. You'll find that your powers and mine are greatly disparate. All of you are no Class 3 Mega."

"Class 3 Mega?" Imperialdramon asked. "What the heck is that?"

"I've heard of such classification," said Irismon darkly. "Myotismon's mentioned it to me when I...well I mean _Gatomon…_was in his army. Class 1 is regular Megas such as myself and Dominimon. Class 2 and 3 are levels that are beyond the regular Mega level. Omnimon and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode are Class 2s – Omnimon because you're a fusion of two Megas and Imperialdramon, you're a stronger mode for your Dragon Mode. Imperialdramon Paladin Mode would fit as a Class 3.

"And this Reapermon claims that he's a Class 3. Frankly, I don't think that even the Guardian Beasts have reached that level…" finished the bird-woman.

"An interesting enlightenment," said Reapermon. "Unfortunately I'm not here for lessons in digivolution levels. You all can either step aside…"

"Like we're going to do that!" said Imperialdramon. "You're obviously the DigiWira's enemy."

"They've fought lots of villains this day alone, and two are currently fighting that demoness Lilithmon," said Dominimon, summoning out a blade-shaped beam out of the bracelet on his right wrist. "They have their hands full. _We_ will fight you instead!"

"Just as I've expected," said Reapermon, undeterred. "You just can't help but to meddle on things that aren't your concern. Very well then…"

"He's gonna attack!" cried Rapidmon, as Reapermon's scythe blade glowed scarlet.

"Of course, you silly rabbit. Surely you don't expect a social call? _Skull Whirlwind!"_

He watched with deep satisfaction as a red tornado with glowing skulls and energy blades enveloped the Digimon that were standing in his way. The blades slashed them relentlessly while the skulls let out fireballs that blasted upon their armors, and they couldn't protect themselves well for the whirlwind was hindering their moves. Before long, Rapidmon devolved into a Terriermon, followed soon by Irismon and Dominimon who were reduced to a Gatomon, a Hawkmon, a Patamon and an Armadillomon. Being small and light the devolved Digimon were thrown out of the whirlwind before multicolored beams engulfed them, pulling them away. Imperialdramon and Omnimon in the mean time persevered, their armors smoking.

_"SUPREME CANNON!"_ Omnimon shot an orb of focused energy that wiped out several skulls and energy blades.

_"POSITRON LASER!"_ Imperialdramon followed suit by blasting a violet energy beam from the cannon on his arm.

"It's no use," laughed Reapermon, as the two attacks were sent off course by his flaming hurricane. But then the hurricane itself was nullified, and an explosion of power resulted. "Oh…I might have underestimated you two a little."

"A little, eh?" A blade sprang out from Omnimon's WarGreymon-arm. "You're going to eat your words once I'm through with you. _Transcendent Sword!"_

_"Splendor Blade!"_ Imperialdramon tailed the other Royal Knight close, sword glowing with blue aura.

Reapermon snickered. "I'm in the mood for some dance, as in _Skull Dance!_"

He sped ahead with unimaginable speed, his scythe blade charged with power as he hacked his way past Omnimon – tearing the knight's cape into shreds in the process – as he slammed his blade onto Imperialdramon's thick armor. Using the dragon knight's bigger stature he planted his feet on the knight's body, using it to propel himself towards Omnimon from the back. Extending his cannon arm forward, he called out, _"Serpent Flame Purgatory!"_

Flaming serpents were vomited out from the cannon, two coiled around Omnimon as he turned back rapidly, having three serpents around Imperialdramon. The serpents hissed and began corroding their armors. The knights tried hard to break free but that only made the serpents tightening their grasps around them.

Reapermon laughed. "It's been a while since I have this much fun!"

"Fun time's over, unfortunately." The dragon head that formed Imperialdramon's armor opened its mouth, and a cannon jutted out from it. _"GIGA DEATH!!"_

The serpents around him were instantly pulverized, just as Omnimon's body burned with holy light that repelled the serpents. They quickly pointed their cannons towards Reapermon and blasted two streams of ferocious light towards him. Utilizing the Skull Dance he was able to evade the attacks, but the two knights had advanced upon him with their blades. Omnimon made a slash, releasing a beam of light in its wake that clashed against his scythe blade. Before he could recover from the attack Imperialdramon blasted the Giga Death that sent him crashing against an abandoned skyscraper, his weight causing the building to crumble over him. Yet his armored body had protected him and he flew out from the boulders, setting the fallen building ablaze. The flames rapidly spread towards the other buildings, causing the knights to be alarmed.

"We have to finish this quickly!"

"I'm with you! _POSITRON LASER!"_

"I'm tired of this," said Reapermon and evaded the blast, causing it to streak all the way towards the sky before ending with a firework as a result of Imperialdramon pulling it back. He aimed his cannon towards the two knights and began sending volleys of fireballs infused with dark matter towards the two knights. The fireballs didn't seem to affect Omnimon much – the Royal Knight in white had holy attribute that repelled the fireballs – but they managed to overwhelm Imperialdramon, who relied on strength and endurance alone to resist the fireballs. Realizing that Imperialdramon, despite his bigger stature, was the _weaker_ knight, Reapermon focused his attacks on him first.

"Let's see…how about a souvenir from Seraphimon!" He ceased fire, before joining his hand and blade together, summoning seven dark orbs around him. _"SEVEN HELLS!"_

The dark orbs streaked towards Imperialdramon and blasted upon him one by one at the exact same spot. At the fourth blast Imperialdramon began to glow, the rest were intercepted by Omnimon's blade as Imperialdramon separated into a Veemon and a Wormmon, before they were engulfed by beams of blue and purple that withdrew them from the battle scene.

"Looks like it's just you and me now," Reapermon chuckled, gazing upon Omnimon. "You've seen what happened to your friends. Why don't you just give up?"

"Obviously you haven't fought the Digidestined before," said Omnimon, eyes glinting righteously. "Here's a heads-up: we never give up!"

"Typical," said Reapermon, simply amusing himself as he egged on the Royal Knight. "This isn't even your battle. I'm here only for the DigiWira, not you."

"The DigiWira are our ally; that makes it our battle too!" Baited, Omnimon flew towards him, sword charged with holy power. "Enough talking! Time to say so long!"

_Sucker,_ thought Reapermon gleefully as he infused dark power into his blade while sending dark fireballs to halt Omnimon. The Royal Knight hacked through the fireballs and pointed his cannon in swift motion that Reapermon hadn't anticipated. The crackling energy orb from Omnimon's Supreme Cannon knocked the winds out of him, but aside from chipping off a very small part of his armor he was unhurt. He unleashed the Skull Whirlwind towards Omnimon, once again enveloping him in a flaming tornado before following up with the Seven Hells which further added to the potency of his tornado. Omnimon was blasted from all sides with dark orbs, fireballs and energy blades, and a second wave of the Seven Hells proved to be too much for Omnimon to handle.

"So long," Reapermon said snidely, as Omnimon devolved into an Agumon and a Gabumon. The two Rookies were engulfed in beams of orange and azure that pulled them away to safety.

Gazing through the barrier, he saw the advanced forms of Aldiyamon and Satriamon combining their attacks against Lilithmon, who seemed to have mutated. The attacks devolved Lilithmon back into Persiamon, and the two Wira Digital devolved as well. An exchange of conversation between the JD boy and Persiamon took place before the two DigiWira walked away from Persiamon.

"Fool. Why not take that chance to finish off the Virago General? Looks like I have to destroy her myself."

He aimed his cannon towards the barrier. "And now to destroy this Shield of Waja…_SERPENT FLAME PURGATORY!"_

Instead of fiery serpents all the cannon spewed out were torrents of dark flames which engulfed the whole barrier with one fluid motion. Reapermon followed the attack up with the Skull Whirlwind and the Seven Hells, and the barrier exploded into data particles.

xxx

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_**WIRA DIGITAL: Finale**_

_**Chapter 79 – The Heirs of Grademon, Part I **_

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The DigiWira had gotten a message from the Japanese Digidestined, who had been just outside the barrier. They were alerted of a demonic being defeating their Mega-level partners single-handedly before destroying the barrier. A quick consultation with the Digimon Analyzer, and the DigiWira realized that they were now facing SkullSatamon in his strongest form of Reapermon.

"Bloody hell," swore JD.

Manny frowned, worried. "How are we going to beat him when we can't digivolve?"

"All we have left are Aldiyamon and Satriamon," said Liu Ying. "A Class 2 and a Class 1 Megas. Reapermon had trashed three regular Megas and two Class 2s."

They then saw how Reapermon fixed his attention towards the fallen Virago General first instead of them. Persiamon suddenly looked panicked and attempted scrambling up her feet. However she obviously had been too weakened, for she collapsed onto the ground once again. Nonetheless she got back up on all fours and tried crawling away from him. She fell back onto the ground after four steps, looking desperate to run away, while Reapermon seemed to be taking his sweet time.

"What is he doing?" Dina asked.

"He's reaping what he's sowed," answered Adam.

"No way," said JD. "We can't let him kill Persiamon! He's gonna be at full power if she's dead."

Adam nodded and teleported Persiamon away, but due to his distrust towards the Virago General for the grief she had caused him, he didn't teleport her too far away from Reapermon, yet far enough from Reapermon's reach. A chilling draft ran down his spine when Reapermon turned his skull head to face him. The eyeless sockets gleamed with flames and a hideous smile formed on his skull face, but he said nothing.

An idea crossed his mind. He had yet to explore two techniques in Aldiyamon Burst Mode's arsenal; both were support techniques which could be of help greatly in this time and place. His eyes met his partner's and an unspoken agreement was reached.

_**Burst Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!**_

_**Aldiyamon, Burst Mode!**_

Aldiyamon Burst Mode appeared in a column of bright white light that shone all the way towards the dark night sky. He saw his friends looking at him with wonder, and his cousin brother was reaching for his own Digivice to digivolve. "Wait, Josh," he intoned. "Not yet."

"What do you have in mind?"

"This. _Radiant Salvation._"

Underneath his visor he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. The pillar of light around him burst into a glowing firebird which let out a soulful screech before wrapping its wings around all of them, core and honorary members both. Aldiyamon saw glows coming from their Digivices, and from the Digimon he sensed their energies returning. The Radiant Salvation might not be able to heal, but it was a potent enough rejuvenation technique. Murmurs of excitement ensued as Aldiyamon kept a watchful eye on Reapermon.

"It's time," he said. "Digivolve now, while I'll hold Reapermon off."

He flew forward and took a stance as Reapermon unleashed a fiery tornado that was coming his way. With his enhanced power, he shifted the flaming windstorm towards the abandoned buildings area to buy time for his friends to digivolve. The building crumbled and Aldiyamon winced, but it was the only thing he could do to buy some time.

JD, Manny, Liu Ying and Gayathri raised their Juara Digivices. _**Juara Access Digivolution, HAAAA!!**_

_**Satriamon, Juara Mode!**_

_**Samudramon, Juara Mode!**_

_**Xianamon, Juara Mode!**_

_**Puspamon, Juara Mode!**_

Xianamon stepped up beside Aldiyamon. _"Elegant Barriers!"_

A series of no less than a dozen rectangular barriers materialized before them, shielding them further from Reapermon's incoming attack that looked eerily similar to Seraphimon's Seven Hells. Having fought Seraphimon, Aldiyamon knew how devastating this technique was, especially when with one blow _seven_ of Xianamon's barriers combusted into data; each dark orb had destroyed one Elegant Barrier.

"He's so strong," gasped Xianamon, waving her hands in a sweeping motion again. _"Elegant Barriers!"_

More barriers shielded them from Reapermon, giving time for the honoraries to join the battle.

_**Lalamon warp-digivolve to…Rosemon!**_

_**Muchomon warp-digivolve to…Valkyrimon!**_

_**Gatomon…Salamon…warp DNA-digivolve to….GuardiAngemon!**_

Aldiyamon found himself now flanked by seven Mega Digimon as Reapermon took down several more Elegant Barriers. It was time for his second support technique; one that would boost his friends' endurance level. Liu Ying had mentioned how only Omnimon and Imperialdramon survived Reapermon's first attack, and that was because they were both Class 2 Megas – a level he was now in. He had to do something, and this was when _this_ would come in handy.

Orbs of light coalesced around his left arm and a firebird-shaped shield materialized. Aldiyamon raised the shield towards the sky and called out: _"Deistic Aurora!"_

The shield disintegrated into data which then formed a thin line of silver light over them. It glimmered once before running down upon them, coating them from head to toe with a silvery sheen that glowed about them. Everyone felt a sense of warmth from the sheen.

"Whoa, check it out!" Satriamon said, flicking his hands as he inspected the silver glow. He tried touching it but ended up only jabbing his hands.

"What is this?" Rosemon inquired. "It's amazing…"

"The silver glow you're seeing on your body is the Deistic Aurora, kinda like an additional armor, and it will protect you from receiving the full effect of Reapermon's attacks. But remember that they won't be able protect you completely – Reapermon is extremely powerful, a Class 3 Mega according to Liu Ying," He nodded towards Xianamon, before continuing, "but it's better than nothing. At least all of you now have a Class 2 Mega's level of staying power."

The revelation astounded the others, and they looked at him like he was a Godsend. His cheeks warmed. "Umm…guys?"

Samudramon was the first to response. "You mean we now have the same amount of protection your Burst Mode is giving you?"

Aldiyamon considered the question quickly, for Reapermon had ripped through several barriers that Xianamon had conjured. Xianamon however summoned more of her Elegant Barriers, surrounding them from all sides, thus buying them some time.

"Yes. But remember, while your defense and endurance are raised, your strength remains the same," he cautioned.

"That's good enough!" Satriamon pumped his fist. "Thanks, bro!"

"Wow," said Puspamon appreciatively, inspecting her glowing self. "Silver does go well with pink. Thanks, Aldiyamon!"

Rows of thankful murmurs ensued from the others. Aldiyamon waved them off. "Anytime, guys."

"How long will this shield last?" Xianamon asked.

"As long as I stay digivolved, I think."

The last remaining Elegant Barrier was destroyed by a stream of dark fire, and everyone flew off in different directions to avert Reapermon's attention. GuardiAngemon hovered in the rear to protect the humans that were there. Rosemon and Valkyrimon shot off towards east while Samudramon and Puspamon headed for west, as Satriamon and Xianamon both flew towards Reapermon, initiating the attack while Aldiyamon kept a close watch on the horribly weakened Persiamon.

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"_Serpent Flame Purgatory!"_

Fiery serpents coiled around Satriamon and Xianamon before they were able to summon their attacks. Reapermon streaked past them, inflicting a blow on each Wira Digital before heading towards Aldiyamon. The angel had given his friends a potent protection – the fiery serpents did nothing more than immobilizing Satriamon and Xianamon – and if he was correct, if Aldiyamon was taken down the others would follow soon. He was the source of the protection; it would fall when the evoker was brought down.

"_Eternal Light Purification!"_

Reapermon extended his hand to intercept the attack, and the streams of holy beams began to burn through the dark aura around him. Then he saw Aldiyamon inclining his head slightly for no apparent reason…before realizing what had happened.

"_Ryoukai Mandala!"_

_"Dragonforce Saber!"_

While launching his attack, Aldiyamon had freed his friends from the serpents. A Mandala column trapped Reapermon but he was able to hack his way out from it without difficulty.

He then used the scythe blade to intercept Satriamon's saber, resulting in a deafening clang as the two blades clashed. There was a standstill as both pushed against each other, before he blasted Satriamon with fireballs from the hollow sockets of his eyes. Satriamon was knocked several steps away, but the sheen on his being flashed in a glimmer of silver. The fireballs _combusted_ into data particles, but Reapermon saw that the fireballs had at least exerted some effect on the dragon warrior from the way he clutched his chest. Reapermon smirked.

_They might have the protection from Aldiyamon, but I wonder just how much attack the light shield can take?_ He thought, ready to experiment. _The light shield is a Class 2 Mega level technique, meaning that it probably can withstand several blows from a Class 3. Two or three blows,_ Reapermon thought. _Four, maximum…not more than that._

Satriamon chuckled, but it sounded somewhat forced. "Didn't hurt one bit!"

"Oh, please," retorted Reapermon. "And you're clutching your chest, looking so much in pain…why?"

Satriamon promptly brought his hand down, and Reapermon shrugged. "No matter. If my first attack didn't hurt you that much, maybe this will. _Skull Whirlwind!"_

Satriamon was ready to retaliate with the Firestorm Purification, but an invisible force pushed him down along with a warning: Satriamon, duck! _Kitsune Mahou!"_

The dragon man instantly did as he was told as Xianamon's astral-projected fox streaked over him, howling as it flew inside the fiery tornado. However, the Kitsune Mahou wasn't strong enough to nullify it and ended up being disintegrated into data. He shook his head when the sorceress in gold gasped. _They never learn. _

Reapermon pressed for more power and the tornado began heading towards Satriamon, Xianamon and Aldiyamon, who charged their powers inside their saber, staff and sword. The temperature around them blazed, but just as suddenly a cold draft of air was caught from his back as thunders cracked amidst the sky. Looking up, he saw snow blizzards blown out from ripples of dark clouds that hovered over the sky. He saw Samudramon and Puspamon descending, hands linked.

"_Everlasting Storm!"_

The Skull Whirlwind's potency slowly reduced, but the Everlasting Storm was still no match for the fiery tornado. However, the snowstorm was suddenly boosted by a lesser snowstorm that originated from a figure in white – Valkyrimon – that appeared from the far corner of his right. Now against two cold attacks, the Skull Whirlwind was kept at bay but there was no indication that it was relenting. He chuckled lightly; _Try as they might, they can't beat me. And I don't even have the Virago General's data yet. If I have her power, I wonder how this battle will turn out to be._

"Aldiyamon, NO!" Shouted Satriamon all of a sudden, pulling Reapermon out of his muse. _Hmm…what's he doing? Is he trying to stop my Skull Whirlwind? _

Aldiyamon had teleported inside the fiery tornado, his very being shone with white radiance. The bladed projectiles and fireballs that lambasted against him were repelled by his shining armor as he raised his sword up. The sword let out showers of light orbs that combusted the tornado's fiery projectiles as Aldiyamon strangely began to emit hints of pink and blue lights simultaneously. The angelic knight then spun around in the opposite direction that the tornado was, spewing out what looked like _water_ all over the flames.

_Empathy,_ Reapermon thought uneasily. _Aldiyamon is harnessing the powers from Samudramon and Puspamon. A very intelligent move; Samudramon alone can't repel those flames, but Aldiyamon with water powers at his disposal…_

The Everlasting Storm and the Punishing Storm grew more intense, and Reapermon found himself being taken on by Satriamon, Xianamon and Rosemon all at once. He escaped their onslaught by calling on the Skull Dance, but was struck from the back by holy-charged projectiles that forced him to descend. GuardiAngemon had attacked him from afar, and now he could only rely on his armor as Rosemon slashed her thorny whips on him.

"This is just plain annoying," he muttered and burned Rosemon's whips. The flames fed on the whips, heading towards her rapidly. Rosemon screamed as the flames threatened to burn her arms after disintegrating the whips, but to his dismay the Deistic Aurora that glowed about her blocked her from getting the full effect of the dark flames. Rosemon was now without weapons, but Reapermon wouldn't count her out just yet. She even had the form of a Class 2, but her powers leaned more to Class 1, he thought.

Xianamon let loose another Kitsune Mahou which he managed to intercept, but that left him open to Satriamon's assault.

"_Dragon Fist Explosion!"_

He raised his blade to counter the attack, but the dragon warrior sleekly evaded the blade, connecting his furiously flaring fist on his abdomen. Annoyed of having the winds knocked out of him, Reapermon blasted Satriamon with flaming orbs from his eyes, but to his surprise the orbs froze in midair before being sent back towards him – he could just barely turned sideways as the orbs grazed the side of his horns. Satriamon laughed mockingly as he used that opportune moment to retreat, as Xianamon's energized ribbons made their way towards him.

"_Maiden Finesse – Refined Grace!"_

He barely had time to think as he deftly hacked his blade against the ribbons. His previous battle experience and his power as a Class 3 Mega hadn't prepared him for such _coordinated _attacks from the Wira Digital and their allies. They might lack power but had more than made up for that weakness with their number and what looked like an unspoken understanding they seemed to share with each other. That was proven when he had managed to rip Xianamon's ribbons into shreds of data – that only enabled Rosemon to unleash her seven Tifaret jewels to draw his blade away while Satriamon launched another Dragon Fist Explosion upon his open shoulder. Hadn't the shoulder was securely armored Reapermon had no doubt that it would have fractured. He was forced to summon raw dark power to repel Xianamon and Rosemon, but Satriamon, having the _Dark_ element, managed to resist it.

"Hey, numbskull!" Satriamon charged his right fist with flames, and his left hand glowed with crimson light that took the forms of claws. "Take on this! _DRAGON FIST CLAW EXPLOSION!"_

Gaining momentum, Satriamon slammed his flaring fist and psionic-charged claw right onto Reapermon's chest, and Reapermon found out that the attack truly lived up to its name. An explosion resulted and he was blasted towards the ground. Before he could regain his momentum, Xianamon and Rosemon both added to the insult with their shining fox and energy hearts, further pushing him down. He saw the Skull Whirlwind he had unleashed earlier nullified completely in specks of light, and managed to regain control of his falling self just as Samudramon and Puspamon were about to launch their attacks on him.

_Persiamon,_ he thought. _Her data is all I need to gain perfection of my current form!_

Utilizing his Skull Dance, Reapermon darted through the air towards Persiamon. Realizing that Aldiyamon was his most powerful obstacle, Reapermon launched a full scale assault on him first, beginning with the Seven Hells. The seven dark orbs were teleported and redirected back towards him without much difficulty from the angel, while Reapermon had no choice but to hack the orbs into nothingness before releasing the Skull Whirlwind and the Serpent Flame Purgatory towards Aldiyamon. The fiery serpents coiled tight around Aldiyamon as a flaming tornado erupted around the angel. He smiled as Aldiyamon yelled in pain, before speeding towards Persiamon.

"He's heading for the Virago General!" shouted Valkyrimon.

"Not if I get there first!" Puspamon yelled, and sped towards Reapermon with her super speed.

"Puspamon!" Samudramon shouted in protest, but the sprite had sped off too far to hear him. Valkyrimon, also a Digimon with speed at his disposal, chased after Puspamon and Reapermon.

"Meddling fool!" Reapermon hoisted his cannon towards the glowing sprite but staggered as he was lambasted with a supersonic scream that disoriented him slightly, despite having no ears.

Puspamon sped past Reapermon, but gasped when Reapermon managed to grab hold on her. She struggled to break free; the Deistic Aurora was protecting her from receiving the severest effect of Reapermon's claws but she would need to break free soon, for the claws were slowly penetrating the light protection. Her scream was like music.

Reapermon decided to use Puspamon as a temporary hostage until he'd done what he had intended to do. His enemies were reluctant to attack as long as he had Puspamon to serve as his shield. They wouldn't dare to attack him now. He chuckled triumphantly and slowly descended towards the horror-stricken Persiamon as Aldiyamon still remained trapped inside his flaming tornado, bounded by the snakes; Satriamon attempting to save his cousin but was blasted out from the tornado; Xianamon's Ryoukai Mandala failing to quench the fearsome tornado, as Rosemon stared on helplessly; Samudramon and Valkyrimon both looked ready to pursue him but didn't, out of fear for Puspamon's safety.

He approached Persiamon, before noticing something that he hadn't previously.

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Aldiyamon's body convulsed as his Deistic Aurora was slowly corroded by the flaming serpents and the fiery projectiles from the whirlwind. He had to do something now.

"_Radiant Salvation!"_ He roared, calling out the holy bird of light aura. It was the only method left that he hadn't tried out; his Eternal Light Purification didn't work and he couldn't reach for his sword. The Deistic Aurora was being used and all that was left was the Radiant Salvation.

The holy bird flapped its energy wings upon the snakes, which hissed upon contact but they remained coiled around his body. It tried again but to no avail, but Aldiyamon realized that his pain was lessening, enabling him to concentrate on his power. His power of combustion would need an extra boost, and looking around wildly, he saw Satriamon and Xianamon looking at him from outside the flaming tornado, helpless.

_Maybe not helpless,_ he thought, slowly using his empathic power to summon the powers from his friends. _Satriamon's psionic blast and Xianamon's telekinesis… I better make this count. Using empathy to draw powers from the others is really draining, and I've used Samudramon and Puspamon's powers earlier…_

His body let out a buzz as a dark crimson glow emanated from both his arms. The serpents shrieked as Satriamon's psionic power was channeled into his arms, slowly repelling the serpents off his body. Then he breathed in deeply, focused, and lashed out with his mind – the serpents all were ripped to shreds from his body. _Psionic, telekinesis and combustion, what a deadly combo,_ he thought while letting go of the powers that weren't his before they drained him further. _Now for some pure light demonstration…_

"_ETERNAL LIGHT PURIFICATION!"_

Waves of blazing white light, laced with the power of combustion, enveloped the whole tornado from the inside out, destroying all the skulls and blades that spun within it before slowly the lights seeped out from the tornado. In an explosion of light the tornado was brought down and he was set free.

Aldiyamon heaved a relived breath, but saw that their problem wasn't over yet. Reapermon had taken Puspamon as hostage, using her as a human shield against them. Under his feet was Persiamon, pressed on her back on the ground. The once-proud Virago General squirmed under his clawed feet to no avail. Puspamon however, was kicking and screaming, but Reapermon seemed unfazed.

"If you teleport any of them away, Aldiyamon," Reapermon called out, sneering at him as he pointed towards the mosque. "I'll level the entire city in one blink of the eye. I know that some humans are still around here, hiding. Of course, you can teleport those that you know away from harm, but what of those who you _don't_?" He laughed. "I suggest you don't challenge me on this one. I assure you, destroying this whole city…no, the entire _human world,_ is not a difficult feat to achieve. Not with my Class 3 Mega power!"

Extending his empathic power and what limited power of telepathy that he had all around the city, he realized that Reapermon was right. Somewhere out there, people were still hiding. The city was not totally evacuated, unfortunately, as some people had no place to go. He couldn't risk their lives, but at the same time he couldn't risk Puspamon's too.

"Xianamon, can't you stop time again?" he whispered urgently.

"I've used it once, I can't call on it again," she said, regretful. "But it's no use. Even if I'm able to freeze time again, you will be frozen too. And If I move Puspamon away the slightest bit, the spell will be broken before I can pry her out of his grasp."

"I'll go down there and kick his ass!" snarled Satriamon.

"No!" Samudramon said. "You heard what he said. He'll hurt her if you go down there _and_ destroy the whole city!"

"I can't teleport her out while she's being held like that," said Aldiyamon regretfully. _Actually I probably can…if I'm not too drained. But can I risk it?_

"No, wait," said Samudramon. "Aldiyamon, can you teleport Puspamon's _mask_ away? Only her mask."

"Huh?" He shot the blue-armored dragon man a curious look. It was as if the marine Digimon had heard his thoughts. "Why?"

Samudramon's gaze was fixed on Puspamon as he replied, "Just trust me."

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"Aren't your friends going to save you?"

Puspamon shot him a glare. Reapermon chuckled, while fixing a firm foot on the squirming Persiamon's back. He saw his captive gazing at the Virago General.

"Why are you doing this to her?" she demanded. "She works for you. Why not spare her the misery and just do what you're here for, rather than torturing her like that?"

"I don't think so," said Reapermon. "You see, I'd have deleted her, only reason I still haven't is because of one tiny little problem."

"Let me guess. The curse tattoo?" The fairy spat that out in disgust.

"Right. I'm wary of that tattoo of hers. I know what it causes its victims. Not pretty. I'm sure you know all about it. After all, JD and Adam have suffered from the blight not too long ago." He grinned. "That seems to happen in another lifetime now, does it?"

"So you're torturing her instead?" She winced as a strangled cry came from Persiamon as Reapermon burrowed his feet deeper on the Virago General's back.

"Well, what else can I do? Can't let her out of my sight, lest she got herself killed," he snickered. "It's better that she's here where I can see her."

"I can't believe you. You're actually using your servants to give you power. If only they knew of this, I'm sure they wouldn't have served you!"

He shrugged. "So, it's just my luck that they didn't."

Puspamon's pink mask suddenly vanished in sparkles of light dust. He thought that it was strange for Aldiyamon to just teleport the mask away, and wondered whether it was because he had his claws fixated around the fairy too tightly for the angel to teleport her away. He saw Puspamon looking somewhat surprised too, before her eyes glimmered with pink lights...which he found somewhat irresistible. He couldn't tear his gaze away from those alluring eyes.

The surrounding suddenly swam.

xxx

xxx

"It's working," said Samudramon.

"What's going on?" Aldiyamon looked at his fellow Wira curiously, Puspamon's mask in his hand. Empathically, he had sensed some sort of disturbance from Reapermon's mind.

"She's initiating the Fatal Attraction. It's a hypnotic technique. It was how we managed to beat Belialvamdemon." Samudramon sighed. "Too bad Puspamon needs to be free for this attack to work; those who fell under her power would mimic her every move. She can't tell them to do what she wants." He made a face, as if recalling an unpleasant memory. "It isn't pretty," he mumbled, shuddering.

Aldiyamon glanced towards Xianamon. "Can you lessen Reapermon's hold on Puspamon, now that he's being mind controlled by Puspamon?"

"I can try." Xianamon was silent for a moment, concentrating, before letting out a grunt. "I can't. His grasp is too tight. It's like trying to move a building with my mind."

"How about moving the hand's that holding Puspamon away from his body then?" Satriamon thumped his right fist into his left palm. "Then I'll go down there and rip that arm apart while he's spellbound. If I'm lucky I might be able to land a punch or two on that creep."

Xianamon nodded wordlessly. She seemed to have trouble doing what Satriamon had suggested, but slowly she was able to move Reapermon's hand away from the body, giving Satriamon a clear shot of what he was intending to do. "That's the best I can do," she said.

"Good enough. Hold him that way so that Puspamon's not gonna get hurt."

"Alright."

The fleeting look Xianamon threw him suggested amusement, Aldiyamon thought, smiling. _Must be the way he's giving out instructions, like he's the leader._

"Are you sure about this, Satriamon?" asked Samudramon.

"He's out there, practically inviting to be ripped apart." Satriamon's right fist flared as his left hand morphed into crimson energy claw. His whole body burst with radiant flames with spirals of crimson bolts spiraling around him. "Aldiyamon…the usual? Watch my back?"

_And now he's instructing me around too._ _Maybe it's not a bad idea..._ "Sure. Good luck."

"Thanks." A dragon apparition shone about Satriamon as he shot down towards Reapermon with lightning speed, roaring, _"DRAGON FIST CLAW EXPLOSION!"_

It was then that Aldiyamon suddenly picked up a sign of Reapermon regaining control of his mind. "SATRIAMON! Watch out!" He tried teleporting Satriamon back, but the dragon man was launched down like a raging meteorite that his light orbs were actually _repelled_ by the flames and psionic bolts that erupted about Satriamon.

"Ah!" Xianamon was thrown back several feet away before Samudramon grabbed her hand. "I lost my hold…"

They saw Reapermon violently shook Puspamon like a rag doll, angry of being controlled. Upon seeing Satriamon approaching, to everyone's horror he used Puspamon as a human shield and cackled maniacally. She was right there in between Satriamon and Reapermon. Satriamon tried in vain to stop, and Xianamon attempted to halt him telekinetically but failed. She tried erecting several Elegant Barriers but even those barriers were ripped by the powerful attack.

"PUSPAMON! NO!!" Samudramon shouted, ready to let out a blast of water that would hopefully quench the flames, before an unexpected turn of event took place.

Puspamon was suddenly wrapped by energy ribbons coming from under Reapermon's foot. A bright spark of scarlet light took place and they gasped upon seeing _Persiamon_ in place of Puspamon, within Reapermon's grasp. They then heard a sickening sound of ripping flesh.

Red intense light obscured the atmosphere.

xxx

xxx

"You lose, _Master._"

The red light subsided. Persiamon giggled as she looked down at the claw and fist impaled into her body. Satriamon stared at her with shock, immediately pulling back his claw and fist, wanting to curse the Virago General for letting herself be killed, before noticing Reapermon's shocked face as well. Puspamon, now firmly planted on the ground, screamed and wiggled.

"Persiamon…?" He finally choked in disbelief. "Why?"

"This is revenge, for all the fallen generals," Persiamon told him, giggling wistfully. Her data constitution beginning to distort. "My data, my _cursed_ data, will be absorbed by him. The more he exerts himself the horrible the pain is. I'm sure you know that only too well."

Strangely, gone were the snide and crude remarks that usually were directed his way. She didn't even sound spiteful as she usually would. Satriamon wasn't sure whether he was hearing it right, but he thought that a faint hint of despair was somewhere there too as her giggles turned to a horrible scream. Before his eyes, she combusted into data. Her crimson data swirled around Reapermon, who backed away immediately, unwittingly freeing Puspamon.

"C'mon, let's get you up quick." He bent down to help her up.

"She's saved me…" Puspamon's mask returned, obscuring her tearful eyes. "I…" She was rendered speechless.

They watched what was taking place with fascination. Reapermon swatted the data away like trying to get rid of horrible flies, but the crimson data persisted in their attempts to merge with the demon, and finally they did. The demon screamed in fury as blood red aura coated him, and on the armor over his chest a black cat tattoo materialized.

Puspamon gasped. "The tattoo…"

"Yeah, and he sure looks pissed," Satriamon said, grabbing Puspamon's wrist. "We better regroup with the others fast."

Puspamon nodded. Both of them flapped their wings and soared towards the sky as quickly as they could.

Behind them, Reapermon howled. Satriamon sensed intense heat coming from his back, and chanced a glance across his shoulder. Furious series of flaming typhoons were sent out all around the area, one of them gaining on him and Puspamon. Nothing he could do would be able to stop the hurricane, and with that in mind he and Puspamon sped off towards the others.

xxx

xxx

"_Grand Wave Tsunami!"_

To aid Satriamon and Puspamon's escape, Samudramon unleashed his most potent water technique to stop the incoming Skull Whirlwind. Above him, Valkyrimon followed suit with his Punishing Storm. Xianamon raised the defense by conjuring ten Elegant Barriers behind Satriamon and Puspamon, keeping the tornado at bay momentarily.

"That was too close!" said Satriamon, relieved, smiling slightly when Puspamon hugged Xianamon. "Thanks, everyone."

Aldiyamon approached Satriamon. "What happened? Did Persiamon really…?"

"Yeah. Unbelievable, right?" Satriamon looked at Puspamon, who was now embracing a very still Samudramon. "She's saved her, that's for sure, using the same method she pulled on you back when we met her for the first time. That changing-target technique."

"I remember. But why did she do that?"

"Reapermon didn't want Persiamon killed because she was cursed," said Puspamon, pulling back from Samudramon. "He told me that. Persiamon must have heard him. But I didn't expect her actually saving me, sacrificing her own life…"

"Probably because she knew she was doomed to die anyway," said Aldiyamon. "Or because she wanted to spite Reapermon by making him have the curse. That's a lot like her."

"Maybe, but I don't know, bro. There's something about the way she spoke to me before she got blown up," said Satriamon wistfully. "I've always thought that I'd be glad to finish her off, but I didn't feel that when she combusted before me. It's odd. I should be thrilled. I should…she nearly killed us." Satriamon stopped, grunting. "Damn it, it's so confusing."

Aldiyamon frowned, but he was saved from having to think of what Persiamon's motive really was when the last of the Elegant Barriers was destroyed by Reapermon's incoming tornado. Instantly they all blasted their strongest attacks towards the tornado, successfully pushing it away. At the same time, the other tornadoes had caught on the buildings around the park, blowing them apart, sending showers of destroyed boulders like rain. He focused on those boulders, teleporting them so that they'd rain only over Reapermon instead of all of them.

That only made Reapermon angrier as he leaped to the air, alternately evading and striking the boulders until he hovered at the same level where all of them were.

"Remember, he's cursed. Prolonged battle will cause him pain," said Satriamon, out of experience. "We can use that to our advantage."

"But we have to finish him off quickly," said Xianamon, gesturing around her. "Just look at the amount of destruction he'd caused this place."

"I'm all for that," returned the dragon man, nudging Aldiyamon. "C'mon. Let's attack him together with our purification power."

"Let's all go together," said Aldiyamon. "Against Reapermon, we're not gonna take any chances."

So they went, and the warrior cousins initiated the first move with the Eternal Light and Firestorm Purifications. They were joined by the Ryoukai Mandala, the Zeus Ex Thunderstrike and the Dahlstar Sunset Pink, all five attacks coalescing against each other, pushing back the Serpent Flame Purgatory sent by Reapermon. The double Purifications hit the demon squarely on his chest, while the Ryoukai Mandala consumed the other two attacks inside the Mandala column it generated, combining them to its own power. Reapermon broke free from the column, but was blasted by Rosemon and Valkyrimon, and a beam of light hit him squarely from the back courtesy of GuardiAngemon.

"Dirty trick, ganging up against me," snarled Reapermon, and all caught the labored breath the demon took.

"Against you, nothing's dirty," retorted Satriamon, fist flaring. "I thought you're so confident that you'd outclass all of us?"

"Why don't you fight me one-on-one then, see who's stronger?"

Aldiyamon thought that Reapermon was obviously taunting Satriamon, figuring that with his temper Satriamon would be the first to get baited.

Satriamon snorted. "Nice try, but I won't fall for that one, numbskull. Besides we _are_ fighting one-on-one; we Wira all fight as one, you're the one who chose to be _alone_. Sucks to be you."

Aldiyamon and Xianamon shared a look, surprised at Satriamon's comment. The dragon man was usually the most explosive, one who'd charge first and think later, but what he'd just said to Reapermon spoke volumes of how much he had matured. Aldiyamon was willing to bet that Xianamon wouldn't have any qualm should Satriamon received the torch of leadership – he knew he wouldn't. Of course, they would have to speak about this soon.

"Fine then," said Reapermon, annoyed. _"SEVEN HELLS!"_

Aldiyamon sighed and willed his power to redirect the seven dark orbs back towards Reapermon, but he didn't count on Reapermon streaking at fast pace against them with the Skull Dance and let loose the Seven Hells as he reached before each of them. There was no use teleporting away the attacks for Reapermon was relentless in unleashing the Seven Hells. Rosemon and Valkyrimon were taken out first, the Deistic Aurora protection wore off after only the third attack and they would have been hit if Aldiyamon wasn't quick enough to teleport them towards GuardiAngemon.

Reapermon then redirected his sights on the five Wira Digital. He applied the same strategy and slowly they were blasted from many sides all at once. Aldiyamon was able to evade the attacks but the orbs came in rapid pace – it was like having to deal with a hundred dark orbs and he had not the concentration to teleport or combust them all. What orb he didn't manage to avoid, he hacked with his sword. Similarly Satriamon too used his saber and glowing psionic claw to parry the orbs, and Xianamon had the advantage of her telekinesis and barriers to avoid being hit.

Samudramon used lightning to destroy the orbs, and Puspamon the winds, but soon the orbs grew too fast for them to handle. Gleefully Reapermon blasted them with three rows of Seven Hells, effectively nullifying the Deistic Aurora that was protecting them. He then let loose the Skull Whirlwind on them, fireballs and energy blades lambasting on them all at once.

"Hang on!" Aldiyamon cried, trying to focus his teleportation.

"Worry about yourself!" Reapermon pointed his cannon. Suddenly he gasped and bent down, his breaths labored and his fingers dancing on his chest armor.

It dawned to the remaining three Wira that the Blight of Bastet was inflicting pain on Reapermon. He coughed, spewing fiery streams as he did so. Then he looked up, staring at them with those eyeless sockets that flared with flaming orbs within them. He was about to shoot when the pain struck him once again. He coughed violently.

"Now's our chance!" said Xianamon. _"Ryoukai Mandala!"_

"_Dragonforce Saber!"_

"_Heavenstar Gladius, Final Strike!"_

The three attacks caused an explosion as they hit Reapermon. But then, Reapermon streaked towards them and slashed against Xianamon and Satriamon repeatedly until the Deistic Aurora gave way. At that exact same time the flaming tornado ceased and Puspamon and Samudramon were thrown onto the ground, weakened.

Aldiyamon couldn't believe it – everyone except him had been beaten. His heart pumped wildly as Reapermon snickered, still holding on to his chest.

"Now this is more like it," he rasped, coughing out flaming blood. "One-on-one."

Aldiyamon energized his sword and attempted to slash Reapermon, but it clashed against the demon's blade. They pushed against each other before a sharp blow was struck on his belly; Reapermon had gutted him. Then a sharp lash sent him back flying – the blade was slashed onto his armor. The Deistic Aurora began to give out, and a wave of Seven Hells ended the holy light armor's protection on him after three blows from the dark orbs. He was able to just teleport away towards the ground before the remaining four orbs struck.

He reappeared amongst his injured friends. GuardiAngemon was using his healing charm to alleviate their injuries – everyone was considerably hurt. Other than GuardiAngemon, everybody else was no longer protected by the Deistic Aurora.

Aldiyamon tried calling out the Radiant Salvation, but he was no longer as powerful as he was before. His power was depleting fast. Glows on his armor warned him that he would regress to Juara Mode soon.

At that same moment, Reapermon loomed upon them, laughing. Dark orbs spiraled around him, flames danced inside his eye sockets and all around him. The air current picked up, the temperature elevated in an alarming rate as around the looming Reapermon dark red aura pulsed.

"We've got to give everything we've got," whispered Aldiyamon, not realizing that he had spoken out loud until everyone gazed at him.

"What do you have in mind?" Satriamon asked.

Aldiyamon revised the plan quickly. Could it work? There was no way to know. But separately, they were severely weakened. One-on-one, they'd be devolved by any blow Reapermon sent their way. This was the only way. He had to use his power while he was still strong enough to do so.

"Link up. I'll use my empathy to combine all our remaining powers together to create a force strong enough to defeat Reapermon. This is the only way. Quickly."

The rest acted in fluid motion. Satriamon and Xianamon pressed one palm each on his back, and he heard Puspamon and Samudramon following suit by pressing their palms on Xianamon's and Satriamon's backs respectively. Rosemon and Valkyrimon mirrored their actions, before finally GuardiAngemon closed the chain by pressing one palm on Rosemon and the other on Valkyrimon, forming an octagonal pattern. Each began to glow in their signature color.

Aldiyamon began receiving their powers as he formed the Eternal Light Purification. The five Wira Digital glowed with their respective signature beings – the phoenix, the dragon, the nine-tailed fox, the merman and the sprite – while the three honoraries simply emitted ripples of white aura. Then there was a rainbow of energy coalescing from each of them as their powers channeled towards his glowing self. He sensed the power in his attack increasing drastically.

_No,_ he thought. _This is no longer my attack. This is formed by everyone's powers. This is OUR attack._

He looked up; Reapermon was about to unleash all he'd got towards them. "Everyone, get ready."

Reapermon screamed, _"SEVEN HELLS! SERPENT FLAME PURGATORY! SKULL WHIRLWIND!!"_

The Wira Digital retaliated by unleashing an explosive force in streaks of their signature mythological beings, coalescing with white radiances, before all of them merged into a stream of heavenly white energy that met Reapermon's attack halfway. Reapermon continued forcing his attack down while the Wira Digital pushed their combined forces up with every ounce of energy they were able to muster.

"_**OMEGA PURIFICATION!"**_

xxx

xxx

The smoke began to subside. The collision of their attacks had been so great that the entire park was clouded with smoke and dust from the resulted explosion. For a few seconds everything was quiet, which was unnerving because there was no confirmation that Reapermon had been beaten with their combined powers.

All of them had been pushed back, and they were now getting back up on their feet. Then they realized that something was amiss.

"Oh, man, no! We've dedigivolved!"

Everyone had devolved; the Wira Digital were back as DigiWira and their Rookie partners, and the honoraries had all regressed to their Rookie forms. They heard crackles of electricity coming from their Juara Digivices and took them out. They gasped as the electricity jolted their hands, forcing them to let go.

The five Juara Digivices bounced once over the grassy field and released the five DigiSpheres before they cracked; a dark fissure had formed starting from the top, going down along the screen all the way to the part with the buttons. Faint smoke rose from the fissures. The Juara Digivices didn't crack into half, but the cracks had rendered them damaged beyond repair. Buzzes of electricity that they let out began to simmer down.

"Our Juara Digivices," whispered Gayathri, her voice shaking as she picked up hers. "They're broken."

Manny sighed as he stared at his broken Juara Digivice. Then he placed a hand in his pocket, and took out Debbie's D4 Digivice, which was still in perfect condition. His eyes gazed at Penguinmon's first, then towards Opie, now Muchomon. The two Rookies trotted towards him, eyes identically sharing his pain.

Adam felt a sting in his eyes, remembering how he had gotten them in the first place. He felt a pang of realization in his heart; without the Digivices their partners could not digivolve. He inspected the White DigiSphere – it looked to be in the same condition as how it usually had been. He still could feel his powers within him. A hand on his shoulder, and his eyes met JD's – those blue-green eyes seemed to ask him whether he was alright. When he nodded, the older teen guided him towards Liu Ying, who looked lost as she gazed down at her broken Digivice.

"Did we beat Reapermon?" Liu Ying wondered.

"I don't see him anywhere," said JD, squinting against the smoke. "I hope so."

"We've used all the powers we had," said Adam, his breathing labored. There was a chilling dread he couldn't shake off. "Our Digivices broke because we've exerted all of our Mega level powers. It was too much for the Juara Digivices to bear. The same thing happened when Patamon and I became Aldiyamon Fury Mode."

"So...we've won?"

It did look like they had won, but Adam was still bothered by the chill he was feeling. His empathy power had picked up a dark vibe. "I..."

The Digimon suddenly let out soft snarls, their furs and feathers stood on the ends. The DigiWira were surprised to see how _feral_ their partners looked, from the way their eyes almost went to slits and their shaking bodies. They looked fearful as well as angry at the same time.

"Someone's coming!" Labramon alerted, just as a dark chuckle slowly rose in tempo within the smoke.

Adam's face turned chalk white. "That sounds like…"

A humanoid form became more apparent from the smoke: hulking, skeletal, with red glows as eyes.

"SKULLSATAMON!"

"You never cease to surprise me," said SkullSatamon. "That was truly a Class 3 level attack at its pinnacle of power. Yet what good did that do you? You've paid a heavy price for using such power, while I am still in my Ultimate form. I still have some power left, while you have exhausted your resources. The odds are still in my favor, unlucky for you."

SkullSatamon's hollow eye sockets flared. "It all ends here, DigiWira."

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

_Imperialdramon Fighter Mode and Rapidmon are not Royal Knights, but I put them as so in this chapter to shorten Reapermon's assessment of his foes in the pre-introduction scene. Besides they look like knights to me, even though they aren't Royal Knights.  
_

_Wira Digital to be concluded on: The Heirs of Grademon, Part II. Stay tuned. _


	80. The Heirs of Grademon, Part II

_**WIRA DIGITAL: Finale**_

_**Chapter 80 – The Heirs of Grademon, Part II **_

xxx

SkullSatamon advanced towards them, laughing. "It all ends here, DigiWira. You've lost your powers while I remain an Ultimate. All of you are really at my mercy." He declared that with arrogance, and it wasn't misplaced – he had indeed won. He swung his staff; the orb perched on top of the staff glinted ominously. "And I have no mercy."

The ominous threat disturbed the DigiWira, but they kept a brave front.

"We may have lost our digivolution powers," said Adam, hands glowing with light orbs as they all got up. "But we _still_ have our powers!"

"Yeah, that's right," said JD, clapping Adam's back before glaring towards SkullSatamon. "We can still fight!"

Similarly, JD's began flaring with flames and crackling psionic bolts. Liu Ying's hands glimmered with sparkling golden stars, Gayathri's emitted soft pink strands of wind that spiraled around her body while Manny's gurgled with pure water and concentrated thunderbolts.

"This is going to be interesting," snorted SkullSatamon contemptuously, "Five measly human adolescents against me? An Ultimate Digimon, whose power is at the pinnacle of the Ultimate level? An Ultimate, who has beaten Megas before? Don't make me laugh. Even Grademon had difficulties in battling me, and he too had been a powerful Ultimate. Despite still having your powers, you can't even _hope_ to beat me."

"If you think we care with all those facts, you're wasting your stinking breath," retorted JD.

Adam glanced across his shoulder to assess their partners' conditions. As their eyes met, Patamon glowed and digivolved into Centarumon, while the others remained as Rookies. Nonetheless they were all as determined as their partners. Adam wondered how long the Rookies would be able to stand up against an Ultimate such as SkullSatamon. With their special powers, granted by their DigiSpheres, the DigiWira were only on par with average Champions.

"We're ready," said Centarumon.

"_All_ of us," added Labramon, as the other Rookies nodded. All had their eyes set for the incoming battle.

They had reached this far; battling SkullSatamon was the only thing they could do now. They had successfully stripped SkullSatamon off his Class 3 Mega level, and that was already an accomplishment, despite losing their Wira forms in the process. They still had their powers – they had to make the most out of it.

SkullSatamon sneered. "Very well. We'll see how much good your powers do you."

To the DigiWira's alarm SkullSatamon faded into an afterimage as the real SkullSatamon appeared before Adam, suspended in the air with his staff brought up high, ready to strike. The orb on the staff glowed – he would not survive the blow.

"ADAM!" Centarumon aimed his cannon. _"HUNTING CANNON!"_

SkullSatamon snorted and slapped the bolt of light away, but the attack gave time for Adam to teleport to safety. Undaunted, the demon then charged towards the other four DigiWira, swinging his staff in frenzy. He was blasted halfway by a torrent of flames and streaks of thunderbolt from JD and Manny, but the two attacks did little to really stop him for long. SkullSatamon flexed his skeletal body inward before pushing back the attacks against the two boys, knocking them off their feet and sending them flying.

"Have a nice flight," the demon said callously.

"JD! Manny! Hang on!"

Liu Ying extended her hands forward and the two boys were suspended in midair. She lowered her hands and the boys descended slowly, but gasped when SkullSatamon made his way towards her. She was forced to let go of the boys – they landed with a thud – to raise a telekinetic barrier. It was conjured just in time as SkullSatamon's staff connected with it. The barrier crackled before deflecting a portion of the blow back towards him, while the other half sent Liu Ying, JD and Manny rolling over the ground.

Seeing their partners in danger, the Rookies charged to prevent SkullSatamon from harming their partners. Agumon let out fireballs that bounced away from SkullSatamon harmlessly. Penguinmon and Muchomon both soared towards the demon master, unleashing their Endless Slaps, but they were slapped away instead. Labramon let out a spiraling wave of energy out of her mouth alongside a howl, her move mirrored by Salamon who had the same attack. Floramon and Lalamon targeted pollens and seeds onto the demon's eye sockets, while Gatomon attempted to use her hypnotic power on the demon.

"Wretched fools!" A burst of dark aura was let out from his body and all the Rookies were sent flying. A second later, volleys of energy orbs hit him from behind. SkullSatamon turned.

Centarumon loaded his cannon, staring at him coldly. "Bullying Rookies? How about taking on someone your own size?"

"Since you asked so nicely…" SkullSatamon streaked towards Centarumon and Adam. "I'm inclined to oblige."

"Now, Adam!"

Adam extended his arms heavenward and showers of light came from the dark night sky. From the lights, boulders rained upon SkullSatamon as the piles of destroyed buildings around the park slowly vanished in swirls of light – Adam was teleporting the ruins of the destroyed buildings onto SkullSatamon! Unlike his fellow DigiWira he had no means of _blasting_ his enemies outright and had to rely on strategy, and SkullSatamon wasn't allowing him time to use his combustion power – he had to rely on basic teleportation power which he had mastered.

SkullSatamon laughed and swung his staff with rapid ease, deftly destroying or deflecting the boulders away, much to Adam's dismay.

"This isn't working," he grunted.

"No Adam, continue doing that!" shouted Liu Ying. "I have an idea."

Adam nodded and did as his fellow DigiWira had wished. He then saw the boulders hung in stasis, before moving in a manner that suggested them as having minds of their own. From the corner of his eyes he saw Liu Ying's arms flailing, as if she was dancing. The boulders orbited SkullSatamon before simultaneously crushing upon him from multiple directions. The demon staggered_._

"Neat," said JD, impressed. "Now's my turn!" He charged up his psionic power into his right fist and slammed it onto the ground. From the fist the power was channeled in one straight line towards where SkullSatamon was standing, digging a trench along the way, before bursting with energy which caused SkullSatamon losing his balance. "How do you like that, numbskull?"

"Now's my chance!" Gayathri zipped towards the staggering demon, utilizing her super-speed to circle around SkullSatamon over and over again. All the while, the pink strands that she released with her run intensified until the winds began to pick up around the demon, akin to a mild tornado. The pink tornado engulfed SkullSatamon as Gayathri retreated, raising him from the ground.

SkullSatamon roared and tore the hurricane strands into pink dusts. "Admirable attempt, but…" He leaped towards Gayathri.

Not relenting, Gayathri released her supersonic scream that halted the demon in midair. That gave her the chance to retreat to safety.

SkullSatamon shook off the scream. "Interesting battle exercises," he said, spinning his staff. "Let's take it up a notch!"

"What's he trying to do?" Gayathri wondered, watching as the spinning staff began to glow with dark aura.

Manny's eyes widened when SkullSatamon sent the spinning staff flying towards the Petronas Twin Towers. He trailed the direction it was taking. "He's gonna destroy the bridge!"

The spinning staff crashed against the supports that held the sky bridge between the two towers. The bridge began to lose hold as they slipped against the two buildings. Horrible creaks and whines echoed before the bridge bent over from the twin towers. Then it started to fall, looming over the shopping complex that was built at the base in between the two towers.

SkullSatamon zipped away, appearing right under the falling bridge, supporting it as he descended towards the ground. For one who lacked muscle mass, SkullSatamon's strength was a surprise to all DigiWira – and he knew it too. He cocked his head towards Adam, cackled, before unleashing dark fireballs from the sockets of his eyes, forcing Adam to teleport away. At that same exact moment, he threw the bridge all the way towards not the DigiWira, but the honorary DigiWira and JD's siblings who had no special powers.

"Oh no!" shrieked Gayathri. "Everyone! RUN!!"

It was no use. The bridge's massive structure would easily crush any of them despite how far they managed to run. Its shadow engulfed them; shaking them right through the core and making their knees go weak. They stumbled on the grounds and stared up at the looming bridge with fear.

"ADAM!" shouted Alisha fearfully. Her eyes searched wildly for her brother, knowing that only he could teleport them away to safety. "HELP!"

_Kak Lisha...! _Upon his name being called, Adam reappeared, but SkullSatamon continued to overwhelm him with fireballs, disrupting Adam's concentration so that he wouldn't be able to use his teleportation power to disrupt the bridge or to teleport other people away. Teleporting himself was second nature, but to teleport others required him to concentrate – and SkullSatamon knew that too. Several fireballs nearly grazed him – one actually caught his shirt on the shoulder before it was repelled by the light orbs Adam unleashed upon his retreat.

"Help yourself before you even think of helping others, boy!" SkullSatamon tossed more fireballs towards Adam when he reappeared, forcing Adam to vanish once again.

Liu Ying screamed and extended her hands, calling desperately for her telekinesis to halt the bridge's descent. She fell to her knees instantly, her body shaking as the bridge's descent was slowed. It hung merely ten meters away from the honoraries and allies, and despite being suspended telekinetically gravity became Liu Ying's worst enemy as it negated her power by slowly pulling the bridge closer to its victims.

Liu Ying pressed her hands on her temples. Her face contorted in pain. "It's too heavy!"

"Hang on! I'll help!" From within the bridge's shadow, Jackie assisted Liu Ying with his own telekinesis, but he could only halt the bridge's descent momentarily. It was too large and heavy for him and Liu Ying to shift away.

"Gayathri! Use your wind power," urged Manny. "Maybe you can help Liu Ying and Jackie push it away."

"I'm on it." Gayathri whispered for the winds and a gale formed around the bridge. She gasped; the bridge was too _rigid_ for her to push away with the winds. Liu Ying's and Jackie's telekinesis were holding it in stasis; she couldn't use her wind power to push it away as that would only nullify what Liu Ying and Jackie were trying to do. Thus she was forced to change the current, making them pushing upwards so that it would further support the bridge. After several seconds, she staggered and fell to her knees as well.

"Gayathri!!" Floramon exclaimed in worry.

"I'm alright," grunted Gayathri. She took a deep breath and willed out everything she had to stop the bridge's descent. Her wind power worked in suspending the bridge completely, but not without straining her to her limit.

JD and Manny ran towards the suspended bridge and tried thrusting their hands through the wind current. The wind shoved their hands away – it was too strong. In the meantime there was no way for their trapped allies to escape as well – Jade tried pushing his way through the current but was knocked away back into the shadows.

"Gayathri, you have to withdraw your power!" said Manny, alarmed. "They can't escape with the winds propelling the bridge up and…" He stopped, noticing that the bridge was slowly descending, despite having telekinesis and wind power to hold it in place.

"But if I let go…" Blood trickled down Gayathri's right nostril, a sign of power strain.

"What should we do..." Manny whispered.

JD, swearing under his breaths as he shifted his gazes between Adam and Centarumon – both were overwhelmed by SkullSatamon's rapid fireballs – and his siblings and friends who were trapped under the looming bridge. His fist flared, fueled by his anger. "I can punch the bridge away."

"No, you might destroy it to pieces," stopped Manny. "And the destroyed pieces would crash on them. Don't act rashly."

"Then what the hell are we going to do?!" shouted JD in frustration.

"Gayathri, let go!" shouted Jackie from underneath the looming, suspended bridge. The digital man rolled on his back and his hands shot up towards the bridge. "I'll use all my power to hold it! Trust me!"

Gayathri let go and collapsed, still conscious but had weakened greatly. JD bent down and began helping Dina out; the distance between the bridge and the ground only allowed a man no taller than JD to walk out without having to bend their body, but as all of them had fallen on their knees and consumed in fear, they could only crawl out. Manny helped Abu while JD grabbed hold on Alisha after Dina was safely pulled out. The bridge whined and descended even lower.

Jackie fell on his back, but quickly shoved both hands up. Veins sprouted out from his arms, signing just how much power he was using. Cold beads of sweat dampened his face as he pushed his power to the limit. The distance between the bridge and the ground was no taller than a regular teen's height. He saw that Jade and Jas were forced to lie on their chests in their attempts to move out.

"Jackie, hang on!" JD and Alisha both grabbed Jas's hands while Manny and Abu held Jade's. "Just a few more…"

"There's no time!" cried Jackie, and instantly all of them were blasted away by an invisible force.

"No…" Blood trickled out of Liu Ying's nostrils. She lost her hold on the bridge and saw it crashing down just as JD, Manny and the others were sent flying. The close distance between the bridge and the ground resulted in the bridge's structure remaining intact after the crash, but it was now _on _the ground instead of over it. She didn't see Jackie coming out. "No…"

"NOOOO!! JACKIE!!" JD pushed himself up and ran towards the wrecked bridge. He charged his fist and attempted pushing it away. However, the bridge wasn't wrecked due to its fall being halted, which made it difficult for JD to move it – all the blond teen succeeded in doing was to destroy the thick the bridge's glass windows when his fist connected with its solid steel structure.

"Jackie…" Manny closed his eyes, his body shook with grief.

"This can't be happening," gasped Gayathri. "Not Jackie…"

Stunned, Liu Ying was the first who cried; she was the closest to the digital human. He had been there for her during the months when she was the only DigiWira. She couldn't take this – first TobuCatmon, now Jackie. Her vision blurred as her breaths slowly became labored in sorrow. She clasped her hand over her mouth, looked down and gazed on her tears dropping on the ground.

The crash had attracted Adam and Centarumon, and a wave of sorrow washed over Adam. He realized instantly what had happened. He paled. "No…"

"Oh, yes," said SkullSatamon, stopping his attack. "That meddling digital human is _deleted_. Looks like I'm making progress."

"Progress?" Adam whispered, his brows furrowed, angered at the demon's nonchalance. He had stopped teleporting away, now standing rigidly as he stared at SkullSatamon. The fireballs launched his way instantly combusted into data particles when they got too close to him and Centarumon.

"Adam...?" Centarumon cast a worried look over his human partner.

SkullSatamon stared at Adam with wonder, a flicker of worry evident from the glow in his eye sockets.

Adam's gray irises darkened. _"Progress?_ You sick monster…I've had enough of your game! You are going down!"

Despite his eyes blackening, the opposite took place all over his body. Pure white light coated all over his body, shining brighter with every passing second. Amidst the dark night, with no other light source other than the moon and the stars, the glittering Adam was like a beacon in the dark. The light slowly expanding, enveloping SkullSatamon, Centarumon and all the other Digimon, DigiWira and humans nearby.

The other DigiWira and their friends raised their arms to block the light, but the light was nothing but soothing when it washed over them.

SkullSatamon screamed – the white light was burning with holy radiance as it engulfed him. His body shook in pain.

Adam let out a soft sigh, and the lights _exploded –_ sending a wave of focused combustion power upon SkullSatamon. The demon was blasted away in a series of explosions that sent him flying as far as the twin towers, crashing against the right tower. The light faded, but never left Adam.

SkullSatamon shook himself from the tower where he had crashed upon – his hulking body had left a mark on the tower. He landed on the ground before heading towards the DigiWira. Despite what just happened, he laughed.

"Ha! You can't delete me with that light power of yours! Not without ascending to darkness..."

"I won't succumb to my emotions, it's not gonna help anyone," said Adam. With one fluid motion of his hands, the aura around Adam transformed into a shrieking firebird – this was his power of light, transformed into its truest form of energy. The burning light was channeled to his hands as he held them together at the side of his body. "I'm gonna do this instead! HAAAA!!"

With a cry akin to a battle cry, Adam brought his hands forward and unleashed the focused light in form of a glowing, screeching firebird.

SkullSatamon braced himself to receive the attack, but soon realized that it wasn't directed towards him. The firebird engulfed Centarumon – who happened to be in the path between him and Adam. The holy-charged firebird engulfed Centarumon, and it disturbed SkullSatamon when a transformation took place.

_**Centarumon, slide digivolve to….Sagittarimon! **_

The regular Sagittarimon stood on his hind legs before thumping his front hooves soundly, releasing meteorites that crashed upon SkullSatamon. Not allowing the demon a chance to recover, the Armor Digimon released an elemental-charged arrow that grazed his skeletal shoulder. SkullSatamon pushed forward and Sagittarimon, now as big as SkullSatamon, tackled the demon by slamming his hooves on the demon's ribcage. Yet SkullSatamon remained standing, and a sound punch sent Sagittarimon flying. The draconic centaur landed on all fours and sent more flaming meteors towards the demon.

The other four DigiWira gazed at their leader, amazed of what Adam had just done. The lights Adam had released earlier still remained on them.

"Whoa!" said Gayathri, amazed, inspecting the glow. "It's like the Deistic Aurora…but a bit different."

"He never fails to pull out a miracle from his belt," said Manny with a small smile.

"I feel energized," said Liu Ying, brows furrowed. "This is so strange…"

"Not that strange," said JD, remembering the first time he had seen Adam _snap_ – it was when he and Adam were at the Dark Ocean, fighting against Dragomon. "That's what you get when you've pushed him to the edge…" He balled his hands into fists, and the white glow that coated him shifted into flaring red. He smirked. "Guys, try summoning your own powers, see what happens."

Similarly, on the other three DigiWira the pearly glow shifted into calm blue, sparkling gold and soft pink. The DigiWira focused their inner powers and the aura around them shifted into a dragon, a merman, a nine-tailed fox and a sprite with butterfly wings. They withdraw their hands to one side, mirroring what Adam had done to energize their partners.

_**Agumon digivolve to… Flarelizamon!**_

_**Penguinmon digivolve to… Depthmon!**_

_**Labramon digivolve to… Youkomon!**_

_**Floramon digivolve to…. Fairymon!**_

"Yeah!!" JD roared, thrusting his still-flaring fist up. "Get him!"

The five Champions circled around SkullSatamon and released their attacks all at once. Flarelizamon summoned flaming pillars from the ground where SkullSatamon stood. The demon hissed in pain as flames shot through his body, but a burst of dark aura from his body and the flames were quenched. Before long, water pellets slammed the demon from the sides. SkullSatamon glanced to his side and snarled towards Depthmon, and with one flick of his arm he sent the armored Digimon flying with a wave of dark aura.

"Pathetic," snarled SkullSatamon. "You all are merely Champions."

"_HURRICANE INFERNO!"_

Seeing Flarelizamon and Depthmon shoved away, Fairymon and Youkomon combined their attacks instead. The flaming tornado trapped SkullSatamon, burning upon him ferociously.

Obviously irritated, SkullSatamon shook the flaming tornado off – he was an Ultimate and his strength was greater. "That was somewhat impressive, but still…_NAIL BONE!!"_

To the Champions' surprise, the demon streaked towards them with unbeatable speed. His bone staff slammed against each Champion, knocking the winds out of them. The five Champions fell onto the ground, sprawled haphazardly from the blow they had received.

SkullSatamon basked on the horrified looks the five DigiWira had. "This is the end!"

"No, it's not," whispered Adam, closing his eyes as the white aura that he was emitting flared into a firebird once again. "Sagittarimon, digivolve!"

The white firebird aura flew out from Adam towards Sagittarimon. It caught the fallen centaur and his whole body sparkled. Sagittarimon's eyes snapped open and he rose to his feet once again, spirals of white and gold coating his armor.

"Impossible!" SkullSatamon roared, as the lights from Sagittarimon began to burst, blinding his sight.

_**Sagittarimon, Golden Armor Mode Change to…. Sagittarimon Radiant Mode!!**_

The Ultimate-powered Sagittarimon, his pearly armor shining like sunlight, tackled SkullSatamon from the back, giving time for the other partners to recover.

The centaur's transformation invigorated the other DigiWira and partners. Immediately JD, Manny, Liu Ying and Gayathri followed Adam's suit.

This time around, however, something different happened.

The red dragon and blue merman coalesced together into a dark purple aura that struck both Flarelizamon and Depthmon, while the golden kitsune and the pink sprite were focused into an orange wave of light that engulfed Youkomon and Fairymon. The four Champions then morphed into motes of lights that streaked straight towards the heavens.

_**Flarelizamon… Depthmon…. DNA digivolve to… Reichmon!!**_

_**Youkomon… Fairymon…. DNA digivolve to… Lilymon!!**_

The girls – having used all their powers – slumped onto the boys who caught them. JD supported Liu Ying while Manny carefully balanced Gayathri. Their weights however forced them to sit on the ground. Before them, Adam stood still for a moment before the light faded. Adam fell on his knees.

"We've given all we've got, you guys," said Adam, his voice low. He then crawled towards the other DigiWira, going behind and in between JD and Manny. All of them could no longer use their powers to defend themselves; what they had had been used to power up their Digimon all the way to their Ultimate and Golden Armored levels. "It's now up to you three."

The two Ultimates flew in a zigzag motion towards SkullSatamon, whom Sagittarimon had released from his hold. SkullSatamon knocked his bone staff upon Sagittarimon, but this time around it was met with Sagittarimon's sturdy bow. A struggle of power ensued between the two opposing forces.

"_Manticore Firestorm!"_

"_Flower Cannon!" _

A fiery Chimera and a green energy orb crashed over SkullSatamon's back just as Sagittarimon withdrew his bow. Seeing SkullSatamon falling, he positioned an arrow to the bow string.

"_Celestial Judgment Arrow!"_

Despite being knocked by Reichmon and Lilymon's attacks, the demon was still able to knock the arrow sent his way with his staff. Yet another arrow he hadn't foreseen struck _through_ the shaft and pulled the staff away from his grasp. Before he could grab it, Lilymon seized it with her vines and threw it up towards the sky, where Reichmon's burning spear split it to two equal halves. The destroyed weapon degenerated into data.

"We've destroyed his weapon!" Sagittarimon exclaimed. "Now let's bring him down together! _Celestial Judgment Arrow!"_

"_Flower Cannon!"_

"_Manticore Firestorm!"_

xxx

xxx

SkullSatamon snarled at the surprising intensity the three attacks had as they pushed against him – it wasn't so easy for him to repel those attacks as he had done previously, for the three attacks were all full-fledged Ultimate-powered attacks. The dark matter he was letting out was only protecting him from being blasted by the attacks instead of nullifying them. Reichmon, Lilymon and Sagittarimon Radiant Mode were nowhere as powerful as the Ultimate forms of the Wira Digital; something, however, was fueling them to greater heights.

He cast a look towards the DigiWira, remembering how they used their powers to make their partners digivolve. Partner Digimon could not digivolve without the aid of their partners' Digivices, yet his foes were able to do so. _They're more powerful now because they are fueled by the DigiWira's raw powers,_ he realized, feeling the attacks slowly corroding the dark aura he had conjured. The lightning white arrow especially, being holy-charged, was a bane to his dark power.

_And they've destroyed my bone staff,_ he thought. _Even Grademon's swords weren't able to do so. These three Ultimates are dangerous._

He channeled more power from the glowing orb inside his ribcage – where the powers he had collected from the generals – into his bony hands. Dark aura rippled more intensely and he pushed forward. It consumed the three separate attacks, compressing them until they dissipated into data before spreading out towards the three Ultimates. The darkness consumed the three Ultimates and they were blasted away by series of explosions.

SkullSatamon smirked; watching with great satisfaction as the three crashed onto the ground. But the satisfaction was short-lived, for the light that glowed from the orb inside his ribcage slowly began to fade.

Dread struck him.

_I'm losing power_. _If this battle goes on, I'll be at a serious disadvantage! _

SkullSatamon composed himself; despite having to rely on his own power now, he was still stronger than many Ultimates. Grademon had a hard time battling him when they went one on one three centuries ago. His battle experience was peerless. He was even successful in beating Megas with his speed and concentrated dark mater. These three Ultimates before him….what are they, he thought. Two DNA digivolved and one Golden Armored – they weren't even _real_ Ultimates, relying on humans to give them power. He laughed.

_They can never beat me. What am I so worried about?_

xxx

xxx

The three Ultimates scrambled back up and stood protectively before their DigiWira partners. Liu Ying and Gayathri both looked severely weakened, and the three boys wouldn't leave their teammates behind. Adam was very pale; it was obvious that he too was drained of his power.

Sagittarimon knew perfectly why: his partner had used all his remaining strength to independently digivolve Sagittarimon while the others were able to share their powers to invoke their partners' DNA digivolution. He knew that Adam couldn't teleport all five of them, and he would not teleport himself away and leave his friends behind. The others were at a safe distance, but the Ultimates wouldn't count on SkullSatamon to not make the other humans his targets. Their partners, however, were the Ultimates' primary concern, for they were at the midst of the battlefield.

"_It's now up to you three…"_

Sagittarimon, Reichmon and Lilymon all heard the empathic voice and froze. The voice was soft but filled with hope and trust towards them.

"We have to finish this battle fast!" said Sagittarimon. _But how? SkullSatamon is still more powerful than any of us. What…wait….why is he looking so concerned of that fading orb inside his ribcage?_

"That demon is still so powerful!" grunted Reichmon.

"So let's just try again!" Lilymon's joined hands morphed into glinting steel cannon.

"Got those words out of my mouth," Reichmon grunted again, energizing his black spear with greenish thunderbolts.

"No, wait! We're getting nowhere if we blindly send our attacks on him," Sagittarimon said. Reichmon and Lilymon looked at him. "See that orb inside SkullSatamon's ribcage?"

"Yeah. So?" Reichmon demanded.

"Did any of you notice that the glow in it decreasing? Half of that black orb was light yellow when we first fought him," pointed out Sagittarimon. "Now the glow's only a quarter of the orb."

"You mean…he is losing power?" said Lilymon, her voice hopeful.

_Perhaps, _thought Sagittarimon, wondering whether Lilymon was right. "There's no way to be absolutely sure, but he sure looked worried just now," said Sagittarimon. "We're now in our Ultimate forms because of our partners' powers. We can't afford to waste any of our remaining powers sending him attacks as individuals – SkullSatamon's more powerful than any of us."

"We know that," said Reichmon irritably. "So what do you want we do? Merge our powers?"

Sagittarimon's eyes widened. He recalled the stories he had heard when he was young, told by the elderly of his village. Several times, a story was brought up: a legendary power said to be created when Megas were a rarity.

"Actually, yes. YES! Thanks for the idea Reichmon – you've reminded me of something. We _can_ merge our powers to win this fight."

Lilymon blinked. "How are we going to do that? As Aldiyamon you have the ability to merge our powers because of Adam's empathy. I don't suppose you have that power too?"

"I don't," said Sagittarimon excitedly. "But I have a good enough substitute. It's just so lucky that I'm a vaccine, you're a data and Reichmon's a virus. The DigiSpheres really didn't make mistake when they determined our Ultimate levels." He cast a look towards SkullSatamon, whose dark mater slowly was spreading out from his body.

"I don't understand," grunted Reichmon. "Why's _that_ important all of a sudden?"

"No time to explain. Just follow my lead. Think of what you really want and focus your desire to your heart."

With that said, Sagittarimon glowed brilliantly with white aura until he appeared to be encased in a glimmering white aura.

"That shouldn't be too hard!" Reichmon held his spear with both hands and did what Sagittarimon had instructed. "All we want is to rid our two worlds of SkullSatamon!" Reichmon sparked with violet light before he shifted into what looked like an amethyst statue carved to perfection in his shape.

"We want to protect those who are important to us," whispered Lilymon, and she emitted orange lights before transforming into a chartreuse effigy.

The three crystallized Ultimates immediately melted into three motes of white, violet and chartreuse lights, soaring towards the dark heavens. Their voices echoed grandiosely, causing fear to those who crossed their paths as the three lights formed an arch, before looming down like shooting stars towards their intended target.

"_**Trinity Burst!"**_

The three lights merged into one shining silver streak of light that zapped straight towards SkullSatamon. A phoenix emerged from the silver streak, crying out a singsong requiem before blasting through the demon in a flash, so quick like a lightning strike, before emerging back as the three Ultimates behind the demon. SkullSatamon shrieked before his voice died out in horror – the dead silence that ensued was pierced by a resounding crack.

"This is the end for you, SkullSatamon!" Sagittarimon declared, and dedigivolved into Patamon. Similarly, Reichmon and Lilymon reverted to their Rookie selves.

"NOO!!" SkullSatamon convulsed horribly. The orb within his ribcage exploded into torrents of yellow lights, which in turn brutally dislodged each and every bone on his being. The bones scattered all around the grounds before dissolving into data. The skull was the last to go before it too burst into data particles.

SkullSatamon's voice died down as his data particles vanished into the darkness.

xxx

xxx

A long silence ensued. The five DigiWira were too shocked that they couldn't speak. When their partners joined them, squealing in delight of the defeat of their ultimate enemy, they still couldn't believe it just yet. Too much had happened; they couldn't help but be skeptical. SkullSatamon was their biggest enemy, the one who had remained hidden all these while, orchestrating everything, going against them _and _his own followers. When their Digimon partners pounced on them, too happy for their final victory, they only caught the squealing Rookies numbly, their joyous cries went directly through their heads. It was only when the honoraries ran towards them, waving and shouting, the truth sank in.

A grin broke on Adam's face first. He truly believed that SkullSatamon was gone this time, for his empathic power didn't get the strange vibes he had perceived when they thought Reapermon was beaten. They had truly won. His heart leaped with joy as he slung an arm each around JD and Manny. A merry laughter came out from his grin.

"Guys! We did it!!" He drew the still-shell-shocked JD and Manny closer, his eyes caught Liu Ying and Gayathri's whose heads were rested on the other two boys' laps. "We really did it!"

JD frowned, looking around him suspiciously before tilting his head to meet his cousin's eyes. "We thought so earlier, but he still came back."

"No, Josh," Adam giggled. "He's really gone. Really! I don't feel any dark vibe. I felt it earlier after we've beaten Reapermon, but now…it's gone. SkullSatamon's gone for sure."

"Really?" rasped Gayathri, still sounding weakened. "Because I can't take any more fighting. I'm too beat!"

"Really," assured Adam. He didn't care how many times he had to assure his friends that SkullSatamon was gone. He could repeat it a hundred times if they wanted. He inclined his head up, trying to address Patamon who was at his customary resting place – on Adam's head. "Patamon, what did you guys do to SkullSatamon? It was really neat!"

"That was the Trinity Burst," said Patamon. "It is a power that first came to being when Mega levels were an absolute rarity. Long time ago, it was said that a WarGrowlmon, a Taomon and a Rapidmon called upon this power to defeat their greatest enemy, a Gulfmon, who we all know is a Mega. The three good Digimon couldn't beat Gulfmon no matter how hard they tried, until they invoked the Trinity Burst and used it to defeat Gulfmon. It was then that they realized that the power could be called upon by three Ultimates, provided that the triad is constituted of a Vaccine, a Data and a Virus. WarGrowlmon, the leader, is a virus; Taomon is a data while Rapidmon is a vaccine. And so were we – Sagittarimon is a vaccine, Reichmon's a virus and Lilymon's a data."

"We've never seen you guys use the Trinity Burst before," said Liu Ying.

"Come to think of it, did our partners _ever_ fight side by side in their Ultimate forms?" Manny pondered. "I can't remember."

"That's because we received the power to become Wira Digital, which are even more powerful than our Ultimate forms. Our DNA digivolved forms and Patamon's Golden Armored form became a back up," Labramon pointed out.

Patamon nodded vigorously. "You're right. We never had to use the Trinity Burst before. The thought of using it just came to me when Reichmon suggested merging our powers. Cool, isn't it? The Trinity Burst has the power of a Mega Digimon – there was no way SkullSatamon could beat that. He might be strong, but he was still an Ultimate, and he was up against three Ultimates."

"We did it, eh?" JD said, looking down at Liu Ying. He grinned at her. "We did it."

"Victory…" whispered Liu Ying. She didn't sound elated at all. Tears brimmed on her eyes. "At what price? Jackie…he's…"

"_He's not dead," _said a disembodied voice.

Everyone stiffened, but it was Adam who gasped in recognition. He had heard the voice before, and couldn't believe his ears when he heard it again. While JD and Manny promptly raised their hands, charging their powers, Adam looked around him, searching for the voice's owner. He then noticed his friends' reactions and gripped their shoulders to assure them.

The White, Pink and Yellow DigiSpheres flew out from their wielders and hovered mysteriously before the DigiWira. They glowed, and from the White DigiSphere an image was projected out. The DigiWira stared in awe at the golden knight that stood before them, whose twin swords gleamed and rich blue cape billowed to his ankles, rippling softly amidst the cool winds of the night. The image solidified and soon the knight no longer looked ghostly. The DigiSpheres then returned to their masters.

"Who are you?" demanded JD harshly, thinking that they were in danger once again. The golden knight before them truly looked imposing, and he stood too close to them to JD's liking.

"Josh, its okay," Adam assured. "Everyone, this is Grademon!"

Murmurs of surprise followed Adam's revelation.

"_Hello again, Adam. And to you too, everyone,"_ said Grademon, addressing the others, his voice still echoic. _"I'm glad that you still remembered me Adam."_

"Of course I do, Grademon," said Adam earnestly. "But…what are you doing here? Don't get me wrong, I just thought…well…"

Grademon chuckled. _"Me being here means that you have beaten SkullSatamon. Congratulations, my heirs."_ He gazed warmly towards Liu Ying. _"You'll be happy to know that your mentor, Jackie, is not dead."_ He cast a look towards the bridge and raised one hand towards it, before slowly raising it. The bridge was lifted telekinetically. And with a flourish flick of his other hand, golden light orbs swirled from under the bridge. A golden flash appeared beside them and they saw an unconscious Jackie, cocooned by a coat of blue light.

"Jackie!" Liu Ying struggled to sit up and turned to look at Jackie. "What…what happened to him?"

"_He's inside a telekinetic cocoon,"_ informed Grademon. The knight was silent for a moment, before adding, _"Before the bridge crashed upon him, he managed to wrap himself inside a cocoon formed by his telekinetic power. Hadn't he managed to do so, he would be…deleted. Fortunately that wasn't the case, and now, he's very much alive. Unconscious, but alive."_

Liu Ying let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness." She wiped her tears and allowed JD to help her sitting up properly.

"Grademon, I still don't get how you managed to be here," said Adam. "SkullSatamon told me that you used the Shield of Waja to trap him. The shield could only be used for evil intentions; if it's used for good the one using it would be destroyed."

"_You are well informed, Adam. Any technique from the Nine Negations Dark Arts can corrupt a Digimon's data. A villainous Digimon's data was already corrupted to a certain degree, thus they would not be affected – their 'evilness' would override the corruption. However, good Digimon's data is pure – the corruption would take place within the Digimon's essence of life, destroying them completely. My mentor, Ancient Wisemon, managed to seal a portion of my Digi-Soul inside the White DigiSphere in his bid to save me, but it was already too late. Essentially, I am gone, but a part of me strongly wanted to see SkullSatamon defeated for good. I suppose that's what caused me to come back – I have vowed to be able to see the day when SkullSatamon is defeated for good. That part of my spirit was kept inside the White DigiSphere, and it is that part of my Digi-Soul which is what you are seeing now."_

"So does that mean that you…are still dead?" Adam asked.

"_I am dead,"_ answered Grademon without missing a beat. _"But now that I'm here, I better take a good look on each of my heirs." _The golden knight gazed on each DigiWira. It was hard to determine what he was feeling for his face was completely masked, but the glint from his blue eyes seemed to suggest that he was smiling with joy and pride.

"See anything you like?" cracked JD. Everyone – including the honoraries who were now with them – laughed.

All except Adam, who gazed towards Grademon curiously. He had a feeling that Grademon was not telling them everything. He could sense that from his power.

Grademon chuckled. _"There's no word I can use to convey how proud I am with all of you. The DigiSpheres couldn't have chosen better candidates,"_ he said. His gaze lingered on JD and Manny. _"Despite the Red and Blue DigiSpheres initially being in the hands of evil, I'm glad to see that everything has worked out for the best."_ His gaze trailed towards the honorary partners, particularly towards Salamon and Gatomon. His gaze held.

"It's us, Grademon," said Salamon. "The Saintly Siblings?"

"Of course he didn't recognize us, brother," chided Gatomon. "We were Angewomon and MagnaAngemon when he knew us."

"_Alas, I did sense something familiar about you two,"_ chuckled Grademon. _"It's so good to see you again, my friends, and I see that you now have fulfilled your own destiny."_

"I don't suppose you recognize me?" Lalamon asked. Grademon looked at her questioningly, before his eyes lighted.

"_Rosemon,"_ he said, sounding somewhat amused. _"We meet again. You I did not expect to see. And…"_ He halted, the light in his eyes dimmed. _"I know of what happened to Ophanimon and D'Arcmon. My sincerest condolences, Rosemon."_

"They would have wanted to meet you too," said Lalamon solemnly.

Silence. Gayathri and Dina shared a sad look, remembering their loss. They sighed, knowing that no force in the world could bring back the dead. Merely three weeks had passed since Bel and D'Arcmon's demises, and the wound the two girls shared was still fresh. The emotional grief was kept at bay when their attentions were fixated on the evil Digimon's invasion, but when some semblances of normalcy came back, the impact of her death was renewed. Dina let out a soft gasp as tears brimmed within her eyes, and Alisha quickly drew her close for comfort.

"_You…you are familiar,"_ Grademon intoned, gazing towards the Muchomon. _"Have we met?"_

Opie chuckled nervously. "I think the correct question is, have we _fought_? And the answer is yes." Opie clicked his beak. "I _was_ the Avian Shine Silphymon." He made special care to emphasize on the 'was', as it meant that he was no longer evil on his own accord.

Grademon nodded. _"And now you're a partner. Who would have thought? To who are you partnered with?"_ He gazed towards Jade and Jas, for Abu and Alisha were clearly the partners to the Saintly Siblings and it was very obvious that Lalamon was partnered to Dina from the way the girl held her on her lap. Then he looked back at the orange penguin questioningly.

"My partner is Manny's sister," said Opie proudly. "She's still very young so she had to stay with her parents. I followed her brother here to help with the fight." He gazed towards Manny. "It was what Debbie – that's her name – wanted me to do."

"In exchange for a large bowl of mushroom soup," added Penguinmon with a snicker. Opie received the comment with good humor.

"_Fate does work in a mysterious way,"_ said Grademon. _"I'm glad to see that you have found your true path."_

"Yeah, well…it's a good thing you didn't delete me back then," replied Opie nervously.

Grademon chuckled before looking back at the DigiWira. The five teens were examining their broken Digivices.

"We might have won," said JD, "but we're also out from the loop. I don't think we can always do what we did today to digivolve our partners. That was way too draining."

"_You don't have to,"_ said Grademon.

"Can you fix them?" asked Liu Ying hopefully.

"_I might be able to do something about it," _answered the golden knight. _"Hold up your Digivices."_

Excited, the DigiWira did as they were told. A wave of golden light escaped Grademon's extended hand, and they were absorbed by the Digivices. The DigiWira watched in anticipation as the Digivices let out buzzes before they glowed with gold light and hovered from their hands.

Before their eyes, the broken Juara Digivices slowly shifted into five brand-new D4 Digivices, with color patterns akin to the ones the Juara Digivices had. Then the devices landed softly on the DigiWira's outstretched hands.

"With the exception of the shade of blue," said Manny, taking out Debbie's D4 Digivice from his pocket. Debbie's was white with a light blue trim, while Manny's was white with a dark blue trim, lined with gold at each side of the trim. "Mine looks exactly like Debbie's!"

"Regular Digivices?" Liu Ying pondered, examining her new Digivice. Her long brows furrowed slightly. "Does this mean that we can't Juara Access anymore?"

"_I'm afraid not,"_ said Grademon slowly. _"The first Juara Digivice, which belonged to Adam, was created by Ophanimon using the Ivory Gem. When Adam replenished the powers of the other four Digivices, the power of the Ivory Gem was channeled to them, thus upgrading them into Juara Digivices as well." _

Grademon paused, gazing down upon the five teens that stood before him before continuing. _"When you summoned the Omega Purification, the Ivory Gem's power was used to its utmost limit in order to force Reapermon into devolving. That wiped out its power completely and thus your Juara Digivices were broken."_

The DigiWira took a moment to process what Grademon had just told them.

"Wait a minute," said Manny. "We might have lost the ability to Juara Access, but what about the regular Digital Access? We used our old D3 Digivices and DigiSpheres to do so."

Grademon took longer than expected to answer Manny's question. _"Yes,"_ he said finally, his voice sounded somewhat strange. It was as if he was carefully choosing his words. _"Theoretically, you should be able to Digital Access as well as channeling powers for your partners to digivolve to their highest achieved level."_

Adam frowned. He had picked up Grademon's hesitance via his empathy. Grademon's rich blue eyes met his gaze momentarily, but the knight did not offer any explanation. Adam decided not to ask just yet; Grademon seemed to be waiting for the right time to reveal something important to them rather than holding them back altogether.

"So that means I can't become Satriamon Juara Mode again," said JD, frowning. "Aw, nuts! We just became Satriamon Juara Mode today! I'm still just getting the hang of it and now I'd never be able to!" JD sounded like he was joking, but nobody missed the hidden regretful tone underneath.

Liu Ying sighed. "I'll miss achieving Mega level too," she said. "But in exchange of constant peace…I think that's a fair exchange. We've beaten SkullSatamon for good. The Darkshadow Brethren and the Four Terrors are all gone as well. That means that we won't have to worry about our world getting attacked anymore."

"We finally can have some peace," whispered Gayathri.

"We've paid quite a heavy price for it," intoned Manny, somewhat melancholic.

"Yeah. Not being able to Juara Access anymore," muttered JD.

"I wasn't talking about that." Manny gestured around them – of the destroyed city of Kuala Lumpur. Remnants of skyscrapers scattered around them, some missing chunks and portions while others were obliterated completely. Even the two national landmarks had suffered – the KL Tower was obliterated while the Petronas Twin Towers, while still standing, had most of their windows destroyed and now had two glaring holes where the bridge was once connected at.

"Oh…" JD's ears burned in embarrassment.

"KL is never going to be the same again," said Adam softly.

"These damages no doubt will cost the country a lot. I have a feeling the tax's probably going to be raised to compensate for the restoration works," said Abu, sighing resolutely.

Adam gazed at the empty spot within the clusters of skyscrapers. "Part of it was my fault…" he said softly, referring to how Aldiyamon Ruin Mode caused the KL Tower to collapse in his fit of rage while battling Seraphimon Chaos Mode.

"_There's a way to get around this matter,"_ said Grademon, with a hint of anxiousness in his voice.

"There is?"

"_Yes. Adam, can you tell me what powers the White DigiSphere has given you?"_

"Huh?" The question was unexpected, but Adam could sense that it was important. "Basically it's teleportation and empathy. Teleportation's evolved to summoning, purifying, combustion…" Adam's voice trailed away as he smiled.

"_And restoration,"_ finished Grademon, not sharing Adam's enthusiasm.

"You mean Adam can use his power to restore everything back to normal?" Patamon asked uncertainly.

"_Adam can't do it alone. It will take all five of you, but bear this in mind, my heirs."_ Grademon was silent for a moment, his blue eyes gazing each DigiWira. It was as if he was dreading what he was about to inform them. _"It will take every ounce of the powers from your five DigiSpheres to restore your city to its former glory. Their powers have already been depleted somewhat from your use on combat and on your Digital and Juara Accessing. Adam, do you remember the time when your White DigiSphere's power is depleted once?"_

"Yes…that was after battling the Puaka Generals," murmured Adam slowly. "TobuCatmon said that the White DigiSphere had used all of its power to bring me back to life."

"_Essentially, the White DigiSphere used all of its power to __**reconfigure**__ you back – your data was thoroughly scattered, and a human's constitution is vastly different from Digimon. It was lucky that the event took place in the Digital World, Adam, where you are data. Had it happened here…"_

Adam felt a chill. "Luckily it didn't."

"_You will have to make a choice now, my heirs," _said Grademon, his tone grew solemn. _ "Your battles against the reincarnations of the Seven Great Demon Lords, the Four Terrors and Reapermon have depleted a great amount of power from your DigiSpheres. Three hundred years ago, when I empowered your DigiSpheres I have never thought that you would be needing powers greater than Ultimates to combat whatever evil that you would have to face. In fact, I didn't even foresee my DigiSpheres being used by others until it dawned to me that I could not defeat SkullSatamon. Nonetheless, the DigiSpheres and the Ivory Gem managed to power you enough to achieve Mega level. The Ivory Gem is now destroyed, so has its counterpart the Obsidian Gem which was in the possession of Lucemon – which I suspected he'd used to digivolve his fellow Darkshadow Brethren into the Demon Lords."_

"_The powers your DigiSpheres have right now are sufficient to see you through several more battles, if they arise,"_ said Grademon. _"If there is none, then you will be able to keep the powers the DigiSpheres have bestowed you. Or…"_

Grademon paused. Adam gazed up at him. "Or what, Grademon?" He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"_Or you can use what powers you have left to restore your city to its former glory. It is going to be a difficult process and it __**will**__ wipe out all the remaining powers inside your DigiSpheres. Should you choose to restore your city, you will no longer have your powers after the restoration process is completed. You will also lose the ability to merge with your partners to become the Wira Digital."_

Grademon paused, gazing at each and every DigiWira. _"The decision is up to you."_

The news felt like a final ultimatum for all of them. They exchanged looks, and all had the same look on their faces.

"I think I can speak for all five of us," said Adam slowly, able to sense what his fellow DigiWira were thinking. "Our powers mean a lot to us, but restoring the city is more important." Memories crossed his mind and his voice broke slightly. To compose the sorrow he was feeling not only from himself, but from his friends, Adam had to close his eyes momentarily. Both JD and Liu Ying gave an assuring grip on each of his shoulder. He opened his eyes, gazed up towards the golden knight before him, and nodded. "Our powers for the city. We'll do it. It's the right thing to do."

"We're doing the right thing," said Liu Ying, assuring the team leader.

_I know,_ Adam replied silently.

"I'm gonna miss becoming Puspamon," whispered Gayathri, a tear trickling down her cheek. She shared a pained look with Floramon.

"It's been a blast," said Floramon with a low, composed voice. "But you guys have to do this. We understand."

"We will support whatever decision you choose," said Labramon.

"Although we've spent only about three months in our Wira forms…" Liu Ying said, her eyes fixed on each of her teammate and partners. "I feel that we've been Wira Digital for a long time. Xianamon…I feel that she's a part of me now."

"_And she still is,"_ said Grademon, gently. _"Aldiyamon, Xianamon, Puspamon, Samudramon and Satriamon will always be a part of you all. No one can deny that from you."_ As he said so, five figures appeared out of thin air, but none was as opaque as Grademon. Semi-translucent, they were the Wira Digital in their Ultimate forms. The DigiWira gasped.

"Samudramon…" Manny said, eyes widened.

"So this is how we look like when we're Wira Digital!" said Penguinmon, looking upon Samudramon from top to bottom, his beak partially opened in awe. Samudramon merely smiled back at the blue-feathered penguin, looking somewhat amused.

"She's really beautiful, isn't she Floramon?" said Gayathri, beckoning towards Puspamon.

"I can see why that Astamon was so smitten with us," agreed Floramon. Puspamon made a sashaying gesture towards them before curtsying gracefully. The DigiWira duo smiled wistfully.

"I never realized we were that big, Agumon," said JD, looking up at the towering form of Satriamon.

"He is amazing…" Agumon followed his partner's gaze. Satriamon inclined his head towards them, and let out a very familiar lopsided grin.

"That looks good on ya," JD told Satriamon, giving the dragon-man a thumbs-up.

Liu Ying and Labramon were both speechless. For the first time they were witnessing the elegant sorceress who was standing before them, her long black hair fluttering against the cool night breeze. "Is this really goodbye?" Liu Ying asked Xianamon. Xianamon smiled gently and shook her head. She gestured towards Liu Ying and Labramon, then towards herself by placing her palms over her chest before giving them a small nod and a gentle smile. The duo understood what Xianamon was implying and smiled, although their eyes were damp as well.

"She's right, Ying," said Labramon. "She is us, and we are her. It's never goodbye for us."

Adam and Patamon stared towards Aldiyamon, who returned their gaze. A few seconds passed in silence between the three of them. Adam thought that Aldiyamon looked magnificent up close; he couldn't believe that it was he and Patamon who had formed this angelic knight. A couple of bad memories suddenly came back to his mind, of the births of the angel's Fury Mode and Ruin Mode, both due to Adam's inability to control his rage. Suddenly he felt so ashamed of being in the presence of this exalted being; what could this angel think of him now?

"Say something, Adam," urged Patamon.

"Well…" Adam said, as Aldiyamon merely smiled at him. He felt a bit comforted, but the shame still lingered. "I really wanna say I'm sorry, actually."

The smile on the angelic knight's face faltered. He tilted his head ever so slightly, as if asking 'why'.

"Because of me, you first suffered a corrupted digivolution, getting deleted, and…" Adam stopped, when Aldiyamon knelt before them and held one finger on Adam's mouth. Adam felt a hint of warmth radiating from the angel's semi-opaque finger that hung just a fraction of a centimeter before his lips. Aldiyamon shook his head, and the smile returned.

_You are me, and I am you._ Adam let out a soft gasp upon hearing a noble voice speaking towards him, before realizing that it was Aldiyamon who had spoken. The angel sounded different from how Adam had remembered. Aldiyamon smiled as he conveyed his thoughts to Adam empathically. _We did what we thought was best, for the sake of those we love. You have a very good heart, Adam. You are the heart of this angel before you. I'm proud to be born from you and I have never blamed you for what has happened between us._

"Thank you…Aldiyamon…" Adam whispered. Patamon looked at him quizzically.

The angel stood back up regally. _It's time for us to part, Adam. Take good care of yourself and your friends. You have won a great battle…you deserve this rest. _

"Will I see you again, Aldiyamon?" asked Adam, a tear escaped his eyes.

_Only in your dreams, my young friend,_ replied Aldiyamon with earnest. The words, if intoned differently, could mean that Aldiyamon was being sarcastic, but coming from the angel's thoughts they sounded truthful and assuring. Then he saw the most remarkable thing, when a line of glittering silver trailed down under Aldiyamon's silver visor as the angel turned away. _Only in your dreams… _ The angel's voice echoed in Adam's mind as he vanished into thin air. The same thing happened to the other four Wira Digital.

"_DigiWira,"_ said Grademon, calling for their attentions. _"As Labramon has said, you are them and they are you. A part of you shall always remain as Wira Digital."_

The DigiWira stood up. Liu Ying and Gayathri were both supported by JD and Manny.

"We're ready," said Adam towards his team. "Let's do this. Let's restore our home."

"_Then raise your DigiSpheres towards the sky, my heirs, and wish for your city to be restored."_

Slowly the five DigiWira did as Grademon had instructed. The Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink DigiSpheres flared to life and sent out beams of light towards the White DigiSphere. The White DigiSphere glowed like a radiant star as it released light orbs of five different colors. The orbs swirled around them before slowly radiating around the park.

"Look," whispered Gayathri in amazement, as the orbs restored the park's destroyed trees and public amenities first.

"The buildings…" Liu Ying saw the boulders that were scattered around the park vanishing, and slowly the buildings that were destroyed during the battles that took place there reappeared, restored to their former glories. The wrecked sky bridge disappeared and emerged at its former place, in between of the two twin towers as the supports that held it were magically reconstructed. The broken windows were next in being restored and in a flash of light the national landmark reverted to its glorious form, momentarily shining amidst the dark night.

The five DigiSpheres shone even brighter and a light wave burst forth, covering all corners around them. Everything soon happened in rapid pace as destroyed skyscrapers reappeared one after another. The collapsed KL Tower reappeared in a blink of the eye. Empathically and telepathically Adam sensed and saw that their hometown too was restored back to their former state. The school was back, so was the municipal council and the business centers – three places that had suffered the worst blows from the Darkshadow Brethren and the Four Terrors' attacks. He could hear the joyous cries of the people, before the cries slowly faded into nothingness. The foreign emotions were gone too.

Adam sighed, realizing what this had meant. He had rued his ability to perceive emotions, but now that it was gone he found that he was also going to miss it. He had lost his powers.

The golden wave returned back to them, replenishing their lost strengths and healing all the injuries they had sustained. At the same time, the unconscious Jackie let out a soft gasp as he woke up, looking around him with bewilderment.

The light faded into Grademon. Five identical _clear_ DigiSpheres landed softly onto the grassy ground.

Grademon bent down and collected the five powerless spheres. He gazed towards the DigiWira and announced softly, _"It is done."_

Adam's brows knitted together as he tried teleporting, but he remained at his place. He tried perceiving the emotions of those around him, but heard nothing but his own self in his mind. Then he looked at JD, trying to sense whether their psychic rapport was still there. He could sense sadness, but that was only because he could _see _his cousin's expression – sadness was written clearly there on his face. He sighed.

JD flicked his palm, trying to summon his flames. Nothing happened. He sighed, his frustration barely hidden, and met Adam's gaze. His eyes seemed to speak volumes of the emotions that weren't there on his hardened face. _You okay?_ He seemed to ask Adam. Adam could only nod as he shifted his gaze towards the others.

Manny attempted releasing water from the in-betweens of his fingers. His hand remained dry. He saw Adam looking at him and his mouth quirked slightly, wanting to smile but hadn't the strength to do so.

Liu Ying gazed towards a nearby brick and made a slow 'come-here' gesture with her palm. The brick never moved. She made a slow waving gesture – Adam recognized it as a way for her to conjure the telekinetic barrier – but no golden sheen came out from her palm. She didn't meet his gaze, casting a sad look where nobody was around.

Gayathri closed her eyes, trying to listen to the winds, but apparently she heard nothing. Adam doubted that she would attempt screaming or running and he was right. Gayathri only looked like she was going to cry, but was able to compose herself quickly with Floramon and Dina's help.

"We've lost our powers." Finally, Liu Ying said it out loud. She cast a look around her, noting the condition of the buildings around her, and the park where they were at.

"It's as if no battle has ever happened here," murmured Manny.

"It's worth it," said Gayathri, her voice so soft that she sounded like she was convincing herself more than to actually state something. "It's worth it… it's worth it."

"I'm gonna miss our powers," whispered Adam.

"So am I," said JD, squeezing his cousin's shoulder.

A glow emitted from Grademon's hand, and the DigiSpheres were transformed into five rings with different colored bands of white, red, blue, yellow and pink, polished to perfection. The clear spherical stones fixated on those rings however were identical – they were the reduced forms of the DigiSpheres.

"_Take these, my heirs…my friends," _the knight amended, handing the rings to the downcast teens. He waited as the DigiWira wore those rings. _"These rings might not give you the powers you once had, but with these you will always have something to remind you of your brave efforts in protecting two worlds from evil. Always keep them safe."_

"We will," said Adam. "Thank you."

"_No. Thank __**you**__," _said Grademon, as his solid form began to fade.

Seeing Grademon fading, the DigiWira were instantly alarmed. "Grademon!"

"_Do not worry, my friends. This is not goodbye." _Grademon waved his hand and disappeared out of sight. _"Till we meet again, heroes of two worlds."_

On his place, there was a DigiEgg, colored yellow with dark blue stripes. The DigiWira let out a soft chuckle as Adam picked up the DigiEgg.

"Until we meet again, Grademon," he whispered with a wistful smile. The DigiEgg vanished in a stream of light that entered Adam's D4 Digivice. Adam's Digivice then let out a beep and the screen showed a digitalized image of the DigiEgg it absorbed.

"Looks like someone close to you will receive that DigiEgg, Adam," said Liu Ying.

"Huh? Why did you say that?"

"Because you were the ones who kept the DigiEggs that hatched into the Saintly Siblings. They ended up being Kak Lisha and Dr. Abu's partners."

"Oh…" Adam traced the pixilated DigiEgg thoughtfully. He wondered of who would receive the egg – he and his sister had no other direct relatives. For the past couple of months JD's family was the closest to him, but if the egg was meant to be Jade's or Jas's wouldn't it be with them now instead of with him? Then he shrugged, figuring that he'd find out sooner or later.

"Speaking of reconfigured Digimon, Grademon's not the only one. Look!"

Gayathri pointed towards a green spark that was perched on top of a higher ground close to them. Exchanging looks, the five DigiWira and Dina went towards it and saw that it was an emerald green DigiEgg, decorated with golden stars. Drawn by instinct, Adam knelt before it and placed his palms on the smooth surface of the egg. The DigiEgg let out a warm glow and Adam felt a tingling sensation as an image of a grand female angel flashed in his mind for a brief second. He blinked and stared at his ring. Then the DigiEgg too vanished in a stream of light, and Adam's Digivice displayed a second digitalized DigiEgg image beside it. His smile grew wide – he knew whose DigiEgg was this.

"Hey, stop hogging the eggs, bro," JD said, half-protesting, half-amused.

"Whose DigiEgg is that?" Manny asked curiously.

"It's Ophanimon's. I'm sure of it."

"How do you know?" Patamon asked.

Adam was about to say that he saw Ophanimon's image crossing his mind briefly when he touched the DigiEgg, but Liu Ying beaten him to it. "Now that Adam mentioned it, Grademon's egg had the color scheme similar to him. This DigiEgg is obviously Ophanimon if we go by the same reasoning – Ophanimon had emerald armor and golden wings if I recall correctly."

Adam decided not to counter her explanation – that sounded much more logical than saying that he _saw_ Ophanimon's visage in his head. He stared at his ring once again with wonder. _Could it be?_

"Oh," said Gayathri, a grin nearly split her face into two. "It's only logic that Adam would get Ophanimon's DigiEgg, because Ophanimon was somehow partnered to Adam's brother, who had passed away…" She caught herself, but Adam waved his hand dismissively, urging her to continue, "…and Rosemon, she was with Ophanimon at that mountain Adam went, and they were friends, and Rosemon's now Dina's partner…" A conspiratorial grin appeared on her face before she finally declared, "When you two have kids in future, your kids will get those DigiEggs!"

Adam and Dina instantly turned crimson. The others around them laughed.

As they laughed, JD inclined his head sideways – he thought he saw something blinking, as if calling for his attention. Curious, he withdrew from the crowd quietly and jogged towards the source of the blink, and saw a crimson-colored DigiEgg with violet hearts. He frowned; trying to think of whose DigiEgg this would belong too.

Then it occurred to him as he looked around. _Isn't this the place where I killed __**her**__? _

He stared down at the DigiEgg with disbelief, touching it with mounting hesitation. The DigiEgg warmed to his touch and vanished in a streak of red light inside _his_ Digivice. JD quickly unclipped his Digivice from his belt and stared at the pixilated crimson egg on the device's screen. _Persiamon?_

"She saved Puspamon," Agumon said quietly from his side. JD merely looked at the raptor with a questioning gaze. "We saw how she looked like when we impaled the Dragon Fist Claw Explosion on her. She really looked, and sounded, sorry, although she never said it out loud. By switching place with Puspamon she'd weakened Reapermon instead of strengthening him. Whether she'd wanted to or not, she had indirectly done us a favor." Agumon sighed. "Perhaps…this is her second chance to live."

Gayathri's words rang in JD's mind. His face turned grim; the thought did not bode well with him. "So you're saying my kid's gonna end up with Persiamon as their partner?"

"Persiamon, maybe," agreed Agumon, "but _not_ the Virago General. She's gone for good. The Digimon inside this egg is a new Digimon – she's as innocent as all other unborn Digimon."

"So SkullSatamon's gonna be reborn too?"

"Maybe, but most probably not," said Agumon. "It's always harder for evil Digimon to be reconfigured rather than the good ones, because their data are corrupted. Good Digimon, or any wild ones, have uncorrupted data, but that doesn't guarantee them getting reconfigured after their deletion. Even when I was deleted, when I was ChaosGallantmon…" Agumon shuddered. "Hadn't it been for Aldiyamon's data-reassembling ability I wouldn't be here now. My data was too corrupted."

"No thanks to her," said JD, eyes trailing towards the pixilated egg on his Digivice's display. He took a deep breath, remembering that the Virago General was truly dead. "So you're saying there's no guarantee of Digimon getting reconfigured?"

Agumon nodded. "The process is a mysterious one; even the five Guardian Beasts won't be able to give you a perfect answer. We'll never know for sure too, because reconfigured Digimon usually will not remember of what they were in their past lives. Even if SkullSatamon, the other Darkshadows or the Terrors are reconfigured, they won't know who they were."

"But you and Patamon remember everything."

"Because we're not just any Digimon, Josh, we're partners to the chosen. We'll be around as long as you live. We'll only _truly_ die when you guys have passed away."

JD grimaced. "Let's not talk about that right now," he said. "We survived this day. I'm kinda looking forward to live my days."

"Josh!" Adam called. "Why are you there?"

JD clipped his Digivice back to his belt, but decided to hold back his own discovery till later. They already had enough surprises for one day. He rejoined his friends.

"Look," said Patamon, as a ray of light appeared from the horizon.

Everyone followed the Digimon's gaze and watched the rising sun of dawn. Warmth replaced cold as the sunlight shone over their faces. Without any reason, all of them began to cheer happily as they witnessed the beautiful phenomenon. The light then washed upon the DigiWira's new rings, and for a moment the shrunken DigiSpheres on them glowed radiantly. Then the glow faded, but the DigiWira's smiles remained as they exchanged looks with each other. Relieved, content and happiness were clearly written on their faces, and they weren't misplaced. They had accomplished what they were destined for. They had defeated the villains and they emerged alive. No more battles. Their sacrifice was not in vain, for they had truly won.

They had finally gained peace, and with peace they no longer needed their powers.

A new day had come.

xxx

xxx

As the DigiWira enjoyed their victory, darkness transpired at the Digital World.

"It's been one whole day already, and still no sign of him. Don't you think that that's long enough?"

Two figures watched the setting sun from the sky. Darkness began to claim the Digital World. Seconds passed and the three moons of the Digital World began making their presences known.

"Yes…yes, that should be long enough. He should've been back by now if he's won. Frankly, I hope those Wira Digital _trashed_ him until he's nothing more than digital dusts!"

Mystimon sighed. "Never thought that we'd root for those kids instead of the Master."

"_Ex_-master," corrected Jetsilphymon. "And I'd rather have those kids win the battle instead of _SkullSatamon_. At least that'll ensure that we continue on living without having to worry of him killing us for the sake of getting our data."

"That was underhanded, even for him," agreed Mystimon. "We all served him for so long, and _this_ was what he'd planned out for all of us? All these while, he'd actually rooted for the DigiWira to finish us off. He told us to free the generals one by one…must be because he was afraid of a power overdose or something. I don't know whether it's just dumb luck or what when we saw him digivolving, or else we wouldn't have believed GranDracmon when he told us about it."

Jetsilphymon grunted. "Stop your jabbering. C'mon. Let's head to Onyx Pyramid."

"Onyx Pyramid? WHY?" Mystimon gaped. "That's the place where he'd gone to. From there he'd gone to the Wira's world. Don't you think that if he's still alive he'd be there already?"

"If he's still alive we'd be dead by now," said Jetsilphymon. "Besides, weren't it you who suggested that we've waited long enough?"

"Okay…but I don't like it."

"Shut up and follow me."

The two Digimon headed west where a thick lush jungle could be seen. As they were approaching, they saw the glints given by a massive black step pyramid. They flew all the way to the top and landed by the entrance to the main chamber.

"Looks like no one's home," said Mystimon nervously.

"Duh! All of them got themselves killed already. Let's go in."

They walked inside, Jetsilphymon leading Mystimon, in silence, passing through the main chamber where the Darkshadows used to lounge at while discussing their plans to thwart the Wira Digital. Jetsilphymon grabbed one of the torches from the walls as they saw staircases leading down.

"Hey, where are we going?"

"Library."

"Library?"

"Just shut up and follow me. I just wanted to be sure of something. We can go if it's not here."

"Okay, Jetsilphymon. You're the boss."

They crossed several chambers before arriving at a closed door. Jetsilphymon pushed the thick door open and a loud creak was heard. A wave of dust invaded the two Digimon and they coughed. Inside the chamber they saw scattered books, tables and bookcases. Grunting, Jetsilphymon waved the torch slowly, illuminating parts of the library as she searched. She halted when the scanty light washed over a scroll hung on the corner of the wall.

"Isn't that…?" Mystimon gasped with awe.

"I was right. It's still here." Jetsilphymon gingerly stepped towards the scroll and used the torch to read it. She then turned to look towards Mystimon. "Luckily that 'Master' of ours didn't take this with him to the Wira's world. He probably expected to come back here to learn the other arts after learning the Gateway technique."

"So you're here to look for the Nine Negations Dark Arts?" Mystimon realized. "But…it's…too much for us to take."

"For now, maybe, but what's the rush? It's not like we're going to fight anyone. We'll just take this scroll…" Jetsilphymon took the scroll down and rolled it before handing it towards Mystimon. "And we'll go someplace safe, and learn everything there is to know from this famous Nine Negations. You saw how powerful the generals have become after learning two or three arts described by the scroll. Imagine how strong _we'll_ become when we manage to learn all nine arts? Even Lucemon and Persiamon didn't achieve such accomplishment."

"We…?" Mystimon took the scroll, somewhat dazed at his accomplice's plan.

"Oh, so you rather learn this all alone?" Jetsilphymon said sharply.

"No! Of course not! It's just…" Mystimon gazed at Jetsilphymon with wonder before looking down at the dusty floor. "I actually thought that you wanted this all by yourself."

Jetsilphymon snorted. "And why, pray tell, would I force you to come along, if I wanted the Nine Negations by myself?" She smacked her wizard companion on the head. "Seriously, how dumb can you be, Mystimon? We've always watched each other's backs all these times, right? That's not gonna change now, especially when we're the only two survivors of SkullSatamon's forces. All the entombed servants are gone, the Generals are gone, and that backstabber's gone too. Good riddance!"

"Jetsilphymon…"

"And besides, two heads are better than one, aren't they? Let's face it; both of us aren't the brightest of Digimon around. Weren't you expelled from the digital kindergarten?"

"You didn't have to bring that up…"

"I was trying to make a point. So, together, we'll help each other out to master all the arts described here."

"Okay!" said Mystimon enthusiastically. "So…what should we do first?"

Jetsilphymon propped a finger under her chin, thinking. "Maybe the Power Propeller…it'll help us to reach Mega level. The rest will be easy after we're both Megas."

"Megas?" Mystimon said dreamily. "I wonder what I'll become. How long will it take for us to learn it?"

Jetsilphymon shrugged. "Dunno. Shouldn't be too long though for us to at least get a grasp on three or four of the arts. I'd say eight to ten years for us to properly digivolve to Mega."

"That's good enough. So after we master all the arts, what should we do?"

Jetsilphymon smiled deviously. "By that time, we're gonna be two of the most powerful Digimon around. We'll take over the Digital World as its empress and emperor!"

"Wow!" Mystimon crowed. "Hey, does that mean that you and I… OWWWW!!" He pressed his hand on his swelling right cheek, where Jetsilphymon had slapped him.

"In your dreams, you dumb oaf!" Jetsilphymon walked out of the library in a huff.

Mystimon stared at her retreating back dreamily. "Empress and emperor…empress and emperor…empress Jetsilphymon and emperor Mystimon…"

"MYSTIMON!!"

"Eep! Coming, Jetsilphymon!"

Though they didn't know it then, in a distant future they would rise up to be two of the most fearsome overlords the Digital World had ever known. But that was still so far ahead and they still had a lot to learn. For now, they were just Mystimon and Jetsilphymon, former servants of SkullSatamon. And that was how they were going to be for the next few years to come, before they finally reached their Mega levels…

xxx

xxx

The _not_ too distant future…

A hulking dinosaur in heavy red armor trampled the road of the city of Kuala Lumpur as alarms blared all over the city. The city was partially deserted – this wasn't new to the people, who upon the Digimon's appearance into their city, had smartly retreated to safer grounds. They would remain there until this threat had been eliminated.

The dinosaur roared, angry and irritated of the furious sound, and thus loaded the cannon on its right arm towards one of the building.

A crimson orb slammed on its body instead. The dinosaur grunted and was pushed back, but otherwise was unhurt. It grunted and looked up, its glowing red eyes flaring amidst the midday. It was forced to squint; the attacker had chosen an exact spot where the afternoon sun was shining to hover at. It would be difficult to gaze directly at the attacker.

"Ah, ah, ah, RiseGreymon," said the attacker. It was a birdman, lightly armored over his chest. His steel visor glinted amidst the sunlight, and his disheveled dark red hair fluttered due to the soft breeze. From the waist and below he had an eagle's pair of strong feathered legs, ending with formidable talons. "Why don't you go back to wherever you came from?" the Silphymon suggested.

RiseGreymon roared and pointed its cannon towards Silphymon. _"Trident…"_

A howl was heard as a streak of yellow knocked RiseGreymon's cannon sideways. The streak of light zipped away in a zigzag pattern between two buildings, heading skyward until it landed on the rooftop of a building not too far from where Silphymon was hovering. The streak solidified and revealed a fox-like creature within it. The fox had white fur on the face with dark brown lining, and cream fur coated its body. What was most peculiar on this fox's appearance however was its tail – instead of a typical long fluffy tail this fox's tail came in a form of a sharply accented, S-shaped, blue metallic blade. It let out a low grunt. "He's really strong." Its voice clearly indicated that it was a male.

"What do you expect of those from the Greymon line?" said Silphymon dryly. "We're gonna need another Ultimate for this, Reppamon."

"I know, but I don't see him around him just yet," said the fox – Reppamon. "Why don't you just go Mega and deal with him?"

"The idea is to make you two stronger, not me," replied Silphymon. "The threats are getting more frequent and I can't always bail you two out."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Reppamon said. "I wish he'd just hurry up."

From a distance, on top of particularly tall building, there stood two teens wearing peculiarly patented sunglasses, which made them looked urbanely stylish. One was a girl in two low pigtails. She had on a purple top, a denim jacket and a pair of white jeans. Beside her was a tall, wiry male with closely cropped black hair, clad in white buttons-down and khakis.

The girl pressed a finger on a small button at the right side of her glasses' ear piece. "Is he going to come here?"

"_Ganesh is on his way to Ops, Debbie,"_ replied a disembodied voice. _"But until he's there you and Meng will have to keep RiseGreymon at bay."_

"Maybe I should just let Opie go Mega," said Debbie. "He can take care of RiseGreymon quickly."

"_Do so only if the RiseGreymon's uncontrollable,"_ instructed the voice. _"Apollomon and Dianamon seem to have found abundant supplies of willing brutes to send to our world and the frequency of the attacks have risen as of late. You and Opie can't take care of everything by yourselves. For now, tell Opie and Reppamon to hold RiseGreymon at bay. Lead it to an abandoned warehouse which is nearby, I'm sending you the digital map to your sunglasses."_

"Okay," said Debbie. "Meng, you're good with maps. You read it."

Liu Meng nodded and examined the map. He turned to his left and pointed one hand forward. "The warehouse is just a few blocks away, south. Luckily we're already at the outskirt of KL."

"OPIE!" Debbie cried, waving her hand. "Lead RiseGreymon to the abandoned warehouse district!"

"Right!" Silphymon nodded.

"_Debbie, Meng, good news. Ganesh's here. I'm teleporting him to your location now."_

No sooner than the voice had spoken, a white streak of light appeared before Debbie and Liu Meng. The light dissipated quickly and a dark-skinned boy with curly brown hair, wearing a pair of sunglasses similar to Debbie and Liu Meng, stepped out. Beside him was a green-furred monkey in a leopard-skin toga, holding a slingshot.

"I was thinking that you won't show up," said Liu Meng.

"Sorry," said Ganesh, chuckling nervously. "You know my sister..."

"No time to waste," said Debbie. "That RiseGreymon's a tough one."

"Right." Ganesh took out a D4-Digivice and pointed it towards the monkey beside him. "Ready, Monmon?"

"Yep. Let me have it!" The monkey declared. A wave of green light escaped the Digivice and engulfed Monmon, transforming him to a taller, humanoid simian.

_**Monmon digivolve to…Apemon!**_

"REPPAMON!" Liu Meng shouted. "Ganesh and Apemon are here! Get ready for a DNA digivolution!"

"Go on," said Silphymon towards Reppamon. "I'll distract RiseGreymon until you two are one."

Reppamon nodded, and streaked towards his partner. "Finally!"

Liu Meng and Ganesh pointed their D4 Digivices towards Reppamon and Apemon. "DNA digivolve!"

Wave of yellow light washed over Reppamon and green light showered over Apemon. They morphed into two motes of light that coalesced around each other.

_**Reppamon…!**_

_**Apemon…!**_

_**DNA digivolve to….**_

The two motes merged, creating an explosion of purple light. An echoic, neighing sound was heard and they all saw a quadruped figure with wings flying out from the light. It was a magnificent creature – a horse with brown fur on its torso, green fur lined with gold on his face and a pair of shining white wings. A formidable crimson horn jutted out from its forehead and orange fluffy tail swished back and forth from its back. It was a unicorn or a Pegasus, depending on one's interpretation. However, the teens simply knew it as…

_**QILINMON!!**_

xxx

xxx

A gurgling laugh came from an adorable baby boy who was balanced on a young man's lap. The man was seated before a console, observing the battle closely on a holographic screen, but the baby's crows pulled his attention from the battle. He gazed lovingly at the baby and tickled the baby's chin.

"This is when it's going to be interesting," he whispered to the baby. "Watch Papa and his DigiWira save the day."

The baby cooed and as if understanding his father's words, leaned back to his father's body. "That's my good boy," said the father, pressing his palm lightly on the baby's small body. Suddenly his sharp gray eyes caught two blurs that were hopping from the floor, bouncing on top of one another, before they landed on the console table. "Whoa there, Fufumon, SnowBotamon! Get down from there before you hurt yourself!"

The two Fresh-level Digimon turned to look at the young man with their black eyes, chattering baby language back at him. But they did stop right before reaching the glowing holographic screen, which attracted their attention in the first place. The baby giggled and gurgled back towards the two Digimon, his arms flailing.

The man looked down at his son, raising an eyebrow up. "What are you three talking about, hmm? Are you talking about me?" His son merely cooed in return, revealing a toothless grin. He shook his head and stood up, scooping Fufumon and SnowBotamon as well before walking towards a baby playpen. He released the two restless Digimon inside the playpen, ignoring their indignant protests, and then laid down his son as gently as he could.

"Now you three play nice," the man said, and took his seat before the console again, watching the battle between Silphymon, Qilinmon and the recent threat he'd identified as RiseGreymon.

xxx

xxx

Silphymon and Qilinmon managed to force RiseGreymon into heading towards the city's abandoned district. The people had been advised to vacate at the area months ago, ever since the first Digimon threat reappeared after ten years of peace. The district was the first place attacked and since the place was totally leveled by the first threat, it was agreed that should any Digimon threat reappeared elsewhere they would be brought to the destroyed district where no harm could come to the people of the city. The people had been warned that a grand restoration such as what happened after the epic battle with one known as _Reapermon_ was no longer an option. The legendary Wira Digital team had retired after losing their powers in restoring the city.

"_Knowledge of the Swift!"_ Summoned Qilinmon, his whole body shimmered with golden light before he streaked back and forth towards RiseGreymon.

RiseGreymon let out a primordial roar; its body was heavily blistered by Qilinmon's attack. It attempted to claw on Qilinmon when the winged unicorn was close enough but Qilinmon was able to evade it. Before it could launch an attack, a spectral blast hit its head from the sky, further irritating it to no end. It was a wild one, not well-versed in the strategy of a battle which its two foes were implementing against it. Silphymon's attack however didn't do much against it other than pushing it back several steps, crashing on an abandoned construction site.

Three streaks of light appeared on top of a building farthest from the battle site. Debbie, Liu Meng and Ganesh emerged from lights.

"_Guys, you better wrap this up soon,"_ said the disembodied voice. _"RiseGreymon is a strong Ultimate. Its armor is able to withstand many attacks. The longer it's around the more damages it'll inflict. We can't wait. Tell Opie to digivolve and together with Qilinmon deliver the finishing blows before things get worse."_

Debbie nodded, and took out her Digivice. "Opie! Go Mega now!"

_**Silphymon, mega digivolve to… Valkyrimon!**_

"On three," said Valkyrimon, raising his sword up. "Three!! _FERAL SWORD!"_

An icy wolf aura was projected from the birdman's sword. It howled and loomed towards RiseGreymon, who made the mistake of looking up. RiseGreymon was partially covered with frostbites due to the chilling effect of the wolf. It could barely move, which left it open for another attack which would come its way straight from its front.

Qilinmon withdrew several meters back and flapped his wings. _"Reformation Wave!"_ Streams of white light showered upon RiseGreymon, and combined with Valkyrimon's sword attack, the force proved to be too much for RiseGreymon to deal. It let out a pained howl before bursting into data.

"_Alright guys, good job. Prepare for teleportation back to Ops."_

xxx

xxx

The young man who had been watching the battle via the holographic screen set his eyes on a peculiar metallic helmet which was placed on its holder beside his chair. He took the helmet and carefully wore it before placing his hand on a palm reader on the console. The palm reader let out a faint white light upon recognizing his palm and fingerprints, and the spherical gem on the ring that he wore on the middle finger momentarily lit up. He closed his eyes and concentrated, blocking out the excited squeals coming from the playpen.

At the far corner of the dimly lit chamber where the man was at, an oval platform whirred to life. The platform released a silvery glow towards the roof, before bluish white light orbs materialized out of thin air. Several figures emerged in swirls of light orbs. The light dimmed and Debbie, Liu Meng and Ganesh stepped down from the podium. Beside Debbie was Opie, back in his Muchomon form. Trotting behind Ganesh was Monmon, while perched on Liu Meng's right shoulder was a white pipe fox with curious-looking blue eyes – a Digimon called Kudamon.

"Welcome back," said the man as he pulled his hand out from the palm reader. He then proceeded by removing the helmet and placed it back on its customary place on the console. As the teens stepped down from the podium he rose from his seat and swept back his flattened dark hair.

The teens removed their sunglasses. "That dino has got to be the toughest Ultimate we've ever fought," Debbie began.

"Imagine having to call on a Mega to wipe the floor on that guy!" Opie added in disbelief.

"It's been known to happen," said the man calmly. "But this is indeed the first time they sent you a really strong Ultimate to deal with. Something's up. If I know Apollomon and Dianamon, which I actually _do,_ they're only testing you to see how far you're able to deal with Digimon threats." The man's face darkened a little. "They were never this strong ten years ago," he added as an afterthought.

"You _know_ them, Abang Adam?" asked Liu Meng, puzzled.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do, Meng," said Adam – now a young man of twenty four. "So does your sister, Ganesh's sister, Debbie's brother, and my brother."

"Whoa! No way!" exclaimed Ganesh.

"Apollomon and Dianamon were merely Champions when _we_ first encountered them. They caused some troubles but nothing we couldn't handle. Your sister's Fairymon and Dianamon's Champion form once had a rather vicious rivalry if I recalled correctly; any encounter they had would usually result in a catfight." Adam nodded at Ganesh, smirking at the surprised look on the dark-skinned teen's face. "They kind of faded out from view when the real dangers arose and we've never seen them around after SkullSatamon was thwarted for good. Looks like they've been staying low all these times, waiting for a perfect moment to strike."

"You've never told us about this before," said Debbie.

"I didn't know that they were the same Digimon only until two nights ago, when Seraphimon and I went scouting at the Digital World." Adam grimaced a little. "Even the other _first generation_ DigiWira don't know about this, except for my wife of course, I took Rosemon along as well. My brother would flip if he finds out about this."

Liu Meng snickered. "Oh, I bet he will. But he and my sister went out for a movie two nights ago, after he came back from his tour," the wiry teen supplied.

"I know about that date. I plan to use that as reason if your sister and future brother-in-law ask me about it."

"_My_ sister and brother-in-law won't like this one bit either," pointed out Ganesh.

"Your sister's eight-and-a-half months pregnant and your brother-in-law has been putting out lots of hours at the office," returned Adam dryly.

Debbie giggled. "Abang feels that he really needs to show Uncle Nadarajah that he's fit to run NVG Telecommunications Corps. But don't worry; he'll come for the reunion. I reminded him just this morning. Kak Gayathri reminded him too. Seriously, the older he gets the more forgetful he becomes," the brown-haired girl said with a huff.

"Oh. Ok then. That's good."

"I told him you'd fire me if he didn't show up. You should've seen his face."

Adam raised an eyebrow, amused. He faintly remembered Debbie as a six-year-old when they were first introduced. Now, the girl had grown to a full blown teenager of sixteen, whom Adam had no doubt would turn the heads of every guy who walked past her. As the most experienced of the second-generation DigiWira team with the strongest Digimon partner, it was agreed unanimously that Debbie was the leader of the coalition.

Liu Meng was Liu Ying's 16-year-old brother. When he was eleven a DigiEgg appeared at the Chang's household, intended for him. The egg eventually became Kudamon, and due to the peace that reigned the Digital World and their country, Kudamon never digivolved farther until three months ago when the second-generation team was inducted. Looking at him, one could say that Liu Meng was exactly a male carbon-copy to Liu Ying. His partner's Champion form also somewhat mirrored Youkomon – both Reppamon and Youkomon were foxes.

Ganesh was the youngest – the 15-year-old adopted brother to Gayathri. Ganesh's biological mother had passed away due to cancer when he was five, which forced Ganesh to stay at an orphanage. During that time Gayathri had paid heed to her friend Willis's advice on coping with the death of a loved one. She had gone to visit that very same orphanage and was smitten instantly by Ganesh, whom upon their first meeting had latched on her like a lifeline. The people at the orphanage had informed Gayathri that Ganesh hadn't spoken to anyone after his mother's passing; Gayathri was the first person he had spoken to, for he recognized her as a famed DigiWira. She visited the boy often and finally persuaded her parents to officially adopt the boy. A year later, during an excursion at the Digital World, Gayathri and Ganesh encountered Monmon who was chased by a wild Tyrannomon. The rampant Champion proved to be too fierce for Fairymon alone, and it was then that Monmon digivolved to Apemon. Tyrannomon was successfully thwarted and Monmon ended up as Ganesh's partner.

A sharp excited squeal was heard, snapping Adam out of his thoughts. Immediately Debbie darted towards the playpen and lifted up the baby boy from it. She held him close to her. "How are you, Zad-Zad? Did you see us fight that evil monster? Oooh, you did?" She spoke to little Aizad as if he understood what she was saying. Aizad merely let out a jumbled baby-speech befitting the five-months-old baby he was. Debbie didn't seem to mind, only proceeding to kiss the baby's soft cheeks.

"Here's what Aizad is thinking: why is this _auntie_ speaking to me like I don't understand a word she said?" Liu Meng said with a chuckle.

"Actually, I think Aizad really doesn't understand, he is too young," Kudamon pointed out.

"Not the point, Kudamon," said Liu Meng, exasperated. "The point here is that Debbie doesn't have to make that babyish voice she makes."

"But why not?" Kudamon asked naively, confused.

"Um…never mind."

Debbie stuck out her tongue towards Liu Meng, while waving Aizad's tiny fist towards the boy. "Ignore him, Zad-Zad. He's just jealous I'm paying more attention to you than him." The baby actually blew raspberries towards Liu Meng, which caused a round of laughter from everyone inside the dimly-lit area.

"Maybe he does understand what you guys are saying," said Monmon, scratching his head as he watched the exchange with interest.

"I can't wait till my nieces are born," said Ganesh.

"Careful with what you wish for," cautioned Adam. "One baby is already a handful – though I love every moment of it. I can't imagine _two_ baby girls…" He paused, noticing Debbie playing with his son, while Ganesh and Liu Meng were lounging at the sofas with their partners. Something instantly clicked in his mind.

He pointed an accusing finger to three teens. "Oh, _no _you're not! You had me fooled there. Debbie, give me my son back. And then all three of you march right back upstairs and resume your shift. It's…" He glanced towards the clock, "almost 3PM. I can't imagine poor Halina and Leo doing the entire shift by themselves this holiday season."

"Aww, he caught us." Debbie handed Aizad back to Adam. The three teens then went to the coat hanger and took three aprons and caps that were hung there before exiting the chamber in a stumble, slipping them on as they headed up.

Adam chuckled and secured little Aizad over his right shoulder. He looked back towards the playpen. "Fufumon, SnowBotamon, come along now. I don't trust you two to stay here at Ops."

While waiting for the two Fresh Digimon to catch up with them, Adam took a moment to look around the Ops. It was the new DigiWira team's base of operation, fondly referred only as _Ops _by the team he was now mentoring. The Ops was constructed with Manny and Jackie's helps, modified from the basement of the **Wira Digiport** above.

Jackie had retired from his position as computer instructor at their school when he'd received the order from the Guardian Beasts to instruct the Indonesian Digidestined team just a couple of months after SkullSatamon's defeat. However, their mentor always made a point to make frequent visits, and for a couple of years he had been instrumental in helping Adam incorporate some of the Digital World technology in the advanced computers and equipments Adam had devised in the Ops. Manny had lent a hand with most of the programming – he and Adam were almost at equal ground when it came to computers now – being roommates while in university – while Jackie had helped him in _realizing_ several incongruous ideas Adam had for his DigiWira team.

The computers, for instance, had been secretly linked up with the satellites for Adam to receive visualizations. With a live personal telecast, Adam was able to watch the battle and guide his team to fight efficiently. The holographic screen was Jackie's brainchild – he claimed to have salvaged it from an ancient base of operations for a particular group of digital humans which, save for one member, had been killed by a group of renegade Digimon known as the Dark Masters eons ago.

With Jackie and Manny's helps, three devices that would have won Adam Nobel Prizes were created to further aid the new DigiWira team: the _Cerebro_, the teleporter and the sunglasses.

Sometime after the final battle with SkullSatamon, he had realized that their powers were not really gone, but they were as good as, suppressed to the point of near-absence into the rings Grademon had given them. Adam had hoped to find a way to augment what little power of empathy and teleportation that the White DigiSphere-ring possessed to a point that he could teleport his team to battle sites, to increase efficiency as well as help preserve their privacy from the media. Jackie had thought that such device could _probably_ be created, and when Adam and Manny had completed the rough work by modifying a common biker's helmet, Jackie then took the helmet to the Digital World, alongside some notes and thoughts that he had asked Adam put in beforehand. Jackie returned not too long after with a brand new, _workable,_ Cerebro – named after the device from his favorite show when he was younger. However, while the Cerebro did increase his empathic ability, he realized that he could not control the finer aspects of his teleportation any longer. The teleportation process that resulted from Adam's amplified empathy was too random, bordering on dangerous. Jackie suggested a second machine to correct this flaw.

The platform which now stood at one of the corner was constructed in the same manner as the Cerebro helmet, and once again Jackie had insisted that Adam included his hopes, thoughts and other details about how he wanted the new _teleporter device _to work, before taking them all to the Digital World. He returned with a workable teleporter, which Adam could use to teleport anything, or anyone, to any place he had set in mind. However, another flaw was found: while the teleporter efficiently teleported anything to wherever Adam wanted, it could not summon it back. Jackie had explained that it was the best he could do as the ring's power is still very limited. A third device was needed to rectify the problem.

He realized that this particular problem was actually easier to get around with. They simply created microchips which would emit a specific energy signature that the teleporter and the computers at Ops would recognize, and wrote a program to act as a reverse to the teleportation process. They tried their theory by embedding a prototype microchip with a test-subject, teleported it away, and were successful in summoning the test-subject back, as well as everything else within an arms-radius from the chip. All was well, until Adam realized that the teens would probably lose the microchips if they were asked to keep them – they were _very_ small. Once again, Jackie stepped in and Adam diligently wrote what he had in mind. The digital man returned with stylish sunglasses with the chips embedded within the frames. He had also added extra functions on the sunglasses, so that they also served as communication devices, the Digimon Analyzer, as well as with the capability to download support programs from the Ops mainframe by using special material that could only be found in the Digital World as the sunglasses' lenses. The special sunglasses were also a great help in preserving the DigiWira's identities when they had to move in public. _And they look good in them too_.

Adam sighed. Their own cover was blown and it took nearly a year and with the then-reigning Sultan of Malaysia's ordinance for them to regain their lost privacies. But the damage had been done; wherever they went people would recognize them due to their pictures being published in tabloids and the internet. They had remained as private and secretive as possible, only granting interviews when all of them were available (and if they were in the mood for it). The offers for product endorsements, modeling, acting and many others were accepted sparingly.

However, Adam also appreciated the fame for some of the perks it gave him. For instance, he was able to get the name **Wira Digiport** trademarked before anybody else thought about it. It was his pride and joy, second only to his son, built from the money he had earned by working as a freelance webmaster in his sister's stead during his university years as well as from the product endorsements he had done, and also with financial help from his sister, brother-in-law and JD. It was opened just short after his graduation, and within a year he was able to pay them back, for the Wira Digiport proved to be a big hit and a profitable business. With no debts hanging on his belt and a stable income in his hands, Adam surprised everyone when he took a bold move at the age of 22 and proposed to Dina. Skipping engagement, they got married straightaway, and exactly nine months later their bundle of joy – Muhammad Aizad Daniel – was born, named after Adam's deceased older brother _and_ after Adam's sworn big brother.

Aizad fussed slightly, apparently bored, before keeping himself busy by nibbling on the collar of Adam's black dress shirt. Adam chuckled lightly and held one finger at his son. The baby promptly abandoned his father's shirt collar and seized the finger with his tiny fingers, trying to work on putting it inside his mouth. Adam gazed down at the infant, wondering how someone so little had him so wrapped up in those tiny fingers of his. This little miracle of his was also blessed with the partnership of not one, but _two_ Digimon: Fufumon and SnowBotamon, both hatched from the DigiEggs he had found after the battle with SkullSatamon.

They exited the Ops and walked up the stairs, where pictures decorated the walls along the corridor of stone stairs. The pictures depicted most of the DigiWira, individually or separate shots, as well as snapshots of important events in their lives – birthdays, holidays, accomplishments, graduations and marriages, among many others. At the end of the flight of stairs was a book cabinet. Upon reaching there Adam stretched up to pull one of the book from the case. A soft rumbling sound followed as the book case rotated half way, revealing a well-lit chamber at the other side of the revolving bookcase. This was the private rec-room, connecting the kitchen and the dining area outside.

The case returned to their original state after they exited the hidden entrance.

"There you are!" A beautiful woman in a chef attire stood up from the sofa.

"Look, there's Mama!" Adam took his son's tiny wrist and waved towards Dina, his wife of two years. "Hi, beautiful," he said, leaning down towards Dina for a peck on the cheek. He thought fleetingly of how they were about the same height when they were 14. Now his wife just reached his chin.

To his surprise Dina held his chin, shifting it slightly so that their lips locked instead.

Aizad let out a protest of being squeezed in the middle of his parents, and made his point by lightly thumping on both his parents. Adam and Dina laughed and withdrew away.

"Well, thank you," said Dina to her husband and son. "Although I don't think I'm beautiful now. I smell of all sort of food." She made a face. "I will be, though, for our reunion dinner tonight."

Aizad squealed, finally free from being sandwiched. "Our baby says that he thinks his mother is always beautiful," informed Adam.

"Oh?" Dina leaned down to the baby and tickled his cheek. The baby crowed with delight at his mother's light touch. "Is he? Well, Zad, can you tell Papa that Mama thinks that he is the most-handsomest guy around and that she's glad that he's decided to marry her?"

Adam smirked. "I heard that."

Dina smiled back as she gazed at her husband and son. "Are you sure it's okay with you to watch over our boy, b?" Dina asked, using the affectionate nickname she had given him. The 'b' is from 'hubby'; she had used that nickname for Adam ever since they were married.

"D, don't you know me by now? You can ask me to become a househusband to watch over Zad and I still won't mind." In return, Adam nicknamed his wife 'd', simply short for Dina.

Dina laughed. "I better get going before things in the kitchen get even more chaotic. Come to think of it, I think we need another chef for this holiday season." Dina had graduated with a degree of culinary arts and was now the head chef at the Wira Digiport. Hadn't it been for his active lifestyle – mentoring the new DigiWira and playing squash, tennis and badminton during his free time – Adam had no doubt that he would put on a _lot_ of weight – his wife's cooking was marvelous. Even his sister and the other DigiWira had unanimously agreed to that one fact.

"Really?" Adam considered it. "I'll put an ad in the newspaper right away."

"You will? Thank you so much, b. Love you." This time around, she stood on her toes and kissed his cheek lightly.

"Love you too. Have fun cooking. Say bye to Mama, Zad." He waved his son's hand towards Dina before exiting the rec-room, ending up at the café's counter, leaving Fufumon and SnowBotamon inside the rec-room.

From there, he observed everything that was going on in his café. The café was almost packed, and most of his patrons were teens, half of them had Digimon partners of their own. He saw the three DigiWira he was mentoring – Debbie, Liu Meng and Ganesh – moving from one table to another, entertaining the patrons whom were mostly their schoolmates. He also saw two non-Digidestined teens he had taken in to work as backups whenever the DigiWira were needed in a battle. Halina and Leo both understood the nature of their jobs and so far, whenever the DigiWira were needed for their _actual_ job, the two were able to run the café efficiently. Debbie, Liu Meng and Ganesh didn't actually need the job, but worked there as a favor for him, as well as to have extra money for their partners' mountain-high appetites with the Digimon battles they were partaking, so their jobs at the Wira Digiport were more on for them to earn pocket moneys. Halina and Leo however were his full-fledged employees, as well as five others who would step in for the evening shift.

The Wira Digiport was established with the concept of a safe haven for teens to hang out, like a youth center, in mind. Ever since it was opened three years ago, it had always attracted a lot of teens for various reasons. Adam and Dina had selected the foods that teens _and _Digimon loved eating, and some others were stuffs that Dina would come up with, so the menu was never really the same everyday. In the morning and evenings they were also able to strike deals with vendors who wanted to have their foods added to the Wira Digiport's menus, so that added more to the variety of the menu. It was a symbiotic relationship – those vendors benefited with guaranteed businesses and the Wira Digiport profited.

The café also boasted high-speed wireless internet connection, so those with laptops could easily bring their laptops to the café and took advantage of the free wireless service – provided they'd ordered something. Sights of college students with their laptops, buried in their assignments, were somewhat a normalcy. Those without laptops would be able to use the computers provided in the 'Cyberspace' section – a cybercafé linked up with the Wira Digiport. Widescreen TVs were placed on all corners of the café, usually airing music videos or sport events that would sure to draw in crowds.

There was a small podium at the farthest left corner of the café, where anyone who'd brave enough to have their musical talents recognized could perform, and if they were good Adam would pay them to perform. This made Adam and the Wira Digiport well-known names for those who were eager to break-in the music industry, especially when it was no secret that Adam was the younger brother of the very famous _Josh Daniel._

However, none could deny that the Wira Digiport's _main_ attraction was the fact that it was owned by one of the legendary Wira Digital, and the occasional appearances of the other four Wira Digital. Many simply hung out in hope of meeting JD, Manny, Liu Ying or Gayathri, as Adam they had met almost everyday. There was a sketch of the five Wira Digital which Adam had bought and hung on one of the walls, and he had made it a point to look for articles about them as well as the pictures of the products they endorsed to decorate the café – and as a result he'd receive the money due to the café's endorsement of the products.

The café's counter was currently being manned by Halina, and she smiled upon noticing Adam and Aizad. Returning the bespectacled young woman's smile, Adam sat Aizad on the counter, careful not to let go for Aizad was still too young to sit independently.

The baby suddenly shook excitedly, crowing in delight, his round gray eyes staring towards the café's entrance. Adam followed his son's gaze and saw a statuesque man in a red cap and trendy sunglasses who had just entered the establishment. The man was moving somewhat suspiciously, looking around him with careful assessment, as if not wanting to be recognized. He wasn't really out of the ordinary – he was dressed in a red unbuttoned shirt with a black tank top underneath, and a pair of jeans. Blond hair that reached his nape escaped the cap. The man saw that he was being watched, grinned lopsidedly and strode to them.

"Oh…my…God…" They heard Halina whispered in shock. Her hold on the cash machine slipped, resulting in a loud bang that attracted the attraction of the whole patrons. The man with a cap flinched slightly, while Halina sheepishly apologized and looked down, her cheeks visibly reddened.

_Poor Halina. She really has it bad, _Adam thought with a smile, as the man sat at the tall bar stools at the other side of the counter. He tickled baby Aizad on the cheek. The baby giggled, flailing his hands excitedly towards his uncle-cum-godfather.

"Hey, Josh," whispered Adam. "Ten seconds before people begin to realize that you're here."

"Adam," acknowledged JD, nodding. "I figured. But I had to try." He tapped his cap and sunglasses, and grinned as he seized Aizad from Adam, kissing the baby on the brows. "How's my little godson? Uncle Josh misses you so much, you know?" JD was Aizad's godfather – he had insisted to become one after Adam announced Dina's pregnancy.

"You're blowing your own cover," Adam pointed out, as two boys approached JD from the back.

"Excuse me, Abang," said one boy politely. He was holding a notepad and a pen, looking at JD hopefully. "Are you Josh Daniel the famous singer?"

"Of course he is," the other boy whispered urgently, elbowing the first boy. "It's so obvious."

JD handed back Aizad to Adam, pulled out his sunglasses and grinned at the two boys. "That's me," he admitted, eyeing the notepad. "Can I help you boys?"

"Wow! It's really you!" squealed the first boy in delight. "Can…can I have your autograph?"

"Say please," chided the other boy. "Forgive my brother, Abang Josh. But we really love your songs and…and it's his birthday. I guess he's a bit too excited to be able to meet you."

JD considered the smaller of the two boys before taking out a marker pen Adam handed out deftly to him, pulled out his red cap, signed it before putting the cap on the smaller boy's head. "There you go. Happy birthday!"

The two boys looked like they could have fainted there and then. "Wow, thank you, Abang!" They scurried away excitedly towards a table, where they were rapidly explaining what had just happened to their parents.

Adam took a moment to gaze at his sworn older brother. JD hadn't really changed much since the first time he had met him, except that there was a matured look on his face. He had grown really tall, at 6'3". His hair was kept just past his nape, stylishly messed up, complimenting the handsome, devil-may-care look which he'd always cultivated since school. Now at 26, JD was an accomplished singer and songwriter, mostly in rock, pop and acoustic genres. He had a massive fan base at Malaysia, his homeland Australia, as well as New Zealand, and was pretty much known in the South East Asia region. His albums were always bestsellers, topping the charts for the three aforementioned countries. There were talks of him expanding his horizon to Europe and the United States, but nothing was set to stone just yet and JD was not in a hurry. His light-tanned skin and impressive physique bore evidence of how he was also an avid active sports enthusiast, with racing and motocross topping his list of interests. In what free time he had, he'd also modeled in various fashion events, for his looks, height and physical form was in high demand. Despite that, he had unwittingly broken many hearts when at the top of his career he'd announced that he already had a steady girlfriend – a law student – with whom he'd been going out with since secondary school.

As of today, JD had just completed his two months long concert tour to the three countries. The tour also gave him the opportunity to visit Jade, who was doing his surgical program at New Zealand, as well as his folks who had settled back at Australia following his father's retirement. Jasmine however remained at Malaysia, for she was currently engaged to Anding.

Having earned a nationality status due to his contribution to the country, JD was now back in Malaysia, currently hiding from the public to enjoy some rest and relaxation.

"You've just blown your cover _big time_," snickered Adam, noticing excited whispers ensuing from the other patrons who had witnessed JD signing an autograph for the two boys.

"Ah, so there's no need for this anymore." JD took out his Digivice and released Agumon from it.

"I told you it won't work, Josh," said Agumon, brushing digital dusts from his body. "You're just too well known." The raptor cast a look around the establishment, noticing a couple of teens standing up. "Ensue more fans in ten, nine, eight…"

"That's why I'm gonna kidnap this little cutie pie while I'm here," said JD, and seized little Aizad quickly. "With him I can say that I'm busy doting on my favorite godson."

"Kidnap?" Adam asked, amused. "What's the ransom?"

"Whatever that Dina's come up with today, on the house," said JD, smirking.

"Don't forget me too! I need proper meal!" Agumon requested. "I'm getting tired of fat-rich, nutrition-poor foods from the tours…" JD glared at him. "Shutting up now."

"Well, I think you're gonna love today's special then: seafood pasta." Agumon brightened up instantly. He gestured towards Halina, who was gaping at JD. "Just tell Halina what you want."

"Two seafood pastas! I'll get on with it!" Halina offered quickly, and nearly stumbled down her seat in the process.

Adam considered her. "Okay. Go ahead. I'll man the counter." His eyes gazed the entrance as a woman in a smart business suit and skirt entered. The woman was willowy, her black hair tied in a stylish bun with several strands framing her elegant face. Beside her was a cream-furred canine Digimon. "Well, well, look who's here."

JD turned and grinned widely. "Ying! Over here!"

"Hey, Labramon!" Agumon called, his claws balancing the excited Fufumon and SnowBotamon who had bolted out from the rec-room upon hearing their favorite 'Uncle Agumon' coming. Patamon and Lalamon were both surprisingly very strict when it came to their digi-children. Adam just hoped that Agumon would not mention of Patamon and Lalamon's notable absence.

25-year-old Liu Ying saw them, smiled, and joined them at the counter. "I thought I'd meet you here," she told JD. She swept one look around the café and waved at her younger brother before turning back towards them. "I called your apartment but nobody picked up the phone, and your cell was off. Luckily your Digivice signal is up."

"I'm on holiday," said JD. "If I switched on my cell my agent would be calling me nonstop for interviews, offers, you get the drift."

Liu Ying merely laughed and kissed Aizad's soft chubby cheeks.

Adam took a moment to reflect on this other close friend of his. Liu Ying now was on her way to become a lawyer, which wasn't really surprising due to her strong sense of justice. Out of all the DigiWira members, only she and JD weren't married _yet_, although they had discussed about it. Their relationship was known nation-wide, as she sometimes accompanied JD in functions where JD was involved or invited in. In fact, her and JD marrying was one of the nation's anticipated marriages, after Adam and Dina tied the knot two years ago, followed by Manny and Gayathri just a year after. Everyone saw the pattern and the speculations begun. Liu Ying and JD agreed that they weren't rushing in tying the knot. Liu Ying still had one semester to go before graduating. JD still had several obligations related to his line of work that he needed to clear before even considering a _long _break, let alone marriage. And the two of them had been attending some courses together on marriage life – something Liu Ying insisted on doing because she wanted to do it right. JD simply went along with whatever she wanted – he preferred quizzing Adam and Manny about it.

"Looks like I'm early," said the lawyer-to-be. "I don't see Manny and Gayathri, and Kak Lisha and Abang Abu."

"I think they'll be here soon," said JD, checking his watch. "Manny told me an hour ago that he's already on his way home to fetch Gayathri. They should be on their way now."

No sooner than said, the said couple entered the establishment, further drawing the patrons' attention. It wasn't often that all FIVE legendary DigiWira were gathered together. Manny was still in his business attire but without the tie. He was assisting Gayathri, who was heavily pregnant with their twin girls. Penguinmon and Floramon followed behind them closely. Gayathri seemed exhausted, but at the same time, in her flowery maternity gown Gayathri seemed to glow with a motherhood aura. Adam recalled Dina exuding the same glow when she was carrying their son.

"Hey, you guys came!" JD hollered, while securing his godson on his right shoulder. Aizad fussed, not appreciating his uncle's loudness, and made his point by slapping one damp hand on his uncle's unshaven stubble. "Ugh…is that drool?" JD questioned, laughing lightly. "Whoa there lil' guy, okay, okay…I'm sorry." Aizad stopped, crowing happily at his uncle's reaction.

Adam simply grinned before shifting his glance towards his other fellow DigiWira. He was about to greet them before JD beat him to it.

"Hi, big and puffy version of Gayathri," he cracked. Liu Ying lightly slapped his shoulder.

"I just want to go to the hospital right now and deliver Emmy and Geeta," said Gayathri, not bothered at all with JD's comment. She smiled brightly at the sight of Aizad. "Hey, handsome guy. In a week or two you'll be big brother to two little sisters." She planted a kiss on the baby's chubby cheek. The baby took the opportunity to grab a fistful of Gayathri's long curly hair, causing her to yelp with amusement. Adam quickly tried untangling her hair.

"This seems to be his new game lately," said Adam. Gayathri waved her hand dismissively, not minding the baby's little stunt at all.

"You've finally picked up names for them?" asked Liu Ying, smiling. Gayathri remained standing for she was too heavy to lift herself on the bar stool.

"Well, they are going to pop out soon and I want to be able to call them by names," said Gayathri, matter-of-factly.

"No, no. What I meant was, you've settled on Emmy and Geeta?"

"Yes. Actually the names are Emmelinda and Geeta Devi. Manny just wants one of the girl to have her name starting with the letter E like his name, and I want a girl to have her name starting with G, and at the same time I wanted one of them to carry Bel's name…I can't name her Belinda though because I agreed with Dina that we both will name our girls something that resembled Bel's name," said Gayathri, her bubbly tone turned thoughtful at the mention of her deceased best friend. She shook her head. "Manny and I spent a couple of nights figuring out what name that we can put, since my mother insisted that I named one of the girls with an Indian name to remind them of their heritage."

Manny merely let out a contented smile when the others' gaze shifted towards him. He looked like he hadn't enough sleep, but at the same time there was a certain glow evident in his face. Adam couldn't figure out what it was, but he thought that the glow somewhat mirrored the motherhood glow Gayathri was exuding.

_Fatherhood glow?_ Adam thought. _I wonder whether I looked like that when Dina was carrying Zad._

Gayathri suddenly let out a low grunt and bent down, clutching her protruded belly. Seeing that, Manny swiftly darted towards a table, spoke with the patrons, before pulling a vacant chair from the table.

"Here, honey. Sit down," Manny instructed. Gayathri did as she was told.

"Are you alright?" asked Liu Ying, alarmed.

"One baby kicking is hard enough, imagine two of them," said Gayathri with a tired smile. "It's been keeping me up all night. I really wish I can just go to the hospital and deliver them now instead of waiting around for two more weeks."

"Oh…" Liu Ying suddenly sent a fleeting uncomfortable look towards JD, before waving towards her brother. "Meng, is there any empty seat?"

"I'm on it!" Liu Meng called, scurrying to search for it.

"How's the office treating you?" JD asked Manny. "Heard that you've been working pretty hard lately?"

"Well, yeah. But I'll live…" Manny said.

Adam grinned. In merely two years and with a limited work experience (but an extensive curriculum vitae), Manny had soared the ranks in his father-in-law's NVG Telecommunications Corps. He had started out as a telecommunications engineer right after graduating, then was promoted to executive engineer position just after several few months following his overall excellent performance. At the same time, Gayathri was learning the ropes to manage the corporation as her father had reached retirement age, but found herself overwhelmed with the prospect of leading a famous company. Nonetheless she persevered with helps from Anding and Manny, though it was obvious that she wasn't enjoying herself. Her marriage with Manny however provided the excellent excuse for her to gracefully pull out of the CEO post – by handing the post to her husband. No one would question her decision, especially when she announced that she was pregnant with twins four months after their marriage. Her staunch support for Manny to become the company's CEO was met with practically no objection from the company's board of directors. After all, Gayathri and Manny were both renowned heroes – who'd want to get on their bad sides?

Manny had been shocked of her decision because the news came to him as a complete surprise – the news of him becoming CEO and the fact that he was going to be a father. Nonetheless, he dutifully accepted his post, and Adam knew that Manny would do great. After all, Manny had been a great help around the Ops. Over the years, he and Manny had grown pretty much as close as it was between him and JD, further set to stone when the two of them ended up as roommates when they were both enrolled in the same university. JD – who had decided that higher education was not for him when he'd leaped to stardom at the age of 18 – had been positively jealous and thrilled at the same time.

"You better," Gayathri told her husband, "because I'm planning to become a full-time housewife to care for our girls, and for the two DigiEggs that appeared eight months ago at our home."

"I know, honey," said Manny, smiling. "You've told me that for the twentieth times already."

"It's because you're so forgetful lately. All you know is work, work, work," Gayathri retorted, pouting, "I was wondering whether you'd forgotten about me and our girls."

Manny raised an eyebrow. Adam, JD and Liu Ying exchanged amused smirks – Gayathri was prone for some mild mood changes ever since she had gotten pregnant. _It's the hormones, they go haywire during pregnancies,_ Dina had told him when he asked her about it. Adam thought of how lucky he had been – Dina had an easy time with Aizad.

"Gayathri-akka! Manny-ana!" Ganesh called out for them, addressing them politely while maintaining his casualness with his older sister and brother-in-law. "One table's ready for you!"

"Great!" she called back brightly, her mood changed again. She quickly headed for the vacant table and just as quickly ordered something which Ganesh jotted diligently.

Manny just looked blankly at Adam. Adam grinned. "You better go sit with her, before her mood changes again."

"Don't I know it," said Manny with a small smile, before joining his wife.

"Hey, Adam," said Penguinmon. "I don't see Patamon anywhere. Where's that guy?"

Adam groaned inwardly. He had hoped to dodge Agumon asking him about it. He didn't expect the question coming from Penguinmon.

"Seraphimon and Rosemon are at the Digital World." His gaze spread to include JD and Liu Ying. "A village ran into some trouble with Apollomon and Dianamon this morning. They went there to investigate."

JD and Liu Ying immediately shot him dark looks. "Adam…"

"Hey, no chewing on me! I've told them to not take part in the fight. They're just there to assess the damage and help the villagers out. They should be back by dinner time." JD and Liu Ying still gave him dubious looks. "You know I can't go to the Digital World by myself ever since I started mentoring the new team," he pointed out. "That's why I sent Seraphimon and Rosemon. The Saints are with them as well. They'll be fine."

"Okay…" JD still looked unconvinced. "You want Agumon to go and help them? Gallantmon packs quite a firepower you know."

"There's no need. They've just sent a message to me this afternoon. Everything's fine. They'll be back just in time for the reunion."

JD was going to say something else before baby Aizad slowly nuzzled at the corner of his neck and yawned. That distracted him. "Uh oh. It's his bedtime?"

"He's been up for about four hours since his last nap. You want to hold him or do you want me to take him?" Adam asked, glad of the change of topic.

"Nah, it's fine. I can hold him."

"You sure? He kinda drools when he sleeps."

Amused, JD simply rubbed the back of the baby he was holding. "Just warn me when he does."

"I saw the news about today's battle." Liu Ying cast a look towards the second generation DigiWira. "How did they do?"

Adam beamed. "Great, actually. They remind me of us during our early days. Debbie and Opie are quite a combination since Opie can already reach Mega, but I can't have the team to rely on them alone, so right now I'm focusing on Liu Meng and Ganesh to learn harnessing their power as DigiWira. It's only a matter of time before their DNA-digivolved partner reaches Mega level too, but then again, their Ultimate, Qilinmon, is one of those Digimon who is more powerful than its level suggested."

Liu Ying nodded, once again observing her brother. Liu Meng was whispering something to Debbie, and Debbie laughed. A light crease appeared on her forehead. "I've been meaning to ask you this, since you see them almost everyday and I can never get a straight answer from Meng. Is there something going on between those two?"

Adam smirked. "Perhaps. I do know that Debbie and Ganesh are like siblings, since their older siblings are married to each other. She and Liu Meng though…the sparks are there. Why?"

Liu Ying smiled. "It just got me thinking: you and Josh are brothers," she began, now referring to her boyfriend by a more affectionate name instead of the nickname, "and when Josh and I are married, us three DigiWira are going to be a family. If my brother and Manny's sister end up as an item, won't that actually bind all five of us as a family?"

"You know…I've just realized that," said Adam, thinking of what Liu Ying had just said, "but even if it doesn't work out for those two, we're still one big, happy, DigiWira family."

JD nudged his girlfriend, chuckling. "Looks like someone's eager to start a family." Baby Aizad had already dozed off, comfortable in his uncle's protective hold, his small mouth partially opened. Liu Ying merely gazed at her boyfriend concomitantly; her eyes looked thoughtful as she took in JD with the sleeping baby Aizad. A small smile formed on her face.

"There's a baby cot inside the rec room," said Adam. "You can put him there if you want."

"I better," agreed JD. "Don't want the lil' guy to wake up."

After putting Aizad to sleep, Liu Ying and JD joined Manny and Gayathri at their table while Adam manned the counter. He was kept busy when several patrons paid their bills, some of them engaged in idle chitchat with him before bidding him farewell. Then Adam saw that he had more familiar visitors, as two children bustled into the establishment, followed closely by their two partners, a lion cub called Leormon and a bear cub known as Bearmon.

"Uncle Adam! Uncle Adam!" shouted the two children excitedly.

_Uncle…_ Adam thought fondly, remembering how he had loss his parents and brother when he was young. Now he was a part of a very big family.

"Apin, Ally, hi!" Adam smiled at his nephew and niece as they scrambled up the bar stools. "Where are your parents?"

"_Umi's_ with baby Ari," said nine-year-old Abu Zaid Ariffin – better known as Apin, referring to their mother and baby sister, Siti Nur Arianna.

"_Abi's_ parking the car," added six-year-old Siti Nur Aleza – or Ally as she preferred, referring to their father.

Adam smiled back at his parents' namesakes. Alisha and Abu had gotten married in August following the DigiWira's victory, and in less than a year they welcomed their first born. While pregnant with Apin, a DigiEgg had materialized inside their household, hatched when Apin was born, and was now Apin's Digimon partner Leormon. The same thing happened when Alisha was pregnant with Ally three years later – the DigiEgg that accompanied Ally while she was still inside her mother's womb had grown to be the Bearmon that was accompanying her now. Just a month after Aizad was born, the couple welcomed their third child Ari and her partner, currently a Fresh known as Conomon.

He saw his sister and brother-in-law entering the establishment. His sister was holding a pink bundle in her arms while his brother-in-law carried a small basket of baby supplies, with Conomon perched on top of the blanketed supplies. Alisha and Abu both saw him and headed towards the counter, greeting him midway. He returned it with a grin.

"Adam, can we put Ari in the cot? She's sleeping already and I don't want to wake her," said Alisha, gesturing to the pink bundle she was holding. An infant with tufts of dark hair was sleeping there peacefully.

"Sure, Kak Lisha. Zad's sleeping too. The cot's big enough for both of them."

Alisha headed towards the rec-room while Abu entertained their other two boisterous children.

Abu looked even more distinguished, being the head orthopedics specialist at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur, while Alisha was still as beautiful as ever, now working as a freelance webmaster as well as doing a thesis for her simultaneous Masters and PhD program. Salamon and Gatomon were nowhere in sight – they had regained their permanent forms of MagnaAngemon and Angewomon a few years ago, and were currently at the Digital World alongside Seraphimon and Rosemon to help out with the victims of Apollomon and Dianamon.

"_**We interrupt our program with the latest breaking news."**_

A series of groans ensued from the teens who had been watching a movie from the widescreen TVs, which were now showing a familiar, middle-aged woman in dark red suit and a pair of smart glasses holding a microphone.

"_**Just one hour after the latest threat is thwarted by the newest DigiWira team, another Digimon has invaded Kuala Lumpur. The people have evacuated and we are now waiting for the DigiWira to take care of this…giant walking shrub…for lack of better words."**_

The groans were silenced when the scene shifted to downtown Kuala Lumpur, where a Blossomon was seen sending out spiraling shuriken towards the buildings all around it.

_This is new; a second threat in one day. Apollomon and Dianamon must be getting restless. _

Debbie, Ganesh and Liu Meng instantly piled up the trays they were holding on Leo, who let out an exasperated sigh. They retreated to the back of the counter, towards the door to the rec-room which would lead them down to Ops. Adam signaled for Halina to man the counter and slipped out of sight as well. The older DigiWira understandably gave him a thumbs-up. Alisha wished him luck as she exited the rec-room, before stopping Apin and Leormon from following him. As he closed the door, he heard Apin complaining that he and Leormon were big enough to fight the bad Digimon.

Adam smiled. His friends knew that the reason he chose to mentor the new DigiWira was closely linked to the fact that he couldn't let go of that special part of his life just yet. The same was true for all of them, but Adam was in the most perfect position to actively assist the new DigiWira. After all…

_Once a DigiWira, always a DigiWira. _

xxx

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**- THE END - **

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_Phew! Finally, at close to __23,000 words__ (minus the author's words here) the finale and epilogue has been completed and thus, the story has ended. What do you think of it? I've left myself with some playing room, but it's unlikely that this story will be continued. I'll go back and edit some of the back chapters from time to time, and maybe consider some Wira Digital side stories, but no promises for the side-stories. _

_Now that the story's done, I'd like to ask for every one who has read the story to please leave your final comment by __**reviewing**__. I really would love to know each and every reader who's been reading this from day one. Please include an e-mail address so that I can reply to your comments okay? Many thanks for your time. _

_Lots of explanations coming… _

_Firstly, SkullSatamon's demise under the power of the Trinity Burst is something that I've always wanted to do ever since I plotted up this story. The Wira Digital story wasn't intended to be as big as it is now which is why the main villain is an Ultimate. The Wira team is meant to reach only Ultimate level. But of course throughout the years the plot has been modified constantly until the result is what you're currently seeing now. As the story draws to a close I see a way to reincorporate this ending, as a tribute to Digimon Tamers whom this story is inspired from at first. More Tamers tribute in this chapter with the Trinity Burst's back story – WarGrowlmon, Rapidmon and Taomon defeating Gulfmon is from the first Tamers movie. _

_The epilogue is inspired from my newest fandom, PR Jungle Fury as well as loads others. Note that Adam's now mentoring three DigiWira, as well as taking active part in the background while at the same time owning a café with the DigiWira working under him – similar situation in JF where RJ mentors the rangers as well as owning a pizza parlor. The sunglasses are another JF tribute, while the Cerebro is a nod to the X-Men, which is also the inspiration for the DigiWira's special powers. The Ops is more or less based on PR Ninja Storm's Ninja Ops. More nods are explained in my blog. _

_The DigiWira's real lives however are more or less my original plot. The epilogue is done in Adam's point of view because the story opens in his POV as well. I hope however that enough (or abundant) details have been given about the other DigiWira too. The epilogue takes place in December 2015, ten years after SkullSatamon's defeat. Adam, Dina, Manny and Gayathri are all 24, Liu Ying's 25 and JD's 26. _

_Well…that's about it I guess. I'm so relieved to get this story done, a week before my birthday at that. I'll be adding lots of more information on my blog from time to time. It's been fun writing the story and it's been a blast to read all the wonderful feedbacks! Thanks so much for your support! Don't forget to leave a comment on your way out. If it's not too much to ask for, tell me what you like and dislike about the story, which character/villain you loved best/least, etc. Tell me everything. And if you have question and if there's a plot-hole somewhere that needs clearing up, feel free ask away. _

_Story completed: April 5, 2008._


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